Quotes About Consciousness

We avoid harming others not simply because the actions themselves might have obviously negative repercussions, but because the mind that generates an unethical action will cause suffering for ourselves and others in less discernable ways in the future.

Instinctively, we assume that objects exist separate from the mind, but any investigation of objects necessarily involves the mind in some way, so knowledge always has a subjective element. We know there is a pen because we experience the pen. Thus, no object of knowledge exists apart from the mind experiencing it.

look at the company you work for and see what effect they are having on the environment and the people in that environment; see what damage is being done. Even if we personally are not doing anything wrong, if our livelihood is based on something even slightly harmful, subconsciously something happens. That mental state will always disturb our mind.

As long as there is consciousness, these two potentials exist—the potential to become enlightened and the potential to suffer.

No matter the level of subtlety of view, all Buddhist schools agree that only a previous moment of mind can cause the present moment of mind.

Mind is mere experience—it is not matter; therefore its cause must be the same.

We do not perceive things directly but perceive rather our thoughts about things. And these stories and perceptions, when accompanied by powerful emotions, can dramatically color our experiences.

We are ignorant of the fundamental nature of the way things exist, and we feel anxiety because of this.

The nature of one's own consciousness is the same as the nature of God and Godhead and, therefore, to know God, one must seek to know oneself.

Sometimes I feel guilty as hell for just being able to live my life." I didn't have to tell him that I understood, because he knew that I did. There should be a word for this, the way it feels to steal something that's already yours.

And even if what you said in the article is true, about how you "want to raise consciousness about mass incarceration"—let's say this wasn't bullshit—please explain to me what a baby doll is going to do to help anybody in here.

God is never absent from the affairs of men, though we are not conscious of Him very often.

The true shaman, the true naturalist, works to reconnect conscious human life with Nature and Spirit through totems and ritual.

What we consider imagination is a reality in some form on levels beyond the normal sensory world.

Every animal is a gateway to the phenomenal world of the human spirit. What most fail to realize is that what they think of animals reflects the way they think of themselves.

Say nothing if you don't understand, stay silent if you do.

Science fiction is very well suited to asking philosophical questions; questions about the nature of reality, what it means to be human, how do we know the things that we think we know.

Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have the right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.

Experience is algorithmically incompressible.

through the act of reading my words, the patterns that form your thoughts become an imitation of the patterns that once formed mine. And in that way I live again, through you.

We experienced events in an order, and perceived their relationship as cause and effect. They experienced all events at once, and perceived a purpose underlying them all. A minimizing, maximizing purpose.

It is not that the turret clocks are running faster. What is happening is that our brains are running slower.

People used to speculate about a thought that destroys the thinker, some unspeakable Lovecraftian horror, or a Gödel sentence that crashes the human logical system. It turns out that the disabling thought is one that we've all encountered: the idea that free will doesn't exist. It just wasn't harmful until you believed it.

Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I