“
Searching outside of you is Samsara (the world). Searching within you leads to Nirvana.
”
”
Amit Ray (Yoga and Vipassana: An Integrated Life Style)
“
What you know can never be the beyond. Whatever you experience is not the beyond. If there is any beyond, this movement of 'you' is absent. The absence of this movement probably is the beyond, but the beyond can never be experienced by you; it is when the 'you' is not there. Why are you trying to experience a thing that cannot be experienced?
”
”
U.G. Krishnamurti (The Mystique of Enlightenment: The Radical Ideas of U.G. Krishnamurti)
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Don't just sit there trying to make a sense of this world. Be a part of the nonsense.
”
”
Vineet Raj Kapoor
“
In life, you achieve nirvana when you learn to love unconditionally.
”
”
Debasish Mridha
“
Nirvana; closing the eyes to see the world inside.
”
”
Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma (You By You)
“
You can't fire me because I quit.
”
”
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana - In Utero (Guitar Recorded Versions))
“
If life is my way and nirvana is my destination, then which path should I take, religious or spiritual?
”
”
Debasish Mridha
“
Meditation brings Nirvana, and Nirvana brings Buddhahood.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Rowdy Buddha: The First Sapiens (Neurotheology Series))
“
Naturally occurring timeless awareness—utterly lucid awakened mind—
is something marvelous and superb, primordially and spontaneously present.
It is the treasury from which comes the universe of appearances and possibilities, whether of samsara or nirvana.
Homage to the unwavering state, free of elaborations.
”
”
Longchen Rabjam
“
All phenomena are embraced within a single self-knowing awareness.
Even though they arise as the totality of samsara and nirvana,
the phenomena of the world of appearances and possibilities—
limitless, boundless—arise from basic space.
Therefore, they are subsumed within basic space from which the first arise.
”
”
Longchen Rabjam
“
Worship is invoking the divinity within. Meditation is awareness of divinity within. Enlightenment is realization of divinity within. Nirvana is being the divinity
”
”
Rashmit Kalra
“
Nirvana is too simple an experience to be depicted by diagrams.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Rowdy Buddha: The First Sapiens (Neurotheology Series))
“
We are all Masters. Every thought, word, and action creates our individual reality from one moment to the next. Each individual’s creation, combines to form a shared reality that we all experience…. Consciousness. Being Masters requires us to take responsibility and great care in all that we do, so that the greater, combined consciousness is not hindered by our individual limitations. As Masters, we all have the ability to create, and live in Nirvana. Actively engaging in this personal responsibility, gives each of us the power to live harmoniously as well as to contribute positive re-enforcement to the greater Consciousness that we all share
”
”
Gary Hopkins
“
No matter where you went—no matter how ancient the traditions, no matter how grand the history, no matter how awe-inspiring the landscape—there was always a market for a cheap Happy Meal. The Lotus Way might lead to nirvana, but it was a long trip, and when you had a lot of miles to cover, it was just natural to want some drive-thru along the road.
”
”
Joe Hill (Wolverton Station (Kindle Single))
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Letting go of fear, attachment, grief and anger is the sannyasin's renunciation. He savours only the taste of his oneness with the ultimate reality.
”
”
Nirvana Upnishad
“
Bello era il mondo a considerarlo così: senza indagine, così semplicemente, in una disposizione di spirito infantile. Belli la luna e gli astri, belli il ruscello e le sue sponde, il bosco e la roccia, la capra e il maggiolino, fiori e farfalle. Bello e piacevole andar così per il mondo e sentirsi cosi bambino, così risvegliato, così aperto all'immediatezza delle cose, così fiducioso.
”
”
Hermann Hesse (Siddhartha)
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Attaining bliss can take lifetimes, or one can simply choose to experience it in their deepest dreams. Sleep well my friend, as dreams are vehicles that can quickly take you to the awareness that you call Nirvana
”
”
Gary Hopkins
“
Christ was an ordinary man who upon the attainment of absolute divinity or Nirvana or Samadhi became a better version of himself. Such an experience of divine ecstasy neurologically transformed him into a great teacher for humanity filled with love, kindness and divinity.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker)
“
If we ask a random orthodox religious person, what is the best religion, he or she would proudly claim his or her own religion to be the best. A Christian would say Christianity is the best, a Muslim would say Islam is the best, a Jewish would say Judaism is the best and a Hindu would say Hinduism is the best. It takes a lot of mental exercise to get rid of such biases.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker)
“
Often, during times when I am in a state of absolute bliss and gratitude, those are the times that people will ask me, “Are you happy or are you sad?” It’s funny, because when you are happy in a way that most people are happy in, that is, when you are jumping up and down and laughing and smiling and giggling, people will recognize that as happiness. But when you go beyond that state and on into the state of blissfulness— nirvana— only a very few number of people are going to be able to recognize and understand that. Why? Because only very few people have gone beyond the level of obvious happiness, to experience actual nirvaana. Nirvana is what I describe as being in a state of worship; you see, you go beyond just feeling happy and grateful, and you enter into a state of mind that allows you to worship what you have been given or what you have attained or achieved, or whatever circumstance you are in that is making you happy. You stop and you worship the person, the place, the thing, the feeling. I’m easily flung into that state, so, I often find it strange that I can be in an absolute state of bliss, meanwhile, the other person can be asking me if I am either happy or sad. But I am worshipping.
”
”
C. JoyBell C.
“
In my generation we did a lot of pleasure chasing—we, the generation responsible for today’s twenty-year-olds and thirty-year-olds and forty-year-olds. Before they came into our lives, we were on a pleasure binge, and the need for immediate gratification passed through us to our children.
When I got out of the Army in 1944, the guys who were being discharged with me were mostly between the ages of eighteen and thirty. We came home to a country that was in great shape in terms of industrial capacity. As the victors, we decided to spread the good fortune around, and we did all kinds of wonderful things—but it wasn’t out of selfless idealism, let me assure you. Take the Marshall Plan, which we implemented at that time. It rebuilt Europe, yes, but it also enabled those war ruined countries to buy from us. The incredible, explosive economic prosperity that resulted just went wild. It was during that period that the pleasure principle started feeding on itself.
One generation later it was the sixties, and those twenty-eight-year-old guys from World War II were forty-eight. They had kids twenty years old, kids who had been so indulged for two decades that it caused a huge, first-time-in-history distortion in the curve of values. And, boy, did that curve bend and bend and bend.
These postwar parents thought they were in nirvana if they had a color TV and two cars and could buy a Winnebago and a house on the lake. But the children they had raised on that pleasure principle of material goods were by then bored to death. They had overdosed on all that stuff. So that was the generation who decided, “Hey, guess where the real action is? Forget the Winnebago. Give me sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.” Incredible mind-blowing experiences, head-banging, screw-your-brains-out experiences in service to immediate and transitory pleasures.
But the one kind of gratification is simply an outgrowth of the other, a more extreme form of the same hedonism, the same need to indulge and consume. Some of those same sixties kids are now themselves forty-eight. Whatever genuine idealism they carried through those love-in days got swept up in the great yuppie gold rush of the eighties and the stock market nirvana of the nineties—and I’m afraid we are still miles away from the higher ground we seek.
”
”
Sidney Poitier (The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography)
“
Not long after I learned about Frozen, I went to see a friend of mine who works in the music industry. We sat in his living room on the Upper East Side, facing each other in easy chairs, as he worked his way through a mountain of CDs. He played “Angel,” by the reggae singer Shaggy, and then “The Joker,” by the Steve Miller Band, and told me to listen very carefully to the similarity in bass lines. He played Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and then Muddy Waters’s “You Need Love,” to show the extent to which Led Zeppelin had mined the blues for inspiration. He played “Twice My Age,” by Shabba Ranks and Krystal, and then the saccharine ’70s pop standard “Seasons in the Sun,” until I could hear the echoes of the second song in the first. He played “Last Christmas,” by Wham! followed by Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You” to explain why Manilow might have been startled when he first heard that song, and then “Joanna,” by Kool and the Gang, because, in a different way, “Last Christmas” was an homage to Kool and the Gang as well. “That sound you hear in Nirvana,” my friend said at one point, “that soft and then loud kind of exploding thing, a lot of that was inspired by the Pixies. Yet Kurt Cobain” — Nirvana’s lead singer and songwriter — “was such a genius that he managed to make it his own. And ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’?” — here he was referring to perhaps the best-known Nirvana song. “That’s Boston’s ‘More Than a Feeling.’ ” He began to hum the riff of the Boston hit, and said, “The first time I heard ‘Teen Spirit,’ I said, ‘That guitar lick is from “More Than a Feeling.” ’ But it was different — it was urgent and brilliant and new.” He played another CD. It was Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” a huge hit from the 1970s. The chorus has a distinctive, catchy hook — the kind of tune that millions of Americans probably hummed in the shower the year it came out. Then he put on “Taj Mahal,” by the Brazilian artist Jorge Ben Jor, which was recorded several years before the Rod Stewart song. In his twenties, my friend was a DJ at various downtown clubs, and at some point he’d become interested in world music. “I caught it back then,” he said. A small, sly smile spread across his face. The opening bars of “Taj Mahal” were very South American, a world away from what we had just listened to. And then I heard it. It was so obvious and unambiguous that I laughed out loud; virtually note for note, it was the hook from “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.” It was possible that Rod Stewart had independently come up with that riff, because resemblance is not proof of influence. It was also possible that he’d been in Brazil, listened to some local music, and liked what he heard.
”
”
Malcolm Gladwell (What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures)
“
If 'the Buddha' is taken to signify the Ultimate, that which theistic mystics call the Godhead, it will be seen that these tremendous words ['I am the Buddha'] embody the very essence of mystical perception. One who understands them perceives himself to be both worshipper and worshipped, the individual and the universal, a being seeming insignificant but in truth divine! From this perception stem three obligations: to treat all beings, however outwardly repugnant, as embodiments of the sacred essence; to recognize all sounds, no matter how they offend the ear, as components of sacred sound; and to recollect that nowhere throughout the universe is other than Nirvana, however dense the dark clouds of illusion. Therefore, whatever befalls, the adept is clothed in divinity; with his eye of wisdom, he perceives the holiness of all beings, all sounds, all objects; and his heart of wisdom generates measureless compassion.
From the moment an aspirant begins seeking deliverance from within, abandons the dualism of worshipper and worshipped and recognizes the identity of 'self-power' and 'other-power' as sources of spiritual inspiration, the shakles of ego-consciousness are loosened; and as the power of the illusory ego wanes, the qualities of patience, forebearance and compassion blossom. Even so, a great danger inheres in the liberating concept 'I am the Buddha'; improperly understood, it leads to grossly irresponsible behaviour and to overweaning pride which, by inflating the ego instead of diminishing it, enmeshes the aspirant ever more tightly in delusion's bonds. Therefore this knowledge was formerly hidden from the profane and therefore the lamas teach skillful means for counteracting that grave hazard. Never must one reflect 'I am the Buddha' without recalling that, at the level of absolute truth, there is no such entity as 'I'!
”
”
John Blofeld (Mantras: Sacred Words of Power)
“
Any bodhisattva who undertakes the practice of meditation should cherish one thought only: “When I attain perfect wisdom, I will liberate all sentient beings in every realm of the universe, and allow them to pass into the eternal peace of Nirvana.” And yet, when vast, uncountable, unthinkable myriads of beings have been liberated, truly no being has been liberated. Why? Because no bodhisattva who is a true bodhisattva entertains such concepts as “self” or “others.” Thus there are no sentient beings to be liberated and no self to attain perfect wisdom. —The Diamond Sutra (4th century Ce)
”
”
Stephen Mitchell (The Second Book of the Tao)
“
I’ve seen religious passion in other people, though—love for a compassionate God, fear of an angry God, fulsome praise and desperate pleading for a God that rewards and punishes. All that makes me wonder how a belief system like Earthseed—very demanding but offering so little comfort from such an utterly indifferent God—should inspire any loyalty at all. In Earthseed, there is no promised afterlife. Earthseed’s heaven is literal, physical—other worlds circling other stars. It promises its people immortality only through their children, their work, and their memories. For the human species, immortality is something to be won by sowing Earthseed on other worlds. Its promise is not of mansions to live in, milk and honey to drink, or eternal oblivion in some vast whole of nirvana. Its promise is of hard work and brand-new possibilities, problems, challenges, and changes. Apparently, that can be surprisingly seductive to some people.
”
”
Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents)
“
This our worldly life is an activity of Nirvana itself; not the slightest distinction exists between them.
”
”
Houston Smith quoting The Perfection of Wisdom
“
Christ did to the Jewish orthodoxy, what Buddha did to the Hindu orthodoxy.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker)
“
If Christ attained the state of Absolute Divinity, so can you. And once you do, then only you will understand the true meaning of Religion and God.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker)
“
My experience of that liberation, what Buddha had called Nirvana, set me off in the path of scientific investigation of that Oneness, the thing people call, meeting with God. And that meeting triggered an unquenchable thirst in me to develop a proper scientific method to understand and further explore that apparently bizarre domain of Universal Consciousness.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar
“
Pathology can indeed evoke experiences of Absolute Godliness, but not all God experiences are caused by pathology. They can also occur due to disturbance in the geomagnetic field of our planet, consumption of psychedelics, excruciatingly extreme level of stress during a near- death situation, or ultimately through a natural and healthy procedure of meditation or/and prayer.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost)
“
The more a person is united within himself or herself and inwardly simple, the more and higher things he or she understands, because he or she receives the light of understanding from within.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker)
“
Religion, as it is generally taught all over the world, is said to be based upon faith and belief, and, in most cases, consists only of different sets of theories, and that is the reason why we find all religions quarreling with one another. These theories, again, are based upon belief. One man says there is a Supreme Being sitting above the clouds governing the whole universe, and he asks me to believe that solely on the authority of his assertion. But if you actually attempt to realize what Christ realized, the entire structure of the Church would collapse.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker)
“
Jesus recognized that God within him and became Christ - so did Siddhartha Gautama and became Buddha - so did I - and so can you.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker)
“
everyone and everything a fluid living sea
Universal Consciousness as both you and me
being in rapturous love with all life and every person
but this wasn't maintained and things were about to worsen
ego crept back in believing it was Enlightened
it turns out consciousness only temporarily heightened
a momentary samadhi can sometimes deceive
if untold by a Master because our mind is naïve
ask enlightenment teachers today about their ego death
don't even need to for their answer we can already guess
are they right this moment experiencing Allness?
the spiritual ego is crafty and teaches regardless
their words proceeding from the intellect, Power is lacking
a Divine Transference is required to send the ego packing
if inspiration hits by all means share
but state your current un-State or others you'll ensnare
True Teachings are on a whole different level
a powerful quieting effect, they silence the mental
make no bones about it—dying to God is involved
if not ready for this step then observe truths lesser evolved
”
”
Jarett Sabirsh (Love All-Knowing: An Epic Spiritual Poem)
“
Seeing One
am undone!
Enemy nor
lo! friend-
sans One
-is none.
That! is "am"
One-o-One!
”
”
Fakeer Ishavardas
“
Our parts are not problems to eliminate, but facets to welcome and embrace, recognizing their inability to disrupt our deeper state of being. If parts naturally recede into the background of experience, allow it, but making this a goal is unnecessary. If you become fixated on total dissolution to attain bliss, it's wise to examine this desire with curiosity. In an awakened state, all is welcomed without needing to make binary choices between spirit and matter, personal and universal, finite and infinite, samsara and nirvana. We can experience profound mystery because we embody both realms, always.
”
”
Laura Patryas (Awaken To Love: Reclaiming Wholeness through Embodied Nonduality with Jungian Wisdom, Psychosynthesis & Internal Family Systems)
“
The top 1% of the world’s wealthy control more than 50% of all wealth, according to Credit Suisse’s global wealth report. In the United States, the 1% own more wealth than the bottom 90%. The number of millionaires in the world has tripled in the decades since 2000. And the amount of the world’s wealth controlled by the bottom 50% of the global population? Under 3%. These inequalities are more than numbers. They are fuel for high emotions and mass social change. They have led to the rise of populist political movements and propelled a variety of unlikely candidates into power. The difference between the top 1% and all the rest gets our attention. So much for money. Let’s now consider something infinitely more valuable: happiness. Specifically, the happiness found in Bliss Brain. Here we also find huge inequalities. Historically, Bliss Brainers are a tiny percentage of the population. Few even attempt the journey to enlightenment, and of those who seek Nirvana, even fewer attain it. When a rare spiritual genius, such as Jesus or Buddha, reached that pinnacle, the event was so significant that it changed the entire course of world history. WITHDRAWING FROM EVERYDAY LIFE The lives of the great spiritual masters of history inspired others to follow their example. But like the saints, these aspirants could not reach enlightenment in the everyday world, with its demons and distractions. So for thousands of years, those committed to the spiritual path went to special places such as hermitages, wilderness retreats, monasteries, and convents. They exiled themselves from ordinary society in order to pursue nonordinary states of consciousness. They couldn’t achieve Bliss Brain amid the hubbub of society, so they turned their backs on it. The rest of society stayed in ordinary consciousness, driven by the desires and demons of the Default Mode Network (DMN). In my book Mind to Matter, I call this survival orientation “Caveman Brain.” It’s hard to find Bliss Brain when surrounded by Caveman Brain, and pulling yourself out of that environment and into a sacred space is usually a prerequisite for enlightenment. What percentage of the population undertook the journey? No census of enlightenment seekers is possible, but one proxy is the number entering religious seclusion. In the early 1300s, England had a monastic population of about 22,000, with another 10,000 in other religious occupations.
”
”
Dawson Church (Bliss Brain: The Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity, and Joy)
“
CHAPTER 4 THE ONE PERCENT The top 1% of the world’s wealthy control more than 50% of all wealth, according to Credit Suisse’s global wealth report. In the United States, the 1% own more wealth than the bottom 90%. The number of millionaires in the world has tripled in the decades since 2000. And the amount of the world’s wealth controlled by the bottom 50% of the global population? Under 3%. These inequalities are more than numbers. They are fuel for high emotions and mass social change. They have led to the rise of populist political movements and propelled a variety of unlikely candidates into power. The difference between the top 1% and all the rest gets our attention. So much for money. Let’s now consider something infinitely more valuable: happiness. Specifically, the happiness found in Bliss Brain. Here we also find huge inequalities. Historically, Bliss Brainers are a tiny percentage of the population. Few even attempt the journey to enlightenment, and of those who seek Nirvana, even fewer attain it. When a rare spiritual genius, such as Jesus or Buddha, reached that pinnacle, the event was so significant that it changed the entire course of world history. WITHDRAWING FROM EVERYDAY LIFE The lives of the great spiritual masters of history inspired others to follow their example. But like the saints, these aspirants could not reach enlightenment in the everyday world, with its demons and distractions. So for thousands of years, those committed to the spiritual path went to special places such as hermitages, wilderness retreats, monasteries, and convents. They exiled themselves from ordinary society in order to pursue nonordinary states of consciousness. They couldn’t achieve Bliss Brain amid the hubbub of society, so they turned their backs on it. The rest of society stayed in ordinary consciousness, driven by the desires and demons of the Default Mode Network (DMN). In my book Mind to Matter, I call this survival orientation “Caveman Brain.” It’s hard to find Bliss Brain when surrounded by Caveman Brain, and pulling yourself out of that environment and into a sacred space is usually a prerequisite for enlightenment. What percentage of the population undertook the journey? No census of enlightenment seekers is possible, but one proxy is the number entering religious seclusion. In the early 1300s, England had a monastic population of about 22,000, with another 10,000 in other religious occupations.
”
”
Dawson Church (Bliss Brain: The Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity, and Joy)
“
ONE SHOULD WAKE UP WHEN THERE'S DAWN IN THE SOUL
उठना तब चाहिए
जब मन में सवेरा हो
UTHNA TAB CHAHIYE JAB MANN ME.N SAVERA HO
”
”
Vineet Raj Kapoor
“
That (truth) which cannot be lived in daily life, cannot be true.
”
”
Satish Tripathi (What is Meditation Actually?)
“
Meditation is not what your mind does: whether it is silent or not. Meditation is what you do with your mind.
”
”
Satish Tripathi (What is Meditation Actually?)
“
What we do, say, and even think has consequences. Words and thoughts are included, for they cause things to happen. What we say and think has consequences for the world around us, for they condition how we act. This is what Hinduism and Buddhism call the law of karma. Karma means something done, whether as cause or as effect. Actions in harmony with dharma bring good karma and add to health and happiness. Selfish actions, at odds with dharma, bring unfavorable karma and pain. Instead of trapping us in a fatalistic snare, this gives us freedom. Because we alone have brought ourselves into this state, we ourselves, by working hard, can reach the supreme state which is nirvana. In order to cross the river of life, we have to undergo all the necessary spiritual disciplines, but it is equally important to undo our unfavorable karma.
”
”
Eknath Easwaran (What Is Karma? (Easwaran Inspirations Book 4))