Quotes About Consciousness

What is a poem then? [...] I see a poem as a multicolored strip behind peeling plaster, in separate shining segments. I try to connect hands and horizons, glances and the objects imprisoned in them. That's how it is in daylight. At night [...] poems are like spiriling curves that grow to completeness by themselves. The hardest thing is to hold onto them through waking into consciousness.

And then, with a sound not heard but sensed, a tenuous string snapped within me and I, a she now, felt the rush of gender so violent, that her head spun and I shut my eyes. And as I stood thus, with eyes closed, words came to me from every side, for along with gender she had received language.

Am I responsible for my unconscious? No one else is, if not myself.

People do not want immortality,' I continued. 'They simply do not want to die. They want to live, Decantor. They want to feel the ground beneath their feet, see the clouds overhead, love other people, be with them, and think. Nothing more. Everything that has been said beyond that is a lie. An unconscious lie.

We're all sticking our heads in the sand here, Kelvin, but at least we're aware of it and we're not trying to act noble.

First I thought to fill this void that is I, and thereby dispel its insufferable monotony. So let us think of something, for when we think, behold, there is thought, and naught but our thought has existence.

Of the two powers, the two categories that take possession of us when we enter the world (from where?), space is by far the less mysterious. . . . Space is, after all, solid, monolithic. . . . Time, on the other hand, is a hostile element, truly treacherous, I would even say against human nature.

Because there may be thoughts, intentions and cruel hopes in my mind of which I know nothing, because I am a murderer unawares.

Zum zweiten faszinierte euch das Denken, das so quälend nahe, weil in der Introspektion gegeben ist, und so rätselhaft, weil es sich eurem Zugriff wirksamer entzieht als die Sterne.

Was thinking about consciousness possible? Yet could the process that took place in the ocean be regarded as thought? Is a mountain a very large rock? Is a planet a huge mountain?

Swami Muktananda, the head of the Siddha Yoga tradition, used to say, "God dwells in you as You.

Grof, S. 2006. The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death. Ben Lomond, CA: MAPS Publications.

all perception is but a change in the concentration of hydrogen ions on the surface of the brain cells.

Cercavo invano di raccogliere pensieri che scivolavano lungo un piano inclinato minacciando di precipitare, e la perdita di coscienza, l'annientamento mi parvero un'indicibile, insperabile grazia.

To a real elephant, and not a sheep, wolf, or gnu in elephant's clothing, you are not there. There is no You. There is no Is. There is only the Elephant. Don't you see how silly that

A spell is a symbolic act done in an altered state of consciousness, in order to cause a desired change.

Was there some deeper, level some plane upon which the consciousness of mountains responded to death and waste and pain? Was there a compassion embedded in the very rocks, so that they offered their beauty in compensation for human loss?

Nefretinin kendine ait bir varoluÅŸu olduÄŸunu biliyordu, her zaman onun içinde, anatomisindeydi; insan nas?l ki safrakesesinin sadece ÅŸiddetli bir bulant? an?nda, dilindeki tat tomurcuklar?na ac? safra yükselirken deÄŸil de hep orada olduÄŸunu bilirse, o da bunu öyle biliyordu.

Her eyes are the first indication of her infirmity, or rather that she resides in more than one world. (Dementia)

A person who is asleep is either lost in deep unconsciousness or absorbed in a dream. Metaphorically, this was how the Buddha must have seen both his previous self as well as everyone else he had known: they either were blind to the questions of existence or sought consolation from them in metaphysical or religious fantasies.

One of the most difficult things to remember is to remember to remember. Awareness begins with remembering what we tend to forget. Drifting through life on a cushioned surge of impulses is but one of many strategies of forgetting. Not only do we forget to remember, we forget that we live in a body with senses and feelings and thoughts and emotions and ideas.

No matter how hard I tried, I was incapable of giving more importance to a hypothetical, post-mortem existence than to this very life here and now. Moreover, the Buddhist teachings and practices that had the most impact upon me did so precisely because they heightened my sense of being fully alive in and responsive to this world.

To meditate is not to empty the mind and gape at things in a trancelike stupor. Nothing significant will ever be revealed by just staring blankly at an object long and hard enough. To meditate is to probe with intense sensitivity each glimmer of color, each cadence of sound, each touch of another's hand, each fumbling word that tries to utter what cannnot be said. The

Reflective meditation is a way of translating thoughts into the language of feeling. It explores the relation between the way we think about and perceive things and the way we feel about them. We find that even the strongest, seemingly self-evident intuitions about ourselves are based on equally deep-seated assumptions. Gradually learning to see our life in another way through reflective meditation leads to feeling different about it as well.