Ken Wilber Quotes

Is there a meditation that is not the ego trying to become? Is meditation conscious if every effort implies time?

But the disappearance of the effort to let go is precisely the disappearance of the separate thinker, of the ego trying to watch the mind without interfering.

I've been on a quest for spiritual answers for a long time. The things I've learned about interconnectedness and non-duality and the feeling of tapping into your soul that goes beyond the edge of your skin is important to me. Once I learned that, I'm far less often trapped in my own little man problems. Me against the universe problems.

By constantly keep one's attention on the Source, the ego is dissolved in that Source like a salt-doll in the sea.

If you try too much to change the outside, that shows that you are still attached. If a man tries to be detached, it shows attachment. Why bother about detachment if you are not attached? If a man escapes from women, it shows that sex is still the obsession. Otherwise, why escape from women if you are not obsessed?

Only the ego resists egos. The spirit may notice egos, but sees beyond them and does not engage with them.

To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.

Generally, people who are not self-realized are full of themselves. One who is self-realized sees that the whole world is full of one.

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don't suffer anymore.

How does one get rid of fear? Ramana: What is fear? It is only a thought. If there is anything besides the Self there is reason to fear. Who sees things separate from the Self? First the ego arises and sees objects as external. If the ego does not rise, the Self alone exists and there is nothing external. For anything external to oneself implies the existence of the seer within. Seeking it there will eliminate doubt and fear. Not only fear, all other thoughts centred round the ego will disappear along with it.

To be conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey.

Life is not accomplishing some special work but attaining to a degree of consciousness and inner freedom which is beyond all works and attainments.

Forget the self and you will fear nothing, in whatever level or awareness you find yourself to be.

Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end.

If you want to reach a state of Bliss - make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved and the need to judge.

Pain is inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind.

The objective of spiritual advancement is not so much 'works' but the quality of life free from ego-consciousness.

So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it.

The ego isn't wrong; it's just unconscious. When you observe the ego in yourself, you are beginning to go beyond it. Don't take the ego too seriously. When you detect egoic behavior in yourself, smile. At times you may even laugh. How could humanity have been taken in by this for so long? Above all, know that the ego isn't personal. It isn't who you are. If you consider the ego to be your personal problem, that's just more ego.

There is, inside all our heads, the ego’s rabid attack dog. It is purely vicious toward others and toward ourselves as well. Learning to control that dog, and ultimately to end its life, is the process and purpose of enlightened relationships.

Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don't see the self as self, what do we have to fear?

In the process of deeply accepting our own inner experience, instead of being identified with a story of a limited self, we realize the compassion and wakefulness that is our essence.

Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.