Quotes About Consciousness

Let's say I dared to suspend myself in the moment between breaths.

The only way we can be free in each moment is to become what each moment is.

Of course, we can't just drop our notion of self as we would remove a garment. It's a rather compelling illusion. … [However, o]nce it's seen that the 'I' cannot be found the mind is free[.]

Normally, a view of the world is nothing more than a set of beliefs, a way to freeze the world in our minds. But this can never match Reality, simply because the world isn't frozen. Nevertheless we carry on as though the way we've frozen it in our minds is the way it actually is.

Right view is not a concept or belief. … [It] is simply seeing Reality as it is, here and now, moment after moment[;] ... relying on bare attention … before conceptual thought arises[;] … relying on what we actually experience rather than on what we think.

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?

To see doesn't mean to initiate a programme of inaction. … To act or not to act is not the question. The question is whether or not we're awake. (…) [T]o … see what's happening in each moment, and base our actions on what we see, not on what we think.

There is no Mystery. You already know Reality. You only need to stop talking to yourself, and learn to wordlessly pay attention.

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

H]ow can there be experience without a self to have that experience? We don't need … an explanation, … that's all the self is: an explanation of experience.

Most of the time, … we … are at best only partially engaged in the moment. … [O]ften [we are] lost in thought or reverie – barely here at all. (…) How often we miss the moment simply because we're not here. We tune out much of the world – and much of ourselves as well[.]

Throughout most of our lives, we're so caught up in this and that, rushing through these wonderful distractions and stages, that we don't (or can't) take the time to settle into the mellow light that's always there and to let freshness suffuse the frame. Thus we miss this simple matter of just doing and living fully.

We commonly see things 'out there' and go after them. Our mind is thus characterised by division and separation.

even refer to?

If we are the stream, what is it that experiences the flux, the flow, the change? … [T]here is no particular thing … having an experience. There is experience, but no experiencer. … [P]erception, but no perceiver. … [C]onsciousness, but no self that can be located or identified.

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.

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.

T]houghts will arise. Don't be bothered by them. Don't think they're bad or that you shouldn't be having them. … If you leave them alone, they'll depart of their own accord. This is how to 'cease all movements of the conscious mind.' You cannot do it by the direct application of your will.

Consciousness divides Reality. It conceptualises it, packages it, and explains it to itself. Then in our ignorance, we think it's taking readings on things 'out there.

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.

Ignorance is not the inability to see, but the act of ignoring what is really going on in favour of what we imagine.

We habitually act out of … thoughts and assumptions – most of which we're only vaguely aware of – rather than out of full engagement with the moment.

To a buddha … there's no habitual overlaying of perceptual experience with concepts, … ideas, … beliefs, notions, pre-formed habits of thought, that are used to explain existence.