Enlightenment Quotes

[SoonHei]

Fortunate is the man who does not lose himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, but goes straight to the source from which they all rise. 

•

All metaphysical discussion is fruitless unless it causes us to seek within the self for the true reality. One can, and often does, go through numerous books, a whole library perhaps, and yet comes out without the faintest realization of what one is. Learning often renders a disservice, especially when it causes a person's ego and pride to develop; these prove to be serious obstacles to progress. Science is exploring the external universe, when it has not yet explored the self. Inventions are being made constantly, they will never cease as we can go on inventing one new thing after another. What is the use? All this is maya. Turn inwards and know your self first. All these notes you are making of my sayings and so on, are useful for beginners, for friends and to answer the questions of others. But for yourself, you know that they are only pieces of paper. Dive into the Self and find all you want to know there! All controversies about creation, the nature of the universe, evolution, the purpose of God etc, are useless. They do not lead to true happiness. People try to find out about things which are outside themselves before they try to find out 'Who am I?' Only by this means can they gain happiness - not by understanding the whole universe, for the self is happiness.

Ramana Maharshi 
 

[SoonHei]

You are not even a human being. You just are a point of awareness, coextensive with time and space and beyond both, the ultimate cause, itself uncaused. If you ask me: ‘Who are you?’ My answer would be: ‘Nothing in particular. Yet I am.

•

That which makes you think that you are a human is not human. It is but a dimensionless point of consciousness, a conscious nothing; all you can say about yourself is: ‘I am.’ You are pure being — awareness — bliss. To realise that is the end of all seeking. You come to it when you see all you think yourself to be as mere imagination and stand aloof in pure awareness of the transient as transient, imaginary as imaginary, unreal as unreal. It is not at all difficult, but detachment is needed. It is the clinging to the false that makes the true so difficult to see. Once you understand that the false needs time and what needs time is false, you are nearer the Reality, which is timeless, ever in the now. Eternity in time is mere repetitiveness, like the movement of a clock. It flows from the past into the future endlessly, an empty perpetuity. Reality is what makes the present so vital, so different from the past and future, which are merely mental. If you need time to achieve something, it must be false. The real is always with you; you need not wait to be what you are. Only you must not allow your mind to go out of yourself in search. When you want something, ask yourself: do I really need it? and if the answer is no, then just drop it.

Nisargadatta Maharaj
 

[SoonHei]

I realize that many of you are bhaktas, and I'm taking away your enjoyment. I'm taking away your God that you worship, be it in the form of Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Moses, whomever you like to worship. But I speak at many levels. As far as a Jnani is concerned it's virtually impossible for a God to exist, separate from yourself. But yet, such people as Nisargadatta Maharaj, Bhagvan Ramana Maharshi, and many other Jnanis did bhakti. Ramana used to pray to Shiva in the form of Arunachala. Nisargadatta also prayed to Shiva. So the question is, why did they do that? And the answer is, for the sake of others. To get to the stage where God does not exist for you any longer is a very high transcendental stage. I do not expect you bhaktas to give up your worship. As you know, on Sunday we have puja and we have chanting. To whom are we chanting? To Hari, to Ram, to Krishna.
I must again tell you as long as you believe you are the doer, that you are the body and the mind do not fool yourself into thinking you're not, for if you weren't you wouldn't react the way you react to situations. So as long as you believe that things are real, then you have to pray to God, because God does exist for you. You can call God the law of karma. In reality karma does not exist. Yet how many of us have such reality? Therefore the best thing for you to do is to practice the Jnana practices, but keep doing your puja. Do not give it up. If you're doing japa, whatever practice you have, keep it up. But practice self-inquiry, and as you practice self-inquiry you will notice something very interesting happening to you. You will notice that little by little you begin to give up your worship, slowly but surely, until the day comes when you become the object of your worship. If you've been worshipping Krishna, you will see yourself as Krishna, and so forth. 
If you try to act like a Jnani before your time, you will have a lot of problems, for you will develop, "I don't give a damn" attitude, and that's not what we're talking about. I'll give you an idea of how a Jnani acts. There was once a Jnani who lived in a little shack on the mountain by himself. He was radiantly happy. He was coming back from his walk, and he saw some thieves breaking into his house. He crept up by the window to see what they would take, and of course he owned nothing. There was just a torn blanket on the floor. So the thieves started to curse, and one said to the other, "This guy has nothing here. Let's just take the blanket and leave." So they took the blanket. The next day he intuitively perceived that the two robbers were caught by the police, so he hurried down to the police station to see what would happen. And when the sergeant saw him he said, "Come in. Are these the men who stole from you?" And he said, "Yes." 
So the policeman asked him, "What did they take?" and he said, "They took my hat, and my shirt, and my pants, and my shoes." And the two thieves started screaming, "What a liar this man is. He didn't have anything. He just had a torn blanket." And the sergeant said, "Is this true?" The Jnani said, "When I put the blanket on my head it becomes my hat. When I put it around my shoulders it becomes my shirt. When I tie it around my waist it becomes my pants. And when I walk on it, it becomes my shoes." Of course the sergeant laughed and he said, "Shall I press charges?" and the Jnani said, "No." The two thieves became his disciples. The meaning of that story is, because you're a Jnani it doesn't mean you don't have compassion. A real Jnani has more love and compassion than anyone else, but it's not attached to anything, and he'll be the first one to run to somebody's aid, to help somebody. It sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. 
For while the Jnani carries a body, the body becomes under the Jnanis jurisdiction, and becomes an instrument for good in this world. Therefore you can never judge a Jnani, for you have no idea what a Jnani is or what he is. You can see a Jnani praying to God, just as ardently as a bhakta, yet the Jnani knows there is no God, but does it for the sake of others. So when I tell you there is no God, and there is no universe, and there is no world, and there are no people, there's only absolute reality, do not take it too seriously. See where you're coming from. Be true to yourself. Do not fool yourself. Whatever you're into, whatever you're going through, if you sit in the silence and practice self-inquiry, things will begin to stir within you. Things will begin to happen. You will find that your feelings change, your reaction changes, you become less selfish, you develop loving kindness, you understand what this universe is all about, and you are at peace. 
(long silence)
Robert Adams, T65: What Is, Is God
 

[SoonHei]

"I Am before the belief that I needed to remember myself or that I could forget myself was learnt."

Mooji

[SoonHei]

You can't lose who you think you are.  You never had a separate self.  These thoughts bouncing around the skull are you.

[SoonHei]

[Ananta]

“You don’t have problems; you are the problem.”

– Swami Chinmayananda

[SoonHei]

"Life is an organic unity. You cannot replace a plant because every plant is unique, you cannot find
another, the same cannot be found. Life has a quality of uniqueness. Even a small rock is unique –
you can go all over the world to find a similar rock and you will not be able to. How can you replace
it? This is the difference between organic unity and mechanical unity. Mechanical unity depends on
the parts; the parts are replaceable, they are not unique. Organic unity depends on the whole, not
on the parts. Parts are not really parts, they are not separate from the whole – they are one, they
cannot be replaced."

[Lento]

- I am torn between two wolves fighting inside of me. One is fighting to stay here, and the other is fighting to get there. Which one is going to win?

+ The one you feed the most.

[SoonHei]

"If the mind is filled with dreams you cannot see rightly. If the heart is filled with desires you cannot
feel rightly. Desires, dreams and hopes – the future disturbs you and divides you. But whatsoever is,
is in the present. Desire leads you into the future, and life is here and now. Reality is here and now,
and desire leads you into the future. Then you are not here. You see, but still you don’t see; you
hear, but still you miss; you feel, but the feeling is dim, it cannot go deep, it cannot be penetrating.
That is how truth is missed.

People keep on asking: Where is the divine, where is the truth? It is not a question of finding the
divine or the truth. It is always here, it has never been anywhere else, it cannot be. It is there where
you are, but you are not there, your mind is somewhere else. Your eyes are filled with dreams, your
heart is filled with desires. You move into the future, and what is the future but illusion? Or, you
move into the past, and the past is already dead. The past is no more and the future has yet to
be. Between these two is the present moment. That moment is very short, it is atomic, you cannot
divide it, it is indivisible. That moment passes in the flicker of an eye. If a desire enters, you have
missed it; if a dream is there, you are missing it."

[SoonHei]

No catepillar can comprehend a butterfly until it is transformed through its stages of shifting, so therefore, no butterfly would speak on their level of awareness to a caterpillar in hope that would fully understand. Be a conscious & supportive butterfly and just observe the caterpillar without trying to manipulate your awareness onto what it isn't prepared to receive & accept. When he/she is ready to learn, they will show up as a genuine listener.

[SoonHei]

[Ananta]

@SoonHei Yes!❤

[SoonHei]

@Anna1 love you home girl ♥️?♥️

[Ananta]

@SoonHei awwww 

[SoonHei]

[pluto]

[SoonHei]

[SoonHei]

Maharaj: Whatever appears has really no existence. And  whatever has not appeared also drops away; what remains is That, the Absolute. “That” is like Bombay.

Visitor: Bombay certainly seems to be appearing at the moment. We should sell him another city.

M: But I normally ask you this kind of question, whether Bombay sleeps, whether it wakes up in the morning, whether it is worried, whether it has pain and pleasure. I do not refer to the people of Bombay, nor to the land, but to that which remains.
Now you know that you are. Prior to this moment, did you have this knowledge that you exist? This consciousness, beingness, which you are experiencing now, was it there earlier?

V: It has been, on and off.

(…)

M: If you are about to photograph this land, I would say, no don’t photograph… take a photograph of it but without land. Whatever is Bombay, take a photograph of that and show me. Can you?

V: I could not do it.

M: So that is like photographing yourself without the body. You are that, like Bombay.

https://realization.org/p/nisargadatta/quintessence/quintessence.1.html

Nisargadatta Maharaj, The Ultimate Medicine   
 

[SoonHei]

Q: What is this Parabrahman like? 

M: The answer is, what is Bombay? Don't give me the geography or the atmosphere of Bombay, give me a handful of Bombay. What is Bombay? It is impossible to say, so also with Parabrahman. There is no giving or taking of Parabrahman, you can only be That.

Nisargadatta Maharaj