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Enlightenment Quotes

Browse 3092 quotes about Enlightenment.

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Enlightenment Quotes

“What, concretely, is Enlightenment ?" "Seeing Reality as it is," said the Master. "Doesn't everyone see Reality as it is?" "Oh, no! Most people see it as they think it is." "What's the difference?" "The difference between thinking you are drowning in a stormy sea and knowing you cannot drown because there isn't any water in sight for miles around.”

PeopleThinkingSaidRealityWaterDifferencesKnowingSeeingSeaMastersEnlightenmentSightMilesDrowningStormyStormy Seas
Author:Anthony de Mello
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“The sole work and deed of universal freedom is therefore death, a death too which has no inner significance or filling, for what is negated is the empty point of the absolutely free self. It is thus the coldest and meanest of all deaths, with no more significance than cutting off a head of cabbage or swallowing a mouthful of water.”

SelfDeathWaterFreedomCuttingEnlightenmentEmptyUniversalDeedsSignificanceSoleFillingSwallowingCabbageCutting Off
Book:Phenomenology of Spirit
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“A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However the fish and the bird have never left their elements. Thus each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm... Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish... practice, enlightenment and people are like this.”

PeopleKnowsEndsMatterLeftWaterPracticeAirSkyElementsOceanBirdEnlightenmentFishesRangeRealmsSwimWater Is Life
Author:Dogen
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“Well it's always been an interesting area for me. In referencing something I just reread from Dogen it says, "Enlightenment doesn't break the person anymore than the reflection breaks the water" and Suzuki in his commentary is saying you don't lose your personality once you acquire some sort of Buddhist understanding.”

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Author:Brad Warner
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“Faith does not protect you. Medicine and airbags... Those are the things that protect you. God does not protect you. Intelligence protects you. Enlightenment. Put your faith in something with tangible results. How long has it been since someone walked on water? Modern miracles belong to science. Computers, vaccines, space stations... Even the divine miracle of creation. Matter from nothing... In a lab. Who needs God? No! Science is God!”

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Author:Dan Brown
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“The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharma gate of repose and bliss, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. Traps and snares can never reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you are like the dragon when he gains the water, like the tiger when she enters the mountain. For you must know that just there (in zazen) the right Dharma is manifesting itself and that, from the first, dullness and distraction are struck aside.”

KnowsFirstsHeartRealitySpeakWaterPracticeMeditationMountainEnlightenmentGainsUltimateRealizationManifestationBlissDragonsGatesManifestDistractionTrapsTigersDharmaReposeSnaresDullnessUltimate Reality
Author:Dogen
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