When I talk about the realm of spirit, happiness, nirvana, enlightenment, I'm not talking about something ideal or imaginary. There are realms of light that exist, that have always existed and will always exist. They're much more solid than the transient perceived reality that you're currently experiencing
You see, that's the fun of Buddhism. We do have a wild card in the deck that can't be explained, that changes value continuously, and that's enlightenment.
The enlightenment experience is not what you think. How could it be anything that you can configure, anything you can imagine, any way that you think it should be?
It's a very complicated matter to become enlightened. If it happens to a person without a teacher in this lifetime, you can bet their boots, they've had about a thousand teachers in their last thousand lives because it's a very complicated thing to do.
The dreams of eternity are the states of mind. When we wake up from the dreams there's only enlightenment. There could never be anything else.
Since infinity is by its very nature infinite, then enlightenment by its very nature is infinite, and thus can be experienced in infinite ways, by itself or without itself
Enlightenment is x-rated, honey; if you haven't checked it out. It's hot, it's vivacious. You're going to take your mind and merge it with the entire cosmos.
Enlightenment is the food that eats you.
Enlightenment means that you're never the same. You move and shift as the quiescent state, in a body or out of it. And since the quiescent state is perpetual and endless ecstasy, therefore you are endless.
The effort to lift one's self into perfect enlightenment is a profound thing. It has nothing to do with individual will. It's a refraction of the cosmos. The cosmos delights in itself.
Once we've achieved perfect meditation, we're terribly trapped because that's an illusion...any enlightenment that seems ultimate is an illusion.
The world of enlightenment, and that which creates enlightenment, is much different than what most people would think. Most people have Hallmark Card descriptions of what creates enlightenment. And if their descriptions were correct, then everyone who is in religious practice would be enlightened.
The wonder of immaculate, perfect, pure mind is that when it is in its perfect, extant state without confusion, it can be anything it wants to be.
Yes I say that I am enlightened. What does that mean? It means I live in a condition of light...There really is no primary self anymore.
When someone says to me "I want to be enlightened." I immediately take a vacation because I know that the person isn't serious. I've never met anyone who's serious about enlightenment
The waking dreams of life as most people know them are spiritual experiences, but there is another order of spiritual experience and that's to be in the garden of the heart, in the perfect stillness, where the white light of eternity meets the white light of eternity.
Enlightenment doesn't mean you stop being a student. Being a student is a state of mind. Enlightenment simply means that you are everything and everywhere. It doesn't preclude being a student.
When the spirit is understood, then life becomes not at all common, but a constant magical circus in which you see yourself reflected in all forms and all formlessness.
Enlightened beings are rare in the universe. They are the joker in the deck. They are outside the circle.
Enlightened teachers are not logical. They don't function from levels that are understandable to the human mind. They're not religious. Religions form around them, usually after they've died.
The truly enlightened are not necessarily very religious. Religon is a convienent description to take care of our fears, to passify us.
Perpetual wakefulness doesn't mean you have all physical knowledge, that you can speak all languages, that you can fix cars...that is a storybook, Hollywood version of the enlightenment experience.
The enlightened teacher is someone who has become absorbed in eternity. While they may have a body like others, the essence of their being is light.
Sometimes beings come forth from that realmless realm. Light incarnates and wanders around through the samsara, kind of looking at itself in various countless forms. We call beings that come from that realm "enlightened".
There are beings who come into this world, from time to time, not simply with miraculous powers, which we call the siddhas, but with a miraculous awareness that is so strong yet so subtle that anyone or anything that touches that awareness is transformed forever.
