“WE ALREADY HAVE everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves—the heavy-duty fearing that we’re bad and hoping that we’re good, the identities that we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy and the addictions of all kinds—never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.”
-Pema Chödrön
(via jwll)
"According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don’t bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous."
- Deepak Chopra
(via dianelaura)
People are afraid, very much afraid of those who know themselves. They have a certain power, a certain aura and a certain magnetism, a charisma that can take out alive, young people from the traditional imprisonment…
The enlightened man cannot be enslaved - that is the difficulty - and he cannot be imprisoned… Every genius who has known something of the inner is bound to be a little difficult to be absorbed; he is going to be an upsetting force. The masses don’t want to be disturbed, even though they may be in misery; they are in misery, but they are accustomed to the misery. And anybody who is not miserable looks like a stranger.
The enlightened man is the greatest stranger in the world; he does not seem to belong to anybody. No organization confines him, no community, no society, no nation.
Osho - The Zen Manifesto: Freedom from Oneself / Chapter 9
"Enlightenment, for a wave in the ocean, is the moment the wave realizes it is water. When we realize we are not separate, but a part of the huge ocean of everything, we become enlightened."
- Thich Nhat Hanh
(via thesageandthebutterfly)
"Experience, however sublime, is not the real thing. By its very nature it comes and goes. Self-realization is not an acquisition. It is more of the nature of understanding. Once arrived at, it cannot be lost. On the other hand, consciousness is changeful, flowing, undergoing transformation from moment to moment. Do not hold on to consciousness and its contents. Consciousness held, ceases. To try to perpetuate a flash of insight, or a burst of happiness is destructive of what it wants to preserve. What comes must go. The permanent is beyond all comings and goings. Go to the root of all experience, to the sense of being. Beyond being and not-being lies the immensity of the real. Try and try again."
- Nisargadatta
Three things cannot be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
— Buddha
…It is said that to be enlightened we must live in the eternal “NOW”, which is to be awake in the present moment. The Universe exists only in this moment, and it is said that the wise man moves with it, clinging neither to the past nor to the future, making his mind like a mirror that reflects everything instantly as it comes before it, yet making no effort to retain the reflection when the object is moved. Its not the past that defines us, IT is the Present Moment, so look well at what Your doing now, what you’re feeling now, for this IS what defines you. We each have our own individual unique calling, to express the Eternal in every way possible, ITs only our judgments that get in our way, that make us think the Outer should be in a different Way. Most of us try to cling to the good in life and negate the bad, but we could not enjoy the good in life without also experiencing the bad, they go together, its like trying to arrange a room with everything up and nothing down, it cant be done. But a wise one understands ITs the spontaneity of Life that makes the universe feel alive and real…
(via thich-nhat-hanh-gems)
"You don’t have any problems. Only this much has to be understood. This very moment you can drop all problems because they are your creations. Have another look at your problems, and the deeper you look, the smaller they will appear. Go on looking at them and by and by they will start disappearing. Go on gazing and suddenly you will find there is emptiness - a beautiful emptiness surrounds you. Nothing to do, nothing to be, because you are already that."
- Osho
"Enlightenment is not a peak experience. It’s a permanent shift in paradigm that deepens day by day."
- Shinzen Young
