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Enlightenment Quotes

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Enlightenment Quotes

“The attainment of enlightenment from ego's point of view is extreme death.”

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Book:The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Three: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism; The Myth of Freedom; The Heart of the Bud dha; Selected Writings
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“I'd like to say is that we shouldn't have an idea that the goal of spiritual practice is to annihilate ones ego, that would be a mistake. In the early years of enlightenment, psychologists were afraid of Hindus and Buddhists meditating because they thought they were going to shatter their egos and then they'd have to wear diapers or something, like they'd lose their toilet training or what have you. They were really afraid of it.”

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Author:Robert Thurman
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“[Pascal] was the first and perhaps is still the most effective voice to be raised in warning of the consequences of the enthronement of the human ego in contradistinction to the cross, symbolizing the ego's immolation. How beautiful it all seemed at the time of the Enlightenment, that man triumphant would bring to pass that earthly paradise whose groves of academe would ensure the realization forever of peace, plenty, and beatitude in practice. But what a nightmare of wars, famines, and folly was to result therefrom.”

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Author:Malcolm Muggeridge
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“In the process of burning out these confusions, we discover enlightenment. If the process were otherwise, the awakened state of mind would be a product dependent upon cause and effect and therefore liable to dissolution. Anything which is created must, sooner or later, die. If enlightenment were created in such a way, there would always be a possibility of ego reasserting itself, causing a return to the confused state. Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it.”

IfsWayMindStatesWould BeDiesCausesProcessEffectsPossibilityProductsReturnEgoEnlightenmentConfusionBurningPermanentConfusedDependentState Of MindSooner Or LaterAwakenedCause And EffectLiableDissolution
Book:The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Three: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism; The Myth of Freedom; The Heart of the Bud dha; Selected Writings
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“Compassion has been advocated by all the great faiths because it has been found to be the safest and surest means of attaining enlightenment. It dethrones the ego from the center of our lives and puts others there, breaking down the carapace of the selfishness that holds us back from an experience of the sacred. And it gives us ecstasy, broadening our perspectives and giving us a larger, enhanced vision.”

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Book:The Spiral Staircase
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“All that the posture of skepticism accomplishes is to freeze the ego in an ignorantist poverty that never stretches or diversifies its resources of imagination or understanding. Any uncultured cretin can close his eyes and try to reduce the issues down to linear simplisms and say, "I am doubting, I am proving my magisterial or sovereign control over my own mind." Doubt is a useful and significant test of one's critical powers, but by itself it bears little if any significant cultural charge of enlightenment or satori; indeed it is the very opposite kind of thing.”

IfsTryingMindKindLittlesEyeUnderstandingImaginationMy OwnPovertyIssuesDoubtBearsProveEgoEnlightenmentResourcesTestsOppositesAccomplishCriticalSignificantHis EyesSkepticismSovereignFreezePostureLinearSatori
Author:Kenny Smith
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“The very desire to seek spiritual enlightenment is in fact nothing but the grasping tendency of the ego itself, and thus the very search for enlightenment prevents it. The 'perfect practice' is therefore not to search for enlightenment but to inquire into the motive for seeking itself. You obviously seek in order to avoid the present, and yet the present alone holds the answer: to seek forever is to miss the point forever. You always already are enlightened Spirit, and therefore to seek Spirit is simply to deny Spirit.”

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Author:Ken Wilber
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“Since the so-called Age of Enlightenment, our shaky anthropocentric, rationalist egos have been brainwashed to forget what 'primitive' cultures once understood: Animals can be manifestations of celestial beings in disguise; they possess supernatural abilities, and they can be our spiritual guides and healers.”

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Author:Zeena Schreck
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“The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.”

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Book:The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
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“A person experiments in life and reflects upon those events in order to discover how to lead a meaningful life. We conduct a quest searching for the source our essential being. What we seek is inside us waiting for us to discover. Until we realize the vital inner source that provides direction for our life, all our efforts are in vain. The ego with its craving and fearful protection strategies is what prevents us from perceiving the transparency of the world in which we belong. When we cease clinging to the past and no longer daydream of the future and unreservedly accept whatever is occurring while sacrificing ourselves in service of other people our sense of self vanishes and we exist only as conscious and nonjudgmental witnesses of reality.”

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Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“Conflict forces us to be fully present because it shatters our ego – stripping away all hope of escape or sugar coating. It removes everything that is nonessential to our authentic being; it removes all superficial layers. Conflict is painful because it wakes us up out of our created illusions. And if we lean into it, conflict can be the catalyst to our enlightenment.”

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Author:Alaric Hutchinson
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“These are the three stages of enlightenment, the three glimpses of satori. 1. The first stage enlightenment: A Glimpse of the Whole The first stage of enlightenment is short glimpse from faraway of the whole. It is a short glimpse of being. The first stage of enlightenment is when, for the first time, for a single moment the mind is not functioning. The ordinary ego is still present at the first stage of enlightenment, but you experience for a short while that there is something beyond the ego. There is a gap, a silence and emptiness, where there is not thought between you and existence. You and existence meet and merge for a moment. And for the first time the seed, the thirst and longing, for enlightenment, the meeting between you and existence, will grow in your heart. 2. The second stage of enlightenment: Silence, Relaxation, Togetherness, Inner Being The second stage of enlightenment is a new order, a harmony, from within, which comes from the inner being. It is the quality of freedom. The inner chaos has disappeared and a new silence, relaxation and togetherness has arisen. Your own wisdom from within has arisen. A subtle ego is still present in the second stage of enlightenment. The Hindus has three names for the ego: 1. Ahamkar, which is the ordinary ego. 2. Asmita, which is the quality of Am-ness, of no ego. It is a very silent ego, not aggreessive, but it is still a subtle ego. 3. Atma, the third word is Atma, when the Am-ness is also lost. This is what Buddha callas no-self, pure being. In the second stage of enlightenment you become capable of being in the inner being, in the gap, in the meditative quality within, in the silence and emptiness. For hours, for days, you can remain in the gap, in utter aloneness, in God. Still you need effort to remain in the gap, and if you drop the effort, the gap will disappear. Love, meditation and prayer becomes the way to increase the effort in the search for God. Then the second stage becomes a more conscious effort. Now you know the way, you now the direction. 3. The third stage of enlightenment: Ocean, Wholeness, No-self, Pure being At the third stage of enlightenment, at the third step of Satori, our individual river flowing silently, suddenly reaches to the Ocean and becomes one with the Ocean. At the third Satori, the ego is lost, and there is Atma, pure being. You are, but without any boundaries. The river has become the Ocean, the Whole. It has become a vast emptiness, just like the pure sky. The third stage of enlightenment happens when you have become capable of finding the inner being, the meditative quality within, the gap, the inner silence and emptiness, so that it becomes a natural quality. You can find the gap whenever you want. This is what tantra callas Mahamudra, the great orgasm, what Buddha calls Nirvana, what Lao Tzu calls Tao and what Jesus calls the kingdom of God. You have found the door to God. You have come home.”

LoveLifeGodWisdomTruthJoySpiritualityJesusExistenceSilenceMeditationAwarenessEgoEnlightenmentEmptinessMysticismTaoBuddhaNirvanaLao TzuSatoriNo SelfThe Kingdom Of God
Author:Swami Dhyan Giten
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“Master Teachers who genuinely embody an enlightened state of being never stop “doing the work”. The ego is what assumes it knows enough, causing cessation of these daily practices, and therefore, Masters without attachment to ego are forever students of the Universe. The Masters attain an illuminated state of “Being” as the outcome, yet it is the consistent “doing” that promotes and maintains their enlightenment.”

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Book:Living Peace: Essential Teachings For Enriching Life
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“A man without meditation is not part of existence. He exists, but he is not part of existence. He is separate from existence. There is no bridge between him and the whole. Life begins with meditation, because meditation creates the bridge between you and the whole. Without meditation you're like a separate island. With meditation you become part of the whole continent. The ego tries to live like a separate island. The ego is afraid of being part of something which is larger than itself. The ego tries to live a confined life. The ego is afraid of love, because love is larger than the ego. The ego is afraid of meditation, because meditation is far larger than the ego. The ego is afraid of joy, because joy happens when you are connected with something larger than yourself. The whole is interconnected. It is only the stupidity of man that tries to live separate from the whole. This is why man lives in misery, because man lives in separation from the whole. Meditation gives you a taste of joy, because meditation give you a taste of something that is larger than yourself. It gives you a taste of the infinite, of the oceanic. Then you understand that existence loves you and cares for you.”

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Book:Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine
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“Seeing the commonality of human thought helps us to view our ego tendencies in a less personal and more universal way. It relieves guilt and gives lightness to the path by virtue of the collective and general nature of human experience. The ego is a shared human problem and its dissolution is a benefit to all mankind. Human life is inevitably filled with many hurts and injustices. We do not live in a world of enlightened beings, nor are we enlightened ourselves. We live in a world where most people are struggling, unhappy, and having numerous problems of all sorts.”

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Book:The Love of Devotion
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“How odd that we spend so much time treating the darkness, and so little time seeking the light. The ego loves to glorify itself by self-analysis, yet we do not get rid of darkness by hitting it with a baseball bat. We only get rid of darkness by turning on the light.”

LightSufferingSelf HelpEgoDepressionEnlightenmentSelf AwarenessTherapyTreatmentGrief And LossSpiritual WisdomPsychoanalysisHealing The PastSpiritual HealingDarkness And LightPainful MemoriesLight Of LoveSelf AnalysisDarkness WithinLight Of The SpiritBanish Darkness
Book:Tears to Triumph: The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment
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“The hilarious irony is that Buddhists - who deny the existence of the self - are the most self-obsessed people you can find. The idea of karma is a clear marker of self-obsession. People actually believe that the vast cosmos is infatuated about what they do - as opposed to completely indifferent - and goes to all the trouble of rearranging itself to teach them personal karmic "lessons.”

SelfMeditationBuddhismEgoMindfulnessEnlightenmentKarmaMindlessness
Book:Endarkenment: New Age Fake Enlightenment
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“Our whole education system is calculated to produce *feelings* in us, impart them to us, instead of leaving their production to ourselves however they may turn out...Thus stuffed with imparted feelings, we appear before the bar of majority and are 'pronounced of age." Our equipment consists of "elevating feelings, lofty thoughts, inspiring maxims,eternal principles.”

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Book:The Ego and Its Own
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