"Enlightenment for a wave is the moment the wave realizes it is water. At that moment, all fear of death disappears."
Read quote
11 likes
Enlightenment quotes
Enlightenment
628 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Enlightenment
Browse quotes that often appear alongside enlightenment — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Enlightenment quotes (page 4 of 32)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"According to accounts of the Buddha's life, it would seem that he had a very deep relationship with nature. He was not born in the royal palace but in a park, under a sala tree. He attained complete enlightenment under the bodhi tree and left this earth to enter Parinirvana, again, between three sala trees. It would seem that the Buddha was very fond of trees."
Read quote
10 likes
"To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment."
Read quote
10 likes
"So the single most vital step on your journey towards enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind."
Read quote
10 likes
"It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn. Maybe that's enlightenment enough - to know that there is no final resting place of the mind, no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom, at least for me, means realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go."
Read quote
10 likes
"Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment."
Read quote
9 likes
"If there's any possibility for enlightenment, it's right now, not at some future time. Now is the time."
Read quote
9 likes
"Life is an endless, truly endless struggle. There's no time when we're going to arrive at a plateau where the whole thing gets sorted. It's a struggle in the way every plant has to find it's own way to stand up straight. A lot of the time it's a failure. And yet it's not a failure if some enlightenment comes from it."
Read quote
8 likes
"The person who says, 'I'm enlightened' probably isn't."
Read quote
8 likes
"You may have expected that enlightenment would come ZAP! instantaneous and permanent.This is unlikely.After the first ah ha expereince, it can be thougth of as a thinning of a layer of clouds."
Read quote
8 likes
"I do not in the least underestimate bisexuality... I expect it to provide all further enlightenment."
Read quote
8 likes
"A fully blossomed human potential is enlightenment. It is becoming a child again, and coming back to your original nature."
Read quote
8 likes
"Since life is but a continuous series of experiences, everything ultimately helps me towards my final enlightenment."
Read quote
8 likes
"It is from cowardice and not from want of enlightenment that we do not read in our own hearts."
Read quote
7 likes
"We need enlightenment, not just individually but collectively, to save the planet."
Read quote
7 likes
"We need enlightenment, not just individually but collectively, to save the planet. We need to awaken ourselves. We need to practice mindfulness if we want to have a future, if we want to save ourselves and the planet."
Read quote
7 likes
"What have we to offer the world beside the superabundant loot which we recklessly plunder from the earth under the maniacal delusion that this insane activity represents progress and enlightenment?"
Read quote
7 likes
"It's good to bear in mind that like it or not, enlightenment has always been, even in a golden age, pretty much limited to an elite."
Read quote
6 likes
"We can continue our quest for improvement or not. We can search for happiness, enlightenment, security or identity or not. The search is not wrong; it is unrelated to the actual world."
Read quote
6 likes
"It is wisdom to know others. It is enlightenment to know oneself."
Read quote
6 likes