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
Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that effort will take you nowhere. The self is so self-confident that unless it is totally discouraged it will not give up. Mere verbal conviction is not enough. Hard facts alone can show the absolute nothingness of the self-image.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True understanding of the self and the futility of mere verbal beliefs requires hard effort and experience.
This quote by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj emphasizes that understanding the limitations of the self and the illusions it holds cannot be achieved through passive belief alone. It requires significant effort and confronting the realities that reveal the truth about the self-image, which may ultimately lead to its dissolution.
Themes
SelfEffortConvictionTruthImage
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational seminar discussing the importance of genuine effort over surface beliefs.
More from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
All quotes →Even 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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