Age of Reason

141

"

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

157

"1. Accept everything just the way it is.
2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
5. Be detached from desire your whole life long.
6. Do not regret what you have done.
7. Never be jealous.
8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
11. In all things have no preferences.
12. Be indifferent to where you live.
13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
17. Do not fear death.
18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.
21. Never stray from the Way."

- Miyamoto Musashi

30

"Enlightenment for Gautama [the Buddha] felt as though a prison which had confined him for thousands of lifetimes had broken open. Ignorance had been the jailkeeper. Because of ignorance, his mind had been obscured, just like the moon and stars hidden by the storm clouds. Clouded by endless waves of deluded thoughts, the mind had falsely divided reality into subject and object, self and others, existence and non-existence, birth and death, and from these discriminations arose wrong views—the prisons of feelings, craving, grasping, and becoming. The suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death only made the prison walls thicker. The only thing to do was to seize the jailkeeper and see his true face. The jailkeeper was ignorance… . Once the jailkeeper was gone, the jail would disappear and never be rebuilt again."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

77

"Freedom is instantaneous the moment we accept things as they are."

- Karen Maezen Miller

15

I’ve always considered knowing oneself to be wisdom while simply knowing to be just knowledge, but I do like the idea here.

53

"Cut through the view of self, Tear down the net of mental afflictions with the sword of genuine wisdom, And see the abode of the aggregates as empty: Realize the great ocean of enlightenment’s qualities."

- Buddha

27

Salvation, enlightenment, and Nirvana

59

A precious human life

5

"Fearlessness is the most prominent characteristic of all bodhisattvas and all who tread the bodhisattva path. For them, life has lost its terrors and suffering its sting. Instead of scorning earthly existence, or condemning its ‘imperfection’, they fill it with a new meaning."

- Lama Anagorika Govinda

27

"It is never too late.
Even if you are going to die tomorrow,
Keep yourself straight and clear and be a happy human being today.
If you keep your situation happy day by day,
you will eventually reach the greatest happiness of Enlightenment."

- Lama Yeshe