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Enlightenment Quotes

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Enlightenment Quotes

“The world of enlightenment, and that which creates enlightenment, is much different than what most people would think. Most people have Hallmark Card descriptions of what creates enlightenment. And if their descriptions were correct, then everyone who is in religious practice would be enlightened.”

People Ifs Thinking World Different Would Be Religious Practice Enlightenment Cards Description Enlightened Hallmark Religious Practices Hallmark Card

Author:Frederick Lenz

“Perhaps the most concise summary of enlightenment would be: transcending dualism . ... Dualism is the conceptual division of the world into categories ... human perception is by nature a dualistic phenomenon - which makes the quest for enlightenment an uphill struggle, to say the least.”

World Humans Would Be Struggle Perception Enlightenment Phenomenon Division Categories Quests Transcending Summary Dualism Concise

Author:Douglas Hofstadter

“If there were a reason for preferring the Christian religion to natural religion, it would be because the former offers us, on the nature of God and man, enlightenment that the latter lacks. Now, this is not at all the case; for Christianity, instead of clarifying, gives rise to an infinite multitude of obscurities and difficulties.”

Ifs Men Giving Reason Would Be Christian Natural Christianity Cases Atheism Offers Enlightenment Difficulty Infinite Positive Atheism Former Latter Multitudes Obscurity Clarifying

Author:Denis Diderot

“Dreams are large possessions ... they are an expansion of life, an enlightenment, and a discipline. I thank God for my dream life; my daily life would be far poorer, if it wanted the second sight of dreams.”

Ifs Dream Would Be Wanted Discipline Enlightenment Sight Possession Daily Life Thank God Expansion

Book:All the Days of My Life: An Autobiography The Red Leaves of a Human Heart

Source: All the Days of My Life: An Autobiography The Red Leaves of a Human Heart

“When you continuously know and sense yourself as the space of consciousness rather than what appears in consciousness - sense perceptions, thoughts, emotions - then it can be said that you are enlightened... except that you wouldn't think or speak of yourself as 'enlightened', because that would instantly create another mind-based conceptual identity and so it would be the end of 'your' enlightenment.”

Thinking Knows Mind Said Ends Would Be Speak Space Emotion Consciousness Identity Perception Enlightenment Enlightened Sense Perception

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“Its taken 14 billion years for matter to gain the capacity to become conscious of itself. If this is true, it wouldn't make any sense that the whole point of enlightenment would be to escape from the whole process at the very instant that the universe is beginning to awaken to itself.”

Ifs Life Years Matter Whole Would Be Spirituality Universe Process Taken Evolution Enlightenment Conscious Gains Capacity Awakening Billions Instant

Author:Andrew Cohen

“You have visits, then you have disappearances. You enter, then you exit. You come, you go. It would be so great if you could just get to human enlightenment on a linear path.”

Ifs Humans Would Be Path Enlightenment Exit Linear Disappearance

Author:Eve Ensler

“Sanity and enlightenment...I've been reading a new book Dogen's Genjo Koan: Three Commentaries, and it contains a commentary on Genjo Koan by Shunryu Suzuki, the author who wrote Zen Mind, Beginners Mind. He doesn't mention sanity at all but I think that one possible definition of enlightenment would be a kind of profound sanity, where being insane is no longer an option.”

Thinking Mind Kind Book Would Be Three Reading Enlightenment Profound Definitions Insane Sanity Commentary Beginners New Books

Author:Brad Warner

“A lot of seriously insane people have managed to acquire huge followings based on the idea that their insanity is a kind of enlightenment. An obvious example would be Charles Manson or Shoko Asahara who is the person responsible for the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.”

People Kind Persons Ideas Would Be Example Huge Enlightenment Responsible Obvious Following Insane Insanity Acquire Gas Subway Tokyo Manson

Author:Brad Warner

“If you come across an insane person who's talking gibberish, you can't make any sense of it at all and that would be one way that enlightenment is different. If you read Dogen, a lot of his stuff is very strange and is coming from a different place than what we're used to, but at the same time, it's not senseless ramblings and that's part of what attracted me to Dogen. I didn't get it, but it was sane. It's not some guy raving about UFO's or Moses living in his bathtub, it's was actually something sane that I just didn't get, if that makes sense?”

Ifs Way Persons Different Would Be Used Guy Stuff Talking Strange Enlightenment Insane One Way Make Sense Sane Moses Ufo Different Place Bathtubs Rambling Insane Person

Author:Brad Warner

“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.”

Years Ideas Would Be Spiritual Goal Loses Mistake Practice Ego Training Enlightenment Buddhist Toilets Psychologist Meditating Spiritual Practice Diapers

Author:Robert Thurman

“I am a child of the Enlightenment. I think irrational belief is a dangerous phenomenon, and I try to consciously avoid irrational belief. On the other hand, I certainly recognize that it's a major phenomenon for people in general, and you can understand why it would be. It does, apparently, provide personal sustenance, but also bonds of association and solidarity and a means for expressing elements of one's personality that are often very valuable elements. To many people it does that. In my view, there's nothing wrong with that.”

“Reading it the night before, I'd wondered if it would be like that for me-if in one moment, I would finally understand her, know her, and understand the role I'd played in her dying. But I wasn't convinced enlightenment struck like lightining.”

Ifs Knows Moments Would Be Night Reading Roles Dying Enlightenment Convinced

Book:Looking For Alaska Special 10th Anniversary Edition

Source: Looking For Alaska Special 10th Anniversary Edition

“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.”

Source: The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Three: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism; The Myth of Freedom; The Heart of the Bud dha; Selected Writings

“I simply go with what works. And what works is the healthy skepticism embodied in the scientific method. Believe me, if the Bible had ever been shown to be a rich source of scientific answers and enlightenment, we would be mining it daily for cosmic discovery.”

Ifs Believe Would Be Science Spirituality Religious Answers Rich Source Healthy Enlightenment Discovery Method Cosmic Believe In Me Skepticism Scientific Method Mining

Book:The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist

Source: The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist

“Did you know that according to legend, the guy who became Buddha decided to seek enlightenment the day he got a touch of gray? "Gray hairs," the would-be Buddha said, "are like angels sent by the god of death".”

Knows Said Would Be Age Guy Hair Enlightenment Angel Decided Gray Legends Did You Know Gray Hair

Author:Anderson Cooper

“Further, if Spirit has any meaning at all, then it must be eternal, or without beginning or end. If Spirit had a beginning in time, then it would be strictly temporal, it would not be timeless and eternal. And this means, as regards your own awareness, that you cannot become enlightened. You cannot attain enlightenment. If you could attain enlightenment, then that state would have a beginning in time, and so it would not be true enlightenment.”

Ifs Mean Ends States Would Be Spirit Awareness Eternal Enlightenment Regard Being True Enlightened Timeless

Author:Ken Wilber