Quotes About Mind

He said brains are needed to recall memories, but it appears brains are not where memories are stored.

The machinations of my mind are an enigma." -Patrick Starr

Bewildered by the dazzling display of lights, the deceased may fail to recognize them as manifestations of his or her own spiritual energy. Overwhelmed by their intensity, he or she may not be able to make any sense of them. In fact, they are the projections arising from his or her own chaotic mind. The guide, therefore, should offer the deceased person counsel and assistance to enable him or her to recognize these visions for what they are.

Yet literal or figurative, only the human state, the mode that is balanced without too much suffering and too much comfort, is said to be conducive to future spiritual growth. An excess of suffering prevents people from ever giving thought to anything else since their minds are overwhelmed by pain, while an excess of comfort and happiness dulls the mind and gives no motivation for change.

When we encounter spiritual realities for the first time, whether just starting to meditate or at the time of death, our minds are usually inflexible with ingrained self-interest and belief in the reality of the everyday world. It is good to be as comfortable as possible for it is painful to witness the disintegration of our world as the senses upon which it was based crumble and dissolve.

The dying person should be helped to lie in the optimal position for death, the so-called "sleeping lion's posture." It is thought that this posture naturally calms the erratic flow of an agitated mind and thus it may be helpful to the dying person by allowing him to concentrate more easily.

At the time of death, those who have led thoroughly evil lives will have a vision of the terrifying Lord of Death and his henchmen in whatever form they have been culturally conditioned to expect. The guide must try hard at this time to reassure those who are frightened that these terrible apparitions are merely projections of his or her own mind. He should remind the dying person to have faith in the goodness that surrounds him or her and not to be afraid.

The cumulative power of doing things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind: You're going to be dreaming soon.

Are you still forgetting things?" "I don't know, I can't remember," I said.

You cannot condemn a man for what may only be a figment of your own imagination.

I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye. I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind. I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart.

Be aware that the expectation of possible awakening sometimes leads to a false awakening in which you dream of waking.

sometimes while dreaming, we consciously notice that we are dreaming. This clear-sighted state of consciousness is referred to as lucid dreaming.

we do this by forming a mental connection between what we want to remember to do and the future circumstances in which we intend to do it.

MNEMONIC INDUCTION OF LUCID DREAMS EXERCISE 1   Set up dream recall. At bedtime, set your mind to awaken from and to remember dreams. When you awaken from a dream, recall it as completely as you can. 2   Focus your intent. While returning to sleep, concentrate single-mindedly on your intention to remember to recognize that you are dreaming. Tell yourself, "next time I'm dreaming, I will remember I'm dreaming," repeatedly, like a mantra.

lucid dreams occur "almost exclusively" during the early morning hours.

A period of wakefulness interrupting the normal course of sleep increases the likelihood of lucidity. In fact, the "morning nap" or "sleep interruption" technique, refined through several experiments conducted by the Lucidity Institute, is an extremely powerful method of stimulating lucid dreams. The technique simply requires you to wake from sleep one hour earlier than usual, stay awake for thirty to sixty minutes, then go back to sleep.

We can carry not only knowledge but also moods from the lucid dream state to the waking state.

We live better lives when we learn from our dreams.

Our life is composed of events and states of mind. How ewe appraise our life from our deathbed will be predicated not only on what came to us in life but how we lived with it. It will not be simply illness or health, riches or poverty, good luck or bad, which ultimately define whether we believe we have had a good life or not, but the quality of our relationship to these situations: the attitudes of our states of mind. (34)

Whatever thought grips the mind at the time of death is the one which will propel it and decide for it the nature of its future birth. Thus if one wants to attain god after death, one has to think of him steadfastly... This is not as simple as it sounds, for at the time of death the mind automatically flies to the thought of an object (i.e. money, love) which has possessed it during its sojourn in the world. Thus one must think of god constantly.

If your mind is empty, it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

During their personal interview, Exman asked Schweitzer about mysticism. He was particularly interested in how intellectual puzzles that have vexed our ordinary minds for years can be answered "in a flash of illumination, after we had ceased to struggle with our thoughts." Schweitzer replied, "All deep thinking ends in mysticism," before arguing that mystical experiences are surprisingly common, by no means confined to "the privilege of a few.

A hero, in his mind, was not someone who suffered disaster after disaster, heroically pulling through with great endurance, but rather one who focused his intelligence and skills to avoid disaster, thus succeeding by good planning and crafty decision making.