Quotes About Awareness

Remember the following: Never take your position for granted and never let any favors you receive go to your

by embracing the full picture of themselves, their self-love is more real and complete. From this stronger inner position, they can turn their attention outward more often and more easily. This attention goes in one of two directions, and sometimes both.

Las ostras se abren por completo en luna llena; y cuando el cangrejo ve una, arroja en ella una piedra o alga marina y la ostra no puede volver a cerrarse, así que sirve de alimento al cangrejo. Tal es el destino de quien abre demasiado la boca y se pone de ese modo a merced del oyente. LEONARDO DA VINCI, 1452-1519

We often notice a similar sensation of confusion and helplessness when it comes to ourselves and our own behavior. For instance, we suddenly say something that offends our boss or colleague or friend— we are not quite sure where it came from, but we are frustrated to find that some anger and tension from within has leaked out in a way that we regret.

Having such clarity about ourselves and others could change the course of our lives in so many ways, but first we must clear up a common misconception: we tend to think of our behavior as largely conscious and willed.

That is precisely the wrong approach. What makes us go astray in the first place is that we are unattuned to the present moment, insensitive to the circumstances. We are listening to our own thoughts, reacting to things that happened in the past, applying theories and ideas that we digested long ago but that have nothing to do with our predicament in the present. More books, theories, and thinking only make the problem worse.

It can be valuable to analyze what went wrong in the past, but it is far more important to develop the capacity to think in the moment. In that way you will make far fewer mistakes to analyze.

Some 2,600 years ago the ancient Greek poet Pindar wrote, "Become who you are by learning who you are.

La verdad suele verse, rara vez oírse".

To imagine that we are not always in control of what we do is a frightening thought, but in fact it is the reality.

We are subject to forces from deep within us that drive our behavior and that operate below the level of our awareness.

See Beyond the Moment

We see the results—our thoughts, moods, and actions—but have little conscious access to what actually moves our emotions and compels us to behave in certain ways.

What makes us go astray in the first place is that we are unattuned to the present moment, insensitive to the circumstances. We are listening to our own thoughts, reacting to things that happened in the past, applying theories and ideas that we digested long ago but that have nothing to do with our predicament in the present. More books, theories, and thinking only make the problem worse.

Most people believe that they are in fact aware of the future, that they are planning and thinking ahead. They are usually deluded: What they are really doing is succumbing to their desires, to what they want the future to be.

We imagine we're acting of our own free will, unaware of how deeply our susceptibility to the emotions of others in the group is affecting what we do and how we respond.

The Laws of Human Nature, 6: Elevate Your Perspective—The Law of Shortsightedness

Las personas irracionales revelan en su vida patrones negativos: errores que no cesan de repetir, conflictos innecesarios que las siguen por doquier, sueños y proyectos que jamás se hacen realidad, enojo y deseos de cambio que nunca se traducen en acciones concretas. Son impulsivas y reactivas y no están conscientes de ello. Todos podemos tomar decisiones irracionales, algunas de ellas debido a circunstancias que escapan a nuestro control.

In the end, think of this philosophy in the following terms: Since the beginning of human consciousness, our awareness of death has terrified us. This terror has shaped our beliefs, our religions, our institutions, and so much of our behavior in ways we cannot see or understand. We humans have become the slaves to our fears and our evasions.

Understand: your mind is weaker than your emotions. But you become aware of this weakness only in moments of adversity—precisely the time when you need strength.

It's a pain that we don't discuss or even understand.

This book is an attempt to gather together this immense storehouse of knowledge and ideas from different branches (see the bibliography for the key sources), to piece together an accurate and instructive guide to human nature, basing itself on the evidence, not on particular viewpoints or moral judgments. It is a brutally realistic appraisal of our species, dissecting who we are so we can operate with more awareness.

By making yourself aware of the distorting process of the Naïve Perspective, you will naturally grow less comfortable with it. You will realize that you are operating in the dark, blind to people's motivations and intentions, vulnerable to the same mistakes and patterns that occurred in the past.

Thus it is plain that faults that are evident to the senses, gross and corporal, or otherwise notorious to the world, we know by our enemies sooner than by our friends and familiars