Quotes About Existence

the sense we generally have that it [self] exists somewhere inside us, if not in our bodies, then at least in our minds.

When you say, 'When I was six years old, … ' the 'I' refers to something that must have been the same at the age of six as it is now. If it isn't the same, … what in the world does 'I' refer to?

Reality … cannot be put into conceptual form.

H]ow can something cease to exist that has no solid existence in the first place?

We might think that by tossing a ball we initiate an action, but this is merely an arbitrary point in a beginningless line of action.

We imagine that things come into existence, endure for a while, and then pass out of existence

Just as we conceive of a self and counter this notion with a non-self, … we are also taken in by another set of opposing concepts – existence and non-existence.

There is only … eternal arising and ceasing – but … no thing that comes or goes.

We are like music. … Music exists … in constant flux and flow. Once the movement stops, the music is no more.

If we believe in … an everlasting self, it's tantamount to claiming that we have existed before all else came into being. We may as well fancy ourselves as being the cause of all creation.

All we ever find is the arising and ceasing of the world as it has come to be now. When you snap your fingers, it's already gone. All that persists is thus. Thus is not an object of mind but Mind Itself.

I'm not anything in particular. Nor are you. Nor is anyone.

Anything that can be grasped must … depend on other things for their validity. Hence, they are doubtful and perplexing. Doubt is just the flipside of belief.

The issues of what a self is, how long it will last, what will happen when our bodies decay and consciousness flickers off, are all based not on what we actually see but on what we imagine.

To forget the self is to remember that we don't exist alone, but in relation to other people, to other creatures, to the planet, and to the universe.

When we just see … , the concept of non-existence doesn't occur. Our belief in non-existence arises only as a result of holding the notion of existence in the first place.

Relative truths are the day-to-day things and thoughts we can easily discuss, teach, sell, and conceptualise. … Each one depends on a vast multitude of other … relative truths for its existence – an existence which is, of course, conceptual.

To assume the existence of a self, an 'I', is to assume the existence of something that has not changed … . … [I]f the thing in question – the 'I' – has changed, in what manner can it still be itself?

I]t's through our obsession with meaning that we create meaninglessness.

When we fancy ourselves to be a particular thing with a name, we see ourselves as we would a cork in a stream. What we do not realize is that there is only stream. What we fancy as particular is, from the first, only movement, change and flow.

There are no overwhelming questions such as 'Where do I go after I die?' because it becomes clear that such questions, doubts, fears, and anxieties are based on buying into an illusion – the self.

Conscious experience is very much like a movie. It's just one moment – one still – after another. But because these seem to occur in rapid succession, we adopt the contradictory belief … there are … persistent things out there that nevertheless change.

Why would anyone want to awaken to the Reality that they're not even here in the first place?

We have all sorts of stories about heaven and hell, about oblivion and nothingness, about 'coming back,' and so on. But they are all stories.