'What, concretely, is Enlightenment?' 'Seeing Reality as it is,' said the Master. 'Doesn't everyone see Reality as it is?' 'Oh, no! Most people see it as they think it is.' 'What's the difference?' 'The difference between thinking you are drowning in a stormy sea and knowing you cannot drown because there isn't any water in sight for miles around.'
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Enlightenment is seeing reality as it is, not as we think it is, illustrated by the drowning metaphor.
- In plain terms
- Reality is often different from what we imagine; true understanding sees things as they really are.
- What can you take from it?
- See reality as it is, not as you think it is.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What are you worried about that isn't actually happening?
- How much of your distress is imagined?
Another view
Sometimes thinking helps us plan for potential futures even if not currently real.
More from Anthony de Mello
Understand the obstructions you are putting in the way of love, freedom, and happiness and they will drop. Turn on the light of awareness and the darkness will…
Permalink to quote #38 'What is love?' 'The total absence of fear,' said the Master. 'What is it we fear?' 'Love,' said the Master.
Permalink to quote #40 To a visitor who described himself as a seeker after Truth the Master said, 'If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.' 'I kn…
Permalink to quote #37
Related quotes
The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goe…
Bill HicksBill Hicks quote #27 A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things.
Ernst Ludwig KirchnerErnst Ludwig Kirchner quote #1 It was good of Friedrich Nietzsche to declare God dead - I declare that he has never been born. It is a created fiction, an invention, not a discovery. Do you …
OshoOsho quote #1