All happiness comes from awareness. The more we are conscious the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you don't want to suffer, don't go to sleep.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pleasure can lead to complacency, while pain serves as a catalyst for awareness and growth.
This quote highlights the dual nature of pleasure and pain in human experience. Pleasure often fosters a sense of security and comfort that can dull the senses and lead to a lack of awareness, creating a metaphorical 'sleep' in oneβs life. In contrast, pain, while unpleasant, has the ability to jolt us awake, prompting us to confront our realities, grow, and seek change. Therefore, the quote suggests that avoiding suffering also means avoiding the essential wake-up calls that can lead to personal development and self-realization.
Themes
PleasurePainAwarenessGrowthSuffering
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might say, 'Remember, pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up, so embrace challenges as opportunities to grow.'
More from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
All quotes βEven faith in God is only a stage on the way. Ultimately you abandon all, for you come to something so simple that there are no words to express it.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Forgetting your Self is the greatest injury; all the calamities flow from it. Take care of the most important, the lesser will take care of itself. You do not tidy up a dark room. You open the windows first. Letting in the light makes everything easy. So, let us wait with improving others until we see ourselves as we are/ and have changed. There is no need to turn round and round in endless questioning; find yourself and everything will fall into its proper place.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Watch your thoughts as you watch the street traffic. People come and go; you register without response. It may not be easy in the beginning, but with some practice you will find that your mind can function on many levels at the same time and you can be aware of them all.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Learn to live without self concern. _x000D_ _x000D_ For this you must know your own true being as indomitable, fearless and ever victorious. _x000D_ _x000D_ Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, _x000D_ _x000D_ you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Do not neglect this body. This is the house of God; take care of it, only in this body can God be realized.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
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