“Enlightenment is enlightenment.”
Love is not a feeling ~ The Article (1995)
Context: Enlightenment is enlightenment. And that's that. It's an unalterable, unwavering state of knowledge and being beyond doubt, a completion every moment by grace of the Most High, the unspeakable one, God. That's the ultimate; the absolute being beyond any description. But the ultimate, the enlightenment of man, must translate into his living life. And to me and my teaching that means an enlightened man is liberated from unhappiness. Being and living free of unhappiness is the natural and simple state of all life on earth - except man. He has been misled away from it by spiritual lures and glamour and the result is the conflict and pain, the fluctuating unhappiness, of his short life.
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Barry Long86
Australian spiritual teacher and writer 1926–2003Related quotes
“There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.”
Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) Japanese Buddhist missionary
Quoted in Zen Millionaire : The Investor's Guide to the "Other Side" (2007) by Paul B. Farrell
Variant: Strictly speaking, there are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
“Not everyone who is enlightened by an angel knows that he is enlightened by him.”
Thomas Aquinas book Summa Theologica
I, q. 111, art. 1, ad 3
Summa Theologica (1265–1274)
“Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed; after enlightenment, I continue to be depressed.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer
"Hidden Agenda" p. 145
Awareness (1992)
Context: Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed; after enlightenment, I continue to be depressed. You don't make a goal out of relaxation and sensitivity. Have you ever heard of people who get tense trying to relax? If one is tense, one simply observes one's tension. You will never understand yourself if you seek to change yourself. The harder you try to change yourself the worse it gets. You are called upon to be aware.
Barry Long (1926–2003) Australian spiritual teacher and writer
Love is not a feeling ~ The Interview (1995)
Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) master yogi, author, builder, commentator of Indian spiritual tradition
Source: Silence Speaks, from the chalkboard of Baba Hari Dass (1977)
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”
Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright
Découvertes (1970), as quoted in Choosing the Future : The Power of Strategic Thinking (1997) by Stuart Wells, p. 15
“There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.”
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
“Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer