Adyashanti

“Let go of all ideas and images in your mind, they come and go and aren’t even generated by you. So why pay so much attention to your imagination when reality is for the realizing right now?”

“My speaking is meant to shake you awake, not to tell you how to dream better.”

“The Truth is the only thing you’ll ever run into that has no agenda.”

“Do not think that enlightenment is going to make you special, it’s not. If you feel special in any way, then enlightenment has not occurred. I meet a lot of people who think they are enlightened and awake simply because they have had a very moving spiritual experience. They wear their enlightenment on their sleeve like a badge of honor. They sit among friends and talk about how awake they are while sipping coffee at a cafe. The funny thing about enlightenment is that when it is authentic, there is no one to claim it. Enlightenment is very ordinary; it is nothing special. Rather than making you more special, it is going to make you less special. It plants you right in the center of a wonderful humility and innocence. Everyone else may or may not call you enlightened, but when you are enlightened the whole notion of enlightenment and someone who is enlightened is a big joke. I use the word enlightenment all the time; not to point you toward it but to point you beyond it. Do not get stuck in enlightenment.”

“We realize--often quite suddenly--that our sense of self, which has been formed and constructed out of our ideas, beliefs and images, is not really who we are. It doesn't define us, it has no center.”

“The way they perceive the world suddenly changes, and they find themselves without any sense of separation between themselves and the rest of the world.”

“All that is necessary to awaken to yourself as the radiant emptiness of spirit is to stop seeking something more or better or different, and to turn your attention inward to the awake silence that you are.”

“Enlightenment is a destructive process. Ithas nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is thecrumbling away of untruth. It's seeingthrough the facade of pretence. It's thecomplete eradication of everything weimagined to be true.”

“The truth is that you already are what you are seeking.”

“At first it seemsas if begoing follows becoming.But look even closerand you will seethat there are onlyflashes of lightningilluminating the empty sky.”

“Time to cash in your chipsput your ideas and beliefs on the table.See who has the bigger handyou or the Mystery that pervades you.Time to scrape the mind's shitoff your shoesundo the lacesthat hold your prison togetherand dangle your toes into emptiness.Once you've put everythingon the tableonce all of your currency is goneand your pockets are full of airall you've got left to gamble withis yourself.Go ahead, climb up onto the velvet topof the highest stakes table.Place yourself as the bet.Look God in the eyesand finallyfor once in your lifelose.”

“If you prefer smoke over firethen get up now and leave.For I do not intend to perfumeyour mind's clothingwith more sooty knowledge.No, I have something else in mind.Today I hold a flame in my left handand a sword in my right.There will be no damage control today.For God is in a moodto plunder your riches andfling you nakedlyinto such breathtaking povertythat all that will be left of youwill be a tendency to shine.So don't just sit around this flamechoking on your mind.For this is no campfire songto mindlessly mantra yourself to sleep with.Jump now into the spacebetween thoughtsand exit this dreambefore I burn the damn place down.”