#enlightenment

[Men] prefer the foolish belief and the passions of the earth [to the enlightenment of their souls]. They believe the absurd and shrink from the truth." "No, they do not. They are afraid, that is all. And they must remain on earth until they come to the way of leaving it." "And how do they leave? How is the ascent made? Must one learn virtue?" Here she laughs. "You have read too much, and learned too little. Virtue is a road, not a destination. Man cannot be virtuous. Understanding is the goal. When that is achieved, the soul can take wing. ↗

— Iain Pears

#enlightenment #fear #mankind #philosophy #soul

Ignorance has always been the weapon of tyrants; enlightenment the salvation of the free. ↗

— Bill Richardson

#been #enlightenment #free #ignorance #salvation

Just being the seeker, somebody whose open to spiritual enlightenment, is in itself the important thing and it's the reward for being a seeker in this world. ↗

— Walter Isaacson

#enlightenment #important #important thing #itself #just

If you would listen, sir, in the sense of being aware of your conflicts and contradictions without forcing them into any particular pattern of thought, perhaps they might altogether cease. ↗

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

#life

Sometimes in the quest for enlightenment the only thing that gets lighter is your wallet. ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#life #wallet #experience

As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music. ↗

— Chögyam Trungpa

#enlightenment #humor #music #silence #silent-music

It is not that we love to be alone, but that we love to soar, and when we do soar, the company grows thinner and thinner until there is none at all. …We are not the less to aim at the summits though the multitude does not ascend them. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#growth #love

I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats. ↗

— Eckhart Tolle

#cat-people #cats #integrity #meditation #peace

I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes. It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process. It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great suprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, A watcher. And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty. That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being. ↗

— Osho

#meditation #zen #religion

I want certain conversations to come equipped with antilock brakes, especially if I'm talking to a real airbag. ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#airheads #conversations #enlightenment #humor #humor