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Among the hundreds of books I have collected within the past couple of years since my inner transformation took off is a goldmine of proverbs, poems, and sayings by some of the greatest poets, mystics, saints, and sages ever to grace the planet.

This is a treasure chest of words that I cherish deeply and has been especially affirming to me on several occasions.

In particular, this compilation points us to what British author Aldous Huxley termed the Perennial Philosophy, which tells us that there is a portal that leads us to union with Ultimate Reality. Knowing Ultimate Reality requires a heightened state of consciousness that is recognized in religions of the East, such as Buddhism for example, as “Enlightenment.”

In a nutshell, “Enlightenment” refers to a non-conceptual awareness of the Self, or the Atman, as ever-present and all-pervasive; the witness of all changing phenomenon, including that of the mind itself, as well as the intelligence behind and substance of all things. However, each school of thought has a slightly unique official definition of that noun.

When my awakening kicked off in 2020 and 2021, I was so knee-deep in mental and emotional anguish that I could not yet see the forest for the trees. At that time, I did not realize that what I was about to experience was far above and beyond the scope of my limited ego-mind.

In fact, there were times I wondered whether I could make it through another season with all the weight I carried in my heart. I felt so viciously bitter, betrayed, angry, saddened, and unable to focus on anything or anyone other than the person whom I felt hurt, rejected, and kept things from me whilst simultaneously seemingly stringing me along for the ride, for any great length of time, no matter how hard I tried to rationalize the experience and put it all behind me.

Little did I know then, my entire outlook on life itself was gradually but assuredly about to undergo a massive paradigm shift from separation to unity consciousness. That, alone, as I would later come to understand, is the love to end all dense, earthly loves, for that love is the love that I never have to beg, bargain, nor pine for, because it does not come from something or someone outside of me.

On the contrary, that love exists in me and as me. Indeed, it is also the same love that shakes the earth and moves the sea. It pervades the entire cosmos. It is the love of the All that is the Great Mother, the origin of all particular things great and small, animate and inanimate.

The 20 quotes that I am about to share with you come close to encapsulating the inconceivable breath and depth of the Source, or the Ground of All Being, in ways our linear imaginations simply can’t.

So, without further ado, here are the mystical words of some of the greatest spiritual masters throughout time taken from The Essential Mystics, Poets, Saints, and Sages: A Wisdom Treasury by Richard Hooper.

1. “The Kingdom of God is within you.” ~ Jesus

2. “Our path to God requires that we must give up everything else in life. One must empty themselves entirely, remaining in the dark about other creatures. True understanding, love and joy cannot be based on the senses. It must be based on God alone-the very thing that cannot be seen, sensed or understood.” ~ John of the Cross, Roman Catholic

3. “You say you seek freedom? You cannot find it in the world. Neither will you find it in books or temples. The only one who binds you is you, yourself. You drag yourself around as if a rope was tied to your neck. Stop complaining and let go of the rope.” ~ Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta (Hindu)

4. “That which you seek is already here, but you do not recognize it.” ~ Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas

5. “My task is to open the eyes of man to see within—to eternity. Lord give me your spirit of love and annihilate my selfhood. Be the eternity of my life.” ~ William Blake

6. “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is: infinite.” ~ William Blake

7. “Our lives are in God, as God is within us. He nurtures all creatures, and even though His splendor is often hidden from us, it abides in all life. God is the life of all that exists.” ~ Hilegard of Bingen, Roman Catholic

8. “No longer am I trapped by the illusion that my body is anything more than the play of the universe. I have escaped from this illusion. That which is within is the same as that which is without. Seeing all things anew, I have become drunk with the light of God that fills the universe. Life and death no longer have any hold on me.” ~ Kabir, Sufi

9. “When you perceive that the two are One, that the outer is the same as the inner, that which is above is the same as that which is below, that the male and female are one and the same—then you will enter the Kingdom of God.” ~ Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas

10. “Blessed are they who find the One within their own being.” ~ Jesus, The Gospel of John

11. “Human existence begins with the belief that we are separate, then moves on to trying to find our way back to the One of which we are not just a part, but who, in fact, we are. ”~ Ram Dass, Vedanta (Hindu)

12. “The human body is the same as the cosmic body. The human mind is the same as cosmic mind. The microcosm is the same as macrocosm. In one atom exists the entire universe.” ~ The Upanishads, Vedanta (Hindu)

13. “Our true home of majesty lies beyond duality.” ~ Jelaluddin Rumi, Sufi

14. “Humanity is like coverings for pillows. Some are one colour, some are another. Still, they are all made from the same material. It is the same with humanity. One man may be sinful, while another is pure. But the same spirit of the One dwells within them all.” ~ Sri Ramakrishna, Vedanta (Hindu)

15. “The body is the house in which the spirit resides.” ~ Jelaluddin Rumi, Sufi

16. “Joyfulness resides in realizing that our soul and the soul of the entire world are one and the same. Such recognition is the love supreme.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore, Vedanta (Hindu)

17. “I and the Father are One.” ~ Jesus, The Gospel of John

18. “The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.” ~ Plotinus

19. “All that appears different in the world is a matter of degree, not kind. The secret is, all things are one.” ~ Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta (Hindu)

20. “The Universe and I were born together. All things are only One thing.” ~ Chuang Tzu, Taoist

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