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Awakening Quotes

Browse 1768 quotes about Awakening.

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Awakening Quotes

“Everything depends on your intention. All the time, therefore, check your attitude and motivation. As Patrul Rinpoche said, everyone wants happiness, but the true way to reach perfect happiness is to bring happiness to others.”

HappinessBuddhismEnlightenmentIntentionAwakeningMindtrainingPath Of The Bodhisattva
Book:The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva
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“Do not encumber your mind with useless thoughts. What good is it to brood over the past and fret about the future? Dwell in the simplicity of the present moment. Live in harmony with the dharma. Make it the heart of your life and experience. Be the master of your own destiny.”

MeditationBuddhismMindfulnessEnlightenmentAwakeningMindtraining
Book:The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most
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“Whether you get up one morning with a foggy mind and the world around you appears to be dark and foggy, or you awaken with a clear mind and your world seems beautiful and light, understand that these different impressions are coming from your own mind rather than from changes in the external environment. Instead of misinterpreting whatever you experience in life through wrong conceptions, realize that it’s not outer reality, but only mind.”

BuddhismMindfulnessEnlightenmentAwakeningMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“The guru said: If you want to genuinely practice the Dharma, do what is virtuous, even the most minute deed. Renounce what is evil, even the tiniest deed. The largest ocean is made from drops of water; even Mount Sumeru and the four continents are made of tiny atoms. (p. 30)”

VirtueBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningDharmaMindtraining
Book:Advice from the Lotus-Born: A Collection of Padmasambhava's Advice to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal and Other Close Disciples
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“Phenomena are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart. If you speak or act with a corrupted heart, then suffering follows you — as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it. Phenomena are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart. If you speak or act with a calm, bright heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves.”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningMindtraining
Book:The Dhammapada
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“Each of us individually has an effect on the lives of beings around us through the quiet processes going on in our minds. If we are full of good feelings, they radiate around us and people want to be near. If we are full of bad feelings, others tend to stay away. So if we would be activists for good, for the positive, we must assume responsibility for our minds as well as our speech and our physical activities, otherwise our negative mental habits will drag down the entire community of beings. On the other hand, when we break through into the liberty of the heart, mind, and spirit in the process of enlightenment, we free others at the same time. (p. 28)”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningSpiritual TransformationThe Path Of The BodhisattvaMindtrainingThe Process Of Enlightenment
Book:Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness
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“To end suffering - not only by relieving its symptoms but by eradicating its root cause - is precisely the aim of the Buddha's teaching. We must first realize that the true cause of suffering is not outside, but inside. That is why true spiritual practice consists of working on one's own mind. The mind is very powerful. It can create happiness or suffering, heaven or hell. If, with the help of the Dharma, you manage to eliminate your inner poisons, nothing from outside will ever affect your happiness, but as long as those poisons remain in your mind, you will not find the happiness you seek anywhere in the world. (Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche)”

HappinessBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningPeace Of MindMindtraining
Book:On the Path to Enlightenment: Heart Advice from the Great Tibetan Masters
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“Whether or not you go in a positive direction depends entirely on you. You have to be your own teacher and try to figure out what it takes to accomplish your goals. You have to be your own judge and try to get yourself to do the right thing and stop yourself from doing the wrong thing. Take responsibility for yourself. (17th Karmapa)”

ResponsibilityBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningSpiritual TransformationMindtraining
Book:The Future Is Now: Timely Advice for Creating a Better World
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“Do not waste a single moment, like a warrior who, pierced to the heart by an arrow, knows he has only few minutes to live. It is now, while we are in good health and in possession of all our physical and mental faculties, that we should practice dharma.”

BuddhismAwakeningDharmaMindtrainingPath To Enlightenment
Book:The Excellent Path to Enlightenment: Oral Teachings on the Root Text of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
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“You should understand the whole purpose of listening to teachings, taking teachings and studying them is to put them into practice. What you know should be put into practice immediately; you can thus derive the benefit of having some transformation within your mind. Even though it might be a very minor effort, a very small practice just leaving imprints within your mind, still you must think that it is worthwhile to do. Otherwise your knowledge of dharma will be quite fruitless.”

BuddhismEnlightenmentTransformationAwakeningSpiritual PracticeMindtraining
Book:Path to Bliss: A Practical Guide to Stages of Meditation
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“Do like this if you want to practice the true Dharma! Keep your master's oral instructions in mind. Don't conceptualize your experience, as it just makes you attached or angry. Day and night, look into your mind. If your stream of mind contains any nonvirtue, renounce it from the core of your heart and pursue virtue. (p. 29)”

VirtueBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningDharmaMindtrainingAdvice From The Lotus BornPadmasambhava
Book:Advice from the Lotus-Born: A Collection of Padmasambhava's Advice to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal and Other Close Disciples
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“What you‘re experiencing now is conditioned and determined by your past; what you‘re doing now conditions and determines what you‘ll see in your future. When you can take responsibility for that causal process, you are on the first stage of the hero path. You change your piece of the world by changing your body and mind from that of an ordinary, deluded, sleepwalking, and afflicted human to that of a hero and eventually a Buddha – one who is utterly awake. Then you inspire others, until everyone‘s piece of the world is utterly, collectively transformed. (pp. 88 - 89)”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningKarmaDharmaSpiritual TransformationMindtraining
Book:Gradual Awakening: The Tibetan Buddhist Path of Becoming Fully Human
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“It is important to be able to differentiate between two levels of understanding. One is the superficial, intellectual level, where on the basis of reading, studying or listening to teachings, we distinguish between negative and positive qualities of mind and recognize their nature and origin. The other is the deeper, experiential level, where we actually cultivate and generate positive qualities within ourselves. Although it can be challenging to develop an intellectual understanding of certain topics, it is generally easier because it can be cultivated merely by reading texts or listening to teachings. Experiential understanding is far more difficult to develop, since it comes about only as a result of sustained practice. At the experiential level, your understanding is also accompanied by a strong component of feeling; your understanding is essentially a felt experience.”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningDharmaSpiritual TransformationThe Path Of The BodhisattvaMindtraining
Book:Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment: A Commentary on Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana's A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment and Lama Je Tsong Khapa's Lines of Experience
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“The Tibetan term for Dharma is chö, which has the literal connotation of “changing,” or “bringing about transformation.” When we talk about transforming the mind, we are referring to the task of diminishing the force of destructive thoughts and emotions while developing the force of those that are constructive and beneficial. In this way, through the practice of Dharma, we transform our undisciplined mind into one that is disciplined.”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningDharmaSpiritual TransformationThe Path Of The BodhisattvaMindtraining
Book:Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment: A Commentary on Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana's A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment and Lama Je Tsong Khapa's Lines of Experience
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“When we speak about enlightenment and the path leading to it, we are naturally speaking about a quality, or state, of mind. In the final analysis, enlightenment is nothing other than a perfected state of mind. Enlightenment should not be understood as some kind of physical location or rank or status that is conferred upon us. It is the state of mind where all negativities and limitations have been purified, and all potentials of positive qualities fully perfected and realized. Since the ultimate objective is a state of mind, the methods and paths by which it is attained must also be states of mind. Enlightenment cannot be attained by external means, only through an internal process. As we develop and improve our states of mind, our knowledge, wisdom and realization gradually increase, culminating in our attainment of enlightenment.”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningSpiritual TransformationThe Path Of The BodhisattvaMindtraining
Book:Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment: A Commentary on Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana's A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment and Lama Je Tsong Khapa's Lines of Experience
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“When some great teachers of the past reflected on the rarity of human existence, they did not even feel like sleeping; they could not bear to waste a single moment. They put all their energy into spiritual practice.”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningDharmaSpiritual PracticeMindtrainingDiscipline And Devotion
Book:The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva
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“Problems exist in the minds of individuals. You have to solve your own problems, no matter what kind of society you live in—socialist, communist or capitalist. You must check your own mind. Your problem is not society’s problem, not my problem. You are responsible for your own problems just as you’re responsible for your own liberation or enlightenment.”

MeditationBuddhismAwakeningMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“These days, people study and train to become psychologists. Lord Buddha’s idea is that everybody should become a psychologist. Each of you should know your own mind; you should become your own psychologist. This is definitely possible; every human being has the ability to understand his or her own mind. When you understand your own mind, control follows naturally.”

MeditationBuddhismAwakeningContemplationMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“You can see from your own life experiences how the environment can affect you. When you’re among peaceful, generous, happy people, you’re inclined to feel happy and peaceful yourself. When you’re among angry, aggressive people, you tend to become like them. The human mind is like a mirror. A mirror does not discriminate but simply reflects whatever’s before it, no matter whether it’s horrible or wonderful. Similarly, your mind takes on the aspect of your surroundings, and if you’re not aware of what’s going on, your mind can fill with garbage. Therefore, it is very important to be conscious of your surroundings and how they affect your mind.”

BuddhismMindfulnessAwakeningMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“There’s a very strong connection between the body and the mind. In Tibetan tantric yoga, we take advantage of that strong connection: by concentrating strongly on the body’s psychic channels we can affect the mind accordingly. Therefore, even in everyday life, the food you eat and the other things your body touches have an effect on your mind.”

BuddhismAwakeningMind And BodyMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“Buddhism is a method for controlling the undisciplined mind in order to lead it from suffering to happiness. At the moment, we all have undisciplined minds, but if we can develop a correct understanding of its characteristic nature, control will follow naturally and we’ll be able to release emotional ignorance and the suffering it brings automatically. Therefore, no matter whether you are a believer or a nonbeliever, religious or not religious, a Christian, a Hindu, or a scientist, black or white, an Easterner or a Westerner, the most important thing to know is your own mind and how it works.”

MeditationBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningMindtraining
Book:Becoming Your Own Therapist
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“When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashō we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash—at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the “newness,” the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.”

MeditationAwakeningContemplationThomas MertonCosmic DanceDivine Dance
Book:New Seeds of Comtemplation
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“The root of faults is nothing other than your ego-clinging, the attitude of deluded fixation, so cut the ties of ego-clinging! Cast away the fixation on enemy and friend! Forsake worldly concerns! Abandon materialistic pursuits! Engage in nothing but the Dharma from the core of your heart! Just as a seedling doesn't grow on a stone, there will be no enhancement without removing the fault of ego-clinging. You should therefore abandon the root of all evils, ego-clinging. (p. 90)”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningSelflessnessDharmaSelf Transcendence
Book:Advice from the Lotus-Born: A Collection of Padmasambhava's Advice to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal and Other Close Disciples
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“I have been finding treasures in places I did not want to search. I have been hearing wisdom from tongues I did not want to listen. I have been finding beauty where I did not want to look. And I have learned so much from journeys I did not want to take. Forgive me, O Gracious One; for I have been closing my ears and eyes for too long. I have learned that miracles are only called miracles because they are often witnessed by only those who can can see through all of life's illusions. I am ready to see what really exists on other side, what exists behind the blinds, and taste all the ugly fruit instead of all that looks right, plump and ripe.”

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Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“I love school, always have, always will, because any classroom feels to me like a sacred place. What do I love, exactly, about a schoolroom? How, right from the first moment, everybody knows we’re all about learning; not terribly different from sitting down to a tasty banquet, only the knowledge-food is being cooked right there in the classroom, where amazing ingredients can be summoned out of thin air.”

InspirationalLightMotivationalTruthGrowthKnowledgeLearningEnlightenmentAwakening
Book:Bigger than All the Night Sky: The Start of Spiritual Awakening. A Memoir.
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“There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.”

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Book:100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip
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“You are one thing only. You are a Divine Being. An all-powerful Creator. You are a Deity in jeans and a t-shirt, and within you dwells the infinite wisdom of the ages and the sacred creative force of All that is, will be and ever was.”

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Book:Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny
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