The Fruits of Enlightenment
“Enlightenment – the awakening of insight that happens in yourself and is independent of others – makes it possible to create an everlasting world of beauty and harmony, the home of nirvana.”
–Yrjö Kallinen (Finnish Educator, Politician and Pacifist 1886-1976)
No Limit to Your Light
“There is no limit to your light, except the dark shadows of the ego cast upon the sky which we call self. Shake you soul! Awaken it from slumber! The time has come to awaken to your Divine being.”
–Pir Vilayat Khan (Sufi Teacher and Head of the International Order of Sufis, 1916-2004)
Awaken Your Divine Nature
“Of course you have work to do in this world. Your first job is to awaken your own divine nature. You can do that by putting yourself into inspirational circumstances and looking within and waiting in receptive silence for answers from within.”
–“Peace Pilgrim” (a.k.a. Mildred Norman, American Peace Activist, 1908-1981)
Spirituality Means Awakening
“Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up.
They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know all mystics… are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. ‘Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.”
–Anthony de Mello (Indian-born Jesuit Priest, Psychotherapist and Writer and Former Director of the Sadhana Institute of Pastoral Counseling in Poona, India, 1931-1987)
Learning to Reawaken
“We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.”
–Henry David Thoreau (American Essayist and Philosopher, 1817-1862)
Awakening
“Man does not evolve, he awakens.”
–Darwin Gross (American Spiritual Teacher, Musician and, from 1971-1983, Leader of Eckankar, 1928-)
Adversity and Awakening
“Your trials did not come to punish you, but to awaken you.”
–Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Spiritual Teacher and, in 1920, Founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, 1893-1952)
