The treasure I have found cannot be described in words, the mind cannot conceive of it.
Adi ShankaraRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote encourages detachment from the physical self and thoughts, advocating for recognition of one's true nature as pure awareness.
Adi Shankara's quote invites individuals to transcend their identification with the physical body and their thoughts, both of which he suggests are merely constructs of the mind. By realizing oneself as undifferentiated awareness, free from the confines of time and existence, one can attain a state of inner peace that is not swayed by external circumstances.
Themes
SelfAwarenessPeaceDetachmentPhilosophyTime
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a mindfulness meditation session to encourage participants to detach from their physical identities.
More from Adi Shankara
All quotes →Even after the Truth has been realised, there remains that strong, obstinate impression that one is still an ego - the agent and experiencer. This has to be carefully removed by living in a state of constant identification with the supreme non-dual Self. Full Awakening is the eventual ceasing of all the mental impressions of being an ego.
Adi ShankaraRead
Like the appearance of silver in mother of pearl, the world seems real until the Self, the underlying reality, is realized.
Adi ShankaraRead
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 ShankaraRead
But the jiva [living being] is endowed with ego and his knowledge is limited, whereas Ishwar is without ego and is omniscient.
Adi ShankaraRead
There is sorrow in finitude. The Self is beyond time, space and objects. It is infinite and hence of the nature of absolute happiness.
Adi ShankaraRead
Similar quotes
The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.
Adlai E. StevensonRead
Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.
Immanuel KantRead
The rule of law should be upheld by all political parties. They should neither advise others to break the law, nor encourage others to do so even when they strongly disagree with the legislation put forward by the government of the day.
James CallaghanRead
When you clean up a city, you destroy it.
Charles BukowskiRead
The death penalty not only takes away the life of the person strapped to the table - it takes away a little bit of the humanity in each of us.
Clint SmithRead
You said your mom is the goddess of balance," I reminded him. "The minor gods deserve better, Ethan, but total destruction isn't balance. Kronos doesn't build. He only destroys.
Rick RiordanRead