THE CREST JEWEL OF DISCRIMINATION (Viveka-Chudamani)

John Richards presents this classic in the most readable style. You will consider this book as a close personal friend.

This is an excellent and easy to understand English translation of the Crest Jewel of Discrimination (Vivekachudamani) by Shankaracharya. The Crest Jewel of Discrimination summarizes the path to Self-Realization including how to discern the True Self from the false self.Here are some quotes from this translation:106. "The senses are enjoyable only for the sake of oneself, not for themselves. The self is the most dear of everything, and consequently the self is ever blissful, and never experiences suffering."152. "To be free from bondage the wise man must practice discrimination between self and non-self. By that alone he will become full of joy, recognizing himself as Being, Consciousness and Bliss."153. "Just as one separates a blade of grass from its sheaths, so by discriminating one's true nature as internal, unattached and free from action, and abandoning all else, one is free and identified only with one's true self."164. "Identification of oneself with the body is the seed of the pain of birth etc. in people attached to the unreal, so get rid of it with care. When this thought is eliminated, there is no more desire for rebirth."169. "There is no such thing as ignorance beyond the thinking mind. Thought itself is ignorance, the cause of the bondage of becoming. When thought is eliminated, everything else is eliminated. When thought increases everything else increases."204. "Like very muddy water, which is clearly water again when the mud is removed, one's true self shines forth again when the contamination is removed."206. "The level of sense awareness cannot be one's true self since it is changeable, physical, restricted, a sense-object and intermittent. What is transient should not be mistaken for what is eternal."216. "This has the nature of self-awareness, since it is conscious of itself. Thus the individual self is by its self-awareness none other than the Supreme itself."226. "This supreme Reality is non-dual in the absence of any other reality beside itself. In the state of knowledge of ultimate truth there is nothing else."275. "When the mass of desires for things other than oneself obscuring the contrary desire for one's real self are eliminated by constant self-remembrance, then it discloses itself of its own accord."276. "As the mind becomes more and more inward-turned, it becomes gradually freed from external desires, and when all such desires are fully eliminated self-realization is completely freed from obstruction."296. "So give up identification with this mass of flesh as well as with what thinks it a mass. Both are intellectual imaginations. Recognize your true self as undifferentiated awareness, unaffected by time, past, present or future, and enter Peace."318. "When the force of the desire for the Truth blossoms, selfish desires wither away, just like the darkness vanishes before the radiance of the light of dawn."369. "Restrain speech within. Restrain the mind in the understanding and restrain the understanding in the consciousness that observes the understanding. Restrain that in the perfect imageless self, and enjoy supreme peace."371. "When this process is stopped, the wise man knows the perfect joy of the letting go of everything, and experiences the attainment of the overwhelming bliss of Reality."383. "Turning one's purified awareness within on the witness as pure consciousness, one should gradually bring it to stillness and then become aware of the perfection of one's true nature."472. "You too should recognize this supreme Truth about yourself, your true nature and the essence of bliss, and shaking off the illusion created by your own imagination, become liberated, fulfilled and enlightened."