22 Enlightening Quotes to Build Mental Strength
Discovering sources of profound wisdom
Becoming enlightened can mean different things to different people. Generally speaking, most of us think of enlightenment as a greater awareness of the world or a higher level of consciousness. Even though becoming enlightened may not be an simple undertaking, we can move a little closer to enlightenment each day.
By definition, enlightenment is a person’s emergence from self-incurred immaturity. The immaturity is incurred not from a lack of understanding, but from the lack of courage to use one’s reason, intellect, and wisdom without the guidance of another. Source
The following quotations can be seen as a secret blueprint, handed down through generations by some of the wisest humans who ever existed.
Take these linguistic treasures in slowly.
Savor the words and contemplate deeply their innumerable meanings.
22 rare quotes on enlightenment that can help us live a more peaceful and meaningful life:
“Enlightenment is the unprogrammed state.” — Jed McKenna
“Enlightenment, joy, and peace can never be given to you by another. The well is inside you.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“For one human being to seek enlightenment from another is like a grain of sand on the beach seeking enlightenment from another.” — Terence Mckenna
“The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.” — Nikos Kazantzakis
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” — Carl G. Jung
“Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretence. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.” — Adyashanti
“Enlightenment is the experience of intimacy with the entire universe. There is no separation whatsoever. You totally disappear in the process of uniting with the raw content of the present moment. And because you do, you have never been more alive.” — Larry Rosenburg
“Suffering just means you’re having a bad dream. Happiness means you’re having a good dream. Enlightenment means getting out of the dream altogether.” — Jed McKenna
“You may have expected that enlightenment would come Zap! instantaneous and permanent. This is unlikely. After the first ‘ah ha’ experience, it can be thought of as the thinning of a layer of clouds.” — Ram Dass
“Enlightenment is any experience of expanding our consciousness beyond its present limits. We could also say that perfect enlightenment is realizing that we have no limits at all, and that the entire universe is alive.” — Thaddeus Golas
“Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.” — Zen Proverb
“Therefore, the very impermanency of grass and tree, thicket and forest is the Buddha nature. The very impermanency of men and things, body and mind, is the Buddha nature. Nature and lands, mountains and rivers, are impermanent because they are the Buddha nature. Supreme and complete enlightenment, because it is impermanent, is the Buddha nature.” — Dōgen Zenji
“Birds sing, fish swim, and people who are devoted to zazen do zazen with devotion all the time although there is no need for it. Our life is already fine the way it is. Everything that happens is already a manifestation of our original enlightenment even though we don’t know it. We don’t need to enter another condition or improve or disprove anything. The gentle rain of the Dharma is falling all the time evenly and freely on everything, and each thing receives that rain and uses it in its own way, each in a different way. The whole world is unfolding in a beautiful and perfect interplay of forces.” — Norman Fischer
“Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment.” — Chögyam Trungpa
“The enlightened one has become liberated and freed from all attachments by seeing as they really are the arising and passing away of feelings. The relishing of them, the danger from them, the release of them.” — Buddha
“It is quite natural, in pursuing enlightenment or just in trying to be happier, to look to your everyday experiences for signs of results. Indeed, your daily life is nothing else but an expression of your spiritual condition. Your life will change as you become more loving, but not in ways you can exactly predict. What happens is not important as how you react to what happens.” — Thaddeus Golas
“We had gotten over the feeling that one experience was going to make you enlightened forever. We saw that it wasn’t going to be that simple.” — Ram Dass
“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.” — Carol Lynn Pearson
“Nobility is the aspiration to manifest glory for the benefit of others. Nobility is using whatever abilities we have in service of others. Nobility is seeking to fulfill our in-born human potential, and to develop all our in-born human qualities. In Buddhism, nobility — or heroism — is a key aspect of enlightenment. Mahayana Buddhism often describes its ideal, the bodhisattva, in terms of ‘the noble virtues.’ The Tibetan translation of ‘bodhisattva’ is chang chub sem pa, which means ‘enlightened hero.’” — David Chapman
“Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.” — William Blake
“When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness. Another word for this is freedom — freedom from struggling against the fundamental ambiguity of being human.” — Pema Chödrön
“If you think you’re enlightened go spend a week with your family.” — Ram Dass
With great love and gratitude, Aurora