We think we want to awaken…

* There is no awakened one; there is only self-realization. When enlightenment dawns, you will realize that you were never born, nor have you carried out any worldly actions. The enlightened person has no hopes no desires, and no passions. Therefore, he has no death.
–Nisargadatta Maharaj

* When your standpoint becomes that of wisdom, you will find the world to be God.
–Ramana Maharshi

* The transcendence of suffering-and-pleasure is attained not by wallowing in both but by experiencing the inexistence of either.
–Wei Wu Wei

* On my journey, reading the words from others has been very helpful, either in a book or on the net. At some point though, it’s enough. The mind ends its love affair with words and concepts and embarks on new adventures, seeking new challenges and ways to experience this life. The mind evolves, the personality evolves, the body evolves, all in a continuous flux of change. . . . Over the past year my attention has not been on this website, or on cyber-satsang, or nondual discussions. It has all become an experience of the past. Lovely in its rise, inspiring in its glory and uninteresting in its decay.
–Mira Baartmans

* Suddenly, without any break in my consciousness, the “I” flashed forth! It was self-awareness, pure and simple, steady, unbroken and intensely bright, as much brighter than ordinary consciousness as is sunlight brighter than the dim light of a lamp. In ordinary consciousness the “I”-sense dimly remains in the background — as a matter of inference or intuition — the whole of the consciousness being occupied by the object. Here, “I” came to the foreground, occupied, or rather became, the whole consciousness, and intensely existed as pure consciousness, displacing all objects. I was, but I was neither the subject nor the object of this consciousness. I WAS this consciousness, which alone existed. There were no objects. The world was not, neither the body nor the mind — no thought, no motion; time also ceased to exist. I alone existed and that I was consciousness itself, self-luminous and alone, without a second…
–Anonymous (Excerpted from Anonymous, “Sri Ramana’s Wondrous Grace” in Golden Jubilee Souvenir: 1896-1946, 1946, Tiruvannamalai: Ramanasramam, 3rd ed, 1995, pp. 459-62. Copyright Sri Ramanasramam

* Knowing I’m the fiction I’m no longer subjected to the fictitious continuity between consecutive pages of the book. There is no continuity, only discontinuity. Continuity doesn’t appear unless I consent to it.
–Stephen Jourdain

* An Enlightened person is just a person who has awakened to the facts, as they have always been, no more. People seem to think the Enlightened are infallible and perfect in every way. Not so. They are whole and complete but they are just human beings, no better and no worse than anyone else. They make mistakes, make fools of themselves, and most of the things all people do from time to time. They cannot see anything as being outside of their Being. They cannot hate or cause harm to anyone, they do have more compassion than most other humans, they do not get lost in mindless dreams or beliefs, they are secure, and for the most part happy.

Even to say I had an enlightenment experience is misleading. There is no one to have such an experience, there is just reality seen clearly without the illusion of self in the way. Our language is dualistic and not very helpful in expressing that which is whole and complete.
–Melvyn Wartella

* We don’t create reality. It already exists. There are not 5 billion different realities. There are only five billion delusions–each one waiting to be erased so that what is real can be seen! Reality is what is real, not what we wish were real–not what we imagine, project, visualize or hope is real.
–Susan Dane

* There really is little to be said - the thing that I used to call "me" just went away. I was writing a letter to a friend and just as I was saying something about me, and well... "me" just wasn’t there anymore. Just like that. This was very confusing. Then the confusion went away too. Other people? No such thing. Without a "me" the concepts 'self' and 'other' just have no meaning. Certainly 'enlightened' and 'unenlightened' also have lost all meaning too. Iinterest in such things is gone. I find that I sit a lot watching the light in the trees. It shines in whatever I see or do.  What else is there?
–Peter

* We think we know what the result of awakening will be - namely a lessening of pain. So we make up stories - a story that we must say ‘yes’ to everything, that acceptance will help us awaken. A story that things will be easier if we awaken, that we will love unconditionally if we awaken; that our lives will be smoother, happier. If we awaken. We make up a story that we are drawn to truth. We make up a story that our yearning is opening our hearts. Ha! All this thinking is just a mind crying out for a good therapist :-) If you are unhappy or unfulfilled or not at peace, then I would suggest you see such a person - she will probably be of far more help than some self-proclaimed teacher touring around giving ’satsang’ and helping you dream nicer dreams. Awakened state, unawakened state … such things are the storybooks of children. Look around - do the animals spend time wondering about an imagined God, a Nirvana, a state of happiness, a oneness with all? Have a little humility my dear friend - notice that you are not as clever as the gentle little field mouse who lives quietly in the grasses and never for a moment wonders about becoming one with the universe. She just lives and is. She does not need or think of the pretensions of evolving, of gain, of being something, or of attaining. For her this moment is it - everything and everyone appears and recedes into and out of her own quiet awareness. She just lives. Really - isn’t all this talk and more talk of awakening just a small death you are giving yourself? Isn’t this imagined answer to all your problems blinding you to what is here, now? If you are unhappy or lack peace, see a therapist. Or perhaps quiet and free, with pain or without it, just be.
–Amber (That’s Amber’s friend in the picture above)