Embrace suffering, and you transform your relationship with what causes you to suffer, as well as your relationship with suffering itself.
AdyashantiRead
The joke of it all is that you are looking from your true nature right now without knowing it. If you would stop being fascinated with the contents of your mind, you would experience what I am saying. Feel your way into what I am saying rather than thinking about it. Only a self-concept looks and longs for God. Drop your self-concept and there is only God meeting God. Enlightenment is the restoration of cosmic humor.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that true understanding comes from experiencing our nature rather than overthinking it. It emphasizes the idea that enlightenment is a realization of the inherent connection to divinity.
Adyashanti's quote delves into the idea that our true nature is often obscured by the mental chatter and preconceived notions we hold about ourselves. He encourages us to move beyond the distractions of thought and self-concept to experience a direct connection with the divine, indicating that enlightenment is a playful realization of our unity with the universe. The notion of 'cosmic humor' implies that this awakening brings a lightness and joy that contrasts with the seriousness with which we often approach life.
Themes
SelfEnlightenmentDivinityExperienceCosmic HumorNature
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a meditation retreat to encourage participants to experience themselves beyond their thoughts.
More from Adyashanti
All quotes →If we do not live and manifest in our lives what we realize in our deepest moments of revelation, then we are living a split life.
AdyashantiRead
Awareness isn’t something we own; awareness isn’t something we possess. Awareness is actually what we are.
AdyashantiRead
The willingness to not bypass illusion is very important. We come to nirvana by way of samsara. We come to see the true nature of things by seeing through the illusory nature of things. We don't come to nirvana by avoiding samsara. We don't come to clarity by avoiding confusion.
AdyashantiRead
Our illusions-the beliefs we hold on to-are the very doorways to our freedom. We simply have to enter through them without grasping or pushing away. We must not believe them, but we must not run away from them either. We need to see each moment of apparent bondage as an invitation to freedom. Then it becomes an act of love, an act of compassion, to stop running away.
AdyashantiRead
Let go of all ideas and images in your mind, they come and go and aren’t even generated by you. So why pay so much attention to your imagination when reality is for the realizing right now?
AdyashantiRead
Similar quotes
And out of good still to find means of evil.
John MiltonRead
It takes no effort to love. The state has its own innate joy. Questions answer themselves if you are aware enough. Life is safe; flowing with the current of being is the simplest way to live. Resistance never really succeeds. Controlling the flow of life is impossible.
Deepak ChopraRead
There is nothing so fleeting as the memory of benefits received.
Francesco GuicciardiniRead
But Gregor understood easily that it was not only consideration for him which prevented their moving, for he could easily have been transported in a suitable crate with a few air holes; what mainly prevented the family from moving was their complete hopelessness and the thought that they had been struck by a misfortune as none of their relatives and acquaintances had ever been hit.
Franz KafkaRead
I have noticed that whenever a person gives up his belief in the Word of God because it requires that he should believe a good deal, his unbelief requires him to believe a great deal more. If there be any difficulties in the faith of Christ, they are not one-tenth as great as the absurdities in any system of unbelief which seeks to take its place.
Charles SpurgeonRead
In real life as in grand opera, arias only make hopeless situations worse.
Kurt VonnegutRead