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As gold purified in a furnace loses its impurities and achieves its own true nature, the mind gets rid of the impurities of the attributes of delusion, attachment and purity through meditation and attains Reality.
Adi Shankara
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Meditation helps cleanse the mind of delusions and attachments, leading to a clearer understanding of reality.

This quote by Adi Shankara uses the metaphor of gold being purified in a furnace to illustrate how meditation can refine the mind. Just as gold emerges free of impurities, through meditation, individuals can remove the negative attributes of delusion and attachment, thus reaching a deeper level of awareness and understanding of Reality.

Themes

MeditationPurificationMindRealityDelusion

In practice

Example use cases

During a mindfulness workshop, I shared this quote to emphasize the benefits of meditation.

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Give up identification with this mass of flesh as well as with what thinks it a mass. Both are intellectual imaginations. Recognise your true self as undifferentiated awareness, unaffected by time, past, present or future, and enter Peace.
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There is sorrow in finitude. The Self is beyond time, space and objects. It is infinite and hence of the nature of absolute happiness.
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