TERMS STARTING WITH
TERMS ANYWHERE
1. Broadest sense: noematically intentional, conscious of something. A process may be "conscious" in this sense even if it is not "conscious"' in the following sense.
2. Narrower sense: "Actual", belonging to the cogito. As living in a process that is "conscious" in this second sense, the ego is also said to be "conscious", "awake", and "conscious of" (awake to) the intentional object of the process. As objects of processes that are conscious (in either of the first two senses), objects are occasionally referred to as "conscious". -- D.C.
‘abd, abid ::: devotee; dependent; servant; one who is conscious of his/her dependence on Allah
Absolute ::: Sri Aurobindo: “We mean by the Absolute something greater than ourselves, greater than the cosmos which we live in, the supreme reality of that transcendent Being which we call God, something without which all that we see or are conscious of as existing, could not have been, could not for a moment remain in existence. Indian thought calls it Brahman, European thought the Absolute because it is a self-existent which is absolved of all bondage to relativities . . . The Absolute is for us the Ineffable.” The Life Divine
A certain self-gathered state of our whole existence lifted into that superconscient truth, unity and infinity of self-aware, self-blissful existence is the aim and culmination; and that is the meaning we shall give to the term Samadhi. Not merely a state withdrawn from all consciousness of the outward, withdrawn even from all consciousness of the inward into that which exists beyond both whether as seed of both or transcendent even of their seed-state; but a settled existence in the One and Infinite, united and identified with it, and this status to remain whether we abide in the waking condition in which we are conscious of the forms of things or we withdraw into the inward activity which dwells in the play of the principles of things, the play of their names and typal forms or we soar to the condition of static inwardness where we arrive at the principles themselves and at the principle of all principles, the seed of name and form.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 321
Achaitanya (Sanskrit) Acaitanya [from a not + the verbal root cit to be conscious of, understand] Void of intelligence and consciousness, lack of spirituality. An ancient Sanskrit verse runs: Achaitanyan na vidyate, Sarvan sarvatra sarvada (“A thing without intelligence or consciousness is not known. All is everywhere at all times”).
Achetana (Sanskrit) Acetana [from a not + the verbal root cit to be conscious of, understand] Without consciousness, inanimate, insensible. See also ACHAITANYA
Alchemy [from Arab al-kimiya from al the + kimiya philosopher’s stone from Greek chyma fluid] The art of divine magic under a chemical symbolism. The ancient alchemists, more conscious of the unity of nature, perhaps did not need to distinguish between a natural and spiritual alchemy or to regard one as symbolic of the other. Alchemy was introduced into Europe by the Arabs, from whom it may be traced to Egypt and India. Modern Europe knows it best from medieval alchemists, who studied its physical aspects, though some could interpret the symbolism and work out the analogies between the physical elements and processes and their spiritual counterparts.
"All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
“All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga
GOD IMMANENT AND
TRANSCENDENT In the atoms of all the lower worlds (47-
49) there are essential atoms having passive consciousness, which can be activated by vibrations from without (god immanent). It is only at the higher emotional stage that the individual is sufficiently developed to be able to perceive these vibrations some time at all. K 1.35.6
God immanent is the cosmic total consciousness. (K 2.4)
&
"An Avatar, roughly speaking, is one who is conscious of the presence and power of the Divine born in him or descended into him and governing from within his will and life and action; he feels identified inwardly with this divine power and presence.” Letters on Yoga
“An Avatar, roughly speaking, is one who is conscious of the presence and power of the Divine born in him or descended into him and governing from within his will and life and action; he feels identified inwardly with this divine power and presence.” Letters on Yoga
ANUBHAVA. ::: The system of getting rid of things by anubhava* has behind it two well-known psychological motives. One, the motive of purposeful exhaustion, is valid only in some cases, especially when some natural tendency has too strong a hold or too strong a drive in it to be got rid of by vicāra+ t or by the process of rejection and the substitution of the true movement in its place. The other motive for anubhava is of a more general applicability ; for in order to reject anything from the being, one has first to become conscious of it, to have the clear inner experience of its action and to discover its actual place in the workings of the nature. One can then work upon it to eliminate it, if it is en entirely wrong movement, or to transform it if it is only the degradation of a higher and true movement.
"As soon as we become aware of the Self, we are conscious of it as eternal, unborn, unembodied, uninvolved in its workings: it can be felt within the form of being, but also as enveloping it, as above it, surveying its embodiment from above, adhyaksa; it is omnipresent, the same in everything, infinite and pure and intangible for ever. This Self can be experienced as the Self of the individual, the Self of the thinker, doer, enjoyer, but even so it always has this greater character; its individuality is at the same time a vast universality or very readily passes into that, and the next step to that is a sheer transcendence or a complete and ineffable passing into the Absolute. The Self is that aspect of the Brahman in which it is intimately felt as at once individual, cosmic, transcendent of the universe. The realisation of the Self is the straight and swift way towards individual liberation, a static universality, a Nature-transcendence. At the same time there is a realisation of Self in which it is felt not only sustaining and pervading and enveloping all things, but constituting everything and identified in a free identity with all its becomings in Nature. Even so, freedom and impersonality are always the character of the Self. There is no appearance of subjection to the workings of its own Power in the universe, such as the apparent subjection of the Purusha to Prakriti. To realise the Self is to realise the eternal freedom of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
“As soon as we become aware of the Self, we are conscious of it as eternal, unborn, unembodied, uninvolved in its workings: it can be felt within the form of being, but also as enveloping it, as above it, surveying its embodiment from above, adhyaksa; it is omnipresent, the same in everything, infinite and pure and intangible for ever. This Self can be experienced as the Self of the individual, the Self of the thinker, doer, enjoyer, but even so it always has this greater character; its individuality is at the same time a vast universality or very readily passes into that, and the next step to that is a sheer transcendence or a complete and ineffable passing into the Absolute. The Self is that aspect of the Brahman in which it is intimately felt as at once individual, cosmic, transcendent of the universe. The realisation of the Self is the straight and swift way towards individual liberation, a static universality, a Nature-transcendence. At the same time there is a realisation of Self in which it is felt not only sustaining and pervading and enveloping all things, but constituting everything and identified in a free identity with all its becomings in Nature. Even so, freedom and impersonality are always the character of the Self. There is no appearance of subjection to the workings of its own Power in the universe, such as the apparent subjection of the Purusha to Prakriti. To realise the Self is to realise the eternal freedom of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
At the beginning the soul in Nature, the psychic entity, whose unfolding is the first step towards a spiritual change, is an entirely veiled part of us, although it is that by which we exist and persist as individual beings in Nature. The other parts of our natural composition are not only mutable but perishable; but the psychic entity in us persists and is fundamentally the same always: it contains all essential possibilities of our manifestation but is not constituted by them; it is not limited by what it manifests, not contained by the incomplete forms of the manifestation, not tarnished by the imperfections and impurities, the defects and depravations of the surface being. It is an ever-pure flame of the divinity in things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our experience can pollute its purity or extinguish the flame. This spiritual stuff is immaculate and luminous and, because it is perfectly luminous, it is immediately, intimately, directly aware of truth of being and truth of nature; it is deeply conscious of truth and good and beauty because truth and good and beauty are akin to its own native character, forms of something that is inherent in its own substance. It is aware also of all that contradicts these things, of all that deviates from its own native character, of falsehood and evil and the ugly and the unseemly; but it does not become these things nor is it touched or changed by these opposites of itself which so powerfully affect its outer instrumentation of mind, life and body. For the soul, the permanent being in us, puts forth and uses mind, life and body.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 924-25
Aura ::: An extremely subtle and therefore invisible essence or fluid that emanates from and surrounds not onlyhuman beings and beasts, but as a matter of fact plants and minerals also. It is one of the aspects of theauric egg and therefore the human aura partakes of all the qualities that the human constitution contains.It is at once magneto-mental and electrovital, suffused with the energies of mind and spirit -- the qualityin each case coming from an organ or center of the human constitution whence it flows. It is the sourceof the sympathies and antipathies that we are conscious of. Under the control of the human will it can beboth life-giving and healing, or death-dealing; and when the human will is passive the aura has an actionof its own which is automatic and follows the laws of character and latent impulses of the being fromwhom it emanates. Sensitives have frequently described it in more or less vague terms as a light flowingfrom the eyes or the heart or the tips of the fingers or from other parts of the body. Sometimes this fluid,instead of being colorless light, manifests itself by flashing and scintillating changes of color -- the coloror colors in each case depending not only upon the varying moods of the human individual, but alsopossessing a background equivalent to the character or nature of the individual. Animals are extremelysensitive to auras, and some beasts even descry the human being surrounded with the aura as with acloud or veil. In fact, everything has its aura surrounding it with a light or play of color, and especially isthis the case with so-called animated beings.The essential nature of the aura usually seen is astral and electrovital. The magnificent phenomena ofradiation that astronomers can discern at times of eclipse, long streamers with rosy and other coloredlight flashing forth from the body of the sun, are not flames nor anything of the sort, but are simply theelectrovital aura of the solar body -- a manifestation of solar vitality, for the sun in occultism is a livingbeing, as indeed everything else is.
aura ::: “Yet all the time the universal forces are pouring into him without his knowing it. He is aware only of thoughts, feelings, etc., that rise to the surface and these he takes for his own. Really they come from outside in mind waves, vital waves, waves of feeling and sensation, etc., which take particular form in him and rise to the surface after they have got inside. But they do not get into his body at once. He carries about with him an environmental consciousness (called by the Theosophists the Aura) into which they first enter. If you can become conscious of this environmental self of yours, then you can catch the thought, passion, suggestion or force of illness and prevent it from entering into you. If things in you are thrown out, they often do not go altogether but take refuge in this environmental atmosphere and from there they try to get in again. Or they go to a distance outside but linger on the outskirts or even perhaps far off, waiting till they get an opportunity to attempt entrance.” Letters on Yoga
AVATARA ::: One in whom the Divine Consciousness has descended into human birth for a great world-work; the Incarnation; Spirit descending into man; Descent into form; the revelation of the Godhead in humanity; the Divine who has descended into the human consciousness; coming down of the Divine below the line which divides the divine from the human world or status.
An Avatar, roughly speaking, is one who is conscious of the presence and power of the Divine born in him or descended into him governing from within his will and life action; he feels identified inwardly with this divine power and presence.
He is a realiser, an establisher - not of outward things only, though he does realise something in the outward also, but of something essential and radical needed for the terrestrial evolution which is the evolution of the embodied spirit through successive stages towards the Divine.
There are two sides of the phenomenon of avatarhood, the Divine Consciousness and the instrumental personality in Nature under the conditions of Nature which it uses according to the rules of the game.
The Avatar takes upon himself the nature of humanity in his instrumental parts, though the consciousness acting behind is divine.
awareness: in biological psychology, awareness comprises a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. Awareness does not necessarily imply understanding, just an ability to be conscious of, feel or perceive.
::: ". . . behind visible events in the world there is always a mass of invisible forces at work unknown to the outward minds of men, and by yoga, (by going inward and establishing a conscious connection with the Cosmic Self and Force and forces,) one can become conscious of these forces, intervene consciously in the play, and to some extent at least determine things in the result of the play.” Letters on Yoga
“… behind visible events in the world there is always a mass of invisible forces at work unknown to the outward minds of men, and by yoga, (by going inward and establishing a conscious connection with the Cosmic Self and Force and forces,) one can become conscious of these forces, intervene consciously in the play, and to some extent at least determine things in the result of the play.” Letters on Yoga
But they do not get into his body at once. He carries about with him an cn\ironmenlal consciousness (called by the Thco- sophists the Aura) into which they' first enter. If you can become conscious of this environmental self of you, then you can catch the thought, passion, suggestion, or force of illness and prevent it from entering into you. If things tn you arc thrown out, they often do not go altogether but take refuge in this environmental atmosphere and from there they try to gel in again or they go to a distance outside but linger on the outskirts or csen perhaps far off, waiting till they get an opportunity to attempt entrance.
colonist ::: Madhav: “King Aswapathy had come to birth on earth with a special mission from the higher realms of the Spirit: to prepare the conditions for a divine advent, to embody in himself the soul of evolving humanity and to develop its aspiration for the Divine Life. he was conscious of the purpose for which he had sojourned in this mortal Nature and strove to extend here the reign of his native country of Infinity and Immortality.
Configurationism: A suggested English equivalent for Gestalt Psychology. See Gestalt Psychology. Confirmation, Confirmable: See Verification 3, 4. Conflict: The psychological phenomenon of struggle between competing ideas, emotions or tendencies to action. J. F. Herbart (Lehrbuch der Psychologie, 1816) enunciated a doctrine of conflict of ideas in accordance with which ideas opposed to the mind's dominant ideas are submerged below the threshold of consciousness. The doctrine of conflict has been revived by recent psychoanalytic psychology (see Psychoanalysis) to account for the relegation to the subconscious of ideas and tendencies intolerable to the conscious mind. -- L.W.
3. Tikun is the spiritual process of liberating and retrieving the fragments of Divine light trapped within the material realm, unconscious of G-d&
Death ::: Death occurs when a general break-up of the constitution of man takes place; nor is this break-up amatter of sudden occurrence, with the exceptions of course of such cases as mortal accidents or suicides.Death is always preceded, varying in each individual case, by a certain time spent in the withdrawal ofthe monadic individuality from an incarnation, and this withdrawal of course takes place coincidentlywith a decay of the seven-principle being which man is in physical incarnation. This decay precedesphysical dissolution, and is a preparation of and by the consciousness-center for the forthcomingexistence in the invisible realms. This withdrawal actually is a preparation for the life to come ininvisible realms, and as the septenary entity on this earth so decays, it may truly be said to beapproaching rebirth in the next sphere.Death occurs, physically speaking, with the cessation of activity of the pulsating heart. There is the lastbeat, and this is followed by immediate, instantaneous unconsciousness, for nature is very merciful inthese things. But death is not yet complete, for the brain is the last organ of the physical body really todie, and for some time after the heart has ceased beating, the brain and its memory still remain activeand, although unconsciously so, the human ego for this short length of time, passes in review every eventof the preceding life. This great or small panoramic picture of the past is purely automatic, so to say; yetthe soul-consciousness of the reincarnating ego watches this wonderful review incident by incident, areview which includes the entire course of thought and action of the life just closed. The entity is, for thetime being, entirely unconscious of everything else except this. Temporarily it lives in the past, andmemory dislodges from the akasic record, so to speak, event after event, to the smallest detail: passesthem all in review, and in regular order from the beginning to the end, and thus sees all its past life as anall-inclusive panorama of picture succeeding picture.There are very definite ethical and psychological reasons inhering in this process, for this process forms areconstruction of both the good and the evil done in the past life, and imprints this strongly as a record onthe fabric of the spiritual memory of the passing being. Then the mortal and material portions sink intooblivion, while the reincarnating ego carries the best and noblest parts of these memories into thedevachan or heaven-world of postmortem rest and recuperation. Thus comes the end called death; andunconsciousness, complete and undisturbed, succeeds, until there occurs what the ancients called thesecond death.The lower triad (prana, linga-sarira, sthula-sarira) is now definitely cast off, and the remaining quaternaryis free. The physical body of the lower triad follows the course of natural decay, and its various hosts oflife-atoms proceed whither their natural attractions draw them. The linga-sarira or model-body remains inthe astral realms, and finally fades out. The life-atoms of the prana, or electrical field, fly instantly backat the moment of physical dissolution to the natural pranic reservoirs of the planet.This leaves man, therefore, no longer a heptad or septenary entity, but a quaternary consisting of theupper duad (atma-buddhi) and the intermediate duad (manas-kama). The second death then takes place.Death and the adjective dead are mere words by which the human mind seeks to express thoughts whichit gathers from a more or less consistent observation of the phenomena of the material world. Death isdissolution of a component entity or thing. The dead, therefore, are merely dissolving bodies -- entitieswhich have reached their term on this our physical plane. Dissolution is common to all things, becauseall physical things are composite: they are not absolute things. They are born; they grow; they reachmaturity; they enjoy, as the expression runs, a certain term of life in the full bloom of their powers; thenthey "die." That is the ordinary way of expressing what men call death; and the corresponding adjectiveis dead, when we say that such things or entities are dead.Do you find death per se anywhere? No. You find nothing but action; you find nothing but movement;you find nothing but change. Nothing stands still or is annihilated. What is called death itself shouts forthto us the fact of movement and change. Absolute inertia is unknown in nature or in the human mind; itdoes not exist.
DESIRE. ::: Desires come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface- It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that we become conscious of the desire.
“… desires come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface. It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that we become conscious of the desire. It seems to us to be our own because we feel it thus rising from the vital into the mind and do not know that it came from outside.” Letters on Yoga
dramatic irony: Where a character is unaware of the ironyof his or her words, or situation, and other characters on stage or, more especially, the audience is conscious of this. See irony.
ecstasy ::: n. --> The state of being beside one&
Environmental consciousness ::: Each man has his own personal consciousness entrenched in his body and gets into touch with his surroundings only through his body and senses and the mind using the senses. Yet all the time the universal forces are pouring into him without his knowing it. He is aware only of thoughts, feelings, etc., that rise to the surface and these he takes for his own. Really they come from in mind waves, vital waves, waves of feeling and sensation, etc., which take particular form in him and rise to the surface after they have got inside. But they do not get into his body at once. He carries about with him an environmental consciousness (called by the Theosophists the Aura) into which they first enter. If you can become conscious of this environmental self of yours, then you can catch the thought, passion, suggestion or force of illness and prevent it from entering into you. If things in you are thrown out, they often do not go altogether but
refuge in this environmental atmosphere and from there they try to get in again.
Ref: SABCL Vol. 22-23-24, Page: 313-4
FORCES. ::: Behind visible events in the world there is always a mass of invisible forces at work unkno^vn to the outward minds of men, and by yoga (by going inward and establishing a cons- cious connection with the Cosmic Self and Force and forces), one can become conscious of these forces, intervene consciously in the play, and to some extent at least determine things in the result of the play.
" . . . for there is only one thing essential, needful, indispensable, to grow conscious of the Divine Reality and live in it and live it always.” Letters on Yoga
“… for there is only one thing essential, needful, indispensable, to grow conscious of the Divine Reality and live in it and live it always.” Letters on Yoga
Hel (Icelandic) [from helju hell, death] The mythical regent of the Norse realm of the dead, depicted as half black or blue and half flesh-colored. In myths the representative of death is usually said to be a child of mind: in the Edda she is the daughter of Loki (fire of mind) and of the giantess Angerboda (boder of regret). She rules the nine worlds of death which correspond to the nine worlds of life, and apportions to each arrival a domicile appropriate to that soul’s merit or demerit. Some may frolic in sunlit meadows, others suffer agony beneath the lower gates leading to Niflhel [from nifl cloud + hel death] where matter is ground to extinction. The realm of Hel with its varied accommodations resembles the Greek Hades more than the hell of popular belief where evil souls are sent for punishment. Rather, the kingdom of death is a restful interlude where souls spend a fitting time in their rightful environment. The Eddas relate that elves (human souls) sleep among the gods when they are feasting on the mead of a past period of life (experience); thus the resting souls are present in the divine spheres even through unconscious of their surroundings.
IDENTIFICATION Since man tends always to identify his self (his monad, ultimate self) with that envelope in which he happens for the time to be, he regards himself in the physical world as being a physical self, in the emotional world as an emotional self, in the mental world as a mental self, and in the causal world as a causal self - not seeing that he is a monad, an ultimate self. K 1.14.7
When the monad has gone through involution and evolution of the process of manifestation, acquired and discarded envelope after envelope in world after world, and, finally, in the highest cosmic world, has freed itself from its involvation into matter, it becomes conscious of itself as a monad. Until then it will identify itself with one or another of the envelopes which it has acquired and activated. K 4.6.2
In cases of ecstasy, on the other hand — or of the true seer — there is supernormal activity of the mental-spiritual nature of the person whose human soul in being freed or absent from its kama-manasic desires and consciousness, becomes allied with his higher mind. Thus he becomes intellectually highly lucid, spiritually conscious, and illumined. His now quiescent personal self offers no bar to the reality of the light of truth flowing into him from his own higher nature. His condition, whether a spontaneous exaltation, a state self-induced, or invoked at will, is a direct contrast with the mediumistic state. He is vividly self-conscious of his experience, and he retains the memory of it. Such an exalted state of entrancement is only possible for those individuals who are prepared by great purity of life and a trained will, which are also prerequisites for the mystic rites of the higher initiations.
In proportion as the surrender and self-consecration progress the sadhaka becomes conscious of the Divine Shakti doing the sadhana, pouring into him more and more of herself, founding in him the freedom and perfection of the Divine Nature. The more this conscious process replaces his own effort, the more rapid and true becomes his progress. But it cannot completely replace the necessity of personal effort until the surrender and consecration arc pure and complete from top to bottom.
INTERCHANGE. ::: When one is with another for sometime talking etc., there is always some vital interchange, unless one rejects what comes from others instinctively or deliberately. If one is impressionable, there may be a strong impression or influence from the others. Then when one goes to another per- son it is possible to pass it on to the other. That is a thing which is constantly happening. But this happens without the knowledge of the transmitter. When one is conscious, one can prevent it happening.
Every letter means an interchange with the person who writes It ; for something is there behind the words, something of hfs person or of the forces he has put out or had around him while w’riting. Our thougiifs and feeJinp arc also forces and can hav« effects upon others. One has to grow conscious of the movement of these forces and then one can control one's own mental and vital formations and cease to be affected by those of others.
In the first edition of the Logische Untersuchungen phenomenology was defined (much as it had been by Hamilton and Lazarus) as descriptive analysis of subjective processes Erlebnisse. Thus its theme was unqualifiedly identified with what was commonly taken to be the central theme of psychology; the two disciplines were said to differ only in that psychology sets up causal or genetic laws to explain what phenomenology merely describes. Phenomenology was called "pure" so far as the phenomenologist distinguishes the subjective from the objective and refrains from looking into either the genesis of subjective phenomena or their relations to somatic and environmental circumstances. Husserl's "Prolegomena zur reinen Logik" published as the first part of the Logische Untersuchungen, had elaborated the concept of pure logic, a theoretical science independent of empirical knowledge and having a distinctive theme: the universal categorial forms exemplified in possible truths, possible facts, and their respective components. The fundamental concepts and laws of this science, Husserl maintained, are genuine only if they can be established by observing the matters to which they apply. Accordingly, to test the genuineness of logical theory, "wir wollen auf die 'Sachen selbst' zurückgehen": we will go, from our habitual empty understanding of this alleged science, back to a seeing of the logical forms themselves. But it is then the task of pure phenomenology to test the genuineness and range of this "seeing," to distinguish it from other ways of being conscious of the same or other matters. Thus, although pure phenomenology and pure logic are mutually independent disciplines with separate themes, phenomenological analysis is indispensible to the critical justification of logic. In like manner, Husserl maintained, it is necessary to the criticism of other alleged knowledge; while, in another way, its descriptions are prerequisite to explanatory psychology. However, when Husserl wrote the Logische Untersuchungen, he did not yet conceive phenomenological analysis as a method for dealing with metaphysical problems.
In the liberated stale it is not the inner Purusha only that remains detached ; the inner Purusha is always detached, only one is not conscious of it in the ordinary state. It is the Prakrit! also that is not disturbed by the action of the Gunas or attached to it ; the mind, the vital, (he physical (whatever Prakriti) begin to get the same quietude, unperturbed peace and detachment as the Purusha, but it is quietude, not a cessation of all action. It is quietude in action itself. TTic whole being, Purusha, Prakriit, becomes detached (having no desire or attachment) even in the actions of the gunas. The outer being Is also detached ; the whole being is without desire or attachment and still action is possible, action without desire is possible, action without attach- ment is possible, action without ego is possible.
"In the social relations which men carry on they enter into definite relations that are indispensible and independent of their will. These relations of production correspond to a definite stage of development of their material powers of production. . . . At a certain stage of their development the material forces of production in society come in conflict with the existing relations of production, or -- what is but a legal expression for the same thing -- with the property relations within which they had been at work before. From forms of development of the forces of production these relations turn into their fetters. Then comes the period of social revolution. With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations the distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic -- in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out." (Marx: Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, p. 12.) -- J.M.S.
intuitive knowledge ::: Sri Aurobindo: " For the highest intuitive Knowledge sees things in the whole, in the large and details only as sides of the indivisible whole; its tendency is towards immediate synthesis and the unity of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"The intuitive knowledge on the contrary, however limited it may be in its field or application, is within that scope sure with an immediate, a durable and especially a self-existent certitude.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
Invisible Worlds Theosophy teaches that the universe is a living organism, composed of an infinite number of minor organisms of all-various degrees of expression in both spirit and matter. These groups of minor organisms or worlds are separated from each other in consciousness, not in space, by planes. All the beings of any one plane have senses relating to that plane and are therefore usually unconscious of other planes by first perception. Further, these planes are of such different ranges of matter and therefore of vibration, that the entities within them intermingle without mutual interference. The suns and planets, therefore, of any one plane interpenetrate our physical sphere, and permeate it, so that in our own daily affairs we actually pass through the worlds, through the very beings, it may be, of the entities dwelling in these realms invisible to us. These invisible realms are made of matter just as is our physical world, but it is of matter more ethereal or gross than ours. We do not cognize them with our physical senses because of the different rates of vibration of the different planes.
is the finest feeling in human nature, which is called modesty.... Modesty is life itself; a life which is conscious of its beauty yet inclined to veil it in all its forms is modesty.
It [the environmental consciousness] can become silent when there is the wideness. One can become conscious of it and deal with what passes through it. A man without it would be without contact with the rest of the world.
Ref: SABCL Vol. 22-23-24, Page: 314
It very often happens that when there is an exceptional power in the nature, there is found in the exterior being some contrary element which opens it to a quite opposite influence. It is this that makes the endeavour after a spiritual life so often a difficult struggle ; but the existence of this kind of contradiction even in an intense form does not make that life impossible. Doubt, struggle, efforts and failures, lapses, alternations of happy and unhappy or good and bad conditions, states of light and stales of darkness are the common lot of human beings. They are not created by yoga or by the effort after perfection ; only, in yoga one becomes conscious of their movements and their causes instead of feeling them blindly, and in the end one makes one’s way out of them into a clearer and happier consciousness.
Kama-Rupa(Sanskrit) ::: A compound word signifying "desire body." It is that part of man's inner constitution in whichdwell or inhere the various desires, affections, hates, loves -- in short, the various mental and psychicalenergies. After death it becomes the vehicle in the astral worlds of the higher principles of the man thatwas. But these higher principles are nevertheless scarcely conscious of the fact, because the rupture ofthe golden cord of life at the moment of the physical death plunges the cognizing personal entity into amerciful stupor of unconsciousness, in which stupor it remains a longer or shorter period depending uponits qualities of spirituality or materiality. The more spiritual the man was the longer the period ofmerciful unconsciousness lasts, and vice versa.After death, as has been frequently stated elsewhere, there occurs what is called the second death, whichis the separation of the immortal part of the second or intermediate duad from the lower portions of thisduad, which lower portions remain as the kama-rupa in the etheric or higher astral spheres which areintermediate between the devachanic and the earthly spheres. In time this kama-rupa gradually fades outin its turn, its life-atoms at such dissolution passing on to their various and unceasing peregrinations.It is this kama-rupa which legend and story in the various ancient world religions or philosophies speakof as the shade, and which it has been customary in the Occident to call the spook or ghost. It is, in short,all the mortal elements of the human soul that was. The kama-rupa is an exact astral duplicate, inappearance and mannerism, of the man who died; it is his eidolon or "image." (See also Second Death)
Karma Yoga ::: Aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. Karmayoga is used, like the other paths, to lead to liberation from phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme. But here too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 39-40
KARMA YOGA. ::: It alms at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Wilt. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an inter- ested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renuncia- tion it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre^ of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy. To that our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. Karmayoga is used, like the other paths, to lead to liberation from phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme. But here too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoislic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the
Kundalini or Kundalini-Sakti(Sanskrit) ::: A term whose essential meaning is "circular" or "winding" or "spiral" or "coiling" action, orrather energy, and signifies a recondite power in the human constitution. Kundalini-sakti is derivative ofone of the elemental forces of nature. It works in and through, in the case of man, his auric egg, andexpresses itself in continuous action in many of the most familiar phenomena of existence even whenman himself is unconscious of it. In its higher aspect Kundalini is a power or force following winding orcircular pathways carrying or conveying thought and force originating in the higher triad. Abstractly, inthe case of man it is of course one of the fundamental energies or qualities of the pranas. Unskilled orunwise attempts to interfere with its normal working in the human body may readily result in insanity ormalignant or enfeebling disease.
Laya yoga: That school of Yoga which seeks union with the Divine Spirit through his operations on the etheric plane, by becoming conscious of the Divine presence in the operations tending to keep our being in manifestation. Certain incantations are supposed to operate through their capacity to create centers of harmony on the etheric plane and to induce a corresponding harmony in the successively more spiritual centers of the four internal mental organs (antahkarana).
lonesome ::: superl. --> Secluded from society; not frequented by human beings; solitary.
Conscious of, and somewhat depressed by, solitude; as, to feel lonesome.
". . . love is the crown of knowledge; for love is the delight of union, and unity must be conscious of joy of union to find all the riches of its own delight. Perfect knowledge indeed leads to perfect love, integral knowledge to a rounded and multitudinous richness of love.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“… love is the crown of knowledge; for love is the delight of union, and unity must be conscious of joy of union to find all the riches of its own delight. Perfect knowledge indeed leads to perfect love, integral knowledge to a rounded and multitudinous richness of love.” The Synthesis of Yoga
Madhav: “Parent-sun, her spirit is always conscious of its source above, the sun of truth, the sun of divine joy.” The Book of the Divine Mother
Manichaeans A sect which originated in the 3rd century in Persia and rapidly diffused itself in Mesopotamia and beyond the Oxus, lasting under one or another form down to the 13th century. Its founder was Mani, said to have been a Persian, whose name in Greek became Manes or Manichaios. Little can be ascertained about him, but he is said to have been a natural mystic, conscious of a mission, and endowed with the breadth of view and concentrated zeal characteristic of the founders of systems. He successfully amalgamated the religious, philosophical, and mystical ideas of his time and surrounding countries into a coherent system adapted to the tastes of the age.
"Nothing can happen without the presence and support of the Divine, for Nature or Prakriti is the Divine Force and it is this that works out things, but it works them out according to the nature and through or with the will of each man which is full of ignorance — that goes on until men turn to the Divine and become conscious of Him and united with Him. Then only can it be said that all begins to be done in him by the direct Will of the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
“Nothing can happen without the presence and support of the Divine, for Nature or Prakriti is the Divine Force and it is this that works out things, but it works them out according to the nature and through or with the will of each man which is full of ignorance—that goes on until men turn to the Divine and become conscious of Him and united with Him. Then only can it be said that all begins to be done in him by the direct Will of the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
OPENNESS. ::: -A state in which the sadhaka is conscious of
Openness in work means the same thing as openness in the consciousness. The same Force that works in your consciousness in meditation and clears a%vay the .cloud and confusion when- ever you open to it, can also lake up your action and not only make you aware of the defects in it but keep you conscious of what is to be done and guide your mind and hands to do it.
Overmind ::: Above the mind there are several levels of conscious of the Truth. But in between is what he has distinguished as the Overmind, the world of the cosmic Gods. Now it is this Overmind that has up to the present governed our world: it is the highest that man has been able to attain in illumined consciousness. It has been taken for the Supreme Divine and all those who have reached it have never for a moment doubted that they have touched the true Spirit. For, its splendours are so great to the ordinary human consciousness that it is absolutely dazzled into believing that here at last is the crowning reality. And yet the fact is that the Overmind is far below the true Divine. It is not the authentic home of the Truth. It is only the domain of the formateurs , all those creative powers and deities to whom men have bowed down since the beginning of history. And the reason why the true Divine has not manifested and transformed the earth-nature is precisely that the Overmind has been mistaken for the Supermind.being, among which the really divine world is what Sri Aurobindo has called the Supermind, the world. The cosmic Gods do not wholly live in the Truth-Consciousness: they are only in touch with it and represent, each of them, an aspect of its glories.
::: "Perhaps one could say that it [spiritual humility] is to be aware of the relativity of what has been done compared with what is still to be done — and also to be conscious of one"s being nothing without the Divine Grace.” *Letters on Yoga
“Perhaps one could say that it [spiritual humility] is to be aware of the relativity of what has been done compared with what is still to be done—and also to be conscious of one’s being nothing without the Divine Grace.” Letters on Yoga
Hazrat Madanī reminded his murīd 'Ināyat: "There is only one virtue and one sin for a soul on this path; virtue when he is conscious of God, and sin when he is not."
Philosophically, it is a mere matter of choice whether to regard light as primordial and rudimentary and deduce other phenomena from it, or to consider luminosity as a result of the vibration of molecules — since light is both. But theosophy agrees with archaic thought in placing light as the first of all manifested things, regarding light as the very essence of matter, not as a decoration of it. Nor is light necessarily associated with heat, as even the humble glow worm attests. Theosophy teaches that self-luminosity, with or without heat, is of natural necessity a characteristic of everything that is, although this self-luminosity is by no means always visible to our human physical senses. Every entity anywhere, great or small, as well as every aggregate of atoms, is continuously and uninterruptedly self-luminous, continually emanating forth because of the energies ever active within itself an unceasing stream of radiation; and this radiation is of several different kinds, usually enumerated as sevenfold, of which ordinary or physical light is but one manifestation. Everything is radiant, radiating; radiant here meaning not only luminous, but self-luminous, generating radiation of many kinds from within itself. It is the imperfect ability of our organ of vision to see these many forms of radiation that causes us to be unconscious of them; our eyes have been evolved to sense only one small gamut in the great scale of radiation of the universe surrounding us. Science, with its various kinds of radiation, is becoming keenly cognizant of this ancient fact and scientists are pointing out that not only is visible light but a short stretch of the scale of radiation, but are envisaging the high probability that matter itself in all its forms is but concreted radiation or crystallized light.
Prabuddha: Awakened; conscious of the Ultimate Reality.
PRAYER. ::: The life of man is a life of wants and needs and therefore of desires, not only in his physical and vital, but in his mental and spiritual being. When he becomes conscious of a greater Power governing the world, he approaches it through prayer for the fulfilment of his needs, for help in his rough journey, for protection and aid in his struggle. Whatever crudi- ties there may be in the ordinary religious approach to God by prayer, and there are many, especially that attitude which ima- gines the Divine as if capable of being propitiated, bribed, flat- tered into acquiescence or indulgence by praise, entreaty and gifts and has often little te^td to the spirit in which he is approached, still this way of turning to the Divine is an essen- tial movement of our religious being and reposes on a universal truth.
The efficacy of prayer is often doubted and prayer itself supposed to be a thing irrational and necessarily superfluous and ineffective. It is true that the universal will executes always its aim and cannot be deflected by egoistic propitiation and entreaty, it is true of the Transcendent who expresses himself in the universal order that, being omniscient, his larger knowledge must foresee the thing to be done and it does not need direction or stimulation by human thought and that the individual's desires are not and cannot be in any world-order the true determining factor. But neither is that order or the execution of the universal will altogether effected by mechanical Law, but by powers and forces of which for human life at least, human will, aspiration and faith are not among the least important. Prayer is only a particular form given to that will, aspiration and faith. Its forms are very often crude and not only childlike, which is in itself no defect, but childish; but still it has a real power and significance. Its power and sense is to put the will, aspiration and faith of man into touch with the divine Will as that of a conscious Being with whom we can enter into conscious and living relations. For our will and aspiration can act either by our own strength and endeavour, which can no doubt be made a thing great and effective whether for lower or higher purposes, -and there are plenty of disciplines which put it forward as the one force to be used, -- or it can act in dependence upon and with subordination to the divine or the universal Will. And this latter way, again, may either look upon that Will as responsive indeed to our aspiration, but almost mechanically, by a sort of law of energy, or at any rate quite impersonally, or else it may look upon it as responding consciously to the divine aspiration and faith of the human soul and consciously bringing to it the help, the guidance, the protection and fruition demanded, yogaksemam vahamyaham. ~ TSOY, SYN
Prayer helps to prepare this relation for us at first on the lower plane even while it is (here consistent with much that is mere egoism and self-delusion; but afterwards we can draw towards the spiritual truth which is behind it. It is not then the givinc of the thing asked for that matters, but the relation itself, the contact of man’s life with God, the conscious interchange.
In spiritual matters and in the seeking of spiritual gains, this conscious relation is a great power; it is a much greater power than our own entirely self-reliant struggle and effort and it brings a fuller spiritual growth and experience. Necessarily, in the end prayer either ceases in the greater thing for which it prepared us, -- in fact the form we call prayer is not itself essential so long as the faith, the will, the aspiration are there, -- or remains only for the joy of the relation. Also its objects, the artha or interest it seeks to realise, become higher and higher until we reach the highest motiveless devotion, which is that of divine love pure and simple without any other demand or longing.
Prayer for others ::: The fact of praying and the attitude it brings, especially unselfish prayer for others, itself opens you to the higher Power, even if there is no corresponding result in the person prayed for. 'Nothing can be positively said about that, for the result must necessarily depend on the persons, whe- ther they arc open or receptive or something in them can res- pond to any Force the prayer brings down.
Prayer must well up from the heart on a crest of emotion or aspiration.
Prayer {Ideal)'. Not prayer insisting on immediate fulfilment, but prayer that is itself a communion of the mind and heart with the Divine*and can have the joy and satisfaction of itself, trusting for fulfilment by the Divine in his own time.
Prayer ::: The life of man is a life of wants and needs and th
refore of desires, not only in his physical and vital, but in his mental and spiritual being. When he becomes conscious of a greater Power governing the world, he approaches it through prayer for the fulfilment of his needs, for help in his rough journey, for protection and aid in his struggle. Whatever crudities there may be in the ordinary religious approach to God by prayer, and there are many, especially that attitude which imagines the Divine as if capable of being propitiated, bribed, flattered into acquiescence or indulgence by praise, entreaty and gifts and has often little regard to the spirit in which he is approached, still this way of turning to the Divine is an essential movement of our religious being and reposes on a universal truth. The efficacy of prayer is often doubted and prayer itself supposed to be a thing irrational and necessarily superfluous and ineffective. It is true that the universal will executes always its aim and cannot be deflected by egoistic propitiation and entreaty, it is true of the Transcendent who expresses himself in the universal order that being omniscient his larger knowledge must foresee the thing to be done and it does not need direction or stimulation by human thought and that the individual’s desires are not and cannot be in any world-order the true determining factor. But neither is that order or the execution of the universal will altogether effected by mechanical Law, but by powers and forces of which for human life at least human will, aspiration and faith are not among the least important. Prayer is only a particular form given to that will, aspiration and faith. Its forms are very often crude and not only childlike, which is in itself no defect, but childish; but still it has a real power and significance. Its power and sense is to put the will, aspiration and faith of man into touch with the divine Will as that of a conscious Being with whom we can enter into conscious and living relations. For our will and aspiration can act either by our own strength and endeavour, which can no doubt be made a thing great and effective whether for lower or higher purposes,—and there are plenty of disciplines which put it forward as the one force to be used,—or it can act in dependence upon and with subordination to the divine or the universal Will. And this latter way again may either look upon thatWill as responsive indeed to our aspiration, but almost mechanically, by a sort of law of energy, or at any rate quite impersonally, or else it may look upon it as responding consciously to the divine aspiration and faith of the human soul and consciously bringing to it the help, the guidance, the protection and fruition demanded. Prayer helps to prepare this relation for us at first on the lower plane even while it is there consistent with much that is mere egoism and self-delusion; but afterwards we can draw towards the spiritual truth which is behind it. It is not then the giving of the thing asked for that matters, but the relation itself, the contact of man’s life with God, the conscious interchange. In spiritual matters and in the seeking of spiritual gains, this conscious relation is a great power; it is a much greater power than our own entirely self-reliant struggle and effort and it brings a fuller spiritual growth and experience. Necessarily in the end prayer either ceases in the greater thing for which it prepared us, —in fact the form we call prayer is not itself essential so long as the faith, the will, the aspiration are there,—or remains only for the joy of the relation. Also its objects, the artha or interest it seeks to realise, become higher and higher until we reach the highest motiveless devotion, which is that of divine love pure and simple without any other demand or longing.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 566-67-68
Psychic opening ::: When the psychic being opens, you grow conscious of your soul ; you know your self.
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS AND YOGA. ::: There are many things in the ordinary man of which he is not conscious, because the vital hides them from the mind and gratifies them without the mind realising what is the force that is moving the action — thus things that are done under the plea of altruism, philanthropy, service etc. are largely moved by ego which hides itself behind these justifications ; in yoga the secret motive has to be pulled out from behind the veil, exposed and got rid of. Secondly, some things are suppressed in the ordinary life and remain lying in the nature, suppressed but not eliminated ; they may rise up any day or they may express themselves in various nervous forms or other disorders of the mind or vital or body without it being evident what is the real cause. This has l«cn recently dis- covered by European psychologists and much emphasised, even exaggerated in a new science called psycho-analysis. Here again, tti sadhana one has to become conscious of these suppressed impulses and eliminate them ; that does not mean that they have to be raised up into action but only raised up before the con- sciousness so as to be cleared out of the being.
quote :::In the Vedanta the soul is called by three names which denote its three aspects, Atma, Mahatma, Paramatma. Atma is the soul conscious of the life on the surface, Mahatma is the soul conscious as well of the life within, Paramatma is the consciousness that is the soul of souls, conscious of the Absolute within and without, the God of the knower, the Lord of the seer.
reflection ::: n. --> The act of reflecting, or turning or sending back, or the state of being reflected.
The return of rays, beams, sound, or the like, from a surface. See Angle of reflection, below.
The reverting of the mind to that which has already occupied it; continued consideration; meditation; contemplation; hence, also, that operation or power of the mind by which it is conscious of its own acts or states; the capacity for judging rationally, especially
Romanticism: As a general philosophical movement, romanticism is best understood as the initial phase of German Idealism, serving as a transition from Kant to Hegel, and flourishing chiefly between 1775 and 1815. It is associated primarily with the Schlegel brothers, Novalis, Fried, Schelling, and Schleiermacher, with Schelhng as its culmination and most typical figure. The philosophical point of departure for romanticism is the Kantian philosophy, and romanticism shares with all German Idealism both the fundamental purpose of extending knowledge to the realm of noumena, and the fundamental doctrine that all reality is ultimately spiritual, derivative from a living spirit and so knowable by the human spirit. The essence of philosophical romanticism as expressed by Schelhng, that which differentiates it from other types of Idealism, resides in its conception of Spirit; upon this depend its metaphysical account of nature and man, and its epistemological doctrine of the proper method for investigating and understanding reality. Romanticism holds that Spirit, or the Absolute, is essentially creative; the ultimate ground of all things is primarily an urge to self-expression, and all that it has brought into being is but a means to its fuller self-realization. If the Absolute of Fichte is a moralist, and that of Hegel a logician, then that of the romanticists is primarily an artist. From this basic view there springs a metaphysic that interprets the universe in terms of the concepts of evolution, process, life, and consciousness. The world of nature is one manifestation of Spirit, man is another and a higher such manifestation, for in man Spirit seeks to become conscious of its own work. The metaphysical process is the process by which the Absolute seeks to realize itself, and all particular things are but phases within it. Hence, the epistemology of romanticism is exclusively emotional and intuitive, stressing the necessity for fullness of experience and depth of feeling if reality is to be understood. Reason, being artificial and analytical, is inadequate to the task of comprehending the Absolute; knowing is living, and the philosopher must approach nature through inspiration, longing, and sympathy.
Samadhi ::: A certain self-gathered state of our whole existence lifted into that superconscient truth, unity and infinity of self-aware, self-blissful existence is the aim and culmination; and that is the meaning we shall give to the term Samadhi. Not merely a state withdrawn from all consciousness of the outward, withdrawn even from all consciousness of the inward into that which exists beyond both whether as seed of both or transcendent even of their seed-state; but a settled existence in the One and Infinite, united and identified with it, and this status to remain whether we abide in the waking condition in which we are conscious of the forms of things or we withdraw into the inward activity which dwells in the play of the principles of things, the play of their names and typal forms or we soar to the condition of static inwardness where we arrive at the principles themselves and at the principle of all principles, the seed of name and form.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 321
self-conscious ::: a. --> Conscious of one&
Self is the fundamental aspect of the Brahman with a certain stress on its impersonality. We arc conscious of Self as eternal, unborn, unembodied, uninvolved in its workings. It is omni- present, same in everything, intimate, pure and intangible. The
sense ::: n. 1. Any of the faculties, as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, by which humans and animals perceive stimuli originating from outside or inside the body. 2. Meaning, signification. 3. A more or less vague perception or impression. 4. Any special capacity or perception, estimation, appreciation, etc. 5. A mental or spiritual discernment, realization, or recognition of a dream, or of anything cryptic or symbolical. sense"s, senses, senses", sense-appeal, sense-formed, sense-life"s, sense-pangs, sense-pleasures, sense-railed, sense-shackled, soul-sense. v. 6. To apprehend, detect, or perceive, without or in advance of the evidence of the senses; to perceive instinctively. 7. To be inwardly aware; conscious of. sensed, sensing. *adj. *sensed.
SEPARATION OR ISOLATION, LAW OF says that every being must &
*Sri Aurobindo: ". . . desires come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface. It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that we become conscious of the desire. It seems to us to be our own because we feel it thus rising from the vital into the mind and do not know that it came from outside.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "We mean by the Absolute something greater than ourselves, greater than the cosmos which we live in, the supreme reality of that transcendent Being which we call God, something without which all that we see or are conscious of as existing, could not have been, could not for a moment remain in existence. Indian thought calls it Brahman, European thought the Absolute because it is a self-existent which is absolved of all bondage to relativities . . . The Absolute is for us the Ineffable.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Yet all the time the universal forces are pouring into him without his knowing it. He is aware only of thoughts, feelings, etc., that rise to the surface and these he takes for his own. Really they come from outside in mind waves, vital waves, waves of feeling and sensation, etc., which take particular form in him and rise to the surface after they have got inside. But they do not get into his body at once. He carries about with him an environmental consciousness (called by the Theosophists the Aura) into which they first enter. If you can become conscious of this environmental self of yours, then you can catch the thought, passion, suggestion or force of illness and prevent it from entering into you. If things in you are thrown out, they often do not go altogether but take refuge in this environmental atmosphere and from there they try to get in again. Or they go to a distance outside but linger on the outskirts or even perhaps far off, waiting till they get an opportunity to attempt entrance.” *Letters on Yoga
subconscient (the) ::: the subconscient or subconscious of the individual is that submerged part of his being in which there is no waking conscious and coherent thought, will, feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up; from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements can surge up into dream or into the waking state. In the ordinary man the subconscient includes the larger part of the vital being and the physical mind and the secret body-consciousness. It is not to be confused with the subliminal: the subliminal is an inner consciousness larger than our surface existence.
Suffering in yoga ::: There are two ways to meet ::: first that of the Self, calm, equality, a spint, a will, a mind, a vital, a physical consciousness that remain resolutely turned towards the Divine and unshaken by all suggestion of doubt, desire, attachment, depression, sorrow, pain, inertia. This is possible when the inner being awakens, when one becomes conscious of the Self, of the inner Mind, the inner Vital, the inner Physical, for that can more easily attune itself to the divine Will, and then there is a division in the being as if there were two beings, one within calm, strong, equal, unperturbed, a charmel of the Divine Consciousness and
The anesthetized person may also be conscious of standing aside or looking down upon his own body under operation, and retains a vague memory of the out-of-body experience. See also SOMA
The Mother: Unity does not come from any exterior disposition, but by becoming conscious of the eternal Oneness.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: Unity does not come from any exterior disposition, but by becoming conscious of the eternal Oneness.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The original, pure Bacchic rites pertained to high initiation, in which the candidate becomes conscious of his oneness with divinity. Thus Bacchus, with his symbolic serpent and wine, stands for divine inspiration. But when the keys of the sacred science were lost and symbols were interpreted literally, the rites degenerated and often became profligate. Bacchus-Dionysos also figures as the inspirer of dramatic and representative art, inspiring the individual with the divine afflatus or mystic frenzy. Originally this meant the inner communion of the candidate with his own inner god and the consequent inspiration; on a lower plane it signifies the fleeting inspiration of poet and artist, and finally it degenerated into hysteria and morbid psychic states.
Theosophy [from Greek theosophia from theos god, divinity + sophia wisdom] Divine wisdom, the knowledge of things divine; often described as attainable by direct experience, by becoming conscious of the essential, divine part of our nature, self-identification with the inner god, leading to communion with other similar divine beings. Theosophy actually is the “substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies, taught and practised by a few elect ever since man became a thinking being” (TG 328). Also called by such names as the secret doctrine and the esoteric tradition, its teachings have been preserved, checked and rechecked with every new generation of its guardians and adepts.
The personal effort has to be transformed progressively into a movement of the Divine Force. If you feel conscious of the
Thera (Pali) Thera A Buddhist priest, especially a bhikkhu of Gautama Buddha’s community; specifically a senior member. Three grades were distinguished: thera bhikkhu (a senior); majjhima bhikkhu (middle or secondary disciple); and nava bhikkhu (novice). Four characteristics are mentioned, however, making a man a thera: high character, knowing the essential doctrines by heart, practicing the four jhanas (stages of meditation), and being conscious of having attained at least relative freedom through the destruction of the mental intoxications. A senior woman was termed theri or therika.
The subconscient is a concealed and unexpressed inarticulate consciousness which works below all our conscious physical activities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the being, so the subconscient is below the body-consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there.Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that comes up in the physical nature.Men are not ordinarily conscious of either of these planes of their own being, but by sadhana they can become aware.The subconscient retains the impressions of all our past experiences of life and they can come up from there in dream forms: most dreams in ordinary sleep are formations made from subconscient impressions.The habit of strong recurrence of the same things in our physical consciousness, so that it is difficult to get rid of its habits, is largely due to a subconscient support. The subconscient is full of irrational habits.When things are rejected from all other parts of the nature, they go either into the environmental consciousness around us through which we communicate with others and with universal Nature and try to return from there or they sink into the subconscient and can come up from there even after lying long quiescent so that we think they are gone.When the physical consciousness is being changed, the chief resistance comes from the subconscient. It is constantly maintaining or bringing back the inertia, weakness, obscurity, lack of intelligence which afflict the physical mind and vital or the obscure fears, desires, angers, lusts of the physical vital, or the illnesses, dullnesses, pains, incapabilities to which the body-nature is prone.If light, strength, the Mother's Consciousness is brought down into the body, it can penetrate the subconscient also and convert its obscurity and resistance.When something is erased from the subconscient so completely that it leaves no seed and thrown out of the circumconscient so completely that it can return no more, then only can we be sure that we have finished with it for ever.
Ref: SABCL Vol. 22-23-24, Page: 356-57
To the Confucians this is "the eternal law of the universe." See chung yung. To Chuang Tzu (between 399 and 295 B.C.) "the common and the ordinary are the natural function of all things, which expresses the common nature of the whole. Following the common nature of the whole, they are at ease. Being at ease, they are near perfection. This is letting nature take its course, without being conscious of the fact. This is Tao." -- W.T.C.
To yield to depression when things go wrong is the worst way of meeting the difficulty There must be some desire or demand within, conscious or subconscious, that gets excited and revolts against its not being satisfied. The best way is to be conscious of it, face it calmly and steadily throw it out.
unconscious ::: a. --> Not conscious; having no consciousness or power of mental perception; without cerebral appreciation; hence, not knowing or regarding; ignorant; as, an unconscious man.
Not known or apprehended by consciousness; as, an unconscious cerebration.
Having no knowledge by experience; -- followed by of; as, a mule unconscious of the yoke.
Waking State The state of human consciousness when perceiving the physical world, conscious of other people and things. Termed the jagrat state in Hindu philosophy, it is the lowest of the four states into which human consciousness is divided: jagrat, svapna, sushupti, and turiya.
KEYS (10k)
27 The Mother
12 Sri Aurobindo
2 Nolini Kanta Gupta
2 M Alan Kazlev
2 Carl Jung
2 Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
2 Aleister Crowley
1 Wei Wu Wei
1 Viktor Frankl
1 SWAMI RAMA
1 Stephen LaBerge
1 Sri Aurobindo
1 SRI ANANDAMAYI MA
1 Saint Maximus of Turin
1 Saint Germain
1 Rodney Collin
1 Osho
1 Neville Goddard
1 Leo Tolstoy
1 Ken Wilber
1 Josef Pieper
1 John Amos Comenius
1 Howard Gardner
1 George Orwell
1 Friedrich Nietzsche
1 Awaghosha
1 Sri Ramana Maharshi
1 Sri Ramakrishna
1 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
1 Paracelsus
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
31 Carl Jung
23 Eckhart Tolle
19 Anonymous
14 Fyodor Dostoyevsky
14 Frederick Lenz
13 Leo Tolstoy
12 C S Lewis
12 Albert Camus
11 Viktor E Frankl
10 The Mother
10 Sri Aurobindo
10 F Scott Fitzgerald
9 Thomas Carlyle
9 Neville Goddard
9 George Eliot
9 A W Tozer
8 Swami Vivekananda
8 Suzy Kassem
8 Rajneesh
8 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
1:We acknowledge God only when we are conscious of His manifestation in us. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
2:Realization is a matter of becoming conscious of that which is already realized." ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
3:How can humanity become one?
By becoming conscious of its origin.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
4:In order to remember something, you must first of all be conscious of it. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, #KEYS
5:The aim of our life on earth is to become conscious of the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, [4] [T0],#KEYS
6:Worldly life is no doubt a battle-field. By becoming conscious of one's spiritual wealth one must strive to emerge triumphant from the battle. ~ SRI ANANDAMAYI MA, #KEYS
7:But not long had they run thus when Zarathustra became conscious of his folly, and shook off with one jerk all his irritation and detestation.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
8:As a drunkard will sometimes put his coat on his head, so the God-intoxicated man is not conscious of the external world. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
9:To be and to be fully is Nature's aim in us; but to be fully is to be wholly conscious of one's being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
10:To become conscious of what is to be changed in the nature is the first step towards changing it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Speech and Yoga, #KEYS
11:All force is cosmic and the individual is merely an instrument. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother, Becoming Conscious of the Mother's Force, #KEYS
12:What is Consciousness?
When the Lord becomes conscious of Himself, the world is created. Consciousness is the breath that gives life to all.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
13:Peeling off the layers of ego, emotions, and embedded thought patterns is not so easy. On account of maya, one is not conscious of the real Self. A seeker must start the search in earnest and begin digging. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
14:The higher Truth is all the time working in us but through the lower power - Aparashakti. It is when we become conscious of the play of this higher Power then only yoga begins. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
15:How to remember the Mother during work?
One starts by a mental effort - afterwards it is an inner consciousness that is formed... it is always conscious of her.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Correspondences, 17,#KEYS
16:When you emerge from the hour of prayer you must do so conscious of being and possessing that which your heretofore desired." ~ Neville Goddard, (1905-1972), American mystic. Quote from "Neville Goddard The Complete Reader,", (2013)., #KEYS
17:The whole human race is so miserable and above all so blind that it is not conscious of its own miseries…" ~ John Amos Comenius, (1592-1670), a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian, considered the father of modern education. His quotes:, #KEYS
18:My brothers, each of us ought surely to rejoice on this holy day. Let no one, conscious of his sinfulness, withdraw from our common celebration, nor let anyone be kept away from our public prayer by the burden of his guilt. ~ Saint Maximus of Turin, #KEYS
19:You are nothing that you are conscious of. Apply yourself diligently to pulling apart the structure you have built in your mind. What the mind has done the mind must undo. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That, Chapter 88, #KEYS
20:No one can obtain felicity by pursuit. This explains why one of the elements of being happy is the feeling that a debt of gratitude is owed, a debt that cannot be repaid... To be conscious of gratitude is to acknowledge a gift. ~ Josef Pieper, Happiness & Contemplation, #KEYS
21:'In order for an individual to consciously let go of a thing, he must have something that he feels is stronger to which he can anchor. As students become conscious of this, the confidence and strength will come to them to take the step.'
~ Saint Germain, The I am discourses,#KEYS
22:Man has the possibility of re-creating himself, or more correctly, the human being has the possibility of making itself into a man... what distinguishes man from animals is his possibility of becoming conscious of his own existence and of his place in the universe. ~ Rodney Collin, #KEYS
23:The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. ~ Carl Jung, CW 9ii, par. 14., #KEYS
24:Although all things in their metaphysical origin proceed from the soul one and truly free from all particularisation, nevertheless by reason of non-illumination there is produced a subjective mind which becomes conscious of an external world. ~ Awaghosha, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
25:A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the 'why' for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any 'how'.
~ Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning,#KEYS
26:Man was created to express the Divine. His duty is therefore to become conscious of the Divine and to surrender himself entirely to His Will. All the rest, whatever the appearance, is falsehood and ignorance.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, 8, [T0],#KEYS
27:It is not the 'I am' that is false, but what you take yourself to be. I can see, beyond the least shadow of doubt, that you are not what you believe yourself to be. Logic or no logic, I cannot deny the obvious. You are nothing that you are conscious of. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That, #KEYS
28:How can I make my soul progress?
To have any action on your soul you must be first conscious of it. And then when you will be conscious of your soul, you will probably find out that instead of you making your soul progress, it is your soul who will help you to progress.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
29:A Mother-wisdom works in Nature's breast
To pour delight on the heart of toil and want
And press perfection on life's stumbling powers,
Impose heaven-sentience on the obscure abyss
And make dumb Matter conscious of its God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Birth and Childhood of the Flame,#KEYS
30:All thoughts really come from outside, but one is not conscious of their coming. You have become conscious of this movement. There are different ways of getting rid of them; one is to reject them one by one before they can come in; another is to look at them with detachment till they fade away.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#KEYS
31:Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think "I am", and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the "I am". Sense your presence, the naked unveiled, unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all form. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
32:Everything good is costly, and the development of personality is one of the most costly of all things. I t is a matter of saying yea to oneself, of taking oneself as the most serious of tasks, of being conscious of everything one does, and keeping it constantly before one's eyes in all its dubious aspects-truly a task that taxes us to the utmost. ~ Carl Jung, Psychological Reflections, #KEYS
33:You exist in time, but you belong to eternity. You are a penetration of eternity into the world of time. You are deathless, living in a body of death. Your consciousness knows no death, no birth, it is only your body that is born and dies, but you are not aware of your consciousness. You are not conscious of your consciousness, and that is the whole art of meditation; becoming conscious of consciousness itself. ~ Osho, #KEYS
34:to become conscious of the psychic :::
The psychic being always has an influence on the thoughts and actions, but one is rarely conscious of it. To become conscious of the psychic being, one must want to do so, make one's mind as silent as possible, and enter deep into the heart of one's being, beyond sensations and thoughts. One must form the habit of silent concentration and descent into the depths of one's being.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
35:One must find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, 'who' one is, 'what' one is, 'why' one is... Being thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are specially needed to control the aforesaid conditions. ~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA, [T4], #KEYS
36:There is an earthly sun, which is the cause of all heat, and all who are able to see may see the sun; and those who are blind and cannot see him may feel his heat. There is an Eternal Sun, which is the source of all wisdom, and those whose spiritual senses have awakened to life will see that sun and be conscious of His existence; but those who have not attained spiritual consciousness may yet feel His power by an inner faculty which is called Intuition. ~ Paracelsus, #KEYS
37:Divine Mother, I want to realise Your Presence in all the parts of my being, penetrating even the body - only I don't know how to do it. You are the very reason of my being; why then do I live now without feeling Your Presence even in the cells of my body?
The physical nature is obscure and recalcitrant everywhere; it is very difficult for it to become conscious of the divine Presence. That is why we must be patient and keep on aspiring with the certitude of Victory. My blessings are always with you.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
38:Can one learn to control one's subconscient as one controls one's conscious thought?
It is especially during the body's sleep that one is in contact with the subconscient. In becoming conscious of one's nights, control of the subconscient becomes much easier. The control can become total when the cells become conscious of the Divine in them and when they open themselves voluntarily to His influence. This is what the consciousness that descended on the earth last year is working for. Little by little the subconscient automatism of the body is being replaced by the consciousness of the Divine Presence governing the entire functioning of the body.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
39:Trump himself is a nothing, an empty vessel for cosmic forces to work through. Even on The Apprentice (which I used to enjoy) I remember he gave the guy who won a tour of his apartment, it was the tackiest thing you'd ever seen. Cluttered with gold furnishings so there was no space anywhere. The guy, who obviously worshipped Trump, asked who inspired him. So there he was, looking up to wait to hear some pearl of wisdom. And the Orange Clown just made some meaningless narcissistic comment about himself. It actually felt embarrassing (but not to Trump who simply isn't conscious of such things). It proves that even before his dementia he always was empty and vacuous. His ghost writer said Trump was the most evil human being he'd ever met. ~ M Alan Kazlev, FB, #KEYS
40:To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself -- that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink. ~ George Orwell, 1984, #KEYS
41:To see, know, become and fulfil this One in our inner selves and in all our outer nature, was always the secret goal and becomes now the conscious purpose of our embodied existence. To be conscious of him in all parts of our being and equally in all that the dividing mind sees as outside our being, is the consummation of the individual consciousness. To be possessed by him and possess him in ourselves and in all things is the term of all empire and mastery. To enjoy him in all experience of passivity and activity, of peace and of power, of unity and of difference is the happiness which the Jiva, the individual soul manifested in the world, is obscurely seeking. This is the entire definition of the aim of integral Yoga; it is the rendering in personal experience of the truth which universal Nature has hidden in herself and which she travails to discover. It is the conversion of the human soul into the divine soul and of natural life into divine living.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
42:Embracing a different vocabulary, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has described a highly sought-after affective state called the flow state or flow experience. In such intrinsically motivating experiences, which can occur in any domain of activity, people report themselves as fully engaged with and absorbed by the object of their attention. In one sense, those "in flow" are not conscious of the experience at the moment; on reflection, however, such people feel that they have been fully alive, totally realized, and involved in a "peak experience." Individuals who regularly engage in creative activities often report that they seek such states; the prospect of such "periods of flow" can be so intense that individuals will exert considerable practice and effort, and even tolerate physical or psychological pain, in pursuit thereof. Committed writers may claim that they hate the time spent chained to their desks, but the thought that they would not have the opportunity to attain occasional periods of flow while writing proves devastating. ~ Howard Gardner, #KEYS
43:
But why does the Divine want to manifest Himself on earth in this chaos?
Because this is why He has created the earth, not for any other motive; the earth is He Himself in a deformation and He wants to establish it back again in its truth. Earth is not something separated from Him and alien to Him. It is a deformation of Himself which must once again become what it was in its essence, that is, the Divine.
Then why is He a stranger to us?
But He is not a stranger, my child. You fancy that He is a stranger, but He is not, not in the least. He is the essence of your being - not at all alien. You may not know Him, but He is not a stranger; He is the very essence of your being. Without the Divine you would not exist. Without the Divine you could not exist even for the millionth part of a second. Only, because you live in a kind of false illusion and deformation, you are not conscious. You are not conscious of yourself, you are conscious of something which you think to be yourself, but which isn't you.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955,#KEYS
44:In the depths of your consciousness is the psychic being, the temple of the Divine within you. This is the centre round which should come about the unification of all these divergent parts, all these contradictory movements of your being. Once you have got the consciousness of the psychic being and its aspiration, these doubts and difficulties can be destroyed. It takes more or less time, but you will surely succeed in the end. Once you have turned to the Divine, saying, "I want to be yours", and the Divine has said, "Yes", the whole world cannot keep you from it. When the central being has made its surrender, the chief difficulty has disappeared. The outer being is like a crust. In ordinary people the crust is so hard and thick that they are not conscious of the Divine within them. If once, even for a moment only, the inner being has said, "I am here and I am yours", then it is as though a bridge has been built and little by little the crust becomes thinner and thinner until the two parts are wholly joined and the inner and the outer become one. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #KEYS
45:It's a strange world. It seems that about fifteen billion years ago there was, precisely, absolute nothingness, and then within less than a nanosecond the material universe blew into existence.
Stranger still, the physical matter so produced was not merely a random and chaotic mess, but seemed to organize itself into ever more and complex and intricate forms. So complex were these forms that, many billions of years later, some of them found ways to reproduce themselves, and thus out of matter arose life.
Even stranger, these life forms were apparently not content to merely reproduce themselves, but instead began a long evolution that would eventually allow them to represent themselves, to produce sign and symbols and concepts, and thus out of life arose mind.
Whatever this process of evolution was, it seems to have been incredibly driven from matter to life to mind.
But stranger still, a mere few hundred years ago, on a small and indifferent planet around an insignificant star, evolution became conscious of itself.
And at precisely the same time, the very mechanisms that allowed evolution to become conscious of itself were simultaneously working to engineer its own extinction.
And that was the strangest of all. ~ Ken Wilber, Sex Ecology Spirituality, p. 3,#KEYS
46:What is one to do to prepare oneself for the Yoga?
To be conscious, first of all. We are conscious of only an insignificant portion of our being; for the most part we are unconscious.
It is this unconsciousness that keeps us down to our unregenerate nature and prevents change and transformation in it. It is through unconsciousness that the undivine forces enter into us and make us their slaves. You are to be conscious of yourself, you must awake to your nature and movements, you must know why and how you do things or feel or think them; you must understand your motives and impulses, the forces, hidden and apparent, that move you; in fact, you must, as it were, take to pieces the entire machinery of your being. Once you are conscious, it means that you can distinguish and sift things, you can see which are the forces that pull you down and which help you on. And when you know the right from the wrong, the true from the false, the divine from the undivine, you are to act strictly up to your knowledge; that is to say, resolutely reject one and accept the other. The duality will present itself at every step and at every step you will have to make your choice. You will have to be patient and persistent and vigilant - "sleepless", as the adepts say; you must always refuse to give any chance whatever to the undivine against the divine. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
47:the psychic being :::
... it is in the true invisible heart hidden in some luminous cave of the nature: there under some infiltration of the divine Light is our soul, a silent inmost being of which few are even aware; for if all have a soul, few are conscious of their true soul or feel its direct impulse. There dwells the little spark of the Divine which supports this obscure mass of our nature and around it grows the psychic being, the formed soul or the real Man within us. It is as this psychic being in him grows and the movements of the heart reflect its divinations and impulsions that man becomes more and more aware of his soul, ceases to be a superior animal, and, awakening to glimpses of the godhead within him, admits more and more its intimations of a deeper life and consciousness and an impulse towards things divine. It is one of the decisive moments of the integral Yoga when this psychic being liberated, brought out from the veil to the front, can pour the full flood of its divinations, seeings and impulsions on the mind, life and body of man and begin to prepare the upbuilding of divinity in the earthly nature.
As in the works of knowledge, so in dealing with the workings of the heart, we are obliged to make a preliminary distinction between two categories of movements, those that are either moved by the true soul or aid towards its liberation and rule in the nature and those that are turned to the satisfaction of the unpurified vital nature.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1, 150,#KEYS
48:The hours spent in meditation is no proof of spiritual progress. It is proof of your progress when you no longer have to make an effort to meditate. Then you have rather to make an effort to stop meditating: it becomes difficult to stop meditation, difficult to stop thinking of the Divine, difficult to come down to the ordinary consciousness. Then you are sure of progress, then you have made real progress when concentrating on the Divine is the necessity of your life, when you cannot do without it, when it continues naturally from morning to night whatever you may be engaged in doing. Whether you sit down to meditation or go about and do things and work, what is required of you is consciousness; that is the one need - to be constantly conscious of the Divine.
But is not sitting down to meditation an indispensable discipline, and does it not give a more intense and concentrated union with the Divine?
That may be. But a discipline in itself is not what we are seeking. What we are seeking is to be concentrated on the Divine in all that we do, at all times, in all our acts and in every movement. There are some here who have been told to meditate; but also there are others who have not been asked to do any meditation at all. But it must not be thought that they are not progressing. They too follow a discipline, but it is of another nature. To work, to act with devotion and an inner consecration is also a spiritual discipline. The final aim is to be in constant union with the Divine, not only in meditation but in all circumstances and in all the active life. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
49:Karma Yoga, the Path of Works; :::
The Path of Works aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. Karmayoga is used, like the other paths, to lead to liberation from phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme. But here too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Systems of Yoga, 39,#KEYS
50:For invincible reasons of homogeneity and coherence, the fibers of cosmogenesis require to be prolonged in ourselves far more deeply than flesh and bone. We are not being tossed about and drawn along in the vital current merely by the material surface of our being. But like a subtle fluid, space-time, having drowned our bodies, penetrates our soul. It fills it and impregnates it. It mingles with its powers, until the soul soon no longer knows how to distinguish space-time from its own thoughts. Nothing can escape this flux any longer, for those who know how to see, even though it were the summit of our being, because it can only be defined in terms of increases of consciousness. For is not the very act by which the fine point of our mind penetrates the absolute a phenomenon of emergence? In short, recognized at first in a single point of things, then inevitably having spread to the whole of the inorganic and organic volume of matter, whether we like it or not evolution is now starting to invade the psychic zones of the world.... The human discovers that, in the striking words of Julian Huxley, we are nothing else than evolution become conscious of itself. It seems to me that until it is established in this perspective, the modern mind...will always be restless. For it is on this summit and this summit alone that a resting place and illumination await us.... All evolution becomes conscious of itself deep within us.... Not only do we read the secret of its movements in our slightest acts, but to a fundamental extent we hold it in our own hands: responsible for its past and its future. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, #KEYS
51:Sweet Mother, how can we cut the knot of the ego?
How to cut it? Take a sword and strike it (laughter), when one becomes conscious of it. For usually one is not; we think it quite normal, what happens to us; and in fact it is very normal but we think it quite good also.So to begin with one must have a great clear-sightedness to become aware that one is enclosed in all these knots which hold one in bondage. And then, when one is aware that there's something altogether tightly closed in there - so tightly that one has tried in vain to move it - then one imagines one's will to be a very sharp sword-blade, and with all one's force one strikes a blow on this knot (imaginary, of course, one doesn't take up a sword in fact), and this produces a result. Of course you can do this work from the psychological point of view, discovering all the elements constituting this knot, the whole set of resistances, habits, preferences, of all that holds you narrowly closed in. So when you grow aware of this, you can concentrate and call the divine Force and the Grace and strike a good blow on this formation, these things so closely held, like that, that nothing can separate them. And at that moment you must resolve that you will no longer listen to these things, that you will listen only to the divine Consciousness and will do no other work except the divine work without worrying about personal results, free from all attachment, free from all preference, free from all wish for success, power, satisfaction, vanity, all this.... All this must disappear and you must see only the divine Will incarnated in your will and making you act. Then, in this way, you are cured.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,#KEYS
52:Sweet Mother, how can we cut the knot of the ego?
How to cut it? Take a sword and strike it (laughter), when one becomes conscious of it. For usually one is not; we think it quite normal, what happens to us; and in fact it is very normal but we think it quite good also.So to begin with one must have a great clear-sightedness to become aware that one is enclosed in all these knots which hold one in bondage. And then, when one is aware that there's something altogether tightly closed in there - so tightly that one has tried in vain to move it - then one imagines one's will to be a very sharp sword-blade, and with all one's force one strikes a blow on this knot (imaginary, of course, one doesn't take up a sword in fact), and this produces a result. Of course you can do this work from the psychological point of view, discovering all the elements constituting this knot, the whole set of resistances, habits, preferences, of all that holds you narrowly closed in. So when you grow aware of this, you can concentrate and call the divine Force and the Grace and strike a good blow on this formation, these things so closely held, like that, that nothing can separate them. And at that moment you must resolve that you will no longer listen to these things, that you will listen only to the divine Consciousness and will do no other work except the divine work without worrying about personal results, free from all attachment, free from all preference, free from all wish for success, power, satisfaction, vanity, all this.... All this must disappear and you must see only the divine Will incarnated in your will and making you act. Then, in this way, you are cured.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,#KEYS
53:Man's refusal of the Divine Grace has been depicted very beautifully and graphically in a perfect dramatic form by Sri Aurobindo in Savitri. The refusal comes one by one from the three constituent parts of the human being. First of all man is a material being, a bodily creature, as such he is a being of ignorance and misery, of brutish blindness . He does not know that there is something other than his present state of misfortune and dark fate. He is not even aware that there may be anything higher or nobler than the ugliness he is steeped in. He lives on earth-life with an earth-consciousness, moves mechanically and helplessly through vicissitudes over which he has no control. Even so the material life is not a mere despicable thing; behind its darkness, behind its sadness, behind all its infirmities, the Divine Mother is there upholding it and infusing into it her grace and beauty. Indeed, she is one with this world of sorrows, she has in effect become it in her infinite pity and love so that this material body of hers may become conscious of its divine substance and manifest her true form. But the human being individualised and separated in egoistic consciousness has lost the sense of its inner reality and is vocal only in regard to its outward formulation. It is natural for physical man therefore to reject and deny the physical Godhead in him, he even curses it and wants to continue as he is.
He yells therefore in ignorance and anguish:
I am the Man of Sorrows, I am he
Who is nailed on the wide cross of the Universe . . .
I toil like the animal, like the animal die.
I am man the rebel, man the helpless serf...
I know my fate will ever be the same.
It is my Nature' s work that cannot change . . .
I was made for evil, evil is my lot;
Evil I must be and by evil live;
Nought other can I do but be myself;
What Nature made, that I must remain.2' ~ Nolini Kanta Gupta, On Savitri, 13,#KEYS
54:Why are some people intelligent and others not? Why can some people do certain things while others can't?"
It is as though you asked why everybody was not the same! Then it would mean that there would only be one single thing, one single thing indefinitely repeated which would constitute the whole universe.... I don't know, but it seems to me that it wouldn't be worth the trouble having a universe for that, it would be enough to have just one thing!
But the moment one admits the principle of multiplicity and that no two things are alike in the universe, how can you ask why they are not the same! It is just because they are not, because no two things are alike.
Behind that there is something else which one is not conscious of, but which is very simple and very childish. It is this: "Since there is an infinite diversity, since some people are of one kind and others of a lesser kind, well" - here of course one doesn't say this to oneself but it is there, hidden in the depths of the being, in the depths of the ego - "why am I not of the best kind?" There we are. In fact it amounts to complaining that perhaps one is not of the best kind! If you look attentively at questions like this: "Why do some have much and others little?" "Why are some wise and not others? Why are some intelligent and not others?" etc., behind that there is "Why don't I have all that can be had and why am I not all that one can be?..." Naturally, one doesn't say this to oneself, because one would feel ridiculous, but it is there.
There then. Now has anyone anything to add to what we have just said?... Have you all understood quite well? Everything I have said? Nobody wants to say...
(A teacher) Our daily routine seems a little "impossible" to us.
Well, wait a century or two and it will become possible! (Laughter)
You are told that today's impossibility is the possibility of tomorrow - but these are very great tomorrows! ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers, Volume-8, page no. 387-388,#KEYS
55:"Will it take long for the Supermind which is involved in material Nature to emerge into the outer consciousness and bring visible results?"
That depends on the state of consciousness from which one answers, for... For the human consciousness, obviously, I think it will take quite a long time. For another consciousness it will be relatively very fast, and for yet another consciousness, it is already accomplished. It is an accomplished fact. But in order to become aware of this, one must be able to enter into another state of consciousness than the ordinary physical consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo has spoken - I believe I have read it to you, I think it's in The Synthesis of Yoga - of the true mind, the true vital and the true physical or subtle physical, and he has said that they co-exist with the ordinary mind, vital and physical, and that in certain conditions one may enter into contact with them, and then one becomes aware of the difference between what really is and the appearances of things.
Well, for a developed consciousness, the Supermind is already realised somewhere in a domain of the subtle physical, it already exists there visible, concrete, and expresses itself in forms and activities. And when one is in tune with this domain, when one lives there, one has a very strong feeling that this world would only have to be condensed, so to say, for it to become visible to all. What would then be interesting would be to develop this inner perception which would put you into contact with the supramental truth which is already manifested, and is veiled for you only for want of appropriate organs to enter into relation with it.
It is possible that those who are conscious of their dreams may have dreams of a new kind which put them into contact with that world, for it is accessible to the subtle physical of all those who have the corresponding organs in themselves. And there is necessarily a subtle influence of this physical on outer matter, if one is ready to receive impressions from it and admit them into one's consciousness. That's all.
Now, if nobody has any questions to ask, well, we shall remain silent.
Something to say, over there? (Mother looks at a disciple.) Oh! he is burning to speak! ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1956,#KEYS
56:The Godhead, the spirit manifested in Nature appears in a sea of infinite quality, Ananta-guna. But the executive or mechanical prakriti is of the threefold Guna, Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, and the Ananta-guna, the spiritual play of infinite quality, modifies itself in this mechanical nature into the type of these three gunas. And in the soul-force in man this Godhead in Nature represents itself as a fourfold effective Power, caturvyuha , a Power for knowledge, a Power for strength, a Power for mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange, a Power for works and labour and service, and its presence casts all human life into a nexus and inner and outer operation of these four things. The ancient thought of India conscious of this fourfold type of active human personality and nature, built out of it the four types of the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra, each with its spiritual turn, ethical ideal, suitable upbringing, fixed function in society and place in the evolutionary scale of the spirit. As always tends to be the case when we too much externalise and mechanise the more subtle truths of our nature, this became a hard and fast system inconsistent with the freedom and variability and complexity of the finer developing spirit in man. Nevertheless the truth behind it exists and is one of some considerable importance in the perfection of our power of nature; but we have to take it in its inner aspects, first, personality, character, temperament, soul-type, then the soul-force which lies behind them and wears these forms, and lastly the play of the free spiritual shakti in which they find their culmination and unity beyond all modes. For the crude external idea that a man is born as a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Sudra and that alone, is not a psychological truth of our being. The psychological fact is that there are these four active powers and tendencies of the Spirit and its executive shakti within us and the predominance of one or the other in the more well-formed part of our personality gives us our main tendencies, dominant qualities and capacities, effective turn in action and life. But they are more or less present in an men, here manifest, there latent, here developed, there subdued and depressed or subordinate, and in the perfect man will be raised up to a fullness and harmony which in the spiritual freedom will burst out into the free play of the infinite quality of the spirit in the inner and outer life and in the self-enjoying creative play of the Purusha with his and the world's Nature-Power. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 4:15 - Soul-Force and the Fourfold Personality, #KEYS
57:How can one become conscious of Divine Love and an instrument of its expression?
First, to become conscious of anything whatever, you must will it. And when I say "will it", I don't mean saying one day, "Oh! I would like it very much", then two days later completely forgetting it.
To will it is a constant, sustained, concentrated aspiration, an almost exclusive occupation of the consciousness. This is the first step. There are many others: a very attentive observation, a very persistent analysis, a very keen discernment of what is pure in the movement and what is not. If you have an imaginative faculty, you may try to imagine and see if your imagination tallies with reality. There are people who believe that it is enough to wake up one day in a particular mood and say, "Ah! How I wish to be conscious of divine Love, how I wish to manifest divine Love...." Note, I don't know how many millions of times one feels within a little stirring up of human instinct and imagines that if one had at one's disposal divine Love, great things could be accomplished, and one says, "I am going to try and find divine Love and we shall see the result." This is the worst possible way. Because, before having even touched the very beginning of realisation you have spoilt the result. You must take up your search with a purity of aspiration and surrender which in themselves are already difficult to acquire. You must have worked much on yourself only to be ready to aspire to this Love. If you look at yourself very sincerely, very straight, you will see that as soon as you begin to think of Love it is always your little inner tumult which starts whirling. All that aspires in you wants certain vibrations. It is almost impossible, without being far advanced on the yogic path, to separate the vital essence, the vital vibration from your conception of Love. What I say is founded on an assiduous experience of human beings. Well, for you, in the state in which you are, as you are, if you had a contact with pure divine Love, it would seem to you colder than ice, or so far-off, so high that you would not be able to breathe; it would be like the mountain-top where you would feel frozen and find it difficult to breathe, so very far would it be from what you normally feel. Divine Love, if not clothed with a psychic or vital vibration, is difficult for a human being to perceive. One can have an impression of grace, of a grace which is something so far, so high, so pure, so impersonal that... yes, one can have the feeling of grace, but it is with difficulty that one feels Love.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1950-1951,#KEYS
58:This is true in a general way; when those born scattered over the world at great distances from one another are driven by circumstances or by an impulsion to come and gather here, it is almost always because they have met in one life or another (not all in the same life) and because their psychic being has felt that they belonged to the same family; so they have taken an inner vow to continue to act together and collaborate. That is why even though they are born far from one another, there is something which compels them to come together; it is the psychic being, the psychic consciousness that is behind. And only to the extent the psychic consciousness is strong enough to order and organise the circumstances or the life, that is, strong enough not to allow itself to be opposed by outside forces, outside life movements, can people meet.
It is profoundly true in reality; there are large "families of beings" who work for the same cause, who have gathered in more or less large numbers and who come in groups as it were. It is as though at certain times there were awakenings in the psychic world, as though lots of little sleeping children were being called to wake up: "It is time, quick, quick, go down!" And they hurry down. And sometimes they do not drop at the same place, they are dispersed, yet there is something within which troubles them, pushes them; for one reason or another they are drawn close and that brings them together. But it is something deep in the being, something that is not at all on the surface; otherwise, even if people met they would not perhaps become aware of the bond. People meet and recognise each other only to the extent they become conscious of their psychic being, obey their psychic being, are guided by it; otherwise there is all that comes in to oppose it, all that veils, all that stupefies, all those obstacles to prevent you from finding yourself in your depths and being able to collaborate truly in the work. You are tossed about by the forces of Nature.
There is only one solution, to find your psychic being and once it is found to cling to it desperately, to let it guide you step by step whatever be the obstacle. That is the only solution. All this I did not write but I explained it to that lady. She had put to me the question: "How did I happen to come here?" I told her that it was certainly not for reasons of the external consciousness, it was something in her inner being that had pushed her. Only the awakening was not strong enough to overcome all the rest and she returned to the ordinary life for very ordinary reasons of living. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953,#KEYS
59:
Sweet Mother, can the psychic express itself without the mind, the vital and the physical?
It expresses itself constantly without them. Only, in order that the ordinary human being may perceive it, it has to express itself through them, because the ordinary human being is not in direct contact with the psychic. If it was in direct contact with the psychic it would be psychic in its manifestation - and all would be truly well. But as it is not in contact with the psychic it doesn't even know what it is, it wonders all bewildered what kind of a being it can be; so to reach this ordinary human consciousness it must use ordinary means, that is, go through the mind, the vital and the physical.
One of them may be skipped but surely not the last, otherwise one is no longer conscious of anything at all. The ordinary human being is conscious only in his physical being, and only in relatively rare moments is he conscious of his mind, just a little more frequently of his vital, but all this is mixed up in his consciousness, so much so that he would be quite unable to say "This movement comes from the mind, this from the vital, this from the physical." This already asks for a considerable development in order to be able to distinguish within oneself the source of the different movements one has. And it is so mixed that even when one tries, at the beginning it is very difficult to classify and separate one thing from another.
It is as when one works with colours, takes three or four or five different colours and puts them in the same water and beats them up together, it makes a grey, indistinct and incomprehensi- ble mixture, you see, and one can't say which is red, which blue, which green, which yellow; it is something dirty, lots of colours mixed. So first of all one must do this little work of separating the red, blue, yellow, green - putting them like this, each in its corner. It is not at all easy.
I have met people who used to think themselves extremely intelligent, by the way, who thought they knew a lot, and when I spoke to them about the different parts of the being they looked at me like this (gesture) and asked me, "But what are you speaking about?" They did not understand at all. I am speaking of people who have the reputation of being intelligent. They don't understand at all. For them it is just the consciousness; it is the consciousness-"It is my consciousness" and then there is the neighbour's consciousness; and again there are things which do not have any consciousness. And then I asked them whether animals had a consciousness; so they began to scratch their heads and said, "Perhaps it is we who put our consciousness in the animal when we look at it," like that...
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955,#KEYS
60:
Sweet Mother, is there a spiritual being in everybody?
That depends on what we call "being". If for "being" we substitute "presence", yes, there is a spiritual presence in everyone. If we call "being" an organised entity, fully conscious of itself, independent, and having the power of asserting itself and ruling the rest of the nature - no! The possibility of this independent and all-powerful being is in everybody, but the realisation is the result of long efforts which sometimes extend over many lives.
In everyone, even at the very beginning, this spiritual presence, this inner light is there.... In fact, it is everywhere. I have seen it many a time in certain animals. It is like a shining point which is the basis of a certain control and protection, something which, even in half-consciousness, makes possible a certain harmony with the rest of creation so that irreparable catastrophes may not be constant and general. Without this presence the disorder created by the violences and passions of the vital would be so great that at any moment they could bring about a general catastrophe, a sort of total destruction which would prevent the progress of Nature. That presence, that spiritual light - which could almost be called a spiritual consciousness - is within each being and all things, and because of it, in spite of all discordance, all passion, all violence, there is a minimum of general harmony which allows Nature's work to be accomplished.
And this presence becomes quite obvious in the human being, even the most rudimentary. Even in the most monstrous human being, in one who gives the impression of being an incarnation of a devil or a monster, there is something within exercising a sort of irresistible control - even in the worst, some things are impossible. And without this presence, if the being were controlled exclusively by the adverse forces, the forces of the vital, this impossibility would not exist.
Each time a wave of these monstrous adverse forces sweeps over the earth, one feels that nothing can ever stop the disorder and horror from spreading, and always, at a certain time, unexpectedly and inexplicably a control intervenes, and the wave is arrested, the catastrophe is not total. And this is because of the Presence, the supreme Presence, in matter.
But only in a few exceptional beings and after a long, very long work of preparation extending over many, many lives does this Presence change into a conscious, independent, fully organised being, all-powerful master of his dwelling-place, conscious enough, powerful enough, to be able to control not only this dwelling but what surrounds it and in a field of radiation and action that is more and more extensive... and effective.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1957-1958, 339-340,#KEYS
61:the process of unification, the perfecting our one's instrumental being, the help one needs to reach the goal :::
If we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavor.
As you pursue this labor of purification and unification, you must at the same time take great care to perfect the external and instrumental part of your being. When the higher truth manifests, it must find in you a mind that is supple and rich enough to be able to give the idea that seeks to express itself a form of thought which preserves its force and clarity. This thought, again, when it seeks to clothe itself in words, must find in you a sufficient power of expression so that the words reveal the thought and do not deform it. And the formula in which you embody the truth should be manifested in all your feelings, all your acts of will, all your actions, in all movements of your being. Finally, these movements themselves should, by constant effort, attain their highest perfection. ... It is therefore of capital importance to become conscious of its presence in us [the psychic being], to concentrate on this presence until it becomes a living fact for us and we can identify ourselves with it.
In various times and places many methods have been prescribed for attaining this perfection and ultimately achieving this identification. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has to find the one which suits him best, and if one has an ardent and steadfast aspiration, a persistent and dynamic will, one is sure to meet, in one way or another - outwardly through reading and study, inwardly through concentration, meditation, revelation and experience - the help one needs to reach the goal. Only one thing is absolutely indispensable: the will to discover and to realize. This discovery and realization should be the primary preoccupation of our being, the pearl of great price which we must acquire at any cost. Whatever you do, whatever your occupations and activities, the will to find the truth of your being and to unite with it must be always living and present behind all that you do, all that you feel, all that you think.
~ The Mother, On Education, [T1],#KEYS
62:Sweet Mother, here it is written: "It is part of the foundation of Yoga to become conscious of the great complexity of our nature, see the different forces that move it and get over it a control of directing knowledge." Are these forces different for each person?
Yes. The composition is completely different, otherwise everybody would be the same. There are not two beings with an identical combination; between the different parts of the being and the composition of these parts the proportion is different in each individual. There are people, primitive men, people like the yet undeveloped races or the degenerated ones whose combinations are fairly simple; they are still complicated, but comparatively simple. And there are people absolutely at the top of the human ladder, the e ́lite of humanity; their combinations become so complicated that a very special discernment is needed to find the relations between all these things.
There are beings who carry in themselves thousands of different personalities, and then each one has its own rhythm and alternation, and there is a kind of combination; sometimes there are inner conflicts, and there is a play of activities which are rhythmic and with alternations of certain parts which come to the front and then go back and again come to the front. But when one takes all that, it makes such complicated combinations that some people truly find it difficult to understand what is going on in themselves; and yet these are the ones most capable of a complete, coordinated, conscious, organised action; but their organisation is infinitely more complicated than that of primitive or undeveloped men who have two or three impulses and four or five ideas, and who can arrange all this very easily in themselves and seem to be very co-ordinated and logical because there is not very much to organise. But there are people truly like a multitude, and so that gives them a plasticity, a fluidity of action and an extraordinary complexity of perception, and these people are capable of understanding a considerable number of things, as though they had at their disposal a veritable army which they move according to circumstance and need; and all this is inside them. So when these people, with the help of yoga, the discipline of yoga, succeed in centralising all these beings around the central light of the divine Presence, they become powerful entities, precisely because of their complexity. So long as this is not organised they often give the impression of an incoherence, they are almost incomprehensible, one can't manage to understand why they are like that, they are so complex. But when they have organised all these beings, that is, put each one in its place around the divine centre, then truly they are terrific, for they have the capacity of understanding almost everything and doing almost everything because of the multitude of entities they contain, of which they are constituted. And the nearer one is to the top of the ladder, the more it is like that, and consequently the more difficult it is to organise one's being; because when you have about a dozen elements, you can quickly compass and organise them, but when you have thousands of them, it is difficult. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, 215-216,#KEYS
63:There is no invariable rule of such suffering. It is not the soul that suffers; the Self is calm and equal to all things and the only sorrow of the psychic being is the sorrow of the resistance of Nature to the Divine Will or the resistance of things and people to the call of the True, the Good and the Beautiful. What is affected by suffering is the vital nature and the body. When the soul draws towards the Divine, there may be a resistance in the mind and the common form of that is denial and doubt - which may create mental and vital suffering. There may again be a resistance in the vital nature whose principal character is desire and the attachment to the objects of desire, and if in this field there is conflict between the soul and the vital nature, between the Divine Attraction and the pull of the Ignorance, then obviously there may be much suffering of the mind and vital parts. The physical consciousness also may offer a resistance which is usually that of a fundamental inertia, an obscurity in the very stuff of the physical, an incomprehension, an inability to respond to the higher consciousness, a habit of helplessly responding to the lower mechanically, even when it does not want to do so; both vital and physical suffering may be the consequence. There is moreover the resistance of the Universal Nature which does not want the being to escape from the Ignorance into the Light. This may take the form of a vehement insistence on the continuation of the old movements, waves of them thrown on the mind and vital and body so that old ideas, impulses, desires, feelings, responses continue even after they are thrown out and rejected, and can return like an invading army from outside, until the whole nature, given to the Divine, refuses to admit them. This is the subjective form of the universal resistance, but it may also take an objective form - opposition, calumny, attacks, persecution, misfortunes of many kinds, adverse conditions and circumstances, pain, illness, assaults from men or forces. There too the possibility of suffering is evident. There are two ways to meet all that - first that of the Self, calm, equality, a spirit, a will, a mind, a vital, a physical consciousness that remain resolutely turned towards the Divine and unshaken by all suggestion of doubt, desire, attachment, depression, sorrow, pain, inertia. This is possible when the inner being awakens, when one becomes conscious of the Self, of the inner mind, the inner vital, the inner physical, for that can more easily attune itself to the divine Will, and then there is a division in the being as if there were two beings, one within, calm, strong, equal, unperturbed, a channel of the Divine Consciousness and Force, one without, still encroached on by the lower Nature; but then the disturbances of the latter become something superficial which are no more than an outer ripple, - until these under the inner pressure fade and sink away and the outer being too remains calm, concentrated, unattackable. There is also the way of the psychic, - when the psychic being comes out in its inherent power, its consecration, adoration, love of the Divine, self-giving, surrender and imposes these on the mind, vital and physical consciousness and compels them to turn all their movements Godward. If the psychic is strong and master...
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - IV, Resistances, Sufferings and Falls, 669,#KEYS
64:
Sweet Mother, how can one feel the divine Presence constantly?
Why not?
But how can one do it?
But I am asking why one should not feel it. Instead of asking the question how to feel it, I ask the question: "What do you do that you don't feel it?" There is no reason not to feel the divine Presence. Once you have felt it, even once, you should be capable of feeling it always, for it is there. It is a fact. It is only our ignorance which makes us unaware of it. But if we become conscious, why should we not always be conscious? Why forget something one has learnt? When one has had the experience, why forget it? It is simply a bad habit, that's all.
You see, there is something which is a fact, that's to say, it is. But we are unaware of it and do not know it. But after we become conscious and know it, why should we still forget it? Does it make sense? It's quite simply because we are not convinced that once one has met the Divine one can't forget Him any more. We are, on the contrary, full of stupid ideas which say, "Oh! Yes, it's very well once like that, but the rest of the time it will be as usual." So there is no reason why it may not begin again.
But if we know that... we did not know something, we were ignorant, then the moment we have the knowledge... I am sincerely asking how one can manage to forget. One might not know something, that is a fact; there are countless things one doesn't know. But the moment one knows them, the minute one has the experience, how can one manage to forget? Within yourself you have the divine Presence, you know nothing about it - for all kinds of reasons, but still the chief reason is that you are in a state of ignorance. Yet suddenly, by a clicking of circumstances, you become conscious of this divine Presence, that is, you are before a fact - it is not imagination, it is a fact, it's something which exists. Then how do you manage to forget it once you have known it?
...
It is because something in us, through cowardice or defeatism, accepts this. If one did not accept it, it wouldn't happen.
Even when everything seems to be suddenly darkened, the flame and the Light are always there. And if one doesn't forget them, one has only to put in front of them the part which is dark; there will perhaps be a battle, there will perhaps be a little difficulty, but it will be something quite transitory; never will you lose your footing. That is why it is said - and it is something true - that to sin through ignorance may have fatal consequences, because when one makes mistakes, well, these mistakes have results, that's obvious, and usually external and material results; but that's no great harm, I have already told you this several times. But when one knows what is true, when one has seen and had the experience of the Truth, to accept the sin again, that is, fall back again into ignorance and obscurity - this is indeed an infinitely more serious mistake. It begins to belong to the domain of ill-will. In any case, it is a sign of slackness and weakness. It means that the will is weak.
So your question is put the other way round. Instead of asking yourself how to keep it, you must ask yourself: how does one not keep it? Not having it, is a state which everybody is in before the moment of knowing; not knowing - one is in that state before knowing. But once one knows one cannot forget. And if one forgets, it means that there is something which consents to the forgetting, it means there is an assent somewhere; otherwise one would not forget.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, 403,405,406,#KEYS
65:
"The beings who were always appearing and speaking to Jeanne d'Arc would, if seen by an Indian, have quite a different appearance; for when one sees, one projects the forms of one's mind.... You have the vision of one in India whom you call the Divine Mother; the Catholics say it is the Virgin Mary, and the Japanese call it Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy; and others would give other names. It is the same force, the same power, but the images made of it are different in different faiths." Questions and Answers 1929 - 1931 (21 April 1929)
And then? You are not very talkative today! Is that all?
You say that "each person has his own world of dreamimagery peculiar to himself." Ibid.
Each individual has his own way of expressing, thinking, speaking, feeling, understanding. It is the combination of all these ways of being that makes the individual. That is why everyone can understand only according to his own nature. As long as you are shut up in your own nature, you can know only what is in your consciousness. All depends upon the height of the nature of your consciousness. Your world is limited to what you have in your consciousness. If you have a very small consciousness, you will understand only a few things. When your consciousness is very vast, universal, only then will you understand the world. If the consciousness is limited to your little ego, all the rest will escape you.... There are people whose brain and consciousness are smaller than a walnut. You know that a walnut resembles the brain; well these people look at things and don't understand them. They can understand nothing else except what is in direct contact with their senses. For them only what they taste, what they see, hear, touch has a reality, and all the rest simply does not exist, and they accuse us of speaking fancifully! "What I cannot touch does not exist", they say. But the only answer to give them is: "It does not exist for you, but there's no reason why it shouldn't exist for others." You must not insist with these people, and you must not forget that the smaller they are the greater is the audacity in their assertions.
One's cocksureness is in proportion to one's unconsciousness; the more unconscious one is, the more is one sure of oneself. The most foolish are always the most vain. Your stupidity is in proportion to your vanity. The more one knows... In fact, there is a time when one is quite convinced that one knows nothing at all. There's not a moment in the world which does not bring something new, for the world is perpetually growing. If one is conscious of that, one has always something new to learn. But one can become conscious of it only gradually. One's conviction that one knows is in direct proportion to one's ignorance and stupidity.
Mother, have the scientists, then, a very small consciousness?
Why? All scientists are not like that. If you meet a true scientist who has worked hard, he will tell you: "We know nothing. What we know today is nothing beside what we shall know tomorrow. This year's discoveries will be left behind next year." A real scientist knows very well that there are many more things he doesn't know than those he knows. And this is true of all branches of human activity. I have never met a scientist worthy of the name who was proud. I have never met a man of some worth who has told me: "I know everything." Those I have seen have always confessed: "In short, I know nothing." After having spoken of all that he has done, all that he has achieved, he tells you very quietly: "After all, I know nothing." ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, [T8],#KEYS
66:Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreams (WILDS)
In the last chapter we talked about strategies for inducing lucid dreams by carrying an idea from the waking world into the dream, such as an intention to comprehend the dream state, a habit of critical state testing, or the recognition of a dreamsign. These strategies are intended to stimulate a dreamer to become lucid within a dream.
This chapter presents a completely different set of approaches to the world of lucid dreaming based on the idea of falling asleep consciously. This involves retaining consciousness while wakefulness is lost and allows direct entry into the lucid dream state without any loss of reflective consciousness. The basic idea has many variations.
While falling asleep, you can focus on hypnagogic (sleep onset) imagery, deliberate visualizations, your breath or heartbeat, the sensations in your body, your sense of self, and so on. If you keep the mind sufficiently active while the tendency to enter REM sleep is strong, you feel your body fall asleep, but you, that is to say, your consciousness, remains awake. The next thing you know, you will find yourself in the dream world, fully lucid.
These two different strategies for inducing lucidity result in two distinct types of lucid dreams. Experiences in which people consciously enter dreaming sleep are referred to as wake-initiated lucid dreams (WILDs), in contrast to dream-initiated lucid dreams (DILDs), in which people become lucid after having fallen asleep unconsciously. 1 The two kinds of lucid dreams differ in a number of ways. WILDs always happen in association with brief awakenings (sometimes only one or two seconds long) from and immediate return to REM sleep. The sleeper has a subjective impression of having been awake. This is not true of DILDs. Although both kinds of lucid dream are more likely to occur later in the night, the proportion of WILDs also increases with time of night. In other words, WILDs are most likely to occur the late morning hours or in afternoon naps. This is strikingly evident in my own record of lucid dreams. Of thirty-three lucid dreams from the first REM period of the night, only one (3 percent) was a WILD, compared with thirteen out of thirty-two (41 percent) lucid dreams from afternoon naps. 2 Generally speaking, WILDs are less frequent than DILDs; in a laboratory study of seventy-six lucid dreams, 72 percent were DILDs compared with 28 percent WILDs. 3 The proportion of WILDs observed in the laboratory seems, by my experience, to be considerably higher than the proportion of WILDs reported at home.
To take a specific example, WILDs account for only 5 percent of my home record of lucid dreams, but for 40 percent of my first fifteen lucid dreams in the laboratory. 4 Ibelieve there are two reasons for this highly significant difference: whenever I spentthe night in the sleep laboratory, I was highly conscious of every time I awakened andI made extraordinary efforts not to move more than necessary in order to minimizeinterference with the physiological recordings.
Thus, my awakenings from REM in the lab were more likely to lead toconscious returns to REM than awakenings at home when I was sleeping with neitherheightened consciousness of my environment and self nor any particular intent not tomove. This suggests that WILD induction techniques might be highly effective underthe proper conditions.
Paul Tholey notes that, while techniques for direct entry to the dream staterequire considerable practice in the beginning, they offer correspondingly greatrewards. 5 When mastered, these techniques (like MILD) can confer the capacity toinduce lucid dreams virtually at will. ~ Stephen LaBerge, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, 4 - Falling Asleep Consciously,#KEYS
67:PRATYAHARA
PRATYAHARA is the first process in the mental part of our task. The previous practices, Asana, Pranayama, Yama, and Niyama, are all acts of the body, while mantra is connected with speech: Pratyahara is purely mental.
And what is Pratyahara? This word is used by different authors in different senses. The same word is employed to designate both the practice and the result. It means for our present purpose a process rather strategical than practical; it is introspection, a sort of general examination of the contents of the mind which we wish to control: Asana having been mastered, all immediate exciting causes have been removed, and we are free to think what we are thinking about.
A very similar experience to that of Asana is in store for us. At first we shall very likely flatter ourselves that our minds are pretty calm; this is a defect of observation. Just as the European standing for the first time on the edge of the desert will see nothing there, while his Arab can tell him the family history of each of the fifty persons in view, because he has learnt how to look, so with practice the thoughts will become more numerous and more insistent.
As soon as the body was accurately observed it was found to be terribly restless and painful; now that we observe the mind it is seen to be more restless and painful still. (See diagram opposite.)
A similar curve might be plotted for the real and apparent painfulness of Asana. Conscious of this fact, we begin to try to control it: "Not quite so many thoughts, please!" "Don't think quite so fast, please!" "No more of that kind of thought, please!" It is only then that we discover that what we thought was a school of playful porpoises is really the convolutions of the sea-serpent. The attempt to repress has the effect of exciting.
When the unsuspecting pupil first approaches his holy but wily Guru, and demands magical powers, that Wise One replies that he will confer them, points out with much caution and secrecy some particular spot on the pupil's body which has never previously attracted his attention, and says: "In order to obtain this magical power which you seek, all that is necessary is to wash seven times in the Ganges during seven days, being particularly careful to avoid thinking of that one spot." Of course the unhappy youth spends a disgusted week in thinking of little else.
It is positively amazing with what persistence a thought, even a whole train of thoughts, returns again and again to the charge. It becomes a positive nightmare. It is intensely annoying, too, to find that one does not become conscious that one has got on to the forbidden subject until one has gone right through with it. However, one continues day after day investigating thoughts and trying to check them; and sooner or later one proceeds to the next stage, Dharana, the attempt to restrain the mind to a single object.
Before we go on to this, however, we must consider what is meant by success in Pratyahara. This is a very extensive subject, and different authors take widely divergent views. One writer means an analysis so acute that every thought is resolved into a number of elements (see "The Psychology of Hashish," Section V, in Equinox II).
Others take the view that success in the practice is something like the experience which Sir Humphrey Davy had as a result of taking nitrous oxide, in which he exclaimed: "The universe is composed exclusively of ideas."
Others say that it gives Hamlet's feeling: "There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so," interpreted as literally as was done by Mrs. Eddy.
However, the main point is to acquire some sort of inhibitory power over the thoughts. Fortunately there is an unfailing method of acquiring this power. It is given in Liber III. If Sections 1 and 2 are practised (if necessary with the assistance of another person to aid your vigilance) you will soon be able to master the final section. ~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA,#KEYS
68:Sweet Mother, how can we make our resolution very firm?
By wanting it to be very firm! (Laughter)
No, this seems like a joke... but it is absolutely true. One does not want it truly. There is always, if you... It is a lack of sincerity. If you look sincerely, you will see that you have decided that it will be like this, and then, beneath there is something which has not decided at all and is waiting for the second of hesitation in order to rush forward. If you are sincere, if you are sincere and get hold of the part which is hiding, waiting, not showing itself, which knows that there will come a second of indecision when it can rush out and make you do the thing you have decided not to do...
[] But if you really want it, nothing in the world can prevent you from doing what you want. It is because one doesn't know how to will it. It is because one is divided in one's will. If you are not divided in your will, I say that nothing, nobody in the world can make you change your will.
But one doesn't know how to will it. In fact one doesn't even want to. These are velleities: "Well, it is like this.... It would be good if it were like that... yes, it would be better if it were like that... yes, it would be preferable if it were like that." But this is not to will. And always there at the back, hidden somewhere in a corner of the brain, is something which is looking on and saying, "Oh, why should I want that? After all one can as well want the opposite." And to try, you see... Not like that, just wait... But one can always find a thousand excuses to do the opposite. And ah, just a tiny little wavering is enough... pftt... the thing swoops down and there it is. But if one wills, if one really knows that this is the thing, and truly wants this, and if one is oneself entirely concentrated in the will, I say that there is nothing in the world that can prevent one from doing it, from doing it or being obliged to do it. It depends on what it is.
One wants. Yes, one wants, like this (gestures). One wants: "Yes, yes, it would be better if it were like that. Yes, it would be finer also, more elegant."... But, eh, eh, after all one is a weak creature, isn't that so? And then one can always put the blame upon something else: "It is the influence coming from outside, it is all kinds of circumstances."
A breath has passed, you see. You don't know... something... a moment of unconsciousness... "Oh, I was not conscious." You are not conscious because you do not accept... And all this because you don't know how to will.
[] To learn how to will is a very important thing. And to will truly, you must unify your being. In fact, to be a being, one must first unify oneself. If one is pulled by absolutely opposite tendencies, if one spends three-fourths of one's life without being conscious of oneself and the reasons why one does things, is one a real being? One does not exist. One is a mass of influences, movements, forces, actions, reactions, but one is not a being. One begins to become a being when one begins to have a will. And one can't have a will unless one is unified.
And when you have a will, you will be able to say, say to the Divine: "I want what You want." But not before that. Because in order to want what the Divine wants, you must have a will, otherwise you can will nothing at all. You would like to. You would like it very much. You would very much like to want what the Divine wants to do. You don't possess a will to give to Him and to put at His service. Something like that, gelatinous, like jelly-fish... there... a mass of good wills - and I am considering the better side of things and forgetting the bad wills - a mass of good wills, half-conscious and fluctuating....
Ah, that's all, my children. That's enough for today. There we are.
Only, put this into practice; just a little of what I have said, not all, eh, just a very little. There.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,#KEYS
69: Sri Aurobindo writes here: "...Few and brief in their visits are the Bright Ones who are willing or permitted to succour." Why?
(1 "The Way", Cent. Vol. 17, p. 40.)
One must go and ask them! But there is a conclusion, the last sentences give a very clear explanation. It is said: "Nay, then, is immortality a plaything to be given lightly to a child, or the divine life a prize without effort or the crown for a weakling?" This comes back to the question why the adverse forces have the right to interfere, to harass you. But this is precisely the test necessary for your sincerity. If the way were very easy, everybody would start on the way, and if one could reach the goal without any obstacle and without any effort, everybody would reach the goal, and when one has come to the end, the situation would be the same as when one started, there would be no change. That is, the new world would be exactly what the old has been. It is truly not worth the trouble! Evidently a process of elimination is necessary so that only what is capable of manifesting the new life remains. This is the reason and there is no other, this is the best of reasons. And, you see, it is a tempering, it is the ordeal of fire, only that which can stand it remains absolutely pure; when everything has burnt down, there remains only the little ingot of pure gold. And it is like that. What puts things out very much in all this is the religious idea of fault, sin, redemption. But there is no arbitrary decision! On the contrary, for each one it is the best and most favourable conditions which are given. We were saying the other day that it is only his friends whom God treats with severity; you thought it was a joke, but it is true. It is only to those who are full of hope, who will pass through this purifying flame, that the conditions for attaining the maximum result are given. And the human mind is made in such a way that you may test this; when something extremely unpleasant happens to you, you may tell yourself, "Well, this proves I am worth the trouble of being given this difficulty, this proves there is something in me which can resist the difficulty", and you will notice that instead of tormenting yourself, you rejoice - you will be so happy and so strong that even the most unpleasant things will seem to you quite charming! This is a very easy experiment to make. Whatever the circumstance, if your mind is accustomed to look at it as something favourable, it will no longer be unpleasant for you. This is quite well known; as long as the mind refuses to accept a thing, struggles against it, tries to obstruct it, there are torments, difficulties, storms, inner struggles and all suffering. But the minute the mind says, "Good, this is what has to come, it is thus that it must happen", whatever happens, you are content. There are people who have acquired such control of their mind over their body that they feel nothing; I told you this the other day about certain mystics: if they think the suffering inflicted upon them is going to help them cross the stages in a moment and give them a sort of stepping stone to attain the Realisation, the goal they have put before them, union with the Divine, they no longer feel the suffering at all. Their body is as it were galvanised by the mental conception. This has happened very often, it is a very common experience among those who truly have enthusiasm. And after all, if one must for some reason or other leave one's body and take a new one, is it not better to make of one's death something magnificent, joyful, enthusiastic, than to make it a disgusting defeat? Those who cling on, who try by every possible means to delay the end even by a minute or two, who give you an example of frightful anguish, show that they are not conscious of their soul.... After all, it is perhaps a means, isn't it? One can change this accident into a means; if one is conscious one can make a beautiful thing of it, a very beautiful thing, as of everything. And note, those who do not fear it, who are not anxious, who can die without any sordidness are those who never think about it, who are not haunted all the time by this "horror" facing them which they must escape and which they try to push as far away from them as they can. These, when the occasion comes, can lift their head, smile and say, "Here I am."
It is they who have the will to make the best possible use of their life, it is they who say, "I shall remain here as long as it is necessary, to the last second, and I shall not lose one moment to realise my goal"; these, when the necessity comes, put up the best show. Why? - It is very simple, because they live in their ideal, the truth of their ideal; because that is the real thing for them, the very reason of their being, and in all things they can see this ideal, this reason of existence, and never do they come down into the sordidness of material life.
So, the conclusion:
One must never wish for death.
One must never will to die.
One must never be afraid to die.
And in all circumstances one must will to exceed oneself. ~ The Mother, Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.353-355,#KEYS
70:
The whole question.
The whole question? And now, do you understand?... Not quite? I told you that you did not understand because it was muddled up; in one question three different ideas were included. So naturally it created a confusion. But taken separately they are what I explained to you just now, most probably; that is to say, one has this altogether ignorant and obliterated consciousness and is convinced that he is the cause and effect, the origin and result of himself, separate from all others, separate with a limited power to act upon others and a little greater capacity to be set in movement by others or to react to others' influence. That is how people think usually, something like that, isn't that so? How do you feel, you? What effect do you have upon yourself? And you? And you?... You have never thought about it? You have never looked into yourself to see what effect you exercise upon yourself? Never thought over it? No? How do you feel? Nobody will tell me? Come, you tell me that. Never tried to understand how you feel? Yes? No? How strange! Never sought to understand how, for example, decisions take place in you? From where do they come? What makes you decide one thing rather than another? And what is the relation between a decision of yours and your action? And to what extent do you have the freedom of choice between one thing and another? And how far do you feel you are able to, you are free to do this or that or that other or nothing at all?... You have pondered over that? Yes? Is there any one among the students who has thought over it? No? Nobody put the question to himself? You? You?...
Even if one thinks over it, perhaps one is not able to answer!
One cannot explain?
No.
It is difficult to explain? Even this simple little thing, to see where in your consciousness the wills that come from outside meet your will (which you call yours, which comes from within), at what place the two join together and to what extent the one from outside acts upon that from within and the one from within acts upon that from outside? You have never tried to find this out? It has never seemed to you unbearable that a will from outside should have an action upon your will? No?
I do not know.
Oh! I am putting very difficult problems! But, my children, I was preoccupied with that when I was a child of five!... So I thought you must have been preoccupied with it since a long time. In oneself, there are contradictory wills. Yes, many. That is one of the very first discoveries. There is one part which wants things this way; and then at another moment, another way, and a third time, one wants still another thing! Besides, there is even this: something that wants and another which says no. So? But it is exactly that which has to be found if you wish in the least to organise yourself. Why not project yourself upon a screen, as in the cinema, and then look at yourself moving on it? How interesting it is!
This is the first step.
You project yourself on the screen and then observe and see all that is moving there and how it moves and what happens. You make a little diagram, it becomes so interesting then. And then, after a while, when you are quite accustomed to seeing, you can go one step further and take a decision. Or even a still greater step: you organise - arrange, take up all that, put each thing in its place, organise in such a way that you begin to have a straight movement with an inner meaning. And then you become conscious of your direction and are able to say: "Very well, it will be thus; my life will develop in that way, because that is the logic of my being. Now, I have arranged all that within me, each thing has been put in its place, and so naturally a central orientation is forming. I am following this orientation. One step more and I know what will happen to me for I myself am deciding it...." I do not know, I am telling you this; to me it seemed terribly interesting, the most interesting thing in the world. There was nothing, no other thing that interested me more than that.
This happened to me.... I was five or six or seven years old (at seven the thing became quite serious) and I had a father who loved the circus, and he came and told me: "Come with me, I am going to the circus on Sunday." I said: "No, I am doing something much more interesting than going to the circus!" Or again, young friends invited me to attend a meeting where we were to play together, enjoy together: "No, I enjoy here much more...." And it was quite sincere. It was not a pose: for me, it was like this, it was true. There was nothing in the world more enjoyable than that.
And I am so convinced that anybody who does it in that way, with the same freshness and sincerity, will obtain most interesting results.... To put all that on a screen in front of yourself and look at what is happening. And the first step is to know all that is happening and then you must not try to shut your eyes when something does not appear pleasant to you! You must keep them wide open and put each thing in that way before the screen. Then you make quite an interesting discovery. And then the next step is to start telling yourself: "Since all that is happening within me, why should I not put this thing in this way and then that thing in that way and then this other in this way and thus wouldn't I be doing something logical that has a meaning? Why should I not remove that thing which stands obstructing the way, these conflicting wills? Why? And what does that represent in the being? Why is it there? If it were put there, would it not help instead of harming me?" And so on.
And little by little, little by little, you see clearer and then you see why you are made like that, what is the thing you have got to do - that for which you are born. And then, quite naturally, since all is organised for this thing to happen, the path becomes straight and you can say beforehand: "It is in this way that it will happen." And when things come from outside to try and upset all that, you are able to say: "No, I accept this, for it helps; I reject that, for that harms." And then, after a few years, you curb yourself as you curb a horse: you do whatever you like, in the way you like and you go wherever you like.
It seems to me this is worth the trouble. I believe it is the most interesting thing.
...
You must have a great deal of sincerity, a little courage and perseverance and then a sort of mental curiosity, you understand, curious, seeking to know, interested, wanting to learn. To love to learn: that, one must have in one's nature. To find it impossible to stand before something grey, all hazy, in which nothing is seen clearly and which gives you quite an unpleasant feeling, for you do not know where you begin and where you end, what is yours and what is not yours and what is settled and what is not settled - what is this pulp-like thing you call yourself in which things get intermingled and act upon one another without even your being aware of it? You ask yourself: "But why have I done this?" You know nothing about it. "And why have I felt that?" You don't know that, either. And then, you are thrown into a world outside that is only fog and you are thrown into a world inside that is also for you another kind of fog, still more impenetrable, in which you live, like a cork thrown upon the waters and the waves carry it away or cast it into the air, and it drops and rolls on. That is quite an unpleasant state. I do not know, but to me it appears unpleasant.
To see clearly, to see one's way, where one is going, why one is going there, how one is to go there and what one is going to do and what is the kind of relation with others... But that is a problem so wonderfully interesting - it is interesting - and you can always discover things every minute! One's work is never finished.
There is a time, there is a certain state of consciousness when you have the feeling that you are in that condition with all the weight of the world lying heavy upon you and besides you are going in blinkers and do not know where you are going, but there is something which is pushing you. And that is truly a very unpleasant condition. And there is another moment when one draws oneself up and is able to see what is there above, and one becomes it; then one looks at the world as though from the top of a very very high mountain and one sees all that is happening below; then one can choose one's way and follow it. That is a more pleasant condition. This then is truly the truth, you are upon earth for that, surely. All individual beings and all the little concentrations of consciousness were created to do this work. It is the very reason for existence: to be able to become fully conscious of a certain sum of vibrations representing an individual being and put order there and find one's way and follow it.
And so, as men do not know it and do not do it, life comes and gives them a blow here: "Oh! that hurts", then a blow there: "Ah! that's hurting me." And the thing goes on like that and all the time it is like that. And all the time they are getting pain somewhere. They suffer, they cry, they groan. But it is simply due to that reason, there is no other: it is that they have not done that little work. If, when they were quite young, there had been someone to teach them to do the work and they had done it without losing time, they could have gone through life gloriously and instead of suffering they would have been all-powerful masters of their destiny.
This is not to say that necessarily all things would become pleasant. It is not at all that. But your reaction towards things becomes the true reaction and instead of suffering, you learn; instead of being miserable, you go forward and progress. After all, I believe it is for this that you are here - so that there is someone who can tell you: "There, well, try that. It is worth trying." ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, 199,#KEYS
71:The Science of Living
To know oneself and to control oneself
AN AIMLESS life is always a miserable life.
Every one of you should have an aim. But do not forget that on the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life.
Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others.
But whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realised unless you have realised perfection in yourself.
To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour.
As you pursue this labour of purification and unification, you must at the same time take great care to perfect the external and instrumental part of your being. When the higher truth manifests, it must find in you a mind that is supple and rich enough to be able to give the idea that seeks to express itself a form of thought which preserves its force and clarity. This thought, again, when it seeks to clothe itself in words, must find in you a sufficient power of expression so that the words reveal the thought and do not deform it. And the formula in which you embody the truth should be manifested in all your feelings, all your acts of will, all your actions, in all the movements of your being. Finally, these movements themselves should, by constant effort, attain their highest perfection.
All this can be realised by means of a fourfold discipline, the general outline of which is given here. The four aspects of the discipline do not exclude each other, and can be followed at the same time; indeed, this is preferable. The starting-point is what can be called the psychic discipline. We give the name "psychic" to the psychological centre of our being, the seat within us of the highest truth of our existence, that which can know this truth and set it in movement. It is therefore of capital importance to become conscious of its presence in us, to concentrate on this presence until it becomes a living fact for us and we can identify ourselves with it.
In various times and places many methods have been prescribed for attaining this perception and ultimately achieving this identification. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has to find the one which suits him best, and if one has an ardent and steadfast aspiration, a persistent and dynamic will, one is sure to meet, in one way or another - outwardly through reading and study, inwardly through concentration, meditation, revelation and experience - the help one needs to reach the goal. Only one thing is absolutely indispensable: the will to discover and to realise. This discovery and realisation should be the primary preoccupation of our being, the pearl of great price which we must acquire at any cost. Whatever you do, whatever your occupations and activities, the will to find the truth of your being and to unite with it must be always living and present behind all that you do, all that you feel, all that you think.
To complement this movement of inner discovery, it would be good not to neglect the development of the mind. For the mental instrument can equally be a great help or a great hindrance. In its natural state the human mind is always limited in its vision, narrow in its understanding, rigid in its conceptions, and a constant effort is therefore needed to widen it, to make it more supple and profound. So it is very necessary to consider everything from as many points of view as possible. Towards this end, there is an exercise which gives great suppleness and elevation to the thought. It is as follows: a clearly formulated thesis is set; against it is opposed its antithesis, formulated with the same precision. Then by careful reflection the problem must be widened or transcended until a synthesis is found which unites the two contraries in a larger, higher and more comprehensive idea.
Many other exercises of the same kind can be undertaken; some have a beneficial effect on the character and so possess a double advantage: that of educating the mind and that of establishing control over the feelings and their consequences. For example, you must never allow your mind to judge things and people, for the mind is not an instrument of knowledge; it is incapable of finding knowledge, but it must be moved by knowledge. Knowledge belongs to a much higher domain than that of the human mind, far above the region of pure ideas. The mind has to be silent and attentive to receive knowledge from above and manifest it. For it is an instrument of formation, of organisation and action, and it is in these functions that it attains its full value and real usefulness.
There is another practice which can be very helpful to the progress of the consciousness. Whenever there is a disagreement on any matter, such as a decision to be taken, or an action to be carried out, one must never remain closed up in one's own conception or point of view. On the contrary, one must make an effort to understand the other's point of view, to put oneself in his place and, instead of quarrelling or even fighting, find the solution which can reasonably satisfy both parties; there always is one for men of goodwill.
Here we must mention the discipline of the vital. The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depressions, of passions and revolts. It can set everything in motion, build and realise; but it can also destroy and mar everything. Thus it may be the most difficult part to discipline in the human being. It is a long and exacting labour requiring great patience and perfect sincerity, for without sincerity you will deceive yourself from the very outset, and all endeavour for progress will be in vain. With the collaboration of the vital no realisation seems impossible, no transformation impracticable. But the difficulty lies in securing this constant collaboration. The vital is a good worker, but most often it seeks its own satisfaction. If that is refused, totally or even partially, the vital gets vexed, sulks and goes on strike. Its energy disappears more or less completely and in its place leaves disgust for people and things, discouragement or revolt, depression and dissatisfaction. At such moments it is good to remain quiet and refuse to act; for these are the times when one does stupid things and in a few moments one can destroy or spoil the progress that has been made during months of regular effort. These crises are shorter and less dangerous for those who have established a contact with their psychic being which is sufficient to keep alive in them the flame of aspiration and the consciousness of the ideal to be realised. They can, with the help of this consciousness, deal with their vital as one deals with a rebellious child, with patience and perseverance, showing it the truth and light, endeavouring to convince it and awaken in it the goodwill which has been veiled for a time. By means of such patient intervention each crisis can be turned into a new progress, into one more step towards the goal. Progress may be slow, relapses may be frequent, but if a courageous will is maintained, one is sure to triumph one day and see all difficulties melt and vanish before the radiance of the truth-consciousness.
Lastly, by means of a rational and discerning physical education, we must make our body strong and supple enough to become a fit instrument in the material world for the truth-force which wants to manifest through us.
In fact, the body must not rule, it must obey. By its very nature it is a docile and faithful servant. Unfortunately, it rarely has the capacity of discernment it ought to have with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue, exhaustion and disease. It must be freed from this tyranny and this can be done only through a constant union with the psychic centre of the being. The body has a wonderful capacity of adaptation and endurance. It is able to do so many more things than one usually imagines. If, instead of the ignorant and despotic masters that now govern it, it is ruled by the central truth of the being, you will be amazed at what it is capable of doing. Calm and quiet, strong and poised, at every minute it will be able to put forth the effort that is demanded of it, for it will have learnt to find rest in action and to recuperate, through contact with the universal forces, the energies it expends consciously and usefully. In this sound and balanced life a new harmony will manifest in the body, reflecting the harmony of the higher regions, which will give it perfect proportions and ideal beauty of form. And this harmony will be progressive, for the truth of the being is never static; it is a perpetual unfolding of a growing perfection that is more and more total and comprehensive. As soon as the body has learnt to follow this movement of progressive harmony, it will be possible for it to escape, through a continuous process of transformation, from the necessity of disintegration and destruction. Thus the irrevocable law of death will no longer have any reason to exist.
When we reach this degree of perfection which is our goal, we shall perceive that the truth we seek is made up of four major aspects: Love, Knowledge, Power and Beauty. These four attributes of the Truth will express themselves spontaneously in our being. The psychic will be the vehicle of true and pure love, the mind will be the vehicle of infallible knowledge, the vital will manifest an invincible power and strength and the body will be the expression of a perfect beauty and harmony.
Bulletin, November 1950
~ The Mother, On Education,#KEYS
72:The Supreme Discovery
IF WE want to progress integrally, we must build within our conscious being a strong and pure mental synthesis which can serve us as a protection against temptations from outside, as a landmark to prevent us from going astray, as a beacon to light our way across the moving ocean of life.
Each individual should build up this mental synthesis according to his own tendencies and affinities and aspirations. But if we want it to be truly living and luminous, it must be centred on the idea that is the intellectual representation symbolising That which is at the centre of our being, That which is our life and our light.
This idea, expressed in sublime words, has been taught in various forms by all the great Instructors in all lands and all ages.
The Self of each one and the great universal Self are one. Since all that is exists from all eternity in its essence and principle, why make a distinction between the being and its origin, between ourselves and what we place at the beginning?
The ancient traditions rightly said:
"Our origin and ourselves, our God and ourselves are one."
And this oneness should not be understood merely as a more or less close and intimate relationship of union, but as a true identity.
Thus, when a man who seeks the Divine attempts to reascend by degrees towards the inaccessible, he forgets that all his knowledge and all his intuition cannot take him one step forward in this infinite; neither does he know that what he wants to attain, what he believes to be so far from him, is within him.
For how could he know anything of the origin until he becomes conscious of this origin in himself?
It is by understanding himself, by learning to know himself, that he can make the supreme discovery and cry out in wonder like the patriarch in the Bible, "The house of God is here and I knew it not."
That is why we must express that sublime thought, creatrix of the material worlds, and make known to all the word that fills the heavens and the earth, "I am in all things and all beings."When all shall know this, the promised day of great transfigurations will be at hand. When in each atom of Matter men shall recognise the indwelling thought of God, when in each living creature they shall perceive some hint of a gesture of God, when each man can see God in his brother, then dawn will break, dispelling the darkness, the falsehood, the ignorance, the error and suffering that weigh upon all Nature. For, "all Nature suffers and laments as she awaits the revelation of the Sons of God."
This indeed is the central thought epitomising all others, the thought which should be ever present to our remembrance as the sun that illumines all life.
That is why I remind you of it today. For if we follow our path bearing this thought in our hearts like the rarest jewel, the most precious treasure, if we allow it to do its work of illumination and transfiguration within us, we shall know that it lives in the centre of all beings and all things, and in it we shall feel the marvellous oneness of the universe.
Then we shall understand the vanity and childishness of our meagre satisfactions, our foolish quarrels, our petty passions, our blind indignations. We shall see the dissolution of our little faults, the crumbling of the last entrenchments of our limited personality and our obtuse egoism. We shall feel ourselves being swept along by this sublime current of true spirituality which will deliver us from our narrow limits and bounds.
The individual Self and the universal Self are one; in every world, in every being, in every thing, in every atom is the Divine Presence, and man's mission is to manifest it.
In order to do that, he must become conscious of this Divine Presence within him. Some individuals must undergo a real apprenticeship in order to achieve this: their egoistic being is too all-absorbing, too rigid, too conservative, and their struggles against it are long and painful. Others, on the contrary, who are more impersonal, more plastic, more spiritualised, come easily into contact with the inexhaustible divine source of their being.But let us not forget that they too should devote themselves daily, constantly, to a methodical effort of adaptation and transformation, so that nothing within them may ever again obscure the radiance of that pure light.
But how greatly the standpoint changes once we attain this deeper consciousness! How understanding widens, how compassion grows!
On this a sage has said:
"I would like each one of us to come to the point where he perceives the inner God who dwells even in the vilest of human beings; instead of condemning him we would say, 'Arise, O resplendent Being, thou who art ever pure, who knowest neither birth nor death; arise, Almighty One, and manifest thy nature.'"
Let us live by this beautiful utterance and we shall see everything around us transformed as if by miracle.
This is the attitude of true, conscious and discerning love, the love which knows how to see behind appearances, understand in spite of words, and which, amid all obstacles, is in constant communion with the depths.
What value have our impulses and our desires, our anguish and our violence, our sufferings and our struggles, all these inner vicissitudes unduly dramatised by our unruly imagination - what value do they have before this great, this sublime and divine love bending over us from the innermost depths of our being, bearing with our weaknesses, rectifying our errors, healing our wounds, bathing our whole being with its regenerating streams?
For the inner Godhead never imposes herself, she neither demands nor threatens; she offers and gives herself, conceals and forgets herself in the heart of all beings and things; she never accuses, she neither judges nor curses nor condemns, but works unceasingly to perfect without constraint, to mend without reproach, to encourage without impatience, to enrich each one with all the wealth he can receive; she is the mother whose love bears fruit and nourishes, guards and protects, counsels and consoles; because she understands everything, she can endure everything, excuse and pardon everything, hope and prepare for everything; bearing everything within herself, she owns nothing that does not belong to all, and because she reigns over all, she is the servant of all; that is why all, great and small, who want to be kings with her and gods in her, become, like her, not despots but servitors among their brethren.
How beautiful is this humble role of servant, the role of all who have been revealers and heralds of the God who is within all, of the Divine Love that animates all things....
And until we can follow their example and become true servants even as they, let us allow ourselves to be penetrated and transformed by this Divine Love; let us offer Him, without reserve, this marvellous instrument, our physical organism. He shall make it yield its utmost on every plane of activity.
To achieve this total self-consecration, all means are good, all methods have their value. The one thing needful is to persevere in our will to attain this goal. For then everything we study, every action we perform, every human being we meet, all come to bring us an indication, a help, a light to guide us on the path.
Before I close, I shall add a few pages for those who have already made apparently fruitless efforts, for those who have encountered the pitfalls on the way and seen the measure of their weakness, for those who are in danger of losing their self-confidence and courage. These pages, intended to rekindle hope in the hearts of those who suffer, were written by a spiritual worker at a time when ordeals of every kind were sweeping down on him like purifying flames.
You who are weary, downcast and bruised, you who fall, who think perhaps that you are defeated, hear the voice of a friend. He knows your sorrows, he has shared them, he has suffered like you from the ills of the earth; like you he has crossed many deserts under the burden of the day, he has known thirst and hunger, solitude and abandonment, and the cruellest of all wants, the destitution of the heart. Alas! he has known too the hours of doubt, the errors, the faults, the failings, every weakness.
But he tells you: Courage! Hearken to the lesson that the rising sun brings to the earth with its first rays each morning. It is a lesson of hope, a message of solace.
You who weep, who suffer and tremble, who dare not expect an end to your ills, an issue to your pangs, behold: there is no night without dawn and the day is about to break when darkness is thickest; there is no mist that the sun does not dispel, no cloud that it does not gild, no tear that it will not dry one day, no storm that is not followed by its shining triumphant bow; there is no snow that it does not melt, nor winter that it does not change into radiant spring.
And for you too, there is no affliction which does not bring its measure of glory, no distress which cannot be transformed into joy, nor defeat into victory, nor downfall into higher ascension, nor solitude into radiating centre of life, nor discord into harmony - sometimes it is a misunderstanding between two minds that compels two hearts to open to mutual communion; lastly, there is no infinite weakness that cannot be changed into strength. And it is even in supreme weakness that almightiness chooses to reveal itself!
Listen, my little child, you who today feel so broken, so fallen perhaps, who have nothing left, nothing to cover your misery and foster your pride: never before have you been so great! How close to the summits is he who awakens in the depths, for the deeper the abyss, the more the heights reveal themselves!
Do you not know this, that the most sublime forces of the vasts seek to array themselves in the most opaque veils of Matter? Oh, the sublime nuptials of sovereign love with the obscurest plasticities, of the shadow's yearning with the most royal light!
If ordeal or fault has cast you down, if you have sunk into the nether depths of suffering, do not grieve - for there indeed the divine love and the supreme blessing can reach you! Because you have passed through the crucible of purifying sorrows, the glorious ascents are yours.
You are in the wilderness: then listen to the voices of the silence. The clamour of flattering words and outer applause has gladdened your ears, but the voices of the silence will gladden your soul and awaken within you the echo of the depths, the chant of divine harmonies!
You are walking in the depths of night: then gather the priceless treasures of the night. In bright sunshine, the ways of intelligence are lit, but in the white luminosities of the night lie the hidden paths of perfection, the secret of spiritual riches.
You are being stripped of everything: that is the way towards plenitude. When you have nothing left, everything will be given to you. Because for those who are sincere and true, from the worst always comes the best.
Every grain that is sown in the earth produces a thousand. Every wing-beat of sorrow can be a soaring towards glory.
And when the adversary pursues man relentlessly, everything he does to destroy him only makes him greater.
Hear the story of the worlds, look: the great enemy seems to triumph. He casts the beings of light into the night, and the night is filled with stars. He rages against the cosmic working, he assails the integrity of the empire of the sphere, shatters its harmony, divides and subdivides it, scatters its dust to the four winds of infinity, and lo! the dust is changed into a golden seed, fertilising the infinite and peopling it with worlds which now gravitate around their eternal centre in the larger orbit of space - so that even division creates a richer and deeper unity, and by multiplying the surfaces of the material universe, enlarges the empire that it set out to destroy.
Beautiful indeed was the song of the primordial sphere cradled in the bosom of immensity, but how much more beautiful and triumphant is the symphony of the constellations, the music of the spheres, the immense choir that fills the heavens with an eternal hymn of victory!
Hear again: no state was ever more precarious than that of man when he was separated on earth from his divine origin. Above him stretched the hostile borders of the usurper, and at his horizon's gates watched jailers armed with flaming swords. Then, since he could climb no more to the source of life, the source arose within him; since he could no more receive the light from above, the light shone forth at the very centre of his being; since he could commune no more with the transcendent love, that love offered itself in a holocaust and chose each terrestrial being, each human self as its dwelling-place and sanctuary.
That is how, in this despised and desolate but fruitful and blessed Matter, each atom contains a divine thought, each being carries within him the Divine Inhabitant. And if no being in all the universe is as frail as man, neither is any as divine as he!
In truth, in truth, in humiliation lies the cradle of glory! 28 April 1912 ~ The Mother, Words Of Long Ago, The Supreme Discovery,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Freedom begins as we become conscious of it. ~ vernon-howard, @wisdomtrove 2:The greatest fault is to be conscious of none. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 3:A mind conscious of right laughs at the falsehoods of rumour. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 4:The mind that's conscious of its rectitude, Laughs at the lies of rumor. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 5:I have to be self-conscious of what I'm trying to do with my life. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 6:The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 7:We must become conscious of the oneness of being through the separateness. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 8:We acknowledge God only when we are conscious of His manifestation in us. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 9:A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 10:While I am working I am not conscious of what I am putting on the canvas. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 11:We can't only be conscious of oneness, but we can also be conscious of oneness. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 12:Every intention sets energy into motion whether you are conscious of it or not. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 13:I cannot understand how anyone conscious of mortal sin can laugh or be merry. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 14:I cannot understand how anyone conscious of mortal sin can laugh or be merry. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 15:Those who search for truth are too conscious of the maze to be hard on others... ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 16:Man's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 17:When we become conscious of the deep mystery, the mystery experience spontaneously arises. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 18:In order to understand, observe, deduce, man must first be conscious of himself as alive. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 19:What you are conscious of you can use. What you are unconscious of can use you, or escape you. ~ barry-long, @wisdomtrove 20:Be this our wall of brass, to be conscious of having done no evil, and to grow pale at no accusation. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 21:Conscious of not being able to separate myself from my time, I have decided to become part of it. ~ albert-camus, @wisdomtrove 22:When we’re conscious of the oneness of being, we fall in love with all beings. We simply love being. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 23:Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend. ~ oliver-wendell-holmes-sr, @wisdomtrove 24:Surely the goal of spirituality is to be conscious of both separateness and oneness at the same time? ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 25:The mind conscious of innocence despises false reports: but we are a set always ready to believe a scandal. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 26:Consciousness is a being the nature of which is to be conscious of the nothingness of its being. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 27:Education is only the most fully conscious of the channels whereby each generation influences the next. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 28:Change happens not by trying to make yourself change, but by becoming conscious of what’s not working. ~ shakti-gawain, @wisdomtrove 29:Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 30:And now we are conscious through separateness, we can also become conscious of the essential oneness of being. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 31:Be conscious of being conscious. Be the presence of spacious awareness within which your experience is arising. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 32:If we want to waken, we don’t need to eradicate the ego. We simply need to be conscious of the deep self as well. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 33:As you become more conscious of your body as eternity, a sense of ease, a fullness beyond description occurs. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 34:To become conscious of your naked essence you need to peel away all your superficial identities to reveal the deep self. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 35:All men alike stand condemned, not by alien codes of ethics, but by their own, and all men therefore are conscious of guilt. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 36:As the mind of each man is conscious of good or evil, so does he conceive within his breast hope or fear, according to his actions. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 37:I become conscious of my essential nature as the & 38:A friend is a second self, so that our consciousness of a friend's existence makes us more fully conscious of our own existence. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 39:When we’re conscious of ourselves as an individual expression of the primal oneness, it’s an experience of all-encompassing love. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 40:There is no yawning gulf between man and God. Through his aspiration and meditation, Man can become conscious of his oneness with God. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 41:The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows. The greatest of faults, I should say is to be conscious of none. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 42:The wind's in the east. . . . I am always conscious of an uncomfortable sensation now and then when the wind is blowing in the east. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 43:To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 44:If you strive only to avoid the darkness or to cling to the light, you cannot live in balance. Try striving to be conscious of all that you are. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 45:Be conscious of the way people take your energy and learn how to stop it. Accept that this goes on. Observe how you feel around other people. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 46:Mother Teresa's numerical results were not her greatest contribution. Instead, she made the world-and especially India-conscious of compassion. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove 47:Spirituality encourages us to pay attention to the elusive subjective perspective. It urges us to ‘look within’ and become conscious of the deep I. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 48:To become conscious of the deep mystery we need to enter a profound state of not-knowing. This is the gateway to deep knowing what-is before words. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 49:Very few people are conscious of the deeper strata of eternity. The primary reason is either because they lack purity or they lack motivation. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 50:A creator is not in advance of his generation but he is the first of his contemporaries to be conscious of what is happening to his generation. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 51:Analysis brings no curative powers in its train; it merely makes us conscious of the existence of an evil, which, oddly enough, is consciousness. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 52:Periods' are largely an invention of the historians. The poets themselves are not conscious of living in any period and refuse to conform to the scheme. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 53:If the soul wants to know God, it cannot do so in time. For so long as the soul is conscious of time or space or any other [object], it cannot know God. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 54:& 55:To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one's self... . And to venture in the highest is precisely to be conscious of one's self. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 56:God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 57:What is the relationship between awareness and thinking? Awareness is the space in which thoughts exist when that space has become conscious of itself. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 58:Mindful eating is eating slowly, fully tasting the food, appreciating every bite, being conscious of what you’re putting into your body, savoring but not overdoing. ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove 59:[T]he more one is conscious of one's political bias, the more chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one's aesthetic and intellectual integrity. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 60:Before we can realize who we really are, we must become conscious of the fact that the person we think we are, here and now, is at best an impostor and a stranger. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 61:People are only influenced in the direction in which they want to go, and influence consists largely in making them conscious of their wishes to proceed in that direction. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 62:Outside and above the mind there is the play of a consciousness which is lighted by the higher Truth, but man is not conscious of it and of that he has to be conscious. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 63:If we become forever engrossed with battling the mind, this prevents us seeing how easy it is to wake up by simply becoming conscious of the thinker as well as the thoughts. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 64:Really knowing you don’t know takes some work. It requires you to clearly see that your story is just a story; and to become conscious of the deep mystery at its foundation. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 65:What is really your own, you are not conscious of. What you are conscious of is neither you nor yours. Yours is the power of perception, not what you perceive. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 66:Each soul in entering the material experience does so for those purposes of advancement towards that awareness of being fully conscious of the oneness with the Creative Forces. ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 67:Go deeper still and become conscious of the oneness of being. You are the oneness connecting with itself by appearing as two. Sit with that beautiful paradox and see how it feels. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 68:We are never conscious of any experience separated or detached from the mind.… You yourself enter as a constituent into every mental fact of which you are conscious. ~ william-walker-atkinson, @wisdomtrove 69:The higher Truth is all the time working in us but through the lower power - Aparashakti. It is when we become conscious of the play of this higher Power then only yoga begins. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 70:The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 71:If I become conscious of the deep self within myself, I also become conscious of the deep self within others. Then I can connect ‘I to I’ with the people I meet in my everyday life. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 72:The true unconscious is the well-head, the fountain of real motivity. The sex of which Adam and Eve became conscious derived fromthe very God who bade them be not conscious of it. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 73:The winds that never moderation knew, Afraid to blow too much, too faintly blew; Or out of breath with joy, could not enlarge Their straighten'd lungs or conscious of their charge. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 74:Just as everybody has the vote including women, I think children should, because as a child is conscious of itself then it has to me an existence and has a stake in what happens. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 75:The gods, (if gods to goodness are inclined If acts of mercy touch their heavenly mind), And, more than all the gods, your generous heart, Conscious of worth, requite its own desert! ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 76:Once we see that the goal of awakening is to be conscious of both our separate identity as a person and our essential identity as awareness, it becomes much easier to wake up to oneness. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 77:The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence. ~ leonardo-da-vinci, @wisdomtrove 78:To be alive spiritually man must have union with God and must be conscious of it. Apart from this union his religious life will be an empty drudgery, a mere imitation of true spirituality. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 79:He was conscious of nothing except the blankness of the page in front of him, the itching of the skin above his ankle, the blaring of the music, and a slight booziness caused by the gin. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 80:If you practice witnessing, you'll become conscious of being the & 81:Is not anyone with any degree of mental honesty conscious of telling lies all day long, both in talking and writing, simply because lies will fall into artistic shape when truth will not? ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 82:True understanding is possible only when we are fully conscious of our thought, not as an operative observer on this thought, but completely and without the intervention of a choice. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 83:I am conscious of trying to stretch the boundaries of non-fiction writing. It's always surprised me how little attention many non-fiction writers pay to the formal aspects of their work. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 84:I use the term ‘awareness’ to describe the primal ground from which everything is arising like a dream. I use the term ‘consciousness’ to describe awareness when it is conscious of experience. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 85:The pious sectarian is proud because he is confident of his right of possession in God. The man of devotion is meek because he is conscious of God's right of love over his life and soul. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 86:The question of immortality is of its nature not a scholarly question. It is a question welling up from the interior which the subject must put to itself as it becomes conscious of itself. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 87:When we become deep awake, however, we transcend and include the rational mind within a more expansive state of consciousness. We’re conscious of ourselves as a playful child and a thinking adult. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 88:I am conscious of the fact that the subject of hell is not a very pleasant one. It is very unpopular, controversial and misunderstood... . As a minister, I must deal with it. I cannot ignore it. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 89:The fact that I am standing there and washing bowls is a wondrous reality. I'm being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 90:Theoretically, everyone's inner being knows everything. There is a part of us that is aware of all things. But that doesn't necessarily do us a whole lot of good unless we are conscious of that. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 91:You cannot be conscious of what does not change. All consciousness is consciousness of change. But the very perception of change - does it not necessitate a changeless background? ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 92:We don't want to get so lost in the separateness that we aren't conscious of the oneness, as that leads to a lot of avoidable suffering. We need to be conscious that we are both separate and not separate. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 93:Our Soul is a spark of the Divine. It is pure and perfect. Evil deeds merely obstruct our vision of the true nature of our Soul. Through good deeds we can become conscious of this perfection again. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 94:We have this recurring dream that we're human beings, that we have bodies, that we're in time and space, that there is birth and death. To awaken from the dream of life is to be conscious of eternity. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 95:The sky grew darker and the moon rose higher as the evening wore on. and without either or them being conscious of it, they began to regain the intimacy, the bond of familiarity, they had once shared. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 96:The deep awake state is ‘transrational’. It transcends and includes the rational state. It’s a more expansive state of consciousness in which we can be rational, but we’re also conscious of the deep mystery. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 97:Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm... it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 98:When love flies it is remembered not as love but as something else. Blessed are the uneducated, who forget it entirely, and are never conscious of folly or pruriency in the past, of long aimless conversations. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 99:When we practise ‘presencing’ we first enter our sensual experience. And then, as the Upanishads say so poetically, we become conscious of ‘the self who is the enjoyer of the honey from the flowers of the senses’. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 100:Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 101:Become conscious of what you think during the day. A negative thought will enter you. At first it will be vague, innocuous, but then it will root in your consciousness and soon it will be impossible to eradicate. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 102:When we’re conscious of the deep self and feel the deep love, it becomes much easier to acknowledge those parts of our personality that we would normally choose to ignore, because we’re able to love ourselves as we are. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 103:We need to become conscious of our essential nature as the spacious presence of awareness, so we deep know that all is one, and find ourselves in love with all. Then we need to express that love by living compassionately. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 104:If you are not conscious of all of the different parts of yourself, the part of yourself that is the strongest will win out over the other parts. Its intention will be the one that the personality uses to create its reality. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 105:Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than a minority of them - never become even conscious of them all. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 106:I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten- my world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine! ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 107:I think I exist,' he said wearily. & 108:These days I see myself as an individual expression of the primal awareness who is choosing to live lucidly, by both being conscious of my essential nature as the primal awareness and engaging passionately with the adventures of Tim. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 109:Meditation simplifies our outer life and energizes our inner life. Meditation gives us a natural and spontaneous life, a life that becomes so natural and spontaneous that we cannot breathe without being conscious of our own divinity. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 110:When I practice & 111:For it is probable that when people talk aloud, the selves (of which there may be more than two thousand) are conscious of disserverment, and are trying to communicate but when communication is established there is nothing more to be said. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 112:If my thoughts are agitated I simply become conscious that I’m listening to myself talking to myself. I pay attention to the silent presence which is listening. I become conscious of being spacious awareness within which the thoughts are arising. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 113:And whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 114:If we were always conscious of the fact that people precious to us are frighteningly mortal, hanging not even by a thread, but by a wisp of gossamer, perhaps we would be kinder to them and more grateful for the love and friendship they give to us. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 115:Lucid Tim has lots of frightening things to contend with in his life, too. But he's also conscious of his essential identity, which is always safe. This gives him the courage to engage with life as a daring adventure rather than a terrifying ordeal. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 116:I direct my attention to the individual, to make him strong, to teach him that he himself is divine, and I call upon men to make themselves conscious of this divinity within. That is really the ideal -conscious or unconscious -of every religion. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 117:The diseased pride [of artistic individualists] was not even conscious of a public interest, and would have found all political terms utterly tasteless and insignificant. It was no longer a question of one man one vote, but of one man one universe. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 118:We can at least try to understand our own motives, passions, and prejudices, so as to be conscious of what we are doing when we apeal to those of others. This is very difficult, because our own prejudice and emotional bias always seems to us so rational. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 119:The man who finds that in the course of his life he has done a lot of wrong often wakes up at night in terror, like a child with a nightmare, and his life is full of foreboding: but the man who is conscious of no wrongdoing is filled with cheerfulness and hope. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 120:They must take me for a fool, or even worse, a lunatic. And no wonder ,for I am so intensely conscious of my misfortune and my misery is so overwhelming that I am powerless to resist it and am being turned into stone, devoid of all knowledge or feeling. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 121:A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how." ~ viktor-frankl, @wisdomtrove 122:Father is the existence out of which everything comes; Son is that knowledge. It is in Christ that God will be manifest. God was everywhere, in all beings, before Christ; but in Christ we became conscious of Him. This is God. The third is bliss, the Holy Spirit. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 123:At no time are people so sedulously careful to keep their trifling appointments, attend to their ordinary occupations, and thus put a commonplace aspect on life, as when conscious of some secret that if suspected would make them look monstrous in the general eye. ~ nathaniel-hawthorne, @wisdomtrove 124:Happiness, like health, is probably also only a passing accident. For a moment or two the organism is irritated so little that it is not conscious of it; for the duration of that moment it is happy. Thus a hog is always happier than a man, and a bacillus is happier than a hog ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 125:I'm meditating and I'm enjoying the bliss of being deep awake. I'm conscious of being a spacious presence within which the world is arising like a dream. Thoughts and sensations are coming and going in my peripheral attention, but my focus is on the stillness of my essential nature. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 126:Observation and thinking are the two points of departure for all the spiritual striving of man, insofar as he is conscious of such striving. The workings of common sense, as well as the most complicated scientific researches, rest on these two fundamental pillars of our spirit. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 127:When I understand that I am both an irrelevant speck and the star of the show, it makes me feel both humble and empowered. I want to encourage you both to be conscious of the oneness of being and to feel empowered as a unique individual who is the hero of your amazing life adventure. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 128:The scientific story of the evolving cosmos is a new version of this ancient myth. It relates how the oneness of unconscious nature has become conscious of itself through evolving into ever more complex forms, until it reaches the human form in which it is conscious of being conscious. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 129:We can't know our deeper identity objectively, since awareness isn't an object in our experience. But we can subjectively know ourselves to be the experiencer. And we can do this by simply becoming conscious of being conscious. This is the wake-up technique known as & 130:A man likes to believe that he is the master of his soul. But as long as he is unable to control his moods and emotions, or to be conscious of the myriad secret ways in which unconscious factors insinuate themselves into his arrangements and decisions, he is certainly not his own master. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 131:Being conscious of having done a wicked action leaves stings of remorse behind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart with perpetual wounds; for reason, which chases away all other pains, creates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punishes it with torment. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 132:In the beginning all souls were as a unity to the God-Force. As self added or subtracted that which was in keeping with God's purpose, ye added or subtracted from the blessings ye might be conscious of in materiality. Thus karma is builded. And the law is perfect - what ye sow, ye reap. ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 133:The demonizing of the mind makes it harder to awaken. If we believe that to awaken we must try to stop thinking, we become forever engrossed with battling the mind. And this prevents us seeing how easy it is to wake up, by simply becoming conscious of the deep mystery as well as the story. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 134:The paradox is that consciousness arises with discrimination, so to be conscious is to experience separateness. This means we can never just be conscious of oneness. We must become conscious of both separateness and oneness. We must become conscious of the oneness through the separateness. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 135:You are the life-dreamer imagining yourself to be a particular person in the life-dream. While you identify exclusively with your life-persona you will remain unconsciously engrossed in the life-dream. Lucid living happens when you become conscious of both poles of your paradoxical nature. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 136:I am awareness that is looking, but can’t be seen. I am awareness that is listening, but can’t be heard. I am an unchanging stillness witnessing an ever-changing flow of experiences. I am conscious of being the formless presence of awareness within which my experience is arising like a dream. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 137:We want to worship a living God. I have not seen anything but God all my life, nor have you... He is everywhere, saying, "I am." The moment you feel "I am," you are conscious of Existence. Where shall we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being? ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 138:The simplest way to start becoming deep awake is to wonder… to look at the world with amazement… to be conscious of the breathtaking mystery of existence… to recognize that you really don’t know what life is. If you wonder deeply you’ll come out of your story and into the mystery of the moment. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 139:By understanding evolution as the expression of universal intelligence, now becoming conscious of itself within us, and as us, we overcome the dichotomy between current evolutionists who see no design in evolution, and creationists who often propose and anthropomorphic God as creator. ~ barbara-marx-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 140:Mystics of all traditions claim that if we become conscious of our essential nature, we will realize that in reality, there is only one of us. There is one Self experiencing itself to be many individual selves. There is one Big Mind, as the Zen masters say, within which the dream of life is arising. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 141:I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 142:The ground of being is like an ocean of unconscious awareness, arising as individual waves of consciousness. The conscious waves seem separate, but the oceanic depths are one. In the normal waking state, I'm conscious of being the wave; but in the deep awake state, I'm also conscious of being the unfathomable ocean. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 143:I used to see the goal of the adventure of awakening as a state of enlightenment, in which I dissolved into the oneness of things. But for me, being deep awake is a state of both transcendental enlightenment and passionate enlivenment. When I live lucidly, I am both conscious of oneness and in love with separateness. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 144:I am conscious right now of an ever-changing stream of experiences. Normally I focus my attention on what I am experiencing, but I’m choosing to be conscious of myself as the experiencer. I am the experiencer of all that I’m experiencing. I am the presence of awareness witnessing colours … sounds … feelings … thoughts. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 145:If I'm lost in the story of Tim, I become fearful, selfish, and agitated. So I need to step out of the story and become conscious of my deeper identity, which is free, spacious, and at peace. But the process doesn't stop there. Now I'm ready to really engage with the story because I know that fundamentally all is well. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 146:When I deep know my essential nature I feel liberated from the confines of the story of Tim and conscious of the oneness of being. But the deep love I feel in the deep awake state impels me back into the story to compassionately engage with life … to care for others … to make the world a better place for future generations. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 147:Becoming a ‘lover of life’ isn’t about achieving a spiritually awakened state in which we’re detached from life. It’s becoming conscious of the deep self so that we can engage compassionately with the adventures of the separate self. It’s discovering the love within us, so that we can express this love in the world around us. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 148:Before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding; and those who are conscious of their inferiority have the modesty not to talk; when they have drunk wine, every man feels himself happy, and loses that modesty, and grows impudent and vociferous; but he is not improved; he is only not sensible of his defects. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 149:To be aware is to be awake. Unaware means asleep. You are aware anyhow, you need not try to be. What you need is to be aware of being aware. Be aware deliberately and consciously, broaden and deepen the field of awareness. You are always conscious of the mind, but you are not aware of yourself as being conscious. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 150:I’ve found that an extremely simple and effective way to transform my state of consciousness is to use the practice of ‘entering’. This brings my attention to the immediacy of my sensual experience, so that I become intensely conscious of the here and now. Then I can step out of my story in time and into the mystery of the moment. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 151:We are only conscious because we’re experiencing the world of separateness. But now we are conscious through experiencing separateness, we can also become conscious of the essential oneness of being. If we get lost in our concepts we don’t experience the primal oneness, but without these concepts we wouldn’t be conscious at all. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 152:It seems to me that self and no-self paralogically coexist. It’s like in the yin/yang symbol. There’s a dot of white in the middle of the black, and vice versa. In the same way when I go to the depths of the separate self I find the no-self. But when I dissolve into the no-self I see that it’s Tim who is conscious of this happening. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 153:But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? And yet -! ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 154:As we grow older we become more conscious of the complexity, incoherence, and unreasonableness of human beings; this indeed is the only excuse that offers for the middle-aged or elderly writer whose thoughts should more properly be turned to graver matters, occupying himself with the trivial concerns of imaginary people. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 155:All sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself, and is always real, wherever a man is conscious of it. But all determinations of the understanding are not right; because they have a reference to something beyond themselves, to wit, real matter of fact; and are not always conformable to that standard. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 156:Just as it drives me mad when I’m with someone who won’t stop talking, it also drives me mad when I won’t stop talking to myself. I need to be quiet as well as talk. I need to be conscious of the deep silence as well as the ideas that arise within it. Then thinking isn’t a problem. In fact, like a good conversation, it’s a great pleasure. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 157:A tremendously complex work is going on all the time in your brain and body, are you conscious of it? Not at all. Yet for an outsider all seems to be going on intelligently and purposefully. Why not admit that one’s entire personal life may sink largely below the threshold of consciousness and yet proceed sanely and smoothly. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 158:But he hated to be sober. It made him conscious of the people around him, of that air of struggle, of greedy ambition, of hope more sordid than despair, of incessant passage up or down…. There was kindliness about intoxication – there was the indescribable gloss and glamour it gave, like the memories of ephemeral and faded evenings ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 159:The superficial self is what I appear to be. I appear to be ‘Tim’. But the deep self is what I am… my mysterious essence… my ineffable spirit… my naked being. And when I become conscious of my deepest being I discover I am one with all beings. I see that as separate individuals you and I are like different waves on one great ocean of being. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 160:Becoming conscious of the mystery of existence is an extremely simple way to step out of my conceptual story. When I'm stuck in my dramas, I remember that in reality I have no idea what is going on, as life is always so much more than I can possibly understand. Then if I dive deeply into the mystery, my state of consciousness begins to change. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 161:Conscious business.. business that is conscious of inner and outer worlds.. would therefore be business that takes into account body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature. Put differently, conscious business would be mindful of the way that the spectrum of consciousness operates in the Big Three worlds of self and culture and nature. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 162:A Zen master was walking with one of his students who asked him: ‘How can I awaken?’ The master was quiet for a moment and then he replied: ‘Can you hear that babbling brook? … Enter there.’ The master is telling him to become profoundly conscious of what he’s already experiencing, by ‘entering’ into his sensual experience in the present moment. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 163:The & 164:Subjectively I am the experiencer of this moment. I am the mysterious presence I call ‘I’. I’m conscious of being the ‘I’ experiencing a stream of experiences right now. But what is the ‘I’? The ‘I’ is aware of this moment, so I could describe the ‘I’ as ‘awareness’. I am awareness witnessing an ever-changing flow of experiences that I call ‘life’. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 165:I’ve offered an alternative paralogical approach to awakening, which encourages us to wake up to oneness and love the experience of separateness… to be conscious of the deep self and embrace our flawed humanity… to transcend the mind and appreciate the mind… to know deep peace and feel intense passions… to play in the moment and evolve through time. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 166:The rules of the game of life are quite simple. Always tell the truth. Never live in fear of anything or anyone. Be conscious of what you are thinking so you can always think positively. Do everything that you do for the love of doing it. If you devote yourself, your time and your energy to following these rules, have no doubt - you cannot lose! ~ lyania-vanzant, @wisdomtrove 167:The measure of our rationality determines the degree of vividness with which we appreciate the needs of other life, the extent to which we become conscious of the real character of our own motives and impulses, the ability to harmonize conflicting impulses in our own life and in society, and the capacity to choose adequate means for approved ends. ~ reinhold-niebuhr, @wisdomtrove 168:Some medical beast had revived tar-water in those days as a fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the cupboard; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its nastiness. At the best of times, so much of this elixir was administered to me as a choice restorative, that I was conscious of going about, smelling like a new fence. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 169:Subjectively I am the experiencer of this moment. I am the mysterious presence I call ‘I’. I’m conscious of being the ‘I’ experiencing a stream of experiences right now. But what is the ‘I’? The ‘I’ is aware of this moment, so I could describe the ‘I’ as ‘awareness’. I am awareness witnessing an ever-changing flow of experiences that I call ‘life’. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 170:The problem seems to be that good Tim is too weak to triumph over bad Tim. But actually the problem is the war itself. Peace is only possible when I stop identifying with either of these Tims and instead become conscious of my deeper identity as the & 171:The God of Christians is a God of love and comfort, a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom he possesses, a God who makes them conscious of their inward wretchedness, and his infinite mercy; who unites himself to their inmost soul, who fills it with humility and joy, with confidence and love, who renders them incapable of any other end than himself. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 172:Knowledge has two extremes. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at birth. The other extreme is that reached by great minds, who, having run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back again to that same natural ignorance from which they set out; this is a learned ignorance which is conscious of itself. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 173:Imagine an omnipresent, formless field of unconscious awareness, within which all the forms of life are arising. Your body is an individual form arising within the primal field through which unconscious being becomes conscious of being. Your body is a centre of conscious awareness illuminating a particular ‘bubble’ of experience within the field of unconscious awareness. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 174:We are only conscious because we’re experiencing the world of separateness. But now we are conscious through experiencing separateness, we can also become conscious of the essential oneness of being. If we get lost in our concepts we don’t experience the primal oneness, but without these concepts we wouldn’t be conscious at all. So we come to know the wordless via words… ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 175:This transformation is already proceeding, and if we want to consciously find these evolutionary currents operating in our own being as well-if we want to consciously join Spirit-in-action-then the four quardrants can help us orient ourselves more effectively, can help us become more conscious of the evolutionary currents already flowing around us and through us and in us. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 176:When you look at some faces, you can see the turbulence of the infinite beginning to gather to the surface. This moment can open in a gaze from a stranger, or in a conversation with someone you know well. Suddenly, without their intending it or being conscious of it, their gaze lasts for only a second. In that slightest interim, something more than the person looks out. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 177:An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own existence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It inevitably dooms itself to calamities that must strike it dead. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 178:Q: All teachers advise to meditate. What is the purpose of meditation? M: We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 179:Your soul has a special mission. Your soul is supremely conscious of it. Maya, illusion or forgetfulness, makes you feel that you are finite, weak and helpless. This is not true. You are not the body. You are not the senses. You are not the mind. These are all limited. You are the soul, which is unlimited. Your soul is infinitely powerful. Your soul defies all time and space. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 180:Having an & 181:Perhaps the best place to begin with an integral approach to business is with.. oneself. In the Big Three of self, culture, and world, integral mastery starts with self. How do body and mind and spirit operate in me? How does that necessarily impact my role in the world of business? And how can I become more conscious of these already operating realities in myself and in others? ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 182:And this huge realization brings us to the happy ending. When we know that we are one with everything and everyone, we find ourselves in love with everything and everyone, because love is how oneness feels. When we’re conscious of the oneness of being, we fall in love with all beings. We simply love being. So our epic fable turns out to be a love story … and that’s what makes it worth telling. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 183:I am conscious that I am conscious. I am conscious of being. How does this feel? It feels as if I am a mysterious presence which is always present. I am an unchanging stillness witnessing an ever-changing flow of experiences. In the flow of experiences, I appear to be a person called ‘Tim’. But essentially, I am awareness witnessing the unfolding adventures of Tim. This is my deep self. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 184:If you experiment with presencing I think you’ll find your state of consciousness shifting straight away. Start by coming out of your normal waking state by entering the delicious sensation of breathing and immerse yourself in the mystery of the moment. Then sink your attention into the depths of yourself and become conscious of being the presence of awareness witnessing all you are experiencing. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 185:One is conscious of no brave and noble earnestness in it, of no generalized passion for intellectual and spiritual adventure, of no organized determination to think things out. What is there is a highly self-conscious and insipid correctness, a bloodless respectability submergence of matter in manner& 186:The Great Man's sincerity is of the kind he cannot speak of, is not conscious of: nay, I suppose, he is conscious rather of insincerity; for what man can walk accurately by the law of truth for one day? No, the Great Man does not boast himself sincere, far from that; perhaps does not ask himself if he is so: I would say rather, his sincerity does not depend on himself; he cannot help being sincere! ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 187:To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulne¬≠ss while telling carefully constructe¬≠d lies, to hold simultaneo¬≠usly two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradict¬≠ory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 188:Instead of & 189:You may not be quite conscious of your physiological functions, but when it comes to thoughts and feelings, desires and fears you become acutely self-conscious. To me these too are largely unconscious. I find myself talking to people, or doing things quite correctly and appropriately, without being very much conscious of them. It looks as if I live my physical, waking life automatically, reacting spontaneously and accurately. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 190:When people talk as if the Crusades were nothing more than an aggressive raid against Islam, they seem to forget in the strangest way that Islam itself was only an aggressive raid against the old and ordered civilization in these parts. I do not say it in mere hostility to the religion of Mahomet; I am fully conscious of many values and virtues in it; but certainly it was Islam that was the invasion and Christendom that was the thing invaded. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 191:The scientific story points to this deep purpose of life. It tells how the evolutionary process has filled the world with ever more conscious forms of life, until it has created human beings. What makes us so special is that we’re not just conscious, we’re conscious that we’re conscious. We know that we exist. We are conscious of being. And if we focus our attention on our deepest being we become deep awake. And then we can live as a lover of life. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 192:All the controversialists who have become conscious of the real issue are already saying of our ideal exactly what used to be said of the Socialists' ideal. They are saying that private property is too ideal not to be impossible. They are saying that private enterprise is too good to be true. They are saying that the idea of ordinary men owning ordinary possessions is against the laws of political economy and requires an alteration in human nature. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 193:At physical death man loses his consciousness of the flesh and becomes conscious of his astral body in the astral world. Thus physical death is astral birth. Later, he passes from the consciousness of luminous astral birth to the consciousness of dark astral death and awakens in a new physical body. Thus astral death is physical birth. These recurrent cycles of physical and astral encasements are the ineluctable destiny of all unenlightened men. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 194:The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim-for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives -is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 195:When we assume we are just separate individuals we act in our limited self-interest, regardless of the suffering we may cause others. But becoming conscious of oneness leads to the selfless desire to create universal wellbeing. This realisation has huge implications. It means harming others is hurting ourselves. It means revenge – even against the most hideous criminals – is hurting ourselves again. It means war – no matter how righteous – is grotesque self-mutilation. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 196:Remember to stop as often as necessary to re-connect your energy. Stay full, stay in a state of love. Remember that once you achieve the state of love, nothing nor anyone can pull more energy from you that you can replace. In fact, the energy flowing out of you creates a current that pulls energy into you at the same rate. You can never run out. But you must stay conscious of this process in order for it to work. This is especially important when you interact with people. ~ james-redfield, @wisdomtrove 197:But the novels of women were not affected only by the necessarily narrow range of the writer's experience. They showed, at least in the nineteenth century, another characteristic which may be traced to the writer's sex. In Middlemarch and in Jane Eyre we are conscious not merely of the writer's character, as we are conscious of the character of Charles Dickens, but we are conscious of a woman's presence of someone resenting the treatment of her sex and pleading for its rights. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 198:In my experience the more I become conscious of the deep self, which is not in time, the more I can enter into the story of Tim in time. When I’m only superficially awake I hold back from life because it’s so scary. I want to commit to my life and choose to really live, but I nervously put it off until tomorrow. But in the deep awake state of safe vulnerability I’m able to take the risk and go for my life. I can dare to passionately engage with the scary business of living. I can love being human. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 199:It is (to describe it figuratively) as if an author were to make a slip of the pen, and as if this clerical error became conscious of being such. Perhaps this was no error but in a far higher sense was an essential part of the whole exposition. It is, then, as if this clerical error were to revolt against the author, out of hatred for him, were to forbid him to correct it, and were to say, "No, I will not be erased, I will stand as a witness against thee, that thou art a very poor writer." ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 200:It seems to me that this demonizing of the mind is a profound mistake. It’s absolutely true, of course, that when we get lost in our habitual thoughts it makes it harder to awaken. This is a valuable insight, but it’s only half the story. I take a paralogical approach. To me the mind is a wonderful tool with which to create and criticize my story of life. But I don’t want to be only conscious of the mind and the story it weaves for me. To become deep awake I also need to be conscious of the deep mystery. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 201:The Shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapuetic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period of time. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 202:Now you can presence the present moment. You do this by focusing your attention on your essential nature, which is witnessing all you are experiencing, yet can’t be seen or heard or touched. Then you’ll become conscious of being the spacious presence of awareness within which your experience is arising like a dream. You’ll come to deep-know that you are one with the primal field of awareness. And when you deep-know that you are one with the mystery of being, a primal, unconditional, limitless love of being naturally arises. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 203:To the man who is truly ethical all life is sacred, including that which from the human point of view seems lower in the scale. He makes distinctions only as each case comes before him, and under the pressure of necessity, as, for example, when it falls to him to decide which of two lives he must sacrifice in order to preserve the other. But all through this series of decisions he is conscious of acting on subjective grounds and arbitrarily, and knows that he bears the responsibility for the life which is sacrificed. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 204:There is a drowsy state, between sleeping and waking, when you dream more in five minutes with your eyes half open, and yourself half conscious of everything that is passing around you, than you would in five nights with your eyes fast closed, and your senses wrapt in perfect unconsciousness. At such time, a mortal knows just enough of what his mind is doing, to form some glimmering conception of its mighty powers, its bounding from earth and spurning time and space, when freed from the restraint of its corporeal associate. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 205:These are very unskillful comparisons to represent so precious a thing, but I am not clever enough to think out any more: the real truth is that joy makes the soul so forgetful of itself, and of everything, that it is conscious of nothing, and able to speak of nothing, save of that which proceeds from its joy... Let us join with this soul, my daughters all. Why should we want to be more sensible than she? What can give us greater pleasure than to do as she does? And may all the creatures join with us for ever and ever. Amen, amen, amen. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 206:Compared with the person who is conscious of his despair, the despairing individual who is ignorant of his despair is simply a negativity further away from the truth and deliverance. . . Yet ignorance is so far from breaking the despair or changing despair to nondespairing that it can in fact be the most dangerous form of despair. . . . An individual is furthest from being conscious of himself as spirit when he is ignorant of being in despair. But precisely this-not to be conscious of oneself as spirit-is despair, which is spiritlessness. . . . ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 207:History shows that great economic and social forces flow like a tide over communities only half conscious of that which is befalling them. Wise statesmen foresee what time is thus bringing, and try to shape institutions and mold men's thoughts and purposes in accordance with the change that is silently coming on. The unwise are those who bring nothing constructive to the process, and who greatly imperil the future of mankind by leaving great questions to be fought out between ignorant change on one hand and ignorant opposition to change on the other. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 208:God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 209:I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare. Since I had always been especially sorry for people who suffered from fearful dreams or deliria, I wanted to wake the poor man. Suddenly I drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, frightened at the thing I was about to do. At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him. ~ viktor-frankl, @wisdomtrove 210:Whether future growth is to come through additional incarnations on this earth, or in other worlds, or whether the Soul once released from the bonds of earthly flesh, goes into other planes of existence, there to grow, is not fundamental— not material. The Universe is large, and it is just possible that we may be given an opportunity of visiting all parts of it in our development, in which case it would seem that we are on a comparatively low plane of life just now— are just awakening into a consciousness of what it all means, and in the future we will be conscious of our growth and progress and development. ~ william-walker-atkinson, @wisdomtrove 211:Just as fire burns away all dross and rubbish, so the three fold suffering purges man's heart from all impurity and results in a growing single mindedness in his search after Truth. When he becomes deeply conscious of his weakness and tormented by the thoughts of his undesirable impulses and distressing characteristics, when afflictions like poverty, bereavement or humiliation make him feel his life is futile, then and then only does he develop real faith and religious fervor, and becomes anxious to surrender himself at the feet of the Supreme Being. Suffering should therefore be welcomed. Never does the soft moonlight appear more soothing than after the scorching heat of a summer day. ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:The day is conscious of itself. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
2:scarcely conscious of himself ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
3:The mind that's conscious of its rectitude, ~ Ovid, #NFDB
4:Become conscious of being conscious. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
5:I've always been conscious of my weight. ~ Leona Lewis, #NFDB
6:I personally am not conscious of my accent. ~ Jared Diamond, #NFDB
7:Freedom begins as we become conscious of it. ~ Vernon Howard, #NFDB
8:You don't want to be conscious of everything. ~ Emily Haines, #NFDB
9:I will always be conscious of your absence. ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
10:Man is the universe becoming conscious of itself. ~ Greg Iles, #NFDB
11:Be conscious of God and speak always the truth. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
12:The greatest fault is to be conscious of none. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
13:Become intensely conscious of the present moment. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
14:The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
15:A mind conscious of right laughs at the falsehoods of rumour. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
16:I am beginning to be conscious of being conscious. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
17:My approach is just being conscious of everything. ~ Jennifer Aniston, #NFDB
18:Pavarotti is not vain, but conscious of being unique. ~ Peter Ustinov, #NFDB
19:The greatest of faults...is to be conscious of none. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
20:To be conscious of gratitude is to acknowledge a gift. ~ Josef Pieper, #NFDB
21:The wretched man seemed fully conscious of his position. ~ P G Wodehouse, #NFDB
22:I am not very conscious of the figures of speech that I use. ~ Mick Jagger, #NFDB
23:Evolution is nothing but matter become conscious of itself. ~ Julian Huxley, #NFDB
24:history is the story of liberty becoming conscious of itself. ~ Clive James, #NFDB
25:I am always conscious of this secret disruption in me ~ Katherine Mansfield, #NFDB
26:She was so conscious of them both as pieces of her heart. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
27:Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
28:who are you? Consciousness that has become conscious of itself. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
29:I have to be self-conscious of what I'm trying to do with my life. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
30:Life would be unbearable if we made ourselves conscious of it. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
31:You do your best work when you're not conscious of yourself. ~ Peter Matthiessen, #NFDB
32:People in Sweden are very conscious of what people are saying about you. ~ Avicii, #NFDB
33:We are conscious of the force of man's life, and we call it freedom ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
34:Well, the real Eric Bogosian is pretty self-conscious of himself. ~ Eric Bogosian, #NFDB
35:O: 'Are you conscious of your thoughts before language embodies them? ~ Bill Hayes, #NFDB
36:The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
37:The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
38:A man who has become conscious of the absurd is for ever bound to it. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
39:I am conscious of having served England as I served my own country. ~ Ferdinand Foch, #NFDB
40:The living soul of man, once conscious of its power, cannot be quelled. ~ Horace Mann, #NFDB
41:By meditating on death, we paradoxically become conscious of life. ~ Stephen Batchelor, #NFDB
42:I am very conscious of who I am as an artist and as an inspirational person. ~ R Kelly, #NFDB
43:I cannot even remember a time before being conscious of James Bond. ~ Barbara Broccoli, #NFDB
44:It's time for everybody to start becoming conscious of their conscience. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
45:She’s changed, become conscious of her own standing, lost her spirit. ~ Sabine Durrant, #NFDB
46:While we're working, we must be conscious of what we're doing. ~ Henri Cartier Bresson, #NFDB
47:No woman is envious of another's virtue who is conscious of her own. ~ Charlotte Lennox, #NFDB
48:The power of the word is real whether or not you are conscious of it. ~ Sonia Choquette, #NFDB
49:We acknowledge God only when we are conscious of His manifestation in us. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
50:With every choice you make, be conscious of what need it serves. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
51:Your soul has a special mission. Your soul is supremely conscious of it. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
52:A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
53:A writer is not always conscious of the influences he has received. ~ Mario Vargas Llosa, #NFDB
54:I am extremely active and conscious of not eating any processed foods. ~ Sebastian Roche, #NFDB
55:Not one moment when I have not been conscious of being outside Paradise. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
56:The artist beholds in nature more than she herself Nature is conscious of. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
57:A smile hiding my bitter disappointment, conscious of Jack’s hand on my back. ~ B A Paris, #NFDB
58:I am conscious of a partly pathological hostility toward what is fashionable. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
59:Not one moment when I have not been conscious of being outside Paradise. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
60:Now she felt conscious of a solemn truth. It was horrific. It was freeing. ~ Jeff Carlson, #NFDB
61:While I am working I am not conscious of what I am putting on the canvas. ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
62:Men ought to become more conscious of their bodies as objects of delight. ~ Germaine Greer, #NFDB
63:I feel very conscious of my influences. T.H. White is very important for me. ~ Lev Grossman, #NFDB
64:For what could any Entity, conscious of eternal existence, want – but an end? ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
65:"[N]o one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
66:There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination. ~ Mencius, #NFDB
67:He felt marvellously conscious of the moment, of here and now, of this day. ~ Penelope Lively, #NFDB
68:I'm really conscious of not doing something just for the sake of moving forward. ~ Rick Owens, #NFDB
69:Realisation is a matter of becoming conscious of that which is already realised. ~ Wei Wu Wei, #NFDB
70:The essence of life consists in thinking, and being conscious of one's soul. ~ Joseph Joubert, #NFDB
71:I am conscious of my own limitations. That consciousness is my only strength. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
72:Those who search for truth are too conscious of the maze to be hard on others... ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
73:To save the seas, we can eat sustainably and be conscious of the seafood we eat. ~ Carl Safina, #NFDB
74:I consider myself conscious of how we're treated, and sometimes I can be a feminist. ~ Pam Grier, #NFDB
75:I'm going to think only about you, it's the only way I'm conscious of myself... ~ Julio Cort zar, #NFDB
76:I really hate being self-conscious—and being conscious of being self-conscious ~ Natalie Portman, #NFDB
77:Without being conscious of death, you can’t be fully aware of the gift of life. ~ Steve Chandler, #NFDB
78:A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
79:As long as you are conscious of yourself, you can never concentrate on anything. ~ Walpola Rahula, #NFDB
80:I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing. ~ J Cole, #NFDB
81:We are not conscious of most things until we ask ourselves questions about them. ~ David Eagleman, #NFDB
82:You're lucky. I'm always conscious of myself —in my mind. Painfully conscious. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
83:Like great works, deep feelings always mean more than they are conscious of saying. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
84:made him more conscious of how little experience he had of saying what he meant. ~ Edward St Aubyn, #NFDB
85:Nothing in life is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of his guilt. ~ Ravi Subramanian, #NFDB
86:I watch what I eat obviously. I'm not a regular gym-goer but I'm conscious of it. ~ Elisha Cuthbert, #NFDB
87:.. we are not conscious of most things until we ask ourselves questions about them ~ David Eagleman, #NFDB
88:Without being conscious of death, you can't be fully
aware of the gift of life. ~ Steve Chandler,#NFDB
89:I cannot understand how anyone conscious of mortal sin can laugh or be merry. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
90:A mind that is conscious of its integrity scorns to say more than it means to perform. ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
91:Dignity is like a perfume; those who use it are scarcely conscious of it. ~ Christina Queen of Sweden, #NFDB
92:Man's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
93:Heaven is within us, and we experience it to the degree that we become conscious of it. ~ Ernest Holmes, #NFDB
94:In order to understand, observe, deduce, man must first be conscious of himself as alive. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
95:Learn to recognize power in others. Become more conscious of your own power. It's there. ~ Brandon Mull, #NFDB
96:"Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
97:To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
98:And wham! Suddenly. Just like that. I'm completely conscious of his guyness next to me. ~ Jennifer Niven, #NFDB
99:From the meanest creature one departs wiser, richer, more conscious of one's blessings. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
100:I have to be conscious of what I'm sayin' because people are gonna come at me about this sh*t. ~ Chuck D, #NFDB
101:Loneliness is, I think, people's biggest fear, whether they are conscious of it or not. ~ Andrew Stanton, #NFDB
102:16 June 2020 -To work for your perfection the first step is to become conscious of yourself. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
103:Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing. ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, #NFDB
104:Misery and poverty of a nation is associated with the conscious of its people not leaders. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
105:Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend. ~ Stephen A Mitchell, #NFDB
106:A man's hatred is always concentrated upon that which makes him conscious of his bad qualities. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
107:He who is most guilty is most innocent; the most holy man is the one most conscious of his sin. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
108:So women are at the beginning of building a language, and not all women are conscious of it. ~ Judy Chicago, #NFDB
109:We are already responsible for our negative experiences. We just aren’t always conscious of it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
110:and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at every one and yet to avoid all eyes. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
111:"Humanity's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
112:There's nothinng like an outsider's idle glance to make you conscious of your own environment. ~ Sue Grafton, #NFDB
113:A man without weaknesses serves only to make everyone else conscious of his own imperfections. ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
114:Do what they will, then, we remain conscious of a desire which no natural happiness will satisfy. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
115:God is never absent from the affairs of men, though we are not conscious of Him very often. ~ Taylor Caldwell, #NFDB
116:and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at everyone, and yet to avoid all eyes. I ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
117:being conscious of the fuel-burning activities that you engage in every day is good for you. ~ Richard Wiseman, #NFDB
118:Be this our wall of brass, to be conscious of having done no evil, and to grow pale at no accusation. ~ Horace, #NFDB
119:He was conscious of the disastrous fact that love and desire must be expressed in the same way. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
120:If I seemed strange, and conscious of myself, what was that to her? We were all strange, there. ~ Sarah Waters, #NFDB
121:Being abroad makes you conscious of the whole imitative side of human behavior. The ape in man. ~ Mary McCarthy, #NFDB
122:Leadership Is Performance. You Have To Be Conscious Of Your Behavior, Because Everyone Else Is. ~ Carly Fiorina, #NFDB
123:Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr, #NFDB
124:Conscious of not being able to separate myself from my time, I have decided to become part of it. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
125:How can humanity become one?
By becoming conscious of its origin.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#NFDB
126:I have been accused of denying consciousness but I am not conscious of having done so. ~ Willard Van Orman Quine, #NFDB
127:In order to remember something, you must first of all be conscious of it. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, #NFDB
128:I've subsequently become conscious of MAKING MEMORIES. Which makes me sound like a scrapbooker. ~ Heidi Julavits, #NFDB
129:Ojii-san’s wen has been his only confidant, and he’s conscious of a certain loneliness without it. ~ Osamu Dazai, #NFDB
130:She was conscious of being alive and being present: a clear night, a golden beach, good food. ~ Elin Hilderbrand, #NFDB
131:Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr, #NFDB
132:The mind conscious of innocence despises false reports: but we are a set always ready to believe a scandal. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
133:We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~ Thornton Wilder, #NFDB
134:When one sees a perfect woman, one never thinks of her attributes–one is conscious of her presence. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
135:Consciousness is a being the nature of which is to be conscious of the nothingness of its being. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
136:Education is only the most fully conscious of the channels whereby each generation influences the next. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
137:He that is conscious of a Stink in his Breeches, is jealous of every Wrinkle in another's Nose. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
138:...he was conscious of the disastrous fact that love and desire must be expressed in the same way... ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
139:No organism can afford to be conscious of matters with which it could deal at unconscious levels. ~ Gregory Bateson, #NFDB
140:NVC requires us to be continually conscious of the beauty within ourselves and other people. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
141:Religion is in a word the system of symbols by means of which society becomes conscious of itself. ~ mile Durkheim, #NFDB
142:They both sat in silence for the rest of the journey, as if conscious of having let each other down. ~ Michel Faber, #NFDB
143:To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
144:Usually I'm not really conscious of what's going on. I don't have a lot of memories onstage. At all. ~ Bradford Cox, #NFDB
145:When one sees a perfect woman, one never thinks of her attributes--one is conscious of her presence. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
146:I think the (brawl) made the league and the players more conscious of our responsibility to the public. ~ Joe Dumars, #NFDB
147:Every person in a well-ordered state is fully conscious of both his responsibilities and his rights. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
148:someone fundamentally diminishes our shared humanity. I’m not even sure I was conscious of that behavior ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
149:They made the same mistakes over and over again because they weren't conscious of what they were doing. ~ Cris Tovani, #NFDB
150:"To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
151:We are the windows through which our children first see the world. Let us be conscious of the view. ~ Katrina Kenison, #NFDB
152:Change happens not by trying to make yourself change, but by becoming conscious of what's not working. ~ Shakti Gawain, #NFDB
153:The most important part of your environment to be conscious of is the people you surround yourself with. ~ Jen Sincero, #NFDB
154:He that is conscious of a stink in his breeches is [suspicious] of every wrinkle in another's nose. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
155:The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. —historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle ~ Carol Tavris, #NFDB
156:I am very conscious of what I say and do when I go out because the media is quick to make that a story. ~ Justin Guarini, #NFDB
157:Modeling teaches you to be completely conscious of the camera. Acting is being totally unconscious of it. ~ Phoebe Cates, #NFDB
158:Spite is anger which is afraid to show itself, it is an impotent fury conscious of its impotence. ~ Henri Fr d ric Amiel, #NFDB
159:The mature believer is God-conscious, and ever-conscious of what God’s Word says about him and to him. ~ Kenneth E Hagin, #NFDB
160:Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
161:Isolated people, those who live alone, are always conscious of their condition in the homes of families. ~ Patrick McGrath, #NFDB
162:There are natures in which, if they love us, we are conscious of having a sort of baptism and consecration. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
163:We are perhaps the only species on Earth to be conscious of the inevitability of our individual mortality. ~ Carlo Rovelli, #NFDB
164:What makes mankind tragic is not that they are the victims of nature, it is that they are conscious of it. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
165:I wasn’t one to usually show off Lucy and Ethel because I was self-conscious of them, but money was money. ~ Mariana Zapata, #NFDB
166:We are dangerous when we are not conscious of our responsibility for how we behave, think, and feel. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
167:We become responsible for the actions of others the instant we become conscious of what they are doing wrong. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
168:Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward. ~ Darren Hardy, #NFDB
169:In knowing ourselves to be unique, we possess the capacity for becoming conscious of the infinite. But only then! ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
170:She sleeps so she doesn’t have to be awake, so she will be conscious of what’s happened as little as possible. ~ Cynthia Hand, #NFDB
171:To become conscious of what is horrifying and to laugh at it is to become master of that which is horrifying ~ Eugene Ionesco, #NFDB
172:As you become more conscious of your body as eternity, a sense of ease, a fullness beyond description occurs. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
173:Be conscious of the global elements in your dreams. When starting local, dream of taking it global sooner. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
174:Once you can name something, you’re conscious of it. You have power over it. You’re in control. You own it. ~ Robin P Williams, #NFDB
175:As soon as one is conscious of the presence of the Master, one must, in all passivity, abandon the work to Him. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
176:One is never wholly conscious of the greed hidden in one's heart until one hears the sweet sound of silver. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
177:One is never wholly conscious of the greed hidden in one's heart until one hears the sweet sound of silver. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon, #NFDB
178:She had often been alone in the house before—but she had never before been so conscious of being alone in it. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
179:But though love laughs at difference in age, friendship, especially between two women, is more acutely conscious of it. ~ Colette, #NFDB
180:In modern scientific man, evolution was at last becoming conscious of itself. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, #NFDB
181:I want now to be of today. It is painful to be conscious of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. ~ Mary Antin, #NFDB
182:to become conscious of what one is doing to earn his feeling of heroism is the main self-analytic problem of life. ~ Ernest Becker, #NFDB
183:We are thus conscious less of the time than we think, because we cannot be conscious of when we are not conscious. ~ Julian Jaynes, #NFDB
184:Without an end, there is no game. Without being conscious of death, you can’t be fully aware of the gift of life. ~ Steve Chandler, #NFDB
185:I've been more conscious of my salt intake, sugar intake, making sure I'm not eating as many processed foods. ~ Monica Denise Brown, #NFDB
186:We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. —THORNTON WILDER ~ Anthony Robbins, #NFDB
187:He thought of how calm he was. His calm was so perfect that he could not destroy it even by being conscious of it. ~ Nathanael West, #NFDB
188:If we want to awaken, we don't need to eradicate the ego, we simply need to be conscious of the deeper self as well. ~ Timothy Freke, #NFDB
189:I try not to be too conscious of his long fingers tracing over the paper, of the sick thrill I get when he looks at me. ~ Holly Black, #NFDB
190:The eternal part of our being is perfect, free, always changing, always new, and completely conscious of all things. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
191:It is not only war that can stop war but men of goodwill, conscious of their mission can deal with such deadly enemy. ~ Haile Selassie, #NFDB
192:It is privilege of living to be acutely, agonizingly conscious of the moment that is always present and always passing. ~ Marya Mannes, #NFDB
193:Someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, [is] an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
194:If you are conscious of your own dreams, nobody can confuse you with their own goals. Wake up and live your dreams! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
195:Jnana yoga is a very demanding practice. It's necessary for you to become conscious of the fact that you're not human. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
196:The poet who walks by moonlight is conscious of a tide in his thought which is to be referred to lunar influence. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
197:"Usually we're only half-conscious of the way thoughts direct you life; we're lost in thoughts as if they're reality." ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
198:All men alike stand condemned, not by alien codes of ethics, but by their own, and all men therefore are conscious of guilt. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
199:I think traditional supermarkets have to pay attention to the fact that America is more and more conscious of lifestyle. ~ Ronald Burkle, #NFDB
200:"Someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, [is] an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
201:We take spiritual initiation when we become conscious of the Divine within us, and thereby contact the Divine without us. ~ Dion Fortune, #NFDB
202:He found that the brain activity started, on average, 300 milliseconds before subjects were conscious of making the decision. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
203:It does not matter how large a boundary we set, the moment you become conscious of it, the longing to break it is instinctive. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
204:I would say that, apart from being a writer, I have also always been very conscious of the idea of a 'world elsewhere'. ~ Quentin S Crisp, #NFDB
205:We attack not only to hurt someone, to defeat him, but perhaps also simply to become conscious of our own strength. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
206:As the mind of each man is conscious of good or evil, so does he conceive within his breast hope or fear, according to his actions. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
207:The aim of our life on earth is to become conscious of the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, [4] [T0],#NFDB
208:New Yorkers have a delightfully narcissistic habit of assuming that if they're not conscious of a scene, it doesn't exist. ~ Sloane Crosley, #NFDB
209:Whatever kind of object … we are at any time conscious of, we are always at the same time conscious of our own nature[.] ~ Ludwig Feuerbach, #NFDB
210:Consciousness is always Self-consciousness. If you are conscious of anything you are essentially conscious of yourself ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
211:man of the Axial Age, Confucius wanted people to become fully conscious of what they were doing. Performance of the li was ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
212:Thus men who are naturally conscious of what they are shun nothing, so much as rest; they would do anything to be disturbed. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
213:We are transitioning from a hominid that is conscious of its environment into one that drastically shapes its own evolution. ~ Juan Enriquez, #NFDB
214:We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
215:A spider spinning its web intends, whether conscious of the outcome or not, to catch a fly. That is the meaning of the web. ~ Edward O Wilson, #NFDB
216:If we want to be compassionate we must be conscious of the words we use. We must both speak and listen from the heart. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
217:What can be happier than for a man, conscious of virtuous acts, and content with liberty, to despise all human affairs? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
218:A friend is a second self, so that our consciousness of a friend's existence...makes us more fully conscious of our own existence. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
219:Be more meditative, become more conscious of your being. Let your inner world become more silent, and love will be flowing through you. ~ Osho, #NFDB
220:When man becomes fully conscious of his powers, his role, his destiny, he is an artist and he ceases his struggle with reality. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
221:I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, #NFDB
222:Who sees the future? I am conscious of being only an individual struggling weakly against the stream of time. —Ludwig Boltzmann ~ Erec Stebbins, #NFDB
223:The greatest geniuses have always attributed everything to God, as if conscious of being possessed of a spark of His divinity. ~ Benjamin Haydon, #NFDB
224:there are the most intense enjoyments, especially when one is very acutely conscious of the hopelessness of one's position. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
225:And, in a way, we're all time travelers. Somehow, the entire temporal stream exists, but we're only conscious of a single moment. ~ Jack McDevitt, #NFDB
226:"Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think "I Am" and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the I Am." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
227:Film is a dramatised reality and it is the director's job to make it appear real... an audience should not be conscious of technique. ~ David Lean, #NFDB
228:...despair can hold the most intense sorts of pleasure when one is strongly conscious of the hopelessness of one's position... ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
229:I am conscious of my inability to grasp, in all its details and positive developments, any very large portion of human knowledge. ~ Mikhail Bakunin, #NFDB
230:I am very proud to be British. I'm very conscious of carrying my country with me wherever I go. I feel I need to represent it well. ~ Julie Andrews, #NFDB
231:Integrity, like humility, is a quality which vanishes the moment we are conscious of it in ourselves. We see it only in others. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
232:There is no yawning gulf between man and God. Through his aspiration and meditation, Man can become conscious of his oneness with God. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
233:I am only conscious of any satisfaction in Scientific Reading or thinking when it rounds off into a poetical generality and vagueness. ~ Wilfred Owen, #NFDB
234:I was self-conscious of what I would call my "tree-trunk legs" because they are very muscular... but now I've learned to love them. ~ Vanessa Hudgens, #NFDB
235:Only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
236:The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows. The greatest of faults, I should say is to be conscious of none. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
237:A fool conscious of her foolishness
Is to that extent wise.
But a fool who considers himself wise
Is the one to be called a fool. ~ Anonymous,#NFDB
238:In despair there are the most intense enjoyments, especially when one is acutely conscious of the hopelessness of one's position. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
239:Let us fall before the majesty of our great God, acknowledging our faults, and praying that he will make us ever more conscious of them. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
240:Of all the acts of man, repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults . . . is to be conscious of none." (Thomas Carlyle) ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
241:Reality is God-centered and all human beings are worshipers, whether or not they are conscious of this reality and its implications. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
242:Remember, when we're conscious of something, that state is quite often generated by unconscious processes that happen right before it. ~ Edward Boyden, #NFDB
243:There are stories hidden in the language we use, whether we're conscious of them or not. They tell the truth of our hearts and minds. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
244:The wind's in the east. . . . I am always conscious of an uncomfortable sensation now and then when the wind is blowing in the east. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
245:A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
246:Life presents us with repeated opportunities to face what we fear, what we need to become conscious of, or what we need to master. ~ Jean Shinoda Bolen, #NFDB
247:My mistake was that of numberless men nowadays. Because I was conscious of brains, I thought that the only place for me was London. It ~ George Gissing, #NFDB
248:O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
249:The real pressure must be made more oppressive by making men conscious of the pressure, and the disgrace more disgraceful by publishing it. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
250:The vainest woman is never thoroughly conscious of her beauty till she is loved by the man who sets her own passion vibrating in return. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
251:To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
252:When an individual does not become conscious of their inner contradictions, the world acts out the conflict and is torn in opposite halves. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
253:each day's life comes with lot of puzzles, mysteries to unravel; being so conscious of life can make one so unconscious of life ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
254:I have to be clear with myself and very conscious of what I am trying to say. Misunderstandings will always take place; it's unavoidable. ~ Jose Padilha, #NFDB
255:Now and then I become conscious of having the reputation of being one of the great drinkers, if not one of the great drunks, of our time. ~ Kingsley Amis, #NFDB
256:To be and to be fully is Nature’s aim in us; but to be fully is to be wholly conscious of one’s being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #NFDB
257:To become conscious of what is to be changed in the nature is the first step towards changing it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Speech and Yoga, #NFDB
258:To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same sum of experiences. It is up to us to be conscious of them. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
259:it is impossible for our brain to see anything in raw form without some interpretation. We may not even always be conscious of it. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb, #NFDB
260:This personal freedom to think and feel and speak authentically and to be conscious of so doing is the quality that distinguishes us as human. ~ Rollo May, #NFDB
261:What can be happier than for a man, conscious of virtuous acts, and content with liberty, to despise all human affairs? ~ Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger, #NFDB
262:What is it about being in the same room with him that makes me so conscious of my body and all its parts? He even makes me aware of my skin. ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
263:in despair there are the most intense enjoyments, especially when one is very acutely conscious of the hopelessness of one's position. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
264:One shouldn't ever be conscious of the author as lecturer. When social or moral points are too heavily stressed, I always get uncomfortable. ~ Orson Welles, #NFDB
265:And I would rather be alive, be real, be increasingly conscious of all that I am, than move around this planet all mechanical and unconscious. ~ Sera J Beak, #NFDB
266:People should be more like animals . . . they should be more intuitive; they should not be too conscious of what they do while they do it. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
267:If you strive only to avoid the darkness or to cling to the light, you cannot live in balance. Try striving to be conscious of all that you are. ~ Gary Zukav, #NFDB
268:Men conscious of inferiority are always trying to impose themselves on others, because they know that underneath they are cowards or cretins. ~ Helen Simpson, #NFDB
269:That all may be so, but when I begin to exercise that power I am not conscious of the power, but only of the limitations imposed on me. ~ William Howard Taft, #NFDB
270:The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see. ~ James Baldwin, #NFDB
271:To be conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
272:A person wearing tinted glasses can avoid the conclusion that the entire world is tinted only by being conscious of the glasses themselves. ~ Justo L Gonzalez, #NFDB
273:Be conscious of the way people take your energy and learn how to stop it. Accept that this goes on. Observe how you feel around other people. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
274:I'm usually working on my own mythology, my own realm of created characters. Stories in mythology inspire me, though I may not be conscious of it. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
275:I've always tried to be conscious of how I represent women in my work. They don't have to be good or strong women, but they have to be complex. ~ Molly Parker, #NFDB
276:...Tolstoy's characters seem to come forward to meet you, very conscious of the impression they are making on one another and on the reader. ~ Stephen Spender, #NFDB
277:I am partly not conscious of structure with my movies, but this is when I am writing. I leave my mind very free, and then I correct it after. ~ Pedro Almodovar, #NFDB
278:Mother Teresa's numerical results were not her greatest contribution. Instead, she made the world-and especially India-conscious of compassion. ~ Peter Drucker, #NFDB
279:The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see. ~ James A Baldwin, #NFDB
280:Very few people are conscious of the deeper strata of eternity. The primary reason is either because they lack purity or they lack motivation. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
281:Without the neural connection to his armor, he was conscious of the stumps of his legs, the ruin of his arms, the perpetual pain in his flesh. He ~ Paul S Kemp, #NFDB
282:A creator is not in advance of his generation but he is the first of his contemporaries to be conscious of what is happening to his generation. ~ Gertrude Stein, #NFDB
283:Analysis brings no curative powers in its train; it merely makes us conscious of the existence of an evil, which, oddly enough, is consciousness. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
284:And yet when I looked upon that ugly idol in the glass I was conscious of no repugnance,rather a leap of welcome. This too, was myself. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
285:"I fear your kind and open communication, which has rendered me more painfully conscious of my own defects, has not improved me," sighed Kate. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
286:O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
287:All force is cosmic and the individual is merely an instrument. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother, Becoming Conscious of the Mother’s Force, #NFDB
288:Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. ~ Julian Jaynes, #NFDB
289:Consistency is nice, I think, personally. I like to be consistently happy. I like to be consistently more aware and more conscious of the truth. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
290:I am a karmayogi-someone who becomes conscious of herself and the Divine through work, not through meditation in some ashram or saying Hail Marys ~ Kelly Cutrone, #NFDB
291:I was always conscious of that weak point of mine, and sometimes very much afraid of it. "I exaggerate everything, that is where I go wrong. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
292:The evolutionary point of the ego is to provide a ground of relative stability on which the archetypal elements can become conscious of themselves. ~ David Tacey, #NFDB
293:You have to suspend thinking in narratives. The moment you are conscious of yourself the gap opens up. And in this gap, stories are generated. ~ Aleksandar Hemon, #NFDB
294:Dance has been transformed from an involuntary motor discharge, a ceremonial rite, into a work of art, conscious of, intended for, observation. ~ Jamake Highwater, #NFDB
295:I'm always conscious of the context, the history, the specific environment of anything that I design and what it is going to be operating within. ~ Michael Bierut, #NFDB
296:It may not be coincidental that [you] use phrases like ‘self conscious’ when you really mean that you are conscious of others being conscious of you. ~ Sam Harris, #NFDB
297:When two, or more men, know of one and the same fact, they are said to be CONSCIOUS of it one to another; which is as much as to know it together. ~ Thomas Hobbes, #NFDB
298:Yoga is not a new path to follow but a way to become conscious of the original impetus of life. Yoga is the movement and evolution of Life itself. ~ David Frawley, #NFDB
299:I had rather seem mad and a sluggard, so that my defects are agreeable to myself, or that I am not pinfully conscious of them, than be wise, and chaptious. ~ Horace, #NFDB
300:Nature is beautiful because it looks like Art; and Art can only be called beautiful if we are conscious of it as Art while yet it looks like Nature. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
301:Periods' are largely an invention of the historians. The poets themselves are not conscious of living in any period and refuse to conform to the scheme. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
302:The essence of a class system is not that the privileged are conscious of their privileges, but that the deprived are conscious of their deprivations. ~ Clive James, #NFDB
303:To be alone was something unpleasant. But I was at the same time conscious of a slight insanity in my mood, and seemed to foresee my recovery. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
304:Villains are a lot of fun. My villains have a lot of tongue-in-cheek. They are sometimes conscious of and a little bit gleeful of their villainy. ~ John Rhys Davies, #NFDB
305:We become responsible for the actions of others the instant we become conscious of what they are doing wrong and fail to remind them of what is right. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
306:Without being conscious of it, you have allowed yourself to become fond of him not for the content of his character but for the fidelity of his echo. ~ Mohsin Hamid, #NFDB
307:A hand shifts our birdcages around. Some are brought closer. Some move apart. Do not try to reason it out. Be conscious of who draws you and who not. ~ Coleman Barks, #NFDB
308:If the soul wants to know God, it cannot do so in time. For so long as the soul is conscious of time or space or any other [object], it cannot know God. ~ Ken Wilber, #NFDB
309:The great artist is conscious of the talent and power he possesses otherwise he would not see his faults and so would not be able to improve. ~ Henri Gaudier Brzeska, #NFDB
310:There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live. ~ Jean de la Bruyere, #NFDB
311:The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
312:To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one's self.... And to venture in the highest is precisely to be conscious of one's self. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
313:To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one's self.... And to venture in the highest is precisely to be conscious of one's self. ~ S ren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
314:I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
315:it is entirely possible to be depressed without being conscious of it. When you’re cut off from your emotions, he said, they often manifest in your body. ~ Dan Harris, #NFDB
316:There are those who believe destiny rests at the feet of the gods, but the truth is that it confronts the conscious of man with a burning challenge. ~ Eduardo Galeano, #NFDB
317:You must be conscious of being healthy if you are to know what health is. You must be conscious of being secure if you are to know what security is. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
318:But not long had they run thus when Zarathustra became conscious of his folly, and shook off with one jerk all his irritation and detestation.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#NFDB
319:Consciousness consists in a being becoming objective to itself; … it is nothing apart, nothing distinct from the being which is conscious of itself. ~ Ludwig Feuerbach, #NFDB
320:I lived for 10 years in Los Angeles, and the one element that surpasses everything else - that you are very conscious of - is fear. You can smell it. ~ Christopher Lee, #NFDB
321:Periods' are largely an invention of the historians. The poets
themselves are not conscious of living in any period and refuse to conform to the scheme. ~ C S Lewis,#NFDB
322:"The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
323:What is the relationship between awareness and thinking? Awareness is the space in which thoughts exist when that space has become conscious of itself. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
324:A picture must possess a real power to generate light and for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light. ~ Henri Matisse, #NFDB
325:…but it is in despair that the most burning pleasures occur, especially when one is all too highly conscious of the hopelessness of one’s position. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
326:But it's in despair that you discover the most intense pleasure, especially when you are acutely conscious of the hopelessness of your predicament. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
327:I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I'm conscious of the mainstream without selling out. ~ J Cole, #NFDB
328:No writer or teacher or artist can escape the responsibility of influencing others whether he intends to or not, whether he is conscious of it or not. ~ Arthur Koestler, #NFDB
329:We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) WRITER AND PLAYWRIGHT Words ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
330:We rarely are conscious of those primitive anxieties that creep out from under reason. And the only way to banish them is to turn on all the lights. ~ Patricia Cornwell, #NFDB
331:There is a great line of women stretching out behind you into the past, and you have to seek them out and find them in yourself and be conscious of them. ~ Doris Lessing, #NFDB
332:What is the biggest tragedy you wouldn't be conscious of? Letting life pass you by. Living like a starfish, clinging to your one unchanging colorless rock. ~ Julia Glass, #NFDB
333:He cared only about people; he was scarcely conscious of places except for their weather, until they had been invested with color by tangible events. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
334:My grandfather, mother and father were gifted verbally, and my mother passed that along to me. She always made sure I was conscious of language and words. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
335:The trick was learning to live without the grief and without the guilt. The trick was to create a life worth living, a life no longer conscious of death. ~ Vincent Zandri, #NFDB
336:To really be conscious of how long the journey is, be patient, push yourself, persevere and always be working on your craft while waiting for your break. ~ Mahershala Ali, #NFDB
337:We must love because we are loved by God. We must be conscious of death if we are to have a proper understanding of life. We must struggle in order to grow ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
338:Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
339:With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all. ~ Vilayanur S Ramachandran, #NFDB
340:An evil conscience is one that is perpetually conscious of sin and failure, and typically expects punishment. It is a conscience that is under condemnation. ~ Joseph Prince, #NFDB
341:Now that I am conscious of the world of chronic pain, when I see somebody walking down the street who's having trouble, I feel a sadness for them. I notice. ~ Lynne Tillman, #NFDB
342:Truly effective negotiators are conscious of the verbal, paraverbal (how it’s said), and nonverbal communications that pervade negotiations and group dynamics. ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
343:When you are not conscious of temptation, pray “lead us not into temptation”; and when you are conscious of it, pray “deliver us from evil”; and you will live. ~ J I Packer, #NFDB
344:But he hated to be sober. It made him conscious of the people around him, of that air of struggle, of greedy ambition, of hope more sordid than despair. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
345:To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
346:You are god. To be conscious of that not just from the point of view of the human form, to be endless and beginningless perfect being, is to be enlightened. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
347:As we express our appreciation of our many blessings, we become more conscious of what the Lord has done for us, and thereby we become more appreciative ~ Nathan Eldon Tanner, #NFDB
348:What comprises good performance? The ability through singing or playing to make the ear conscious of the true content and affect of a composition. ~ Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, #NFDB
349:Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are - hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones. ~ Thomas Ligotti, #NFDB
350:I didn't know then that I would never be able to leave the sounds and smells of these sights behind me, but I was fiercely conscious of one thing-my ambition. ~ Emanuel Celler, #NFDB
351:As a consequence while we had a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes to wear to school we were constantly conscious of being of modest means. ~ Robert B Laughlin, #NFDB
352:After all, what would be "beautiful" if the contradiction had not first become conscious of itself, if the ugly had not first said to itself: "I am ugly"?. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
353:I am not a good pleader', he said; 'being too infernal conscious of my own dignity. The dignified fool, Demelza, gets nowhere beside the suave flattering rogue. ~ Winston Graham, #NFDB
354:People should be conscious of the large contribution made by anything that gets people together easily in the reduction of loneliness and emotional well-being. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
355:The people moved sluggishly through the warmth, and he moved with them, conscious of his height among the seated figures, nodding to the faces he now recognized. ~ John Williams, #NFDB
356:The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do. ~ Igor Stravinsky, #NFDB
357:But you can't ever live in the place you dream about, the town you long for. ...the moment you become conscious of your desire, and then fulfill it, it evaporates. ~ Haven Kimmel, #NFDB
358:Of course, you are not usually conscious of all your thought patterns, and it is often only through watching your emotions that you can bring them into awareness. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
359:[T]he more one is conscious of one's political bias, the more chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one's aesthetic and intellectual integrity. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
360:We become equally responsible for the actions of others the instant we become conscious of what they are doing wrong but remain silent because we think it is right. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
361:Before we can realize who we really are, we must become conscious of the fact that the person we think we are, here and now, is at best an impostor and a stranger. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
362:It's precisely in despair that you find the most intense pleasure, especially if you are already powerfully conscious of the hopelessness of your predicament. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
363:I've been hearing-impaired, not quite since birth, but I've been wearing hearing aids since I was 13, so I'm very conscious of the difficulty of voice communication. ~ Vinton Cerf, #NFDB
364:Jean would be conscious of a curious feeling that he was living simultaneously in the immediate presence of a particular day and in other similar days of long ago. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
365:To get my sound in the studio, I double guitar tracks, and when it gets to the lead parts, the rhythm drops out, just like it's live. I'm very conscious of that. ~ Dimebag Darrell, #NFDB
366:And this knowledge you say you’ve acquired—are you conscious of an increase in it since your ill-fated visit to the library?” Fed nodded. “I know more than ever. ~ Richard Matheson, #NFDB
367:I take a lot of pride in the work I do, because people pay to see me. They've go to get babysitters, park their car, get popcorn and candy. I've got to be conscious of that. ~ Mr T, #NFDB
368:Repression is an evolutionary adaptation permitting us to function under the burden of our expanded consciousness. For what we are conscious of could drive us mad. ~ Camille Paglia, #NFDB
369:It becomes necessary to realize that the body is not conscious, but we are conscious of the body, also that the mind is not conscious but we are conscious of the mind. ~ Ernest Wood, #NFDB
370:I'm a Pisces, and Pisces have this weird inability to be completely spontaneous. We're too conscious of our actions. I've always been way too sensible for my own good. ~ Billy Corgan, #NFDB
371:In the beginning, I was searching for myself in my music. My music was for me. I didn't have the mental room to be conscious of the listener; I wrote to save myself. ~ Ayumi Hamasaki, #NFDB
372:It isn't only the terror everywhere, and the fear of being conscious of it, that freezes people. It's more than that. People know they are in a society dead or dying. ~ Doris Lessing, #NFDB
373:I was conscious of a passing pang for the oyster world, feeling--and I think correctly--that life for these unfortunate bivalves must be one damn thing after another. ~ P G Wodehouse, #NFDB
374:We are not going through an "economy crisis"; we are going through a "spiritual transition". On a deeper level, the collective conscious of humanity is awakening. ~ Christopher Dines, #NFDB
375:a state of balance—a clear understanding of why we feel the way we do, conscious of our impulses so that we can think without being secretly compelled by our emotions. ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
376:I feel that a picture that stays with you is made up of a hundred or more hidden things. They’re things that the audience is not conscious of, but that accumulate. ~ Vincente Minnelli, #NFDB
377:People are only influenced in the direction in which they want to go, and influence consists largely in making them conscious of their wishes to proceed in that direction. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
378:The work of a lifetime, the process of individuation, is widening of that spotlight so much that everything is illuminated and you are conscious of and can see your All. ~ Sera J Beak, #NFDB
379:How I do love the earth. I feel it thrill under my feet. I feel somehow as if it were conscious of my love, as if something passed into my dancing blood from it. ~ James Russell Lowell, #NFDB
380:Outside and above the mind there is the play of a consciousness which is lighted by the higher Truth, but man is not conscious of it and of that he has to be conscious. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
381:Spreading the word about real issues is still helping. Just being conscious of helping animals every day will help guide you to make beneficial decisions for animals. ~ Alison Eastwood, #NFDB
382:Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read. ~ Frederick Douglass, #NFDB
383:The young woman quoted Turgenev, "If you want to annoy an opponent thoroughly or even harm him, you reproach him with every defect or vice you are conscious of in yourself. ~ Jack Vance, #NFDB
384:This is not a day for asking questions, not a day on any calendar. This day is conscious of itself. This day is a lover, bread, and gentleness, more manifest than saying can say. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
385:When we put our keys down, we should be conscious of putting them down. When we pick them up, we should be conscious of picking them up. That's all there is to zen. ~ Philip Toshio Sudo, #NFDB
386:Advertising, music, atmospheres, subliminal messages and films can have an impact on our emotional life, and we cannot control it because we are not even conscious of it. ~ Tariq Ramadan, #NFDB
387:He is conscious of the past and present injustices, but he knows that real remedies are to be found in contemporary Christian compassion, and not in compensatory justice. ~ Neal A Maxwell, #NFDB
388:I’m very conscious of the fact that you can’t do it alone. It’s teamwork. When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it. ~ Wangari Maathai, #NFDB
389:I think at a certain age I became conscious of the power of words. And it was fairly late. I was kind of a goofball - but I was always subconsciously thinking about issues. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
390:Many women, I think, resist feminism because it is an agony to be fully conscious of the brutal misogyny which permeates culture, society, and all personal relationships. ~ Andrea Dworkin, #NFDB
391:So natural and universal is a child's curiosity about sex and so long are we conscious of it before we do it, that our original impressions of it leave an indelible mark. ~ Sloane Crosley, #NFDB
392:The older I get, the more I'm conscious of ways very small things can make a change in the world. Tiny little things, but the world is made up of tiny matters, isn't it? ~ Sandra Cisneros, #NFDB
393:What is Consciousness?
When the Lord becomes conscious of Himself, the world is created. Consciousness is the breath that gives life to all.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#NFDB
394:When the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner contradictions, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
395:Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the head of the reader. You learn the weight of words and how they sound to the ear. ~ Helen Dunmore, #NFDB
396:It may look like things have gotten better, because everyone is semi-being appreciative. Not appreciative, but conscious of people being gender fluid and all those things. ~ Cakes da killa, #NFDB
397:Never having had either positive cruelty or kindness shown to her by her parents, but only an indifference, she was not conscious of what it was that she missed – affection. ~ Mervyn Peake, #NFDB
398:Oh, when shall Britain, conscious of her claim, Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame? In living medals see her wars enroll'd, And vanquished realms supply recording gold? ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
399:I have always been conscious of the importance and the strength of nationalism, and this has led me straight to the acknowledgment of the nationalism of the Palestinian people. ~ Uri Avnery, #NFDB
400:Be conscious of your eating. It’s like paying attention to our thoughts. We also can learn to pay attention to our bodies and the signals we get when we eat in different ways. ~ Louise L Hay, #NFDB
401:Each soul in entering the material experience does so for those purposes of advancement towards that awareness of being fully conscious of the oneness with the Creative Forces. ~ Edgar Cayce, #NFDB
402:We are surrounded on all sides by God but often we are no more conscious of him than we are of air pressing against us. We don't turn our attention to Him. (Evelyn Underhill) ~ Sue Monk Kidd, #NFDB
403:An orotundity, which I define as Nobelitis a pomposity in which one is treated as representative of more than oneself by someone conscious of representing more than himself. ~ William Golding, #NFDB
404:I didn't realize that I was in a self-made prison of human approval and human acceptance. Didn't even realize it. Most of the prisons we live in we are not conscious of. ~ Tullian Tchividjian, #NFDB
405:It was the time when they loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, #NFDB
406:Perception is the ability to be conscious of self and that which is other than self. Without thinking about it, a distinction is made between who we are and what we perceive. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
407:At the end of the day we're all spirits having a physical experience. That really comes from my relationship with Islam because it just makes me really conscious of my action. ~ Mahershala Ali, #NFDB
408:How strange it is to be human. For a short moment we are conscious of the glories of life then we become silent again. Perhaps there is more. Look more deeply into the matter. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
409:I was a savage for so many years of my life. There was some seed of determination in me that I was not conscious of. I was mostly consciously getting into trouble and drunk. ~ Daniel Day Lewis, #NFDB
410:My worst character flaw that I'm conscious of is that I tend to think my way into circles instead of resolving anything. It's paralyzing and boring for people around me. ~ David Foster Wallace, #NFDB
411:She was conscious of the moments passing like irrevocable time, irrevocable happiness, for in these last seconds she might turn and see the face she would never see again. ~ Patricia Highsmith, #NFDB
412:The higher Truth is all the time working in us but through the lower power - Aparashakti. It is when we become conscious of the play of this higher Power then only yoga begins. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
413:In writing of Indian culture, I am highly conscious of my own subjectivity; arguably, there is more than one Indian culture, and certainly more than one view of Indian culture. ~ Shashi Tharoor, #NFDB
414:It's not just a question of numbers. There will be more women (in parliament) who are conscious of women's rights ... There will also be women who are not committed to equality. ~ Hanan Ashrawi, #NFDB
415:Our choice is not whether or not to be interested in philosophical questions, but whether or not to become conscious of the fact that, as human beings, we can’t help but be. To ~ Eben Alexander, #NFDB
416:The higher Truth is all the time working in us but through the lower power - Aparashakti. It is when we become conscious of the play of this higher Power then only yoga begins. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
417:The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #NFDB
418:For those of us who feel deeply and who are at all conscious of the inextricable tangle of human thought there is only one response to be made - ironic tenderness and silence. ~ Lawrence Durrell, #NFDB
419:The true unconscious is the well-head, the fountain of real motivity. The sex of which Adam and Eve became conscious derived fromthe very God who bade them be not conscious of it. ~ D H Lawrence, #NFDB
420:This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are—hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones. ~ Thomas Ligotti, #NFDB
421:But by this time I was acutely conscious of the gap between law and justice. I knew that the letter of the law was not as important as who held the power in any real-life situation. ~ Howard Zinn, #NFDB
422:I try not to do scenes a certain way, because then I become conscious of it, and it dosen't come off as realistic. I try to make it so that I'm not really aware of what I'm doing. ~ Kirsten Dunst, #NFDB
423:Just as everybody has the vote including women, I think children should, because as a child is conscious of itself then it has to me an existence and has a stake in what happens. ~ Gertrude Stein, #NFDB
424:For Baudelaire, man's poetic fate is to be the mirror of immensity; or even more exactly, immensity becomes conscious of itself, through man. Man for Baudelaire is a vast being. ~ Gaston Bachelard, #NFDB
425:I think great art goes beyond the control of the artist. In some ways, art often makes itself and reveals things about that artist that maybe the artist is not fully conscious of. ~ Lisa Yuskavage, #NFDB
426:The gods, (if gods to goodness are inclined If acts of mercy touch their heavenly mind), And, more than all the gods, your generous heart, Conscious of worth, requite its own desert! ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
427:I believe that the unity of man as opposed to other living things derives from the fact that man is the conscious life of himself. Man is conscious of himself, of his future, which is ~ Erich Fromm, #NFDB
428:I grew up north of Chicago, not far from where the Schwinn bicycle plant used to be, and was conscious of the fact that these beautiful, everlasting bikes were made just down the road. ~ Dave Eggers, #NFDB
429:I guess I am conscious of my weaknesses, and I think pacing is probably my biggest. I don't know if I think the clarity thing is actually a weakness. It was a stylistic choice. ~ Kelly Sue DeConnick, #NFDB
430:In a mystical experience of the ‘Self’-state we become conscious of what we are unaware of in the ‘I’-state: of being the consciousness of the universe. ~ Erich Jantsch, The Self-Organizing Universe, #NFDB
431:One's body is a nuisance, M. Poirot, especially when it gets the upper hand. One is conscious of nothing else-- whether the pain will hold off or not--nothing else seems to matter. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
432:It was a great thing to be a human being. It was something tremendous. Suddenly I'm conscious of a million sensations buzzing in me like bees in a hive. Gentlemen, it was a great thing. ~ Karel Capek, #NFDB
433:The "modern man" has "come of age" as a deadly serious adult, conscious of his sufferings and alienations but not of joy, of sex but not of love, of science but not of "mystery. ~ Alexander Schmemann, #NFDB
434:Duane pulled a chair out for me and claimed the seat adjacent as I sat. Or, I tried to sit. I didn't know quite how to sit. Sitting suddenly felt weird. I was super-conscious of my limbs. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
435:I resolved to move just a little bit more slowly through the world, to look around myself with greater care, and to try to remain conscious of all that was going on around me at all times. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
436:The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
437:During the few minutes that Lewis was away, Morse was acutely conscious of the truth of the proposition that the wider the circle of knowledge the greater the circumference of ignorance. ~ Colin Dexter, #NFDB
438:he hated to be sober. It made him conscious of the people around him, of that air of struggle, of greedy ambition, of hope more sordid than despair, of incessant passage up or down ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
439:The essays are very solipsistic and self-absorbed, I'm totally conscious of that. To me, book writing is fun, and I basically just write about things that are entertaining to myself. ~ Chuck Klosterman, #NFDB
440:To be alive spiritually man must have union with God and must be conscious of it. Apart from this union his religious life will be an empty drudgery, a mere imitation of true spirituality. ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
441:Tracy had never been so conscious of the sky above the earth, the dangerous clouds that gathered there, the way humans lived beneath such grandeur and threat every moment of their lives. ~ Paul Russell, #NFDB
442:He was conscious of nothing except the blankness of the page in front of him, the itching of the skin above his ankle, the blaring of the music, and a slight booziness caused by the gin. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
443:I was, of course, myself the chief sufferer, because I was fully conscious of the disgusting meanness of my spiteful stupidity, and yet at the same time I could not restrain myself. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
444:The commonest man, who has his ounce of sense and feeling, is conscious of the difference between a lovely, delicate woman and a coarse one. Even a dog feels a difference in her presence. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
445:Is not anyone with any degree of mental honesty conscious of telling lies all day long, both in talking and writing, simply because lies will fall into artistic shape when truth will not? ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
446:True understanding is possible only when we are fully conscious of our thought, not as an operative observer on this thought, but completely and without the intervention of a choice. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
447:But the great test is that the recognition of the new
standards is accompanied with the sense of shame and guilt: one
is conscious of having blundered into society that one is unfit for. ~ C S Lewis,#NFDB
448:He who, conscious of being strong, is content to be weak, he shall be the paragon of mankind. Being the paragon of mankind, Virtue will never desert him. He returns to the state of a little child. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
449:I am conscious of trying to stretch the boundaries of non-fiction writing. It's always surprised me how little attention many non-fiction writers pay to the formal aspects of their work. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
450:I know that I was conscious of all the aspects of the war, having had cousins who were in the army, who would send me notes and memorabilia. I began to collect things that they would send me. ~ Paul Smith, #NFDB
451:On such a Sabbath morn, were we pure enough to be its medium, we should be conscious of the earth's natural worship ascending through our frames, on whatever spot of ground we stood. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
452:The fact that I am standing there and washing bowls is a wondrous reality. I'm being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
453:The full-grown modern human being ... is conscious of touching the highest pinnacle of fulfillment... when he is consumed in the service of an idea, in the conquest of the goal pursued. ~ Robert Briffault, #NFDB
454:When others are not doing what we would like them to or are threatening disobedience, we are most conscious of the need of controlling them and of the influences by which they are controlled. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
455:every man was conscious of his own insignificance, aware that he was but a grain of sand in that ocean of humanity, and yet at the same time had a sense of power as a part of that vast whole. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
456:Food is a fairly significant aspect of my life. I have struggled mightily with food. With my weight. And I'm conscious of it. So I have a sensitivity to people who struggle with their weight. ~ Tom Vilsack, #NFDB
457:I myself have perceived women's actions as more aggressive than I would have in men because I too am walking around with my own biases. The way to fight them is to become conscious of them. ~ Siri Hustvedt, #NFDB
458:She was generally slightly resentful of people who made it obvious they didn’t care less whether you liked them or not, because she herself was conscious of an unattractive need to please. ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
459:But he hated to be sober. It made him conscious of the people around him, of that air of struggle, of greedy ambition, of hope more sordid than despair, of incessant passage up or down. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
460:Each of us, every living being, is a small earth, one could say, because we are in intimate connection with the earth, we are partially earth, we are conscious of our earthly body, for instance. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
461:How to remember the Mother during work?
One starts by a mental effort - afterwards it is an inner consciousness that is formed... it is always conscious of her.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Correspondences, 17,#NFDB
462:I'm very conscious of developing my singing, technically and stylistically. I want it to become more individual, express more of me. That's my goal. These songs are steps along that way. ~ Madeleine Peyroux, #NFDB
463:Feelings happen when emotions bubble to the surface so that we become aware of them. When we are conscious of our emotions, we are able to express them in words and make others aware of them: ~ Frans de Waal, #NFDB
464:My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what you wrote. ~ Philip Levine, #NFDB
465:See this? And this? See me somersault? See me pull my wagon?” His smallness colored every act; he was conscious of a desperate need to learn to manage, to take charge of his surroundings. Waking ~ Anne Tyler, #NFDB
466:I am conscious of the fact that the subject of hell is not a very pleasant one. It is very unpopular, controversial and misunderstood.... As a minister, I must deal with it. I cannot ignore it. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
467:The pious sectarian is proud because he is confident of his right of possession in God. The man of devotion is meek because he is conscious of God's right of love over his life and soul. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #NFDB
468:The question of immortality is of its nature not a scholarly question. It is a question welling up from the interior which the subject must put to itself as it becomes conscious of itself. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
469:“We should never hear a voice from another world, the world of inaccessible solitude, if, conscious of the impasse, we were not bent on finding the answer to the riddle by guesswork.” ~ Bataille, Erotism p191, #NFDB
470:The Sixth Army, true to their oath and conscious of the lofty importance of their mission, have held their position to the last man and the last round for Führer and Fatherland unto the end. ~ Friedrich Paulus, #NFDB
471:Believe me, were I ever to accomplish anything, it would be in music, which has always attracted me; and, without overestimating myself, I am conscious of possessing a certain creative faculty. ~ Robert Schumann, #NFDB
472:Do you know when you may concede your insignificance? Before God or, perhaps, before the intellect, beauty, or nature, but not before people. Among people, one must be conscious of one's dignity. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
473:Learn technique; have full command to the extent of not being conscious of how it is done. When craftsmanship has been developed, you are free to create... technique will give way to expression! ~ Sergei Bongart, #NFDB
474:The first thing is to learn how to quiet the mind, relax the mind, and bring the awareness to the front so that we are conscious of what we're doing when we're doing it without all the commentary. ~ Tenzin Palmo, #NFDB
475:Theoretically, everyone's inner being knows everything. There is a part of us that is aware of all things. But that doesn't necessarily do us a whole lot of good unless we are conscious of that. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
476:As I've gotten older there's just more awareness around what is good for my body internally, externally, physically. It's all about reading labels and being aware and conscious of what goes in. ~ Jennifer Aniston, #NFDB
477:The intention of each lesson is getting you to recognize what you're doing, kinesthetically. Once you're conscious of it, you then can choose whether to continue doing the same thing or not. ~ F Matthias Alexander, #NFDB
478:We're plugged in 24 hours a day now. We're all part of one big machine, whether we are conscious of that or not. And if we can't unplug from that machine, eventually we're going to become mindless. ~ Alan Lightman, #NFDB
479:Conscious of our many problems, I seek today to lay a foundation to our public policy. My fundamental purpose is to devote my term of office to raising the standard of public service in New Jersey. ~ Charles Edison, #NFDB
480:I'm never really conscious of saying, "I'm going to take on a specific role to combat a certain image in the public eye." I think that's pretty manipulative and transparent to the public anyway. ~ Leonardo DiCaprio, #NFDB
481:I like to prepare as much as possible beforehand, but there's definitely that element of fear when you're on set, and you have to be conscious of it and use that fear to drive you to work harder. ~ Leonardo DiCaprio, #NFDB
482:Man's greatness does not consist in being different from the animals that share the earth with him, but in being...conscious of things of which his environment has no inkling. ~ Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald, #NFDB
483:At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him. ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
484:Mindfulness of the resources we have and respect for where we live, eat, and sleep is a good starting point. Being conscious of your consumption, what goes in and out, will help cut down on wastefulness. ~ Joy Bryant, #NFDB
485:Stay conscious of who you travel with on this journey. See who you’re attracted to and notice who is attracted to you. See how much better you feel when you surround yourself with the energy of love. ~ Melody Beattie, #NFDB
486:When a man fails to understand something he is conscious of a discord, and seeks for the cause of it not in himself, as he should, but outside himself - hence the war with what he does not understand. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
487:Our Soul is a spark of the Divine. It is pure and perfect. Evil deeds merely obstruct our vision of the true nature of our Soul. Through good deeds we can become conscious of this perfection again. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
488:People need to be made conscious of a very simple reality: we have no choice but to share this planet, this small blue sphere floating in the vast reaches of space, with all of our fellow 'passengers.' ~ Daisaku Ikeda, #NFDB
489:We have this recurring dream that we're human beings, that we have bodies, that we're in time and space, that there is birth and death. To awaken from the dream of life is to be conscious of eternity. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
490:When you're young, you don't especially think of yourself as being young. You're just alive and everything's interesting and you don't think of things in terms of age because you're not conscious of it. ~ Richard Hell, #NFDB
491:Art does not lie in copying nature.- Nature furnishes the material by means of which is to express a beauty still unexpressed in nature.-The artist beholds in nature more than she herself is conscious of. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
492:Resistance to revelation, resistance to becoming conscious of all that dwells within us - high and low, light and dark - is the anti-change factor. It is also the mainspring of all our psychological fears. ~ Guy Finley, #NFDB
493:The sky grew darker and the moon rose higher as the evening wore on. and without either or them being conscious of it, they began to regain the intimacy, the bond of familiarity, they had once shared. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
494:We tend to remain conscious of the boundary flags for the course of this world. That slavish adherence to a course that is set out for us by the world is a mark of an unregenerate person, Paul says.
Not ~ R C Sproul,#NFDB
495:The Clinton paradox: How could a president so intelligent, so compassionate, so public-spirited and so conscious of his place in history act in such a stupid, selfish and self-destructive manner? ~ George Stephanopoulos, #NFDB
496:When you take your attention into the present moment, a certain alertness arises. You become more conscious of what's around you, but also, strangely, a sense of presence that is both within and without. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
497:You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
498:Chile has changed. The people have become more mature and they are more conscious of their rights. They want to participate and have a say about things such as if and where a power plant can be built. ~ Michelle Bachelet, #NFDB
499:I don't live beyond my means. I enjoy luxury and I enjoy the privilege of it, when I can afford it, and I'm in the situation where it's been given to me, but I'm very conscious of what is wasteful. ~ Benedict Cumberbatch, #NFDB
500:I've been all different shapes and sizes in my lifetime. I started wearing shapewear as a teenager after I did 'Australian Idol.' I had a little tummy, and I was always really quite conscious of that. ~ Ricki Lee Coulter, #NFDB
501:and the old member of the Convention inspired him, without his being clearly conscious of the fact himself, with that sentiment which borders on hate, and which is so well expressed by the word estrangement. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
502:Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm... it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
503:Despite the mythic heights to which he was raised, Azikiwe was nothing if not pragmatic, a realist always conscious of his limits and ever eager to extract all that was possible from that limited horizon. ~ Nnamdi Azikiwe, #NFDB
504:I can be so involved that I am no longer conscious of my needs or even of any pains. But there also have been many times when I felt the exhaustion - when it was physically painful, but I just couldn't stop. ~ Alton Tobey, #NFDB
505:I should say that I'm not conscious of any particular style or any particular literary device when I am writing. I have written 22 books, and they are all very different. I have tried all kinds of genres. ~ Isabel Allende, #NFDB
506:It is often your own actions that stir up envy, your own unawareness. By becoming conscious of those actions and qualities that create envy, you can take the teeth out of it before it nibbles you to death. ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
507:I've always been athletic. Growing up in Puerto Rico, and being in the countryside, I was always running around. I also played volleyball, basketball, and I ran track. I was always very conscious of my body. ~ Joan Smalls, #NFDB
508:Watching the completed version of The Two Towers for example, I was very conscious of scenes - sometimes whole sequences - that I had seen being filmed or edited but which hadn't made it into the final cut. ~ Brian Sibley, #NFDB
509:Antonia was very conscious of the corrosive power of envy and felt that it was this emotion, more than any other, which lay behind human unhappiness. People did not realise how widespread envy was. ~ Alexander McCall Smith, #NFDB
510:Catholics are necessarily at war with this age. That we are not more conscious of the fact, that we so often endeavor to make an impossible peace with it -- that is the tragedy. You cannot serve God and Mammon. ~ Eric Gill, #NFDB
511:When you look at a guy like a Jay-Z or look at a guy like a Nas, you don't necessarily qualify them as conscious rap purely, although they are extremely conscious of the social inequities that prevail. ~ Michael Eric Dyson, #NFDB
512:Every general and every soldier was conscious of his own insignificance, aware of being but a drop in that ocean of men, and yet at the same time was conscious of his strength as a part of that enormous whole. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
513:Imagination is always the fabric of social life and the dynamic of history. The influence of real needs and compulsions, of real interests and materials, is indirect because the crowd is never conscious of it. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
514:To some extent, I have only lived to have something to outlive. By confiding these futile remembrances to paper, I am conscious of accomplishing the most important act of my life. I was predestined to Memory. ~ Oscar Milosz, #NFDB
515:When love flies it is remembered not as love but as something else. Blessed are the uneducated, who forget it entirely, and are never conscious of folly or pruriency in the past, of long aimless conversations. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
516:I am not conscious of working especially hard, or of 'working' at all. Writing and teaching have always been, for me, so richly rewarding that I don't think of them as work in the usual sense of the word. ~ Joyce Carol Oates, #NFDB
517:I find it almost comforting to count calories, because it makes me conscious of what I'm eating. But on Super Bowl Sunday, I thought, 'Surrender to it. It's nacho time.' Then I ate nothing but Doritos all day. ~ Kristen Bell, #NFDB
518:I wouldn't have been able to go to drama school when I was 19. I don't think I was even conscious of life... I was like a zombie. But when I finished uni' I just realized... just go and do it, stop being a knob. ~ Claire Foy, #NFDB
519:Our imagination makes us intensely conscious of a life we must live which transcends the individual life and contradicts the biological meaning of the instinct of self-preservation. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, The Religion of Man, #NFDB
520:As a musician you fall into certain patterns that you're not conscious of, unless you start listening to yourself on tape a lot. If you do that you start recognizing habits; then you have to try and break them. ~ Jerry Garcia, #NFDB
521:I must try, however, as best I can, although I am very conscious of the fact that our feelings and strivings are often contradictory and obscure and that they cannot be expressed in easy and simple formulas. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
522:Oh, if only this new, bright life would come sooner, when one could look one’s fate directly and boldly in the eye, be conscious of one’s rightness, be cheerful, free! And this life would come sooner or later! ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
523:Quoting Father Seraphim:
Our life hangs only by a breath. It is the thread that links you to the Father, the Source, which brought you into being. Be conscious of this thread, and go where you will. (27) ~ Jean Yves Leloup,#NFDB
524:How often must I repeat, that I know or am conscious of my own being; and that I myself am not my ideas, but somewhat else, a thinking, active principle that perceives, knows, wills, and operates about ideas? ~ George Berkeley, #NFDB
525:I'm very conscious of the idea of trying to each time present something that I haven't presented before. It's a challenge to me to find something new, to find something innovative, but it's also very exciting. ~ Herbie Hancock, #NFDB
526:Instead of getting rid of ego, the idea is to become very conscious of ego and how it works. Only by getting to know ego intimately will it lose its power to keep us spinning in samsara. ~ Pema Chodron, Welcoming the Unwelcome, #NFDB
527:I saw his glance flick over me, like a horse trader assessing the value of a filly. Whenever I looked up the king’s eyes were on me, whenever I looked away I was conscious of his stare still on my face. When ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
528:Most of us, I hope, have had some child or spouse or friend like Beatrice, someone who by his very nature, his seemingly innate goodness and intelligence, makes us uncomfortably conscious of our lies when we lie. ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
529:You are right to demand that an author be conscious of what he is doing, but you are confusing two concepts: solving the problem and correctly formulating the problem. Only the latter is required of the artist. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
530:I'm sorry you don't want to know me anymore. I will spend the rest of my life regretting the fact that I wasted my second chance to know you. And I will always be conscious of your absence."- Gabriel to Julia. ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
531:While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
532:The secret of force in writing lies not so much in the pedigree of nouns and adjectives and verbs, as in having something that you believe in to say, and making the parts of speech vividly conscious of it. ~ James Russell Lowell, #NFDB
533:Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence. ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
534:All things are already complete in us. There is no greater delight than to be conscious of right within us. If one strives to treat others as he would be treated by them, he shall not fail to come near the perfect life. ~ Mencius, #NFDB
535:Become conscious of what you think during the day. A negative thought will enter you. At first it will be vague, innocuous, but then it will root in your consciousness and soon it will be impossible to eradicate. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
536:Being frugal, conscious of making money, is not a negative thing. That sensibility of creating value and finding value and reinvesting in those customers is what separates great restaurants from the average ones. ~ Joe Bastianich, #NFDB
537:I became conscious of the fact that I would never experience that blissful optimism again. I would not be courageous enough to have another child. I wasn’t even sure I would ever be brave enough to love someone ~ Julianne MacLean, #NFDB
538:No, I won't let you go, Marcus thought fiercely. He was conscious of a savage urge to carry Arabella far away from here, captive, in his sole possession, until she finally agreed to wed him and give him her heart. ~ Nicole Jordan, #NFDB
539:Even when you're acting with a producing hat, when you're in every scene, you're really conscious of trying to make everybody as good as they are, because ultimately you're trying to make the best movie possible. ~ Michael Douglas, #NFDB
540:His affection was all her own. She could not be deceived in that. Her mother, sisters, Fanny, all had been conscious of his regard for her at Norland; it was not an illusion of her own vanity. He certainly loved her. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
541:It was seldom that Mr Standen, a peace-loving young gentleman, was conscious of a wish to come to blows with his fellow-men, but a wistful desire to land his cousin a facer did for an instant flicker in his mind. ~ Georgette Heyer, #NFDB
542:Most of us, I hope, have had some child or spouse or friend like Beatrice, someone who by his very nature, his seemingly innate goodness and intelligence, makes us uncomfortably conscious of our lies when we lie. Sol ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
543:Psychoanalysis pretends to investigate the Unconscious. The Unconscious by definition is what you are not conscious of. But the Analysts already know what's in it - they should, because they put it all in beforehand. ~ Saul Bellow, #NFDB
544:Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence. ~ Alan W Watts, #NFDB
545:True change happens within, not without. Find the Now within. Everybody you come in contact with will be touched by your presence and affected by the peace that you emanate, whether they are conscious of it or not. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
546:Vermonters, it seems to me, are like ethnics in their own land. They are exceedingly conscious of their difference from other Americans, and they talk a great deal about outsiders, newcomers, and people from the south. ~ Jan Morris, #NFDB
547:Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom, and in the end superior ability has its way. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
548:Osborne and Roger knowing that the wife of the former was a Frenchwoman, and, conscious of each other's knowledge, felt doubly awkward; while Molly was as much confused as though she herself were secretly married. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, #NFDB
549:The country blacksmith who employs no journeyman is never conscious of any conflict between the capital invested in his anvil, hammer and bellows, and the labor he performs with them, because in fact, there is none. ~ Leland Stanford, #NFDB
550:Therefore, we do not become conscious of the three greatest blessings of life as such, namely health, youth, and freedom, as long as we possess them, but only after we have lost them; for they too are negations. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
551:You cannot avoid making judgements but you can become more conscious of the way in which you make them. This is critically important because once we judge someone or something we tend to stop thinking about them or it. ~ Neil Postman, #NFDB
552:Human beings -- human children especially -- seldom deny themselves the pleasure of exercising a power which they are conscious of possessing, even though that power consist only in a capacity to make others wretched ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
553:I can very well say without hesitation that all those who have political power, even if they use it well have acquired it by demonic mediation and even if they are not conscious of it, they are worshippers of diabolos. ~ Jacques Ellul, #NFDB
554:I find that when I am gossiping about my friends, as well as my enemies, I am deeply conscious of performing a social duty. But when I hear they are gossiping about me, I am rightfully filled with righteous indignation. ~ Max Gluckman, #NFDB
555:I had become conscious of my physicality, aware of my presence and open to the ugly truths of the world. At the age of thirteen, I realised that there was a danger in innocence and beauty, and I could not live with both. ~ Tracey Emin, #NFDB
556:The invigorating scent of the sea was nectar to her wearied body, the immensity of the lonely cliffs was silent and dreamlike. Her brain only remained conscious of its ceaseless, its intolerable torture of uncertainty. ~ Emmuska Orczy, #NFDB
557:As we rode, I was conscious of nothing else but his hand against mine, his strong hold that was still infinitely gentle. Being with him and holding his hand was a special enough outing. I needed no more wooing than that. ~ Jody Hedlund, #NFDB
558:Human beings are natural mimickers. The more youre conscious of the other sides posture, mannerisms, and word choices - and the more you subtly reflect those back - the more accurate youll be at taking their perspective. ~ Daniel H Pink, #NFDB
559:True, they were broken and stammering syllables; but they were human speech. My soul, conscious of new strength, came out of bondage, and was reaching through those broken symbols of speech to all knowledge and all faith. ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
560:If you are not conscious of all of the different parts of yourself, the part of yourself that is the strongest will win out over the other parts. Its intention will be the one that the personality uses to create its reality. ~ Gary Zukav, #NFDB
561:A man conscious of enthusiasm for worthy aims is sustained under petty hostilities by the memory of great workers who had to fight their way not without wounds, and who hover in his mind as patron saints, invisibly helping. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
562:Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than a minority of them - never become even conscious of them all. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
563:I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten- my world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine! ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
564:I just try to enjoy the moment and enjoy what's happening. I mean, I want to be conscious of what's going on around me, and be aware of if I can make a change and make things better, which I think is very important. ~ Donavon Frankenreiter, #NFDB
565:I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves. The ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
566:I think I exist,' he said wearily. 'I am conscious of my own identity. I was born, and I shall die. I have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same point simultaneously. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
567:The Church Fathers teach us that a shattered heart is the most pleasing gift to God. It is the sign that we are conscious of our sins, of the evil we have done, of our wretchedness, and of our need for forgiveness and mercy. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
568:Unless the heir casts off his “inheritance” by becoming fully conscious of his true past, and thus of his true nature, loneliness in the parental home will necessarily be followed by an adulthood lived in emotional isolation. ~ Alice Miller, #NFDB
569:in this wonderful human brain of ours there has dawned a realization unknown to the other primates. It is that of the individual, conscious of himself as such, and aware that he, and all that he cares for, will one day die. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
570:It belongs to every large nature, when it is not under the immediate power of some strong unquestioning emotion, to suspect itself, and doubt the truth of its own impressions, conscious of possibilities beyond its own horizon. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
571:Let me just say that the politics that I have are never the politics of poetics. I am not interested in politics. Politically, I am only very conscious of how we live and what we do right and what we do so awfully wrong. ~ Lucie Brock Broido, #NFDB
572:The opposite of thinking clearly is being muddled. To be conscious of being muddled is a horrible experience. To avoid it we may even be tempted to shut our minds and swallow a belief, ready-made, from some expert authority. ~ Susan Stebbing, #NFDB
573:A feeble mind, conscious of its own feebleness, grows feeble under that very consciousness. As soon as the power of fear becomes known to it, there follows the fear of fear, and, on the first perturbation, reason abandons it. ~ Hector Berlioz, #NFDB
574:A)s long as (one) is unable to control his moods and emotions, or to be conscious of the myriad secret ways in which unconscious factors insinuate themselves into his arrangements and decisions, he is certainly not his own master. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
575:In the face of such a threat, they had no other choice but to throw themselves to the far left. But now that the people are conscious of our efforts, now that they see us resolving problems, the communists are losing strength. ~ Indira Gandhi, #NFDB
576:Jesus was certainly not a mere enunciator of permanent truths, like the modern liberal preacher; on the contrary He was conscious of standing at the turning-point of the ages, when what had never been was now to come to be. ~ J Gresham Machen, #NFDB
577:Ours is an immutable reality which should make you shudder when you approach us if you are really conscious of the fact that your reality is a mere transitory and fleeting illusion, taking this form today and that tomorrow, ~ Luigi Pirandello, #NFDB
578:The bargain might appear unequal; but there was still another consideration in the scales; for while Jekyll would suffer smartingly in the fires of abstinence, Hyde would be not even conscious of all that he had lost. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
579:It's important to be conscious of the world we live in. We get one chance, as far as I'm concerned, but we all leave an echo. It's important that our echo resonates positively on the planet and its inhabitants after we're gone. ~ Alex Gaskarth, #NFDB
580:The growing tide of anti-Semitism shocks the conscious of everyone who values freedom, and the ugly, hateful acts particularly stain the character of democracies where liberty and religious freedom are supposed to be respected. ~ Mike Ferguson, #NFDB
581:Consciousness is an attribute while awareness is not; one can be aware of being conscious, but not conscious of awareness. God is the totality of consciousness, but awareness is beyond all--being as well as not-being. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #NFDB
582:Home will always be Northern Ireland but my schedule means for the next few years I won't be there as much. I can't do the same things that I did a year ago. That is I'm something conscious of, but I'm not sad about it. It's fine. ~ Rory McIlroy, #NFDB
583:Jesus was certainly not a mere enunciator of permanent truths, like the modern liberal preacher; on the contrary He was conscious of standing at the turning-point of the ages, when what had never been was now to come to be. ~ John Gresham Machen, #NFDB
584:For Borges, the core of reality lay in books; reading books, writing books, talking about books. In a visceral way, he was conscious of continuing a dialogue begun thousands of years before and which he believed would never end. ~ Alberto Manguel, #NFDB
585:The young have aspirations that never comes to pass,the old have reminiscences of what never happened. It's only the middle-aged who are really conscious of their limitations - that is why one should be patient with them. But one never is. ~ Saki, #NFDB
586:What made Jim truly mystical was his ability to live fully conscious of how, every day, a bit more of the sacred becomes desecrated. Still, Jim’s awareness of how much had been lost didn’t stop him from appreciating what remained. ~ Robert Jensen, #NFDB
587:He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. - Epictetus We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. - Thornton Wilder ~ Rossi Fox, #NFDB
588:He was conscious of a cold and sickly thrill throughout him; and all he reasoned was this, that the young creature whose graces had intoxicated him into making the most imprudent decision of his life, was less an angel than a women. ~ Thomas Hardy, #NFDB
589:I appeal now to the convictions of the communicants, and ask such persons whether they have not been occasionally conscious of a painful confusion of thought between the worship due to God and the commemoration due to Christ. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
590:Meditation simplifies our outer life and energizes our inner life. Meditation gives us a natural and spontaneous life, a life that becomes so natural and spontaneous that we cannot breathe without being conscious of our own divinity. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
591:Tis going, I own, like the Knight of the Woeful Countenance, in quest of melancholy adventures--but I know not how it is, but I am never so perfectly conscious of the existence of a soul within me, as when I am entangled in them. ~ Laurence Sterne, #NFDB
592:To not be self-conscious of your appearance is huge, and something that I desperately hope to carry into film at some point in my useless life - to not be thinking, "My ear looks weird from this angle, why is the camera over there?" ~ Anna Kendrick, #NFDB
593:It is warm.” True, they were broken and stammering syllables; but they were human speech. My soul, conscious of new strength, came out of bondage, and was reaching through those broken symbols of speech to all knowledge and all faith. ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
594:Scientific progress is the discovery of a more and more comprehensive simplicity... The previous successes give us confidence in the future of science: we become more and more conscious of the fact that the universe is cognizable. ~ Georges Lemaitre, #NFDB
595:The individual within the collective is never, or hardly ever, conscious of the prevailing thought style, which almost always exerts an absolutely compulsive force upon his thinking and with which it is not possible to be at variance. ~ Ludwik Fleck, #NFDB
596:With three or more people there is something bold in the air: direct things get said which would frighten two people alone and conscious of each inch of their nearness to one another. To be three is to be in public - you feel safe. ~ Elizabeth Bowen, #NFDB
597:Whether we're conscious of it or not, our work and personal lives are made up of daily rituals, including when we eat our meals, how we shower or groom, or how we approach our daily descent into the digital world of email communication. ~ Chip Conley, #NFDB
598:I'm not an analytical person, so it's not my job to even know what the hell the thing meant. It's not my problem. I'm just supposed to do it. Sometimes, people have explained things to me that I might have been semi-conscious of or not. ~ Jim Jarmusch, #NFDB
599:The April night on which Sammy felt most aware of the luster of his existence - the moment when, for the first time in his life, he was fully conscious of his own happiness - was a night that he would never discuss with anyone at all. ~ Michael Chabon, #NFDB
600:Why, why, when one writes, does a sort of shackle bind one's imagination? I become conscious of a deadening mediocrity, perhaps a form of mental cowardice, and I long to break free, to let my imagination take wings. It doesn't - yet. ~ Winifred Holtby, #NFDB
601:his look was both self-congratulatory and full of cynical cruelty. I came home, conscious of a feeling of disgust so much more powerful than usual that I sat down and made myself read the novel for the first time since it was published. ~ Doris Lessing, #NFDB
602:I'm very conscious of the fact that every line should have a cadence to it. It should contribute to the progress of the poem. And that the ending of the line is a way of turning the reader's attention back into the interior of the poem. ~ Billy Collins, #NFDB
603:Our strongest gifts are usually those we are barely aware of possessing. They are a part of our God-given nature, with us from the moment we drew first breath, and we are no more conscious of having them them than we are of breathing. ~ Parker J Palmer, #NFDB
604:I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
605:I would agree on the aging thing. Because, at a certain point, once you start noticing it, it is your subject. And I know young that people, when they get to 30, say, "Oh, I'm so old." But actually, around 50, you do become conscious of it. ~ Geoff Dyer, #NFDB
606:Although all things in their metaphysical origin proceed from the soul one and truly free from all particularisation, nevertheless by reason of non-illumination there is produced a subjective mind which becomes conscious of an external world. ~ Awaghosha, #NFDB
607:A man’s life is wasted when he lives on, so deceived by the joys of life or by its sorrows, that he never becomes decisively conscious of himself as spirit, as self, that is, he never is aware in the deepest sense that there is a God. ~ S ren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
608:The next step in human evolution is not inevitable, but for the first time in the history of the planet, it can be a conscious choice. Who is making that choice? You are. And who are you? Consciousness that has become conscious of itself. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
609:What holds for adults holds even more for children, sensitive and conscious of differences. I certainly hope that the Board of Education will think very, very seriously before it introduces this division and antagonism in our public schools. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
610:Every serious scientific worker is painfully conscious of this involuntary relegation to an ever-narrowing sphere of knowledge, which threatens to deprive the investigator of his broad horizon and degrades him to the level of a mechanic. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
611:Our epoch is the epoch of increasing consciousness; in this field Mathematics has done its bit. It has made us conscious of the limits of its own capabilities. ~ Rózsa Péter, "Playing with Infinity: Mathematical Explorations and Excursions" p. 264 (1976)., #NFDB
612:Sometimes we get way too fixated on how powerful sin is and how weak we are. We worry that if we relax for a second, we'll mess up royally and ruin everything. Ironically, our paranoia only serves to make us more conscious of our sinfulness. ~ Judah Smith, #NFDB
613:Until we become conscious of our interior workings, we experience most inner occurrences as exclusively subjective and through various emotional states that tend to seize us despite our best efforts. ~ Bud Harris, Knowing the Questions, Living the Answers, #NFDB
614:For it is probable that when people talk aloud, the selves (of which there may be more than two thousand) are conscious of disserverment, and are trying to communicate but when communication is established there is nothing more to be said. ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
615:He sat in the same place as the day died, looking at the dull houses opposite, and thinking, if the disembodied spirits of former inhabitants were ever conscious of them, how they must pity themselves for their old places of imprisonment. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
616:I belong to the generation of workers who, born in the villages and hamlets of rural Poland, had the opportunity to acquire education and find employment in industry, becoming in the course conscious of their rights and importance in society. ~ Lech Walesa, #NFDB
617:If we were always conscious of the fact that people precious to us are frighteningly mortal, hanging not even by a thread but by a wisp of gossamer, perhaps we would be kinder to them and more grateful for the love and friendship they give us. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
618:Priming effects take many forms. If the idea of EAT is currently on your mind (whether or not you are conscious of it), you will be quicker than usual to recognize the word SOUP when it is spoken in a whisper or presented in a blurry font. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
619:He brought his lips down to mine in a long, exquisite kiss, the kind that sent heat all the way to my fingers and toes and made me very conscious of the fact that there was a bed behind us. I pulled back before we accidentally got distracted. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
620:... I'm not conscious of the speed ... it's not my motive ... my motive is displaying a voice through the fingerboard ... it can get to the point where I don't have control over what I am playing ... I never end the gig until I can't sing anymore ~ Alvin Lee, #NFDB
621:The name is something we thought about for a long time, and we wanted it to be a girl's name, but we didn't want it to be 'the Jesses,' ... We were very conscious of not wanting to make it a twin thing, because we think that's really tacky. ~ Lisa Origliasso, #NFDB
622:The process with the play, obviously, it belongs to you by the time you're stepping on stage in front of that audience for the first time. You can change it by just a look or things you're not even conscious of, but it's such a full immersion. ~ Gretchen Mol, #NFDB
623:White privilege is the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white. Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it. ~ Peggy McIntosh, #NFDB
624:And whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
625:I think American men are more conscious of putting up a good impression. There's more of an earthiness to Englishmen. But Americans aren't afraid to come up and say, "Hi, I'd like to go out with you." Englishmen are far more sheepish about it. ~ Sienna Miller, #NFDB
626:We have a lot of limiting beliefs that we're not even conscious of. Maybe your family taught you you weren't good enough or you weren't smart enough. Perhaps we're taught that this religion is good and all other religions are bad. It's endless. ~ Deborah King, #NFDB
627:What is really important in Man is the part of him that we do not understand. Of much of it we are not even conscious, just as we are not normally conscious of keeping up our circulation by our heart-pump, though if we neglect it we die. ~ George Bernard Shaw, #NFDB
628:To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same sum of experiences. It is up to us to be conscious of them. Being aware of one's life, one's revolt, one's freedom, and to the maximum, is living, and to the maximum. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
629:To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same sum of experiences. It is up to us to be conscious of them. Being aware of one’s life, one’s revolt, one’s freedom, and to the maximum, is living, and to the maximum. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
630:Before we can build a stable civilization worthy of humanity as a whole, it is necessary that each historical civilization should become conscious of its limitations and it's unworthiness to become the ideal civilization of the world. ~ Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, #NFDB
631:If we were always conscious of the fact that people precious to us are frighteningly mortal, hanging not even by a thread, but by a wisp of gossamer, perhaps we would be kinder to them and more grateful for the love and friendship they give to us. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
632:The thoughts of his mind, besides, were of the gloomiest dye; and when he glanced at the companion of his drive, he was conscious of some touch of that terror of the law and the law’s officers, which may at times assail the most honest. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
633:The whole purpose of spirituality is to become more conscious of the needs of others, more sympathetic, and more caring. So beware of the road that leads you in the other direction—toward judging others harshly. This is not a true spiritual path. ~ Michael Berg, #NFDB
634:Hunter stretched out beside her, head propped on one hand, his eyes never leaving her. She was acutely conscious of his gaze, and when it started to unnerve her, she finally turned to look at him. Banked embers of passion glowed in his eyes. ~ Catherine Anderson, #NFDB
635:In a real sense, our beliefs dictate our behavior. A theory underlies our every moral action. We may not be able to articulate that theory or even be immediately conscious of it, but nothing manifests our value systems more sharply than our actions. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
636:The point is best made by Aristotle, who supposedly asked, “Would you rather be a happy pig or an unhappy human?” HSPs prefer the good feeling of being very conscious, very human, even if what we are conscious of is not always cause for rejoicing. ~ Elaine N Aron, #NFDB
637:Twas the moment deep When we are conscious of the secret dawn Amid the darkness that we feel is green . . . Thy face remembered is from other worlds, It has been died for, though I know not when, It has been sung of, though I know not where . . . She ~ Anya Seton, #NFDB
638:I try to help people become the best possible editors of their own work, to help them become conscious of the things they do well, of the things they need to look at again, of the wells of material they have not even begun to dip their buckets into. ~ Tobias Wolff, #NFDB
639:The critic had added a personal note: Most of us, I hope, have had some child or spouse or friend like Beatrice, someone who by his very nature, his seemingly innate goodness and intelligence, makes us uncomfortably conscious of our lies when we lie. ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
640:Each was anxious to play the part fate had allotted to him, and each was dimly conscious of an inability to remain confined in it, and painfully aware that their secret problems would have been unintelligible to most men of their own class and kind. ~ Edith Wharton, #NFDB
641:And here is the sense of its existence: it is conscious of being superfluous. It dilutes, scatters itself, tries to lose itself on the brown wall, along the lamp post or down there in the evening mist. But it never forgets itself. That is its lot. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
642:Because I've made a film with such an amazing director as Tarantino, I'm much more conscious of working with good directors from now on, so that's what's important to me. I don't really care about making a big movie - I just want to make good ones. ~ Melanie Laurent, #NFDB
643:I think many poets, including myself, write both for the voice and for the page. I certainly write for the person alone in the library, who pulls down a book and it opens to a poem. I am also very conscious of what it means to read these poems aloud. ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
644:To be conscious of being poor while praying for riches is to be rewarded with that which you are conscious of being, namely, poverty. Prayers to be successful must be claimed and appropriated. Assume the positive consciousness of the thing desired. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
645:We can at least try to understand our own motives, passions, and prejudices, so as to be conscious of what we are doing when we apeal to those of others. This is very difficult, because our own prejudice and emotional bias always seems to us so rational. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
646:I direct my attention to the individual, to make him strong, to teach him that he himself is divine, and I call upon men to make themselves conscious of this divinity within. That is really the ideal --conscious or unconscious --of every religion. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
647:If we are conscious of our own worth, our own intrinsic value as a unique human being, we will not allow suppression, repression or oppression to continue, in any shape or form. We can do this in small everyday ways within our own sphere of ‘influence’. ~ Susan Scott, #NFDB
648:"Everything that is unconscious is projected, and for this reason the analyst should be conscious of at least the most important contents of his unconscious, lest unconscious projections cloud his judgement". ~ C. G. Jung#projection #consciousness #unconscious #shadow, #NFDB
649:I listened carefully as he described his little girl's first steps. He encouraged her to keep her eyes on him, and only when she didn't, did she stumble. Only when she lost her focus, when she became too conscious of the steps she was taking, did she fall. ~ Mark Nepo, #NFDB
650:my sense of exaltation was due not only to admiration of the autumn tints but to a bodily desire. Ample source of a joy which the heart feels at first without being conscious of its cause, without understanding that it results from no external impulse! ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
651:"[With enlightenment ...] You give nothing up. You just become aware of what you're doing. You become a conscious being. You become conscious of your actions. You become loving, compassionate, gentle to all people. You stop watching out for number one.” ~ Robert Adams, #NFDB
652:And when he became conscious of a human figure dark against the silver stream, sitting on a large boulder and looking rather like a large bird, it was perhaps with some of the premonitions proper to a man who meets the strangest friendship of his life. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
653:The best form of leadership is to be conscious of the leadership potential with the followers and to let them unleash this potential in a spontaneous way. When a great leader accomplishes this task with effortless ease, the followers say, "We did it ourselves." ~ Laozi, #NFDB
654:While we enjoy the benefits of living in the greatest democracy in the world, we must be ever conscious of the fact that none of the achievements or freedoms enjoyed in America would be possible without the price that has been paid for by our servicemen. ~ Mark Kennedy, #NFDB
655:As the chant grew in volume she began to be conscious of the terrible potency of language, the sense that a name spoken is a summons and more than a summons, an act of creation, for a word shapes an idea, an idea shapes belief, and belief shapes the world. ~ Jan Siegel, #NFDB
656:I'm not committed as a writer, in the usual sense of the term, either religiously or politically. And I'm not conscious of any particular social function. I write because I want to write. I don't see any placards on myself, and I don't carry any banners. ~ Harold Pinter, #NFDB
657:It is not the inner Purusha only that remains detached then – the inner Purusha is always detached, only one is not conscious of it in the ordinary state. ~ Sri Aurobindo#sriaurobindo #aurobindoghosh #innerpurusha #innerpeace #innerstrength #ordinarystate #consciousness, #NFDB
658:[T]he entire human drama of recorded history is God's dream, whereby, once he begins investigating his dreams, he will start becoming conscious of himself. And that is something of the purpose of what Jung called the "miserable morass of human history." ~ Edward Edinger, #NFDB
659:Hunter studied her features, once so repulsive to him, now so cherished. He ran a finger up the fragile bridge of her nose, then traced the line of her brow, acutely conscious of the small bones that shaped her face. Protectiveness welled within him. ~ Catherine Anderson, #NFDB
660:I have never thought of my entertainment as being able to bring about social change. I am seriously always looking for the laugh. What it did make me conscious of was having empathy for those without any power in this country. That has always stuck with me. ~ Lewis Black, #NFDB
661:Suddenly, I became conscious of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the sky. ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
662:The diseased pride [of artistic individualists] was not even conscious of a public interest, and would have found all political terms utterly tasteless and insignificant. It was no longer a question of one man one vote, but of one man one universe. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
663:"The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
664:The more one is obsessed with God, the less one is innocent. Nobody bothered about him in paradise. The fall brought about this divine torture. It’s not possible to be conscious of divinity without guilt. Thus God is rarely to be found in an innocent soul. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
665:A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the ‘why’ for his existence and will be able to bear almost any ‘how, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
666:Conscious of my own weakness, I can only seek fervently the guidance of the Ruler of the Universe, and, relying on His all-powerful aid, do my best to restore Union and peace to a suffering people, and to establish and guard their liberties and rights. ~ George B McClellan, #NFDB
667:Our life is shaped and determined by our thoughts. Usually we are only half conscious of the way thoughts direct our life; we are lost in thoughts as if they are reality. We take our own mental creations quite seriously, endorsing them without reservation. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
668:When I first got into the first-year study after the Cultural Revolution, got into the same school with this group, I wasn't conscious of the so-called "Fifth Generation." I didn't like that kind of study condition because there's no real, true education there. ~ Ai Weiwei, #NFDB
669:I say, 'If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book', but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you're directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable. ~ Martin Amis, #NFDB
670:There exists an obvious fact that seems utterly moral: namely, that a man is always prey to his truths. Once he has admitted them, he cannot free himself from them. One has to pay something. A man who has become conscious of the absurd is forever bound to it. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
671:What right did this Nature have to bring me into the world as a result of some eternal law of hers? I was created with consciousness, and I was conscious of this Nature: what right did she have to produce me, a conscious being, without my willing it?... ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
672:Nothing is more unaccountable than the spell that often lurks in a spoken word. A thought may be present to the mind, and two minds conscious of the same thought, but as long as it remains unspoken their familiar talk flows quietly over the hidden idea. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
673:They must take me for a fool, or even worse, a lunatic. And no wonder ,for I am so intensely conscious of my misfortune and my misery is so overwhelming that I am powerless to resist it and am being turned into stone, devoid of all knowledge or feeling. ~ Miguel de Cervantes, #NFDB
674:But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others. If you were truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
675:Having become conscious of the truth he once perceived, man now sees only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence, he now understands the symbolic element in Ophelia's fate, he now recognizes the wisdom of the woodland god, Silenus: it nauseates him. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
676:To become conscious of this power is to become a 'live wire.' The universe is the live wire. It carries power sufficient to meet every situation in the life of every individual. When the individual mind touches the universal mind, it receives all its power. ~ Charles F Haanel, #NFDB
677:You bad birds,
But God shall not punish you, you
Shall be with us in heaven, though less
Conscious of your happiness, perhaps, than we.
Hell is a not quite satisfactory heaven, probably,
But you are the fruit and jewels
Of my arrangement . . . ~ John Ashbery,#NFDB
678:'In order for an individual to consciously let go of a thing, he must have something that he feels is stronger to which he can anchor. As students become conscious of this, the confidence and strength will come to them to take the step.'
~ Saint Germain, The I am discourses,#NFDB
679:It is important to be conscious of the message that you're putting out there. It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get a movie to the screen. I do feel a certain element of responsibility to say something worth saying with it, as well as entertainment. ~ Gugu Mbatha Raw, #NFDB
680:There are things that are not yet true today, perhaps we are not yet permitted to recognize them as true, although they may be true tomorrow. Every pioneer must take his own path, alone but hopeful, conscious of his solitude and of the perils of its dim precipices. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
681:And all Negroes at some period of their lives there is that yearning for a sense of group unity that is the yearning of men for a flag: for a unity that cannot be compromised, that cannot be bought; that is conscious of itself, of its strength, that is militant. ~ Ralph Ellison, #NFDB
682:A [wo]man who is unconscious of [her/]himself acts in a blind, instinctive way and is in addition fooled by all the illusions that arise when he sees everything that he is not conscious of in himself coming to meet him from outside as projections upon his neighbour. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
683:man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how. ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
684:They're [children] less forgiving. You have to be very conscious of the fact that they're not going to just accept things; they're going to question. They're going to move around if you bore them. They'll actually leave. So you really have to be on your toes. ~ Linda Woolverton, #NFDB
685:Whether he was conscious of it or not, Deng was restoring much of the institutional legacy of traditional Chinese government. Only this time, it was the Communist Party that played the role of the emperor with his eunuch cadres supervising a vast bureaucracy. ~ Francis Fukuyama, #NFDB
686:At the very least, participatory involvement with the many forms of art can enable us to see more in our experience, to hear more on normally unheard frequencies, to become conscious of what daily routines have obscured, what habit and convention have suppressed. ~ Maxine Greene, #NFDB
687:In the mid-1600s, Puritan John Gibbon said, “God alone is enough, but without him, nothing [is enough] for thy happiness.”[218] Whether or not we’re conscious of it, since God is the fountainhead of happiness, the search for happiness is always the search for God. ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
688:No one can obtain felicity by pursuit. This explains why one of the elements of being happy is the feeling that a debt of gratitude is owed, a debt impossible to pay. Now, we do not owe gratitude to ourselves. To be conscious of gratitude is to acknowledge a gift. ~ Josef Pieper, #NFDB
689:To me there is in happiness an element of self-forgetfulness. You lose yourself in something outside yourself when you are happy; just as when you are desperately miserable you are intensely conscious of yourself, are a solid little lump of ego weighing a ton. ~ Joseph Priestley, #NFDB
690:When people were conscious of a God whose character was moral law, when their consciences were informed by a sense of rightness, their watchmen would shout halt when they trespassed the law. Now their watchmen are silent. They serve no king and protect no kingdom. ~ James W Sire, #NFDB
691:A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
692:A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how. ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
693:A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how". ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
694:A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how." ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
695:Father is the existence out of which everything comes; Son is that knowledge. It is in Christ that God will be manifest. God was everywhere, in all beings, before Christ; but in Christ we became conscious of Him. This is God. The third is bliss, the Holy Spirit. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
696:Instead of fighting against the evidence of the senses you claim yourself to be that which you desire to be. As your attention is placed on this claim, the doors of the senses automatically close against your former master (that which you were conscious of being). ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
697:Once he paused near a small stream to watch a dipper bob up and down on a rock. He saw a school of trout lurking in a shady place where a branch hung low on the water. No amount of seeing ever made nature old to him, and he was conscious of every movement and sound. ~ Louis L Amour, #NFDB
698:Only a Europe that is conscious of its own values can be both an economically strong and a morally and intellectually respected partner, and thereby extend its hospitality to others. It's a cultural disgrace that we are forced to identify no-go areas for foreigners. ~ Walter Kasper, #NFDB
699:I have never been normal about my body. It has always seemed to me a strange and foreign entity. I don't know that there was ever a time when I was not conscious of it. As far back as I can think, I was aware of my own corporeality, my physical imposition on space. ~ Marya Hornbacher, #NFDB
700:Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm, nor does it arise from sentiments of which nonartists are devoid; it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
701:At no time are people so sedulously careful to keep their trifling appointments, attend to their ordinary occupations, and thus put a commonplace aspect on life, as when conscious of some secret that if suspected would make them look monstrous in the general eye. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
702:I think a lot of young kids at school are very conscious of trying to keep credibility in case they kind of stand out in a crowd and get bullied by trying to stay cool and stuff. And my whole thing, all the way through school, was I was just a goof... I didn't care. ~ Dominic Monaghan, #NFDB
703:The essence of power is the knowledge that what you do is going to have an effect not just an immediate but perhaps a lifelong effect on the happiness and wellbeing of millions of people and so I think the essence of power is to be conscious of what it can mean for others. ~ Bob Hawke, #NFDB
704:Every action is a karmic episode because action generates memory, memory generates desire, and desire generates action again. As you become conscious of these seeds of manifestation, you become a conscious choice maker, and the actions you generate will be evolutionary. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
705:Manners are of such great consequence to the novelist that any kind will do. Bad manners are better than no manners at all, and because we are losing our customary manners, we are probably overly conscious of them; this seems to be a condition that produces writers. ~ Flannery O Connor, #NFDB
706:Man was created to express the Divine. His duty is therefore to become conscious of the Divine and to surrender himself entirely to His Will. All the rest, whatever the appearance, is falsehood and ignorance.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, 8, [T0],#NFDB
707:The more that man is able to distinguish himself from the rest of creation, the more he becomes conscious of himself as subject, as an "I", to whom the whole world is Object, the more does he tend to confuse himself with God, to confuse his spirit with the Spirit of God. ~ Emil Brunner, #NFDB
708:He was conscious of an emptiness that made him see Komako's life as beautiful but wasted, even though he himself was the object of her love; and yet the woman's existence, her straining to live, came touching him like naked skin. He pitied her, and he pitied himself. ~ Yasunari Kawabata, #NFDB
709:He was conscious of an emptiness that made him see Komako’s life as beautiful but wasted, even though he himself was the object of her love; and yet the woman’s existence, her straining to live, came touching him like naked skin. He pitied her, and he pitied himself. ~ Yasunari Kawabata, #NFDB
710:I mean that's something we're very conscious of when writing. Tempos are very important. Like "Oh we can't play the song too fast because people aren't going to feel it." There's a pulse to a song. You can't play it too slow. We're always trying to find the perfect tempo. ~ Tony Palermo, #NFDB
711:I've never been conscious of having any real career plan, and I do not have a wish-list of actors, directors, screenwriters, or cameramen I'm hoping to work with. Life, I feel, has a way of leading us to the right situations and people, or at least to interesting ones. ~ Viggo Mortensen, #NFDB
712:Conscious of each other’s subjectivity in a direct and immediate way, they experienced no conflict between resolute solidarity and riotous individuality: they were indeed an association in which the free development of each was the condition for the free development of all. ~ Ken MacLeod, #NFDB
713:I think one of the great primordial fears we have once we become conscious of our aloneness as children is the fear of losing our mother. We have that from the moment we realize we can lose her just in the supermarket. As a child, it was more terrifying than arithmetic. ~ Sandra Cisneros, #NFDB
714:The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. ~ Carl Jung, CW 9ii, par. 14., #NFDB
715:Without music I wouldn't have the ability to be in business. The opportunity to be in business came with the finances from music and the notoriety that comes with being successful as an artist. So I see myself as an artist first, but I'm absolutely conscious of business. ~ Curtis Jackson, #NFDB
716:You know those moments when everything is exactly the way it was meant to be? When you find yourself and your entire universe aligning in perfect synchronization, and you know you couldn’t possibly be more content? I was inside that very moment, and fully conscious of it. ~ Alice Clayton, #NFDB
717:It's very hard, I think especially for women, to not take it in and to not be super conscious of the way that you're being seen, which is of course completely antithetical to the work you want to do, which is completely free and bold and truthful and honest and brave. ~ June Diane Raphael, #NFDB
718:my friends from Sujonomo N seem conscious of the fact that only our sense of friendship and the pursuit of a project of common research can give us autonomy, and can allow us to create the conditions for a renaissance to follow the apocalypse which we are currently undergoing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
719:Happiness, like health, is probably also only a passing accident. For a moment or two the organism is irritated so little that it is not conscious of it; for the duration of that moment it is happy. Thus a hog is always happier than a man, and a bacillus is happier than a hog ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
720:I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Capt. Peter Townsend. Mindful of the church's teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before any others. ~ Princess Margaret, #NFDB
721:It is easy to believe that one is master in one’s own house, but as long as we are unable to control our emotions & moods, or to be conscious of myriad secret ways in which unconscious factors insinuate themselves into our arrangements & decisions, we are not the masters. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
722:My whole childhood was filled with classical music and going to concerts of the New York Philharmonic and other New York ensembles and organizations, but interestingly, I didn't become conscious of wanting to be a musician until I was about 11. I was a rather late starter. ~ Gunther Schuller, #NFDB
723:The man who finds that in the course of his life he has done a lot of wrong often wakes up at night in terror, like a child with a nightmare, and his life is full of foreboding: but the man who is conscious of no wrongdoing is filled with cheerfulness and with the comfort of old age. ~ Plato, #NFDB
724:[The poet] is endowed to speak for those who do not have the gift of language, or to see for those who - for whatever reasons - are less conscious of what they are living through. It is as though the risks of the poet's existence can be put to some use beyond her own survival. ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
725:A great deal of it is personal. But the persona is, I guess, the out of body experience that takes place. Because I'm not conscious of what the outcome is going to be, I'm only conscious of my intentions, do you know what I'm saying? And even my intentions were simple initially. ~ Cee Lo Green, #NFDB
726:Christ when He said: “the kingdom of God is within you,” thus pointing all human atoms to the centre of life or energy within themselves, and teaching them that from and through that centre they must expand and grow. Each one of us is conscious of being centred within himself; ~ Alice A Bailey, #NFDB
727:Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
728:Getting too much money too soon can be really bad. There's a balance to be kept - the right balance between new experience and a certain stability in one's life. I'm conscious of all these things in a way that, earlier on, I was only conscious of circumstantial stuff, like, money. ~ Geoff Dyer, #NFDB
729:The efforts a person makes to become himself, to be conscious of & responsible for his own development & choices--or his ego's efforts in emerging from preconscious darkness-have all been expressed in various mythologies by the isolated hero struggling with enemies & dragons ~ Zoja, #NFDB
730:Have we,” asks Claude de Saint-Martin, the great ‘unknown philosopher,’ “have we advanced one step further on the radiant path of enlightenment, that leads to the simplicity of men?” Let us wait in silence: perhaps ere long we shall be conscious of “the murmur of the gods. ~ Maurice Maeterlinck, #NFDB
731:Photography makes one conscious of beauty everywhere, even in the simplest things, even in what is often considered commonplace or ugly. Yet nothing is really 'ordinary', for every fragment of the world is crowned with wonder and mystery, and a great and surprising beauty. ~ Alvin Langdon Coburn, #NFDB
732:We are perhaps the only species on Earth to be conscious of the inevitability of our individual mortality. I fear that soon we shall also have to become the only species that will knowingly watch the coming of its own collective demise, or at least the demise of its civilization. ~ Carlo Rovelli, #NFDB
733:You do not go out into the street in your underwear, although usually you are wearing underwear. The underwear is not visible but it is there all the time. It is the same with concepts. They are there. They underlie practical things we do- even when we are not conscious of them. ~ Edward de Bono, #NFDB
734:Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment - the key to all inner transformation. Whenever you are conscious of the breath, you are absolutely present. You may also notice that you cannot think and be aware of your breathing. Conscious breathing stops your mind. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
735:Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than a minority of them—never become even conscious of them all. How much of total reality can such an apparatus let through? ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
736:I don't really analyze my stuff when I write. I write about stuff that I'm interested in, that I'm feeling at that particular time. When I stand back and look at the complete work, I might see themes that run through the whole film, but I'm not really conscious of it when I'm doing it. ~ Spike Lee, #NFDB
737:If you find yourself imitating another writer, that doesn't have to be a bad thing, especially if you are a young or a new writer. However, you should be conscious of exactly how you are imitating him - word choice, sentence structure, motifs? - and think about why you're doing it. ~ Poppy Z Brite, #NFDB
738:A Mother-wisdom works in Nature’s breast
To pour delight on the heart of toil and want
And press perfection on life’s stumbling powers,
Impose heaven-sentience on the obscure abyss
And make dumb Matter conscious of its God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Birth and Childhood of the Flame,#NFDB
739:He was conscious of his body as a heavy cold horrible container. He had the feeling, coming to him as the memory of a dream, of being a prisoner waiting to be tortured. The extremity of pain was yet to come. And even now he was denied to comfort of self-pitying misery and warm tears. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
740:Never let us be discouraged with ourselves. It is not when we are conscious of our faults that we are the most wicked; on the contrary, we are less so. We see by a brighter light; and let us remember for our consolation, that we never perceive our sins till we begin to cure them. ~ Francois Fenelon, #NFDB
741:A man likes to believe that he is the master of his soul. But as long as he is unable to control his moods and emotions, or to be conscious of the myriad secret ways in which unconscious factors insinuate themselves into his arrangements and decisions, he is certainly not his own master. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
742:Its taken 14 billion years for matter to gain the capacity to become conscious of itself. If this is true, it wouldn't make any sense that the whole point of enlightenment would be to escape from the whole process at the very instant that the universe is beginning to awaken to itself. ~ Andrew Cohen, #NFDB
743:Being conscious of having done a wicked action leaves stings of remorse behind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart with perpetual wounds; for reason, which chases away all other pains, creates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punishes it with torment. ~ Plutarch, #NFDB
744:I'm not interested in safety. A great risk in writing is imagining you have something to protect. Playing it safe to placate someone or something. People talk about compromise, but often people don't even know when they're compromising, because they're not conscious of contradictions. ~ Lynne Tillman, #NFDB
745:In the beginning all souls were as a unity to the God-Force. As self added or subtracted that which was in keeping with God's purpose, ye added or subtracted from the blessings ye might be conscious of in materiality. Thus karma is builded. And the law is perfect - what ye sow, ye reap. ~ Edgar Cayce, #NFDB
746:I don't believe there was ever anybody who loved being happy as much as I did. What I mean is that I was so acutely conscious of being happy, so appreciative of it; that I wasn't ever bored, and was always and continuously grateful for the whole delicious loveliness of the world. ~ Elizabeth von Arnim, #NFDB
747:Once you get older, you get a little closer to yourself, intimate. I've always been very aware of that, more conscious of who I am, how I fit in the thing as opposed to trying to emulate someone else. Though, sometimes I try to emulate De Niro all the time, who is someone I could never be. ~ Brad Pitt, #NFDB
748:Our story opens in the mind of Luther L. (L for LeRoy) Fliegler, who is lying in his bed, not thinking of anything, but just aware of sounds, conscious of his own breathing, and sensitive to his own heartbeats. Lying beside him is his wife, lying on her right side and enjoying her sleep. ~ John O Hara, #NFDB
749:..they wait, impassive, for the hubbub to die down, for silence to fall, before finally beginning their talk with that cold clarity of those who, conscious of the fundamental import of what they have to say, abstain from any embellishment and simply describe, describe, describe... ~ Maylis de Kerangal, #NFDB
750:I remained completely conscious of Jeremiah. He smelled good. He looked good. He sounded good. And when he ran his tongue across the salt on that place between his index finger and his thumb, I wanted to be that little spot. -from chapter Lick, Drink, Suck!, The Boots My Mother Gave Me ~ Brooklyn James, #NFDB
751:The only reality is “anxiety” in the whole chain of beings. To the man lost in the world and its diversions this anxiety is a brief, fleeting fear. But if that fear becomes conscious of itself, it becomes anguish, the perpetual climate of the lucid man “in whom existence is concentrated. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
752:These are but a few specimens of philosophy which is no longer conscious of its own intrinsic worth, and which sees no higher mission in life for itself than applying the categories of the material to the spiritual, of the physical to the mental, and the spatio-temporal to the eternal. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
753:All the greatest things we know have come to us from neurotics. It is they and they only who have founded religions and created great works of art. Never will the world be conscious of how much it owes to them, nor above all of what they have suffered in order to bestow their gifts on it ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
754:If two instincts are in conflict, and there is nothing in a creature’s mind except those two instincts, obviously the stronger of the two must win. But at those moments when we are most conscious of the Moral Law, it usually seems to be telling us to side with the weaker of the two impulses. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
755:Real happiness comes from having an unassailable connection to the deep state of unbounded awareness at our core. This state of being is our own inner joy that expresses the exuberance and wonder of being alive at this moment; it is our own self-luminous essence made conscious of itself. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
756:We want to worship a living God. I have not seen anything but God all my life, nor have you... He is everywhere, saying, "I am." The moment you feel "I am," you are conscious of Existence. Where shall we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being? ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
757:These men were conscious of the Fall, if they were conscious of nothing else; and the same is true of all heathen humanity. Those who have fallen may remember the fall, even when they forget the height. Some such tantalising blank or break in memory is at the back of all pagan sentiment. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
758:I wish we could understand the word expert as expressing an attitude of mind which we can all acquire rather than the collecting of information by a special caste. ... Many of us are calling for experts because, acutely conscious of the mess we are in, we want someone to pull us out. ~ Mary Parker Follett, #NFDB
759:We are conscious of ourselves because we are conscious of others; and in an analogous manner, we are conscious of others because in our relationship to ourselves we are the same as others in their relationship to us. I am aware of myself only to the extent that I am as another for myself. ~ Lev S Vygotsky, #NFDB
760:We are still barely conscious of how harmful it is to treat children in a degrading manner. Treating them with respect and recognizing the consequences of their being humiliated are by no means intellectual matters; otherwise, their importance would long since have been generally recognized. ~ Alice Miller, #NFDB
761:A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the 'why' for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any 'how'.
~ Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning,#NFDB
762:By understanding evolution as the expression of universal intelligence, now becoming conscious of itself within us, and as us, we overcome the dichotomy between current evolutionists who see no design in evolution, and creationists who often propose and anthropomorphic God as creator. ~ Barbara Marx Hubbard, #NFDB
763:Christ is your God-essence or the Self, as it is sometimes called in the East. The only difference between Christ and presence is that Christ refers to your indwelling divinity regardless of whether you are conscious of it or not, whereas presence means your awakened divinity or God-essence. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
764:I am aware of myself. And, of course, the only things that are aware of themselves and conscious of their individuality are irritated eyes, cut fingers, sore teeth. A healthy eye, finger, tooth might as well not even be there. Isn't it clear that individual consciousness is just sickness? ~ Yevgeny Zamyatin, #NFDB
765:I look at my kids and I feel I'm at the precipice of this job, like just kind of tipping over the other side. I'm very conscious of time I guess is what I want to say, and I want to be there as long as I can with my kids, and I also want to make sure I do all the things that are important to me. ~ Brad Pitt, #NFDB
766:And the judges did not believe him, because they were too good, and perhaps also too conscious of the very foundations of their profession, to admit that an average, “normal” person, neither feeble-minded nor indoctrinated nor cynical, could be perfectly incapable of telling right from wrong. ~ Hannah Arendt, #NFDB
767:The scene was suddenly quiet. Fire became conscious of her own gasping breath and forced herself calm. Horrible man, she thought into Small’s mane. Horrible, horrible man. Oh, Small. That man was horrible. Small made a snorting noise and deposited some very comforting drool on her shoulder. ~ Kristin Cashore, #NFDB
768:I've learned to take care of myself. You know, I try to stay conscious of whatever my energy is at all times, really. I mean, I come home from work, and, depending on the day or depending on what was going on, if I needed to adjust, I'd just meditate, or play guitar, or watch some Monty Python. ~ Brent Sexton, #NFDB
769:My family has always had Cape Verdean pride but I don't think it was something the kids in the family necessarily understood. However, I was very conscious of the fact that both sides of my family were drastically different and my aunts, cousins, and uncles varied in different shades of brown. ~ Aeriel Miranda, #NFDB
770:For you cannot live in New York City very long and not be conscious of the niceties of being rich—the city is, after all, an ecstatic exercise in merchandising—and one evening of his visit to Venezuela Sutherland sat straight up when he read a line of Santayana’s: “Money is the petrol of life. ~ Andrew Holleran, #NFDB
771:If Marx’s mission in life was to contribute to the overthrow of capitalism and the liberation of the proletariat, his theories of history and of economics were intended to do this by showing the workers their role in history and making them conscious of the manner in which capitalism exploited them. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
772:O God, I have tasted thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the triune God, I want to want thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
773:To the question, 'What is God?' and 'What is man?' the answer is that the soul, conscious of its limited existence, is 'man', and the soul reflected by the vision of the unlimited, is 'God'. In plain words man's self-consciousness is man, and man's consciousness of his highest ideal is God. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
774:When she went upstairs to dress, and looked into the looking glass, she noticed with joy that it was one of her good days, and that she was in complete possession of all her forces,—she needed this so for what lay before her: she was conscious of external composure and free grace in her movements. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
775:When we are conscious of our worthlessness, we naturally expect others to be finer and better than we are. If then we discover any similarity between them and us, we see it as irrefutable evidence of their worthlessness and inferiority. It is thus that with some people familiarity breeds contempt. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
776:Maizy went to work. Knowing Rylan was watching her made her conscious of every move. She tried to stand in a more ladylike way, though heaven only knew exactly what that was. Her dress choked her a bit less when she stood straight, so she tried to think of being ladylike as a way not to strangle. ~ Mary Connealy, #NFDB
777:Nirvana is the utter extinction of all that is base in us, all that is vicious in us. Nirvana is not like the black, dead peace of the grave, but the living peace, the living happiness of a soul which is conscious of itself and conscious of having found its own abode in the heart of the Eternal. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
778:It was the joy of your life to know Clark Gable. He was everything good you could think of. He had delicious humor, he had great compassion, he was always a fine old teddy bear. In no way was he conscious of his good looks, as were most other men in pictures at that time. Clark was very unactorly. ~ Joan Blondell, #NFDB
779:Philosophy, which formerly raised man to feel conscious of himself because he was a thinking being and to say, 'I think therefore I am," now raises him to say ... "I think, therefore I am not," (unless he takes thought into consideration only in that humble region where it is confused with action). ~ Julien Benda, #NFDB
780:There can be no doubt that smoking nowadays is largely a miserable automatic business. People use tobacco without ever taking an intelligent interest in it. They do not experiment, compare, fit the tobacco to the occasion. A man should always be pleasantly conscious of the fact that he is smoking. ~ J B Priestley, #NFDB
781:Would they not fear that citizens not less tenacious than conscious of their rights would flock from the remotest extremes of their respective states to the places of election, to overthrow their tyrants, and to substitute men who would be disposed to avenge the violated majesty of the people? ~ Alexander Hamilton, #NFDB
782:Her arms were tight around Carol, and she was conscious of Carol and nothing else, of Carol’s hand that slid along her ribs, Carol’s hair that brushed her bare breasts, and then her body too seemed to vanish in widening circles that leaped further and further, beyond where thought could follow. ~ Patricia Highsmith, #NFDB
783:How can I make my soul progress?
To have any action on your soul you must be first conscious of it. And then when you will be conscious of your soul, you will probably find out that instead of you making your soul progress, it is your soul who will help you to progress.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#NFDB
784:Some moments before you are aware of what you will do next—a time in which you subjectively appear to have complete freedom to behave however you please—your brain has already determined what you will do. You then become conscious of this “decision” and believe that you are in the process of making it. ~ Sam Harris, #NFDB
785:I am, a spectator, so to speak of the molecular whirlwind which men call individual life; I am conscious of an incessant metamorphosis; an irresistible movement of existence, which is going on within me – and this phenomenology of myself serves as a window opened upon the mystery of the world. ~ Henri Fr d ric Amiel, #NFDB
786:I am a spectator, so to speak, of the molecular whirlwind which men call individual life; I am conscious of an incessant metamorphosis, an irresistible movement of existence, which is going on within me - and this phenomenology of myself serves as a window opened upon the mystery of the world. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
787:I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
788:If a person has done wrong, is conscious of what he has done and does not say sorry, I ask God to take him into account. I forgive him, but he does not receive that forgiveness, he is closed to forgiveness. We must forgive, because we were all forgiven. It is another thing to receive that forgiveness. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
789:I have tasted too deeply the joy of expanding my being to the dimensions of all that lives to be able henceforth to confine myself to the limits of my own self; I have been too conscious of the thrill of universality in my soul, to accept a bliss that leaves me in isolation. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Cosmic Life, #NFDB
790:It was the time when they loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other mortal trails, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
791:IT was the time when they loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other mortal trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
792:Unskilled in sophistry and new to the darker ways of national politics, Grover Cleveland faced his accusers, his slanderers, and his judges, the sovereign people, conscious of the general rectitude of his life, and courageously determined to bear the burdens of his sins in so far as guilt was his. ~ Grover Cleveland, #NFDB
793:Everything good is costly, and the development of personality is one of the most costly of all things. It is a matter of saying yes to oneself, of taking oneself as the most serious of tasks, of being conscious of everything one does, and keeping it constantly before one's eyes in all its dubious aspects. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
794:He tried to read his way into sleep but only grew more wakeful. He read science and poetry. He liked spare poems sited minutely in white space, ranks of alphabetic strokes burnt into paper. Poems made him conscious of his breathing. A poem bared the moment to things he was not normally prepared to notice. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
795:I think we have to be conscious of what we’re after when we’re posting our photo. I think we all have a desire not to feel alone and to feel connected and that’s a basic desire, but in our society celebrity has become the golden lamb . . . if I can get that, I won’t feel alone and will always feel loved. ~ Olivia Laing, #NFDB
796:Without even being conscious of doing so, he jumped up from his seat in the middle of the temple and screamed out at the top of his voice, “I can’t fucking do this any more.” In a twist of cruel irony this was followed immediately by the gong, signifying the end of the hour and the end of the session. ~ Andy Puddicombe, #NFDB
797:Even though Mr. Dalton gave millions of dollars for Negro education, he would rent houses to Negroes only in this prescribed area, this corner of the city tumbling down from rot. In a sullen way Bigger was conscious of this. Yes; he would send the kidnap note. He would jar them out of their senses. When ~ Richard Wright, #NFDB
798:The Sayings of Confucius: “At fifteen I thought only of study; at thirty I began playing my role; at forty I was sure of myself; at fifty I was conscious of my position in the universe; at sixty I was no longer argumentative; and now at seventy I can follow my heart’s desire without violating custom.”1 ~ Grace Lee Boggs, #NFDB
799:And as he had seen her that day, so she had remained; never quite the same height, yet never below it: generous, faithful, unwearied; but so lacking in imagination, so incapable of growth, that the world of her youth had fallen into pieces and rebuilt itself without her ever being conscious of the change. ~ Edith Wharton, #NFDB
800:The redeemed of God who are snatched from the flames by the hand of the Lord are still covered with ashes. We remain streaked with charcoal and blemished with soot. We are redeemed, but not sinless. Satan is quick to call attention to the dirt. He wants us to be more conscious of our sin than of God’s mercy. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
801:The truth is that we don't want to be saved by in the way God has chosen; we want to keep absolute control over our every step, to be fully conscious of our decisions, to be capable of choosing the object of our devotion. It isn't like that with love - it arrives, moves in, and starts directing everything. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
802:To become conscious of God, to become God's consciousness, to become God, to be God and to be beyond God, God being beyond God, God having an existence separate from the creation, to be that, to merge with that, to lose one's self and find one's self endlessly again and again in that is self-realization. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
803:Edmund cleared his throat. "Pretty as a picture, isn't she?"
Fade only nodded. His hungry stare brought color to my cheeks, and I was conscious of the warmth of his fingers when he touched me. Just on the arm, but my skin was bare, and it felt shocking, intimate, too darking in front of my foster parents. ~ Ann Aguirre,#NFDB
804:If infants are not conscious of themselves, and if self-consciousness and reason are what it means to be human, then what are they? It turns out that if one doesn’t know what it means to be a person, one can kill without ever feeling bloodthirsty. In fact, you can feel as though you are saving the world. ~ Russell D Moore, #NFDB
805:She used to sit long hours upon the beach, gazing intently on the waves as they chafed with perpetual motion against the pebbly shore,—or she looked out upon the more distant heave, and sparkle against the sky, and heard, without being conscious of hearing, the eternal psalm, which went up continually. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, #NFDB
806:I believe I'm very conscious of exactly what I'm doing. I'm auditioning lines of dialogue, and I'm interrogating whether the lines would translate from Russian into English the right way. The English that results can perhaps seem somewhat more formal than colloquial, but not so formal as to feel academic. ~ David Bezmozgis, #NFDB
807:Ideally a painter (and, generally, an artist) should not become conscious of his insights: without taking the detour through his conscious reflection, his progressive steps, mysterious even to himself, should enter so swiftly into the work that he is unable to recognize them in the moment of transition. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
808:Put it this way, George,” he suggested, when he had savoured the night air for a moment. “You traveling on business, or for pleasure in this thing? Which is it?
Smiley’s reply was also slow in coming, and as indirect: “I was never conscious of pleasure,” he said. “Or perhaps I mean: of the distinction. ~ John le Carr,#NFDB
809:How many miles had they come? Less than halfway, and already Caroline had the sense that a separation such as this could put more than miles between folks, could right this minute be working changes she might not be entirely conscious of and might never realize at all unless she and Eliza saw each other again. ~ Sarah Miller, #NFDB
810:I probably had something to do with being southern. For some reason, over the last few years I've been much more conscious of that. It's probably because my friend Jack Womack has a thesis that he and I write the way we do because we're southern and we experienced the very tail end of the premeditated south. ~ William Gibson, #NFDB
811:Lot of us have problems with over-eating, eating too often, eating too little, eating junk food, food allergies, etc. This Guide the Conscious Eating is designed is such a way to empower you in your relationship to food, helping you become more aware and conscious of your body / mind connection to food. ~ Nata a Nuit Pantovi, #NFDB
812:Under examination by the camera, a human body becomes for its inhabitant a field of betrayal more than a ground of communication, and the camera's further power is manifested as it documents the individual's self-conscious efforts to control the body each time it is conscious of the camera's attention to it. ~ Stanley Cavell, #NFDB
813:In order to understand, observe, deduce, man must first be conscious of himself as alive. A living man knows himself not otherwise than as wanting, that is, he is conscious of his will. And his will, which constitutes the essence of his life, man is conscious of and cannot be conscious of otherwise than as free. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
814:It has been said that a country’s greatness can be measured by what it does for its unfortunates. By that criterion Canada certainly does not stand in the forefront of the nations of the world although there are signs that we are becoming conscious of our deficiencies and are determined to atone for lost time. ~ Tommy Douglas, #NFDB
815:My '60s plays were as good as most of the other plays I've written ... except I wasn't in a condition to refine them, to help in the rehearsal, or do anything. I was hardly conscious of what was going on except during the hours of the day when I was actually writing ... and that was with the aid of speed. ~ Tennessee Williams, #NFDB
816:The answer is, who you are cannot be defined through thinking or mental labels or definitions, because it's beyond that. It is the very sense of being, or presence, that is there when you become conscious of the present moment. In essence, you and what we call the present moment are, at the deepest level, one. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
817:The feeling he had nourished and given prominence to was one of thankfulness for his escape: he was like a traveller so grateful for rescue from a dangerous accident that at first he is hardly conscious of his bruises. Now he suddenly felt the latent ache and realized that after all he had not come off unhurt. ~ Edith Wharton, #NFDB
818:Our success in America will involve two circles: Black Nationalism and Islam–it will take BN [Black Nationalism] to make our people conscious of doing for self & then Islam will provide the spiritual guidance. BN [Black Nationalism] will link us to Africa and Islam will link us spiritually to Africa, Arabia & Asia. ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
819:For a brief second, for an inexpressibly curtailed efflux of time, so short that its duration could be appreciated only in recollection, being immediately engulfed at the moment of birth, I was conscious of a sensation I had never before encountered: an awareness that Stringham was perhaps a trifle embarrassed. ~ Anthony Powell, #NFDB
820:If everybody is looking for it, then nobody is finding it. If we were cultured, we would not be conscious of lacking culture. We would regard it as something natural and would not make so much fuss about it. And if we knew the real value of this word we would be cultured enough not to give it so much importance. ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
821:The intellectual part of his nature was already effaced; he had power only to feel, and feeling was torment. He was conscious of motion. Encompassed in a luminous cloud, of which he was now merely the fiery heart, without material substance, he swung through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like a vast pendulum. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
822:Mann was conscious of adopting different perspectives in different parts of the novella, but my guess is that there are plenty of passages in which the resonance of the words he chose struck him as exactly right (even though he didn't probe to discover exactly what tone or narrative device gave them that effect). ~ Philip Kitcher, #NFDB
823:The first step toward change is awareness. If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination. Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward. ~ Darren Hardy, #NFDB
824:With each divine impulse the mind rends the thin rinds of the visible and finite, and comes out into eternity, and inspires and expires its air. It converses with truths that have always been spoken in the world, and becomes conscious of a closer sympathy with Zeno and Arrian, than with persons in the house. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
825:Just as a stream flows smoothly on as long as it encounters no obstruction, so the nature of man and animal is such that we never really notice or become conscious of what is agreeable to our will; if we are to notice something, our will has to have been thwarted, has to have experienced a shock of some kind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
826:The nation, taken as a whole, will be less brilliant, less glorious, and perhaps less strong; but the majority of the citizens will enjoy a greater degree of prosperity, and the people will remain quiet, not because it despairs of amelioration, but because it is conscious of the advantages of its condition. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #NFDB
827:What we'd consider a positive role model, I think it's impossible to actually be a role model. You'll have your flaws or defects of character, regardless. You just speak like a positive role model, and that's just something that you're being conscious of, and you make the decision, "I want to say positive things." ~ Curtis Jackson, #NFDB
828:As we become more mature we will learn to master the interplay between the past and the present and not be so self-conscious of our rejection or acceptance of tradition. We will not make the mistake that both rigid modernists and conservatives make, of confusing the quality of form with the specific forms themselves. ~ Alvin Lustig, #NFDB
829:He now clearly perceived the truth which was henceforth to be the centre of his life, namely, that while she was there, while he had her near him, he would need nothing except for her sake and fear nothing except on her account. He was not even conscious of feeling extremely cold, having taken off his coat to cover her. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
830:I think those women who get themselves to write essays, it's not an easy thing to do because as women, you're not encouraged to think; you're encouraged to feel. This is a broad, broad statement. So I think those women who go out on a limb and publish essays are highly conscious of how they are writing their opinions. ~ Lynne Tillman, #NFDB
831:To me, my Dad's the greatest guy - next to Jesus Christ - who ever walked this planet. He's been that outstanding male role model in my life. And he's still the same guy I grew up around, very conscious of the image he sets forth. As he would say, 'Wouldn't do anything behind your back that I wouldn't do to your face.' ~ Aaron Tippin, #NFDB
832:All thoughts really come from outside, but one is not conscious of their coming. You have become conscious of this movement. There are different ways of getting rid of them; one is to reject them one by one before they can come in; another is to look at them with detachment till they fade away.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#NFDB
833:Americans are not sharp. You can be sharp in your own area, I guess, but in this world you gotta be conscious of everybody else in the world too. You just can't be drunken with constitution and hear, okay we're gonna do this and then you hear well, we're gonna go kill this guy 'cause he's a terrorist and you keep gettin' it. ~ Chuck D, #NFDB
834:I'm very conscious of data and analytics, and understanding how our body works and different loads that we put on it throughout the course of games and practices. It helps you make adjustments if you need to, helps you be smarter about your workouts, and I think it protects you from injuries to not over-exert yourself. ~ Stephen Curry, #NFDB
835:Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity (the church’s ) : and whoever is moved by faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person , which subverts all the principles of his understanding and gives him a determination of believe what is most contrary to custom and experience. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
836:The world is not sufficiently conscious of the influence exercised over it by Sophistry. When might ceases to be right, and the government of mere strength is dethroned, Sophistry transfers the empire to cunning and subtlety. It would be difficult to determine which of the two tyrannies is most injurious to mankind. ~ Fr d ric Bastiat, #NFDB
837:We were becoming increasingly conscious of crowd control, security and safety. With up to 80,000 people swilling around it’s like being elected mayor of a small town for the night, with all the attendant responsibilities including car crashes, petty theft, children being born… There’s even some live music if you’re lucky. ~ Nick Mason, #NFDB
838:It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects. ~ Nikola Tesla, #NFDB
839:Actresses can get outrageously precious about the way they look. That's not what life's about. If you starve yourself to the point where your brain cells shrivel, you will never do good work. And if you're overly conscious of your arms flapping in the wind, how can you look the other actor in the eye to respond to them? ~ Cate Blanchett, #NFDB
840:The thing I think I have learned from Wittgenstein is the importance of not making things up: philosophers should not invent problems, and they should also be conscious of the risk of inventing pointless 'technical' machinery which do not offer real explanations, but often just re-state the known facts in a more complex way. ~ Tim Crane, #NFDB
841:Your mind can be your enemy or friend. If you always follow your heart, your mind will feel neglected. If you follow only your mind, your heart will never forgive you. Never ignore your conscience, yet always be conscious of reason. Make your heart and mind friends and you will have peace of mind throughout life's seasons. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
842:An Apostle can never come to himself in such a way that he becomes conscious of his apostolic calling as a factor in the development of his life. Apostolic calling is a paradoxical factor, which from first to last in his life stands paradoxically outside his personal identity with himself as the definite person he is. ~ S ren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
843:Before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding; and those who are conscious of their inferiority have the modesty not to talk; when they have drunk wine, every man feels himself happy, and loses that modesty, and grows impudent and vociferous; but he is not improved; he is only not sensible of his defects. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
844:I've come down in the world. I've slid to a place where the ceiling is low and there isn't much room for me to move.Most of the time I'm good. I accepted my sentence and do not brood or look back. But sometimes a shift makes me remember. Routine is ruffled and a new start makes me suddenly conscious of what I've become - ~ Leila Aboulela, #NFDB
845:The instant you sit down to meditate, begin watching your breath. At first breathe normally, gradually letting your breathing slow down until it is quiet, even, and the lengths of the breaths are fairly long. From the moment you sit down to the moment your breathing has become deep and silent, be conscious of everything ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
846:The Revolution had many of these men, proportioned to the epoch. In this old man one was conscious of a man put to the proof. Though so near to his end, he preserved all the gestures of health. In his clear glance, in his firm tone, in the robust movement of his shoulders, there was something calculated to disconcert death. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
847:Communion with God as we hear his voice is rich. We receive his meanings; we submit to his authority; we grow by his power that is at work in our lives through his words; and we experience the glory of his personal presence as we hear him. These aspects go together, though we may sometimes be more conscious of one aspect. ~ Vern Poythress, #NFDB
848:Awareness is an important step in the healing process, but we need not feel conscious of our global problems all the time. Most of the time, we can live “as if” the world we know will long continue. Constructive awareness allows us to think about our global storm when we have an opportunity to make choices about our behavior. ~ Mary Pipher, #NFDB
849:The nice thing about a series is you can end on cliffhangers all the time. You can be like, 'You know what? Here we go, this person just died, end of book.' And with the end of the series, you're very conscious of all the plotlines that were left hanging. There's a balance there to wrap those up but still leave it exciting. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
850:When we are truly in this interior simplicity our whole appearance is franker, more natural. This true simplicity. . . makes us conscious of a certain openness, gentleness, innocence, gaiety, and serenity. O, how amiable this simplicity is! Who will give it to me? I leave all for this. It is the pearl of the Gospel. ~ Francois Fenelon, #NFDB
851:I can't do the same movies all my life. I'm conscious of that. But it's a trade-off. 'Dear John' allowed me to do movies I've wanted to do. You learn to balance it out. I'm still learning. Only now am I getting to do the kinds of movies that I have wanted to do. So it's a steady climb. You don't jump into a Soderbergh film. ~ Channing Tatum, #NFDB
852:As we grow older we become more conscious of the complexity, incoherence, and unreasonableness of human beings; this indeed is the only excuse that offers for the middle-aged or elderly writer whose thoughts should more properly be turned to graver matters, occupying himself with the trivial concerns of imaginary people. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
853:I felt like I had to be conscious of myself as a girl for the first time. I had to be more feminine. I had to look a certain way. And it's something that you want to suffer in silence, but I would go onto movie sets and they would bring out bras that were basically binders, because there were continuity problems between months. ~ Mara Wilson, #NFDB
854:I like getting my ideas from the things of now. I am very conscious of the moment, of images that belong to this moment instead of another period. Fashion is really a reflection of our lives. You see women today and they don't do their hair up; they all wear their hair undone. So you have to reflect that in your photography . ~ Mario Testino, #NFDB
855:When I go from a role with heavy prosthetic makeup, which I've done quite a bit of as well, and then do a role where I'm not wearing any, I have to be conscious of toning everything down. Because when you're wearing prosthetic makeup, of course, you have to really move your face a lot more to convey things through the makeup. ~ Warwick Davis, #NFDB
856:Yes, I am present. And what strikes me at this moment is that I can go no further – like a man sentenced to life imprisonment, to whom everything is present. But also like a man who know that tomorrow will be the same, and every other day. For when a man becomes conscious of what he is now, it means he expects nothing further. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
857:...Alex found herself reading of emotions and experiences of which her own seemed so feeble a mockery, that she was conscious of a physical pang of sick disappointment.
Was all fiction utterly untrue to life? Or was hers the counterfeit, which the printed pages but reproduced something of a reality which was denied to her? ~ E M Delafield,#NFDB
858:As the arrangements of life no longer allow time for pleasure conscious of itself, replacing it by the performance of physiological functions, de-inhibited sex is itself de-sexualized. Really, they no longer want ecstasy at all, but merely compensation for an outlay that, best of all, they would like to save as superfluous. ~ Theodor W Adorno, #NFDB
859:directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
860:Expectations of goals and rewards (such as Enlightenment) are recognized for what they are: last-ditch attempts by the ghostly self to subvert the process to its own ends. The more we become conscious of the mysterious unfolding of life, the clearer it becomes that its purpose is not to fulfill the expectations of our ego. ~ Stephen Batchelor, #NFDB
861:Meditation does not imply only the development of single-pointed concentration, sitting in some corner doing nothing. Meditation is an alert state of mind, the opposite of sluggishness; meditation is wisdom. You should remain aware every moment of your daily life, fully conscious of what you are doing and how you are doing it. ~ Thubten Yeshe, #NFDB
862:A conscious attempt to fall asleep is sure to produce insomnia, to try to be conscious of one's own digestion is a sure way to upset the stomach. Consciousness is a poison when we apply it to ourselves. Consciousness is a light directed outward. It's like the headlights on a locomotive—turn them inward and you'd have a crash. ~ Boris Pasternak, #NFDB
863:A conscious attempt to fall asleep is sure to produce insomnia, to try to be conscious of one's own digestion is a sure way to upset the stomach. Consciousness is a poison when we apply it to ourselves. Consciousness is a light directed outward. it's like the headlights on a locomotive—turn them inward and you'd have a crash. ~ Boris Pasternak, #NFDB
864:I am particularly conscious of my connection to the poets of the Harlem Renaissance because I, too, am a Black poet, born into, and shaped by, the very community in which those poets of the past produced so much of the work we associate with the Harlem Renaissance. We speak from the same place, both literally and metaphorically. ~ Nikki Grimes, #NFDB
865:Of course, you are not usually conscious of all your thought patterns, and it is often only through watching your emotions that you can bring them into awareness. [...] If you cannot feel your emotions, if you are cut off from them, you will eventually experience them on a purely physical level, as a physical problem or symptom. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
866:Only funny line I've had was my first day on the set of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. They were making me up, and I saw the director call the makeup man over, and he says "What are we going to do about the hooter?" And the makeup guy said, "I'm not a plastic surgeon." So I started that show with a big nose, and quite conscious of it. ~ Dick Van Dyke, #NFDB
867:But the modern man, when misfortune assails him, is conscious of himself as a unit in a statistical total; the past and the future stretch before him in a dreary procession of trivial defeats. Man himself appears as a somewhat ridiculous strutting animal, shouting and fussing during a brief interlude between infinite silences. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
868:She might or might not have "an imagination" (Arthur could not be sure of that), but she certainly had and extraordinary power of getting underneath people's skins. Without being conscious of it herself she was able to sum up a person or a situation in a few minutes, People's very bones were bare to her-and she had no idea of it. ~ D E Stevenson, #NFDB
869:This earth is one of the rare spots in the cosmos where mind has flowered. Man is a product of nearly three billion years of evolution, in whose person the evolutionary process has at last become conscious of itself and its possibilities. Whether he likes it or not, he is responsible for the whole further evolution of our planet. ~ Julian Huxley, #NFDB
870:While conscious of the challenges you face, I encourage you to follow faithfully in the footsteps of your founders, and to stir into flame the charisms and apostolic zeal which you have inherited from them, confident that Christ will continue to work with you and to confirm your preaching with signs of his presence and power. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
871:Sudden revulsion seized Amory, disgust, loathing for the whole incident. He desired frantically to be away, never to see Myra again, never to kiss anyone; he became conscious of his face and hers, of their clinging hands, and he wanted to creep out of his body and hide somewhere safe out of sight, up in the corner of his mind. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
872:All sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself, and is always real, wherever a man is conscious of it. But all determinations of the understanding are not right; because they have a reference to something beyond themselves, to wit, real matter of fact; and are not always conformable to that standard. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
873:But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? And yet --! ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
874:We are medium-sized mammals who only prosper because we've developed a half-arsed ability to terraform the less suitable bits of the planet we evolved on, and we're conscious of our inevitable decay and death, and we can't live anywhere else. There is no invisible sky daddy to give us immortal life and a harp and wings when we die. ~ Charles Stross, #NFDB
875:Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think “I am”, and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the “I am”. Sense your presence, the naked unveiled, unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all form. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
876:One often hears of a horse that shivers with terror, or a dog that howls at something a man's eyes cannot see, and men who live primitive lives where instinct does the work of reason are fully conscious of many things that we cannot perceive at all. As life becomes more orderly, more deliberate, the supernatural world sinks farther away. ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
877:Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think "I am", and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the "I am". Sense your presence, the naked unveiled, unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all form. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
878:I would like to repeat that I do not fancy myself as anything special for being an anarch. My emotions are no different from those of the average man. Perhaps I have pondered this relationship a bit more carefully and am conscious of a freedom to which “basically” everybody is entitled – a freedom that more or less dicates his actions. ~ Ernst J nger, #NFDB
879:We are sufficiently conscious of this dimension or quality of Brazil as a melting pot, as a culture and a nation that is being subjected to an amalgamating process. More than just a mixing process, it is an amalgamation where the fragments, the parts in collision, really interact profoundly. They become another thing after the contact. ~ Gilberto Gil, #NFDB
880:You perceive, now, that these things are all impossible except in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile insanities, the silly creations of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks - in a word, that they are a dream, and you the maker of it. The dream-marks are all present; you should have recognized them earlier. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
881:Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
882:But he hated to be sober. It made him conscious of the people around him, of that air of struggle, of greedy ambition, of hope more sordid than despair, of incessant passage up or down…. There was kindliness about intoxication – there was the indescribable gloss and glamour it gave, like the memories of ephemeral and faded evenings ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
883:Obviously there must be a relationship between our ethical theories and our moral behavior. In a real sense, our beliefs dictate our behavior. A theory underlies our every moral action. We may not be able to articulate that theory or even be immediately conscious of it, but nothing manifests our value systems more sharply than our actions. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
884:I think every movie I've made after 'Indiana Jones,' I've tried to make every single movie as if it was made by a different director, because I'm very conscious of not wanting to impose a consistent style on subject matter that is not necessarily suited to that style. So I try to re-invent my own eye every time I tackle a new subject. ~ Steven Spielberg, #NFDB
885:We have come more and more under the dominance of mechanics and sacrificed living humanity to the dead rhythm of the machine without most of us even being conscious of the monstrosity of the procedure. Hence we frequently deal with such matters with indifference and in cold blood as if we handled dead things and not the destinies of men. ~ Rudolf Rocker, #NFDB
886:We invent mind-space inside our own heads as well as the heads of others ... we assume these 'spaces' without question. They are a part of what it is to be conscious. Moreover, things that in the physical-behavioural world that do not have a spatial quality are made to have such in consciousness. Otherwise we cannot be conscious of them. ~ Julian Jaynes, #NFDB
887:Reality is human; it is what we are conscious of, by which we are affected, that which we express. When we are intensely aware of it, we are aware of ourselves and it gives us delight. We live in it, we always widen its limits. Our arts and literature represent this creative activity which is fundamental in man. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, The Religion of Man, #NFDB
888:Conscious business.. business that is conscious of inner and outer worlds.. would therefore be business that takes into account body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature. Put differently, conscious business would be mindful of the way that the spectrum of consciousness operates in the Big Three worlds of self and culture and nature. ~ Ken Wilber, #NFDB
889:I'm much more conscious of historical events since the '60s. In the '60s, I was insulated by my own addictions, my own lifestyle, from what was going on in the world. After I recovered I was amazed at certain people who had died. I hadn't noticed that they had gone. Not friends ... I'm talking about public figures who had passed away. ~ Tennessee Williams, #NFDB
890:Mother is packing my new secondhand clothes. She prays now, she says, that I may learn in my own life and away from home and friends what the heart is and what it feels. Amen. So be it. Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscious of my race. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
891:I demand that every Storm Troop Leader, just as every political leader, should be conscious of the fact that his behavior and conduct must be exemplary. . . . I wish every mother to give her son to The Party without fearing that he may be ruined morally. . . . Storm Troop Leaders who behave unworthily in public are to be mercilessly removed. ~ Adolf Hitler, #NFDB
892:To Miss Cooper
Cousin,
Conscious of the Charming Character which in every Country, and every Clime in Christendom is Cried, Concerning you, with Caution and Care I Commend to your Charitable Criticism this Clever Collection of Curious Comments, which have been Carefully Culled, Collected and Classed by your Comical Cousin
The Author ~ Jane Austen,#NFDB
893:We have a hundred billion neurons in our brains, as many as there are stars in a galaxy, with an even more astronomical number of links and potential combinations through which they can interact. We are not conscious of all of this. “We” are the process formed by this entire intricacy, not just by the little of it of which we are conscious. ~ Carlo Rovelli, #NFDB
894:What Zen communicates is an awareness that is potentially already there but is not conscious of itself. Zen is then not Kerygma but realization, not revelation but consciousness, not news from the Father who sends His Son into this world, but awareness of the ontological ground of our own being here and now, right in the midst of the world. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
895:Film is a pretty poor medium to deliver a message. I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying to ask a lot of questions and hopefully you can draw your own conclusions about whatever meaning might be there or what point there is; but I was conscious of wanting to create something that for a lack of a better word had a positivity and earned that. ~ Matt Ross, #NFDB
896:I'm never going to starve myself for a part. I don't want little girls to be like, 'Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I'm going to skip dinner.' That's something I was really conscious of during training, when you're trying to get your body to look exactly right. I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong-not thin and underfed. ~ Jennifer Lawrence, #NFDB
897:One often hears of a horse that shivers with terror, or of a dog that howls at something a mans eyes cannot see, and men who live primitive lives where instinct does the work of reason are fully conscious,of many things we cannot perceive at all. As life becomes more orderly, more deliberate, the supernatural world sinks farther away. ~ William Butler Yeats, #NFDB
898:The ego develops a defense in order to protect itself against being overcome by unconscious demands such as sex and aggression. The work of the psychoanalyst is to get the person to become conscious of their instinctual urges, which may involve isolating the pain experienced when they were originally confronted by an unsatisfied impulse. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon, #NFDB
899:Well I think everything up to this point that I've been exposed to in my life has had an influence on me in some way, shape, or form even if I'm not conscious of it. So I definitely think that my studies in wu-shu, kung-fu, karate, kenpo, taikwando, all of that stuff certainly has an affect. I don't think I follow any discipline traditionally. ~ Criss Angel, #NFDB
900:From an early age I loved horror movies. I read books about horror, cops, firemen and military. Over the course of the years I started to see that there's a reality to this. The first movie I was really conscious of seeing was THE EXORCIST and I don't know if any of you have seen that but it scared the sh*t out of me. It really frightened me. ~ Ralph Sarchie, #NFDB
901:I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood. Don't degrade me into the position of giving you useful information. Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
902:As you recover, you will feel more conscious of your surroundings. Freed from the ‘fog’ of your pain, fear, and confusion, you will awaken and see the world revealed as never before. You will begin to observe things, especially yourself. You will be aware of what you do and why you do it. You will begin to observe your own behavior and attitudes. ~ Beverly Engel, #NFDB
903:I'm really conscious of the amount of food I eat, but I don't deny myself anything. For example, I have a really big sweet tooth. At the end of the night, if I'm craving ice cream, I might not have the bowl that I would have when I was a kid, but I'll put a couple of scoops in a coffee mug, and I'll eat it slowly, and I enjoy every moment of it. ~ Summer Sanders, #NFDB
904:I think 26 is the turning point. I’ve got to make up for 10 years of living like a degenerate. I’ve suddenly become conscious of being unhealthy. You’ve spent every bit of free time since [the age of ] 15 in a pub. And suddenly you’re like, ‘Oh God, I don’t want to be this grey ghost sitting there with a pot belly. I’ve got to get it together. ~ Robert Pattinson, #NFDB
905:It is possible that an individual may be successful, largely because he conserves all his powers for individual achievement and does not put any of his energy into the training which will give him the ability to act with others. The individual acts promptly, and we are dazzled by his success while only dimly conscious of the inadequacy of his code. ~ Jane Addams, #NFDB
906:One of the awful things about writing when you are a Christian is that for you the ultimate reality is the Incarnation, the present reality is the Incarnation, and nobody believes in the Incarnation; that is, nobody in your audience. My audience are the people who think God is dead. At least these are the people I am conscious of writing for. ~ Flannery O Connor, #NFDB
907:The rules of the game of life are quite simple. Always tell the truth. Never live in fear of anything or anyone. Be conscious of what you are thinking so you can always think positively. Do everything that you do for the love of doing it. If you devote yourself, your time and your energy to following these rules, have no doubt - you cannot lose! ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #NFDB
908:Every human being is inherently a unique and individual form of life. He or she is made like that. But there is something which a person can do over and above the given material of her nature, and that is she can become conscious of what makes her the person she is, and he can work consciously toward relating what is himself to the world around him. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
909:He had known at the bottom of his heart that he would see her here today. But to keep his thoughts free, he had tried to persuade himself that he did not know it. Now when he heard that she was here, he was suddenly conscious of such delight, and at the same time of such dread, that his breath failed him and he could not utter what he wanted to say. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
910:There is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal; all things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them; but the prosaic materialism of the majority condemns as madness the flashes of supersight which penetrate the common veil of obvious empiricism. ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
911:Life would be unbearable if we were conscious of it. Fortunately we’re not. We live as unconsciously, as uselessly and as pointlessly as animals, and if we anticipate death, which presumably (though not assuredly) they don’t, we anticipate it through so many distractions, diversions and ways of forgetting that we can hardly say we think about it. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
912:and this capability is certainly not restricted to humans. Even in modern humans, System 1 takes over in emergencies and assigns total priority to self-protective actions. Imagine yourself at the wheel of a car that unexpectedly skids on a large oil slick. You will find that you have responded to the threat before you became fully conscious of it. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
913:If Pauline should see him close his eyes, she would never be offended or suspect boredom. She is fully conscious of her powers, appreciates the importance of good food, knows that books, particularly fiction, form a valuable core of experience, and believes she can trust Cruzzi absolutely to understand and follow the intricacies of her observations. ~ Carol Shields, #NFDB
914:She tried to pray to God, but it was her husband who really had her supplication. Her idolatry of this man was such that she herself almost feared it to be ill-omened. She was conscious of the notion expressed by Friar Lawerence, "These violent delights have violent ends." It might be too desperate for human conditions--too rank, too wild, too deadly. ~ Thomas Hardy, #NFDB
915:The measure of our rationality determines the degree of vividness with which we appreciate the needs of other life, the extent to which we become conscious of the real character of our own motives and impulses, the ability to harmonize conflicting impulses in our own life and in society, and the capacity to choose adequate means for approved ends. ~ Reinhold Niebuhr, #NFDB
916:Some medical beast had revived tar-water in those days as a fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the cupboard; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its nastiness. At the best of times, so much of this elixir was administered to me as a choice restorative, that I was conscious of going about, smelling like a new fence. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
917:I write because, exacting as it may be to do so, it is still more difficult to refrain, and because - however conscious of one's limitations one may be - there is always at the back of one's mind an irrational hope that this next book will be different: it will be the rounded achievement, the complete fulfilment. It never has been: yet I am still writing. ~ Iris Origo, #NFDB
918:Once you learn to discern the voice of Mother Culture humming in the background, telling her story over and over again to the people of your culture, you’ll never stop being conscious of it. Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you’ll be tempted to say to the people around you, “how can you listen to this stuff and not recognize it for what it is? ~ Daniel Quinn, #NFDB
919:But a wide sea voyage severs us at once. It makes us conscious of being cast loose from the secure anchorage of settled life, and sent adrift upon a doubtful world. It interposes a gulf, not merely imaginary, but real, between us and our homes--a gulf, subject to tempest, and fear, and uncertainty, rendering distance palpable, and return precarious. ~ Washington Irving, #NFDB
920:There is an urgent need to examine old opinions and look at things from a new viewpoint. There must be an increase in the joy one takes in an object, and the photographer should become fully conscious of the splendid fidelity of reproduction made possible by his technique. Nature, after all, is not so poor that she requires constant improvement. ~ Albert Renger Patzsch, #NFDB
921:It is clear, then, that self must stand out of the way, that there may be room for God to be exalted; and this is the reason why He bringeth His people ofttimes into straits and difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when He comes forth to work their deliverance. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
922:Such innocent confusions are like cognitive magic-eye posters. Most of the time it's impossible to go back to the jumbled mess once you've registered the picture. Sex is the exception. So natural and universal is a child's curiosity about sex and so long are we conscious of it before we do it, that our origical impressions of it leave an indelible mark. ~ Sloane Crosley, #NFDB
923:..fount of living water within him dried up,what he did now was done more and more for men, less for God.
He could not be indifferent to the results of the activity, to the influence he exerted. He thought himself a shining light, the more he felt this the more he was conscious of a weakening, dying down of the divine light of truth that shown within him ~ Leo Tolstoy,#NFDB
924:In refining their senses and aesthetic judgement, blind tasters become much more conscious of the richness not only of wine but also of other potentially complex beverages such as tea, coffee, and spirits, and, by extension, the flavours in food, the scents in the air, and the play of light in the world. For life is consciousness, and consciousness is life. ~ Neel Burton, #NFDB
925:Continuous interpretation is achieved by trying to control every approach to the public mind in such a manner that the public receives the desired impression, often without being conscious of it. High-spotting, on the other hand, vividly seizes the attention of the public and fixes it upon some detail or aspect which is typical of the entire enterprise. ~ Edward L Bernays, #NFDB
926:Once again her face changed. She was like someone standing in strong sunlight on a mountain top, looking back down the valley from which she had emerged and trembling with the memory still in her bones of the length and nature of the road she had travelled, the glaciers and forded rivers, the weariness and danger, and conscious of how far she still had to go. ~ Magda Szab, #NFDB
927:Again, as at the Enns bridge, there was nothing between the squadron and the enemy, and again that terrible dividing line of uncertainty and fear- resembling the line separating the living from the dead—lay between them. All were conscious of this unseen line, and the question whether they would cross it or not, and how they would cross it, agitated them all. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
928:I never realized how much I've become dependent on human approval until God took it away. I didn't even realize that I was in a self-made prison of human approval and human acceptance. Most of the prisons we live in we are not conscious of. God showed me Jesus plus nothing equals everything. And everything minus Jesus equals nothing. That set me free. ~ Tullian Tchividjian, #NFDB
929:I was self-conscious of being so lanky, of being me. I'd keep my head down, make excuses not to go out. I'd look in the mirror and hate myself. I thought I was disgusting. I cried constantly from 11 to 16. If I could tell my younger self anything, it would be to learn to love your flaws. It's OK to look in the mirror and feel really confident about yourself. ~ Jourdan Dunn, #NFDB
930:I love to read about music and about art, but I don't try and take things about mythology or guidelines as to how I'm to behave as an artist. It's the realm of intellectual debate. Actually, more and more my direction is trying to get further away from being self-conscious of what the parameters are of the mainstream, where it intersects with the underground. ~ Emily Haines, #NFDB
931:The God of Christians is a God of love and comfort, a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom he possesses, a God who makes them conscious of their inward wretchedness, and his infinite mercy; who unites himself to their inmost soul, who fills it with humility and joy, with confidence and love, who renders them incapable of any other end than himself. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
932:The only question was whether he must die at once speechless, unconscious, stricken to death by his first heavy fit, or whether by due aid of medical skill he might not be so far brought back to this world as to become conscious of his state and enabled to address one prayer to his Maker before he was called to meet Him face to face at the judgement seat. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
933:I'm conscious of race whenever I'm writing, just as I'm conscious of class, religion, human psychology, politics — everything that makes up the human experience. I don't think I can do a good job if I'm not paying attention to what's meaningful to people, and in American culture, there isn't anything that informs human interaction more than the idea of race. ~ Dwayne McDuffie, #NFDB
934:in this wonderful human brain of ours there has dawned a realization unknown to the other primates. It is that of the individual, conscious of himself as such, and aware that he, and all that he cares for, will one day die. Fig. 2.2 — Neanderthal Burial This recognition of mortality and the requirement to transcend it is the first great impulse to mythology. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
935:One needs to be more vitally conscious of what is happening now. This is not to deny the reality of past and future. It is about embarking on a new relationship with the impermanence and temporality of life. Instead of hankering after the past and speculating about the future, one sees the present as the fruit of what has been and the germ of what will be. ~ Stephen Batchelor, #NFDB
936:We make the commitment to stop for a moment and look at what the mind is doing, what mind state we are dwelling in. We don't judge it, we just know it. Gradually we'll become more and more accustomed to being conscious of what we're thinking and our various positive and negative states. We'll become more and more the masters of our mind, rather than the slaves. ~ Tenzin Palmo, #NFDB
937:I was all consciousness of its existence. Still detached from it - since I was conscious of it - and yet lost in it, nothing but it...Existence is not something which allows itself to be thought of from a distance; it has to invade you suddenly, pounce upon you, weigh heavily on your heart like a huge motionless animal - or else there is nothing left at all. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
938:From the structure of language comes the explanation of why the human spirit is condemned to an odyssey - why it first finds its way to itself only on a detour via a complete externalization in other things and in other humans. Only at the greatest distance from itself does it become conscious of itself in its irreplaceable singularity as an individuated being. ~ J rgen Habermas, #NFDB
939:Knowledge has two extremes. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at birth. The other extreme is that reached by great minds, who, having run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back again to that same natural ignorance from which they set out; this is a learned ignorance which is conscious of itself. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
940:Compassion, as love, is something which is not of the mind. The mind is not conscious of itself as being compassionate, as loving. But the moment you forgive consciously, the mind is strengthening its own center in its own hurt. So the mind which consciously forgives can never forgive; it does not know forgiveness; it forgives in order not to be further hurt. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
941:The only clue to what is in people's minds is in their behavior. If a man behaves strangely, oddly, is not himself--
Then you suspect him?
No. That is just what I mean. A man whose mind is evil and whose intentions are evil is conscious of that fact and he knows that he must conceal it all costs. He dare not, therefore, afford any unusual behavior. ~ Agatha Christie,#NFDB
942:Figure our what it is you don't do very well, and then don't do it. I'm not beating myself up about doing everything perfectly. The litmus test I always use for myself is: "Okay, if you won 20 million tomorrow in the lottery would you still being doing the same thing you are doing now with your life, Dough? The answer is "yes". I'm always very conscious of that. ~ Douglas Coupland, #NFDB
943:Photography is the typical means of expression of a society founded on a civilization of technicians, conscious of the aims it has set for itself... Its power of exactly reproducing external reality, a power inherent in its technique, lends it a documentary character and makes it appear as the most faithful and impartial process for the reproduction of social life. ~ Gisele Freund, #NFDB
944:... the social scientist who lacks a mathematical mind and regards a mathematical formula as a magic recipe, rather than as the formulation of a supposition, does not hold forth much promise. A mathematical formula is never more than a precise statement. […] The chief merit of mathematization is that it compels us to become conscious of what we are assuming. ~ Bertrand De Jouvenel, #NFDB
945:Ladies. Large masses of girls are often prone to this salutation. I hate being mollified with this unsolicited "ladies" business. I know we're all women. I am conscious of my breasts. Do I have to be conscious of yours as well? Do men do this? Do they go, "Men: Meet for ribs in the shed after the game. Keg beer, raw eggs, and death metal only." I would imagine not. ~ Sloane Crosley, #NFDB
946:I returned to the waiting area. For the first time, I was conscious of being widowed, of lacking the prosecution of a man, it was an entirely atavistic sensation. Here in the lobby of this police station in Greece, I suddenly felt extraneous to the workings of the world, which is to say the world of men, I had grown invisible, standing at the threshold of that door. ~ Katie Kitamura, #NFDB
947:I want each character to be as unique as possible. I want them to reflect something of who they are in the way that they move and in how their bodies work. That was foremost in my head when I was writing Salvage: I wanted every gesture, every little movement, to really carry meaning and communicate meaning to the reader. I was very conscious of that when I was writing. ~ Jesmyn Ward, #NFDB
948:create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
949:In considering such transformations the distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic, or philosophic – in short, ideological – forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
950:It depends on how you define the word "racialist." If you mean being conscious of the differences between men and nations, and from that, races, then we are all racialists. However, if you mean a man who despises a human being because he belongs to another race, or a man who believes that one race is inherently superior to another, then the answer is emphatically "No". ~ Enoch Powell, #NFDB
951:We see not only thought as participating in evolution as an anomaly or as an epiphenomenon; but evolution as so reducible to and identifiable with a progress towards thought that the movement of our souls expresses and measures the very stages of progress of evolution itself. Man discovers that he is nothing else than evolution become conscious of itself. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #NFDB
952:Every moment of life brings an opportunity for being conscious of human feeling, in prosperity, in adversity, in all conditions. It costs very little; only a little thought is necessary. There is no greater religion than love. God is love; and the best form of love is to be conscientious regarding the feelings of those with whom we come in contact in everyday life. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
953:Everything good is costly, and the development of personality is one of the most costly of all things. I t is a matter of saying yea to oneself, of taking oneself as the most serious of tasks, of being conscious of everything one does, and keeping it constantly before one's eyes in all its dubious aspects-truly a task that taxes us to the utmost. ~ Carl Jung, Psychological Reflections, #NFDB
954:This transformation is already proceeding, and if we want to consciously find these evolutionary currents operating in our own being as well-if we want to consciously join Spirit-in-action-then the four quardrants can help us orient ourselves more effectively, can help us become more conscious of the evolutionary currents already flowing around us and through us and in us. ~ Ken Wilber, #NFDB
955:An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own existence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It inevitably dooms itself to calamities that must strike it dead. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
956:But for me, you also have to be conscious of what is going to play. And that includes playing with. Sometimes it's just a vibe. It's what's going to make this scene work. And sometimes there may be something that restricts you that has to do with something that maybe is historically accurate. And then you have to weigh that decision and give up something for a scene to work. ~ Gary Cole, #NFDB
957:Ever notice how seldom children complain about the weather? They take hot weather in stride until the negative news corps educate them to be conscious of unpleasant temperatures. Make it a habit always to speak favorably about the weather regardless of what the weather actually is. Complaining about the weather makes you more miserable and it spreads misery to others. ~ David J Schwartz, #NFDB
958:Imagine a world where no child grows up in chaos, rage, verbal or physical assaults, or deprivation. As humanity becomes increasingly conscious of the need to protect our earth from assaults upon its resources and atmosphere, we also move collectively toward the understanding that assaults upon the human psyche must end. Awareness is required and healing is the outcome. ~ Patricia Evans, #NFDB
959:Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” You do not fight against your problem; your problem will only live as long as you are conscious of it. Take your attention away from your problem and the multitude of reasons why you cannot achieve your ideal. Concentrate your attention entirely upon the thing desired. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
960:God loves us already and has from our very beginning. The Christian life is not about believing or doing what we need to believe or do so that we can be saved. Rather, it's about seeing what is already true that God loves us already and then beginning to live in this relationship. It is about becoming conscious of and intentional about a deepening relationship with God. ~ Marcus Borg, #NFDB
961:For a long time now I haven't existed. I'm utterly calm. No one distinguishes me from who I am. I just felt myself breath as if I'd done something new, or done it late. I'm beginning to be conscious of being conscious. Perhaps tomorrow I will wake up to myself and resume the course of my existence. I don't know if that will make more happy or less. I don't know anything. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
962:There are energies that reside in each phone and phoneme. And we can release them. And it can be grand and vast and you can create a realm where you can dwell for a while. Where things are perfect symbols of themselves, no manipulation. And that connects to me to the Buddhist view. From that perspective we can wake up on the spot, be conscious of our world, think of others. ~ Anne Waldman, #NFDB
963:Whenever you appreciate a certain thing you become conscious of its real quality, and whenever you become conscious of the quality of anything, you begin to develop that quality in yourself. When we appreciate the worth of a person, we tend to impress the idea of that worth in our own minds, and thereby cause the same effect to be produced, in a measure, in ourselves. ~ Christian D Larson, #NFDB
964:When the mind becomes conscious of itself as thought it simultaneously becomes conscious of itself as action. Thought and action, truth and freedom (‘ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’) are inseparable, and are in fact correlative aspects of an indivisible reality. Hence they became simultaneously explicit in the mind’s process of self-discovery. ~ R G Collingwood, #NFDB
965:He looked at me, baffled and for the first time uncertain, as though he had stumbled into something, unprepared. His long narrow hands were cradled around mine, both of us holding the rose together. Magic was singing in me, through me; I felt the murmur of his power singing back that same song. I was abruptly too hot, and strangely conscious of myself. I pulled my hands free. ~ Naomi Novik, #NFDB
966:Not for the first time he was conscious of emotional lights and shades in his wife that could not be categorized, could not be named as sensuous or emotional as such, perhaps derived from each and gave to each but in essence grew out of a deeper fund of temperament that he still could not altogether apprehend. The simple miner's daughter was not simple in character at all. ~ Winston Graham, #NFDB
967:The real difference in the believer who follows Christ and has mortified his will and died after the old man in Christ, is that he is more clearly aware than other men of the rebelliousness and perennial pride of the flesh, he is conscious of his sloth and self-indulgence and knows that his arrogance must be eradicated. Hence there is a need for daily self-discipline. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
968:There are very few of us who remember the day, the moment, when our childhood ends. For most of us, the sun sets on our innocence gradually, sliding down over the western horizon like a toboggan run down over a long, steep slope. We are never really conscious of the moment we reach the bottom of the slope; we just know that one day we wake up and the toboggan ride is over. ~ Jennifer Wixson, #NFDB
969:Perhaps the best place to begin with an integral approach to business is with.. oneself. In the Big Three of self, culture, and world, integral mastery starts with self. How do body and mind and spirit operate in me? How does that necessarily impact my role in the world of business? And how can I become more conscious of these already operating realities in myself and in others? ~ Ken Wilber, #NFDB
970:Teach him to live rather than to avoid death: life is not breath, but action, the use of our senses, our mind, our faculties, every part of ourselves which makes us conscious of our being. Life consists less in length of days than in the keen sense of living. A man maybe buried at a hundred and may never have lived at all. He would have fared better had he died young. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, #NFDB
971:Your soul has a special mission. Your soul is supremely conscious of it.
Maya, illusion or forgetfulness, makes you feel that you are finite, weak and helpless. This is not true. You are not the body. You are not the senses. You are not the mind. These are all limited. You are the soul, which is unlimited. Your soul is infinitely powerful. Your soul defies all time and space. ~ Sri Chinmoy,#NFDB
972:In national politics, where you are one of some twenty million voters, your influence is infinitesimal unless you are exceptional or occupy an exceptional position. You have, it is true, a twenty-millionth share in the government of others, but only a twenty-millionth share in the government of yourself. You are therefore much more conscious of being governed than of governing. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
973:Man discovers that he is nothing else than evolution become conscious of itself, to borrow Julian Huxley’s striking expression. It seems to me that our modern minds (because and inasmuch as they are modern) will never find rest until they settle down to this view. On this summit and on this summit alone are repose and illumination waiting for us. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, #NFDB
974:We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
975:In brief, images were advantageous even if an organism were not conscious of the images formed within it. The organism would not yet be capable of subjectivity and would be unable to inspect the images in its own mind, but still the images could automatically guide the execution of a movement; the movement would be more precise in terms of its target and succeed rather than fail. ~ Ant nio R Dam sio, #NFDB
976:It has been said:”Stillness is the language God speaks, and everything else is a bad translation.” Stillness is really another word for space. Becoming conscious of stillness whenever we encounter it in our lives will connect us with the formless and timeless dimension within ourselves, that which is beyond thought, beyond ego. ~ Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, (2005), #NFDB
977:The legacy of the parents is yet another generation condemned to hide from the true self while operating unconsciously under the influence of repressed memories. Unless the heir casts off his “inheritance” by becoming fully conscious of his true past, and thus of his true nature, loneliness in the parental home will necessarily be followed by an adulthood lived in emotional isolation. ~ Alice Miller, #NFDB
978:Truly effective negotiators are conscious of the verbal, paraverbal (how it’s said), and nonverbal communications that pervade negotiations and group dynamics. And they know how to employ those subtleties to their benefit. Even changing a single word when you present options—like using “not lose” instead of “keep”—can unconsciously influence the conscious choices your counterpart makes. ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
979:Oh there is blessing in this gentle breeze, A visitant that while it fans my cheek Doth seem half-conscious of the joy it brings From the green fields, and from yon azure sky. Whate'er its mission, the soft breeze can come To none more grateful than to me; escaped From the vast city, where I long had pined A discontented sojourner: now free, Free as a bird to settle where I will. ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
980:I've always thought about gender, as someone who has been categorically "gender nonconforming" for my entire life, I was forced to think about it, but obviously I became more conscious of it as a social issue as I've gotten older. And as I've met more folks who are genderqueer or trans, it's been really enlightening to hear their stories, and it got me thinking about my own gender history. ~ Liz Prince, #NFDB
981:The families of the missing are doubly burdened: first by the pain of their ordeal, and then by our expectations of them, expectations of a standard of behavior higher than we require of ourselves. As humans, we seek naturally to help fellow creatures in distress. But most of us, whether we are conscious of it or not, expect something back—the flattery of helplessness and of need. ~ Richard Lloyd Parry, #NFDB
982:Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal; that all things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them; but the prosaic materialism of the majority condemns as madness the flashes of super-sight which penetrate the common veil of obvious empiricism. ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
983:I have always been conscious of the importance and the strength of nationalism, and this has led me straight to the acknowledgment of the nationalism of the Palestinian people. I believe there is no way around this: We have to have a solution based on two national states, which will hopefully live and grow together and establish a relationship between them in something like a European Union. ~ Uri Avnery, #NFDB
984:Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other. Evil besides (which I must still believe to be the lethal side of man) had left on that body an imprint of deformity and decay. And yet when I looked upon that ugly idol in the glass, I was conscious of no repugnance, rather of a leap of welcome. This, too, was myself. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
985:Teach him to live rather than to avoid death: life is not breath,
but action, the use of our senses, our mind, our faculties, every
part of ourselves which makes us conscious of our being. Life
consists less in length of days than in the keen sense of living.
A man maybe buried at a hundred and may never have lived at all.
He would have fared better had he died young. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau,#NFDB
986:And then she said nothing else, for Henry put his arms around her and kissed her. Kissed her in such a way that she no longer felt plain, or conscious of her hair or the ink spot on her dress or anything but Henry, whom she had always loved. Tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks, and when he drew away, he touched her wet face wonderingly. "Really," he said. "You love me, too, Lottie? ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
987:From the very fact, indeed, that I am conscious of the motives which solicit my action, these motives are already transcendent objects from my consciousness, they are outside; in vain shall I seek to cling to them: I escape from them through my very existence. I am condemned to exist forever beyond my essence, beyond the affective and rational motives of my act: I am condemned to be free. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
988:It was a mere matter of seeing common things together and exchanging common speech concerning them, but each was so strongly conscious of the other that no sentence could seem wholly impersonal. There are times when the whole world is personal to a mood whose intensity seems a reason for all things. Words are of small moment when the mere sound of a voice makes an unreasonable joy. ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, #NFDB
989:There is that sense of belonging one never has except in one’s own country. Anywhere else, no matter how long you stay, they never let you forget you are alien. Indeed, it is a good thing, because it is on foreign soil that you are made more conscious of your own roots and consequently become more knowledgable. And that is why, in my writings, I talk of my country, present my people to others. ~ Attia Hosain, #NFDB
990:The settler makes history and is conscious of making it. And because he constantly refers to the history of his mother country, he clearly indicates that he himself is the extension of that mother country. Thus the history which he writes is not the history of the country which he plunders but the history of his own nation in regard to all that she skims off, all that she violates and starves. ~ Frantz Fanon, #NFDB
991:What I am trying to do when I use symbols is to awaken in your unconscious some reaction. I am very conscious of what I am using because symbols can be very dangerous. When we use normal language we can defend ourselves because our society is a linguistic society, a semantic society. But when you start to speak, not with words, but only with images, the people cannot defend themselves. ~ Alejandro Jodorowsky, #NFDB
992:One is conscious of no brave and noble earnestness in it, of no generalized passion for intellectual and spiritual adventure, of no organized determination to think things out. What is there is a highly self-conscious and insipid correctness, a bloodless respectability submergence of matter in manner--in brief, what is there is the feeble, uninspiring quality of German painting and English music. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
993:The man of meditation becomes the man of understanding because his energy accumulates. He is not wasting it. He is not interested in trivia; he does not put any energy at all into petty things. So whenever the time arises to give, he has to give. Energy is understanding. Be conscious of it and use your energy very consciously, and use your energy in such a way that you don't simply go on wasting it. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
994:These are not the circumstances that I want.’ Is it up to you to choose them? You have been given that particular body, these particular parents and brothers, this particular social position and place to live. You come to me hoping that I can somehow change these circumstances for you, not even conscious of the assets that are already yours that make it possible to cope with any situation you face. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
995:And as you read, you are not conscious of the letters or even of the words or even of the syntax or the sentences and punctuation, but only of their meaning. As you listen to an address, phonemes disappear into words and words into sentences and sentences disappear into what they are trying to say, into meaning. To be conscious of the elements of speech is to destroy the intention of the speech. ~ Julian Jaynes, #NFDB
996:And then she said nothing else, for Henry put his arms around her and kissed her. Kissed her in such a way that she no longer felt plain, or conscious of her hair or the ink spot on her dress or anything but Henry, whom she had always loved. Tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks, and when he drew away, he touched her wet face wonderingly.
"Really," he said. "You love me, too, Lottie? ~ Cassandra Clare,#NFDB
997:One time I didn't leave my hotel room for four days, I was so stuck in my head. But now, with maturity and age, I've realized that winning isn't everything. It's very much about the journey, particularly in my sport. There are so many people on my team, and I've got to be conscious of them. So while winning is definitely the ultimate goal, the lessons learned when I don't win only strengthen me. ~ Lewis Hamilton, #NFDB
998:To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
999:Would I describe a preacher, I would express him simple, grave, sincere; In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain, And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste, And natural in gesture; much impress'd Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too; affectionate in look, And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men. ~ William Cowper, #NFDB
1000:Actually, social drug-taking went kind of low-key for a couple of years. Probably because of AIDS, people got very conscious of their health. But it seems to be making a comeback. Just the other night I was at a party where people kept disappearing into the bathroom every few minutes. I'm glad I did all that in my 20s and that I'm done with it. And that I wrote about it in Postcards from the Edge. ~ Carrie Fisher, #NFDB
1001:Frigideiro! " said Hermione again from the desk next to him. Her water was solid ice and there were white crystals forming on the rim of her glass. She seemed to be totally intent on her own work and not at all conscious of the other students staring at her with hateful eyes, which was either (a) dangerously oblivious of her or (b) a perfectly honed performance rising to the level of fine art. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky, #NFDB
1002:The child is born with a Self but not with an ego. The child develops the ego. As he becomes more and more social and related, ego develops. This ego is just on your periphery where you are related with others - just on the boundary of your being. So ego is the periphery of your being, and Self is the center. The child is born with a Self, but unaware. He is a Self, but he is not conscious of the Self. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1003:Then Krishna says, "O Arjuna, you and I have run the cycle of births and deaths many times, but you are not conscious of them all. I am without beginning, birthless, the absolute Lord of all creation. I through my own nature take form. Whenever virtue subsides and wickedness prevails, I come to help mankind. For the salvation of the good, for the destruction of wickedness, for the establishment ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1004:In fact, the influence of Schoenberg may be overwhelming on his followers, but the significance of his art is to be identified with influences of a more subtle kind - not the system, but the aesthetic, of his art. I am quite conscious of the fact that my Chansons madécasses are in no way Schoenbergian, but I do not know whether I ever should have been able to write them had Schoenberg never written. ~ Maurice Ravel, #NFDB
1005:The Great Man's sincerity is of the kind he cannot speak of, is not conscious of: nay, I suppose, he is conscious rather of insincerity; for what man can walk accurately by the law of truth for one day? No, the Great Man does not boast himself sincere, far from that; perhaps does not ask himself if he is so: I would say rather, his sincerity does not depend on himself; he cannot help being sincere! ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
1006:With your desire defined, quietly go within and shut the door behind you. Lose yourself in your desire; feel yourself to be one with it; remain in this fixation until you have absorbed the life and name by claiming and feeling yourself to be and to have that which you desired. When you emerge from the hour of prayer you must do so conscious of being and possessing that which you heretofore desired. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
1007:The next time you stand on a beach at night, watching the moon’s bright path across the water, and the conscious of the moon-drawn tides, remember that the moon itself may have been born of a great tidal wave of earthly substance, torn off into space. And remember if the moon was formed in this fashion, the event may have had much to do with shaping the ocean basins and the continents as we know them. ~ Rachel Carson, #NFDB
1008:You don't want to be slavishly doing the same thing over and over again that everybody else has done, but at the same time, you're conscious of, "This is important. I owe something to my ten year old self right now. I need to respect that." I need for that kid who is obsessively reading comic books, I need there to be something rewarding for him where he's like, I didn't waste my time. I know what this is. ~ Matt Nix, #NFDB
1009:You exist in time, but you belong to eternity- You are a penetration of eternity into the world of time-You are deathless, living in a body of death- Your consciousness knows no death, no birth- It is only your body that is born and dies-But you are not aware of your consciousness-You are not conscious of your consciousness-And that is the whole art of meditation;Becoming conscious of consciousness itself. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1010:It was strange to be conscious of another person’s existence, to feel it as a close, urgent necessity; a necessity without qualifications, neither pleasant nor painful, merely final like an ultimatum. It was important to know that she existed in the world; it was important to think of her, of how she had awakened this morning, of how she moved, with her body still his, now his forever, of what she thought. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1011:Benny’s stories were more frequent in the days before the downturn, when we felt flush and secure. We were less mindful of being caught gathering. Then the downturn hit, our workload disappeared, and, though we had more time than ever to listen to Benny’s stories, we were more conscious of being caught gathering, which was one indication that our workload had disappeared and that layoffs were necessary. ~ Joshua Ferris, #NFDB
1012:However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but a spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it, and that is no more I than it is you. When the lay, it may be the tragedy, of life is over, the spectator goes his way. It was a kind of fiction, a work of the imagination only, so far as he was concerned. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1013:I am extremely conscious of my tribalism. And when you talk about tribalism, you talk about living in a black and white world. I mean, Native American tribalism sovereignty, even the political fight for sovereignty and cultural sovereignty is a very us versus them. And I think a lot of people in this country, especially European Americans and those descended from Europeans don't see themselves as tribal. ~ Sherman Alexie, #NFDB
1014:Little by little things began to assume a new aspect. The sense of insecurity vanished, words came of themselves, I was no longer so painfully conscious of everything I said. I drank on and felt the great soft wave approach and embrace me; the dark hour began to fill with pictures and stealthily the noiseless procession of dreams appeared again superimposed on the dreary, grey landscape of existence. ~ Erich Maria Remarque, #NFDB
1015:Adults are naturally most conscious of directing the conduct of others when they are immediately aiming so to do. As a rule, they have such an aim consciously when they find themselves resisted; when others are doing things they do not wish them to do. But the more permanent and influential modes of control are those which operate from moment to moment continuously without such deliberate intention on our part. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
1016:But it isn't only the terror everywhere, and the fear of being conscious of it, that freezes people. It's more than that. People know they are in a society dead or dying. They are refusing emotion because at the end of very emotion are property, money, power. They work and despise their work, and so freeze themselves. They love but know that it's a half- love or a twisted love, and so they freeze themselves. ~ Doris Lessing, #NFDB
1017:Imagine you have intellect but no insight, agendas but no awareness. Your circuitry hums with strategies for survival and persistence, flexible, intelligent, even technological—but no other circuitry monitors it. You can think of anything, yet are conscious of nothing. You can’t imagine such a being, can you? The term being doesn’t even seem to apply, in some fundamental way you can’t quite put your finger on. ~ Peter Watts, #NFDB
1018:People and situations always show us what we need to see and learn about ourselves, and when we take responsibility for our own feelings, how others treat us also changes. Everything in life is there to teach us something about ourselves. Don’t blame others, or try to separate yourself from them. Be grateful that they are helping you to become conscious of yourself and your own ego-mind an consciousness. ~ Mada Eliza Dalian, #NFDB
1019:Power is a poison well known for thousands of years. If only no one were ever to acquire material power over others! But to the human being who has faith in some force that holds dominion over all of us, and who is therefore conscious of his own limitations, power is not necessarily fatal. For those, however, who are unaware of any higher sphere, it is a deadly poison. For them there is no antidote. ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, #NFDB
1020:Yet with all the advantages over both friends and enemies which I now possessed I could not honestly say I was happy. I knew I could have every possible enjoyment and amusement the world had to offer--I knew I was one of the most envied among men, and yet, as I stood looking out of the window at the persistently falling rain, I was conscious of a bitterness rather than a sweetness in the full cup of fortune. ~ Marie Corelli, #NFDB
1021:As you become more conscious of your cruelty, of your violence, gross and subtle, you start becoming more and more compassionate. Not that you cultivate compassion. Just by becoming aware of your cruelty, violence, ugliness... the very awareness brings new changes in you. And the energy that was involved in cruelty, in violence, starts changing. The same energy becomes purified, the same energy becomes compassion. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1022:To speak of God, to think of God, is in every respect to show what one is made of. I have always wagered against God and I regard the little that I have won in this world as simply the outcome of this bet. However paltry may have been the stake (my life) I am conscious of having won to the full. Everything that is doddering, squint-eyed, vile, polluted and grotesque is summoned up for me in that one word: God! ~ Andre Breton, #NFDB
1023:History is essential to our understanding of the present. Unless we are conscious of the way in which we came to this point in time as a people, then we shall never fully be able to plan the present and the future. We need to know what roots are still alive. We need to know how things came to be so that we can project from here. We also need to know the failures of the past so that we can avoid repeating them. ~ Ming Dao Deng, #NFDB
1024:Judas, the one whom the world in its ignorance has blackened, will when man awakes from his undisciplined state, be placed on high for God is love and no greater love has a man than tins — that he lay down his life for a friend. Until man lets go of that which he is now conscious of being, he will not become that which he desires to be; and Judas is the one who accomplishes this through suicide or detachment. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
1025:We must love because we are loved by God. We must be conscious of death if we are to have a proper understanding of life. We must struggle in order to grow, but without falling into the trap of the power we gain through that struggle, because we know that power is worthless. Finally, we must accept that our eternal soul is, at this moment, caught in the web of time with all its opportunities and its limitations. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1026:It is what makes conscious of the conditions and laws of observing which applied in this manner become a theme on its own. The activity of consciousness depending on the way the work itself proceeds, becomes the subject of my attention this way and it is precisely because of this voyeuristic attitude toward the own observation and experience of the subject that the conscious analytic dimension in the work shows. ~ Antoni Tapies, #NFDB
1027:False greatness is unsociable and remote: conscious of its own frailty, it hides, or at least averts its face, and reveals itself only enough to create an illusion and not be recognized as the meanness that it really is. True greatness is free, kind, familiar and popular; it lets itself be touched and handled, it loses nothing by being seen at close quarters; the better one knows it, the more one admires it. ~ Jean de la Bruyere, #NFDB
1028:John-Dylan Haynes22 and his colleagues expanded Libet’s experiments in 2008 to show that the outcomes of an inclination can be encoded in brain activity up to ten seconds before it enters awareness! The brain has acted before its person is conscious of it. Not only that, from looking at the scan, they can make a prediction about what the person is going to do. The implications of this are rather staggering. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga, #NFDB
1029:Surrendering completely to love, be it human or divine, means giving up everything, including our own well-being or our ability to make decisions. It means loving in the deepest sense of the word. The truth is that we don't want to be saved in the way God has chosen; we want to keep absolute control over our every step, to be fully conscious of our decisions, to be capable of choosing the object of our devotion. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1030:We've now become conscious of the uncalculated social, economic, and environmental costs of that kind of "unconscious" capitalism. And many are beginning to practice a form of "conscious capitalism," which involves integrity and higher standards, and in which companies are responsible not just to shareholders, but also to employees, consumers, suppliers, and communities. Some call it "stakeholder capitalism." ~ Patricia Aburdene, #NFDB
1031:You exist in time, but you belong to
eternity- You are a penetration of eternity into the world of time-You are
deathless, living in a body of death- Your consciousness knows no death, no
birth- It is only your body that is born and dies-But you are not aware of
your consciousness-You are not conscious of your consciousness-And that is the whole art of meditation;Becoming conscious of consciousness itself. ~ Osho,#NFDB
1032:the nature of animal consciousness is such that the world we can be conscious of is only a world of surfaces and signs, a world generalized, made common—that everything that becomes conscious thereby becomes flat, thin, relatively stupid, general, a sign, a herd signal; that all coming to conscious involves a vast and thoroughgoing corruption, falsification, superficialization, and generalization. Heightened ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1033:There appears to be a law that when creatures have reached the level of consciousness, as men have, they must become conscious of the creation; they must learn how they fit into it and what its needs are and what it requires of them, or else pay a terrible penalty: the spirit of the creation will go out of them, and they will become destructive; the very earth will depart from them and go where they cannot follow. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
1034:Instead of 'watching the thinker,' you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1035:Instead of “watching the thinker,” you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1036:The idea of finding time early in the morning can be daunting. But keep in mind that we are still only talking about ten minutes. And this is ten minutes that is going to set up your entire day for you. We may feel desperate for more sleep, but the deep rest experienced in meditation is far more useful and beneficial than the extra ten minutes of sleep you would otherwise get. What’s more, you’re conscious of it. ~ Andy Puddicombe, #NFDB
1037:His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly swings. at one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
1038:One of the proud joys of the man of letters - if that man of letters is an artist - is to feel within himself the power to immortalize at will anything he chooses to immortalize. Insignificant though he may be, he is conscious of possessing a creative divinity. God creates lives; the man of imagination creates fictional lives which may make a profound and as it were more living impression on the world's memory. ~ Edmond de Goncourt, #NFDB
1039:To rail and rant against tyranny is to manifest inferiority, for there is no tyranny but ignorance; to be conscious of one's powers is to lose consciousness of tyranny. Self government is not a remote aim. It is an intimate and inescapable fact. To govern oneself is a natural imperative, and all tyranny is the miscarriage of self government. The first requisite of freedom is to accept responsibility for the lack of it. ~ E C Riegel, #NFDB
1040:His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
1041:I think that leaving things to the imagination is what creates seduction. Sometimes one can have too much of a good thing. Part of the thrill of sex is the anticipation, so as a writer I'm conscious of that fact. In my view, sex is a mystery. If one focuses on the mechanics of sex or the awkwardness of two human beings communing physically, it takes away from the mysterious and sometimes transcendent aspects of it”. ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
1042:There are natures in which, if they love us, we are conscious of having a sort of baptism and consecration: they bind us over to rectitude and purity by their pure belief about us; and our sins become that worst kind of sacrilege which tears down the invisible altar of trust. 'If you are not good, non is good'--those little words may give a terrific meaning to responsibility, may hold a vitriolic intensity for remorse. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
1043:Man's conscious state is an awareness of body and breath. His subconscious state, active in sleep, is associated with his mental, and temporary, separation from body and breath. His superconscious state is a freedom from the delusion that "existence" depends on body and breath. God lives without breath; the soul made in his image becomes conscious of itself, for the first time, only during the breathless state. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1044:One must find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, 'who' one is, 'what' one is, 'why' one is... Being thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are specially needed to control the aforesaid conditions. ~ Aleister Crowley, #NFDB
1045:Their own destiny is a far-off thing to them ... One declines, descends, trickles away, even crumbles away, and yet is hardly conscious of it one's self. It always ends, it is true, in an awakening, but the awakening is tardy. In the meantime, it seems as though we held ourselves neutral in the game which is going on between our happiness and our unhappiness. We are the stake, and we look on at the game with indifference. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1046:to become conscious of the psychic :::
The psychic being always has an influence on the thoughts and actions, but one is rarely conscious of it. To become conscious of the psychic being, one must want to do so, make one's mind as silent as possible, and enter deep into the heart of one's being, beyond sensations and thoughts. One must form the habit of silent concentration and descent into the depths of one's being.
~ The Mother,#NFDB
1047:Are you okay?" he asked, and whether it was tentative or simply weak from exhaustion, I wasn't sure.
I turned my head toward him. "I'm more than okay. I'm yours."
His smile was subtle but it lit up his entire face. With some hidden reserve of energy, he gathered me into his arms. "Then I have everything," he said softly, and that was the last thing I was conscious of before falling into a deep and dreamless sleep. ~ Laurelin Paige,#NFDB
1048:The more clearly you become conscious of the frailty, vanity and dream-like quality of all things, the more clearly will you also become conscious of the eternity of your own inner being; because it is only in contrast to this that the aforesaid quality of things becomes evident, just as you perceive the speed at which a ship is going only when looking at the motionless shore, not when looking into the ship itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
1049:The books say that he alone is the Yogi who, after long practice in self-concentration, has attained to this truth. The Sushumna now opens and a current which never before entered into this new passage will find its way into it, and gradually ascend to (what we call in figurative language) the different lotus centres, till at last it reaches the brain. Then the Yogi becomes conscious of what he really is, God Himself. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1050:The difference of human being behind the guy on the page is in writing, I'm no longer conscious of personal repercussions because for that moment they don't exist. At times, I tell myself, Well, I can always go back and change that or take it out, and I find out that I rarely do. Couple little things here and there: Do unto others. Be a good scout. With all the ironies that entails, I go by that. That's a good way to live. ~ Nick Tosches, #NFDB
1051:I am not conscious of a single experience throughout my three months' stay in England and Europe that made me feel that after all East is East and West is West. On the contrary, I have been convinced more than ever that human nature is much the same, no matter under what clime it flourishes, and that if you approached people with trust and affection you would have ten-fold trust and thousand-fold affection returned to you. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1052:The point of this good-day-bad-day comparison is this: Regardless of our performance, we are always dependent on God’s grace, His undeserved favor to those who deserve His wrath. Some days we may be more acutely conscious of our sinfulness and hence more aware of our need of His grace, but there is never a day when we can stand before Him on our own two feet of performance, when we are worthy enough to deserve His blessing. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
1053:Meditation is object-less. If you use any object, then it is not meditation; it becomes thinking. It becomes contemplation; it becomes reflection, but not meditation. This is the most essential point to be understood. This is the essence of a meditative state: that it is object-less. Only consciousness is there, but not conscious ABOUT anything. Consciousness without being conscious of anything - this is the nature of meditation. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1054:The full-grown modern human being who seeks but refuge finds instead boredom and mental dissolution, unless he can be, even in his withdrawal, creative. He can find the quality of happiness in the strain and travail only of achievement and growth. And he is conscious of touching the highest pinnacle of fulfillment which his life-urges demand when his is consumed in the service of an idea, in the conquest of the goal pursued. ~ Robert Briffault, #NFDB
1055:But neither Europe nor Africa can show any such desolation as America. The proudest, stubbornest, bitterest peasant of deserted Spain, the most primitive and superstitious Arab of the remotest oases, are a little more than kin and never less than kind at their worst; whereas in the United States one is almost always conscious of an instinctive lack of sympathy and understanding with even the most charming and cultured people. ~ Aleister Crowley, #NFDB
1056:The movement does not depend on the hopes and plans of people. The proletariat becomes conscious of its misery, and therefore seeks to overthrow capitalist society, but this consciousness arises only because of the situation of the proletariat in society. This is the point Marx and Engels were to make more explicitly in a famous passage of The German Ideology: ‘Consciousness does not determine life, but life determines consciousness ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1057:A change began to come over his work, which gave him immense satisfaction. In the midst of his toil there were moments during which he forgot what he was doing, and it came all easy to him, and at those same moments his row was almost as smooth and well cut as Tit’s. But so soon as he recollected what he was doing, and began trying to do better, he was at once conscious of all the difficulty of his task, and the row was badly mown. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1058:This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love… A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how. ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
1059:You are angry with your neighbor, you despise him, do not like to speak peaceably and lovingly to him, because there is something harsh, abrupt, careless, unpleasant to you in his character, in his speech, in his manners-because he is more conscious of his dignity than perhaps is necessary; or because he may be somewhat proud and disrespectful; but you yourself, your neighbor's physician and teacher, are more guilty than him. ~ John of Kronstadt, #NFDB
1060:Anywhere - and, it follows, nowhere - can be a place. As long as we are there, to think and talk, to listen and respond. The world, once conscious of itself in the form of human making, is a vast concert hall. What sounds there is not the divine music of celestial spheres, as the ancient Greek mathematicians believed, but the sound of one human after another issuing the daily plea: to be heard, to be understood, to be accommodated. ~ Mark Kingwell, #NFDB
1061:Photography is like stealing.You rob someone of a moment that exposes something essential about their character,their soul if you like.there are people who are very conscious of that,who find that terrifying.The thought that everyone,friend of foe,can get so close to you,look you straight in the eye and judge you without having any control over it or being able to respond.A part of them has become the property of the photographer. ~ Esther Verhoef, #NFDB
1062:Sadly I write in my quiet room, alone as I have always been, alone as I will always be. And I wonder if my apparently negligible voice might not embody the essence of thousands of voices, the longing for self-expression of thousands of lives, the patience of millions of souls resigned like my own to their daily lot, their useless dreams, and their hopeless hopes. In these moments my heart beats faster because I’m conscious of it. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1063:Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less. Unfortunately, there's a style of acting going round, especially with the younger actors, where they talk without even moving their lip. Maybe it's because my hearing probably isn't what it was 40 years ago but I'm sitting there going "What did they say"? ~ Clint Eastwood, #NFDB
1064:He always said the best chance for a hands-on killer to leave a clue was at the last moment of contact, when the deed had been done. Before that, the murderer was likely on high alert, conscious of every move, waiting for the moment to strike. Then, with the victim dead or dying, the killer might let down his guard if he was overconfident or relieved. Who knew what a guy who’d just knifed a kid and twisted the blade felt? Or a woman? ~ James R Benn, #NFDB
1065:I'm always conscious of the fact that a book starts, basically, with a kid in a lap, and a parent reading to them. If I'm not at least understanding that the parent's got to be there, and the kid's got to be there, together, then I don't feel like I'm doing my job. I hope that the language or the dialogue or the way characters interact entertains parents - when I'm playing with my own kids, I'm entertaining myself too, as well as them. ~ Jon J Muth, #NFDB
1066:When you really love someone, you think about him all the time. No matter where you are or what you're doing, he never completely leaves your thoughts. When you're apart, you want to be with him. When you're together, you're conscious of every move he makes, every word he says, and every breath he takes. Just the sight of him makes your heart rae and your mouth go dry. And when he touches you, the rest of the world disappears. ~ Betsy Brannon Green, #NFDB
1067:I had this sudden awareness,' she continues, 'of how the moments of our lives go out of existence before we're conscious of having lived them. It's only a relatively few moments that we get to keep and carry with us for the rest of our lives. Those moments are our lives. Or maybe it's more like those moments are the dots in what we call our lives, or the lines we draw between them, connecting them into imaginary pictures of ourselves. ~ Stuart Dybek, #NFDB
1068:I think I've always been extremely conscious of the kind of empowerment that comes from realizing that you're in a position to express yourself. And the fact is that - and this is the thing about punk rock - that everyone is in a position to create culture, and that point has never been lost on me. To me, that's an important political aspect of doing this, and trying to live in a way that's about dialogue as opposed to like... spectacle. ~ J Robbins, #NFDB
1069:We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the conception we have in our minds of prayer. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1070:When I became conscious of being a person, when I was very small, I knew that I was from Indiana, but I had never seen Indiana. I was born there, but we moved when I was, like, a year old. I always had a sense of a place that was far away from where I was. I would research it and find out about it and I remember on Christmas morning I used to always call Indiana to find out what the weather was like; to see if it was snowing or not. ~ John Darnielle, #NFDB
1071:When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how. ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
1072:We are rarely conscious of all these things that are killing our faith because they become so enshrined in our belief system. And when we enter into an unexpected process of shedding off those things that we have grown comfortable with... Well, that moment feels like a crisis. It feels like our faith is falling apart. It feels like everything has gone wrong. But I'm convinced it's not a crisis at all, but the birth of a true faith. ~ Benjamin L Corey, #NFDB
1073:"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Blessed are those who have preserved internal sanctity of soul; who are conscious of no secret deceit; who are the same in act as they are in desire; who conceal no thought, no tendencies of thought, from their own conscience; who are faithful and sincere witnesses, before the tribunal of their own judgments, of all that passes within their mind. Such as these shall see God. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, #NFDB
1074:One must find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, 'who' one is, 'what' one is, 'why' one is... Being thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are specially needed to control the aforesaid conditions. ~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA, [T4], #NFDB
1075:Submit to being called a neurotic. You belong to that splendid and pitiable family which is the salt of the earth. All the greatest things we know have come to us from neurotics. It is they and they only who have founded religions and created great works of art. Never will the world be conscious of how much it owes to them, nor above all of what they have suffered in order to bestow their gifts on it. —MARCEL PROUST, Guermantes Way, Vol. I ~ David Richo, #NFDB
1076:He was conscious of being irritated by ridiculously small causes, which were half of his own creation. Why was he making any fuss about Mrs. Casaubon? And yet he felt as if something had happened to him with regard to her. There are characters which are continually creating collisions and nodes for themselves in dramas which nobody is prepared to act with them. Their susceptibilities will clash against objects that remain innocently quiet. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
1077:(T)he philosopher is a perpetual beginner. This means that he accepts nothing as established from what men or scientists believe they know. This also means that philosophy itself is an ever-renewed experiment of its own beginning , that it consists entirely in describing this beginning, and finally, that radical reflection is conscious of its own dependence on an unreflected life that is its initial, constant, and final situation. ~ Maurice Merleau Ponty, #NFDB
1078:There are many times when I have to remind myself that people who harm others are coming from a place of profound disconnection. It is not easy to recognize the pain such a person is in, especially because they may not be conscious of it themselves. They may present themselves to the world as just fine. If you believe human beings have a potential for deep connection, wisdom and love; the limitation in those peoples' lives becomes clearer. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
1079:From some infinite distance, ten thousand twists of light are suddenly projected into your eyes. You watch as they shimmer and tighten together like the hooks of metal in a tangle of barbed wire.
More and more of them appear, filling in the gaps one by one, and soon you are conscious of nothing else.
What would the sky be like if there was nothing to see but stars?
You know that you will not experience anything so beautiful again. ~ Kevin Brockmeier,#NFDB
1080:Hegel claimed that the 'world spirit' is developing toward an ever-expanding knowledge of itself. It's the same with rivers--they become broader and broader as they get nearer to the sea. According to Hegel, history is the story of the 'world spirit' gradually coming to consciousness of itself. Although the world has always existed, human culture and human development have made the world spirit increasingly conscious of its intrinsic value. ~ Jostein Gaarder, #NFDB
1081:The concentration of a conscious universe would be unthinkable if it did not reassemble in itself all consciousnesses as well as all the conscious; each particular consciousness remaining conscious of itself at the end of the operation, and even (this must absolutely be understood) each particular consciousness becoming still more itself and thus more clearly distinct from others the closer it gets to them. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, #NFDB
1082:Does this mean that even in a deep dreamless sleep, the mind is in some degree active - yet without us being aware of it? Thus the mind is not conscious of the mind? Have we a divided mind, then, or even two? And if it is disturbance that makes a man get up in his sleep and walk, then do the emotions persist even in sleep? But without awareness, this would suggest the emotions are merely a bodily expression like yawning or needing to make water. ~ Jude Morgan, #NFDB
1083:Like any skill, religion requires perseverance, hard work, and discipline. Some people will be better at it than others, some appallingly inept, and some will miss the point entirely. But those who do not apply themselves will get nowhere at all. Religious people find it hard to explain how their rituals and practices work, just as a skater may not be fully conscious of the physical laws that enable her to glide over the ice on a thin blade. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
1084:The memory of that first state of Freedom and paradisiac Unconsciousness has faded away into an ideal poetic dream. We stand here too conscious of many things: with Knowledge, the symptom of Derangement, we must even do our best to restore a little Order. Life is, in few instances, and at rare intervals, the diapason of a heavenly melody; oftenest the fierce jar of disruptions and convulsions, which, do what we will, there is no disregarding. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
1085:Neither he nor she had had any such adventure before and neither was conscious of any incongruity. Little by little he entangled his thoughts with hers. He lent her books, provided her with ideas, shared his intellectual life with her. She listened to all.
Sometimes in return for his theories, she gave out some fact of her own life. With almost maternal solicitude, she urged him to let his nature open to the full; she became his confessor. ~ James Joyce,#NFDB
1086:M.: Do you think Mahler thought he was doing something avant-garde?
O.: I don’t think so.
M.: Schoenberg and Alban Berg were certainly conscious of being avant-garde, though.
O.: Oh, very much so. They had their “method”. Mahler had no such thing.
M.: So he flirted with chaos, not as a methodology, but naturally and instinctively. Is that what you are saying?
O.: Yes. Isn’t that exactly where his genius lies? ~ Haruki Murakami,#NFDB
1087:I like Paris because I find something here, something of integrity, which I seem to have strangely lost in my own country. It is simplest of all to say that I like to live among people and surroundings where I am not always conscious of 'thou shall not.' I am colored and wish to be known as colored, but sometimes I have felt that my growth as a writer has been hampered in my own country. And so - but only temporarily - I have fled from it. ~ Jessie Redmon Fauset, #NFDB
1088:The idea that we are "stewards of the earth" is another symptom of human arrogance. Imagine yourself with the task of overseeing your body's physical processes. Do you understand the way it works well enough to keep all its systems in operation? Can you make your kidneys function? Can you control the removal of waste? Are you conscious of the blood flow through your arteries, or the fact that you are losing a hundred thousand skin cells a minute? ~ Lynn Margulis, #NFDB
1089:What are these deaths and revivals? It is clear that I do not live whenever I lose my faith in the existence of God, and I would have killed myself long ago if I did not have some vague hope of finding God. I truly live only whenever I am conscious of him and seek him. "What, then, do I seek?" a voice cried out within me. "He is there, the one without whom there could be no life." To know God and to liVe come to one and the same thing. God is life. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1090:The heart that delights in God and longs only to see His glory advance will seldom be conscious of sacrifice. God in His wisdom asks that we first love Him and then live in keeping with that core value. He does not want His people to think of what they do as sacrificial, even though from the world's point of view it may be just that. Gratitude for grace of God will always be found near the center of the Biblical Christian's most powerful motivations. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
1091:Are you conscious of the restful influence which the stars exert? To me they are the most soothing things in Nature. I am proud to say that I don't know the name of one of them. The glamour and romance would pass away from them if they were all classified and ticketed in one's brain. But when a man is hot and flurried, and full of his own little ruffled dignities and infinitesimal misfortunes, then a star bath is the finest thing in the world. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
1092:Pretending you aren’t going to die is detrimental to your enjoyment of life. It is detrimental in the same way that it would be detrimental for a basketball player to pretend there was no end to the game he was playing. That player would reduce his intensity, adopt a lazy playing style, and, of course, end up not having any fun at all. Without an end, there is no game. Without being conscious of death, you can’t be fully aware of the gift of life. ~ Steve Chandler, #NFDB
1093:The whole difference between a man of genius and other men, it has been said a thousand times, and most truly, is that the first remains in great part a child, seeing with the large eyes of children, in perpetual wonder, not conscious of much knowledge--conscious, rather of infinite ignorance, and yet infinite power; a fountain of eternal admiration, delight, and creative force within him meeting the ocean of visible and governable things around him. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
1094:George Harrison was a fabulous, fabulous, fabulous guitarist, and a wonderful example of what a rock star should be. I totally revered him as an innovator. He was always fresh, daring, magnificently melodic, full of spiritual quality, and totally conscious of the chord structure beneath the solo. And he had the courage to play simple. He never took refuge in effects, or tried to impress with speed. I hope he knew how much we all loved and respected him. ~ Brian May, #NFDB
1095:May showers enrich thy happy soil,
Fair land, where fanes & towers arise:
On thee let sainted pilgrims pour
The richest blessings of the skies.
The wave that round thy bosom plays,
Conscious of its endeared retreat,
When the rude tempest rocks thy domes,
In sigh resigns its happy seat.
Yet urged another glance to steal
Of thy loved form so good so fair,
Flies to avoid the painful view
Of rival lovers basking hence. ~ Ibn Battuta,#NFDB
1096:The eleventh quality called is Simon of Canaan. A good key phrase for this disciple is “Hearing good news.” Simon of Canaan, or Simon from the land of milk and honey, when called to discipleship, is proof that the one who calls this faculty into being has become conscious of the abundant life. He can say with the Psalmist David, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
1097:When people talk as if the Crusades were nothing more than an aggressive raid against Islam, they seem to forget in the strangest way that Islam itself was only an aggressive raid against the old and ordered civilization in these parts. I do not say it in mere hostility to the religion of Mahomet; I am fully conscious of many values and virtues in it; but certainly it was Islam that was the invasion and Christendom that was the thing invaded. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
1098:since persons, even of considerable mental endowment, often give themselves so little trouble to understand the bearings of any opinion against which they entertain a prejudice, and men are in general so little conscious of this voluntary ignorance as a defect that the vulgarest misunderstandings of ethical doctrines are continually met with in the deliberate writings of persons of the greatest pretensions both to high principle and to philosophy. ~ John Stuart Mill, #NFDB
1099:There is an earthly sun, which is the cause of all heat, and all who are able to see may see the sun; and those who are blind and cannot see him may feel his heat. There is an Eternal Sun, which is the source of all wisdom, and those whose spiritual senses have awakened to life will see that sun and be conscious of His existence; but those who have not attained spiritual consciousness may yet feel His power by an inner faculty which is called Intuition. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
1100:There is an earthly sun, which is the cause of all heat, and all who are able to see may see the sun; and those who are blind and cannot see him may feel his heat. There is an Eternal Sun, which is the source of all wisdom, and those whose spiritual senses have awakened to life will see that sun and be conscious of His existence; but those who have not attained spiritual consciousness may yet feel His power by an inner faculty which is called Intuition. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
1101:When we were growing up, I chatted all the time with Yngve and we never had any secrets, but at some juncture, perhaps as early as when I was at upper secondary, this changed: from then on I was immensely conscious of who he was and who I was when we were talking, all spontaneity vanished, every statement I made was either planned in advance or analyzed retrospectively, mostly both, apart from when I was drinking, then I regained the old freedom. ~ Karl Ove Knausg rd, #NFDB
1102:Your consciousness is the only living reality, the eternal head of creation. That which you are conscious of being is the temporal body that you wear. To turn your attention from that which you are aware of being is to decapitate that body; but, just as a chicken or snake continues to jump and throb for a while after its head has been removed, likewise qualities and conditions appear to live for a while after your attention has been taken from them. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
1103:At physical death man loses his consciousness of the flesh and becomes conscious of his astral body in the astral world. Thus physical death is astral birth. Later, he passes from the consciousness of luminous astral birth to the consciousness of dark astral death and awakens in a new physical body. Thus astral death is physical birth. These recurrent cycles of physical and astral encasements are the ineluctable destiny of all unenlightened men. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1104:All the controversialists who have become conscious of the real issue are already saying of our ideal exactly what used to be said of the Socialists' ideal. They are saying that private property is too ideal not to be impossible. They are saying that private enterprise is too good to be true. They are saying that the idea of ordinary men owning ordinary possessions is against the laws of political economy and requires an alteration in human nature. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
1105:They stood an uncomfortable little group weighted down by Abe's gigantic presence: he lay athwart them like the wreck of a galleon, dominating with his presence his own weakness and self-indulgence, his narrowness and bitterness. All of them were conscious of the solemn dignity that flowed from him, of his achievement, fragmentary, suggestive and surpassed. But they were frightened at his surviving will, once a will to love, now become a will to die. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
1106:There are so many issues that impact women. When we talk about prison reform, for example, women were [once] sterilized in women's prisons. When they were giving birth, they were asked to sign paperwork but they weren't even completely conscious of what they were signing. That sounds like something that would never happen in America, but it was happening, not just in America, but in [California], one of the most progressive states in the United States. ~ Patricia Arquette, #NFDB
1107:The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim – for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives – is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1108:The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim-for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives -is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
1109:I said nothing. It may have been that I was thinking; but if so, my mind was too much filled with sleep to be conscious of its thought. Instead, I became profoundly aware of my physical surroundings. The sky above my face in all its grandeur seemed to have been made solely for my benefit, and to be presented for my inspection now. I lay upon the ground as upon a woman, and the very air that surrounded me seemed a thing as admirable as crystal and as fluid as wine. ~ Gene Wolfe, #NFDB
1110:Nobody that I know really likes the feeling of having no power and not being able to influence people. But most of us aren't too conscious of what we are trying to do and get that control and that power so people end up sort of playing all kinds of unconscious manipulative games or they're sort of half aware, they have an idea of a strategy or goal they want to use and they think about it. But then in the heat of the moment, it kind of all flies out the window. ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
1111:Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nastiness, and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other moral trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
1112:Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nastiness, and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other moral trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, #NFDB
1113:A prophet, claim the Shi‘ah, is someone who has, by the divine will, become conscious of God’s eternal message, which forever envelops creation like a numinous ether we cannot escape, while the Imam is someone who explicates that message for those who possess neither the prophetic consciousness necessary to recognize it nor the power of reason to understand it. Put another way, the prophet transmits the Message of God, while the Imam translates it for human beings. ~ Reza Aslan, #NFDB
1114:It is asked, what motives an Atheist can have to do good? The motive to please himself and his fellow-creatures; to live happily and peaceably; to gain the affection and esteem of men. "Can he, who fears not the gods, fear any thing?" He can fear men; he can fear contempt, dishonour, the punishment of the laws; in short, he can fear himself, and the remorse felt by all those who are conscious of having incurred or merited the hatred of their fellow-creatures. ~ Paul Henri Thiry, #NFDB
1115:Actions are interesting to watch. I learn about the actors. Their movements are emblems of the tensions in this internal landscape, which their actions resolve. About-to-act is an interesting state to experience, because I am conscious of just those tensions. Acting itself feels fairly dull; it not only resolves, it obliterates those tensions from my consciousness. Acting is only interesting as it leads to new tensions that, irrelevantly, cause me to act again. ~ Samuel R Delany, #NFDB
1116:O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1117:American society makes it next to impossible for humans to meet in America and not be conscious of their color differences. And we both agreed that if racism could be removed, America could offer a society where rich and poor could truly live like human beings....The white man is not inherently evil, but America's racist society influences him to act evilly. The society has produced and nourishes a psychology which brings out the lowest, most base part of human beings. ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
1118:The woods, the vines, the very stones, were at one with the brightness of the sun and the unblemished sky, and even when the sky grew overcast, the multitude of leaves, as in a sudden change of tone, the earth of the roads, the roofs of the town, seemed as though caught up in the unity of a brand-new world. And all that Jean was feeling seemed without effort to chime with the surrounding oneness, and he was conscious of the perfect joy which is the gift of harmony. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
1119:Be conscious of yourself, watch your mind, give it your full attention. Don't look for quick results; there may be none within your noticing. Unknown to you, your psyche will undergo a change; there will be more clarity in your thinking, charity in your feeling, purity in your behavior. You need not aim at these - you will witness the change all the same. For, what you are now is the result of inattention and what you become will be the fruit of attention. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #NFDB
1120:I was keenly conscious of the comrades-in-arms who had fallen with me. A bond surpassing by a hundredfold that which I had known in life bound me to them. I felt a sense of inexpressible relief and realized that I had feared, more than death, separation from them. I apprehended that excruciating war survivor's torment, the sense of isolation and self-betrayal experienced by those who had elected to cling yet to breath when their comrades had let loose their grip. ~ Steven Pressfield, #NFDB
1121:It's not merely a rule to be followed. It's a miracle to be experienced. A grace to be received. It's a promise to be believed. Do you believe, do you trust, that God sees every wrong done to you, that he knows every hurt, that he assesses motives and circumstances with perfect accuracy, that he is impeccably righteous and takes no bribes, and that he will settle all accounts with perfect justice? This is what it means to be "conscious of God" in the midst of unjust pain. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
1122:These pursuits sound brutal to our ears, but in other ways the Vikings were surprisingly modern. Unlike the usual stereotype of a rude barbarian, they were very conscious of their appearance and had excellent hygiene.10 They carefully groomed themselves and generally bathed at least once a day with a lye-rich soap that both bleached their hair and cut down on lice. Highly prized tweezers, razors, combs, and even ear cleaners have all been found in Viking excavations. ~ Lars Brownworth, #NFDB
1123:This is the road I have tried to follow as a teacher: living my convictions; being open to the process of knowing and being sensitive to the experience of teaching as an art; being pushed forward by the challenges that prevent me from bureaucratizing my practice; accepting my limitations, yet always conscious of the necessary effort to overcome them and aware that I cannot hide them because to do so would be a failure to respect both my students and myself as a teacher. ~ Paulo Freire, #NFDB
1124:When overweight students were put on conventional semi-starvation diets, Ohlson reported, they lost little weight and “reported a lack of ‘pep’ throughout … [and] they were discouraged because they were always conscious of being hungry.” When they ate only a few hundred carbohydrate calories a day but plenty of protein and fat, they lost an average of three pounds per week and “reported a feeling of well-being and satisfaction. Hunger between meals was not a problem.” The ~ Gary Taubes, #NFDB
1125:I push against the tree and run away, stumbling, the unreal night playing with me, gravity pulling from below, behind, above, making me fall. And I run through a world that is rotating, conscious of the earth's spin, of our planet twirling as it careens through nothingness, of the stars spiraling above, of the uncertainty of everything, even ground, even sky. Mumtaz never calls out, although a thousand and one voices scream in my mind, sing, whisper, taunt me with madness. ~ Mohsin Hamid, #NFDB
1126:It is like an illness: the desire to see someone, the strong, deep yearning. No, I have not explained it. I was working today, writing. My head was busy: my mind was filled with the work. Yet all the while I was conscious of a physical pain–a gnawing–as if a piece of me had been cut off. And the mind could do nothing about it. It was physical: it was in the veins, in the blood, in the skin. That is why human relationships are dangerous–because the mind has no power over them. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
1127:Remember to stop as often as necessary to re-connect your energy. Stay full, stay in a state of love. Remember that once you achieve the state of love, nothing nor anyone can pull more energy from you that you can replace. In fact, the energy flowing out of you creates a current that pulls energy into you at the same rate. You can never run out. But you must stay conscious of this process in order for it to work. This is especially important when you interact with people. ~ James Redfield, #NFDB
1128:We first became conscious of the plane publicly on a Monday. I thought then by the weekend it would be done. But then the Chinese military, the defense minister made a statement saying that if there was no apology from the United States, the Chinese military and the Chinese people would never understand. No reference to the government or the Communist Party, and that obviously presented an internal problem to the Chinese leadership, which was travelling at that moment. ~ Henry A Kissinger, #NFDB
1129:Can we perceive those inorganic beings, don Juan?" I asked. "We certainly can," he replied. "Sorcerers do it at will. Average people do it, but they don't realize that they're doing it because they are not conscious of the existence of a twin world. When they think of a twin world, they enter into all kinds of mental masturbation, but it has never occurred to them that their fantasies have their origin in a subliminal knowledge that all of us have: that we are not alone. ~ Carlos Castaneda, #NFDB
1130:The nearer Christ comes to a heart, the more it becomes conscious of its guilt; it will then either ask for his mercy and find peace, or else it will turn against Him because it is not yet ready to give up its sinfulness. Thus He will separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff. Man's reaction to this Divine Presence will be the test: either it will call out all the opposition of egotistic natures, or else galvanize them into a regeneration and a resurrection. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
1131:Well, people are like that too. THey create a false door - to deceive. If they are conscious of weakness, of inefficiency, they make an imposing door of self-assertion, of bluster, of overwhelming authority - and, after a time, they get to believe in it themselves. They think, and everybody thinks, that they are like that. But behind that door, Renisenb, is bare rock... And so when reality comes and touches them with the feather of truth - their true self reasserts itself. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
1132:Why is it that in our normal state former ideas, called up by some means or other, do not develop completely ? It is because we are conscious of them; because we connect them from their beginning with the enormous mass of other recollections, of other images, which constitute our personality. They have their place; they play their part in the great system, but they are not isolated and independent, and their development is restrained by the development of all the other thoughts. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1133:Ah, the future good!” Leebig’s eyes glowed with passion and he seemed to grow less conscious of his listener and correspondingly more talkative. “A simple concept, you think. How many human beings are willing to accept a trifling inconvenience for the sake of a large future good? How long does it take to train a child that what tastes good now means a stomach-ache later, and what tastes bad now will correct the stomach-ache later? Yet you want a robot to be able to understand? ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
1134:But the novels of women were not affected only by the necessarily narrow range of the writer's experience. They showed, at least in the nineteenth century, another characteristic which may be traced to the writer's sex. In Middlemarch and in Jane Eyre we are conscious not merely of the writer's character, as we are conscious of the character of Charles Dickens, but we are conscious of a woman's presence of someone resenting the treatment of her sex and pleading for its rights. ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
1135:If successive stages of environment become correlated with man in a two-way process, man himself becomes an expanding concept. Looked at in this way, evolution may then also be understood in terms of an expanding multilevel process concept of self-transcendence—or, viewed as a totality, as an overall process of self-attunement of an evolution which becomes ever more fully self-reflective, conscious of its own unfolding. ~ Erich Jantsch, Evolution and Consciousness - Human Systems in Transition, #NFDB
1136:To put it differently, as long as mind and heart are caught up in want, in desire, there must be emptiness.
You want things, ideas, persons, only when you are conscious of your own emptiness, and that wanting creates a choice.
When there is craving there must be choice, and choice precipitates you into the conflict of experiences.
You have the capacity to choose, and thereby you limit yourself by your choice. Only when mind is free from choice is there liberation. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti,#NFDB
1137:But so far as the pleasure was concerned, I was naturally not conscious of it until some time later, when, back at the hotel, and in my room alone, I had become myself again. Pleasure in this respect is like photography. What we take, in the presence of the beloved object, is merely a negative, which we develop later, when we are back at home, and have once again found at our disposal that inner dark-room the entrance to which is barred to us so long as we are with other people. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
1138:What is a fanatic but a man whose faith is impregnable to doubt? It is the faith that moves mountains, the faith that accomplishes. Revolutions are not made by Hamlets. The traditional “great” man, the “big personality” of current conception, may give to the world new thoughts, noble vision, inspiration. But the man that “sees every side” cannot lead, cannot control. He is too conscious of the fallibility of all theories, even of thought itself, to be a fighter in any cause. ~ Alexander Berkman, #NFDB
1139:What has made us in four or five generations so different from our forebears (in spite of all that may be said), so ambitious too, and so worried, is not merely that we have discovered and mastered other forces of nature. In final analysis it is, if I am not mistaken, that we have become conscious of the movement which is carrying us along, and have thereby realised the formidable problems set us by this reflective exercise of the human effort. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, #NFDB
1140:In that moment, as they stood smiling at one another, Charlotte was conscious of several contradictory sensations, of which the chief were these: annoyance with herself for being incapable of governing her own actions, satisfaction that Sidney had won this very minor victory over her, amusement, embarrassment - an odd something between perturbation and pleasure - and above all else, a flutter of joyful spirits which made her feel she had strayed somehow into a most unfamiliar world. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1141:The research projects that I have recently undertaken have shown me that our modern societies, which claim to be secular, are, on the contrary, governed by secularised theological concepts, which act all the more powerfully because we are not conscious of their existence. We will never grasp what is going on today unless we understand that capitalism is, in reality, a religion. And, as Walter Benjamin said, it is the fiercest of all religions because it does not allow for atonement... ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1142:In Ancient Greek literature male poets tend not simply to portray women as lecherous but to attribute to them a species of lust different from that of males: a subhuman and automatic reflex, an animalistic urge. Sappho is important because she gives a fulle human voice to female desire for the first time in Western history. Since she defiantly chooses the quintessential love-object Helen of Troy as her freethinking agent, she seems fully conscious of the revolutionary claim she is making. ~ Sappho, #NFDB
1143:What we do, as a conscious species, is set markers for ourselves. Once we reach one marker, we advance to the next—as if we were playing a board game we think will never end, despite the fact that it will, like it or not. And if you are too conscious of not liking it, then you may conceive of yourself as a biological paradox that cannot live with its consciousness and cannot live without it. And in so living and not living, you take your place with the undead and the human puppet. ~ Thomas Ligotti, #NFDB
1144:All the greatest things we know have come to us from neurotics. It is they and they only who have founded religions and created great works of art. Never will the world be conscious of how much it owes to them, nor above all of what they have suffered in order to bestow their gifts on it. We enjoy fine music, beautiful pictures, a thousand exquisite things, but we do not know what they cost those who wrought them in sleeplessness, tears, spasmodic laughter, rashes, asthma, epilepsy. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
1145:Anna held herself quiet, with effort. What Molly had said was pure spite: she was saying, I’m glad that you are going to be subjected to the pressures the rest of us have to face. Anna thought, I wish I hadn’t become so conscious of everything, every little nuance. Once I wouldn’t have noticed: now every conversation, every encounter with a person seems like crossing a mined field; and why can’t I accept that one’s closest friends at moments stick a knife in, deep, between the ribs? ~ Doris Lessing, #NFDB
1146:But her eyes would look cold, though her voice might be gentle, and her
hand when it fondled would be tentative, unwilling. The hand would be
making an effort to fondle, and Stephen would be conscious of that
effort. Then looking up at the calm, lovely face, Stephen would be filled
with a sudden contrition, with a sudden deep sense of her own
shortcomings; she would long to blurt all this out to her mother, yet
would stand there tongue-tied, saying nothing at all. ~ Radclyffe Hall,#NFDB
1147:But tracking my progress and missteps is the one of the reasons I’ve accumulated the success I have. The process forces you to be conscious of your decisions. But as Jim Rohn would say, “What’s simple to do is also simple not to do.” The magic is not in the complexity of the task; the magic is in the doing of simple things repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the Compound Effect. So, beware of neglecting the simple things that make the big things in your life possible. ~ Darren Hardy, #NFDB
1148:Vader completed his meditation and opened his eyes. His pale, flame-savaged face stared back at him from out of the reflective black transparisteel of his pressurized meditation chamber. Without the neural connection to his armor, he was conscious of the stumps of his legs, the ruin of his arms, the perpetual pain in his flesh. He welcomed it. Pain fed his hate, and hate fed his strength. Once, as a Jedi, he had meditated to find peace. Now he meditated to sharpen the edges of his anger. ~ Paul S Kemp, #NFDB
1149:D is for depth of processing. Our fundamental characteristic is that we observe and reflect before we act. We process everything more, whether we are conscious of it or not. O is for being easily overstimulated, because if you are going to pay more attention to everything, you are bound to tire sooner. E is for giving emphasis to our emotional reactions and having strong empathy which among other things helps us notice and learn. S is for being sensitive to all the subtleties around us. ~ Elaine N Aron, #NFDB
1150:After she left, he stood as still as he dared, listening to the sound of the cart recede into the distance. Listening, past all hope of hearing her. He wasn't even conscious of breathing, and yet his lungs ached fiercely. He had been wrong. It would have been easier if it had slain him. But he was still standing. Still cogent. And that meant he was all too aware of how badly it hurt. He clutched her hairpin until the metal cunt into the palm of his hand, unable to let even that much go. ~ Courtney Milan, #NFDB
1151:The longing was with him day and night, an incessant undefinable craving, like the sudden whim of a sick man for food and drink once tasted and long since forgotten. He could not see beyond the craving, or picture what it might lead to, for he was not conscious of any wish to speak to Madame Olenska or to hear her voice. He simply felt that if he could carry the vision of the spot of earth she walked on, and the way the sky and sea enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty. ~ Edith Wharton, #NFDB
1152:What we do, as a conscious species, is set markers for ourselves. Once we reach one marker, we advance to the next—as if we were playing a board game we think will never end, despite the fact that it will, like it or not. And if you are too conscious of not liking it, then you may conceive of yourself as a biological paradox that cannot live with its consciousness and cannot live without it. And in so living and not living, you take your place with the undead and the human puppet. Undoing ~ Thomas Ligotti, #NFDB
1153:Does It Pay?
If one poor burdened toiler o’er life’s road,
Who meets us by the way,
Goes on less conscious of his galling load,
Then life, indeed, does pay.
If we can show the troubled heart the gain
That lies always in loss,
Why, then, we too are paid for all the pain
Of bearing life’s hard cross.
If some despondent soul to hope is stirred,
Some sad lip made to smile,
By any act of ours, or any word,
Then, life has been worth while.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox,#NFDB
1154:Nobility and freedom were inseparable, and the nomad was free. In the desert a man was conscious of being the lord of space, and in virtue of that lordship he escaped in a sense from the domination of time. By striking camp he sloughed off his yesterdays; and tomorrow seemed less of a fatality if its where as well as its when had yet to
come. But the townsman was a prisoner; and to be fixed in one place, yesterday, today, tomorrow - was to be a target for time, the ruiner of all things. ~ Martin Lings,#NFDB
1155:It is (to describe it figuratively) as if an author were to make a slip of the pen, and as if this clerical error became conscious of being such. Perhaps this was no error but in a far higher sense was an essential part of the whole exposition. It is, then, as if this clerical error were to revolt against the author, out of hatred for him, were to forbid him to correct it, and were to say, "No, I will not be erased, I will stand as a witness against thee, that thou art a very poor writer. ~ S ren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
1156:We must all work in harmony with each other to stand up for what is right, to speak up for what is fair, and to always voice any corrections so that the ignorant become informed and justice is never ignored. Every time a person allows an act of ignorance to happen, they delay our progress for true change. Every person, molecule and thing matters. We become responsible for the actions of others the instant we become conscious of what they are doing wrong and fail to remind them of what is right. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
1157:It is (to describe it figuratively) as if an author were to make a slip of the pen, and as if this clerical error became conscious of being such. Perhaps this was no error but in a far higher sense was an essential part of the whole exposition. It is, then, as if this clerical error were to revolt against the author, out of hatred for him, were to forbid him to correct it, and were to say, "No, I will not be erased, I will stand as a witness against thee, that thou art a very poor writer." ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
1158:Just as women supplement men in private life, so they will supplement men in public life by concentrating their organized efforts on those objects which men are likely to ignore. There is a tremendous field for women as active protagonists of new ideas and new methods of political and social housekeeping. When organized and conscious of their power to influence their surroundings, women can use their newly acquired freedom in a great many ways to mold the world into a better place to live in. ~ Edward Bernays, #NFDB
1159:So let’s go,” I say, eyes on hers. She nods and stands; I want to hold out my hand to help her, walk her to the car with my hand on her back, but I’m conscious of where we are, surrounded by co-workers. So I turn and walk, leaving her to trail behind me until we reach the elevators. We pass Sawyer and Everly on the way out, Everly beaming smugly while Sawyer shakes his head and mouths, No. Dick. I’m tempted to flip him off but again, mindful of my surroundings, I ignore them both and keep walking ~ Jana Aston, #NFDB
1160:We must all work in harmony with each other to stand up for what is right, to speak up for what is fair, and to always voice any corrections – so that the ignorant become informed and justice is never ignored. Every time a person allows an act of ignorance to happen (one ignorant word, thought or action), they delay our progress for TRUE CHANGE. Every person, molecule, and thing matters. We become responsible for the actions of others the instant we become conscious of what they are doing wrong. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
1161:Despite the many occasions when its characters feel frustrated before the weight of circumstances, and despite blaming their feeling of impotence on daiva, 'fate', moral autonomy shines through in the epic. Because they have some freedom to choose they can be praised when they follow dharma or blamed when they follow adharma. At the moment of making a decision they become conscious of their freedom, and it is this perception of autonomy that gives them the ability to lead authentic moral lives. ~ Gurcharan Das, #NFDB
1162:I can truthfully say that I am never conscious of my age. Since I reached maturity, I have never been aware of being any older, and I can say, without equivocation or mental reservation, that I feel more alive, alert, and full of enthusiasm today than I did when I was 30 years old. I still feel my best years are ahead of me. I never think of birthdays, nor do I celebrate them. Today I can truthfully say that I am enjoying vibrant health, I don't mind telling people how old I am: I AM AGELESS! ~ Norman W Walker, #NFDB
1163:You must not obey a majority, no matter how large, if it opposes your principles and opinions.' He said this to each new volunteer and repeated it over and over to him, until it was engraved on his mind. 'The largest majority is often only an organized mob whose noise can no more change the false into the true than it can change black into white or night into day. And a minority, conscious of its rights, if those rights are based on moral principles, will sooner or later become a just majority. ~ Russell Banks, #NFDB
1164:Primacy Of Mind
Above the glow of molten steel,
The roar of furnace, forge, and shed,
Protectress of the City's weal,
Now, Learning rears her loftier head;
That Progress may at length descry
It lacks the clue to guide aright,
And, conscious of its blindness, cry
Unto the Muse, ``More light! More light!''
That Wealth may fitly yield the throne
To Letters, Science, artist-skill,
And Matter, willing subject, own
Mind must be lord and master still.
~ Alfred Austin,#NFDB
1165:As she stood on the deck of the ferry at Circular Quay, Evie was conscious of storing up things for future recollection. Here was the lustily gleaming harbour, the absurdly golden midday, and the bridge, swinging away like a door on brass hinges as the ferry executed a slow turn. Above was an infinity of blue-becoming-black reaching far into space, almost shocking after the grey security of Melbourne. The scale of things was all wrong, too lavish, too sunny, too geared to applause.
Nevertheless. ~ Gail Jones,#NFDB
1166:Dreaming was easy. I could dream for hours — not thinking, not wondering, not conscious of the passing of time. I could dream at all times and in all places — and this place was made for dreams. I did not awake until Andrew’s shadow fell across my knees. “Where are the sand-castles, Jane?” “They were castles in Spain,” I replied, smiling up at him. “But the real reason I wanted to come to the sea was pearls. Pearls like sea-water and sunshine.” He stooped over the pool and said, “Not real pearls, ~ D E Stevenson, #NFDB
1167:While a modicum of consciousness may have had survivalist properties during an immemorial chapter of our evolution – so one theory goes – this faculty soon enough became a seditious agent working against us … we need to hamper our consciousness for all we are worth or it will impose upon us a too clear vision of what we do not want to see … Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are – hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones ~ Thomas Ligotti, #NFDB
1168:An ambassador from any country is always conscious of the fact that he has a tremendous responsibility because he is the representative by whom his country is going to be judged. And to us is given the privilege and responsibility of being the representatives of the Son of God in this world. We stand for him, people judge him by what they see in us, and they are perfectly entitled to do so because we are the ones through whom and in whom he is glorified. Do we, I wonder, always realize this? ~ D Martyn Lloyd Jones, #NFDB
1169:Shame is a distinct feeling. I couldn’t look at my hands around the coffee cup or hear my own laments without feeling appalled, wanting desperately to fall silent, grow smaller. More than that, I was uncomfortably conscious of my whole body, from the awkward way that the shafts of my hair were thrusting out of my scalp to my feet, which felt dirty as well as cold. Everywhere, I seemed to feel my skin from the inside, as if it now stood away from my flesh, separated by a millimeter of mortified space. ~ Jane Smiley, #NFDB
1170:Taking the God of love and justice and the God of grace seriously has immediate implications for the Christian message. It becomes: God loves us already and has from our very beginning. The Christian life is not about believing or doing what we need to believe or do so that we can be saved. Rather, it’s about seeing what is already true—that God loves us already—and then beginning to live in this relationship. It is about becoming conscious of and intentional about a deepening relationship with God. ~ Marcus J Borg, #NFDB
1171:Once again, I was conscious of the paradox of the compound: that here, at the heart of the unfolding events, we could catch no more than a glimpse of them. Fires were burning all over Dili; the smell was in our nostrils from the moment we wok up, and occasionally we could see columns of smoke. But the flames themselves, and the faces of the fire starters, were invisible. At the computers in the Unamet press room, we waited in turn to log on to the news websites and learn what was happening to us. ~ Richard Lloyd Parry, #NFDB
1172:First and foremost, you do not have to live up to or emulate the lives of any of your predecessors. But at the very least, you should know about them. You will have your own life, interests, and ideas of what you want or do not want in life. Do what you enjoy doing. Be honest with yourself and others. Don't think of satisfying anyone: your elders, peers, government, religion, or children who will come after you. Develop meaningful ideals, and become conscious of others, their existence, and their lives. ~ Yuri Kochiyama, #NFDB
1173:Most of our general feelings – every sort of restraint, pressure, tension, explosion in the play and counter-play of our organs, likewise and especially the condition of the nervus sympathicus – excite our cause-creating drive: we want to have a reason for feeling as we do – for feeling well or for feeling ill. It never suffices us simply to establish the mere fact that we feel as we do: we acknowledge this fact – become conscious of it – only when we have furnished it with a motivation of some kind. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1174:So that, upon the whole, we may conclude, that the Christian Religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: and whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
1175:It must be a good thing to die conscious of having performed some real good, and to know that by this work one will live, at least in the memory of some, and will have left a good example to those that come after. A work that is good-it may not be eternal, but the thought expressed in it is, and the work itself will certainly remain in existence for a long, long time; and if afterwards others arise, they can do no better than follow in the footsteps of such predecessors and do their work in the same way. ~ Vincent Van Gogh, #NFDB
1176:The man of genius is he whose ego has acquired consciousness. He is enabled by it to distinguish the fact that others are different, to perceive the "ego" of other men, even when it is not pronounced enough for them to be conscious of it themselves. But it is only he who feels that every other man is also an ego, a monad, an individual centre of the universe, with specific manner of feeling and thinking and a distinct past, he alone is in a position to avoid making use of his neighbours as means to an end. ~ Otto Weininger, #NFDB
1177:The man of genius is he whose ego has acquired consciousness. He is enabled by it to distinguish the fact that others are different, to perceive the 'ego' of other men, even when it is not pronounced enough for them to be conscious of it themselves. But it is only he who feels that every other man is also an ego, a monad, an individual centre of the universe, with specific manner of feeling and thinking and a distinct past, he alone is in a position to avoid making use of his neighbours as means to an end. ~ Otto Weininger, #NFDB
1178:Clay can be a metaphor for many things. I made it a metaphor for flesh and earth, and these are two kinds of generic givens of life, if you look at it poetically, biblically, the idea of the life of beings, of man, being transitory, the earth abides-ashes to ashes, dust to dust-man returns to earth, grows out of earth like a flower, wilts, goes back to the earth... We are frail, transitory creatures with aspirations of immortality, conscious of our inevitable death, and we have to deal with it somehow. ~ Stephen De Staebler, #NFDB
1179:He thought himself a shining light, and the more he felt this the more he was conscious of a wakening, a dying down of the divine light of truth that shone within him.
'In how far is what I do for God and in how far it is for men?' That was the question that insistently tormented him and to which he was not so much unable to give himself an answer unable to face the answer.
In the depth of his soul he felt that the devil had substituted an activity for men in place of his former activity for God. ~ Leo Tolstoy,#NFDB
1180:Men will see in their king or in their rulers men like themselves perhaps unworthy or open to criticism, but they will not on that account refuse obedience if they see reflected in them the authority of Christ, God and Man. Peace and harmony, too, will result; for with the spread and the universal extension of the kingdom of Christ, men will become more and more conscious of the link that binds them together, and thus many conflicts will either be prevented entirely or at least their bitterness be diminished. ~ Pope Pius XI, #NFDB
1181:Michael was all too conscious of his condition, and when he was in his grimmest moods, he would say, “I am a doomed man,” though there was a hint of the messianic in this too: he was “doomed” as all messiahs are doomed. (When my friend Ren Weschler visited him once and asked how he was, Michael replied, “I am in Little Ease.” Ren looked baffled, and Michael had to explain that Little Ease was a cell in the Tower of London so small that a man could neither stand up nor lie down in it, could never find any ease.) ~ Oliver Sacks, #NFDB
1182:At thirty-three the Whammer still enjoyed exceptional eyesight. He saw the ball spin off Roy's fingertips and it reminded him of a white pigeon he had kept as a boy, that he would send into flight by flipping it into the air. The ball flew at him and he was conscious of its bird-form and white flapping wings, until it suddenly disappeared from view. He heard a noise like the bang of a firecracker at his feet and Sam had the ball in his mitt. Unable to believe his ears he heard Mercy intone a reluctant strike. ~ Bernard Malamud, #NFDB
1183:That is why, while recognizing the effect of politics, law, and ideas on the productive forces, Marx was in no doubt that the development of the productive forces determines everything else. This also makes sense of Marx’s dedication to the cause of the working class. Marx was acting as the tool – a fully conscious tool – of history. The productive forces always finally assert themselves, but they do so through the actions of individual humans who may or may not be conscious of the role they are playing in history. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1184:We must all work in harmony with each other to stand up for what is right, to speak up for what is fair, and to always voice any corrections so that the ignorant become informed and justice is never ignored. Every time a person allows an act of ignorance to happen, they delay our progress for true change. Every person, molecule and thing matters. We become responsible for the actions of others the instant we become conscious of what they are doing wrong and fail to remind them of what is right.”
-- Suzy Kassem ~ Suzy Kassem,#NFDB
1185:It is very difficult for an outsider to grasp how very little value was placed on human life in camp. The camp inmate was hardened, but possibly became more conscious of this complete disregard of human existence when a convoy of sick men was arranged. The emaciated bodies of the sick were thrown on two-wheeled carts which were drawn by prisoners for many miles, often through snowstorms, to the next camp. If one of the sick men had died before the cart left, he was thrown on anyway — the list had to be correct. ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
1186:With a sudden movement she bowed his head and joined her lips to his and he read the meaning of her movements in her frank uplifted eyes. It was too much for him. He closed his eyes, surrendering himself to her, body and mind, conscious of nothing in the world but the dark pressure of her softly parting lips. They pressed upon his brain as upon his lips as though they were the vehicle of a vague speech; and between them he felt an unknown and timid pressure, darker than the swoon of sin, softer than sound or odour. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1187:Mrs. Strickland had the gift of sympathy. It is a charming faculty, but one often abused by those who are conscious of its possession: for there is something ghoulish in the avidity with which they will pounce upon the misfortune of their friends so that they may exercise their dexterity. It gushes forth like an oil-well, and the sympathetic pour out their sympathy with an abandon that is sometimes embarrassing to their victims. There are bosoms on which so many tears have been shed that I cannot bedew them with mine. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1188:How much of a conscious goal do you think that is at the upper levels of organizing with, say, somebody like Rod Parsley? I think they’re completely conscious of it. The level of manipulation is quite sophisticated. These people understand the medium of television, they understand the despair and brokenness of the people they appeal to, and how to manipulate them both for personal and financial gain. I look at these figures, and I would certainly throw James Dobson in there, or Pat Robertson, as really dark figures. ~ Chris Hedges, #NFDB
1189:The Shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapuetic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period of time. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1190:Ideally a painter (and, generally, an artist) should not become conscious of his insights: without taking the detour through his reflective processes, and incomprehensibly to himself, all his progress should enter so swiftly into the work that he is unable to recognize them in the moment of transition. Alas, the artist who waits in ambush there, watching, detaining them, will find them transformed like the beautiful gold in the fairy tale which cannot remain gold because some small detail was not taken care of. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
1191:...One keeps remembering what Lynch says about
Turkish women in his book-'they appear conscious of
some immense and inexpiable sin'."
Father Chantry·Pigg said nothing, but he looked as if
he thought the Turkish women, and indeed all women,
did well to be conscious of this, for they had committed it in Eden, and had been committing it ever since merely by existing. He did not dare, however, to say this to aunt Dot and Halide, who erroneously believed men to be equally sinful, and even (in Turkey) more. ~ Rose Macaulay,#NFDB
1192:To become conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey. It will free vast amounts of consciousness that previously had been trapped in useless and compulsive thinking. A very effective way of doing this is simply to take the focus of your attention away from thinking and direct it into the body, where Being can be felt in the first instance as the invisible energy field that gives life to what you perceive as the physical body. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1193:I saw that the garden had obeyed the jungle law, even as the woods had done. The rhododendrons stood fifty feet high, twisted and entwined with bracken, and they had entered into alien marriage with a host of nameless shrubs, poor, bastard thing that clung about their roots as though conscious of their spurious origin. A lilac had mated with a copper beech, and to bind them yet more closely to one another the malevolent ivy, always an enemy to grace, had thrown her tendrils about the pair and made them prisoners. ~ Daphne du Maurier, #NFDB
1194:You ask me why I don’t love you, but surely you must believe I am very fond of you and if to desire to possess a person wholly, to admire and honour that person deeply, and to seek to secure that person’s happiness in every way is to “love” then perhaps my affection for you is a kind of love. I will tell you this that your soul seems to me to be the most beautiful and simple soul in the world and it may be because I am so conscious of this when I look at you that my love or affection for you loses much of its violence. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1195:It is also the essence of our growth. Through our human endowments of self-awareness and conscience, we become conscious of areas of weakness, areas for improvement, areas of talent that could be developed, areas that need to be changed or eliminated from our lives. Then, as we recognize and use our imagination and independent will to act on that awareness—making promises, setting goals, and being true to them—we build the strength of character, the being, that makes possible every other positive thing in our lives. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
1196:AFFIRMATIONS TO ENHANCE MANIFESTATION • Every day I am becoming more aware of what I prioritize and what I tend to focus on. I prioritize my goals. I focus on all that I have to value. • I am choosing to be more and more conscious of what I have to appreciate in my life. • I am conscious of my resourcefulness, my creativity, and my power to create a great destiny. • I know that my consciousness creates my reality. I always choose an optimistic mind-set. • I consciously choose hope, joy, and peace in my daily life. ~ Sandra Anne Taylor, #NFDB
1197:O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1198:One faith-healer told the present author, "Most people die of adrenaline poisoning." In our terminology, most people have too much first-circuit anxiety and second-circuit territorial pugnacity for their own good. They are literally struggling for survival, as no other animals do, despite Darwin. Most animals simply play most of the time, solve problems of survival when they have to, or die of not solving the problems; only humans are conscious of struggling, and hence worried and depressed about the Game of Life. ~ Robert Anton Wilson, #NFDB
1199:The natural man lives for himself; he is the unit, the whole, dependent only on himself and on his like. The citizen is but the numerator of a fraction, whose value depends on its denominator; his value depends upon the whole, that is, on the community. Good social institutions are those best fitted to make a man unnatural, to exchange his independence for dependence, to merge the unit in the group, so that he no longer regards himself as one, but as a part of the whole, and is only conscious of the common life. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, #NFDB
1200:Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. How simple that is to say; how difficult to appreciate! It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have any light shining upon it. The flashlight, since there is light in whatever direction it turns, would have to conclude that there is light everywhere. And so consciousness can seem to pervade all mentality when actually it does not. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1201:Mr. L. did not get better all at once. He had first to experience cycles of separations, dreams, depressions, and insights—the repetition, or 'working through,' required for long-term neuroplastic change. New ways of relating had to be learned, wiring new neurons together, and old ways of responding had to be unlearned, weakening neuronal links. Because Mr. L. had linked the ideas of separation and death, they were wired together in his neuronal networks. Now that he was conscious of his association, he could unlearn it. ~ Norman Doidge, #NFDB
1202:To the man who is truly ethical all life is sacred, including that which from the human point of view seems lower in the scale. He makes distinctions only as each case comes before him, and under the pressure of necessity, as, for example, when it falls to him to decide which of two lives he must sacrifice in order to preserve the other. But all through this series of decisions he is conscious of acting on subjective grounds and arbitrarily, and knows that he bears the responsibility for the life which is sacrificed. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
1203:One foot after another; he tried to keep his mind clear. But a thought broke his concentration- Sophia. Once he left London, he would never be able to see her again. Nick did not identify his feelings for her as love, because he knew himself to be incapable of that emotion. But he was conscious of a rip in his soul, a sense that to leave her for good would mean the loss of the fragment of decency he still possessed. She was the only person on earth who still cared for him, who would continue to care, no matter what he did. ~ Lisa Kleypas, #NFDB
1204:I could play many types of characters on camera, but all were, in some way, going to be variations of me, and I was conscious of who I was. I wasn’t a prude or a goody two-shoes, but I was, in many ways, still the boy my mother praised for being good, and though older and more complex, I was content with remaining that good boy.
I wanted to be able to talk about my work at the dinner table and hold my head up on Sundays when my wife and I led our children into the Brentwood Presbyterian Church, where I was an elder. ~ Dick Van Dyke,#NFDB
1205:Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. How simple that is to say; how difficult to appreciate! It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have any light shining upon it. The flashlight, since there is light in whatever direction it turns, would have to conclude that there is light everywhere. And so consciousness can seem to pervade all mentality when actually it does not. ~ Julian Jaynes, #NFDB
1206:Every time you meet an acquaintance, whether conscious of it or not, you step upon the scales of his judgment, and he notes whether you weigh more or less than at the last meeting. Everybody you meet puts his measuring line about you and notes your girth. If when they meet you people see that you are looking upward, and that you are a little further on, a little higher up, that you are a little bigger man, stand for a little more than at the last meeting, you will establish yourself in their estimation as a common man. ~ Orison Swett Marden, #NFDB
1207:I consider myself conscious of how women are treated, and sometimes I can be a feminist. Sometimes I'm a little Republican, sometimes I'm a little Democrat. Sometimes I'm angry, sometimes I'm not angry. I'm not a total feminist, but I believe in rights for females. I believe that if we have to pay 100 percent for our college tuition, and then we get into the workplace and we're only given 70 percent of our counterparts' salaries, then we shouldn't have to pay but 70 percent of our college tuition. Maybe that'll stop the bullshit. ~ Pam Grier, #NFDB
1208:I saw the most frightening, most depressing sight I had ever seen - a row of stores with Stars of David and the word 'Jude' painted on them, and inside, behind half-empty counters, people in a daze, cringing like they didn't know what hit them and didn't know where the next blow would come from. Hitler had been in power only six months, and his boycott was already in full effect. I hadn't been so wholly conscious of being a Jew since my bar mitzvahs, and it was the first time since I'd had the measles that I was too sick to eat. ~ Harpo Marx, #NFDB
1209:There is a drowsy state, between sleeping and waking, when you dream more in five minutes with your eyes half open, and yourself half conscious of everything that is passing around you, than you would in five nights with your eyes fast closed, and your senses wrapt in perfect unconsciousness. At such time, a mortal knows just enough of what his mind is doing, to form some glimmering conception of its mighty powers, its bounding from earth and spurning time and space, when freed from the restraint of its corporeal associate. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1210:The Ragamuffin rabble are the unsung assembly of saved sinners who are little in their own sight, conscious of their brokenness and powerlessness before God, and who cast themselves on His mercy. Startled by the extravagant love of God, they do not require success, fame, wealth, or power to validate their worth. Their spirit transcends all distinctions between the powerful and powerless, educated and illiterate, billionaires and bag ladies, high-tech geeks and low-tech nerds, males and females, the circus and the sanctuary. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
1211:Curious had been the word most often ascribed to her
when she was younger. She’d been the watchful sort of child. The one conscious of every mistake. When Mariko had erred, it had usually been intentional. An attempt to push barriers. Or a desire to learn. Usually it was that. A wish to know more. As she grew from a curious child into an even more curious young woman, the word she most often overheard at her back was odd. Much too odd. Far too prone to asking questions.
Far too apt to linger in places she wasn’t meant to be. ~ Ren e Ahdieh,#NFDB
1212:Divine Mother, I want to realise Your Presence in all the parts of my being, penetrating even the body - only I don't know how to do it. You are the very reason of my being; why then do I live now without feeling Your Presence even in the cells of my body?
The physical nature is obscure and recalcitrant everywhere; it is very difficult for it to become conscious of the divine Presence. That is why we must be patient and keep on aspiring with the certitude of Victory. My blessings are always with you.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#NFDB
1213:Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnida. For one thing, the empathic faculty probably required an unimpaired group instinct; a solitary organism, such as a spider, would have no use for it; in fact it would tend to abort a spider’s ability to survive. It would make him conscious of the desire to live on the part of his prey. Hence all predators, even highly developed mammals such as cats, would starve. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
1214:Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnida. For one thing, the emphatic faculty probably required an unimpaired croup instinct; a solitary organism, such as a spider, would have no use for it; in fact it would tend to abort a spider's ability to survive. It would make him conscious of the desire to live on the part of his prey. Hence all predators, even highly developed mammals such as cats, would starve. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
1215:Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnida. For one thing, the emphatic faculty probably required an unimpaired group instinct; a solitary organism, such as a spider, would have no use for it; in fact it would tend to abort a spider's ability to survive. It would make him conscious of the desire to live on the part of his prey. Hence all predators, even highly developed mammals such as cats, would starve. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
1216:It is illness that makes us recognize that we do not live in isolation but are chained to a being from a different realm, worlds apart from us and by whom it is impossible to make ourselves understood: our body. Were we to meet a brigand on the road, we might manage to make him conscious of his own personal interest if not our plight. But to ask pity of our body is like talking to an octopus, for which our words can have no more meaning than the sound of the sea, and with which we should be terrified to find ourselves condemned to live. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
1217:The majority of people are not awake; it is only here and there that we find one even partially awake. Practically all of us, as a result, are living lives that are unworthy almost the name of lives, compared to those we might be living, and that lie within our easy grasp. While it is true that each life is in and of Divine Being, hence always one with it, in order that this great fact bear fruit in individual lives, each one must be conscious of it; he or she must know it in thought, and then live continually in this consciousness. ~ Ralph Waldo Trine, #NFDB
1218:These are very unskillful comparisons to represent so precious a thing, but I am not clever enough to think out any more: the real truth is that joy makes the soul so forgetful of itself, and of everything, that it is conscious of nothing, and able to speak of nothing, save of that which proceeds from its joy... Let us join with this soul, my daughters all. Why should we want to be more sensible than she? What can give us greater pleasure than to do as she does? And may all the creatures join with us for ever and ever. Amen, amen, amen. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1219:Dulles was fortunate to find someone like Mary, a woman whose morals were conveniently flexible—or, as she herself put it, a woman with a “sophisticated point of view.” She had a curious way of explaining her moral dexterity, but Dulles certainly would have endorsed her way of thinking. “In order to engage in intelligence work successfully,” Mary observed, “it was essential to have a very clear-cut idea of your own moral values, so that if you were forced by necessity to break them, you were fully conscious of what you were doing and why. ~ David Talbot, #NFDB
1220:By contrast, the individual with a character disorder lacks the ability to recognize that he has a problem and, if confronted with this possibility, would not consider himself responsible in the matter. Essentially, the only difficulties or pain the NPD person will be conscious of are those negative consequences that his behaviors bring about, especially in his relationships. Regardless of his culpability, the NPD person will blame everyone else or the circumstances of his life rather than acknowledge that he has a significant problem. ~ Eleanor D Payson, #NFDB
1221:I wanted, as all men do, to belong.
To what? To an America alive, an America that was no longer a despised cultural foster child of Europe, with unpleasant questions always being asked about its parentage, to an America that had begun to be conscious of itself as a living home-making folk, to an America that had at last given up the notion that anything worth while could ever be got by being in a hurry, by being dollar rich, by being merely big and able to lick some smaller nation with one hand tied behind its broad national back. ~ Sherwood Anderson,#NFDB
1222:why do you style yourself "your worth-
less and insignificant brother"? You recognize
your insignificance? . . . Recognize it before
God; perhaps, too, in the presence of beauty, intel-
ligence, nature, but not before men. Among men
you must be conscious of your dignity. Why, you
are not a rascal, you are an honest man, aren't you?
Well, respect yourself as an honest man and know
that an honest man is not something worthless.
Don't confound "being humble" with "recognizing
one's worthlessness." . . . ~ Anton Chekhov,#NFDB
1223:Sometimes you simply need to say thank you to someone, to be grateful for the road behind and the road ahead and the place you’re at, and gods are very good at accepting those feelings. And for all that humanity asks them for intercession with this crisis or that, it’s important when things go well to be thankful or at least conscious of your good fortune, whether the gods deserve the gratitude or not. We strive so much to achieve these small slivers of balance that it would be a shame not to look around and appreciate them when they happen. ~ Kevin Hearne, #NFDB
1224:Will you feel pain? Do the tissues feel their disintegration? In other words, what will happen to your consciousness? But what is consciousness? Let's see. A conscious attempt to fall asleep is sure to produce insomnia, to try to be conscious of one's own digestion is a sure way to upset the stomach. Consciousness is a poison when we apply it to ourselves. Consciousness is a light directed outward, it lights up the way ahead of us so that we don't stumble. It's like the headlights on a locomotive - turn them inward and you'd have a crash. ~ Boris Pasternak, #NFDB
1225:Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental l i fe than we are conscious o f, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. H ow simple that is to say; how difficult to appreciate! It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have any l ight shining upon it. T he flashlight, since there is l i g ht in whate v er direction it turns, wo u ld have to conclude that there is l ight e v e r ywhe r e. A nd so consciousness can seem to pervade all mentality when actually it does not. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1226:Suddenly, as one, all the Greys stop talking and gape at Christian.
What?
Christian is singing softly to himself at the piano. Silence descends on us all as we strain to hear his soft, lyrical voice. I've heard him sing before, haven't they? He stops, suddenly conscious of the deathly hush that's fallen over the room. Kate glances questioningly at me and I shrug. Christian turns on the stool and frowns, embarrassed to realize he's become the center of attention.
'Go on,' Grace urges softly. 'I've never heard you sing, Christian. Ever. ~ E L James,#NFDB
1227:Pharisees invest heavily in extrinsic religious gestures, rituals, methods, and techniques, breeding allegedly holy people who are judgmental, mechanical, lifeless, and as intolerant of others as they are of themselves—violent people, the very opposite of holiness and love, “the type of ‘spiritual’ people who, conscious of their spirituality, then proceed to crucify the Messiah.”[2] Jesus did not die at the hands of muggers, rapists, or thugs. He fell into the well-scrubbed hands of deeply religious people, society’s most respected members. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
1228:Generally there is in man a divinity which strives to push him onward and upward. We believe that this power within him is the spirit that comes from God. Man lived before he came to this earth, and he is here now to strive to perfect the spirit within. At sometime in his life, every man is conscious of a desire to come in touch with the Infinite. His spirit reaches out for God. This sense of feeling is universal, and all men ought to be, in deepest truth, engaged in the same great work—the search for and the development of spiritual peace and freedom. ~ David, #NFDB
1229:One of my favorite pieces of advice about being a writer came from a very formative teacher I had as an undergraduate, named John Hersey. On our last day of class together, which was also John Hersey last day before retirement, he said, "Remember, the world doesn't need any new writers." Which at first didn't seem like great advice, but when you unpacked it, it was really that it's not enough to be confident in what you do; be conscious of bringing something to the world of readers and writers that it hasn't seen before. Something idiosyncratic. ~ Jonathan Dee, #NFDB
1230:No civilisation, not even that of ancient Greece, has ever undergone such a continuous and profound process of change as Western Europe has done during the last 900 years. It is impossible to explain this fact in purely economic terms by a materialistic interpretation of history. The principle of change has been a spiritual one and the progress of Western civilisation is intimately related to the dynamic ethos of Western Christianity, which has gradually made Western man conscious of his moral responsibility and his duty to change the world. ~ Christopher Dawson, #NFDB
1231:God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part. God alone exists truly. Man manifests Him in time, space and matter. The more God's manifestation in man (life) unites with the manifestations (lives) of other beings, the more man exists. This union with the lives of other beings is accomplished through love. God is not love, but the more there is of love, the more man manifests God, and the more he truly exists... We acknowledge God only when we are conscious of His manifestation in us. ~ Leo Tolstoy in his diary (1 November 1910), #NFDB
1232:Mrs. Turner was a milky sort of a woman that belonged to child-bed. Her shoulders rounded a little, and she must have been conscious of her pelvis because she kept it stuck out in front of her so she could always see it. Tea Cake made a lot of fun about Mrs. Turners shape behind her back. He claimed that she had been shaped up by a cow kicking her from behind. She was an ironing board with things throwed at it. Then that same cow took and stepped in her mouth when she was a baby and left it wide and flat with her chin and nose almost meeting. ~ Zora Neale Hurston, #NFDB
1233:She was tortured with desire to see him again, a nostalgia, a necessity to see him again, to make sure it was not all a mistake, that she was not deluding herself, that she really felt this strange and overwhelming sensation on his account, this knowledge of him in her essence, this powerful apprehension of him. ‘Am I really singled out for him in some way, is there really some pale gold, arctic light that envelopes only us two?’ she asked herself. And she could not believe it, she remained in a muse, scarcely conscious of what was going on around. ~ D H Lawrence, #NFDB
1234:Each individual composes the music of his own life. If he injures another, he brings disharmony. When his sphere is disturbed, he is disturbed himself, and there is a discord in the melody of his life. If he can quicken the feeling of another to joy or to gratitude, by that much he adds to his own life; he becomes himself by that much more alive. Whether conscious of it or not, his thought is affected for the better by the joy or gratitude of another, and his power and vitality increase thereby, and the music of his life grows more in harmony. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
1235:Voss could always, if necessary, fail to understand. But wounds will wince, especially in the salt air. He was smiling and screwing up his eyes at the great theatre of light and water. Some pitied him. Some despised him for his funny appearance of a foreigner. None, he realized with a tremor of anger, was conscious of his strength. Mediocre, animal men never do guess at the power of rock or fire, until the last moment before those elements reduce them to - nothing. This, the palest, the most transparent of words, yet comes closest to being complete. ~ Patrick White, #NFDB
1236:Compared with the person who is conscious of his despair, the despairing individual who is ignorant of his despair is simply a negativity further away from the truth and deliverance. . . . Yet ignorance is so far from breaking the despair or changing despair to nondespairing that it can in fact be the most dangerous form of despair. . . . An individual is furthest from being conscious of himself as spirit when he is ignorant of being in despair. But precisely this-not to be conscious of oneself as spirit-is despair, which is spiritlessness. . . . ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
1237:The existence in man of a dynamic internal world, whose essential nature cannot be probed by any instrument, and can be known only when it finds expressions in gestures and symbols and constructive activities, is a mystery as profound as the forces that bind together the components of the atom and account for the character and behavior of the elements. In man that mystery can be experienced, but not described, still less explained: for the mind cannot mirror itself from within. Only by getting outside itself does it become conscious of its inwardness. ~ Lewis Mumford, #NFDB
1238:History shows that great economic and social forces flow like a tide over communities only half conscious of that which is befalling them. Wise statesmen foresee what time is thus bringing, and try to shape institutions and mold men's thoughts and purposes in accordance with the change that is silently coming on. The unwise are those who bring nothing constructive to the process, and who greatly imperil the future of mankind by leaving great questions to be fought out between ignorant change on one hand and ignorant opposition to change on the other. ~ John Stuart Mill, #NFDB
1239:Naive optimism and pervasive pessimism are both to be avoided, therefore. It's not an easy balance to maintain, to be asked to work away in the Ninevehs of our lives without being so conscious of the coming cataclysm that we are not serious citizens of our communities and nations. By living and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are doing the most relevant thing we can do by way of helping. (There are civic and other chores to be done, of course.) Day in and day out, the gospel is the one thing that is most relevant, and we are to be of good cheer. ~ Neal A Maxwell, #NFDB
1240:We have in fact only two certainties in this world—that we are not everything and that we will die. To be conscious of not being everything, as one is of being mortal, is nothing. But if we are without a narcotic, an unbreathable void reveals itself. I wanted to be everything, so that falling into this void, I might summon my courage and say to myself: “I am ashamed of having wanted to be everything, for I see now that it was to sleep.” From that moment begins a singular experience. The mind moves in a strange world where anguish and ecstasy coexist. ~ Georges Bataille, #NFDB
1241:Finally, after a glance at Notre Dame and a brisk trot through the Louvre, we sat down at a cafe on the Place de l'Opera and watched the people. They were amazing -- never had we seen such costumes, such make-up, such wigs; and, strangest of all, the wearers didn't seem in the least conscious of how funny they looked. Many of them even stared at us and smiled, as though we had been the oddities, and not they. Mr. Holmes no doubt found it amusing to see the pageant of prostitution, poverty and fashion reflected in our callow faces and wide-open eyes. ~ Christopher Isherwood, #NFDB
1242:I only know myself as a human entity; the scene, so to speak, of thoughts and affections; and I'm sensible of a certain doubleness by which I can stand as remote from myself as another. However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it; and that is no more I than it is you. When the play, it may be the tragedy, of life is over, the spectator goes his way. It was a kind of fiction, a work of the imagination only.. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1243:Having crossed the river, where will you go, O friend ? There's no road to tread, No traveler ahead, Neither a beginning, nor an end. There's no water, no boat, no boatman, no cord; No earth is there, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford. You have forgotten the Self within, Your search in the void will be in vain; In a moment the life will ebb And in this body you won't remain. Be ever conscious of this, O friend, You have to immerse within your Self; Kabir says, salvation you won't then need, For what you are, you would be indeed.
~ Kabir, Having crossed the river
,#NFDB
1244:Once the pain-body has taken you over, you want more pain. You become a victim or a perpetrator. You want to inflict pain, or you want to suffer pain, or both. There isn't really much difference between the two. You are not conscious of this, of course, and will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others. If you were truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1245:The light catches his wild, wild hair and holds it. And wham! Suddenly. Just like that. I'm completely conscious of his guyness next to me. His long legs. The way he walks, fluid, easy, like he's made to walk through water But at the same time with purpose, which makes him seem taller than he is. There aren't a lot of guys my age who walk like this. With swagger. It's as if I've suddenly discovered he's male. My face is hot and my back is damp and I'm thinking about Pauline Potter, sexing off all that weight, and I'm staring at his hands... ~ Jennifer Niven, #NFDB
1246:O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1247:Being a dancer I've got the idea that through discipline and hard work, you can develop the ability to be in a different dimension within seconds. You can be vomiting, you can detest who you are, detest the world, detest every single thing, and the next moment you are in the light and you glow. You forget everything, and you are just flying. When you're onstage, you are someone else. Beyoncé is very conscious of this. She said to me, "I'm another person when I'm onstage." And I said, "Oh yes, you are! You are an animal when you are onstage. You are a stage animal." ~ Thierry Mugler, #NFDB
1248:O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
1249:In the old days, people used to risk their lives in India or in the Americas in order to bring back products which now seem to us to have been of comically little worth, such as brazilwood and pepper, which added a new range of sense experience to a civilization which had never suspected its own insipidity... From these same lands our modern Marco Polos now bring back the moral spices of which our society feels an increasing need as it is conscious of sinking further into boredom, but that this time they take the form of photographs, books, and travelers tales. ~ Claude Levi Strauss, #NFDB
1250:Over and above the various prejudices I acknowledge, the affinities I feel, the attractions I succumb to, the events which occur to me and to me alone- over and above a sum of movements I am conscious of making, of emotions I alone experience- I strive, in relation to other men, to discover the nature, if not the necessity, of my difference from them. Is it not precisely to the degree I become conscious of this difference that I shall recognize what I alone have been put on this earth to do, what unique message I alone may bear, so that I alone can answer for its fate? ~ Andr Breton, #NFDB
1251:If man is to come up to his full measure, he must become conscious of his infinite capacity for carrying himself sill further; he must realize the duties it involves, and he must feel its intoxicating wonder. He must abandon all the illusions of narrow individualism and extend himself, intellectually and emotionally, to the dimensions of the universe: and this even though, his mind reeling at the prospect of his new greatness, he should think that he is already in possession of the divine, is God himself, or is himself the artisan of Godhead. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Cosmic Life, #NFDB
1252:Over and above the various prejudices I acknowledge, the affinities I feel, the attractions I succumb to, the events which occur to me and to me alone- over and above a sum of movements I am conscious of making, of emotions I alone experience- I strive, in relation to other men, to discover the nature, if not the necessity, of my difference from them. Is it not precisely to the degree I become conscious of this difference that I shall recognize what I alone have been put on this earth to do, what unique message I alone may bear, so that I alone can answer for its fate? ~ Andre Breton, #NFDB
1253:I AM wealthy, poor, healthy, sick, free, confined were first of all impressions or conditions felt before they became visible expressions. Your world is your consciousness objectified. Waste no time trying to change the outside; change the within or the impression; and the without or expression will take care of itself. When the truth of this statement dawns upon you, you will know that you have found the lost word or the key to every door. I AM (your consciousness) is the magical lost word which was made flesh in the likeness of that which you are conscious of being. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
1254:Man ordinarily is a robot. He lives apparently awake, but not really. He walks, he talks, he acts, but it is all as if in sleep - not conscious of what he is doing, not conscious of what he is saying, not conscious of all that surrounds him. He moves surrounded in a dark cloud of unawareness. According to Gautama the Buddha, this is the original sin: to live unconsciously, to act out of unconsciousness. In fact, the word 'sin' comes from a root which means forgetfulness. Sin simply means that we are not conscious, aware, alert, that we don't have any inner light to guide us. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1255:No organism can afford to be conscious of matters with which it could deal at unconscious levels. Broadly, we can afford to sink those sorts of knowledge which continue to be true regardless of changes in the environment, but we must maintain in an accessible place all those controls of behavior which must be modified for every instance. The economics of the system, in fact, pushes organisms toward sinking into the unconscious those generalities of relationship which remain permanently true and toward keeping within the conscious the pragmatic of particular instances. ~ Gregory Bateson, #NFDB
1256:All of us, even those not endowed with a hopeful disposition, have thought, even dreamed, of life after death. It is the reward we project onto the unknown and distant future, promising consolation for this string of catastrophes we know as life. It is a game of cards played with the very best hand, one we're always destined to win, a wild desire that no man is ready to relinquish: the dream of living another life, provided of course there remains a narrow recollection of the past to make him conscious of the change and pleased to have left the other world behind. ~ Ahmet Hamdi Tanp nar, #NFDB
1257:Like all Americans, or like all Americans who are conscious of being American, Parker and Zema's father always believed he was his country. But lately he's come to realize that if he and his family didn't emerge unscathed from their American crisis, American faith in the early part of the twenty-first century didn't emerge at all. By the conclusion of the new century's first score of years, only those who have a stake in an American idea defined by wealth and power can still speak of that idea so shamelessly, since wealth and power is the only American idea left. ~ Steve Erickson, #NFDB
1258:In the older times it was seldom said to little girls, as it always has been said to boys, that they ought to have some definite plan, while they were children, what to be and do when they were grown up. There was usually but one path open before them, to become good wives and housekeepers. And the ambition of most girls was to follow their mothers' footsteps in this direction; a natural and laudable ambition. But girls, as well as boys, must often have been conscious of their own peculiar capabilities,--must have desired to cultivate and make use of their individual powers. ~ Lucy Larcom, #NFDB
1259:Nothing passes the time, or shortens the path, like a thought which engrosses all the faculties of an individual's organisation. Our external Existence is as a sleep, of which this thought is the dream; and. whilst we are subjected to its influence, time has no longer any measure, nor is there any distance in space: we leave one place, and arrive at another, and are conscious of nothing between. Of the intervening scenes, the only remembrance preserved, is somewhat akin to the idea of an indefinite mist, partially broken by obscure images of mountains, trees, and plains. ~ Alexandre Dumas, #NFDB
1260:We are a people of many races, many faiths, creeds, and religions. I do not think that the men who made the Constitution forbade the establishment of a State church because they were opposed to religion. They knew that the introduction of religious differences into American life would undermine the democratic foundations of this country. What holds for adults holds even more for children, sensitive and conscious of differences. I certainly hope that the Board of Education will think very, very seriously before it introduces this division and antagonism in our public schools. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
1261:You are Comanche now, yes?” he said hopefully. “One with us.”
Indefinable emotions played across her face. “I’m married to a Comanche. I love him. But I’ll never be a Comanche.”
Hunter studied her features, once so repulsive to him, now so cherished. He ran a finger up the fragile bridge of her nose, then traced the line of her brow, acutely conscious of the small bones that shaped her face. Protectiveness welled within him.
“You are one with me, one with my people. You cannot stand with one foot on Comanche land and the other on tosi tivo land. ~ Catherine Anderson,#NFDB
1262:An effective leader is willing to think about what's happening and how to understand what's going on. Facilitating flow and making others more conscious of it, the leader communicates an awareness of process to the group, making them more aware of their energies and options. One important principle is to keep track of who has not spoken. ... It's also important to notice when people do speak out but are not heard. Effective leaders practice patience, reminding themselves to wait and observe, remembering that there's always more going on in a group than we're consciously aware of. ~ Diane Dreher, #NFDB
1263:I knew what was wrong with me, but I could not correct it. The words and actions of
white people were baffling signs to me. I was living in a culture and not a civilization and I
could learn how that culture worked only by living with it. Misreading the reactions of whites
around me made me say and do the wrong things. In my dealing with whites I was conscious of the entirety of my relations with them, and they were conscious
only of what was happening at a given moment. I had to keep remembering what others took
for granted; I had to think out what others felt. ~ Richard Wright,#NFDB
1264:When I learn the meaning of a word, I know the word; but when I say to myself, 'I know the word,' there comes a reflection of the word back from the mirror of my mind, making a second impression, and after that I am at least not so likely to forget it...“When, then, I think about the impression that the word makes upon me, how it is affecting me with the knowledge of itself, then I am what I should call self-conscious of the word—conscious not only that I know the word, but that I know the phenomena of knowing the word—conscious of what I am as regards my knowing of the word. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
1265:For a moment, Isabel's eyes met those of someone looking out of the window, a thin-faced woman with her hair done up in a bun. The woman began a smile, but stopped, as if conscious of somehow transgressing the conventions of isolation with which as city-dwellers we immure ourselves. The bus moved on, and zisabel felt a sudden desire to run alongside it, to wave to the woman, to aknowledge the unexpected exchange of fellow feeling between them. But she did mot, necause she never acted on these impulses, and because it might have puzzled or even frightened the other woman. ~ Alexander McCall Smith, #NFDB
1266:I addressed a remark to him which he acknowledged simply by closing and opening his eyes, making me feel that, the next time I spoke, I ought to make an attempt to find something a trifle less banal to say: though his smile at the same time absolved me from the slightest blame in falling so patently short of his accustomed standards. I was not conscious of being at all offended by this demeanour: on the contrary, Truscott’s comportment seemed a kind of spur to encourage all who came to win his esteem; although—and perhaps because—he was obviously prepared to offer nothing in return. ~ Anthony Powell, #NFDB
1267:It is passing strange that our philosophers of the Revolutionary period should have formed their conception of a free society by reference to societies where everyone was not free - where, in fact, the vast majority were not free. It is no less strange that they never stopped to ask whether perhaps the characters which they so much admired were not made possible by the existence of a class which was not free. Rousseau, in whose philosophy were many things, was fully conscious of this difficulty: "Must we say that liberty is possible only on a basis of slavery? Perhaps we must. ~ Bertrand De Jouvenel, #NFDB
1268:You may be receiving Divine Love, but not be conscious of it because of the strong emotions that are being released at the same time. If we are clearing things emotionally, we may find that we do not feel the more overt feelings of Divine Love until after the emotions have cleared. As we clear more, more Divine Love can come to us. If Divine Love is not coming to us when we ask, we have to look deeply at our own selves, inquire within, to see where we are blocking it, and what emotions we are most scared of, for it is these emotions that we have to feel in order to allow God in. ~ Padma Aon Prakasha, #NFDB
1269:A man may be a tough, concentrated, successful moneymaker and never contribute to his country anything more than a horrible example. A manager may be tough and practical, squeezing out, while the going is good, the last ounce of profit and dividend, and may leave behind him an exhausted industry and a legacy of industrial hatred. A tough manager may never look outside his own factory walls or be conscious of his partnership in a wider world. I often wonder what strange cud such men sit chewing when their working days are over, and the accumulating riches of the mind have eluded them. ~ Robert Menzies, #NFDB
1270:At the centre of all these noble races we cannot fail to see the blond beast of prey, the magnificent blond beast avidly prowling round for spoil and victory; this hidden centre needs release from time to time, the beast must out again, must return to the wild: - Roman, Arabian, Germanic, Japanese nobility, Homeric heroes, Scandinavian Vikings - in this requirement they are all alike. It was the noble races which left the concept of 'barbarian' in their traces wherever they went; even their highest culture betrays the fact that they were conscious of this and indeed proud of it. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1271:I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare. Since I had always been especially sorry for people who suffered from fearful dreams or deliria, I wanted to wake the poor man. Suddenly I drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, frightened at the thing I was about to do. At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him. ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
1272:O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus' Name, Amen. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1273:O God, I have tasted thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the triune God, I want to want thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me thy glory, I pray thee, that so I may know thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name, Amen. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1274:The communications revolution has given millions of people both a wider and more detailed understanding of the world. Because of technology, ordinary citizens enjoy access to information that formerly was available only to elites and nation-states. One consequence of this change is that citizens have become acutely conscious of environmental destruction, entrenched poverty, health catastrophes, human rights abuses, failing education systems, and escalating violence. Another consequence is that people possess powerful communication tools to coordinate efforts to attack those problems. ~ David Bornstein, #NFDB
1275:Today, we are at a turning point in our history. We can no longer continue to accept tradition for tradition's sake. We can no longer go on playing the same old war games without eventually becoming conscious of the dimensions of the destruction involved. We must realize that child murder was also part of our "traditions" and that our blindness in respect of this tradition is itself a consequence of this practice. We have no other choice but to become fully conscious of the darker aspects of our own cultural heritage. Only then will we cease to pass them blindly on to future generations. ~ Alice Miller, #NFDB
1276:We know we are alive and know we will die. We also know we will suffer during our lives before suffering—slowly or quickly—as we draw near to death. This is the knowledge we “enjoy” as the most intelligent organisms to gush from the womb of nature. And being so, we feel shortchanged if there is nothing else for us than to survive, reproduce, and die. We want there to be more to it than that, or to think there is. This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are—hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones. ~ Thomas Ligotti, #NFDB
1277:DOES,” that expresses its facets nicely. D is for depth of processing. Our fundamental characteristic is that we observe and reflect before we act. We process everything more, whether we are conscious of it or not. O is for being easily overstimulated, because if you are going to pay more attention to everything, you are bound to tire sooner. E is for giving emphasis to our emotional reactions and having strong empathy which among other things helps us notice and learn. S is for being sensitive to all the subtleties around us. I will say more about these when I discuss the research. Third, ~ Elaine N Aron, #NFDB
1278:Further conceive, I beg, that a stone, while continuing in motion, should be capable of thinking and knowing, that it is endeavoring, as far as it can, to continue to move. Such a stone, being conscious merely of its own endeavor and not at all indifferent, would believe itself to be completely free, and would think that it continued in motion solely because of its own wish. This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
1279:In fact i only contemplated one thing - a happy marriage. About that i had complete self-assurance - as all my friends did. We were conscious of all the happiness that awaited us. We looked forward to love, to being looked after, cherished and admired, and we intended to get our own way in the thiggs which mattered to us while at the same time putting our husband's life, career and success before all, as was our proud duty. we didn't need pep pills or sedatives; we had belief and joy in life. We had our own personal disappointments - moments of unhappiness - but on the whole life was fun. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
1280:The Church is likewise conscious of the responsibility which all of us have for our world, for the whole of creation, which we must love and protect. There is much that we can do to benefit the poor, the needy and those who suffer, and to favour justice, promote reconciliation and build peace. But before all else we need to keep alive in our world the thirst for the absolute, and to counter the dominance of a one-dimensional vision of the human person, a vision which reduces human beings to what they produce and to what they consume: this is one of the most insidious temptations of our time. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1281:As for the description, it might, like most other tabulated descriptions, have fitted tens of thousands of men. With most persons, recognition, even of an intimate, was based on the perception of vague, half-observed quantities which together formed a caricature significant more in its relation to the observer than to the observed. A short man, conscious of his lack of height, would describe a man of medium height as tall. For the ordinary business of hating and loving and getting from the cradle to the deathbed with the least possible discomfort, such caricatures were, no doubt, satisfactory. ~ Eric Ambler, #NFDB
1282:Yet Irina had once tucked away, she wasn't sure when or why, that happiness is almost definitionally a condition of which you are not aware at the time. To inhabit your own contentment is to be wholly present, with no orbiting satellite to take clinical readings of the state of the planet. Conventionally, you grow conscious of happiness at the very point that it begins to elude you. When not misused to talk yourself into something - when not a lie - the h-word is a classification applied in retrospect. It is a bracketing assessment, a label only decisively pasted onto an era once it is over. ~ Lionel Shriver, #NFDB
1283:The Minister’s Burden From the beginning of his ministry to the very end Paul was acutely conscious of the burden that Christ had put upon him as an apostle of God’s gospel. He knew that his duty was to communicate the full counsel of God. That burden has been shared by every earnest minister of the gospel ever since. The pulpit is not a place for the minister to orate or opine on his personal preferences or insights. The pulpit is where the Word of God is to be pro-claimed, and the burden of everyone who stands in it is to make sure that the whole counsel of God is to be given to the people of God. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
1284:Man’s conscious state is an awareness of body and breath. His subconscious state, active in sleep, is associated with his mental, and temporary, separation from body and breath. His superconscious state is a freedom from the delusion that “existence” depends on body and breath.19 God lives without breath; the soul made in His image becomes conscious of itself, for the first time, only during the breathless state. When the breath-link between soul and body is severed by evolutionary karma, the abrupt transition called “death” ensues; the physical cells revert to their natural powerlessness. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1285:If we could only get rid of consciousness. What makes mankind tragic is not that they are the victims of nature, it is that they are conscious of it. To be part of the animal kingdom under the conditions of this earth is very well--but as soon as you know of your slavery, the pain, the anger, the strife--the tragedy begins. We can't return to nature, since we can't change our place in it. Our refuge is in stupidity [...] There is no morality, no knowledge, and no hope; there is only the consciousness of ourselves which drives us about a world that [...] is always but a vain and floating appearance. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
1286:This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how. ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
1287:Heaven is filled with absolute, perfect, confidence in God. This world is filled with absolute mistrust. And you and I will always reflect the nature of the world we are most aware of. What you live conscious of is what you will reproduce in the world around you. I try to live in such a way that nothing ever gets bigger in my awareness than my conscious awareness of the presence of God upon me. I don’t care what the problem is; if it’s an international crisis or a personal issue, the moment that problem gets bigger than my awareness of the presence of God on me, then I will live in reaction to a problem. ~ Bill Johnson, #NFDB
1288:The new-born child does not realise that his body is more a part of himself than surrounding objects, and will play with his toes without any feeling that they belong to him more than the rattle by his side; and it is only by degrees, through pain, that he understands the fact of the body. And experiences of the same kind are necessary for the individual to become conscious of himself; but here there is the difference that, although everyone becomes equally conscious of his body as a separate and complete organism, everyone does not become equally conscious of himself as a complete and separate personality. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1289:We are born sensitive and from our birth onwards we are affected in various ways by our environment. As soon as we become conscious of our sensations we tend to seek or shun the things that cause them, at first because they are pleasant or unpleasant, then because they suit us or not, and at last because of judgments formed by means of the ideas of happiness and goodness which reason gives us. These tendencies gain strength and permanence with the growth of reason, but hindered by our habits they are more or less warped by our prejudices. Before this change they are what I call Nature within us. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, #NFDB
1290:If, through technology, evolution is making a fresh bound, at the same time it is becoming reflective. Huxley has said that man is evolution become conscious of itself. Evolution has now to make its own choice. So long as true freedom did not exist life seemed to grope its way forward; now that man has become conscious, reflective, and responsible for dispositions on which the rest of the process is based, a direction must be found: life can no longer proceed at random—technology brings with it the inescapable necessity of an ideology. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Place of Technology in a General Biology of Mankind, #NFDB
1291:Be that as it may, Leibnitz was never able to explain the principles of his calculus clearly, and this shows that there was something in it that was beyond him, something that was as it were imposed upon him without his being conscious of it; had he taken this into account, he most certainly would not have engaged in any dispute over ‘priority’ with Newton. Besides, these sorts of disputes are always completely vain, for ideas, insofar as they are true, are not the property of anyone, despite what modern ‘individualism’ might have to say; it is only error that can properly be attributed to human individuals. ~ Ren Gu non, #NFDB
1292:Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it's often one of the great motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone. ~ Fredrik Backman, #NFDB
1293:This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realised, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility which a man bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how". ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
1294:When I was young” … “Before I was twenty, I mean, I used to think that life was a thing that kept gaining impetus, it would get richer and deeper each year. You kept learning more, getting wiser, having more insight, going further into the truth” – she hesitated.
Port laughed abruptly. – “And now you know it’s not like that. Right? It’s more like smoking a cigarette. The first few puffs it tasted wonderful, and you don’t even think of its ever being used up. Then you begin taking it for granted. Suddenly you realize it’s nearly burned down to the end. And then’s when you’re conscious of the bitter taste. ~ Paul Bowles,#NFDB
1295:What a revelation it was, to discover so many ordinary people in a place together, more conscious of God than of one another: not there to show off their hats or their clothes, but to pray, or at least to fulfill a religious obligation, not a human one. For even those who might have been there for no better motive than that they were obliged to be, were at least free from any of the self-conscious and human constraint which is never absent from a Protestant church where people are definitely gathered together as people, as neighbors, and always have at least half an eye for one another, if not all of both eyes. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1296:Among other reasons which will readily suggest themselves, one alone will suffice. Every Christian knows, experimentally, that the Bible is the Word of God. When a sinner becomes seriously concerned about his character, state, and prospects, if he reads the Bible, he finds at first that it is all against him. By the holy law of God he is convicted and condemned; and he is conscious of a power and dignity in the Word of condemnation that makes him feel that it is the Word of God. There is a power in the Word that proves it Divine; and he who has once experienced its influence will never doubt its truth. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1297:Having crossed the river,
where will you go, O friend?
There's no road to tread,
No traveler ahead,
Neither a beginning, nor an end.
There's no water, no boat, no boatman, no cord;
No earth is there, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford.
You have forgotten the Self within,
Your search in the void will be in vain;
In a moment the life will ebb
And in this body you won't remain.
Be ever conscious of this, O friend,
You've to immerse within your Self;
Kabir says, salvation you won't then need,
For what you are, you would be indeed.
~ Kabir, Having Crossed The River
,#NFDB
1298:Ironically, we may discover that death meditation is not a morbid exercise at all. Only when we lose the use of something taken for granted (whether the telephone or an eye) are we jolted into a recognition of its value. When the phone is fixed, the bandage removed from the eye, we briefly rejoice in their restoration but swiftly forget them again. In taking them for granted, we cease to be conscious of them. In taking life for granted, we likewise fail to notice it. (To the extent that we get bored and long for something exciting to happen.) By meditat- ing on death, we paradoxically become conscious of life. ~ Stephen Batchelor, #NFDB
1299:Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies. Leave men free, and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically, as in England and America in the nineteenth century under laissez-faire. To check the growth of inequality, liberty must be sacrificed, as in Russia after 1917. Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom; and in the end superior ability has its way. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
1300:I am, in large measure, the selfsame prose I write. I unroll myself in sentences and paragraphs, I punctuate myself. In my arranging and rearranging of images I’m like a child using newspaper to dress up as a king, and in the way I create rhythm with a series of words I’m like a lunatic adorning my hair with dried flowers that are still alive in his dreams. And above all I’m calm, like a rag doll that has become conscious of itself and occasionally shakes its head to make the tiny bell on top of its pointed cap (a component part of the same head) produce a sound, the jingling life of a dead man, a feeble notice to Fate. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1301:Generous tears filled Gabriel’s eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman, but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1302:This then contributes to the formation of an experience in which these static and fragmented features are often so intense that the more transitory and subtle features of the unbroken flow (e.g., the ‘transformations’ of musical notes) generally tend to pale into such seeming insignificance that one is, at best, only dimly conscious of them. Thus, an illusion may arise in which the manifest static and fragmented content of consciousness is experienced as the very basis of reality and from this illusion one may apparently obtain a proof of the correctness of that mode of thought in which this content is taken to be fundamental.19 ~ David Bohm, #NFDB
1303:Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman, but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1304:Out of the woman's great brown breast the milk gushed forth for the child, milk as white as snow, and when the child suckled at the one breast it flowed like a fountain from the other, ans she let it flow. There was more than enough for the child, greedy though he was, life enough for many children, and she let it flow out carelessly, conscious of her abundance. There was always more. Sometimes she lifted her breast and let it flow out upon the ground to save her clothing, and it sank into the earth and made a soft, dark, rich spot in the field. The child fat and good-natured and ate of the inexhaustible life his mother gave him. ~ Pearl S Buck, #NFDB
1305:Pray thus to God:
"`My Infinite Beloved, I know that Thou art nearer than these words with which I pray; nearer even than my nearest
thoughts.
"`Behind my every restless feeling, may I feel Thy concern for me, and Thy love.
"`Behind my awareness, may I feel sustained and guided by Thy consciousness.
"`Behind my love for Thee, may I become ever more deeply conscious of Thy love.'
"If you continuously pray to Him in this way, and if you pray with all sincerity, you will feel His presence suddenly as a great joy in your heart. In that bursting joy you will know that He is with you, and that He is your very own. ~ Swami Kriyananda,#NFDB
1306:What is our life on earth, if not discovering, becoming conscious of, penetrating, contemplating, accepting, loving this mystery of Gods, the unique reality which surrounds us, and in which we are immersed like meteorites in space? “In God we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). There aren't many mysteries, but there is one upon which everything depends, and it is so immense that it fills the whole space. Human discoveries do not help us to penetrate this mystery. Future millennia will illuminate no further what Isaiah said and what God himself declared to Moses before the burning bush, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). ~ Carlo Carretto, #NFDB
1307:I think it was a sense of being completely swallowed up by nature that gave the prairie its powerful attraction.There is nothing like it in all of Europe. Even high up on a Swiss glacier one is still conscious of the toy villages below, the carefully groomed landscape of multicolored fields,the faraway ringing of a church bell. It is all very beautiful, but it does not convey the utmost escape. I believe, with the Indians, that a landscape influences and forms the people living on it and that one cannot understand them and make friends with them without also understanding, and making friends with, the earth from which they came. ~ Richard Erdoes, #NFDB
1308:It is an unfortunate fact that the bulk of humanity is too limited in its mental vision to weigh with patience and intelligence those isolated phenomena, seen and felt only by a psychologically sensitive few, which lie outside its common experience. Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal; that all things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them; but the prosaic materialism of the majority condemns as madness the flashes of supersight which penetrate the common veil of obvious empricism. ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
1309:position. Take away this attribute and in the unposited point we have a symbol of pure Being, the abstract noumenon, that which underlies every mode of phenomenal manifestation, every form of existence. It is at once All and Nothing, at once Absolute Consciousness and Unconsciousness. All—since it contains the potentiality of everything, past, present, and to come. Nothing—since having no form, no limit, it is non- existent, quoad nos. It is Consciousness itself, and yet it is unconscious according to our conception of consciousness, for there is nothing beside itself for it to be conscious of—no differentiation of subject and object. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1310:And you realize that you've finally grown up. That youth has finished. In its place you have knowledge, which you must carry. You must also learn to accept that death is the most sophisticated form of beauty, and the most difficult to accept.
From this moment on, you will always be conscious of what you are doing. And any future feeling, whether joy or grief or excitement or regret, will come now with an awareness of its own end - with shadows you never noticed in youth. Variation of feeling will become depth of feeling. And you will appreciate tiny things - and step with the confidence of someone overjoyed to know he is doomed. ~ Simon Van Booy,#NFDB
1311:It is an unfortunate fact that the bulk of humanity is too limited in its mental vision to weigh with patience and intelligence those isolated phenomena, seen and felt only by a psychologically sensitive few, which lie outside its common experience. Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal; that all things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them; but the prosaic materialism of the majority condemns as madness the flashes of super-sight which penetrate the common veil of obvious empiricism. ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
1312:I am as suspicious and prone to take offence as a humpback or a dwarf. But upon my word I sometimes have had moments when if I had happened to be slapped in the face I should, perhaps, have been positively glad of it. I say, in earnest, that I should probably have been able to discover even in that a
peculiar sort of enjoyment--the enjoyment, of course, of despair; but in
despair there are the most intense enjoyments, especially when one is very acutely conscious of the hopelessness of one's position. And when one is slapped in the face--why then the consciousness of being rubbed into a pulp would positively overwhelm one. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky,#NFDB
1313:All domination in recorded history up to today was patriarchal domination. So if we should indeed live to see not only equality of the woman before the law but the deployment of what is called the specific “feminine” qualities throughout society: for example, nonviolence, receptivity, tenderness. This would indeed be, or could be, the beginning of a different society, the very antithesis of male domination with its violent and brutal character. Now I, myself, am very conscious of the fact that these so-called ‘feminine’ qualities are socially conditioned—but to a great extent, they are available, they are there, so why not use them? ~ Herbert Marcuse, #NFDB
1314:World religions like those of India and China were the religions of great cultures which regarded themselves as world civilizations; they had no rivals in their own worlds. But Israel was always conscious of its minority status - as one people among many nations, and as smaller and weaker than the historic empires that surrounded it from the beginning - Egypt and Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedonia, and Rome. For the Jews themselves and the Christians afterwards, this uniqueness was the result of a divine vocation and election. Israel was chosen from among the nations to be the witness to God and the bearer of divine revelation. ~ Christopher Henry Dawson, #NFDB
1315:Another thing worth noting is that all the self-styled ‘reformers’ [in religion] constantly advertise their claim to be returning to a ‘primitive simplicity’, which has certainly never existed except in their imaginations. This may sometimes only be a convenient way of hiding the true character of their innovations, but it may also very often be a delusion of which they themselves are the victims, for it is frequently very difficult to determine to what extent the apparent promoters of the anti-traditional spirit are really conscious of the part they are playing, for they could not play it at all unless they themselves had a twisted mentality. ~ Ren Gu non, #NFDB
1316:I cannot imagine that there could be someone whose childhood could compare to mine. The sky and the earth belonged to me, literally, even my apprehensions were joyful: I would get up and go to bed as master of creation. I was conscious of my happiness and could forsee that I was going to lose it. A secret fear was eating away my days. I sensed in this afternoon of my childhood, that a very severe event has just occurred: it was the first awakening, the first clue: the precusory sign of self-awareness. Up until that day I had only been a being, starting at that point I was more and less than that. Every «I» begings with a crack and a revelation. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
1317:A judgment is conscious of its own validity. This shows that the measure of validity to which it refers itself in this consciousness is inherent in the nature of judgment: a judgment is subject to this measure not in virtue of any circumstance in which it may find itself, but simply as judgment. Now when we think of an act simply as a judgment, we refer it to the power as an act of which it is a judgment: the power of judgment. Hence, the measure of validity of judgment is nothing other than the power of judgment. A judgment, being conscious of its validity, refers itself to the power from which it springs (as, e.g., St. Thomas Aquinas observes). ~ Sebastian R dl, #NFDB
1318:the humanist philosopher who bends over his brothers like an elder brother who is conscious of his responsibilities; the humanist who loves men as they are, the one who loves them as they ought to be, the one who wants to save them with their consent, and the one who will save them in spite of themselves, the one who wants to create myths, and the one who is satisfied with the old myths, the one who loves man for his death, the one who loves man for his life, the happy humanist who always knows what to say to make people laugh, the gloomy humanist whom you usually meet at wakes. They all hate one another : as individuals, of course, not as men. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
1319:How, you may ask, are you responsible for the violence and injustice in the world? How are you responsible for the war and the bloodshed, the atrocities against the marginal and the underprivileged, all over the world? Certainly you are not to blame for any of it. But the moment you become conscious of any of these events, you do respond—either in concern, love, care, hate, anger, indignation, or even action. It is just that this is often an unconscious reaction rather than a conscious response. If you make this ability to respond into a willing process, that marks the birth of a tremendous new possibility within you. Your inner genius begins to flower. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
1320:Sadhana It is important not to keep eating through the day. If you are below thirty years of age, three meals every day will fit well into your life. If you are over thirty years of age, it is best to reduce it to two meals per day. Our body and brain work at their best only when the stomach is empty. So be conscious of eating in such a way that within two and a half hours, your food moves out of the stomach, and within twelve to eighteen hours completely out of the system. With this simple awareness you will experience much more energy, agility, and alertness. These are the ingredients of a successful life, irrespective of what you choose to do with it. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
1321:Can one learn to control one's subconscient as one controls one's conscious thought?
It is especially during the body's sleep that one is in contact with the subconscient. In becoming conscious of one's nights, control of the subconscient becomes much easier. The control can become total when the cells become conscious of the Divine in them and when they open themselves voluntarily to His influence. This is what the consciousness that descended on the earth last year is working for. Little by little the subconscient automatism of the body is being replaced by the consciousness of the Divine Presence governing the entire functioning of the body.
~ The Mother,#NFDB
1322:We may have very good reason for saying that we are ourselves beings of four dimensions and are turned towards the third dimension with only one of our sides, i.e. with only a small part of our being. Only this part of us lives in three dimensions, and we are conscious only of this part as our body. The greater part of our being lives in the fourth dimension, but we are unconscious of this greater part of ourselves. Or it would be still more true to say that we live in a four-dimensional world, but are conscious of ourselves only in a three-dimensional world. This means that we live in one kind of conditions, but imagine ourselves to be in another. ~ P D Ouspensky, #NFDB
1323:We hold up iPhones and, if we’re relatively conscious of history, we point out that this is an amazing device that contains a live map of the world and the biggest libraries imaginable and that it’s an absolute paradigm shift in personal communication and empowerment. And then some knob says that it looks like something from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and then someone else says that it doesn’t even look as cool as Captain Kirk’s communicator in the original and then someone else says no but you can buy a case for it to make it look like one and you’re off to the manufactured normalcy races, where nobody wins because everyone goes to fucking sleep. ~ Warren Ellis, #NFDB
1324:Towards dawn he awoke. O what sweet music! His soul was all dewy wet. Over his limbs in sleep pale cool waves of light had passed. He lay still, as if his soul lay amid cool waters, conscious of faint sweet music. His mind was waking slowly to a tremulous morning knowledge, a morning inspiration. A spirit filled him, pure as the purest water, sweet as dew, moving as music. But how faintly it was inbreathed, how passionlessly, as if the seraphim themselves were breathing upon him! His soul was waking slowly, fearing to awake wholly. It was that windless hour of dawn when madness wakes and strange plants open to the light and the moth flies forth silently. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1325:They say it's the 'me' generation. It's not. The arrogance is taught, or it was cultivated. It's self-conscious. That's what it is. It's conscious of self. Social media - it's just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform, so the market said, here - perform. Perform everything to each other, all the time, for no reason. It's prison - it's horrific. It's performer and audience melded together. What do we want more than to lie in our bed at the end of the day and just watch our life as a satisfied audience member. I know very little about anything. But what I do know is that if you can live your life without an audience, you should do it. ~ Bo Burnham, #NFDB
1326:Why is it precisely at this intermediate level in the hierarchy of successively superimposed unities (cell, organ, human body, state)—why, I ask, is it precisely at the level of my body that unitary self-consciousness comes into the picture, whereas the cell and the organ do not as yet possess it and the state possesses it no longer? Or, if this is not so, how is my Self constituted out of the individual selves of my brain-cells? Is there a higher Self similarly constituted out of the consciousness of myself and my fellow-men, equally and directly conscious of itself as a unity—the Self of the state or of the whole of humanity? ~ Erwin Schrödinger, My View of the World, #NFDB
1327:Man is conscious of a universal soul within or behind his individual life, wherein, as in a firmament, the natures of Justice, Truth, Love, Freedom, arise and shine. This universal soul, he calls Reason: it is not mine, or thine, or his, but we are its; we are its property and men. And the blue sky in which the private earth is buried, the sky with its eternal calm, and full of everlasting orbs, is the type of Reason. That which, intellectually considered, we call Reason, considered in relation to nature, we call Spirit. Spirit is the Creator. Spirit hath life in itself. And man in all ages and countries, embodies it in his language, as the FATHER. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1328:one path toward unlocking our latent abilities is returning to a simple practice that came so naturally to us as children: We need to rekindle our ability to emulate the positive attributes of those we admire in others, and apply those same attributes to our life and work. When we are conscious of the qualities we want to emulate, they become points of traction to help us coordinate our daily activities around a set of principles rather than reacting spontaneously to circumstances throughout the day. They comprise the operating system that guides how we engage our work, how we interact with others, and how we make decisions with our focus, time, and energy. ~ Todd Henry, #NFDB
1329:You became conscious of precisely what you unconsciously intended to say only when you said it. You modify your speech depending on wether you are talking to child, a colleague, a student, or a dean. Not consiously, most probably. Paradoxically, speech is usually considered the case of conscious behavior - behavior for which we hold people responsoble. Certainly, it require consciousness: you cannot have a conversation while in deep sleep or in coma. Nevertheless, the activities that organize your speech output are not conscious activities. Speaking is a highly skilled business, relyling on uncounscious knowledge of precisely what to say and how. ~ Patricia S Churchland, #NFDB
1330:Limited responsibility is a way of drawing boundaries. What you think you are responsible for will be within your boundary. What you think you are not responsible for will be outside your boundary. But limitless responsibility extends itself way beyond your present level of understanding and perception. There is more—much more—to life than you are aware of right now. Once you choose to become conscious of this simple fact—my ability to respond is limitless—suddenly life within you reorganizes itself in a completely different way. You move into higher and higher levels of freedom within yourself. Life is now a wonderful and exhilarating journey of self-discovery. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
1331:Right this moment: Pick an area of your life where you most want to be successful. Do you want more money in the bank? A trimmer waistline? The strength to compete in an Iron Man event? A better relationship with your spouse or kids? Picture where you are in that area, right now. Now picture where you want to be: richer, thinner, happier, you name it. The first step toward change is awareness. If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination. Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward. ~ Darren Hardy, #NFDB
1332:We assent to wifedom because we are so used to having someone to blame and so unused to freedom. We prefer self-punishment to the conquest of our fears. We prefer our anger to our freedom.
If women were totally conscious of the part of themselves that gives away power to men, the prediction of victory might prove true. But we are far from this self-knowledge. And we move further and further away as we retreat from the psychoanalytic model of the self. As long as we disclaim the importance of unconscious motivations, of the existence of the unconscious itself, we cannot root out the slave in ourselves. Freedom is hand to love. Freedom takes away all the excuses. ~ Erica Jong,#NFDB
1333:What if conscious experience is managed by each module? Lose a module to injury or stroke, and the consciousness that accompanies that module is gone, too. Remember: patients with hemi-neglect aren’t conscious of one-half of space because the module that processes that information is no longer working. Or, if the modules responsible for locating oneself in space are not being integrated properly, conscious experience is deeply affected, and one ends up with the feeling that someone else is there just over your shoulder. Or, take people with Urbach-Wiethe disease, which leads to deterioration of the amygdalae: they no longer experience the emotion of fear. One ~ Michael S Gazzaniga, #NFDB
1334:Before I was twenty, I mean, I used to think that life was a thing that kept gaining impetus. It would get richer and deeper each year. You kept learning more, getting wiser, having more insight, going further into the truth—” She hesitated. Port laughed abruptly. “And now you know it’s not like that. Right? It’s more like smoking a cigarette. The first few puffs it tastes wonderful, and you don’t even think of its ever being used up. Then you begin taking it for granted. Suddenly you realize it’s nearly burned down to the end. And then’s when you’re conscious of the bitter taste.” “But I’m always conscious of the unpleasant taste and of the end approaching,” she said. ~ Paul Bowles, #NFDB
1335:I have been in love with painting ever since I became conscious of it at the age of six. I drew some pictures I thought fairly good when I was fifty, but really nothing I did before the age of seventy was of any value at all. At seventy-three I have at last caught every aspect of nature–birds, fish, animals, insects, trees, grasses, all. When I am eighty I shall have developed still further and I will really master the secrets of art at ninety. When I reach a hundred my work will be truly sublime and my final goal will be attained around the age of one hundred and ten, when every line and dot I draw will be imbued with life. - from Hokusai’s ‘The Art Crazy Old Man ~ Hokusai Katsushika, #NFDB
1336:It is only in an occasional precious moment that we are aware of the existence of Spirit within us, and in such moments we are conscious of coming into the awful presence of the Unknown. These moments may come when one is engaged in deep religious thought - while reading a poem bearing a precious message from soul to soul - in some hour of affliction when all human aid has failed us and when human words seem but mockery - in a moment when all seems lost and we feel the necessity of a direct word from a being higher than ourselves. When these moments come they leave with us a peace which never afterward entirely escapes us, and we are ever after changed beings. ~ William Walker Atkinson, #NFDB
1337:Believing himself to be unseen by other bathers, he gave himself up to being alone with his body. He wriggled his toes, breathed hard through his nose, twisted his brown moustache where some drops of water still clung, and looked himself critically all over. The scrutiny seemed to satisfy him, as well as it might. I, whose only acquaintance was with bodies and minds developing, was suddenly confronted by maturity in its most undeniable form; and I wondered, what must it feel like to be him, master of those limbs which have passed beyond the need of gym and playing field, and exist for their own beauty and strength? What can they do, I thought, to be conscious of themselves? ~ L P Hartley, #NFDB
1338:Right this moment: Pick an area of your life where you most want to be successful. Do you want more money in the bank? A trimmer waistline? The strength to compete in an Iron Man event? A better relationship with your spouse or kids? Picture where you are in that area, right now. Now picture where you want to be: richer, thinner, happier, you name it. The first step toward change is awareness. If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination. Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward. To help you ~ Darren Hardy, #NFDB
1339:An Evening Thought
Bird of the fanciful plumage,
That foldest thy wings in the west,
Imbuing the shimmering ocean
With the hues of thy delicate breast,
Passing away into Dreamland,
To visions of heavenly rest!
Spirit! when thou art permitted
To bask in the sunset of life;
Serene in thine eventide splendour,
Thy countenance victory rife;
Leaving the world where thou'st triumphed
Alike o'er its greatness and strife:
Thine be the destiny, spirit,
To set like the sun in the west;
Folding thy wings of rare plumage,
Conscious of infinite rest,
Heralded on to thy haven,
The Fortunate Isles of the Blest.
~ Charles Sangster,#NFDB
1340:The Song Sparrow
Fair little scout, that when the iron year
Changes, and the first fleecy clouds deploy,
Comest with such a sudden burst of joy,
Lifting on winter's doomed and broken rear
That song of silvery triumph blithe and clear;
Not yet quite conscious of the happy glow,
We hungered for some surer touch, and lo!
One morning we awake, and thou art here.
And thousands of frail-stemmed hepaticas,
With their crisp leaves and pure and perfect hues,
Light sleepers, ready for the golden news,
Spring at thy note beside the forest ways-Next to thy song, the first to deck the hour-The classic lyrist and the classic flower.
~ Archibald Lampman,#NFDB
1341:But Amory, being on the spot, leaned over quickly and kissed Myra’s cheek. He had never kissed a girl before, and he tasted his lips curiously, as if he had munched some new fruit. Then their lips brushed like young wild flowers in the wind.
‘We’re Awful,’ rejoiced Myra gently. she slipped her hand into his, her dead drooped against his shoulder. Sudden revulsion seized Amory, disgust, loathing for the whole incident. He desired frantically to be away, never to see Myra again, never to kiss anyone; he became conscious of his face and hers, of their clinging hands, and he wanted to creep out of his body and hide somewhere safe out of sight, up in the corner of his mind. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald,#NFDB
1342:You mustn't forget laughter either. Do you know what laughter is? It's God's mistake. When God made man in order to bend him to his wishes he carelessly gave him the gift of laughter. Little did he know that later that earthworm would use it as a weapon of vengeance. When he found out, there was nothing he could do; it was too late to take back the gift. And yet he tried his best. He drove man out of paradise, invented an infinite variety of sins and punishments, and made him conscious of his own nothingness, all in order to prevent him from laughing. But, as I say, it was too late. God made a mistake before man made his. What they have in common is that they are both irreparable. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
1343:Yes, egoism is good, and altruism is good, and fidelity to nature would be the best of all … if we could only get rid of consciousness. What makes mankind tragic is not that they are the victims of nature, it is that they are conscious of it. To be part of the animal kingdom under the conditions of this earth is very well—but as soon as you know of your slavery, the pain, the anger, the strife—the tragedy begins. We can’t return to nature, since we can’t change our place in it. Our refuge is in stupidity … There is no morality, no knowledge, and no hope; there is only the consciousness of ourselves which drives us about a world that … is always but a vain and floating appearance. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
1344:The food and the wine were certainly wretched enough, but what was even more wretched than the food and more wretched than the wine, was the company in the midst of which you were consuming it; there were the emaciated waitresses who brought the dishes, wizened women with unfriendly eyes and features that were sharp and severe. A feeling of complete powerlessness came over you as you looked at them; you felt conscious of being watched and you ate uneasily, with circumspection, not daring to leave gristle or skin for fear of a reprimand, and apprehensive about taking a second helping beneath those eyes that sized up your appetite, forcing it back into the depths of your belly. ~ Joris Karl Huysmans, #NFDB
1345:When you consider how great and immediate is the problem of existence, this ambiguous, tormented, fleeting, dream-like existence - so great and so immediate that as soon as you are aware of it, it overshadows and obscures all other problems and aims; and when you then see how men, with a few rare exceptions, have no clear awareness of this problem, indeed seem not to be conscious of it at all, but concern themselves with anything rather than this problem, and live on taking thought only for the day and for the hardly longer span of their own individual future, either expressly refusing to consider this problem or contenting themselves with some system of popular metaphysics.. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
1346:Miss Erstwhile?” Mr. Nobley was beside her suddenly. “It would seem my gentlemanly duty to ask you to dance.”
She glanced at his hand. “You’re still holding your book, Mr. Nobley.”
Het set it on a table, put one arm behind his back, and held the other out to her.
She sighed. “I’m sorry I pestered you back there, but I’d rather not dance for duty.”
His hand extended toward her. “But it would be my honor.”
She rolled her eyes but took his hand. The first time he touched her waist, she started. There was nothing passive in his touch, nothing wasted. She was aware of his hands the way she was often conscious of his gaze seeking her out. It was, to say the least, surprising. ~ Shannon Hale,#NFDB
1347:IN THE MIDDLE AGES BOTH SIDES OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS, WITHIN AS WELL AS WITHOUT, LAY DREAMING OR HALF AWAKE BENEATH A COMMON VEIL. THE VEIL WAS WOVEN OF FAITH, ILLUSION, AND CHILDISH PREPOSSESSION, THROUGH WHICH THE WORLD AND HISTORY WERE SEEN CLAD IN STRANGE HUES. MAN WAS CONSCIOUS OF HIMSELF ONLY AS A MEMBER OF A RACE, PEOPLE, PARTY, FAMILY, OR CORPORATION - ONLY THROUGH SOME GENERAL CATEGORY. IN ITALY THIS VEIL FIRST MELTED INTO AIR; AN OBJECTIVE TREATMENT AND CONSIDERATION OF THE STATE AND OF ALL THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD BECAME POSSIBLE. THE SUBJECTIVE SIDE AT THE SAME TIME ASSERTED ITSELF WITH CORRESPONDING EMPHASIS; MAN BECAME A SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUAL, AND RECOGNIZED HIMSELF AS SUCH. ~ Erich Fromm, #NFDB
1348:In giving rise to man, the evolutionary process has, apparently for the first and only time in the history of the Cosmos, become conscious of itself.
So, the Devil's Chaplain might conclude, Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence; the gift of revulsion against its implications; the gift of foresight — something utterly foreign to the blundering short-term ways of natural selection — and the gift of internalizing the very cosmos. ~ Richard Dawkins,#NFDB
1349:We can’t restructure our society without restructuring the English language. One reflects the other. A lot of people are getting tired of the huge pool of metaphors that have to do with war and conflict [and] the proliferation of battle metaphors, such as being a warrior, righting, defeating, and so on. In response, I could say that once you become conscious of these battle metaphors, you can start “fighting” against them. That’s one option. Another is to realize that conflict is not the only human response to a situation and to begin to find other metaphors, such as resisting, outwitting, skipping, or subverting. This kind of consciousness can open the door to all sorts of new behavior. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
1350:I had this awareness of Elly, this pleasant, physical recognition of her, which made me conscious of my own body whenever we talked. Like in those TV movies when there's a kid inside a robot moving levers to make the robot arms extend and the robot knees flex, and things go pretty smoothly until the kid gets nervous and pulls the wrong lever and the knee comes up for a handshake and the fingers open when they're supposed to close. It's like there's a second self inside your regular self and it's constantly going, "Now take the ice cubes from Elly. Now smile." It's a perpetual monologue inside your head, which is why it can be hard to make conversation with the girl you're actually talking to. ~ Stephanie Grant, #NFDB
1351:He wasn’t normally conscious of it, but there was one part of his body that was extremely sensitive, somewhere along his back. This soft, subtle spot he couldn’t reach was usually covered by something, so that it was invisible to the naked eye. But when, for whatever reason, that spot became exposed and someone’s finger pressed down on it, something inside him would stir. A special substance would be secreted, swiftly carried by his bloodstream to every corner of his body. That special stimulus was both a physical sensation and a mental one, creating vivid images in his mind. The first time he met Sara, he felt an anonymous finger reach out and push down forcefully on that trigger on his back. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
1352:Our first youth is of no value; for we are never conscious of it, until after it is gone. But sometimes--always, I suspect, unless one is exceedingly unfortunate--there comes a sense of second youth, gushing out of the heart's joy at being in love; or possibly, it may come to crown some other grand festival in life, if any other such there be. This bemoaning of one's self. . . over the first, careless, shallow gayety of youth departed, and this profound happiness at youth regained,--so much deeper and richer than that we lost,--are essential to the soul's development. In some cases, the two states come almost simultaneously, and mingle the sadness and the rapture in one mysterious emotion. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
1353:There is no destiny for all of mankind, only for some. To recover their divinity, but not as the “unconscious Gods,” but with full consciousness, as a Total-Man, in the sense of the Jungian “individuation,” a God conscious of Himself which is only possible to achieve on this earth. To achieve this is the meaning of Esoteric Hitlerism. When one arrives at such a state, one becomes the UFO, or the Vimana itself, without need of an external new science or a new technology, because one has achieved a parallel world, or a new place-situation, where we shall meet the Fuhrer and the warriors of the Last Battalion. This will be the real space colonization as the ultimate expression of the Faustian soul. ~ Miguel Serrano, #NFDB
1354:A rational society is one where the demands of social life do not frustrate the needs of individuals, where duty fulfils individuality rather than suppressing it. In such a society rational individuals can promote their self-interest to a satisfactory degree without having to maximize it, and they need not make great sacrifices in order to give priority to right and duty or to show concern for the good of others. Because our social life is in harmony with our individuality, the duties of ethical life do not limit our freedom but actualize it. When we become conscious of this, we come to be ‘with ourselves’ in our ethical duties. Such duties, Hegel insists, do not restrict us, but liberate us (PR § 149). ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1355:Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for the unknown God. Then if a bird sing among your branches, do not be too eager to tame it. If you are conscious of something new - thought or feeling, wakening in the depths of your being - do not be in a hurry to let in light upon it, to look at it; let the springing germ have the protection of being forgotten, hedge it round with quiet, and do not break in upon its darkness. ~ Henri Fr d ric Amiel, #NFDB
1356:The only attribute of a point is that it marks position. Take away this attribute and in the unposited point we have a symbol of pure Being, the abstract noumenon, that which underlies every mode of phenomenal manifestation, every form of existence. It is at once All and Nothing, at once Absolute Consciousness and Unconsciousness. All—since it contains the potentiality of everything, past, present, and to come. Nothing—since having no form, no limit, it is non- existent, quoad nos. It is Consciousness itself, and yet it is unconscious according to our conception of consciousness, for there is nothing beside itself for it to be conscious of—no differentiation of subject and object. That " Being must exist ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1357:Not everyone is capable of thinking in real, concrete terms. Many seek refuge in religious beliefs. In their weakness, they place their trust in "relics," awaiting salvation at the hands of one stronger than themselves. Anyone who claims to be a strong and knowledgeable authority for such people, and to be acting on their behalf, has the duty to be conscious of the appropriate facts. If they aren't, if they ignore or neglect that duty, claiming instead that their palpable lack of information and their abstract conceptions of "life" are sanctioned by God and practiced in the name of humanity, they are acting against life, by misusing the weakness and truth of the faithful and dangerously confusing them. ~ Alice Miller, #NFDB
1358:MINUTES are flying swiftly, and as yet
Nothing unearthly has enticed my brain
Into a delphic Labyrinth I would fain
Catch an unmortal thought to pay the debt
I owe to the kind Poet who has set
Upon my ambitious head a glorious gain.
Two bending laurel Sprigs 'tis nearly pain
To be conscious of such a Coronet.
Still time is fleeting, and no dream arises
Gorgeous as I would have it only I see
A Trampling down of what the world most prizes
Turbans and Crowns, and blank regality;
And then I run into most wild surmises
Of all the many glories that may be.
by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes
~ John Keats, On Receiving A Laurel Crown From Leigh Hunt
,#NFDB
1359:You must know that weather or not you are practicing mental prayer has nothing to do with keeping your lips closed. If, while I am speaking with God, I am fully conscious of doing so, and if this is more real to me than the words I am uttering, then I am combining mental and vocal prayer. I am amazed when people tell me that you are speaking with God by reciting the Paternoster even while you are thinking of worldly things. When you speak with a Lord so great, you should think of Who it is you are addressing and what you yourself are, if only that you may speak to Him with proper respect. How can you address a king with the reverence he deserves unless you are clearly conscious of his position and yours? ~ Teresa of vila, #NFDB
1360:Consciousness does not know its own character -- unless in determining itself reflectively from the standpoint of another's point of view. It exists its character in pure distinction non-thematically and non-thetically in the proof which it effects of its own contingency and in the nihilation by which it recognizes and surpasses its facticity. This is why pure introspective self-description does not give us character. Proust's hero 'does not have' a directly apprehensible character; he is presented first as being conscious of himself as an ensemble of general reactions common to all men...in which each man can recognise himself. This is because these reactions belong to the general 'nature' of the psychic. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
1361:On being conscious of being a writer:
As soon as one is aware of being “somebody,” to be watched and listened to with extra interest, input ceases, and the performer goes blind and deaf in his overanimation. [...] Most of the best fiction is written out of early impressions, taken in before the writer became conscious of himself as a writer. The best seeing is done by the hunted and the hunter, the vulnerable and the hungry; the “successful” writer acquires a film over his eyes. His eyes get fat. Self-importance is a thickened, occluding form of self-consciousness. The binge, the fling, the trip – all attempt to shake the film and get back under the dinning-room table, with a child’s beautifully clear eyes. ~ John Updike,#NFDB
1362:Here was a man some twenty thousand miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn, that is - which was the only way he could get there - thrown among people as strange to him as though he were in the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease; preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship; always equal to himself. Surely his was a touch of fine philosophy; though no doubt he had never heard there was such a thing as that. But, perhaps, to be a true philosopher, we mortals should not be conscious of so living or so striving. So soon as I hear that such or such a man gives himself out for a philosopher, I conclude that, like the dyspeptic old woman, he must have 'broken his digester. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
1363:Reflection is, as the word indicates, the power acquired by a consciousness to turn in upon itself, to take possession of itself as of an object endowed with its own particular consistence and value: no longer merely to know, but to know oneself; no longer merely to know, but to know that one knows. By this individualisation of itself in the depths of itself, the living element, which heretofore had been spread out and divided over a diffuse circle of perceptions and activities, was constituted for the first time as a centre in the form of a point at which all the impressions and experiences knit themselves together and fuse into a unity that is conscious of its own organisation. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, #NFDB
1364:The divine light gives light at once, but the soul sees nothing at first but that which is immediately before it, or rather within itself; its own darkness and misery, which, by the mercy of God, it sees now, and formerly saw not, because this supernatural light had not been granted it. 10. This is the reason why, in the beginning, the soul is conscious of nothing but of darkness and misery. But when it has been purified by the knowledge and sense of its misery it will have eyes to discern the blessings of the divine light, and being delivered and set free from all darkness and imperfections, the great blessings and profit will become known which the soul is gaining for itself in this blessed night. 11. This shows how ~ Juan de la Cruz, #NFDB
1365:When a man reflects on these things, studies all these created beings, from the angels and spheres down to human beings and so on, and realizes the divine wisdom manifested in them all, his love for God will increase, his soul will thirst, his very flesh will yearn to love God. He will be filled with fear and trembling, as he becomes conscious of his lowly condition, poverty, and insignificance, and compares himself with any of the great and holy bodies; still more when he compares himself with any one of the pure forms that are incorporeal and have never had association with any corporeal substance. He will then realize that he is a vessel full of shame, dishonor, and reproach, empty and deficient. ~ Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (c. 1180), #NFDB
1366:There are moments in one's life which are like frontier posts marking the completion of a period but at the same time clearly indicating a new direction. At such a moment of transition we feel compelled to view the past and the present with the eagle eye of thought in order to become conscious of our real position. […] At such moments, however, a person becomes lyrical, for every metamorphosis is partly a swan song, partly the overture to a great new poem, which endeavors to achieve a stable form in brilliant colors that still merge into one another. Nevertheless, we should like to erect a memorial to what we have once lived through in order that this experience may regain in our emotions the place it has lost in our actions. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
1367:Would it be too explicit, too exaggerated, to say that when I set eyes on Isobel Tolland, I knew at once that I should marry her? Something like that is the truth; certainly nearer the truth than merely to record those vague, inchoate sentiments of interest of which I was so immediately conscious. It was as if I had known her for many years already; enjoyed happiness with her and suffered sadness. I was conscious of that, as of another life, nostalgically remembered. Then, at that moment, to be compelled to go through all the paraphernalia of introduction, of ‘getting to know’ one another by means of the normal formalities of social life, seemed hardly worth while. We knew one another already; the future was determinate. ~ Anthony Powell, #NFDB
1368:There are fundamental ways that meaning informs our lives and work, if we are conscious of it and recognize its shape. The shape meaning takes in marketing is empathy: All relevant customer understanding and communications flow from being aware of and aligned with the customer’s needs and motivations. In business in a broader sense, the shape meaning takes is strategy. It guides every decision and action. In technology and data science, meaning can drive the pursuit of applied knowledge toward that which improves our experiences and our lives. Creative work becomes more meaningful the more it conveys truth. And in our lives overall, an understanding of what is meaningful to us provides us with purpose, clarity, and intention. ~ Kate O Neill, #NFDB
1369:The vainglory of wishing to understand is dangerous, immoral and, above all, old-fashioned. The modern way – perhaps the final way - is to say: Go forward, without knowing why, as quickly as possible, towards an unknown goal! To act and think are opposites which identify one only in the Absolute. To accomplish all one's movements – of the head, the arms, the legs – without ever quite attaining the status of a puppet, but with a certainty that gives one a feeling of rightness: that is what is nowadays held up as the ideal. Be citizens of Universal activity! Forget to be conscious of ourselves! The blind horse gallops without hesitation, not knowing where it is going, not caring where it has been: so let up put out our eyes! ~ R my de Gourmont, #NFDB
1370:True humility derives from a proper perspective of our human condition: one among billions on a small planet among billions, like a fungus on a tiny fragment of cheese. Of course, it is nearly impossible for human beings to remain this objective for very long, but truly humble people are nonetheless far more conscious of the insignificance of their true relations, an insignificance that verges on non-existence. A speck of dust does not think itself more superior or inferior than another, nor does it concern itself for what other specks of dust might or might not think. Enthralled by the miracle of existence, the truly humble person lives not for herself or her image, but for life itself, in a condition of pure peace and pleasure. ~ Neel Burton, #NFDB
1371:At the same time, however, the necessity for economic change in our countries has led us to conceive laws and accept traditions often at the expense of the individual person. Just when many are becoming conscious of the fundamental heritage of the Judeo-Christian tradition to respect each human person, friend or foe, within the actual structure of our society to apply this truth. The very efficiency demanded by our technocratic industrial society renders the life of the old, the unstable and the handicapped almost impossible. as the values of efficiency, individualism, and wealth become the only motivations, they tend to stifle the profound aspirations of man so that little by little he loses all sense of fellowship and community. ~ Jean Vanier, #NFDB
1372:Darks drifts covered the horizon. A strange shadow approaching nearer and nearer, was spreading little by little over men, over things, over ideas; a shadow which came from indignations and from systems. All that had been hurriedly stifled was stirring and fermenting. Sometimes the conscious of the honest man caught its breath, there was so much confusion in that air in which sophisms were mingled with truths. Minds trembled in the social anxiety like leaves at the approach of the storm. The electric tension was so great that at certain moments any chance-comer, thought unknown, flashed out. Then the twilight darkness fell again. At intervals, deep and sullen mutterings enabled men to judge of the amount of lightning in the cloud. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1373:Times reported on a trip into the wilderness undertaken by five academics, the purpose of which, according to psychologist David Strayer (2010), was to study ‘what happens when we step away from our devices and rest our brains – in particular, how attention, memory, and learning are affected’. Strayer added: ‘Attention is the holy grail. Everything that you’re conscious of, everything you let in, everything you remember and you forget, depends on it.’ Then there was the publicity associated with a new book, Hamlet’s BlackBerry by William Powers (2010), documenting one family’s retreat from an over-reliance on information technology. The book’s blurb reads: Journalist Powers bemoans the reigning dogma of digital maximalism that ~ Scott Thornbury, #NFDB
1374:Becoming conscious of three important things:
First, as soon as people decide to confront a problem, they realize that they are far more capable than they thought they were.
Second, all energy and all knowledge come from the same unknown source, which we usually call God. What I've tried to do in my life, ever since I first started out on what I believe to be my path, is to honour that energy, to connect up with it every day, to allow myself to be guided by the signs, to learn by doing and not by thinking about doing.
Third, that no one is alone in their troubles; there is always someone else thinking, rejoicing, or suffering in the same way, and that gives us the strength to confront the challenge before us. ~ Paulo Coelho,#NFDB
1375:Just as a stream flows smoothly as long as it encounters no obstruction, so the nature of man and animal is such that we never really notice or become conscious of what is agreeable to our will; if we are to notice something, our will has to have been thwarted, has to have experienced a shock of some kind. On the other hand, all that opposes, frustrates and resists our will, that is to say all that is unpleasant and painful, impresses itself upon us instantly, directly and with great clarity. Just as we are conscious not of the healthiness of our whole body but only the little place where the shoe pinches, so we think not of the totality of our successful activities but of some insignificant trifle or other which continues to vex us. ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
1376:She was, as always at evening parties, wearing a dress such as was then fashionable, cut very low at front and back. Her bust, which had always seemed like marble to Pierre, was so close to him that his shortsighted eyes could not but perceive the living charm of her neck and shoulders, so near to his lips that he need only have bent his head a little to have touched them. He was conscious of the warmth of her body, the scent of perfume, and the creaking of her corset as she moved. He did not see her marble beauty forming a complete whole with her dress, but all the charm of her body only covered by her garments. And having once seen this he could not help being aware of it, just as we cannot renew an illusion we have once seen through. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1377:But yet possibly it will still be objected, suppose I wholly lose the memory of some parts of my life, beyond a possibility of retrieving them, so that perhaps I shall never be conscious of them again; yet am I not the same person, that did those actions, had those thoughts, that I once was conscious of, though I have now forgot them? To which I answer, that we must here take notice what the word I is applied to, which in this case is the man only. And the same man being presumed to be the same person, I is easily here supposed to stand also for the same person. But if it be possible for the same man to have distinct incommunicable consciousness at different times, it is past doubt the same man would at different times make different persons ~ John Locke, #NFDB
1378:Trump himself is a nothing, an empty vessel for cosmic forces to work through. Even on The Apprentice (which I used to enjoy) I remember he gave the guy who won a tour of his apartment, it was the tackiest thing you'd ever seen. Cluttered with gold furnishings so there was no space anywhere. The guy, who obviously worshipped Trump, asked who inspired him. So there he was, looking up to wait to hear some pearl of wisdom. And the Orange Clown just made some meaningless narcissistic comment about himself. It actually felt embarrassing (but not to Trump who simply isn't conscious of such things). It proves that even before his dementia he always was empty and vacuous. His ghost writer said Trump was the most evil human being he'd ever met. ~ M Alan Kazlev, FB, #NFDB
1379:Some days passed before I could rid my thoughts of Thecla of certain impressions belonging to the false Thecla who had initiated me into the anacreontic diversions and fruitions of men and women. Possibly this had an effect opposite to that Master Gurloes intended, but I do not think so. I believe I was never less inclined to love the unfortunate woman than when I carried in my memory the recent impressions of having enjoyed her freely; it was as I saw it more and more clearly for the untruth it was that I felt myself drawn to redress the fact, and drawn through her (though I was hardly conscious of it at the time) to the world of ancient knowledge an privilege she represented. The books I has carried to her became my university, she my oracle. ~ Gene Wolfe, #NFDB
1380:By this freedom the will of a rational being, as belonging to the sensuous world, recognizes itself to be, like all other efficient causes, necessarily subject to the laws of causality, while in practical matters, in its other aspect as a being in itself, it is conscious of its existence as determinable in an intelligible order of things. It is conscious of this not by virtue of a particular intuition of itself but because of certain dynamic laws which determine its causality in the world of sense, for it has been sufficiently proved in another place that if freedom is attributed to us, it transfers us into an intelligible order of things."
―from Critique of Practical Reason . Translated, with an Introduction by Lewis White Beck, p. 43. ~ Immanuel Kant,#NFDB
1381:I have before now experienced that the best way to get a vivid impression and feeling of a landscape is to sit down before it and read, or become otherwise absorbed in thought; for then, when our eyes happen to be attracted to the landscape, you seem to catch Nature at unawares, and see her before she has time to change her aspect. The effect lasts but for a single instant, and passes away almost as soon as you are conscious of it; but it is real for that moment. It is as if you could overhear and understand what the trees are whispering to one another; as if you caught a glimpse of a face unveiled, which veils itself from every willful glance. The mystery is revealed, and, after a breath or two, becomes just as much a mystery as before. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
1382:From these foolish embraces, which were not of very frequent occurrence,
I must allow, I used to wish to extricate myself; but my energies seemed
to fail me. Her murmured words sounded like a lullaby in my ear, and
soothed my resistance into a trance, from which I only seemed to recover
myself when she withdrew her arms.
In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I experienced a strange
tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with
a vague sense of fear and disgust. I had no distinct thoughts about her
while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a love growing into
adoration, and also of abhorrence. This I know is paradox, but I can
make no other attempt to explain the feeling. ~ J Sheridan Le Fanu,#NFDB
1383:Death lurks in the shadows, just out of view.
Now and then I see his reaching hand, uncertain of the blurry image that passes before my eyes, but conscious of the crippling influence of his touch.
Some say Death rears an ugly head, so hideous a view the beholder can scarcely gasp their last breath. Others call him beautiful, a sweet relief to look upon. But these are rumors babbled by the unknowing. For Death is like the gorgon, Medusa, who when perceived, turns the body to stone.
Those who know Death take the knowledge of his shadowed face with them to wherever it is he leads our dearly departed by the hand. All who are left behind must wait their turn to glance into the eyes of the one who will close our mouths forever. ~ Richelle E Goodrich,#NFDB
1384:Abraham’s actions are explained not only by what is happening to him at the moment, nor yet only by his character (as Achilles’ actions by his courage and his pride, and Odysseus’ by his versatility and foresightedness), but by his previous history; he remembers, he is constantly conscious of, what God has promised him and what God has already accomplished for him—his soul is torn between desperate rebellion and hopeful expectation; his silent obedience is multilayered, has background. Such a problematic psychological situation as this is impossible for any of the Homeric heroes, whose destiny is clearly defined and who wake every morning as if it were the first day of their lives: their emotions, though strong, are simple and find expression instantly. ~ Erich Auerbach, #NFDB
1385:Take driving, for instance. Say you need to drive ten miles to visit a friend. You might consider the trip itself as in-between time, something to get over with. Or you could take it as an opportunity for the practice of mastery. In that case, you would approach your car in a state of full awareness, conscious of the time of day, the temperature, the wind speed and direction, the angle of the sun, or the presence of rain, snow, or sleet. Let this awareness extend to your own mental, physical, and emotional condition. Take a moment to walk around the car and check its external condition, especially that of the tires. Make sure the windshield and windows are clean enough to provide good visibility. Check the oil and other fluid levels if it’s time to do so. ~ George Leonard, #NFDB
1386:And so the German spirit, carousing in music, in wonderful creations of sound, and wonderful beauties of feeling and mood that were never pressed home to reality, has left the greater part of its gifts to decay. None of us intellectuals is at home in reality. We are strange to it and hostile.
Assiduous and busy, care-ridden and light-hearted, intelligent and yet thoughtless, these butterflies lived a life at once childlike and raffiné; independent, not to be bought by every one, finding their account in good luck and fine weather, in love with life and yet clinging to it far less than the bourgeois, always ready to follow a fairy prince to his castle, always certain, though scarcely conscious of it, that a difficult and sad end was in store for them. ~ Hermann Hesse,#NFDB
1387:Indeed, we all know that the man who attentively contemplates a thing, who wants to see it as it is without changing anything, is 'absorbed,' so to speak, by this contemplation -- i.e., by this thing. He forgets himself, he thinks only about the thing being contemplates; he thinks neither about his contemplation, nor -- and even less -- about himself, his "I," his Selbst. The more he is conscious of the thing, the less he is conscious of himself. He may perhaps talk about the thing, but he will never talk about himself; in his discourse, the word 'I' will not occur.
For this word to appear, something other than purely passive contemplation, which only reveals Being, must also be present. And this other thing, according to Hegel, is Desire, Begierde.... ~ Alexandre Koj ve,#NFDB
1388:Miss Nell,” Ashley said, pulling Miranda over. “This is Miranda.”
Miranda felt the instant appraisal of those coal-black eyes. When Nell Boucher took her hand, Miranda sensed strength, survival, and a heart of immense kindness.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Boucher,” she answered shyly.
“Nell,” the woman corrected, a dimple showing at each corner of her mouth. She cocked an eyebrow at Etienne. “Okay, I guess you win the bet. She’s just as cute as you said she was.”
Blushing, Miranda was all too conscious of the others’ amused stares. As she had with the rest of them, Miss Nell put one hand to Miranda’s cheek and leaned in close.
“I’m glad we’re finally meeting,” she murmured. “Because I’ve certainly heard a lot of wonderful things about you. ~ Richie Tankersley Cusick,#NFDB
1389:Now I am experiencing the Clear Light of objective reality. Nothing is happening, nothing ever has happened or ever will happen. My present sense of self, the voyager, is in reality the void itself, having no qualities or characteristics. I remember myself as the voyager, whose deepest nature is the Clear Light itself; I am one; there is no other. I am the voidness of the void, the eternal unborn, the uncreated, neither real nor unreal. All that I have been conscious of is my own play of consciousness, a dance of light, the swirling patterns of light in infinite extension, endless endlessness, the Absolute beyond change, existence, reality. I, the voyager, am inseparable from the Clear Light; I cannot be born, die, exist or change. I know now that this is my true nature. ~ E J Gold, #NFDB
1390:He that was healed wist not who it was." John 5:13 Years are short to the happy and healthy; but thirty-eight years of disease must have dragged a very weary length along the life of the poor impotent man. When Jesus, therefore, healed him by a word, while he lay at the pool of Bethesda, he was delightfully sensible of a change. Even so the sinner who has for weeks and months been paralysed with despair, and has wearily sighed for salvation, is very conscious of the change when the Lord Jesus speaks the word of power, and gives joy and peace in believing. The evil removed is too great to be removed without our discerning it; the life imparted is too remarkable to be possessed and remain inoperative; and the change wrought is too marvellous not to be perceived. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1391:The present: It is interesting that the “NOW" is called "the present.” The present is the ultimate gift; it is the gift of truth and life. You are given the present every second, and you will receive it forever. The present is the only thing that exists, the only thing you are ever conscious of. Your life is a series of presents moving through time. The future does not exist until it becomes the present.
Life is one perpetual present.
Creation is happening now: Your body, mind, and the world around it are being created from microsecond to microsecond. Things may look the same, but they are not; everything is constantly changing and being recreated. Our life and our world is being created from moment to moment.
Life and everything in it is always new. ~ Michael Smith,#NFDB
1392:Now let your spiritual practice be this: As you go about your life, don’t give 100 percent of your attention to the external world and to your mind. Keep some within. I have spoken about this already. Feel the inner body even when engaged in everyday activities, especially when engaged in relationships or when you are relating with nature. Feel the stillness deep inside it. Keep the portal open. It is quite possible to be conscious of the Unmanifested throughout your life. You feel it as a deep sense of peace somewhere in the background, a stillness that never leaves you, no matter what happens out here. You become a bridge between the Unmanifested and the manifested, between God and the world. This is the state of connectedness with the Source that we call enlightenment. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1393:The most racking pangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones, deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death. Then these agonies began swiftly to subside, and I came to myself as if out of a great sickness. There was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably sweet. I felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but innocent freedom of the soul. I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
1394:The poor man retains the prejudices of his forefathers without their faith, and their ignorance without their virtues; he has adopted the doctrine of self-interest as the rule of his actions, without understanding the science which puts it to use; and his selfishness is no less blind than was formerly his devotedness to others. If society is tranquil, it is not because it is conscious of its strength and its well-being, but because it fears its weakness and its infirmities; a single effort may cost it its life. Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure. The desires, the repinings, the sorrows, and the joys of the present time lead to no visible or permanent result, like the passions of old men, which terminate in impotence. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #NFDB
1395:There was a basic harmony between Antonia and her mistress [Mrs. Harling]. They had strong, independent natures, both of them. They knew what they liked, and were not always trying to imitate other people. They loved children and animals and music, and rough play, and digging in the earth. They liked to prepare rich, hearty food and to see people eat it; to make up soft white beds and to see youngsters asleep in them. They ridiculed conceited people and were quick to help unfortunate ones. Deep down in each of them there was a kind of hearty joviality, a relish of life, not over-delicate, but very invigorating. I never tried to define it, but I was distinctly conscious of it. I could not imagine Antonia's living for a week in any other house in Black Hawk than the Harlings. ~ Willa Cather, #NFDB
1396:He bent his gaze sternly on them. "First, let no one rule your mind or body. Take special care that your thoughts remain unfettered. One may be a free man and yet be bound tighter than a slave. Give men your ear, but not your heart. Show respect for those in power, but don't follow them blindly. Judge with logic and reason, but comment not.
"Consider none your superior, whatever their rank or station in life. Treat all fairly or they will seek revenge. Be careful with your money. Hold fast to your beliefs and others will listen." He continued at a slower pace, "Of the affairs of love... my only advice is to be honest. That's your most powerful took to unlock a heart or gain forgiveness. That's all I have to say." He seemed slightly self-conscious of his speech. ~ Christopher Paolini,#NFDB
1397:That beauty may, for instance, be composed of lovely flowers, and glittering streams, and blue sky and white clouds; and yet the thing that impresses us most, and which we should be sorriest to lose, may be a thin grey film on the extreme horizon, not so large, in the space of the scene it occupies, as a piece of gossamer on a near-at-hand bush, nor in any wise prettier to the eye than the gossamer; but because the gossamer is known by us for a little bit of spider’s work, and the other grey film is known to mean a mountain ten thousand feet high, inhabited by a race of noble mountaineers we are solemnly impressed by the aspect of it, and yet all the while the thoughts and knowledge which cause us to receive this impression are so obscure that we are not conscious of them. ~ Gaston Bachelard, #NFDB
1398:The young man had not been long at Donnaz without discovering that in that little world of crystallised traditions the chaplain was the only person conscious of the new forces abroad. It had never occurred to the Marquess that anything short of a cataclysm such as it would be blasphemy to predict could change the divinely established order whereby the territorial lord took tithes from his peasantry and pastured his game on their crops. The hierarchy which rested on the bowed back of the toiling serf and culminated in the figure of the heaven-sent King seemed to him as immutable as the everlasting hills. The men of his generation had not learned that it was built on a human foundation and that a sudden movement of the underlying mass might shake the structure to its pinnacle. The ~ Edith Wharton, #NFDB
1399:This emphasis on verbal abuse is typical of the sages in their sensitivity to language as the creator or destroyer of social bonds. As Rabbi Eleazar notes, harsh or derogatory speech touches on self-image and self-respect in a way that other wrongs do not. What is more, as Rabbi Samuel bar Naĥmani makes clear, financial wrongdoing can be rectified in a way that wounding speech cannot. Even after apology, the pain (and the damage to reputation) remains. A stranger, in particular, is sensitive to his or her status within society. He or she is an outsider. Strangers do not share with the native-born a memory, a past, a sense of belonging. They are conscious of their vulnerability. Therefore we must be especially careful not to wound them by reminding them that they are not “one of ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
1400:Parents who can feel, who are conscious of their feelings and realize that uncontrolled anger, though it may be triggered by the child, usually has little to do with it, are less in danger of acting out their rage in the guise of pedagogy. I use the words "guilt" and "victim," rather than "causes" and "effects," as I am often politely urged to do, advisedly. Children are turned into victims by people, by their parents, not by some kind of automaton. These people have no right to behave as though they were merely destructive automatons and adhere to their ignorance, even though conventional wisdom and even moral and religious teachings confirm them in their actions by preaching forgiveness to their victims. One day the effects of such opinions will be seen in all their destructiveness. ~ Alice Miller, #NFDB
1401:Just as the weak, despairing person is unwilling to hear anything about any consolation eternity has for him, so a person in such despair does not want to hear anything about it, either, but for a different reason: this very consolation would be his undoing; as a denunciation of all existence. Figuratively speaking, it is as if an error slipped into an author's writing and the error became conscious of itself as an error; perhaps it actually was not a mistake but in a much higher sense an essential part of the whole production, and now this error wants to mutiny against the author, out of hatred toward him, forbidding him to correct it and in maniacal defiance saying to him: No! I refuse to be erased! I will stand as a witness against you; a witness that you are a second-rate author. ~ S ren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
1402:From the first moment we are conscious of our own existence, we pick up on how the world works. Because we are born feeble, we endow our parents with the burden of preparing us for life as they already know it to be. They show us not just how to survive, but how to be at ease with existence. They pass on what they have learned so we will be able to navigate the world without them. The ideas they implant linger with us throughout life, making their unfinished business our own. They create our culture. The irony of this sad situation is that independence cannot be taught by someone who has not first obtained it. Emotional maturity cannot be demonstrated by someone who isn’t fully self-expressed. Effective instructions for living can’t be imparted by people who haven’t learned how to live. ~ Gregory V Diehl, #NFDB
1403:How can a three-pound mass of jelly that you can hold in your palm imagine angels, contemplate the meaning of infinity, and even question its own place in the cosmos? Especially awe inspiring is the fact that any single brain, including yours, is made up of atoms that were forged in the hearts of countless, far-flung stars billions of years ago. These particles drifted for eons and light-years until gravity and change brought them together here, now. These atoms now form a conglomerate- your brain- that can not only ponder the very stars that gave it birth but can also think about its own ability to think and wonder about its own ability to wonder. With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all. ~ V S Ramachandran, #NFDB
1404:In this sense the practices of Sex Magick can be seen as devices leading to the re-birth or twice born experience often referred to by modern day evangelical Christians. In the Holy Bible it is written that "Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." [John 3:5]. It is impossible to be born again unless one dies. Let us infer, for a moment, that a "little death" occurs at the point of orgasm. A spiritual rebirth, then, might be in the process of dying consciously and willfully, as well as awakening consciously and willfully. That is, after one "suffers," through discipline, the little death of orgasm, one becomes conscious of completely letting go and is consciously "reborn" of water (sexual fluids) and through the God invoked during orgasm. ~ Christopher S Hyatt, #NFDB
1405:Why is it that in our normal state former ideas, called up by some means or other, do not develop completely ? It is because we are conscious of them; because we connect them from their beginning with the enormous mass of other recollections, of other images, which constitute our personality. They have their place; they play their part in the great system, but they are not isolated and independent, and their development is restrained by the development of all the other thoughts. " To arrest one thought," said M. Ch. Richet, " there must be another to impede it; to hinder a sentiment another sentiment must arrest its advance." ' Certainly; but in order that these phenomena may be in opposition to each other, it is not enough that they be simultaneous, they must also be united in the same consciousness. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1406:GGibbie never thought about himself, therefore was there wide room for the entrance of the spirit. Does the questioning thought arise to any reader: How could a man be conscious of bliss without the thought of himself? I answer the doubt: When a man turns to look at himself, that moment the glow of the loftiest bliss begins to fade; the pulsing fire-flies throb paler in the passionate night; an unseen vapour steams up from the marsh and dims the star-crowded sky and the azure sea; and the next moment the very bliss itself looks as if it had never been more than a phosphorescent gleam -- the summer lightning of the brain. For then the man sees himself but in his own dim mirror, whereas ere he turned to look in that, he knew himself in the absolute clarity of God's present thought out-bodying him. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
1407:Suppose a plane meets with an accident. You are nearby and you rush to the scene. What is the first question that will come to your mind when you see a body in the debris? “Is this person Hindu or Muslim?” No. “Is this person Indian or Chinese?” No. In a split second, and first and foremost, you will look to see whether the body is of a man or a woman. Are you aware of why this question springs to your mind first of all? It is because of repressed sex. It is the repression of sex that makes you so conscious of the difference between a man and a woman. You are able to forget a name, a face, or nationality—if you meet someone, you might forget the name, the face, the caste, the age, the status, everything about the person, but you never forget the sex of a person. One never forgets whether someone was male or female. ~ Osho, #NFDB
1408:The scientist of today is distressed by the fact that the results of his scientific work have created a threat to mankind since they have fallen into the hands of morally blind exponents of political power. He is conscious of the fact that technological methods, made possible by his work, have led to a concentration of economic and also of political power in the hands of small minorities which have come to dominate completely the lives of the masses of people, who appear more and more amorphous. But even worse: the concentration of economic and political power has not only made the man of science dependent economically, it also threatens his independence from within; the shrewd methods of intellectual and psychic influences which it brings to bear will prevent the development of independent personalities. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1409:. . . [Nietzsche] had the good manners to despise Christianity, in large part, for what it actually was--above all, for its devotion to an ethics of compassion--rather than allow himself the soothing, self-righteous fantasy that Christianity’s history had been nothing but an interminable pageant of violence, tyranny, and sexual neurosis. He may have hated many Christians for their hypocrisy, but he hated Christianity itself principally on account of its enfeebling solicitude for the weak, the outcast, the infirm, and the diseased; and, because he was conscious of the historical contingency of all cultural values, he never deluded himself that humanity could do away with Christian faith while simply retaining Christian morality in some diluted form, such as liberal social conscience or innate human sympathy. ~ David Bentley Hart, #NFDB
1410:We teach children to think and decide for themselves, not just pass exams,’ she says first off. ‘Education here is about developing the social and cognitive competencies of a child and experience-based learning. We encourage them to be critical towards the system.’ She tells me that education and democracy have been tied together in Denmark since the Second World War: ‘Children started to be encouraged to think and go against authority if they didn’t agree with what they were being told – this became a priority after the German occupation of Denmark and was something Danes were very conscious of. We wanted citizens who were democratic and could have their own ideas, so self-development is a big part of learning in Denmark.’ ‘So Hitler drove the Danes to teach their schoolkids to question authority?’ ‘Pretty much. ~ Helen Russell, #NFDB
1411:A prominent citizen in a small city State, such as Athens or Florence, could without difficulty feel himself important. The earth was the center of the Universe, man was the purpose of creation, his own city showed man at his best, and he himself was among the best of his own city. In such circumstances Æschylus or Dante could take his own joys or sorrows seriously. He could feel that the emotions of the individual matter, and that tragic occurrences deserve to be celebrated in immortal verse. But the modern man, when misfortune assails him, is conscious of himself as a unit in a statistical total; the past and the future stretch before him in a dreary procession of trivial defeats. Man himself appears as a somewhat ridiculous strutting animal, shouting and fussing during a brief interlude between infinite silences. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
1412:Well,' I answered, 'when a Westerner discusses, say, Hindu-ism or Buddhism, he is always conscious of the fundamental differences between these ideologies and his own. He may admire this or that of their ideas, but would naturally never consider the possibility of substituting them for his own. Because he a priori admits this impossibility, he is able to contemplate such really alien cultures with equanimity and often “with sympathetic appreciation. But when it comes to Islam - which is by no means as alien to Western values as Hindu or Buddhist philosophy this Western equanimity is almost invariably disturbed by an emotional bias. Is it perhaps, I sometimes wonder, because the values of Islam are close enough to those of the West to constitute a potential challenge to many Western concepts of spiritual and social life? ~ Muhammad Asad, #NFDB
1413:The first and foremost thing that must be recognised is that Hindu society is a myth. The name Hindu is itself a foreign name. It was given by the Mahomedans to the natives for the purpose of distinguishing themselves. It does not occur in any Sanskrit work prior to the Mahomedan invasion. They did not feel the necessity of a common name, because they had no conception of their having constituted a community. Hindu society as such does not exist. It is only a collection of castes. Each caste is conscious of its existence. Its survival is the be-all and end-all of its existence. Castes do not even form a federation. A caste has no feeling that is affiliated to other castes, except when there is a Hindu-Moslem riot. On all other occasions each caste endeavours to segregate itself and to distinguish itself from other castes. ~ Romila Thapar, #NFDB
1414:To cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die to those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had of late begun to pamper. To cast it in with Hyde, was to die to a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at a blow and forever, despised and friendless. The bargain might appear unequal; but there was still another consideration in the scales; for while Jekyll would suffer smartingly in the fires of abstinence, Hyde would be not even conscious of all that he had lost. Strange as my circumstances were, the terms of this debate are as old and commonplace as man; much the same inducements and alarms cast the die for any tempted and trembling sinner; and it fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of my fellows, that I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep to it. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
1415:Consciousness is not the product of a special network that enables all of our mental events to be conscious. Instead, each mental event is managed by brain modules that possess the capacity to make us conscious of the results of their processing. The results bubble up from various modules like bubbles in a boiling pot of water. Bubble after bubble, each the end result of a module’s or a group of modules’ processing, pops up and bursts forth for a moment, only to be replaced by others in a constant dynamic motion. Those single bursts of processing parade one after another, seamlessly linked by time. (This metaphor is limited to bubbles roiling up at a rate of twelve frames a second or faster; or consider a cartoon flip book, where the faster we snap the pages, the more continuous the movements of the characters appear.) ~ Michael S Gazzaniga, #NFDB
1416:Sonnet Lix.
Written Sept. 1791, during a remarkable thunder
storm, in which the moon was perfectly clear, while
the tempest gathered in various directions near the
earth.
WHAT awful pageants crowd the evening sky!
The low horizon gathering vapours shroud,
Sudden, from many a deep-embattled cloud
Terrific thunders burst and lightnings fly-While in serenest azure, beaming high,
Night's regent, of her calm pavilion proud,
Gilds the dark shadows that beneath her lie,
Unvex'd by all their conflicts fierce and loud.
--So, in unsullied dignity elate,
A spirit conscious of superior worth,
In placid elevation firmly great,
Scorns the vain cares that give Contention birth;
And blest with peace above the shocks of Fate,
Smiles at the tumult of the troubled earth.
~ Charlotte Smith,#NFDB
1417:I could scarcely remember a time when I was not haunted by the idea of slavery, or was not profoundly conscious of the strange bifurcated world of whiteness and blackness in which I was born and reared. In the Virginia Tidewater region of my beginnings, heavily populated by blacks, society remained firmly in the grip of the Jim Crow laws and their ordinance of a separate and thoroughly unequal way of life. The evidence was blatant and embarrassing even to some white children, like myself, who were presumably brought up to be indifferent to such inequities as the ramshackle black school that stood on the route we traveled to our own up-to-date and well-equipped edifice, with its swank state-of-the-art public address system, very advanced for the late 1930s. Many black schools in Virginia at that time had outside privies. Despite ~ William Styron, #NFDB
1418:In relating the circumstances which have led to my confinement within this refuge for the demented, I am aware that my present position will create a natural doubt of the authenticity of my narrative. It is an unfortunate fact that the bulk of humanity is too limited in its mental vision to weigh with patience and intelligence those isolated phenomena, seen and felt only by a psychologically sensitive few, which lie outside its common experience. Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal; that all things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them; but the prosaic materialism of the majority condemns as madness the flashes of super-sight which penetrate the common veil of obvious empiricism. ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
1419:You know, there's a place we all inhabit, but we don't much think about it, we're scarcely conscious of it, and it lasts for less than a minute a day. It's in the morning, for most of us. It's that time, those few seconds when we're coming out of sleep but we're not really awake yet. For those few seconds we're something more primitive than what we are about to become. We have just slept the sleep of our most distant ancestors, and something of them and their world still clings to us. For those few moments we are unformed, uncivilized. We are not the people we know as ourselves, but creatures more in tune with a tree than a keyboard. We are untitled, unnamed, natural, suspended between was and will be, the tadpole before the frog, the worm before the butterfly. We are, for a few brief moments, anything and everything we could be. ~ Jerry Spinelli, #NFDB
1420:Entering the spiritual path means you have become conscious of your suffering. You were suffering unconsciously; now you have become conscious of it. Conscious suffering is always deeper than unconscious suffering, but it is good; at least you’re conscious about it. As long as you haven’t become conscious, the suffering will always remain. Once you have become conscious, it need not remain forever. There’s a possibility, isn’t it? Entering the spiritual path is a possibility, being with a Guru is a possibility, that’s all it is. If the possibility has to become a reality, the first thing is that you’re willing to see everything the way it is. You’re at least willing to recognize your limitations. If you want to hide your limitations, where’s the question of liberation? Where is the possibility? You have destroyed it completely, isn’t it? ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
1421:Outside the wind blew by; in here there was nothing but the beating of the hot sun on the skin. He lay a while, intensely conscious of the welcome heat, in a state of self-induced voluptuousness. When he looked at the sun, his eyes closed almost tight, he saw webs of crystalline fire crawling across the narrow space between the slitted lids, and his eyelashes made the furry beams of light stretch out, recede, stretch out. It was a long time since he had lain naked in the sun. He remembered that if you stayed out long enough the rays drew every thought out of your head. That was what he wanted, to be baked dry and hard, to feel the vaporous worries evaporating one by one, to know finally that all the damp little doubts and hesitations that covered the floor of his being were curling up and expiring in the great furnace-blast of the sun. ~ Paul Bowles, #NFDB
1422:For the rest of the earth’s organisms, existence is relatively uncomplicated. Their lives are about three things: survival, reproduction, death—and nothing else. But we know too much to content ourselves with surviving, reproducing, dying—and nothing else. We know we are alive and know we will die. We also know we will suffer during our lives before suffering—slowly or quickly—as we draw near to death. This is the knowledge we “enjoy” as the most intelligent organisms to gush from the womb of nature. And being so, we feel shortchanged if there is nothing else for us than to survive, reproduce, and die. We want there to be more to it than that, or to think there is. This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are—hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1423:But the soul which arrives at this stage of realization consciously has a different experience. The difference is like that of one person having been pulled, with his back turned to the source, and another person having journeyed towards the goal, enjoying at every step each experience it has met with, and rejoicing at every moment of this journey in approaching nearer to the goal. What does this soul, conscious of its progress towards the goal, realize? It realizes with every veil it has thrown off a greater power, and increased inspiration, until it arrives at a stage, after having passed through the sphere of the jinns and the heaven of the angels, when it realizes that error which it had known, and yet not known fully; the error it made in identifying itself with its reflection, with its shadow falling on these different planes. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
1424:For the rest of the earth’s organisms, existence is relatively uncomplicated. Their lives are about three things: survival, reproduction, death—and nothing else. But we know too much to content ourselves with surviving, reproducing, dying—and nothing else. We know we are alive and know we will die. We also know we will suffer during our lives before suffering—slowly or quickly—as we draw near to death. This is the knowledge we “enjoy” as the most intelligent organisms to gush from the womb of nature. And being so, we feel shortchanged if there is nothing else for us than to survive, reproduce, and die. We want there to be more to it than that, or to think there is. This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are—hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones. ~ Thomas Ligotti, #NFDB
1425:In the change-over from the village to the city, there is some further confirmation of this reading of communal ways: for the land and all it brought forth became the property of the temple and the god; even the peasants who worked it belonged to the temple, and all the other members of the community belonged to the land, too, and were obliged to give part of their labor to the common tasks of digging and embanking and building. These posessions, with the extension of the secular powers of kingship, would become the royal estate; and identification of the common domain with the sovereign power sank so deep that even in modern states most sharply conscious of the rights of private property, the state itself is the ultimate owner and residuary legatee, with that power to commandeer and to tax which is ultimately the power to possess or destroy. ~ Lewis Mumford, #NFDB
1426:He could not consent to allow himself to be insulted, still less to allow himself to be treated as a rag, and, above all, to allow a thoroughly vicious man to treat him so. No quarrelling, however, no quarrelling! Possibly if some one wanted, if some one, for instance, actually insisted on turning Mr. Golyadkin into a rag, he might have done so, might have done so without opposition or punishment (Mr. Golyadkin was himself conscious of this at times), and he would have been a rag and not Golyadkin - yes, a nasty, filthy rag; but that rag would not have been a simple rag, it would have been a rag possessed of dignity, it would have been a rag possessed of feelings and sentiments, even though dignity was defenceless and feelings could not assert themselves, and lay hidden deep down in the filthy folds of the rag, still the feelings there... ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1427:Are you conscious of a growing failure of your bodily powers? Do you expect to suffer long nights of languishing and days of pain? O be not sad! That bed may become a throne to you. You little know how every pang that shoots through your body may be a refining fire to consume your dross--a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of your soul. Are the eyes growing dim? Jesus will be your light. Do the ears fail you? Jesus' name will be your soul's best music, and His person your dear delight. Socrates used to say, "Philosophers can be happy without music;" and Christians can be happier than philosophers when all outward causes of rejoicing are withdrawn. In Thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me here below. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1428:The world is a good judge of things, for it is in natural ignorance, which is man's true state. The sciences have two extremes which meet. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at birth. The other extreme is that reached by great intellects, who, having run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back again to that same ignorance from which they set out; but this is a learned ignorance which is conscious of itself. Those between the two, who have departed from natural ignorance and not been able to reach the other, have some smattering of this vain knowledge and pretend to be wise. These trouble the world and are bad judges of everything. The people and the wise constitute the world; these despise it, and are despised. They judge badly of everything, and the world judges rightly of them. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
1429:Immortality: "It is impossible to be conscious of being unconscious."
It is not possible to be aware of being unconscious from your own perspective. You cannot be aware of not being aware. You can be less aware/conscious, such as when you are asleep, but not completely unconscious (dead), because time would stand still for you. A billion years could pass, and you would not know it.
How do you know you are dead? It is not possible to be aware of any gaps in life; it is continuous and never-ending from your own point of view.
Death and birth are a continuous event from your own perspective.
You will die physically, but you will be born into a new physical body. Being born happens, or you would not be here now. You were born into this life. It is what we know happens. There is no evidence anything else happens. True or false? ~ Michael Smith,#NFDB
1430:Sadhana Just experiment. Start with twenty-five percent natural, uncooked, or live food—fruit or vegetables—today, and slowly push it up to a hundred percent in about four or five days. Stay there for a day or two, and again cut it down by ten percent and in another five days you will reach fifty percent raw food, fifty percent cooked food. This is ideal for most people, who wish to be active for sixteen to eighteen hours a day. Remember, if you eat cooked food, it may take you fifteen minutes to eat a meal. If you eat raw food, you take a little more time to eat the same quantum of food, because you have to chew a little more. But the nature of the body is such that after fifteen minutes the body will tell you that your meal is over. So people tend to eat much less and lose weight. All it takes is being a little more conscious of how much you are eating. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
1431:To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself -- that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink. ~ George Orwell, 1984, #NFDB
1432:But it isn’t only the terror everywhere, and the fear of being conscious of it, that freezes people. It’s more than that. People know they are in a society dead or dying. They are refusing emotion because at the end of every emotion are property, money, power. They work and despise their work, and so freeze themselves. They love but know that it’s a half-love or a twisted love, and so they freeze themselves.
It is possible that in order to keep love, feeling, tenderness alive, it will be necessary to feel these emotions ambiguously, even for what is false and debased, or for what is still an idea, a shadow in the willed imagination only … or if what we feel is pain, then we must feel it, acknowledging that the alternative is death. Better anything than the shrewd, the calculated, the non-committal, the refusal of giving for fear of the consequences … ~ Doris Lessing,#NFDB
1433:I recollected that [the rattlesnake's] eye excelled in brightness, that of any other animal, and that she has no eye-lids. She may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance. She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. As if anxious to prevent all pretensions of quarreling with her, the weapons with which nature has furnished her, she conceals in the roof of her mouth, so that, to those who are unacquainted with her, she appears to be a most defenseless animal; and even when those weapons are shown and extended for her defense, they appear weak and contemptible; but their wounds however small, are decisive and fatal. Conscious of this, she never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
1434:The meaning and worth of love, as a feeling, is that it really forces us, with all our being, to acknowledge for ANOTHER the same absolute central significance which, because of the power of our egoism, we are conscious of only in our own selves. Love is important not as one of our feelings, but as the transfer of all our interest in life from ourselves to another, as the shifting of the very centre of our personal life. This is characteristic of every kind of love, but predominantly of sexual love; it is distinguished from other kinds of love by greater intensity, by a more engrossing character, and by the possibility of a more complete overall reciprocity. Only this love can lead to the real and indissoluble union of two lives into one; only of it do the words of Holy Writ say: 'They shall be one flesh,' i.e., shall become one real being. ~ Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov, #NFDB
1435:When the workers of a single factory or of a single branch of industry engage in struggle against their employer or employers, is this class struggle? No, this is only a weak embryo of it. The struggle of the workers becomes a class struggle only when all the foremost representatives of the entire working class of the whole country are conscious of themselves as a single working class and launch a struggle that is directed, not against individual employers, but against the entire class of capitalists and against the government that supports that class. Only when the individual worker realizes that he is a member of the entire working class, only when he recognises the fact that his petty day-to-day struggle against individual employers and individual government officials is a struggle against the entire bourgeoisie and the entire government, does his struggle become a class struggle. ~ Vladimir Lenin, #NFDB
1436:Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux
of all things? Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate
themselves are the beautiful type of all influence. Man is conscious of a
universal soul within or behind his individual life, wherein, as in a firmament,
the natures of Justice, Truth, Love, Freedom, arise and shine. This universal
soul, he calls Reason: it is not mine, or thine, or his, but we are its; we are
its property and men. And the blue sky in which the private earth is buried, the
sky with its eternal calm, and full of everlasting orbs, is the type of Reason.
That which, intellectually considered, we call Reason, considered in relation to
nature, we call Spirit. Spirit is the Creator. Spirit hath life in itself. And
man in all ages and countries, embodies it in his language, as the FATHER. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#NFDB
1437:Nothing of the sort. I knew you came from Afghanistan. From long habit the train of thoughts ran so swiftly through my mind, that I arrived at the conclusion without being conscious of intermediate steps. There were such steps, however. The train of reasoning ran, 'Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor, then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.' The whole train of thought did not occupy a second. I then remarked that you came from Afghanistan, and you were astonished. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
1438:This whole problem of naming a feeling, of giving it a term, is part of the problem of consciousness. Take a word like 'love'. How immediately your mind rejoices in that word! It has such significance, such beauty, ease, and all the rest of it. And the word 'hate' immediately has quite another significance, something to be avoided, to be got rid of, to be shunned, and so on. So words have an extraordinary psychological effect on the mind, whether we are conscious of it or not.
Now, to go beyond, to transcend all that, requires tremendous attention. This total attention, in which there is no choice, no sense of becoming, of changing, altering, wholly frees the mind from the process of self-consciousness; there is then no experiencer who is accumulating, and it is only then that the mind can be truly said to be free from sorrow. It is the accumulation that is the cause of sorrow. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti,#NFDB
1439:Ruskin’s interest in beauty and in its possession led him to five central conclusions. First, beauty was the result of a number of complex factors that affected the mind both psychologically and visually. Second, humans had an innate tendency to respond to beauty and to desire to possess it. Third, there were many lower expressions of this desire for possession (including, as we have seen, buying souvenirs and carpets, carving one’s name on a pillar and taking photographs). Fourth, there was only one way to possess beauty properly, and that was by understanding it, by making oneself conscious of the factors (psychological and visual) responsible for it. And last, the most effective means of pursuing this conscious understanding was by attempting to describe beautiful places through art, by writing about or drawing them, irrespective of whether one happened to have any talent for doing so. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
1440:So what do you do when you are stuck?
The first thing I do when I am stuck is pray. But I’m not talking about a quick, Help me Lord, Sunday’s a comin’ prayer. When I get stuck I get up from my desk to head for my closet. Literally. If I‘m at the office I go over to a corner that I have deemed my closet away from home. I get on my knees and remind God that this was not my idea, it was His…
None of this is new information to God…
Then I ask God to show me if there is something He wants to say to prepare me for what He wants me to communicate to our congregation. I surrender my ideas, my outline and my topic. Then I just stay in that quiet place until God quiets my heart…
Many times I will have a breakthrough thought or idea that brings clarity to my message. . .
Like you, I am simply a mouthpiece. Getting stuck is one way God keeps me ever conscious of that fact. ~ Andy Stanley,#NFDB
1441:Was she conscious of her talent? Hardly. If asked about her cooking, Grandma would look down at her hands which some glorious instinct sent on journeys to be gloved in flour, or to plumb disencumbered turkeys, wrist-deep in search of their animal souls. Her gray eyes blinked from spectacles warped by forty years of oven blasts and blinded with strewing of pepper and sage, so she sometimes flung cornstarch over steaks, amazingly tender, succulent steaks! And sometimes dropped apricots into meat loaves, cross-pollinated meats, herbs, fruits, vegetables with no prejudice, no tolerance for recipe or formula, save that at the final moment of delivery, mouths watered, blood thundered in response. Her hands then, like the hands of Great-grandma before her, were Grandma's mystery, delight, and life. She looked at them in astonishment, but let them live their life in the way they must absolutely lead it. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1442:It would have been absurd of him to trace into ramifications the effect of the ribbon from which Miss Gostrey’s trinket depended, had he not for the hour, at the best, been so given over to uncontrolled perception. What was it but an uncontrolled perception that his friend’s velvet band somehow added, in her appearance, to the value of every other item – to that of her smile and of the way she carried her head, to that of her complexion, of her lips, her teeth, her eyes, her hair? What, certainly, had a man conscious of a man’s work in the world to do with red velvet bands? He would n’t for anything have so exposed himself as to tell Miss Gostrey how much he liked hers, yet he had none the less not only caught himself in the act – frivolous, no doubt, idiotic, and above all unexpected – of liking it: he had in addition taken it as a starting point for fresh backward, fresh forward, fresh lateral flights. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
1443:feel that such obvious age-old “truisms” simply must be real. They think that if they don’t continue to believe these thoughts, they are lying to themselves. Once again, remember that to know what is true and what is not, you have to be conscious of the thoughts and have an intelligent perspective on them. Most negative thinking is automatic and goes unnoticed. You’re not really choosing how to respond to your situation, it’s being chosen for you by bad brain habits. To find out what is really true and what is not, you need to question it. Don’t believe everything you hear—even in your own mind! I often ask my patients about their ANT population. Is it high? Low? Dwindling? Or increasing? Keep control over the ANTs in order to maintain a healthy deep limbic environment. Whenever you notice an ANT entering your mind, train yourself to recognize it and write it down. When you write down automatic negative ~ Daniel G Amen, #NFDB
1444:It was the Law of Attraction that she was referring to, and it was something I had always understood on a certain, nebulous level but rarely had paid attention to until a situation got so extreme that I had no other choice but to listen because I was out of other options. Like attracts like. Positive attracts positive, negative attracts negative. Change your outlook, change your day-to-day experience, change your future, change your world. Now that I was more conscious of it, I was working to enact it more into my life by making better choices and opening myself to the change that appeared for me to reach out and experience. That was key, too--being open to the change and allowing it to happen. Not being too afraid to experience something efferent and unfamiliar. Allowing yourself to stretch and grow in new ways of being. Change was scary, but it was exciting, too. It all comes back to you and your outlook. ~ Madelyn Alt, #NFDB
1445:You will wait until Ernest returns, and he will accompany you to market."
"That won't be until midmorning," she said indignantly. "I can't wait that long- all the best goods will be gone by then. In fact, the stalls are being picked over right now."
"That is a pity," Ross said without a shred of remorse. "Because you're not going alone. That is my final word on the subject."
Sophia leaned over his desk. For the first time in two days, she met his gaze directly. Ross was conscious of a deep delight curling through him as he saw the sparks of challenge in her blue eyes. "Sir Ross, when we first met, I wondered if you had any flaws. Now I have discovered that you do."
"Oh?" He arched one brow. "What are my flaws?"
"You are overbearing, and you are unreasonably stubborn."
Morgan interrupted with a snicker. "It has taken you a full month of working here to reach that conclusion, Miss Sydney? ~ Lisa Kleypas,#NFDB
1446:Ever since I was fifteen, that is to say from that moment when I lost all that was left me of my childhood, from the moment when I ceased to be aware of the present and knew only the past hurrying into the future, that is to say into the abyss, ever since I became fully conscious of time I have felt old and I have wanted to live. I have run after life as though to catch time, and I have tried to live. I have run after life so much that it has always escaped me, I have run, I have never been late and never too early, and yet I have never caught up with it: it is as though I have run alongside of it.
What is life, I may be asked. For me, life is not Time; it is not this state of existence, for ever escaping us, slipping between our fingers and vanishing like a ghost as soon as you try to grasp it. For me it is, it must be, the present, presentness, plenitude. I have run after life so much that I have lost it. ~ Eug ne Ionesco,#NFDB
1447:And none of those present, from the inspector down to Máslova, seemed conscious of the fact that this Jesus, whose name the priest repeated such a great number of times, and whom he praised with all these curious expressions, had forbidden the very things that were being done there; that He had prohibited not only this meaningless much-speaking and the blasphemous incantation over the bread and wine, but had also, in the clearest words, forbidden men to call other men their master, and to pray in temples; and had ordered that every one should pray in solitude, had forbidden to erect temples, saying that He had come to destroy them, and that one should worship, not in a temple, but in spirit and in truth; and, above all, that He had forbidden not only to judge, to imprison, to torment, to execute men, as was being done here, but had prohibited any kind of violence, saying that He had come to give freedom to the captives. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1448:An aspect of the difference between the two writers was brought home to me in connection with one of Guénon's masterpieces, The Reign of Quantity. I had the privilege of being the first person to read this book which the author gave me chapter by chapter. When it was finished he said: "Now I will write a fair copy of it." But the fair copy proved to be almost identical with the so-called "rough copy", whereas when Schuon wrote a fair copy many changes were made in the process, nor was there any guarantee, to say the least, that the fair copy would not become itself a rough copy for a still fairer copy. Not that he had any difficulty writing, and he himself also 'shot arrows' in his own particular way. But he never simplified, and he was exceedingly conscious of the extreme complexity of the truth on certain planes, nor was he easily satisfied that he had done justice to that complexity.
Temenos Academy talk - 14/07/1999 ~ Martin Lings,#NFDB
1449:Mind, in the way I use the word, is not just thought. It includes your emotions as well as all unconscious mental-emotional reactive patterns. Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body’s reaction to your mind — or you might say, a reflection of your mind in the body. For example, an attack thought or a hostile thought will create a buildup of energy in the body that we call anger. The body is getting ready to fight. The thought that you are being threatened, physically or psychologically, causes the body to contract, and this is the physical side of what we call fear. Research has shown that strong emotions even cause changes in the biochemistry of the body. These biochemical changes represent the physical or material aspect of the emotion. Of course, you are not usually conscious of all your thought patterns, and it is often only through watching your emotions that you can bring them into awareness. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1450:He got up to put on a record, vinyl was his thing now. He liked the step-by-stepness of it, the process. He held the record the way people hold records, not with his fingers but with his palms. He blew on it. The music was a soft whisper, one acoustic guitar, no voices. When he came back to the table he asked me to look at his eyes.
They’re seeping, he said. Like I have an infection or something.
Pink eye? I asked.
I don’t know, he said. They always seem to be running, just clear liquid, not pus. I lie in bed and all this liquid dribbles out the sides. Maybe I should see a doctor, or optometrist or something.
You’re crying Nic.
No…
Yes. That’s what they call crying.
But all of the time? he asked. I’m not even conscious of it then.
It’s a new kind of crying, I said. For the new times. I leaned over and put my hands on his shoulders and then on the sides of his face in the same way that he’d held his record. ~ Miriam Toews,#NFDB
1451:How come the left brain doesn’t complain about the fact that it is no longer conscious of things on the left side of space? Imagine having your brain disconnected. Imagine waking up in your hospital room the next morning and, as your surgeon walks in to see how you are faring, you only see the left half of her face. Don’t you think you would notice that the right half is not there? The thing is, you would not. In fact, your left hemisphere wouldn’t even be conscious of the fact that there is a left half of space. But this is the weird part: I spoke as if the new, split version of you were just your left hemisphere, and that is not true. You are also your right hemisphere. The new “yous” have two minds with two completely separate pools of perceptual and cognitive information. It is just that only one of the minds can readily speak. The other initially cannot. Perhaps, after many years, it will be able to produce a few words. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga, #NFDB
1452:With the advent of medieval Scholasticism, … we find a clear distinction between theologia and philosophia. Theology became conscious of its autonomy qua supreme science, which philosophy was emptied of its spiritual exercises, which, from now on, were relegated to Christian mysticism and ethics. Reduced to the rank of a “handmaid of theology,” philosophy’s role was henceforth to furnish theology with conceptual—and hence purely theoretical—material. When, in the modern age, philosophy regained its autonomy, it still retained many features inherited from this medieval conception. In particular, it maintained its purely theoretical character, which even evolved in the direction of a more and more thorough systemization. Not until Nietzsche, Bergson, and existentialism does philosophy consciously return to being a concrete attitude, a way of life and of seeing the world. ~ Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, trans. Michael Chase (1995), p. 107., #NFDB
1453:A boy was staring at me.
I was quite sure I'd never seen him befroe. Long and leanly muscular, he dwarfed and the molded plastic elementary school chair he was sitting in. Mahogany hair, straight and short. He looked my age, maybe a year older, and he sat with his tailbone against the edge of the chair, his posture aggresively poor, one hand half in a pocket of dark jeans.
I looked away, suddenly conscious of my myriad insufficiencies. I was wearing old jeans, which had once been tight but now sagged in weird places, and a yellow T-shirt advertising a band I didn't even like anymore. Also my hair: I had this pageboy haircut, and I hadn't even bothered to, like, brush it. Furthermore, I had ridiculously fat chipmunked cheeks, a side effect of treatment. I looked like a normally proportioned person with a balloon for a head. This was not even to mention the canckle situation. And yet-I cut a glance to him, and his eyes were still on me. ~ John Green,#NFDB
1454:I also enjoy canoeing, and I suppose you will smile when I say that I especially like it on moonlight nights. I cannot, it is true, see the moon climb up the sky behind the pines and steal softly across the heavens, making a shining path for us to follow; but I know she is there, and as I lie back among the pillows and put my hand in the water, I fancy that I feel the shimmer of her garments as she passes. Sometimes a daring little fish slips between my fingers, and often a pond-lily presses shyly against my hand. Frequently, as we emerge from the shelter of a cove or inlet, I am suddenly conscious of the spaciousness of the air about me. A luminous warmth seems to enfold me. Whether it comes from the trees which have been heated by the sun, or from the water, I can never discover. I have had the same strange sensation even in the heart of the city. I have felt it on cold, stormy days and at night. It is like the kiss of warm lips on my face. ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
1455:Finding The Man. Keeping The Man. Not scaring The Man, building up The Man, following The Man, soothing The Man, flattering The Man, deferring to The Man, changing your judgement for The Man, changing your decisions for The Man, polishing floors for The Man, being perpetually conscious of your appearance for The Man, being romantic for The Man, hinting to The Man, losing yourself in The Man. 'I never had a thought that wasn't yours.' Sob, sob. Whenever I act like a human being, they say, 'What are you getting upset about?' They say: of course you'll get married. They say: of course you're brilliant. They say: of course you'll get a PhD and then sacrifice it to have babies. They say: if you don't, you're the one who'll have two jobs and you can make a go of it if you're exceptional, which very few women are, and if you find a very understanding man. As long as you don't make more money than he does. How do they expect me to live all this junk? ~ Joanna Russ, #NFDB
1456:So what will happen to your consciousness [after you die]? *Your* consciousness, yours, not anyone else's. Well, what are *you*? There's the point. Let's try to find out. What is it about you that you have always known as yourself? What are you conscious of in yourself? Your kidneys? Your liver? Your blood vessels? No. However far back you go in your memory, it is always in some external, active manifestation of yourself that you come across your identity--in the work of your hands, in your family, in other people. And now listen carefully. You in others--this is your soul. This is what you are. This is what your consciousness has breathed and lived on and enjoyed throughout your life--your soul, your immortality, your life in others. And what now? You have always been in others and you will remain in others. And what does it matter to you if later on that is called your memory? This will be you--the you that enters the future and becomes part of it. ~ Boris Pasternak, #NFDB
1457:As my voice died away I became conscious of the voice of another woman two tables away. I couldn't hear what she was saying to her set-faced male companion, but the tone was the same as my own, the exact same plangent composite of need and recrimination. I stared at them. Their faces said it all: his awful detachment, her hideous yearning. And as I looked around the cafe at couple after couple, eaching confronting one another over the marble table tops, I had the beginnings of an intimation.
Perhaps all this awful mismatching, this emotional grating, these Mexican stand-offs of trust and commitment, were somehow in the air. It wasn't down to individuals: me and him, Grace and John, those two over there... It was a contagion that was getting to all of us; a germ of insecurity that had lodged in all our breasts and was now fissioning frantically, creating a domino effect as relationship after relationship collapsed in a rubble of mistrust and acrimony. ~ Will Self,#NFDB
1458:When I taught the meditation on sound to the participants at my weekend workshop and had people open to the ringing of their cell phones, I was trying to introduce them to his method. By listening meditatively, we were changing the way we listen, pulling ourselves out of our usual orientation to the world based on our likes and dislikes. Rather than trying to figure out what was going on around us, resisting the unpleasant noises and gravitating toward the mellifluous ones, we were listening in a simpler and more open manner. We had to find and establish another point of reference to listen in this way, one that was outside the ego’s usual territory of control. You might say we were simply listening, but it was actually more complex than that. While listening, we were also aware of ourselves listening, and at the same time we were conscious of what the listening evoked within. Unhooked from our usual preoccupations, we were listening from a neutral place. ~ Mark Epstein, #NFDB
1459:There are people," my father continued, "who are born to be unhappy and to make others unhappy, who are the victims of celestial intrigues incomprehensible to us, guinea pigs for the celestial machinery, rebels allotted the part of a rebel yet born - by the cruel logic of the celestial comedy - with their wings clipped. They are titans without the power of titans, dwarf-titans whose only greatness was given them in the form of a rigid dose of sensitivity that dissolves their trifling strength like alcohol. They follow their star, their sick sensibility, borne along by titanic plans and intentions, but then break like waves against the rocky banks of triviality. The height of the cruelty allotted them in lucidity, that awareness of their own limitations, that sick capacity for dissociation. I look at myself in the role forced on me by the heavens and by fate, conscious of my role at all times yet at the same time unable to resist it with the force of logic or will. ~ Danilo Ki, #NFDB
1460:Besides, they say, when we eat something, what really happens is this. Our failing health starts fighting off the attacks of hunger, using the food as an ally. Gradually it begins to prevail, and, in this very process of winning back its normal strength, experiences the sense of enjoyment which we find so refreshing. Now, if health enjoys the actual battle, why wouldn't it also enjoy the victory? Or are we to suppose that when it has finally managed to regain its former vigour - the one thing that it has been fighting for all this time - it promptly falls into a coma, and fails to notice or take advantage of its success? As for the idea that one isn't conscious of health except through its opposite, they say that's quite untrue. Everyone's perfectly aware of feeling well, unless he's asleep or actually feeling ill. Even the most insensitive and apathetic sort of person will admit that it's delightful to be healthy - and what is delight, but a synonym for pleasure? ~ Thomas More, #NFDB
1461:Freud's greatest discovery, the one which lies at the root of psychodynamics, is that the great cause of much psychological illness is the fear of knowledge of oneself-one one's emotions, impulses, memories, capacities, potentialities, of ones' destiny. We have discovered that fear of knowledge of oneself is very often isomorphic with, and parallel with, fear of the outside world.
And what is this fear, but a fear of the reality of creation in relation to our powers and possibilities:
In general this kind of fear is defensive, in the sense that it is a protection of our self-esteem, of our love and respect for ourselves. We tend to be afraid of any knowledge that could cause us to despise ourselves or to make us feel inferior, weak, worthless, evil, shameful. We protect ourselves and our ideal image of ourselves by repression and similar defenses, which are essentially techniques by which we avoid becoming conscious of unpleasant or dangerous truths. ~ Ernest Becker,#NFDB
1462:Hatred is the sign and the expression of loneliness, of unworthiness, of insufficiency. And in so far as each one of us is lonely, is unworthy, each one hates himself. Some of us are aware of this self-hatred, and because of it we reproach ourselves and punish ourselves needlessly. Punishment cannot cure the feeling that we are unworthy. There is nothing we can do about it as long as we feel that we are isolated, insufficient, helpless, alone. Others, who are less conscious of their own self-hatred, realize it in a different form by projecting it on to others. There is a proud and self-confident hate, strong and cruel, which enjoys the pleasure of hating, for it is directed outward to the unworthiness of another. But this strong and happy hate does not realize that like all hate, it destroys and consumes the self that hates, and not the object that is hated. Hate in any form is self-destructive, and even when it triumphs physically it triumphs in its own spiritual ruin. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1463:Practicing mindfulness calms down the sympathetic nervous system, so that you are less likely to be thrown into fight-or-flight.11 Learning to observe and tolerate your physical reactions is a prerequisite for safely revisiting the past. If you cannot tolerate what you are feeling right now, opening up the past will only compound the misery and retraumatize you further.12 We can tolerate a great deal of discomfort as long as we stay conscious of the fact that the body’s commotions constantly shift. One moment your chest tightens, but after you take a deep breath and exhale, that feeling softens and you may observe something else, perhaps a tension in your shoulder. Now you can start exploring what happens when you take a deeper breath and notice how your rib cage expands.13 Once you feel calmer and more curious, you can go back to that sensation in your shoulder. You should not be surprised if a memory spontaneously arises in which that shoulder was somehow involved. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk, #NFDB
1464:There’s a big difference between merely carrying the world inside you and knowing that you do! A madman can produce ideas that resemble Plato’s, and a pious little schoolboy in a Herrnhut institute can creatively reconstruct profound mythological associations in his mind, ideas to be found in the Gnostics or Zoroaster. But he doesn’t know he’s doing it! He’s a tree or a stone, at best an animal, just as long as he doesn’t know that. But when the first spark of that knowledge glimmers, he becomes a human being. You certainly don’t consider all the bipeds running around the street to be human beings merely because they walk upright and carry their young for nine months? After all, you see how many of them are fish or sheep, worms or leeches, how many are ants, how many are bees! Now, each one of them has the potentiality of becoming a human being, but only when he senses that potential, when he even learns to be conscious of it to some degree, does that potential belong to him. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
1465:To see, know, become and fulfil this One in our inner selves and in all our outer nature, was always the secret goal and becomes now the conscious purpose of our embodied existence. To be conscious of him in all parts of our being and equally in all that the dividing mind sees as outside our being, is the consummation of the individual consciousness. To be possessed by him and possess him in ourselves and in all things is the term of all empire and mastery. To enjoy him in all experience of passivity and activity, of peace and of power, of unity and of difference is the happiness which the Jiva, the individual soul manifested in the world, is obscurely seeking. This is the entire definition of the aim of integral Yoga; it is the rendering in personal experience of the truth which universal Nature has hidden in herself and which she travails to discover. It is the conversion of the human soul into the divine soul and of natural life into divine living.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#NFDB
1466:The man of perfect virtue in repose has no thoughts, in action no anxiety. He recognizes no right, nor wrong, nor good, nor bad. Within the Four Seas, when all profit—that is his repose. Men cling to him as children who have lost their mothers; they rally around him as wayfarers who have missed their road. He has wealth to spare, but he knows not whence it comes. He has food and drink more than sufficient, but knows not who provides it…. In an age of perfect virtue, good men are not appreciated; ability is not conspicuous. Rulers are mere beacons, while the people are as free as the wild deer. They are upright without being conscious of duty to their neighbors. They love one another without being conscious of charity. They are true without being conscious of loyalty. They are honest without being conscious of good faith. They act freely in all things without recognizing obligations to anyone. Thus, their deeds leave no trace; their affairs are not handed down to posterity.5 [62a] ~ Alan W Watts, #NFDB
1467:The British, representing a democracy with a free press and conscious of their international image, were susceptible to such shaming. But in Mahatma Gandhi’s own day non-violence could have done nothing for the Jews of Hitler’s Germany, who disappeared into gas chambers far from the flashbulbs of a war-obsessed press. It is ironically to the credit of the British Raj that it faced an opponent like Mahatma Gandhi and allowed him to succeed. The power of non-violence rests in being able to say, ‘to show you that you are wrong, I punish myself’. But that has little effect on those who are not interested in whether they are wrong and are already seeking to punish you whether you disagree with them or not. For them your willingness to undergo punishment is the most convenient means of victory. No wonder Nelson Mandela, who wrote that Gandhi had ‘always’ been ‘a great source of inspiration’, explicitly disavowed non-violence as useless in his struggle against the ruthless apartheid regime. ~ Shashi Tharoor, #NFDB
1468:We’re all good when we want to be, otherwise we’re fucking animals. There’s no VIP room in reality, and there is no reality in this city. You can’t Google the answers. People talke about being on the ride of your life—THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Whatever you need to know, you already know. Imagine what it is to be in another country, another landscape—heat, insects, fear. Imagine watching someone right in front of you trip on a wire, step on a mine, blow their body to shreds, in mid-sentences, mid-cigarette. Imagine yourself splattered with human flesh. Imagine talking to that boy for the five minutes when he is profoundly conscious of the fact that he is not goingt to make it home. Imagine the difference between that and being in upstate New York, drinking beer, trying to get laid, and spending the summer as lifeguard at Lake George. Imagine zipping your friends into body bags. Tell me why anyone ever thought this was a good idea. How could anyone not be angry? You’d have to be insane.” --Nic Thompson ~ A M Homes, #NFDB
1469:Hunter disappeared once, returning a few minutes later with a bouquet of wild flowers. When Swift Antelope and Amy weren’t watching, he dragged her behind bushes to kiss her. Several times, on toward evening, he pressed his palm against her belly and raised a questioning brow. Loretta blushed, well aware of what he was asking. She was still tender from his lovemaking, but not so much as the night before. Yet how could she tell him? Ladies didn’t speak of such things, not even to their husbands.
At dusk the four of them stopped en route home to sit on the riverbank under a canopy of cottonwood trees. Loretta hugged her bent knees, gazing at the reflection of leaves and fading sunlight on the water, only half-aware of Amy and Swift Antelope’s chatter. Hunter stretched out beside her, head propped on one hand, his eyes never leaving her. She was acutely conscious of his gaze, and when it started to unnerve her, she finally turned to look at him. Banked embers of passion glowed in his eyes. ~ Catherine Anderson,#NFDB
1470:I believe that our species will not last long. It does not seem to be made of the stuff that has allowed the turtle, for example, to continue to exist more or less unchanged for hundreds of millions of years, for hundreds of times longer, that is, than we have even been in existence. We belong to a short-lived genus of species. All of our cousins are already extinct. What’s more, we do damage. The brutal climate and environmental changes that we have triggered are unlikely to spare us. For Earth they may turn out to be a small irrelevant blip, but I do not think that we will outlast them unscathed—especially since public and political opinion prefers to ignore the dangers that we are running, hiding our heads in the sand. We are perhaps the only species on Earth to be conscious of the inevitability of our individual mortality. I fear that soon we shall also have to become the only species that will knowingly watch the coming of its own collective demise, or at least the demise of its civilization. ~ Carlo Rovelli, #NFDB
1471:Some people, when they do someone a favor, are always looking for a chance to call it in. And some aren’t, but they’re still aware of it—still regard it as a debt. But others don’t even do that. They’re like a vine that produces grapes without looking for anything in return. A horse at the end of the race . . . A dog when the hunt is over . . . A bee with its honey stored . . . And a human being after helping others. They don’t make a fuss about it. They just go on to something else, as the vine looks forward to bearing fruit again in season. We should be like that. Acting almost unconsciously. —Yes. Except conscious of it. Because it’s characteristic of social beings that they see themselves as acting socially. And expect their neighbors to see it too! That’s true. But you’re misunderstanding me. You’ll wind up like the people I mentioned before, misled by plausible reasoning. But if you make an effort to understand what I’m saying, then you won’t need to worry about neglecting your social duty. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1472:There are no situations we cannot get out of, we are not condemned to sink into quicksand, in which the more we move the deeper we sink. Jesus is there, his hand extended, ready to reach out to us and pull us out of the mud, out of sin, out of the abyss of evil into which we have fallen. We need only be conscious of our state, be honest with ourselves, and not lick our wounds. We need to ask for the grace to recognize ourselves as sinners. The more we acknowledge that we are in need, the more shame and humility we feel, the sooner we will feel his embrace of grace. Jesus waits for us, he goes ahead of us, he extends his hand to us, he is patient with us. God is faithful. Mercy will always be greater than any sin, no one can put a limit on the love of the all-forgiving God. Just by looking at him, just by raising our eyes from our selves and our wounds, we leave an opening for the action of his grace. Jesus performs miracles with our sins, with what we are, with our nothingness, with our wretchedness. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1473:As a fact, we cannot give suffering precedence in either our individual or collective lives. We have to get on with things, and those who give precedence to suffering will be left behind. They fetter us with their sniveling. We have someplace to go and must believe we can get there, wherever that may be. And to conceive that there is a 'brotherhood of suffering between everything alive' would disable us from getting anywhere. We are preoccupied with the good life, and step by step are working toward a better life. What we do, as a conscious species, is set markers for ourselves. Once we reach one marker, we advance to the next — as if we were playing a board game we think will never end, despite the fact that it will, like it or not. And if you are too conscious of not liking it, then you may conceive of yourself as a biological paradox that cannot live with its consciousness and cannot live without it. And in so living and not living, you take your place with the undead and the human puppet. ~ Thomas Ligotti, #NFDB
1474:Today everybody admits that something is wrong with the world, and the critics of Christianity are the very people who feel this most. The most violent attacks on religion come from those who are most anxious to change the world, and they attack Christianity because they think that it is an obstructive force that stands in the way of a real reform of human life. There has seldom been a time in which men were more dissatisfied with life and the more conscious of the need for deliverance, and if they turn away from Christianity it is because they feel that Christianity is a servant of the established order and that it has no real power or will to change the world and to rescue man from his present difficulties. They have lost their faith in the old spiritual traditions that inspired civilization in the past, and they tend to look for a solution in some external practical remedy such as communism, or the scientific organisation of life; something definite and objective that can be applied to society as a whole. ~ Christopher Henry Dawson, #NFDB
1475:I had noticed also that Queequeg never consorted at all, or but very little, with the other seamen in the inn. He made no advances whatever; appeared to have no desire to enlarge the circle of his acquaintances. All this struck me as mighty singular; yet, upon second thoughts, there was something almost sublime in it. Here was a man some twenty thousand miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn, that is--which was the only way he could get there--thrown among people as strange to him as though he were in the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease; preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship; always equal to himself. Surely this was a touch of fine philosophy; though no doubt he had never heard there was such a thing as that. But, perhaps, to be true philosophers, we mortals should no be conscious of so living or so striving. So soon as I hear that such and such a man gives himself out for a philosopher, I conclude that, like the dyspeptic old woman, he must have 'broken his digester. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
1476:Nobody can say anything about you. Whatsoever people say is about themselves. But you become very shaky, because you are still clinging to a false center. That false center depends on others, so you are always looking to what people are saying about you. And you are always following other people, you are always trying to satisfy them. You are always trying to be respectable, you are always trying to decorate your ego. This is suicidal. Rather than being disturbed by what others say, you should start looking inside yourself…
Whenever you are self-conscious you are simply showing that you are not conscious of the self at all. You don’t know who you are. If you had known, then there would have been no problem— then you are not seeking opinions. Then you are not worried what others say about you— it is irrelevant!
When you are self-conscious you are in trouble. When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don’t know who you are. Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home yet. ~ Osho,#NFDB
1477:Embracing a different vocabulary, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has described a highly sought-after affective state called the flow state or flow experience. In such intrinsically motivating experiences, which can occur in any domain of activity, people report themselves as fully engaged with and absorbed by the object of their attention. In one sense, those "in flow" are not conscious of the experience at the moment; on reflection, however, such people feel that they have been fully alive, totally realized, and involved in a "peak experience." Individuals who regularly engage in creative activities often report that they seek such states; the prospect of such "periods of flow" can be so intense that individuals will exert considerable practice and effort, and even tolerate physical or psychological pain, in pursuit thereof. Committed writers may claim that they hate the time spent chained to their desks, but the thought that they would not have the opportunity to attain occasional periods of flow while writing proves devastating. ~ Howard Gardner, #NFDB
1478:A magnitude 9.2 earthquake,” he said. “When something that powerful occurs, the Earth moves on its axis. So many people, all over Tohoku, were looking up at the sky on that night, filled with intense feelings. And looking at the stars, I became aware of the universe, the infinite space all around and above us. I felt as if I was looking into the universe, and I was conscious of the earthquake as something that had taken place within that vast expanse of empty space. And I began to understand that this was all part of a whole. Something enormous had happened. But whatever it was, it was entirely natural; it had happened as one of the mechanisms of the universe. “It’s engraved in my mind: the pitiless snow, and the beautiful shining, starry sky, and all those countless dead bodies drifting onto the beach. Perhaps this sounds pretentious, but I realized that when I began my work, giving support to people whose lives had been destroyed, I had to attend to the hearts of human beings and their suffering and anguish. But I also ~ Richard Lloyd Parry, #NFDB
1479:Embracing a different vocabulary, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has described a highly sought-after affective state called the flow state or flow experience. In such intrinsically motivating experiences, which can occur in any domain of activity, people report themselves as fully engaged with and absorbed by the object of their attention. In one sense, those "in flow" are not conscious of the experience at the moment; on reflection, however, such people feel that they have been fully alive, totally realized, and involved in a "peak experience." Individuals who regularly engage in creative activities often report that they seek such states; the prospect of such "periods of flow" can be so intense that individuals will exert considerable practice and effort, and even tolerate physical or psychological pain, in pursuit thereof. Committed writers may claim that they hate the time spent chained to their desks, but the thought that they would not have the opportunity to attain occasional periods of flow while writing proves devastating. ~ Howard Gardner, #NFDB
1480:For most of the time, Musashi wasn’t really conscious of what he was doing. He was in a sort of trance, a murderous dream in which body and soul were concentrated in his three-foot sword. Unconsciously, his whole life experience—the knowledge his father had beaten into him, what he had learned at Sekigahara, the theories he had heard at the various schools of swordsmanship, the lessons taught him by the mountains and the trees—everything came into play in the rapid movements of his body. He became a disembodied whirlwind mowing down the herd of rōnin, who by their stunned bewilderment left themselves wide open to his sword. For the short duration of the battle, one of the priests counted the number of times he inhaled and exhaled. It was all over before he had taken his twentieth breath. Musashi was drenched with the blood of his victims. The few remaining rōnin were also covered with gore. The earth, the grass, even the air was bloody. One of their number let out a scream, and the surviving rōnin scattered in all directions. ~ Eiji Yoshikawa, #NFDB
1481:But the truth about the need for heroism is not easy for anyone to admit, even the very ones who want to have their claims recognized. There's the rub. As we shall see from our subsequent discussion, to become conscious of what one is doing to earn his feeling of heroism is the main self-analytic problem of life. Everything painful and sobering in what psychoanalytic genius and religious genius have discovered about man revolves around the terror of admitting what one is doing to earn his self-esteem. This is why human heroics is a blind drivenness that burns people up; in passionate people, a screaming for glory as uncritical and reflexive as the howling of a dog. In the more passive masses of mediocre men it is disguised as they humbly and complainingly follow out the roles that society provides for their heroics and try to earn their promotions within the system: wearing the standard uniforms-but allowing themselves to stick out, but ever so little and so safely, with a little ribbon or a red boutonniere, but now with head and shoulders. ~ Ernest Becker, #NFDB
1482:From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes. ~ Greg Lukianoff, #NFDB
1483:Do not localize your attention Not to localize or partialize the mind is the end of spiritual training. When it is nowhere it is everywhere. When it occupies one tenth, it is absent in the other nine tenths. Let the gung fu man discipline himself to have the mind go on its own way, instead of trying deliberately to confine it somewhere. Therefore, during chi sao, you should have nothing purposely designed, nothing consciously calculated, no anticipation, no expectation. In short, you should be standing there like a dead man. To be conscious is characteristic of the human mind as distinguished from the mind of the lower animals. But when the mind becomes conscious of its doings, it ceases to be instinctual and its commands are colored with calculations and deliberations—which means that the connection between itself and the limbs is no longer direct because the identity of the commander and his executive agent is lost. When dualism (yang against yang) takes place, the whole personality never comes out as it is in itself (letting go itself from itself). ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
1484:Romans 3:19-26. To help us examine that passage, I will quote it here in its entirety. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
1485:
But why does the Divine want to manifest Himself on earth in this chaos?
Because this is why He has created the earth, not for any other motive; the earth is He Himself in a deformation and He wants to establish it back again in its truth. Earth is not something separated from Him and alien to Him. It is a deformation of Himself which must once again become what it was in its essence, that is, the Divine.
Then why is He a stranger to us?
But He is not a stranger, my child. You fancy that He is a stranger, but He is not, not in the least. He is the essence of your being - not at all alien. You may not know Him, but He is not a stranger; He is the very essence of your being. Without the Divine you would not exist. Without the Divine you could not exist even for the millionth part of a second. Only, because you live in a kind of false illusion and deformation, you are not conscious. You are not conscious of yourself, you are conscious of something which you think to be yourself, but which isn't you.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955,#NFDB
1486:The one created thing which we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything. Like the sun at noonday, mysticism explains everything else by the blaze of its own victorious invisibility. Detached intellectualism is (in the exact sense of a popular phrase) all moonshine; for it is light without heat, and it is secondary light, reflected from a dead world. But the Greeks were right when they made Apollo the god both of imagination and of sanity; for he was both the patron of poetry and the patron of healing. Of necessary dogmas and a special creed I shall speak later. But that transcendentalism by which all men live has primarily much the position of the sun in the sky. We are conscious of it as of a kind of splendid confusion; it is something both shining and shapeless, at once a blaze and a blur. But the circle of the moon is as clear and unmistakable, as recurrent and inevitable, as the circle of Euclid on a blackboard. For the moon is utterly reasonable; and the moon is the mother of lunatics and has given to them all her name. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
1487:I speak as a judge and I know that I was guilty. Even in the whirl in which I was caught up, and though I was alone without a guide or counsellor, I was, I swear, conscious of my downfall, and so there's no excuse for me. And yet, for those two months I was almost happy -- why, almost? I was quite happy! And so happy -- would it be believed -- that the consciousness of my degradation, of which I had glimpses at moments (frequent moments!) and which made me shudder in my inmost soul, only intoxicated me more. "What do I care if I'm fallen! And i won't fall, I'll get out of it! I have a lucky star!" I was crossing a precipice on a thin plank without a rail, and I was pleased at my position, and even peeped into the abyss. It was risky and it was delightful. And "my idea"? My "idea" later, the idea would wait. Everything that happened was simply "a temporary deviation." "Why not enjoy oneself?" That's what was amiss with my idea. I repeat, it admitted of all sorts of deviations; if it had not been so firm and fundamental I might have been afraid of deviating. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1488:She had always been beautiful in his eyes, and admirable, too. He had worshipped her, in some ways, for her courage in adversity, for her resistance to the ways of his own world. But that had been bravery under siege and now, it seemed, she single-handedly gave siege to the same society which, a few months before, had threatened to engulf and destroy her identity. There was a determination in her bearing, a lightness, an air of confidence, that proclaimed to everyone what he had always sensed in her - and he was proud that his world should see her as the woman he knew, in full command of herself and her situation. Yet there was, as well, a private knowledge, an intimate understanding between them, of the resources of character on which she drew to achieve that command. For the first time he became conscious of the depth of his love for her and, although he had always known that she had loved him, he became confident that her emotion was as strong as his own. Like her, he required no declaration; her bearing was declaration enough.
Together, they ascended. ~ Michael Moorcock,#NFDB
1489:Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys' house. The wife had discovered that the husband was carrying on an intrigue with a French girl, who had been a governess in their family, and she had announced to her husband that she could not go on living in the same house with him. This position of affairs had now lasted three days, and not only the husband and wife themselves, but all the members of their family and household, were painfully conscious of it. Every person in the house felt that there was so sense in their living together, and that the stray people brought together by chance in any inn had more in common with one another than they, the members of the family and household of the Oblonskys. The wife did not leave her own room, the husband had not been at home for three days. The children ran wild all over the house; the English governess quarreled with the housekeeper, and wrote to a friend asking her to look out for a new situation for her; the man-cook had walked off the day before just at dinner time; the kitchen-maid, and the coachman had given warning. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1490:She clung to her husband. And it was just at the time when he needed her most, because he suffered the disadvantage of being ten years ahead of her as he stumbled alone through the mists of old age, with the even greater disadvantage of being a man and weaker than she was. In the end they knew each other so well that by the time they had been married for thirty years they were like a single divided being, and they felt uncomfortable at the frequency with which they guessed each other’s thoughts without intending to, or the ridiculous accident of one of them anticipating in public what the other was going to say. Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nastiness and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was the time when they loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other mortal trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
1491:My father, who lived to ninety-four, often said that the eighties had been one of the most enjoyable decades of his life. He felt, as I begin to feel, not a shrinking but an enlargement of mental life and perspective. One has had a long experience of life, not only one’s own life, but others’ too. One has seen triumphs and tragedies, booms and busts, revolutions and wars, great achievements and deep ambiguities. One has seen grand theories rise, only to be toppled by stubborn facts. One is more conscious of transience and, perhaps, of beauty. At eighty, one can take a long view and have a vivid, lived sense of history not possible at an earlier age. I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was forty or sixty. I do not think of old age as an ever grimmer time that one must somehow endure and make the best of, but as a time of leisure and freedom, freed from the factitious urgencies of earlier days, free to explore whatever I wish, and to bind the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime together. I am looking forward to being eighty. ~ Oliver Sacks, #NFDB
1492:She was a young person of many theories; her imagination was remarkably active. It had been her fortune to possess a finer mind than most of the persons among whom her lot was cast; to have a larger perception of surrounding facts, and to care for knowledge that was tinged with the unfamiliar...It may be affirmed without delay that She was probably very liable to the sin of self-esteem; she often surveyed with complacency the field of her own nature; she was in the habit of taking for granted, on scanty evidence, that she was right; impulsively, she often admired herself...Every now and then she found out she was wrong, and then she treated herself to a week of passionate humility. After this she held her head higher than ever again; for it was of no use, she had an unquenchable desire to think well of herself. She had a theory that it was only on this condition that life was worth living; that one should be one of the best, should be conscious of a fine organization, should move in the realm of light, of natural wisdom, of happy impulse, of inspiration gracefully chronic. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
1493:I hate you," she said.
I felt her hatred. I could smell it, even hear it coming out of her, but I sneered again. "I hope so," I said. "Because there must be something pretty fine about a guy who rates your hatred."
Then she said a strange thing; I remember it clearly. "I hope you die of heart failure," she said. "Right there in that chair."
It gave her keen satisfaction, even though I laughed. She walked away smiling. She stood at the bar again, waiting for more beer, and her eyes were fastened on me, brilliant with her strange wish, and I was unconfortable but still laughing. Now she was dancing again, gliding from table to table with her tray, and every time I looked at her she smiled her wish, until it had a mysterious effect on me, and I became conscious of my inner organism, of the beat of my heart and the flutter of my stomach. I felt that she would not come back to my table again, and I remember that I was glad of it, and that a strange restlessness came over me, so that I was anxious to get away from that place, and away from the range of her persistent smile. ~ John Fante,#NFDB
1494:In the depths of your consciousness is the psychic being, the temple of the Divine within you. This is the centre round which should come about the unification of all these divergent parts, all these contradictory movements of your being. Once you have got the consciousness of the psychic being and its aspiration, these doubts and difficulties can be destroyed. It takes more or less time, but you will surely succeed in the end. Once you have turned to the Divine, saying, "I want to be yours", and the Divine has said, "Yes", the whole world cannot keep you from it. When the central being has made its surrender, the chief difficulty has disappeared. The outer being is like a crust. In ordinary people the crust is so hard and thick that they are not conscious of the Divine within them. If once, even for a moment only, the inner being has said, "I am here and I am yours", then it is as though a bridge has been built and little by little the crust becomes thinner and thinner until the two parts are wholly joined and the inner and the outer become one. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #NFDB
1495:I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre,
The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed
With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness,
And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
And the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away--
Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations
And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about;
Or when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing--
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. ~ T S Eliot,#NFDB
1496:Education is that process by which thought is opened out of the soul, and, associated with outward . . . things, is reflected back upon itself, and thus made conscious of its reality and shape. It is Self-Realization. As a means, therefore, of educating the soul out of itself, and mirroring forth its ideas, the external world offers the materials. This is the dim glass in which the senses are first called to display the soul, until, aided by the keener state of imagination . . . it separates those outward types of itself from their sensual connection, in its own bright mirror recognizes again itself, as a distinctive object in space and time, but out of it in existence, and painting itself upon these, as emblems of its inner and super-sensual life which no outward thing can fully portray. . . . A language is to be instituted between [the child’s] spirit and the surrounding scene of things in which he dwells. . . . He who is seeking to know himself, should be ever seeking himself in external things, and by so doing will he be best able to find, and explore his inmost light. ~ Amos Bronson Alcott, #NFDB
1497:I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of whatever kind. I wish to be the instrument of my own, not of other men's, acts of will. I wish to be a subject, not an object; to be moved by reasons, by conscious purposes, which are my own, not by causes which affect me, as it were, from outside. I wish to be somebody, not nobody; a doer - deciding, not being decided for, self-directed and not acted upon by external nature or by other men as if I were a thing, or an animal, or a slave incapable of playing a human role, that is, of conceiving goals and policies of my own and realising them. This is at least part of what I mean when I say that I am rational, and that it is my reason that distinguishes me as a human being from the rest of the world. I wish, above all. to be conscious of myself as a thinking, willing, active being, bearing responsibility for my choices and able to explain them by reference to my own ideas and purposes. I feel free to the degree that I believe this to be true, and enslaved to the degree that I am made to realise that it is not. ~ Isaiah Berlin, #NFDB
1498:That's precisely what's so extraordinary about you, you enjoy giving pleasure. Offering your body as an object of pleasure, giving pleasure unselfishly: that's what Westerners don't know how to do any more. They've completely lost the sense of giving. Try as they might, they no longer feel sex as something natural. Not only are they ashamed of their own bodies, which aren't up to porn standards, but for the same reasons they no longer feel truly attracted to the body of the other. It's impossible to make love without a certain abandon, without accepting, at least temporarily, the state of being in a state of dependency, of weakness. Sentimental adulation and sexual obsession have the same roots, both proceed from some degree of selflessness; it's not a domain in which you can find fulfilment without losing yourself. We have become cold, rational, acutely conscious of our individual existence and our rights; more than anything, we want to avoid alienation and dependence; on top of that we're obsessed with health and hygiene: these are hardly ideal conditions in which to make love. ~ Michel Houellebecq, #NFDB
1499:neurophysiologist Olaf Blanke, who came across the phenomenon unexpectedly. He had triggered it with electrical stimulation to the temporal parietal cortex of a patient’s brain while trying to locate the focus of a seizure.8 He has also studied a bevy of patients who complain of an FoP. He found that lesions in the frontoparietal area are specifically associated with the phenomenon and are on the opposite side of the body from the presence.9 This location suggested to him that disturbances in sensorimotor processing and multisensory integration may be responsible. While we are conscious of our location in space, we are unaware of the multitude of processes (vision, sound, touch, proprioception, motor movement, etc.) that, when normally integrated, properly locate us there. If there is a disorder in the processing, errors can occur and our brains can misinterpret our location. Blanke and his colleagues have found that one such error manifests itself as an FoP. Recently, they cleverly induced the FoP in healthy subjects by disordering their sensory processing with the help of a robotic arm.10 ~ Michael S Gazzaniga, #NFDB
1500:I was dozing, and the clock woke me. I didn’t hear the first few chimes distinctly, that is to say, I didn’t count them. But as soon as I decided to count I realized that there had already been three, so I was able to count four, five, and so on. I understood that I could say four and then wait for the fifth, because one, two, and three had passed, and I somehow knew that. If the fourth chime had been the first I was conscious of, I would have thought it was six o’clock. I think our lives are like that—you can only anticipate the future if you can call the past to mind. I can’t count the chimes of my life because I don’t know how many came before. On the other hand, I dozed off because the chair had been rocking for a while. And I dozed off in a certain moment because that moment had been preceded by other moments, and because I was relaxing while awaiting the subsequent moment. But if the first moments hadn’t put me in the right frame of mind, if I had begun rocking in any old moment, I wouldn’t have expected what had to come. I would have remained awake. You need memory even to fall asleep. Or no? ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
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5 Mythology
5 Integral Theory
4 Theosophy
4 Education
3 Sufism
3 Hinduism
1 Mysticism
1 Alchemy
417 The Mother
239 Satprem
193 Sri Aurobindo
65 Nolini Kanta Gupta
33 Sri Ramakrishna
26 Carl Jung
21 H P Lovecraft
15 A B Purani
14 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
12 Muhammad
9 Aleister Crowley
7 William Wordsworth
7 Saint Teresa of Avila
7 Rudolf Steiner
6 Plotinus
5 Swami Krishnananda
5 Plato
5 Ovid
5 Aldous Huxley
4 Sri Ramana Maharshi
4 Saint Augustine of Hippo
4 Franz Bardon
3 Jordan Peterson
2 Walt Whitman
2 Vyasa
2 Saint John of Climacus
2 Robert Browning
2 Ken Wilber
2 Kabir
2 John Keats
2 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
2 Jean Gebser
2 Henry David Thoreau
2 Friedrich Nietzsche
2 Al-Ghazali
39 The Synthesis Of Yoga
32 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
30 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
30 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
25 Agenda Vol 10
24 The Life Divine
23 Questions And Answers 1956
22 Questions And Answers 1953
22 Agenda Vol 13
21 Prayers And Meditations
21 Lovecraft - Poems
21 Letters On Yoga IV
21 Agenda Vol 08
20 Agenda Vol 04
19 Letters On Yoga II
19 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
19 Agenda Vol 03
18 Agenda Vol 01
17 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
17 Agenda Vol 09
16 Questions And Answers 1954
16 Agenda Vol 05
16 Agenda Vol 02
15 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
14 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
14 Agenda Vol 11
14 Agenda Vol 07
13 Agenda Vol 06
12 Quran
12 Agenda Vol 12
10 Some Answers From The Mother
10 Savitri
10 Mysterium Coniunctionis
10 Letters On Yoga I
9 Words Of The Mother II
9 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
9 Questions And Answers 1955
8 The Practice of Psycho therapy
8 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
8 Letters On Yoga III
8 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
8 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
7 Wordsworth - Poems
7 Words Of Long Ago
7 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
7 Essays On The Gita
7 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
6 Liber ABA
5 The Study and Practice of Yoga
5 The Phenomenon of Man
5 The Perennial Philosophy
5 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
5 The Future of Man
5 Talks
5 Metamorphoses
5 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
5 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
5 Aion
4 Words Of The Mother III
4 The Human Cycle
4 Record of Yoga
4 Isha Upanishad
4 Essays Divine And Human
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
3 The Practice of Magical Evocation
3 Theosophy
3 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
3 On the Way to Supermanhood
3 On Education
3 Maps of Meaning
3 Magick Without Tears
3 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
3 City of God
2 Words Of The Mother I
2 Whitman - Poems
2 Walden
2 Vishnu Purana
2 Vedic and Philological Studies
2 The Way of Perfection
2 The Secret Of The Veda
2 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
2 The Integral Yoga
2 The Ever-Present Origin
2 The Alchemy of Happiness
2 Sex Ecology Spirituality
2 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
2 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
2 Let Me Explain
2 Keats - Poems
2 Hymn of the Universe
2 Faust
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
2 Browning - Poems
2 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
'Are you conscious of your ceils?' She asked us a short time after the little operation of spiritual demolition She had undergone. 'No? Well, become conscious of your cells, and you will see that it gives TERRESTRIAL results.' To become conscious of one's cells? ... It was a far more radical operation than crossing the Maroni with a machete in hand, for after all, trees and lianas can be cut, but what cannot be so easily uncovered are the grandfa ther and the grandmo ther and the whole atavistic pack, not to mention the animal and plant and mineral layers that form a teeming humus over this single pure little cell beneath its millennial genetic program. The grandfa thers and grandmo thers grow back again like crabgrass, along with all the old habits of being hungry, afraid, falling ill, fearing the worst, hoping for the best, which is still the best of an old mortal habit. All this is not uprooted nor entrapped as easily as celestial 'liberations,' which leave the teeming humus in peace and the body to its usual decomposition. She had come to hew a path through all that. She was the Ancient One of evolution who had come to make a new cleft in the old, tedious habit of being a man. She did not like tedious repetitions, She was the adventuress par excellence - the adventuress of the earth. She was wrenching out for man the great Possible that was already beating there, in his primeval clearing, which he believed he had momentarily trapped with a few machines.
She was uprooting a new Matter, free, free from the habit of inexorably being a man who repeats himself ad infinitum with a few improvements in the way of organ transplants or monetary exchanges. In fact, She was there to discover what would happen after materialism and after spiritualism, these prodigal twin brothers. Because Materialism is dying in the West for the same reason that Spiritualism is dying in the East: it is the hour of the new species. Man needs to awaken, not only from his demons but also from his gods. A new Matter, yes, like a new Spirit, yes, because we still know neither one nor the other. It is the hour when Science, like Spirituality, at the end of their roads, must discover what Matter TRULY is, for it is really there that a Spirit as yet unknown to us is to be found. It is a time when all the 'isms' of the old species are dying: 'The age of
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
After the departure of Totapuri, Sri Ramakrishna remained for six months in a state of absolute identity with Brahman. "For six months at a stretch", he said, "I remained in that state from which ordinary men can never return; generally the body falls off, after three weeks, like a sere leaf. I was not conscious of day and night. Flies would enter my mouth and nostrils just as they do a dead body's, but I did not feel them. My hair became matted with dust."
His body would not have survived but for the kindly attention of a monk who happened to be at Dakshineswar at that time and who somehow realized that for the good of humanity Sri Ramakrishna's body must be preserved. He tried various means, even physical violence, to recall the fleeing soul to the prison-house of the body, and during the resultant fleeting moments of consciousness he would push a few morsels of food down Sri Ramakrishna's throat. Presently Sri Ramakrishna received the command of the Divine Mother to remain on the threshold of relative consciousness. Soon there-after after he was afflicted with a serious attack of dysentery. Day and night the pain tortured him, and his mind gradually came down to the physical plane.
--
In the nirvikalpa samadhi Sri Ramakrishna had realized that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. By keeping his mind six months on the plane of the non-dual Brahman, he had attained to the state of the vijnani, the knower of Truth in a special and very rich sense, who sees Brahman not only in himself and in the transcendental Absolute, but in everything of the world. In this state of vijnana, sometimes, bereft of body-consciousness, he would regard himself as one with Brahman; sometimes, conscious of the dual world, he would regard himself as God's devotee, servant, or child. In order to enable the Master to work for the welfare of humanity, the Divine Mother had kept in him a trace of ego, which he described — according to his mood — as the "ego of Knowledge", the "ego of Devotion", the "ego of a child", or the "ego of a servant". In any case this ego of the Master, consumed by the fire of the Knowledge of Brahman, was an appearance only, like a burnt string. He often referred to this ego as the "ripe ego" in contrast with the ego of the bound soul, which he described as the "unripe" or "green" ego. The ego of the bound soul identifies itself with the body, relatives, possessions, and the world; but the "ripe ego", illumined by Divine Knowledge, knows the body, relatives, possessions, and the world to be unreal and establishes a relationship of love with God alone. Through this "ripe ego" Sri Ramakrishna dealt with the world and his wife. One day, while stroking his feet, Sarada Devi asked the Master, "What do you think of me?" Quick came the answer: "The Mother who is worshipped in the temple is the mother who has given birth to my body and is now living in the nahabat, and it is She again who is stroking my feet at this moment. Indeed, I always look on you as the personification of the Blissful Mother Kali."
Sarada Devi, in the company of her husband, had rare spiritual experiences. She said: "I have no words to describe my wonderful exaltation of spirit as I watched him in his different moods. Under the influence of divine emotion he would sometimes talk on abstruse subjects, sometimes laugh, sometimes weep, and sometimes become perfectly motionless in samadhi. This would continue throughout the night. There was such an extraordinary divine presence in him that now and then I would shake with fear and wonder how the night would pass. Months went by in this way. Then one day he discovered that I had to keep awake the whole night lest, during my sleep, he should go into samadhi — for it might happen at any moment —, and so he asked me to sleep in the nahabat."
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In your sleep you are becoming conscious of the noises that the
mechanical thoughts of the most material mind make in their
--
are so conscious of it, I feel that soon you will be able to master it.
It goes without saying that our help is always with you to
--
the intimacy of this self-giving one can become conscious of the
inner Presence and the joy it brings.
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy.
To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities.
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
make me conscious of you.
Peace be with you, my child, the peace of Certitude and of
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To be conscious of the Divine Presence in us is our goal;
I don't see how I can be conscious from the beginning.
--
I am always with you, and to become conscious of the inner
Presence is one of the most important points of the sadhana.
--
that in its depths your heart has always been conscious of this
presence.
--
latter is quite conscious of this.
The psychic being is asleep in me.
--
certitude that you can become conscious of my presence.
The sadder you are and the more you lament, the farther you
--
soon become conscious of my presence always near you, and
that it will give you peace and joy.
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This process of development goes on tirelessly through innumerable lives, and if one is not conscious of it, it is because
one is not conscious of one's psychic being - for that is the
indispensable starting-point. Through interiorisation and concentration one has to enter into conscious contact with one's
--
are developed that one becomes conscious of those domains.
This consciousness is double, at first psychological and subjective, within oneself, expressing itself through thoughts, feelings,
--
in the various cosmic regions, grow conscious of them and act
freely in them - it is this that is called "mastery"; it is this that
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
in ordinary life, until one is able to become conscious of one's
psychic being and allow oneself to be entirely guided by it - in
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The first decisive step in Yoga is taken when one becomes conscious of the psychic being, or, looked at from the other side, when the psychic being comes forward and takes possession of the external being, begins to initiate and influence the movements of the mind and life and body and gradually free them from the ordinary round of ignorant nature. The awakening of the psychic being means, as I have said, not only a deepening and heightening of the consciousness and its release from the obscurity and limitation of the inferior Prakriti, confined to the lower threefold status, into what is behind and beyond; it means also a return of the deeper and higher consciousness upon the lower hemisphere and a consequent purification and illumination and regeneration of the latter. Finally, when the psychic being is in full self-possession and power, it can be the vehicle of the direct supramental consciousness which will then be able to act freely and absolutely for the entire transformation of the external nature, its transfiguration into a perfect body of the Truth-consciousness in a word, its divinisation.
This then is the supreme secret, not the renunciation and annulment, but the transformation of the ordinary human nature : first of all, its psychicisation, that is to say, making it move and live and be in communion and identification with the light of the psychic being, and, secondly, through the soul and the ensouled mind and life and body, to open out into the supramental consciousness and let it come down here below and work and achieve.
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Her being conscious of its divine founts
Asked not from mortal frailty pain's relief,
01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
There are many ways of opening to this Divine consciousness or entering into it. My way which I show to others is by a constant practice to go inward into oneself, to open by aspiration to the Divine and once one is conscious of it and its action to give oneself to It entirely. This self-giving means not to ask for anything but the constant contact or union with the Divine Consciousness, to aspire for its peace, power, light and felicity, but to ask nothing else and in life and action to be its instrument only for whatever work it gives one to do in the world. If one can once open and feel the Divine Force, the
Power of the Spirit working in the mind and heart and body, the rest is a matter of remaining faithful to It, calling for it always, allowing it to do its work when it comes and rejecting every other and inferior Force that belongs to the lower consciousness and the lower nature.
01.04 - The Intuition of the Age, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A new impulse is there, no one can deny, and it has vast possibilities before it, that also one need not hesitate to accept. But in order that we may best fructuate what has been spontaneously sown, we must first recognise it, be luminously conscious of it and develop it along its proper line of growth. For, also certain it is that this new impulse or intuition, however true and strong in itself, is still groping and erring and miscarrying; it is still wasting much of its energy in tentative things, in mere experiments, in even clear failures. The fact is that the intuition has not yet become an enlightened one, it is still moving, as we shall presently explain, in the dark vital regions of man. And vitalism is naturally and closely affianced to pragmatism, that is to say, the mere vital impulse seeks immediately to execute itself, it looks for external effects, for changes in the form, in the machinery only. Thus it is that we see in art and literature discussions centred upon the scheme of composition, as whether the new poetry should be lyrical or dramatic, popular or aristocratic, metrical or free of metre, and in practical life we talk of remodelling the state by new methods of representation and governance, of purging society by bills and legislation, of reforming humanity by a business pact.
All this may be good and necessary, but there is the danger of leaving altogether out of account the one thing needful. We must then pause and turn back, look behind the apparent impulsion that effectuates to the Will that drives, behind the ideas and ideals of the mind to the soul that informs and inspires; we must carry ourselves up the stream and concentrate upon the original source, the creative intuition that lies hidden somewhere. And then only all the new stirrings that we feel in our heartour urges and ideals and visions will attain an effective clarity, an unshaken purpose and an inevitable achievement.
01.04 - The Poetry in the Making, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
But should there be an inherent incompatibility between spontaneous creation and self-consciousness? As we have seen, a harmony and fusion can and do happen of the superconscious and the normally conscious in the Yogi. Likewise, an artist also can be wakeful and transparent enough so that he is conscious on both the levels simultaneouslyabove, he is conscious of the source and origin of his inspiration, and on the level plain he is conscious of the working of the instrument, how the vehicle transcribes and embodies what comes from elsewhere. The poet's consciousness becomes then divalent as it werethere is a sense of absolute passivity in respect of the receiving apparatus and coupled and immisced with it there is also the sense of dynamism, of conscious agency as in his secret being he is the master of his apparatus and one with the Inspirerin other words, the poet is both a seer (kavih) and a creator or doer (poits).
Not only so, the future development of the poetic consciousness seems inevitably to lead to such a consummation in which the creative and the critical faculties will not be separate but form part of one and indivisible movement. Historically, human consciousness has grown from unconsciousness to consciousness and from consciousness to self-consciousness; man's creative and artistic genius too has moved pari passu in the same direction. The earliest and primitive poets were mostly unconscious, that is to say, they wrote or said things as they came to them spontaneously, without effort, without reflection, they do not seem to know the whence and wherefore and whither of it all, they know only that the wind bloweth as it listeth. That was when man had not yet eaten the fruit of knowledge, was still in the innocence of childhood. But as he grew up and progressed, he became more and more conscious, capable of exerting and exercising a deliberate will and initiating a purposive action, not only in the external practical field but also in the psychological domain. If the earlier group is called "primitives", the later one, that of conscious artists, usually goes by the name of "classicists." Modern creators have gone one step farther in the direction of self-consciousness, a return upon oneself, an inlook of full awareness and a free and alert activity of the critical faculties. An unconscious artist in the sense of the "primitives" is almost an impossible phenomenon in the modern world. All are scientists: an artist cannot but be consciously critical, deliberate, purposive in what he creates and how he creates. Evidently, this has cost something of the old-world spontaneity and supremacy of utterance; but it cannot be helped, we cannot comm and the tide to roll back, Canute-like. The feature has to be accepted and a remedy and new orientation discovered.
01.04 - The Secret Knowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And conscious of the high things not yet won,
Ever she nurses in her sleepless breast
01.06 - Vivekananda, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
"Man is higher than all animals, than all angels: none is greater than man. Even the Devas will have to come down again and attain to salvation though a human body. Man alone attains to perfection, not even the Devas." Indeed, men are gods upon earth, come down here below to perfect themselves and perfect the worldonly, they have to be conscious of themselves. They do not know what they are, they have to be actually and sovereignly what they are really and potentially. This then is the life-work of everyone:
"First, let us be Gods, and then help others to be Gods.
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
more conscious of the divine will and to give yourself more
entirely to it, until you have made enough progress to know
--
human beings to become conscious of it is a fact which can in
no way affect the fact of the advent of these forces and powers
--
Not everyone is conscious of his soul and very few are those
who are guided by their soul.
--
we are not conscious of it. Only danger makes us recall
Your Presence so that we may have Your protection. But
--
to be different. Or am I not conscious of my prayers?
Or is everything done for me, for my good, in spite of
--
one's state of consciousness. Some are entirely conscious of what
is done for them. Those who make an effort become conscious
01.10 - Principle and Personality, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The thing, however, is that what you call principles do not drop from heaven in their virgin purity and all at once lay hold of mankind en masse. It is always through a particular individual that a great principle manifests itself. Principles do not live in the general mind of man and even if they live, they live secreted and unconscious; it is only a puissant personality, who has lived the principle, that can bring it forward into life and action, can awaken, like the Vedic Dawn, what was dead in allmritam kanchana bodhayanti. Men in general are by themselves 'inert and indifferent; they have little leisure or inclination to seek, from any inner urge of their own, for principles and primal truths; they become conscious of these only when expressed and embodied in some great and rare soul. An Avatar, a Messiah or a Prophet is the centre, the focus through which a Truth and Law first dawns and then radiates and spreads abroad. The little lamps are all lighted by the sparks that the great torch scatters.
And yet we yield to none in our demand for holding forth the principles always and ever before the wide open gaze of all. The principle is there to make people self-knowing and self-guiding; and the man is also there to illustrate that principle, to serve as the hope and prophecy of achievement. The living soul is there to touch your soul, if you require the touch; and the principle is there by which to test and testify. For, we do not ask anybody to be a mere automaton, a blind devotee, a soul without individual choice and initiative. On the contrary, we insist on each and every individual to find his own soul and stand on his own Truththis is the fundamental principle we declare, the only creedif creed it be that we ask people to note and freely follow. We ask all people to be fully self-dependent and self-illumined, for only thus can a real and solid reconstruction of human nature and society be possible; we do not wish that they should bow down ungrudgingly to anything, be it a principle or a personality. In this respect we claim the very first rank of iconoclasts and anarchists. And along with that, if we still choose to remain an idol-lover and a hero-worshipper, it is because we recognise that our mind, human as it is, being not a simple equation but a complex paradox, the idol or the hero symbolises for us and for those who so will, the very iconoclasm and anarchism and perhaps other more positive things as wellwhich we behold within and seek to manifest.
0.11 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
around the psychic being, if we are conscious of it or at least
around the central aspiration. If this unification is not done, we
--
one wakes up, it is the waking being that is not conscious of the
activities of the night.
--
This also makes it necessary to become conscious of one's
nights, because the activities of the night often contradict the
--
To remain conscious of it, one must reduce the range of the
subconscient in oneself and thus increase the consciousness.
--
In order to be conscious of the constant Presence, is
memory a good aid?
0.12 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
thoughts and actions, but one is rarely conscious of it. To become
conscious of the psychic being, one must want to do so, make
--
You can become conscious of your nights and your sleep
just as you are conscious of your days. It is a matter of inner
development and discipline of the consciousness.
--
becoming conscious of the Divine Presence in oneself the
only thing or does becoming conscious of one's movements, of one's speech, etc. also count?
Series Twelve - To a Student
You may be sure that becoming conscious of the Divine Presence
in oneself considerably changes one's whole way of being and
--
he who has become conscious of the Divine and become His
faithful instrument can avoid error, if he is careful to act only at
0.13 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It means to become conscious of the Divine Presence in oneself or on the spiritual heights, and, once one is conscious of
His Presence, to surrender to Him completely so that one no
--
that is to say, becoming conscious of the Divine in oneself and
identifying with Him.
0.14 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The psychic is conscious of its progressive formation during successive lives upon earth, so it has the memory of the important
moments in its previous lives.
--
effort required to find the Divine, to be conscious of His Will
and to work exclusively to serve Him.
--
Grant that I may become conscious of Your Presence.
9 March 1972
--
we may be fully conscious of it.
Grant that we may know that You are our life, our consciousness and our being, and that without You everything is
0 1956-05-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But for this only like can know like. Only the Supramental Consciousness in an individual can perceive the Supramental acting in the earth atmosphere. Those who, for whatever reason, have developed this perception can see it. But those who are not even remotely conscious of their inner beings, who would be quite at a loss to say what their souls look like, are certainly not ready to perceive the difference in the earth atmosphere. They still have quite a way to go for that. Because, for those whose consciousness is more or less exclusively centered in the outer beingmental, vital and physicalthings need to have an absurd or unexpected appearance to be noticeable. And then they call it a miracle.
But we do not call a miracle the constant miracle of the forces that intervene to change circumstances and human natures and which have very far-reaching consequences, for we see only the appearance, and this appearance seems quite natural. But in truth, if you were to reflect upon the least thing that happens, you would be forced to acknowledge that it is miraculous.
0 1958-05-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
No. From the minute it is conscious, it is conscious of its own falsehood! It is conscious of this law, of that law, of this third law that fourth law, this tenth laweverything is a law. We are subject to physical laws: this will produce such and such a result if you do that, this will happen, etc. Oh! It reeks! I know it well. I know it very well. These laws reek of falsehood. In the body, we have no faith in the divine Grace, none, none, none, none! Those who have not undergone a tapasya2 as I have, say, Yes, all these inner moral things, feelings, psychology, all that is very good; we want the Divine and we are ready to But all the same, material facts are material facts, they have their concrete reality, after all an illness is an illness, food is food, and everything you do has a consequence, and when you are bah, bah, bah, bah, bah!
We must understand that this isnt trueit isnt true, its a falsehood, all this is sheer falsehood. It is NOT TRUE, it is not true!
0 1958-07-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It is an ascending curve, but a curve that swerves away from the Divine. So naturally, one has to climb much higher to find a higher Divine, since it is a conscious Divine, whereas the others are divine spontaneously and instinctively, without being conscious of it. All our moral notions of good and evil, all of that, are what we have thrown over the creation with our distorted and perverted consciousness. It is we who have invented it.
We are the distorting intermediary between the purity of the animal and the divine purity of the gods.
0 1958-10-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I intentionally carry everybody in my active consciousness for the work, and I do the work consciously; but the extent to which people in the world, or those who are here in the Ashram, are conscious of this or receive the results depends upon them, though not exclusively.
The other day, for example, though I no longer recall exactly when (I forget everything on purpose)but it was in the last part of the night I had a rather long activity concerning the whole realization of the Ashram, notably in the fields of education and art. I was apparently inspecting this area to see how things were there, so naturally I saw a certain number of people, their work and their inner states. Some saw me and, at that moment, had a vision of me. It is likely that many were asleep and didnt notice anything, but some actually saw me. The next morning, for example, someone who works at the theater told me that she had had a splendid vision of me in which I had spoken to her, blessed her, etc. This was her way of receiving the work I had done. And this kind of thing is happening more and more, in that my action is awakening the consciousness in others more and more strongly.
--
You said that our way of receiving your work or becoming conscious of it does not exclusively depend upon us. What do you mean?
It depends upon the progress in the consciousness. The more the action is supramentalized, the more its reception is IMPOSED upon the consciousness of each one. The actions progress makes it more and more perceptible IN SPITE OF each ones condition. The milieu obviously limits and altersdistortswhat it receives, but the quality of the Work acts upon this receptivity and imposes itself on it in a more and more efficient and imperious way.
0 1958-10-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
So there are parts which are entirely within me, entirely there is no difference; they are myself. There are other parts with which I am conscious of an exchangea very familiar, very intimate exchange. And there are parts outside of me with which I still have relationships, not exactly as with strangers but merely as acquaintances; it is still necessary to observe their reactions in order to do the correct thing. And the ratio between these different parts is naturally different depending upon the different individuals.
***
0 1958-10-25 - to go out of your body, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Each one is in touch with the universal expression of an aspect or a will or a mode of the Supreme, and if one aspires for this, it is this that comes, with an extraordinary plasticity. And when that happens, I even become the Witness (not the witness in the way of the Purusha1: a witness far more infinite and eternal than the Purusha). I see what responds, why it responds, how it responds. This is how I know what people want (not here below, nor even in their highest aspiration). I see it even when the people themselves are no longer consciousor rather, not yet conscious (for me, its no longer, but anyway ), when they are not yet conscious of this identification somewhere. Even then I see it.
Its interesting.
--
Why arent people conscious of this identification while having it in a part of their being?
Between the outer consciousness and the deepest consciousness there are truly holeswhich are missing links between states of being and which have to be built, but they dont know how to do it. So their first reaction when they go within is panic! They feel they are falling into night, into nothingness, into non-being!
0 1959-03-26 - Lord of Death, Lord of Falsehood, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Behind the Titan attacking us particularly now, there is something else. This Titan has been delegated by someone else. He has been there since my birth, was born with me. I felt him when I was very young, but only gradually, as I became conscious of myself, did I understand WHO he was and what was behind him.
This Titan has been specially sent to attack this body, but he cant do it directly, so he uses people in my entourage. It is something fated: all those around me, who are close to me, and especially those capable of love, have been attacked by him; a few have succumbed, such as that girl in my entourage who was absorbed by him. He follows me like a shadow, and each time there is the least little opening in someone near me, he is there.
0 1959-10-06 - Sri Aurobindos abode, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In fact, when I walk back and forth in my room, I dont cut myself off from the rest of the worldalthough it would be so much more convenient! All kinds of things come to mesuggestions, wills, aspirations. But automatically I make a movement of offering: things come to me and just as they are about to touch my head, I turn them upwards and offer them to the Light. They dont enter into me. For example, if someone speaks to me while I am saying my japa, I hear quite well what is being said, I may even answer, but the words remain a little outside, at a certain distance from the head. And yet sometimes, there are things that insist, more defined wills that present themselves to me, so then I have to do a little work, but all that without a pause in the japa. If that happens, there is sometimes a change in the quality of my japa, and instead of being fully the power, fully the light, it is certainly something that produces results, but results more or less sure, more or less long to fructify; it becomes uncertain, as with all things of this physical world. Yet the difference between the two japas is imperceptible; its not a difference between saying the japa in a more or less mechanical way and saying it consciously, because even while I work I remain fully conscious of the japa I continue to repeat it putting the full meaning into each syllable. But nevertheless, there is a difference. One is the all-powerful japa; the other, an almost ordinary japa There is a difference in the inner attitude. Perhaps for the japa to become true, a kind of joy, an elation, a warmth of enthusiasm has to be added but especially joy. Then everything changes.
Well, it is the same thing, the same imperceptible difference, when it comes to entering the world of Truth. On one side there is the falsehood, and on the other, close by, like the lining of this one, the true life. Only a little difference in the inner quality, a little reversal, is enough to pass to the other side, into the Truth and Light.
0 1960-03-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But what is surprising is that in a flash, no one was there any longer. No one, you understand I was gone. Perhaps I was everywhere (but in fact I am always everywhere, I am always conscious of being everywhere at the same time), though normally there is the sense of the body, a physical center, but that evening there was no more center! Nothing, no one, not even the sense that there was no onenothing. I was gone. There was indeed something handing out the medals which felt the joy of giving the medal, the joy of receiving it, the joy of mutually looking at each other. It was simply the joy of the action taking place, the joy of looking, this joy everywhere, but me?Nothing, no one, gone. Only later, afterwards, did I see what had happened, for everything had disappeared, even the higher mind that understands and organizes things (by understand I mean contain, which contains things). That also was gone. And this lasted the entire distribution. Only when that [the body] had gone back upstairs to the room did the consciousness of what is me return.
There is a line by Sri Aurobindo in Savitri which expresses this very well: to annul oneself so that only the Supreme Lord may be.
0 1960-04-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
There are moments when I feel you so close to mecould you not help me be more conscious of your presence (not as an impersonal force, but you)?
I love you, sweet Mother. You are truly my Mother, and I need you so much.
0 1960-04-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
To compensate for that, however, I had the joy of finding your two letters. Yes, for some time I have been feeling your physical Presence more clearly. But then, why am I so blocked, where is the flaw? It constantly feels as though I am living at the outskirts of myself, or more precisely in a miniscule region of myself, and Im unable to be conscious of the resta perpetual amnesic. It is unpleasant and quite stupid. What is it that will explode this shell?
I am anxious to return to you.
0 1960-05-16, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And in that kind of physical eternity (which lasted two and a half hoursits a long time for an experience), I was aware of something missing, something not there: the joy of the consciousness. Because throughout my life I have developed the habit of being conscious of everything, always, at each second. And the joy of the consciousness was not there. So I thanked the Grace that made me see that this kind of nirvana was quite simply physical tamas.2
(silence)
0 1960-05-21 - true purity - you have to be the Divine to overcome hostile forces, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
For example, there was one difficulty he helped me resolve. I have always been literally pestered, constantly, night and day, by all kinds of thoughts coming from peopleall kinds of calls, questions, formations2 that have naturally to be answered. For I have trained myself to be conscious of everything, always. But it disturbed me in the work, particularly when I needed absolute concentration and I could never cut myself off from people or cut myself off from the world. I had to answer all these calls and these questions, I had to send the necessary force, the necessary light, the healing power, I constantly had to purify all these formations, these thoughts, these wills, these false movements that were falling on me.
What was needed was to effect a shift, a sort of transference upwards, a lifting up of all these things that come to meso that each one, each thing, each circumstance could directly and automatically receive the force from above, the light, the response from above, and I would be a mere intermediary and a channel of the Light and the Force.
0 1960-05-28 - death of K - the death process- the subtle physical, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
During the operation and just afterwards, I had simply put the Force on him, as I always do in such cases, so that everything would turn out for the best. Then a few days ago, during my japa, a kind of order camea very clear orderto concentrate on him so that he would be conscious of his soul and able to leave under the best conditions. And I saw that the concentration worked wonderfully: it seems that during his last days he was ceaselessly repeating Ma-Ma-Ma1even while he was in a semi-coma.
And the concentration grew stronger and stronger. The day before yesterday it became very, very powerful, and yesterday morning, around half past noon, it pulled me inward; he came to me in a kind of sleep, a conscious sleep, and I even said almost aloud, Oh, K!
--
And people here are much more sensitive than in Europe because they are much more interiorized, so they are conscious of all these little entities, and naturally theyre afraid. And the more afraid they are, the more theyre vampirized!
I think that many of these entities are dispersed by fire that creates havoc.
0 1960-06-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
There would be many interesting things to tell about sleep, because its one of the things Ive studied the mostto speak of how I became conscious of my nights, for instance. (I learned this with Theon, and now that I know all these things of India, I realize that he knew a GREAT deal.) But it bothers me a lot to say II this, I that. Id rather speak of these things in the form of a treatise or an essay on sleep, for example. Sri Aurobindo always spoke of his experiences but rarely did he say Iit always sounds like boasting.
Sri Aurobindo said that the true or yogic reason for sleep is to put the consciousness back into contact with Sat-Chit-Ananda (I used to do this without knowing it). For some people the contact is established immediately, while for others it takes eight, nine, ten hours to do it. But really, normally you should not wake up till the contact has been established, and thats why its very bad to wake up in an artificial way (with an alarm clock, for example), because then the night is wasted.
0 1960-10-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Only, there is all that comes from outside thats what is most dangerous. Constantly, constantlywhen you eat, you catch it oh, what a mass of vibrations! The vibrations of the thing you eat when it was living (they always remain), the vibrations of the person who cooked it, vibrations of All the time, all the time, they never stopyou breathe, they enter. Of course, when you start talking to someone or mixing with people, then you become a bit more conscious of what is coming, but even just sitting still, uninvolved with othersit comes! There is an almost total interdependenceisolation is an illusion. By reinforcing your own atmosphere (Mother gestures, as if building a wall around her), you can hold these things off TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, but simply this effort to keep them at a distance creates (Im thinking in English and speaking in French) disturbances.8 Anyway, now all this has been SEEN.
But I know in an absolute way that once this whole mass of the physical mind is mastered and the Brahmic consciousness is brought into it in a continuous way, you CAN you become the MASTER of your health.
0 1960-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It was no longer this (that is, life as it is on earth) becoming conscious of That (the eternal soul, this portion of the Supreme as Sri Aurobindo said); it was the eternal soul seeing life in its own way but without separation, without any separation, not like something looking from above that feels itself to be different How strange it is! Its not something else, its NOT something else, its not even a distortion, not even Its losing its illusory quality as described in the old spiritualities thats not what it is! In my experience, there was there was clearly an emotion I cant describe it, there are no words. It wasnt a feeling, it was something like an emotion, a vibration of such TOTAL closeness and at the same time of compassion, a compassion of love. (Oh, words are so pitiful! ) One was this outer thing, which was the total negation of the other and AT THE SAME TIME the other, without the least separation between them. It WAS the other. So what was born in one was born in the other as well, in this eternal light. A sweetness of identity, precisely, an identity that was necessarily such total understanding with such perfect love but love says it poorly, all words are poor! Its not that; its something else! Its something that cannot be expressed.
I lived that this morning, upstairs.
0 1960-12-23, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I sat down shortly before ten oclock for meditation. I was in my normal state and I was interested to see if there would be any difference from earlier times. And really, at first there was no difference at all. Then slowly, slowly, I felt this type of smiling and serene peace that I live in entering into the body. The cells are still not always conscious of it (sometimes they feel a sort of tension of life I dont know what to call it). Theyre conscious of their existence and of what it means and of the Energy that is acting (yes, conscious of the Action and the Energy that acts), but during the meditation THAT descended and there was an extraordinary relaxation. Not the relaxation that comes with surrender,1 which I normally feel before sleeping, but the relaxation that comes from a kind of serene, immutable and eternal joy. At that moment the body felt it could remain like that forever! Oh, how nice I feel! it said. And as a matter of fact, Im not sure but I think he felt the meditation was over, whereas I was still I felt him stirring, so I stopped.
There was a marked difference.
--
Then it gradually became conscious of itself, conscious of BEING this column of Light. And then the ordinary consciousness slowly returned.
(silence)
0 1961-01-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The second step is to be POSITIVELY conscious of the supreme Goodness and Beauty behind all things and supporting all things, permitting them to exist. Once you have seen Him, you can perceive Him behind the mask and the distortioneven ugliness, even cruelty, even evil are a disguise for that Something which is essentially good or beautiful, luminous, pure.
With this comes TRUE collaboration. For when you have this vision, this awareness, when you live in this consciousness, you also get the power to PULL That into the manifestation on earth and put it into contact with what, for the time being, distorts and disguises; thus the deformation and disguise are gradually transformed by the influence of the Truth behind.
0 1961-01-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I was perfectly conscious (now when I say I, it refers to my body, I am not speaking of the whole higher consciousness), the body was perfectly conscious of its suffering, the reason for its suffering, the cause of its suffering, everything and it did not suffer. You understand, the two perceptions were there together: the body saw the disorder, saw the suffering just as it would have felt it a few weeks earlier, it saw all that (saw, knew I dont know how to express itit was conscious, it was aware) and it did not suffer. The two awarenesses were absolutely simultaneous.
There is now a kind of VERY PRECISE knowledge of the whole inner mechanism for all thingsand what has to be done materially. This is developing, as a flower blossoms: you see one petal open and then another and then another; it is proceeding like that, slowly, taking its time. Its the same process for the Power.
0 1961-01-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This consciousness of immortality is OUR becoming conscious of the realms where immortality exists; but to bring immortality into the physical consciousness requires not only a transformation of physical consciousness but a transformation of physical substance as well. So.
***
0 1961-02-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If I may ask, has Sri Aurobindo remained quite conscious of material things?
Completely. (Mother reflects a moment) Well, completely material, noonly through me. He is conscious of material things through me, not directly. He is very conscious in the subtle physical, but thats not quite the same, not quite (Mother makes a vague gesture), there is a difference.
To give a rather curious example, there was a kind of spell of illness over the Ashram, stemming mainly from peoples thoughts, from their way of thinking. It was quite widespread and it was horrible, gloomy, full of fear, pettiness, blind submission, oh! Everyone was in a state of expectation.1 In short, the atmosphere was such that there was an attempt to prevent me from leaving my room I had to sneak out! It was disgusting! Well, on the very night I saw the spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was lying sick in his bed, just as I had seen him in 1950. Normally, we spend almost every night together, doing this, seeing that, arranging things, talkingits a kind of second life behind this one, and it makes existence pleasant. But that night when I had to sneak out of my room (in my nightgown!), and people were trying to find me to (laughing) force me back into bed, he was lying sick in bedand this struck me hard, for it means these things still affect him in his consciousness. He was in a kind of trance and not at all well. It didnt last, but nonetheless.
0 1961-02-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All this [the world, the Ashram] is held in my consciousness with a kind of essential compassion applying equally to all things, all difficulties, all obstacles. I receive letters by the dozens, as you know, and each person comes to me with his own little misery or problem, inner or outer (a tiny pimple becomes a mountain). When people come to me, my inner consciousness always responds in the same way, with a kind of equality and compassion for all. But when people are talking to me or I am reading a letter and my body grows conscious of what it calls the to-do they make over their miseries, it has a kind of feeling (I mean there is a feeling in the cells): Why do they take things like that! They are making things much more difficult. The body understands. It understands that their way of taking the least little difficulty in such a blind, egotistical and self-centered manner, increases its difficulties furiously!
Its a rather amusing sensation, a combination of sensation and feeling, that the ordinary human attitude towards things multiplies and magnifies the difficulties to FANTASTIC proportions; while if they simply had the true attitudea NORMAL attitude, quite simple, uncomplicatedahh, all life would be much easier. For the body feels the vibrations (those very vibrations which concentrate to form a body), it feels their nature and sees that its normal reaction, a peaceful and confident reaction, makes things so much easier! But as soon as this agitation of anxiety, fear, discontent comes in, the reaction of a will that doesnt want any of it oh, right away it becomes like water boiling: pff! pff! pff! like a machine. While if the difficulty is accepted with confidence and simplicity, its reduced to its minimum, and I mean purely materially, in the material vibration itself.
0 1961-03-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have a recollection of this life, for I relived it when I first became conscious of the life of the entire earth; but I cant say how long it lasted or what area it covered I dont know. I only remember the conditions at that time, the state of material Nature and the human form and human consciousness, and this state of harmony with all the other elements of the earth: harmony with animal life and a great harmony with plant lifethere was a kind of spontaneous knowledge of how to use the things of Nature, the qualities of plants, fruits and all that vegetal nature could offer. There was no aggressiveness, no fear, no contradictions or frictions, and no perversion the mind was pure, simple, luminous, uncomplicated.
It was certainly with the progress of evolution, the march of evolution, when the mind began to develop for and in itself, that ALL the complications, all the deformations began. Indeed, this story of Genesis that seems so childish does contain a truth. The old traditions like Genesis resembled the Vedas in that each letter6 was the symbol of a knowledge; it was the pictorial rsum of a traditional knowledge, just as the Veda contains a pictoral rsum of the knowledge of its time. But whats more, even the symbol had a reality in the sense that there was truly a period when life upon earth (the first manifestation of mentalized Matter in human forms) was still in complete harmony with all that preceded it. It was only later that.
--
According to Theon, the serpent wasnt the spirit of evil at all: it was the evolutionary Force. And Sri Aurobindo fully agreed; he used to tell me the same thing: the evolutionary power the mental evolutionary poweris what drove man to gain knowledge, a knowledge of division. And its a fact that along with the sense of Good and Evil, man became conscious of himself. Naturally, this ruined everything and he couldnt stay: it was his own consciousness that drove him out of Paradisehe could no longer stay.
Then was man banished by Jehovah or by his own consciousness?
0 1961-03-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And he seemed to be living in an eternity, yet fully, fully conscious of of our total incapacity.
It was so sad to see how good-for-nothing we were that it woke me up, or rather I heard the clock strike (like the other day, I didnt count and leapt out of bed; but I quickly noticed that it was only 3 oclock and lay back down). Then I began looking and told myself, If we really have to emerge from all this infirmity before anything can truly be well done, then we have quite a long road to travel! It was pitiful, pitiful (first on the mental, then on the material plane), absolutely pitiful. And I was depending on these people! (Sri Aurobindo was depending on me and therefore on them.) Good god, I said, if I only knew where things were kept! If they had just let me handle things, it could have been done quickly. But no! All those people had to be involved Oust as we always depend on intermediaries in real life).
0 1961-03-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Strangely enough, Ive received the same complaint from S. He says, I dont have any experiences. What kind of experience do you have? I asked. He replied, I sit in meditation and what comes is peace, peace, peace its always the same thing!(Some people would be very happy with that, but him.) I asked him, What experience do you want? To be conscious, he told me, to be conscious of the Divine, conscious of the divine Presence! And I always answer him, Its because your mind is barricaded. (Mother forms a geometrical figure) He is so convinced that he knows! He tells me, No! Its not that. He doesnt believe me!
At any rate, I have had no results with him, nor with X.
0 1961-04-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But all night long I am fully conscious of a lot of things they cant be called trivial, but. Oh, its as though everything that can comes to tell me: You think there will be a supramental transformation? Well then, just look: there is this and that and that and this, this one and that one, this circumstance, that thing, the world, people, things. Oh, a deluge!
And in the evening before going to sleep I read the Vedas, which aggravates the situation. Because those people rememberei ther they have heard of it, or they remember it themselvesa supramental realization; and they describe it all so beautifully that it makes you feel very far from it, so very, very far.
0 1961-04-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Let me tell you about a recent occurrence. E. had sent a telegram saying that she had a perforated intestine (but it must have been something else because they operated on her only after several days, and when you are not operated on immediately in such cases, you die). Anyway, it was very serious and she was on the threshold of death that much is certain. She wrote me a letter the day before the operation (what is interesting is that now she doesnt even remember what she wrote). It was a magnificent letter saying that she was conscious of the Divine Presence and of the Divine Plan. Tomorrow they will operate on me, she said. And I am entirely aware that this operation has ALREADY been done, that it is a fact accomplished by the Divine Will; otherwise it could be a fatal ordeal. And she said she was conscious of the supreme Wills action, in a perfect peace. It was a magnificent letter. And the whole thing went off almost miraculously; she recovered in such a miraculous way that the surgeon himself said, I must congratulate you, to which she replied, How surprising! You did the operation! Yes, he said, we did the operation, but it is your body that willed to be healed, and I congratulate you for your bodys willpower. Of course she wrote to me that she knew who had been there to see that all went well. And this feeling of the thing being already accomplished is a beginning of the consciousness Sri Aurobindo speaks of in the Yoga of Self-Perfection, where one is simultaneously both here and there. Because, as Sri Aurobindo says, some people have managed to be entirely there, but what he has called the realization is to be both there and here simultaneously.
Of course, one might wonder what the meaning of everything here is, if it has all been already accomplished above, on an occult plane, and we are merely re-enacting it.
0 1961-06-20, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Something happening? I dont know. But that state IN ITSELF is something. When the body is conscious of that it means precisely that it has come out of its narrownessit is the same Infinite as the one you get when out of the body.
What I do now when X comes is take it all (gesture from below to above) and do like this (gesture of offering up), in an aspiration and then I let it go. Then all the Immobility, the Silence, the Light, the Peace comes down from above into everything and doesnt move. But that in itself is very difficult for the body to have, very difficult: something is always vibrating and moving.
0 1961-07-28, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The way Theon told it, there was first the universal Mother (he didnt call her the universal Mother, but Sri Aurobindo used that name), the universal Mother in charge of creation. For creating she made four emanations: Consciousness or Light; Life; Love or Beatitude and (Mother tries in vain to remember the fourth) I must have cerebral anemia today! In India they speak only of three: Sat-Chit-Ananda (Sat is Existence, expressed by Life; Chit is Consciousness, expressed by Power; Ananda is Bliss, synonymous with Love). But according to Theon, there were four (I knew them by heart). Well, these emanations (Theon narrated it in such a way that someone not a philosopher, someone with a childlike mind, could understand), these emanations, conscious of their own power, separated themselves from their Origin; that is, instead of being entirely surrendered to the supreme Will and expressing only. Ah, the fourth emanation is Truth! Instead of carrying out only the supreme Will, they seem to have acquired a sense of personal power. (They were personalities of sorts, universal personalities, each representing a mode of being.) Instead of remaining connected, they cut the linkeach acted on his own, to put it simply. Then, naturally, Light became darkness, Life became death, Bliss became suffering and Truth became falsehood. And these are the four great Asuras: the Asura of Inconscience, the Asura of Falsehood, the Asura of Suffering and the Asura of Death.
Once this had occurred, the divine Consciousness turned towards the Supreme and said (Mother laughs): Well, heres what has happened. Whats to be done? Then from the Divine came an emanation of Love (in the first emanation it wasnt Love, it was Ananda, Bliss, the Delight of being which became Suffering), and from the Supreme came Love; and Love descended into this domain of Inconscience, the result of the creation of the first emanation, Consciousness Consciousness and Light had become Inconscience and Darkness. Love descended straight from the Supreme into this Inconscience; the Supreme, that is, created a new emanation, which didnt pass through the intermediate worlds (because, according to the story, the universal Mother first created all the gods who, when they descended, remained in contact with the Supreme and created all the intermediate worlds to counterbalance this fallits the old story of the Fall, this fall into the Inconscient. But that wasnt enough). Simultaneously with the creation of the gods, then, came this direct Descent of Love into Matter, without passing through all the intermediate worlds. Thats the story of the first Descent. But youre speaking of the descent heralded by Sri Aurobindo, the Supramental Descent, arent you?
0 1961-08-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, but arent the gods conscious of the Divine?
Listen, mon petit, they are conscious of their own divinity, and of that above all!
They are connected with the Divine, yes, but I know from experience that they havent the faintest notion of what surrender is!
0 1961-10-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It was interesting because it was so concrete. I was conscious of my movement of compassion and love and of what it had become in the other persons consciousness!
Its very easy to explain: she was already more than half possessed, and of course this spirit of falsehood hardly felt comfortable! And the identification2 (not only mental but sensory, vital) was so complete that she felt this love as a movement of hatred. When I saw the two phenomena, I also saw that this is exactly what happens in the world! Its exactly what EVERYONE is.
0 1961-10-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And within all this, I no longer existed. I seemed to vanish into a kind of trance, yet I was consciousnot I: the consciousness was conscious of what Sri Aurobindo was conscious of. And he was following the reading. But I couldnt remember anything; at the time, it was impossible to observe. I can only describe it all to you now because the experience remained for at least an hour and a half afterwards; when I left here, I began to objectify it, to see what it wasaside from that, it was merely a STATE I found myself in. But in this state there was an awareness of what he was hearing, and at two or three places in your reading he seemed to be saying (I cant be exact, I can only give the impression), Not necessary. In fact, thats what made me call this passage too philosophical (although when you first asked my opinion I was in a peculiar condition, nothing was active in me). With him, it was very clear, it was almost as if there were a certain number of words about which he said, That, not necessary. That, not necessary. Not many, not often, but once in a while. Especially at the end (he was still there inside my head while you were talking), when you were saying that its necessary to explain to people; there he very clearly said, No, not necessary.
But I was incapable of remembering or of registering anything the only head present there was his.
0 1961-11-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont like to talk about these things, though they dont interest me. As Sri Aurobindo said, I lived my whole life absolutely free. I watched myself living through events like watching a movie. I had an inner vision, an inner will, and my inner reason for doing things was an Order received, an Order I was conscious of; but outwardlyfantastic! Naturallyhow else could it have been?
Here in Pondicherry, those last days might have become tragic (but of course it was impossible). There was the great argument (for he was perfectly aware of who I was): But after all, he would tell me, since you are the eternal Mother, why have you chosen Aurobindo as Avatar? Choose me! You must choose meme! It was the Asura speaking through him. I would smile and not discuss it. Thats not how its done! I would tell him (laughing). Then one day he said, Ah, so you dont want to. (gesture to the throat) Well, if you dont choose me, then. He was a strong fellow with powerful hands. I kept quite calm and said inwardly, My Lord, my Lord. I called Sri Aurobindo and I saw him come, like that (gesture enveloping Mother and immobilizing everything). Then Richards hands loosened their grip.
0 1962-01-09, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats another thing I have noticed: even in my childhood I was already conscious of what Sri Aurobindo calls living divinely, that is, outside the sense of Good and Evil.
This was counterbalanced by a terrible censor which never left me.11 It took Sri Aurobindo to clear it from my path. But I didnt have the sense of sin, of Good and Evil, sin and virtuedefinitely not! My consciousness was centered around right action and wrong action12this should have been done, that shouldnt havewith no question of Good or Evil, from the standpoint of work, of action alone. My consciousness has always been centered on action. It was a vision, a perception of the line to be followedor the many lines to be followed for the action to be accomplished. And any deviation from what to me was the luminous line, the straight line (not geometrically straight: the luminous line, the line expressing the divine Will), the slightest deviation from that, and oh, it was the only thing that tormented me.
0 1962-01-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The other motive for anubhava is of a more general applicability; for in order to reject anything from the being one has first to become conscious of it, to have the clear inner experience of its action and to discover its actual place in the workings of the nature. One can then work upon it to eliminate it, if it is an entirely wrong movement, or to transform it if it is only the degradation of a higher and true movement. It is this or something like it that is attempted crudely and improperly with a rudimentary and insufficient knowledge in the system of psycho-analysis. The process of raising up the lower movements into the full light of consciousness in order to know and deal with them is inevitable; for there can be no complete change without it. But it can truly succeed only when a higher light and force are sufficiently at work to overcome, sooner or later, the force of the tendency that is held up for change. Many, under the pretext of anubhava, not only raise up the adverse movement, but support it with their consent instead of rejecting it, find justifications for continuing or repeating it and so go on playing with it, indulging its return, eternising it; afterwards when they want to get rid of it, it has got such a hold that they find themselves helpless in its clutch and only a terrible struggle or an intervention of divine grace can liberate them.Some do this out of a vital twist or perversity, others out of sheer ignorance; but in yoga, as in life, ignorance is not accepted by Nature as a justifying excuse. This danger is there in all improper dealings with the ignorant parts of the nature; but none is more ignorant, more perilous, more unreasoning and obstinate in recurrence than the lower vital subconscious and its movements. To raise it up prematurely or improperly for anubhava is to risk suffusing the conscious parts also with its dark and dirty stuff and thus poisoning the whole vital and even the mental nature. Always therefore one should begin by a positive, not a negative experience, by bringing down something of the divine nature, calm, light, equanimity, purity, divine strength into the parts of the conscious being that have to be changed; only when that has been sufficiently done and there is a firm positive basis, is it safe to raise up the concealed subconscious adverse elements in order to destroy and eliminate them by the strength of the divine calm, light, force and knowledge. Even so, there will be enough of the lower stuff rising up of itself to give you as much of the anubhava as you will need for getting rid of the obstacles; but then they can be dealt with with much less danger and under a higher internal guidance.
***
0 1962-01-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So She made her first four emanations. The first was Consciousness and Light (arising from Sachchidananda); the second was Ananda and Love; the third was Life; and Truth was the fourth. Then, so the story goes, conscious of their infinite power, instead of keeping their connection with the supreme Mother and, through Her, with the Supreme, instead of receiving indications for action from Him and doing things in proper order, they were conscious of their own power and each one took off independently to do as he pleased they had power and they used it. They forgot their Origin. And because of this initial oblivion, Consciousness became unconsciousness, and Light became darkness; Ananda became suffering, Love became hate; Life became Death; and Truth became Falsehood. And they were instantly thrown headlong into what became Matter. According to Theon, the world as we know it is the result of that. And that was the Supreme himself in his first manifestation.
But the story is easy to understand, and quite evocative. On the surface, for intellectuals, its very childish; but once you have the experience you understand it very well I understood and felt the thing immediately.
0 1962-02-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The point is to become conscious of ones activities and master of ones actions.
Thats the thing.
0 1962-02-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So, according to the plane where you are conscious and can see, you perceive images and see events from varying distances and with varying degrees of accuracy. The only true and sure vision is the vision of the Divine Consciousness. The problem, therefore, is to become conscious of the Divine Consciousness and constantly maintain it in all lifes details.
Meanwhile, there are all sorts of ways to receive indications. That exact, precise and (whats the word?) habitual vision certain people have may stem from various sources. It may be a vision through identity with circumstances and things when you have learned to expand your consciousness. It may be an indication from some chatterbox of the invisible world, who has got it into his head to let you know whats going to happenthis is often the case. Then everything depends on your harbingers morals: if he is having fun at your expense, he spins stories for youthis almost always happens to those who receive their information from entities. To bait you, they may repeatedly tell you how things are going to turn out (for they have a universal vision in some vital or mental realm); then, when they are sure you trust them, they may start telling you fibs and, as they say in English, you make a fool of yourself. This happens frequently! You have to be in a higher consciousness than these fellows, these entities (or these minor gods, as some call them) and able to check from above the value of their statements.
0 1962-05-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When I was those gusts, those gusts of Love. When I was conscious of the last one, the one organized outwardly, as it were, by Sri Aurobindomaterializing as the avatar Sri Aurobindo then came the absolute certainty that the thing was done, that it was decreed.
And the moment I became aware that it was decreed, I thought, But how can THAT be translated into that? How can the two be joined? That was when the words came: You promised to do it, therefore you will do it; and slowly the transition began, as if I were again being sent back to do it. Yes, as if You promised to do it and you will do it; well, thats what I meant by a promise. And I came back towards this body to do it.
0 1962-05-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Recently these last few days in particular, because of this business with XIve been seeing the two persons that are in you. One of them is far more real to you than the other, because it has been given more expression; it is more realized, more conscious of itself, and its something you know well. The other being doesnt yet have the power to direct (how shall I put it?) to openly and consciously direct your destiny. Thats why you might still find yourself wandering in labyrinths.
For the moment I am in a seemingly neutral stateall I can say is, Well see. There is no definite no and no definite yesthere has been no definite approval, but there hasnt been the no that says, Its impossible. So it looks like that eternal Well see. How long will it be till we see? I dont know. It may be a few hours, a few days, a few minutes I dont know.
0 1962-07-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There has never been too great an attachment to this form. There was never any attachment (even in so-called full Ignorance) to anything but consciousness yes, something set great store by this consciousness, wouldnt let it be destroyed, saying, This is something precious. But the body. Its not even too good an instrument; simply modest, plastic, self-effacing, and molding itself to every necessity. An ability to mold itself to all points of view and to realize every ideal it deemed worthy of realizingthis very suppleness was its one virtue. And extremely modest, never wanting to impose itself on anything or anyone. Fully conscious of its incapacity, but capable of doing anything, of realizing anything. It was consciously formed with this make-up, because thats what was necessary. And nothing is too great or overwhelming, since there isnt the resistance put up by a small personality with the sense of its own smallness. No, none of that mattersCONSCIOUSNESS matters; consciousness vast as the universe, even vaster. And along with consciousness, the capacity to adaptto adapt and mold itself to every necessity.
Even now, my one feeling about this form is that its too rigid. Those stupendous inner revelations, those great movements of creative consciousness are constantly hampered by this. Its trying, its trying its best, but it is still governed by such appallingly rigid laws! Appalling. How long will it take to overcome this?
0 1962-07-25, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So, when youre told become conscious of your psychic being, its for the being formed by external Nature to contact the divine Presence through the psychic being. Then the psychic takes charge of the whole being; in fact, it is the inner Guide. Well, when I was a little child, this person (which wasnt a person, but an expression of a certain consciousness and will) was actually the psychic presence; there was something else behind, but thats a rather special case. And what happened to me happens to everyone whose psychic being has deliberately incarnated: the psychic being guides your life, and if you let it act freely, it arranges ALL circumstancesits truly wonderful! I have seennot only for myself but for so many people who also had conscious psychic beings that everything is arranged with a view to not at all your personal egoistic satisfaction, but your ultimate progress and realization. And all circumstances of life, even those you call disastrous, are there to lead you where you have to go as swiftly as possible.
Yours is more than a psychic being. As I have told you, your psychic being is accompanied by something which has come for a special purpose, with a particular intellectual powera luminous, conscious powerwhich has come from regions higher than the mind, regions Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind, to do a special work. It is here (gesture enveloping the chest and head) and, along with the psychic, its trying to organize everything. This, in your psychic, is what you are feeling. It must have great power. Dont you feel a kind of luminous force?
0 1962-08-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All the cells open up and become conscious of their eternity.
It may be that three, four, five times, nothing happens, and then the sixth time it comes. You have to be very stubborn about these things.
0 1962-09-05, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The other things, exteriorization and so forth, are innate, just as some people are born artists or painters or aviators. Its one of Natures special combinations. Ive known some downright stupid girls who could exteriorize remarkably well and be fully conscious of their experiences in the subtle physical or the mind or the material vital (when one is undeveloped its more often in the material vital than the subtle physical). And they would tell you all about what they saw. But incapable of yoga.
Natures fancies, I tell you.
--
I never had an experience for the joy of itnever. They came only when it was necessary. Nothing ever happened in my life that wasnt absolutely indispensable for my work. But to know this, you understand, you must know exactly what your work is and be conscious of the divine Will; and many years may go by before you reach that point.
I remember that one of the first things I asked Sri Aurobindo when I came here, after innumerable experiences and innumerable realizations, was, Why am I so mediocre? Everything I do is mediocre, all my realizations are mediocre, theres never anything remarkable or exceptionalits just average. It isnt low, but its not high eithereverything is average. And thats really how I felt. I painted: it wasnt bad painting, but many others could do as well. I played music: it wasnt bad music, but you couldnt say, Oh, what a musical genius! I wrote: it was perfectly ordinary. My thoughts slightly excelled those of my friends, but nothing exceptional; I had no special gift for philosophy or whatever. Everything I did was like that: my body had its skills, but nothing fantastic; I wasnt ugly, I wasnt beautiful you see, everything was mediocre, mediocre, mediocre, mediocre. Then he told me, It was indispensable.
--
For a long, long time, that was also the one thing I felt was worth living forConsciousness. When I met Thon and came to understand the mechanism, I also understood why I wasnt conscious at a certain level. I think Ive told you how I spent ten months one year working to connect two layerstwo layers of consciousness; the contact wasnt established and so I couldnt have the spontaneous experience of a whole spectrum of things. Madame Thon told me, Its because theres an undeveloped layer between this part and that part. I was very conscious of all the gradations: Thon had explained it all in the simplest terms, so you didnt need to be, as I said, a genius to understand. He had made a quadruple division, and each of them was divided into four, and then again into four, making innumerable divisions of the being; but with that mental simplification you could make in-depth psychological studies of your own being. And so by observation and elimination I eventually discovered that between this and that (gesture indicating two levels of Mothers consciousness), there was an undeveloped layerit wasnt conscious. So I worked for ten months on nothing but that: absolutely no results. I didnt care, I kept right on, telling myself, Well, it may take me fifty years to get anywhere, who knows. And then I left for the country (I was living in Paris at the time). I lay down on the grass, and all at once, with the contact of earth and grass, poof! There was a sort of inner explosion the link was established, and full consciousness came, along with all the ensuing experiences. Well, I said to myself, it was worth all the trouble!
And I am sure thats how the work is done, slowly, imperceptibly, like a chick being formed in the egg: you see the shell, you see only the shell, you dont know whats inside, whether its just an egg or a chick (normally, I meanof course, you could see through with special instruments) and then the beak goes peck-peck! And then cheep! Out comes the chick, just like that. Its the same thing exactly for the contact with the psychic being. For months on end, sometimes years, you may be sitting before a closed door, push, push, pushing, and feeling, feeling the pressure (it hurts!), and theres nothing, no results. Then all at once, you dont know why or how, you sit down and poof! Everything bursts wide open, everything is ready, everything is doneits over, you emerge into a full psychic consciousness and become intimate with your psychic being. Then everything changeseverything changesyour life completely changes, its a total reversal of your whole existence.
0 1962-09-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I could see something almost like the fire of battlean interesting spectacle! The body was very conscious of the Help it was getting, and that gave it a lot of confidence: it came out of the battle with a kind of increased certainty that it was being led just as it had to be in order to do the thing something nobody knows how to do externally, nobody! Nobody can knownei ther the process nor anything. Its entirely new.
Of course, the supreme Consciousness knows what Its doing and whats going to happen, in that It knows what It wants; but it isnt something that operates from cause to effect, and from events or circumstances to consequences, the way ordinary consciousness operates; its not like that at all, and thats why were unable to express it outwardly for the moment. Maybe later we will be able to spell something out, but it will never be more than (how can I put it?) just a story, right? Not THE thing itself.
0 1962-10-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, out of habit it all tries to start up again. But all you need to say is, Look, Lord; see, see how it is. Thats all. Look at this, Lord, look at that, look at this idiot here and its over. Immediately. And the change comes automatically, mon petit, without the slightest effort. Simply simply be sincere, in other words, TRULY want the right thing. One is quite conscious of being powerless, utterly incompetent: more and more, I feel that this amalgam of matter, of cells and all the rest, is just pitiful! Pitiful. I dont know, under certain conditions people may feel powerful, wonderful, luminous, competent but as far as I am concerned, thats because they have no idea what theyre really like! When you really see what youre made of its nothing, really nothing. But its capable of anything, provided provided you let the Lord do it. The trouble is that something always wants to do things on its own. If it werent like that.
People come, letters arrive, various circumstances and problems arise (its over now, but at the timeeven a year ago that kind of thing was sometimes a problem for me). Well, right away, I (Mother opens her hands in front of her forehead, palms upwards, as though presenting the problem to the Lord): Here, Lord, look at this. All I am good for is (same gesture): I am presenting it to You, Lord. And then I keep still, I just keep still: I wont move unless You move me, I wont speak unless You make me speak. And then you stop thinking about it. You think about it just for a second, long enough to do this (same gesture). It comes in like this, then up it goes (gesture showing a problem coming to Mother from one side and being sent above). And later, you suddenly realize youre speaking or acting or making a decision or writing a letter or and He has done it all.
0 1962-10-16, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If at death you withdraw from physical circumstances, from ordinary physical consciousness, and unite with the great universal Force, or the divine Presence, then all these little things. Its not that youre not conscious of themyou are very conscious: conscious of what others are doing, conscious of everything, but its not important.
But for those who are attached to people and things when they die, it must be a hellish torment.
--
And this is just what I am realizing (I dont think its anything unique or exceptional): the closer one draws to the cell itself, the more the cell says, But I am immortal! Only it must become conscious. But this takes place almost automatically: the brain cells are very conscious; the cells of the hands and arms of musicians are very conscious; with athletes and gymnasts, the cells of the entire body are wonderfully conscious. So, being conscious, those cells become conscious of their principle of immortality and say, Why would I want to grow old? Why! They dont want to grow old. It is very interesting.
So all the ideas I used to have about death, all the things I have said about death, practically all the things I have consciously DONE2oh! I have realized that all this, too, belongs to the past, and to a past of Ignorance. Here also, I will probably have other things to say later.
0 1962-10-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Do you remain conscious of yourself?
Oh, yes! I remain conscious. But nothings there any more. Its clear, its luminous, and theres absolutely nothing.
0 1962-11-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And sometimes it becomes terribly personal, as if you were being personally attacked. I have a whole theme of such things which cant even be spoken about because theyre too personalpersonal in that they appear to involve this body. Last night (ah, by the way, I remember noticing I was physically youngit was in the subtle physical, of course, and I was quite young) but what a life I led, with so many oh, revolutions, battles; I was involved in everything, there was tremendous activity. But I was being personally harassed by four or five of the most vile and disgusting old swine, and I had to confront them, hold them in place, keep them under control and make them obey. Ohh, was I glad to wake up! (It was time to get up; these things always stop automatically because I make it a point to get out of there at four-thirty) But the images, the sensations that went along with it. Oh, how is it possible! And I was fully conscious of the usefulness of this work: I was keeping them under control.1 But the things it involves ugh! Because for me, all knowledge is through identityeven in the subconscient its a knowledge through identityso you can imagine what that means.
Yes oh, there are some horrible beings there!
0 1962-11-17, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
From there you had a panoramic view of everything. And no sooner did I arrive than a storm broke outa terrible storm. I kept watching, and then I saw in this direction (I dont know whether it was north, south or west, but it was this direction: Mother points to the north), I saw two nearly simultaneous flashes of lightning. The first one (I was looking north, I was quite conscious of facing north) the first one, a terrific bolt, came and fell from the east; and just a moment after, very soon after, another came from the west. The two didnt come together, but they fell on the same spotthey didnt meet but they fell on the same spot. It was pitch dark, the earth and everything was dark, you couldnt see a thing, and suddenly those two flashes of lightning lit up the area where they fell, making a dreadful din, and (my field of vision was confined to that area; all the rest was in darkness, you see) it burst into flames! Everything was set ablaze. In the lightning flashes you could distinguish the tops of monuments, houses, all sorts of things, and then everything burst into flames: a dreadful conflagration.
I even remarked to myself (it was a rather curious feeling), Well, its interesting to have such a close view of it. That is, I had the feeling that my station, as Sri Aurobindo calls it, for viewing the world was very high up, and Id had to come down to that place. And thats what made me say, Well, its interesting to have such a close view of things. (I didnt say it to that being, I thought it.) And he was there next to me, gloating, standing some distance off to my right (looking up, I could see his headMo ther looks up at the ceiling). He was jubilant, gloating: You see, you see, you see! Overjoyed. I kept absolutely still; everything was still, calm, motionless (the thought that came was like something passing through me: Its interesting to have such a close view of it). And then I stopped everything, like this (Mother remains as still as a statue, fists clenched). And very soon afterwards (I cant say exactly because time there isnt the same as here), very soon afterwards, everything stopped.1 The storms only purpose was to cause the two thunderbolts, and it stopped after they fell on the earth. And then the flames the whole area was set ablaze (it was like a huge city, but not a city: most likely it was symbolic of a country): vroom! It burst into flames; some flames were leaping up very, very high. But I simply did this, stopped everything (Mother remains motionless, eyes closed, fists clenched), and then looked out once againeverything had returned to order. Then I said (I dont know why, but I was speaking to him in English yes, its because he was speaking English, saying, You see, you see!), I said, Ah, that didnt last long. They quickly brought it under control. With that he turned his back on me (laughing); he went off one way and I the other. Then I regained my outer consciousness, which is why I remember everything exactly.
0 1962-11-23, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its very, very true [one step up, one step down], very true, because its true even for the most material body-consciousness. And you realize the difficulties that represents. As soon as the body becomes more conscious of the divine Presence and Light, its immediately as though you touched the dregs of unconsciousness and yes, of unconsciousness and material inertia. And that makes the work very hard, very hard.
And just last time, when I told you I wasnt very well, it happened during the night, and it was the equivalent of what you write here, but purely material, in the body. In your book you describe it rather psychologically, like a phenomenon of consciousness, that is; but here its a phenomenon of the cells. So hurry to bring me the triumph! (Mother laughs) I was telling myself just this morning how exhausting it was, this perpetual battleoh, what a battle.
0 1962-11-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And as I told you, I even remarked, Well, if he were conscious of this, hed be pleased.
I should say so!
0 1963-01-09, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If the inner being the true beingis the ruler, the power of the true being makes the body act automatically; but then it doesnt grow conscious of its own change, it doesnt collaborate in its change, so for the change to happen it would take maybe millennia. The true being has to be like this (gesture to the background, standing back) and the body has to do everything BY ITSELF, in other words, contain the Lord, receive the Lord, give itself to the Lord, BE the Lord. It does aspireoh, its intense, aflame thats very good. But the Lord (smiling) doesnt conform to the ordinary habit! So all the habits, the minute He just tries to take possession of one function or another, even partially (not totally), all the interrelationships, all the movements are changed instantlypanic. Panic at the particular spot. And the result: you faint, or you are just about to faint, or you have an excruciating pain, or anyway something APPARENTLY breaks down completely. So whats to be done? Wait patiently until that small number or large number of cells, that little spot of consciousness, has learned its lesson. It takes one day, two days, three days, then the chaotic, upsetting big event calms down, is explained, and those particular cells say to themselves (or begin saying to themselves), God, how dumb we are! It takes a little while, then they understand.
But there are thousands and thousands and thousands of them!
0 1963-03-16, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ive seen this phenomenon very often. For example, the impression people have in ordinary life (few are conscious of it, but everyone has the impression, I know that) of a Destiny or a Fate or a will hanging over them, a set of circumstances (it doesnt matter what you call it), something that weighs you down and tries to manifest through you. But weighing you down. That was the first of my experiences: emerging above (very long ago, at the beginning of the century). And it was that kind of experience: one second, but suddenly, oh, you find yourself above it all. I remember because at the time I told the people I knew (maybe I was already looking after the Cosmic Review, it was the beginning, or maybe just before), I told them: There is a state in which you are free to decide what you will do; when you say, I want this, it means it will happen. That was the impression I lived with. Instead of thinking Id like to do this, Id like that to happen, with the sense of the decision being left to Fate, the impression that you are above and you make the decision: things WILL BE like that, things WILL BE like that.
Thats my memory of the beginning of the century.
0 1963-03-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When you meditate, are you conscious of going from one state to another? No?
Because at the start, there is usually that vibration with all the colors, though with blue strongly predominant (the color I have come to call the Tantric power in Matter); thats immediately with you, its a sort of normal state of concentration. Then afterwards, you seemed to recede or stretch out into a vast Immensity of very quiet silvery whitenessvery quiet and unbroken. Like a receding from outer life and a stretching out into that state. And then there comes downliterally comes downa very intense golden light, very intense, almost (what could I call it?) a colorful gold, really golden, very, very intense, and as though atomizeda powdering. The three in succession. Dont you feel that way?
0 1963-03-23, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its the same with people who get cured. That I know, to some extent: the Power acts so forcefully that it is almost miraculousat a distance. The Power I am very conscious of the Power. But, I must say, I find it doesnt act here so well as it does far away. On government or national matters, on the terrestrial atmosphere, on great movements, also as inspirations on the level of thought (in certain people, to realize certain things), the Power is very clear. Also to save people or cure themit acts very strongly. But much more at a distance than here! (Although the receptivity has increased since I withdrew because, necessarily, it gave people the urge to find inside something they no longer had outside.) But here, the response is very erratic. And to distinguish between the proportion that comes from faith, sincerity, simplicity, and what comes from the Power Some people I am able to save (naturally, in my view, its because they COULD be saved), this is something that for a very long time I have been able to foresee. But now I dont try to know: it comes like this (gesture like a flash). If, for instance, I am told, So and so has fallen ill, well, immediately I know if he will recover (first if its nothing, some passing trouble), if he will recover, if it will take some time and struggle and difficulties, or if its fatalautomatically. And without trying to know, without even trying: the two things come together.2 This capacity has developed, first because I have more peace, and because, having more peace, things follow a more normal course. But there were two or three little instances where I said to the Lord (gesture of presenting something, palms open upward), I asked Him to do a certain thing, and then (not very often, it doesnt happen to me often; at times it comes as a necessity, a necessity to present the thing with a commentfrom morning to evening and evening to morning I present everything constantly, thats my movement [same gesture of presenting something] but here, there is a comment, as if I were asking, Couldnt this be done?), and then the result: yes, immediately. But I am not the one who presents the thing, you see: its just the way it is, it just happens that way, like everything else.3 So my conclusion is that its part of the Plan, I mean, a certain vibration is necessary, enters [into Mother], intervenes, and No stories to tell, mon petit! Nothing to fill people with enthusiasm or give them trust, nothing.
Three or four days ago, a very nice man, whom I like a lot, who has been very useful, fell ill. (He has in fact been ill for a long time, and he is struggling; for all sorts of reasons of family, milieu, activities and so on, he isnt taken care of the way he should be, he doesnt take care of his body the way he should.) He had a first attack and I saw him afterwards. But I saw him full of life: his body was full of life and of will to live. So I said, No need to worry. Then after some time, maybe not even a month, another attack, caused not by the same thing but by its consequences. I receive a letter in which I am informed that he has been taken to the hospital. I was surprised, I said, But no! He has in himself the will to live, so why? Why has this happened? The moment I was informed and made the contact, he recovered with fantastic speed! Almost in a few hours. He had been rushed to the hospital, they thought it was most serious, and two days later he was back home. The hospital doctor said, Why, he has received a new life! But thats not correct: I had put him back in contact with his bodys will, which, for some reason or other, he had forgotten. Things like that, yes, theyre very clear, they take place very consciously but anyway, nothing worth talking about!
0 1963-03-30, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But its so dull! So dull, so lackluster, so unchanging, souninteresting, really dull that the slightest light shines like a bright star! The smallest, slightest, tiniest progress seems like an extraordinary thing. Like, for example, the attitude in certain cells towards a physical disorder which, naturally, like all physical disorders, tends to recur. The attitude in the cells changesnot the disorder (!), the disorder changes only because of the cells reaction, thats what makes it change; but it recurs with clockwork regularity thats its job. It is the way its received by the cells, their reaction to it, that brings about the change. And there is now a difference in the cells reaction. The result of my observation (an impersonal, general observation) is that there are two types of change (I cant call it progress), two types of change in the reaction: a change that goes on improving, in the sense that the reaction grows less sharp, the cells are less affected and become not only more conscious but more IN COMMAND of the reaction (something people are not generally conscious of, but which is what brings about the cure). And, on the other hand, deterioration: under the unrelenting attack, the cells panic, become more and more affected and afraid, and it eventually results in a terrible mess and a catastrophe. Well, the whole thing is observed, studied, experienced; but (laughing) in ordinary medicine its explained away in two words! You see, what I see now is the process they dont know the process, only the result. And, well, I notice that as the consciousness grows, the cells panic less and less and a sort of mastery develops. Of course, its a pleasing observation, if I may say so, but it doesnt even make me happy! It seems rather obvious. Also the proportion is such that to get a really telling result, it would take years and years and years! Oh, how many years! How slow things are.
So I dont feel impelled to talk about it. Id rather concern myself with something else I do the work, but thats all.
0 1963-04-06, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am conscious of the body, but it isnt the consciousness of this body (Mother touches her body): its the consciousness of THE Body it may be anyones body. I am conscious, for instance, of vibrations of disorder (most often they come in the form of suggestions of disorder) in order to see whether they are accepted and have an effect. Lets take the example of a suggestion of hemorrhage, or some such suggestion (I mention hemorrhage because it will soon come into the picture). Under the higher Influence, the body consciousness rejects it. Then begins the battle (all this takes place all the way down in the cells, in the material consciousness) between what we could call the will for hemorrhage, for example, and the reaction of the bodys cells. But its very like a real battle, a real confrontation. And all of a sudden, theres something like a general issuing a comm and and saying, Whats this! You understand, that general is conscious of the higher forces, the higher realities and the divine intervention in Matter; and after trying to use the will, this reaction, that feeling of peace and so on, suddenly he is SEIZED by a very strong determination and issues a commandin no time the effect begins to make itself felt, and little by little everything returns to order.
All this takes place in the material consciousness. Physically, the body has all the sensations but not the hemorrhage, you understand. But it does have the sensations, that is, the effects: all the sensory effects. It goes on for a while and then follows a whole curve. All right. Once the battle is over, I take a look and wonder (I observe the whole thing, I see my body, which has been fairly shaken, mind you), I say to myself, What in the world is all this? But just for a second, then I forget about it.
0 1963-06-08, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Obviously, there was there must have been a cause for alarm, because as soon as I became conscious of the experience (it started before I became conscious of it; when I did, it seemed to me it had already been going on for a long time; so when I say three hours, it means three hours during which I was conscious, but it had started long before; it was around eleven at night and lasted till three in the morning), so the second I was made conscious of the thing, obviously there was a cause for alarm, because immediately I was told, You see, this is what is going on, and it was thanks to that ecstasy in the body that there was no alarm: Oh, things are fine, everything is fine. And when the experience was over, it didnt end like an experience exhausting itself; it ended as if, very slowly, the thing were, not exactly veiled to my consciousness, but as if my consciousness were turned away from it, with the feeling, Dont worry. At the start and at the end. All the same, when I woke up, I thought (because my head felt strange, there was a bizarre sensation as if I had become quite swollen! Swollen, inordinately swollen), I thought, Maybe when I get up tomorrow morning (I get up at 4:30), Ill find myself in a complete daze! Thats why I observed but everything was fine, there only remained that sort of feeling of being swollen. I feel (yet it was two nights ago, not last night), I feel as if my head were swollen! But the clear-headedness is the same as ever!! (laughing) Nothings been disturbed!
On the contrary, there is a sort of like an acuteness, something more acute in the perception, a little bit ironic I dont know why. A magnified impression that all the things in the world are much ado about nothing, a lot of fuss about nothing Ive had that feeling for for centuries, I could say, but there is in addition something ever so slightly acute and ironic.
--
I could also say: something universal which becomes individual; not individual in the sense of a small person, but conscious of itself.
But the remarkable thing is that it had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with all the intellectual activity, high or lownothing. Nothing. Nothing to do with knowledge, or observation, discernment, intellectual perception, understanding, judgment and whatever. Nothing, nothing, nothing to do with all that. It was a Force in motion.
0 1963-06-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its perfectly obvious that people can live, that men can exist and live BECAUSE they are unconscious. If they were conscious, really conscious of the state they live in, it would be intolerable. And I can see that there is a very difficult period when you go from that unconsciousness (unconsciousness of the habit of living in that state) to a conscious vision of the state you live in. When you become totally conscious of things as they areof what you are, of your condition and when you do not yet have the power to get out, like last night, its almost intolerable. And there was a very clear awareness, very precise, that it isnt a question of life or death: it doesnt depend on that sort of thing, which ultimately changes nothing but a wholly superficial appearance thats not it! You know, people who are unhappy think, Ah, a day will come when Ill die, and all my difficulties will be overtheyre simpletons! It wont be over at all, it will go on. It will go on until the time when they get out for good, that is, when they emerge from Ignorance into Knowledge. Its the only way out: to emerge from Ignorance into Knowledge. And you can die a thousand times, it wont get you out, its perfectly uselessit just goes on. Sometimes, on the contrary, it drags you even further down.
Thats the thing.
--
I suppose people without solid heads become unhinged. Although truly, there is a remarkable Grace, because people are given a dose of experiences exactly according to their capacity. But this morning there was an hour an hour when I was absolutely conscious, absolutely conscious, and conscious of one single thing: the powerlessness the powerlessness to get out of Ignorance. The will to get out of Ignorance and the powerlessness to do so. It gave me a whole hour of tension.
When I woke up, the tension was such that my head was like a boiling kettle; so immediately, I said, Lord, its Your concern, not mine; its not my business. And naturally, everything calmed down instantly.
0 1963-07-10, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In a general way, thats how it works: the Lord is everywhere, His vibration is everywhere, but whats new is the capacity to feel Him or be conscious of Him. From all eternity He has been there, for all eternity He shall be there.
And the experience I have constantlyconstantlyisnt that I go in search of something thats not there and bring it where it wasnt! When I tell the Lord, Manifest Yourself, I dont mean He hasnt manifested! I mean: Give us the power to feel Your manifestation. We should say: Become manifest. Grant that we may grow conscious of Your Presence.
And that gives a clear sense of Unreality and Unconsciousness and of all the consequent disorder. Because there is a CONSTANT Reality, a CONSTANT divine Order, and its only the incapacity to perceive it that makes the present Disorder and Falsehood.
0 1963-08-10, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The last experience (which Ive had these last few days), in which apparently there was a hitch (it wasnt really one) was a sort of demonstration. I told you what it was, you remember: its like a purge of all the vibrations that are false vibrations, that arent the pure and simple response to the supreme Influence (all that in the cells still responds to the vibrations of falsehood, either from habit or from the people around or the food takenfifty thousand things). Then, with an aspiration or a decision, almost a prayer for purification coming from the body, something happens which, naturally, upsets the balance; the imbalance in turn brings about a general discomfort. The form discomfort takes is habitually the same: first, pains and all kinds of sensations I need not describe; if that state goes on developing, if it is allowed to assume its full proportions, it results in the past it resulted in a faint. But this time, I followed the process for about two hours from the moment I got up: the struggle between the new balance, the new Influence that was getting established, and the resistance of all the existing elements forced to go away. That created a sort of conflict. The consciousness remained very clear the consciousness of the BODY remained very clear, very quiet, perfectly trusting. So for two hours I was able to follow the process (while going on with all my usual activities, without changing anything), until I felt, or rather was told sufficiently clearly that the Lord wanted my body to be completely immobile for a while so that He might complete His work. But I am not all alone: there are other people here to help me and watch over everything (but I dont say or explain anything to them, those are things I dont talk about I dont say what goes on, I dont say anything), so I sat there wondering, Is it really and truly indispensable? (Mother laughs) Then I felt the Lord exert a little more pressure, which heightened the intensity of the conflict, so that I had all the signs of fainting I understood (!) I stood up, let my body moan a little to make it plain it didnt feel too well (!) and I stretched out. Then I was immobile, and in that immobility, I saw the work that was being donea work that cannot be done if you go on moving about. I saw the work. It took nearly half an hour; in half an hour it was over. Which means there is really there is a fact I cannot doubt, even if all the surrounding thoughts and forces contradict it: I cannot doubt that the consciousness is increasing more and more the consciousness in the body. It is growing more and more precise, luminous, exactQUIETvery peaceful. Yet very conscious of a TREMENDOUS battle against millennial habits. Do you follow?
When it was over, I saw that even physically, bodily, there is a strength: the result is an increased strength. A very clearly increased strength.
But its still going on. Now, theres a great battle against all the ideas, the habits, the sensations, the possibilities, everything, concerning deathdeath (laughing), not death in the sense of the consciousness departing (that, of course, people talk about, but those things no longer exist), no: WHAT THE CELLS MUST FEEL.2 And all the possibilities are presented to me With that consciousness (the consciousness accumulated, compressed in all those cells), when the heart stops beating and its understood that, according to human ignorance, you are dead, how does the force that groups all those cells together abdicate its will to hold them all together? Naturally, I was told right away (because the problemall the problemscome from everywhere, and its purposely that I am shown the problem and made to struggle with it; its not just as an idea), I was told right away that that force, that consciousness which holds everything together in really superconscious cells (they dont have at all the ordinary type of consciousness; ordinarily, its the inner, vital being [Mother touches the heart center] thats conscious of oneness, that is, conscious of being a being), that this aggregate of cells is now an aggregate OF ITS OWN WILL, with an organized consciousness which is a sort of collective gathering of that cellular consciousness; well Obviously this is an exceptional condition, but even in the past, in those beings who were very developed outwardly, there was a beginning of willed, conscious cellular gathering, and thats certainly why in ancient Egypt, where occultism was very developed. exceptional beings such as the pharaohs, the high priests, etc., were mummified, so as to preserve the form as long as possible. Even here in India, generally they were petrified (in the Himalayas there were petrifactive springs). There was a reason.3
And I saw for Sri Aurobindo (although he hadnt yet started this systematic transformation; but still, he was constantly pulling the supramental force down into his body), even in his case, it took five days to show the first slight sign of decomposition. I would have kept his body longer, but the government always meddles in other peoples business, naturally, and they pestered me awfully, saying it was forbidden to keep a body so long and that we should So when the body began to (whats the word?) shrinkit was shrinking and contracting, that is, dehydrating then we had to do it. He had had enough time to come out, since almost everything came into my bodyalmost everything that was material came into my body.
0 1963-08-24, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
At times For the body its a constant worka constant laborvery tiny, of every instant, an unceasing effort, with, so to say, an imperceptible result (externally at any rate, quite nonexistent), so for someone who doesnt have my consciousness, its perfectly obvious that the body appears to wear out and age, to be slowly heading for decomposition: thats in everyones atmosphere and consciousness (Mother laughs), its the kind of appreciation and vibration thats being thrown all the time on this poor body, which besides is quite conscious of its infirmityit doesnt entertain any illusions! But that quiet, peaceful, but UNCEASING endurance in the effort of transformation makes it sometimes yearn for a little ecstasynot as an abolition or annihilation, not at all, but it seems to be saying, Oh, Lord, I beg you, let me be You in all tranquillity. In fact, thats its prayer every evening when people are supposed to leave it in peace (unfortunately they leave it in peace physically, but mentally they dont). But that I could cut off, I learned to cut off long, long ago, I could cut off, but something, I mean somewhere, someone doesnt approve! (Mother laughs) Obviously what the Someone the great Someonewants to see realized is perfect peace, perfect rest, and joy, a passive joy (not too active; a passive joy is enough), a passive, constant joy, WITHOUT forsaking the work. In other words, the individual experience isnt regarded as all-importantvery far from it: the help given to the whole, the leaven which makes the whole rise, is AT LEAST equally important. Ultimately, thats probably the major reason for persisting in this body.
Nothing inside asks any questions, there are no problems there; all the problems I am talking about are posed by the body, for the body; otherwise, inside, everything is perfect, everything is exactly as it should be. And totally so: what people call good, what they call evil, the beautiful, the ugly, the all that is a small immensity (not a big immensity), a small immensity that is moving more and more towards a progressive realization thats the correct phrasewithin an integral Consciousness which integrally (how should I put it?) enjoys, or I could say, feels the plenitude of what He doesdoes, is and so forth (its all the same thing). But this poor body
0 1963-09-04, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Only, it may be that because of the work I am doing, you are brought into contact with a certain layer of possibilities and so you become more conscious of that. As for Sujata, she must be unknowingly under your influence, so what you feel she feels too thats my impression.
Ill look, but I havent seen anything lately. On the contrary, that thing I used to see over you at that time and drive away deliberately, since the beginning of this year in particular I havent seen it Ill look.
0 1963-09-07, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But for instance, I told you I spoke with the Pope for quite a long time the day of his election, and the conversation was abruptly interrupted by a reaction he had. (It was really a mental conversation we were having: I spoke, he replied, I heard his reply I dont know whether he was conscious of something probably not, but anyway; it wasnt at all a formation of my own mind because I received quite unexpected replies.) But the conversation was interrupted abruptly by a reaction he had when I told him that God is everywhere and in all things; that everything is He; and then a great Force came down into me and I added, Even when you descend into Hell, He is there too.
Then everything stopped dead.
0 1963-10-26, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then I saw all kinds of thingsoh, bah! bah! An adverse organization in the most material vital to mislead unenlightened spiritual aspirations: I encountered that last night. There was a kind of preacher teaching how to do things, and for each thing I had to contradict and explainbecause he had quite an audience: he has that audience at night, and when people wake up, they arent conscious of it, and it influences them. It results in a kind of possession. It was (oh, I see that gentleman often), its a tall, black beinghe is black, jet black but he passes himself off as a great Initiate! People dont see him as he is (they must see him in a very attractive guise), and he preaches the very things that foster disintegration. He teaches you in detail how to doa very good teacher of mischief. But I argued with him about everything, explained everything in detail, very carefully, very conscientiously, and when it was over, I offered it all to the Lordso I dont know what happened to him!
They are quite unhappy at whats going on here! (Mother laughs)
0 1963-11-04, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But during that period of time, I made a study and observation of the phenomenon: how the vibration of desire is added to the vibration of the Will sent out by the Supreme (for small everyday acts). And with the vision from above (if you take care, of course, to remain conscious of that vision from above), you see how the vibration sent out was exactly the one sent out by the Supreme, but instead of producing the immediate result which the superficial consciousness expected, it was intended to trigger a whole set of vibrations in order to reach another result, more distant and more complete. I am not talking of big things or terrestrial actions, I am talking of very small things in life. For example, you tell someone, Give me this, and the person, instead of giving that, misunderstands and gives something else; so if you dont take care to keep an overall vision, a certain vibration may occur, say of impatience, or a dissatisfaction, along with the feeling that the Lords vibration is neither understood nor received. Well, its that little ADDED vibration of impatience (or, in fact, of incomprehension of what happens), its that feeling of a lack of receptivity or response that has the quality of desirewe cant call it a desire, but its the same kind of vibration. And thats what comes and complicates things. If you have the complete, exact vision, you know that Give me this will produce a result different from the immediate one and that that other result will bring about yet another, which is exactly what should be. I dont know whether I am making myself clear, its a bit complicated! But it gave me the key to the difference in quality between the vibration of the Will and the vibration of desire. And together with this, the possibility of doing away with that vibration of desire through a broader and more total visionbroader, more total, more distant, that is to say, the vision of a vaster totality.
I am insisting on this, because it eliminates all moral elements. It eliminates the derogatory notion of desire. The vision increasingly eliminates all those notions of good and evil, good and bad, inferior and superior, and so forth. There is only what I might almost call a difference of vibratory qualityquality still evokes the idea of superiority and inferiority, it isnt quality, not intensity either, I dont know the scientific term they use to distinguish one vibration from another, but thats it.
0 1963-11-20, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have been shown in a perfectly objective, but tenuous, way some effects that are insignificant in their dimensions, yet OVERWHELMING, I am telling you, overwhelming in their quality. And with a smile, as if I were made fun of and told, Oh, so you want results? Well, here they are. You want effects? Well, here they are. And then it went on (you know, what I call insignificant is what concerns lifes tiny little circumstances of every minute): You want TERRESTRIAL results? Well, these are far more considerable in their quality than you can see. And indeed, I saw small, very small things, movements of consciousness in Matter, tiny little things that were truly astounding in their quality, and that are never noticed because they are totally unimportant (outwardly unimportant). Only if you observe in a most tenuous way do you notice them, because they are, in fact, phenomena of consciousness in the cellsare you conscious of your cells?
(Satprem shakes his head)
No. Well, become conscious of your cells, and you will see that there are results!
All these last few days, it has been coming as as proofs, proofs that can crush any doubt: proofs of the Supremes omnipresence in the apparently MOST UNCONSCIOUS MATTER something so overwhelming that the rational reason can hardly believe it. But it is forced to. Only, of course, you notice it when you have reached that most tenuous degree of attention and when, instead of wanting great things that cause a lot of noise and movement and appear very dazzling, you content yourself with observing very, very little, very tiny things that are to our pretentious reason perfectly insignificant, but to the Lord are crushing proofs.
--
And here I am trying never to remember! I go to the greatest trouble to succeed I do succeed, I am beginning to succeed. When I go to bed, I ask, For the love of God, for the love of You, Lord, let me rest blissfully and peacefully, without being conscious of all that useless jumble of life and people. And when I wake up (I wake up nearly four or five times in the night, that is, I come out of my trance and enter the external consciousness), every time I notice there had been an event going on, but immediately, something comes and goes vrrt! (gesture of erasing) because I asked; so it goes away. And Hes full of humor, the Lord, you know (Mother laughs), far more than we think, because He gives me just a hint of something which is suddenly extremely interesting and revealing: the other day, I had been put in contact with the political circumstances of the country, then naturally, at my idiotic request, as soon as I woke up, as soon as I came back to the external consciousness, something came and went vrrt! and the thing vanished. So I made a little attempt to bring it back, but I heard someone laugh, saying, You see!
In the end, the conclusion of it all is that were fools! We want what were not given, we dont want what were given, and we mix in all kinds of personal desires with the care the Lord takes of us.
--
Yes, certainly; what am I conscious of?
Mon petit
Im conscious of my own noise, of my own din, of my stories, thats all Im conscious of!
(Mother laughs) I remember, it wasnt at night, but in daytime; while I was walking, the Lord complimented me on you.
--
I tried to find out why your physical life began (well, not quite began, but you were very, very young, just the same) with such a painful experience [the concentration camps]. And I saw why: it was like a separationnot separation, but disentanglement, you understand? There are two things in every human being: what comes from the past and has persisted because it is formed and conscious, and then all that dark, unconscious mass, really muddy, that is added in every new life. Then the other thing gets into that and finds itself imprisoned, you knowadulterated and imprisoned and generally it takes more than half ones life to emerge from that entanglement. Well, for you, care was taken to more than double the dose at the beginning, and it caused a kind of tearing apart: one part went up above, another part fell down below. And the part (it acted almost like a filter), the part that rose up was very cleansed, very cleansed of all that swarming: its becoming very, very conscious of the mixture. Just see, today, the whole morning until I was swamped with work by people, till then there was a sharp awareness of the part of the being that still belongs, as I said, to Unconsciousness, to Ignorance, to Darkness, to Stupidity, and is not even as harmonious as a tree or a flower; something thats not even as tranquil as a stone, not even as harmonious and not even as strong as the animal something that is really a downfall. That is really human inferiority. And maybe (no, I shouldnt say maybe: I know) it was necessary for things to settle downsettle, you know, as when you let a liquid settle? Thats exactly it: its the Light that settles, the Consciousness that settles. And indeed its true, there is in you a part that has entirely settled. Every time I see it (it comes in the course of the work, you understand), its lovely in its quality of light, its quality of vibration, and it has settled considerably. But its true that there is also a kind of sediment, a deposit (deposit, you know?) which is a bit heavy thats what youre conscious of.
But you shouldnt say me! Its not you, that residue isnt you! But you are indeed conscious of the Light, arent you?
Yes, I am conscious of it when I write, for instance.
Yes, or when you meditate.
0 1963-12-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There was only one difficulty: the little children, who cannot be conscious of a test, of course, and who remained four and a half hours in the rain. I didnt want it to do any damage there were about a hundred small ones, tiny tots. I spent the night in concentration to bring into their material sensation the true reaction (because, for a short while, children love rain, they have a lot of fun in it), so I said to myself, That part of their consciousness should predominate so there is no damage. And I waited for the day after. The day after, no one was sick.
Then I received a letter from M., the captain, saying that they had felt it was a test, the lila2 of the Lord (he called it the lila of the universal Mother) and asking me if it was true. I was happy and answered him that it was true and that I was happy. And everyone told me, They were wonderful. As if doing that performance in the rain had given rise to a kind of will in them, and they were remarkable: everybody was enthusiastic. So instead of saying to the Lord, Thats not nice, I thanked Him heartily! And I laughed, I thought, There you have it! Its always that way.
0 1963-12-11, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I wasnt conscious of an instrument, but I was conscious of plenty of spots2 to which the thing clings. It clings not even to beings, but to ways of being of beings: to certain tendencies, certain attitudes, certain reactionsit clings to all that. Its not at all one person or one will, thats not it, but its a way of being. Its all universal ways of being that are destined to disappear from the field of activity and are being eliminated.
But the reaction on the body was painful, as it was the first time. The first time (according to X and the Swami), it was supposed to kill meit didnt even make me seriously ill, but it had a very unpleasant effect. I told you at the time that it was a mantra intended to drain you of all your blood; Ive seen several examples of people who died in that way: it was found afterwards to be the result of a mantric formation. In my case, all it succeeded in doing was to make me sick, as if everything came out I vomited terribly. Then there was something pulling me and I absolutely had to go my consciousness told me I had to go and see someone (I was all alone in my bathroom when it happened), a particular person whom I had to go and see; and when I opened the door, Z was there, waiting to prepare my bath, but I didnt see him at all and I absolutely wanted to go somewhere, into the other room, so I pushed against him, thinking, Whats this obstacle in my way? And he thought I was fainting on him! It caused quite a to-do.
--
The difference between before and after the 9th is that before the 9th there was a constant pressure of adverse suggestions, as Sri Aurobindo said in that letter we translated last time: Its all an illusion, its all imagination. A constant harassment. And sometimes it even takes very precise forms: You think youre integrally conscious of the Lordnot in the least! Its just a little bit in your head, vaguely, and so you imagine its true. When I heard that, it annoyed me very much, and I said, All right, Ill see. And it is after that kind of battle in the Subconscient that the voice stopped and I had this experience: It flows in the blood, it vibrates in the nerves, it lives in the cells.
And everywhere, you see, not just my cells, not just the cells of this body: when the experience comes, it is quite widespread; I have an impression of many bloods, many cells, many nerves. Which means that the CENTRAL consciousness isnt always aware of it, the individual isnt always aware of it (it has an extraordinary feeling, but it doesnt know what it is), while the cells are aware of it, but they cannot express it.
I felt that several times: when the experience comes, it isnt limited to one body. Only, the consciousness the observing consciousness isnt the same everywhere: there are DEGREES of consciousness, and here [in Mothers body] it appears to be a MORE CONSCIOUS center of consciousness, thats all; but otherwise For the consciousness itself its that way too: at times it is very much awake, at other times not so awake. Ultimately, all this is an experience of Oneness, of multiplicity in Oneness, and this experience depends on the degree of nearness and intensity. But it is the all the all which is oneand seen from the standpoint of the Lords consciousness. You know, what we call the Lord is that which is fully conscious of itself; and the more the consciousness diminishes, the more you feel its no longer the Lord but it is the Lord all the same!
Thats how it is.
--
When we speak of perception or knowledge through identity, it is still something that projects itself, identifies itself and OBSERVES itself while doing so; and it is conscious of the result. But my experience now isnt like that; it isnt something projecting itself: its an overall perception. So instead of being able to say, You think this way, THIS ONE thinks that way, THAT ONE feels this way, one thinks it or feels it with more or less clarity in the perception, more or less precision in the perception, but its always oneyou dont feel like saying I; theres no I, its one, its something. Listen, Ill give you an example: this morning I received that Italian, he started speaking, making gestures, telling me thingsNOT ONE sound reached my ears yet I knew perfectly well what he was saying. And I answered him in the same way, without speaking. I didnt feel it was someone else talking to me and that I was answering him: it was a totality of movements more or less conscious of themselves, a totality and an exchange, an interchange of movements more or less conscious of themselves, with some vibrations more conscious, some less conscious, but the whole thing very living, very active. But then, in order to speak, I would have had to put myself in the ordinary consciousness in which the Italian was over there and I was here but it didnt mean anything any more, it wasnt true. So there was something answering within, very actively, very distinctly, and all of it went on together (gesture showing movements of consciousness or waves of vibrations), and at the same time, there was a consciousnessa very, very vast consciousness which was watching it all [those exchanges of vibrations] and exerting a sort of control, a very, very slight but very precise control, so as to put each vibration in its place.
Thats how it is now when I see people. And it seems to be becoming more and more constant.
0 1963-12-14, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Or else, when you are able to see things from above, you can direct concentrations and channel the Force, as it were [on people and events]. And Ive noticed (since it became a natural fact for me), Ive noticed those two categories of people (with all kinds of nuances and differences): those who are happy to receive, and who are therefore much more conscious of the moment when the Force comes IN, and those (they are generous by nature, but also dominating) who are happier when they have a feeling of giving; so they are far more conscious of the Movement when it goes out of their individuality.
Thats just what I knew of Ws nature: the ego in him is that he likes to be a guru thats when one is quite egoistic, but as one grows less so, there still remains that aspect of the nature that makes one more inclined to give than to receive. And as I had made a very strong concentration, quite naturally he felt the force going out of him.
0 1963-12-25, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its a kind of study a useful one, maybe. And I noticed, I remember having complained, Oh, it hurts! (Apparently I was sound asleep, but I was very conscious of my body.) So it interested me, and I turned to the Lord: It hurts quite a bit. So He extended his hand, took that thing away and presented it to me, saying, Oh, its only that! It wasnt pretty. But then, INSTANTLY, the pain went away. I had been feeling some pain in the evening before going to bed (the nerves ached, the neck muscles hurt, it was like something weighing down heavily and clinging to me painfully); I saw His hand take it and present that animal to me, and I heard the voice say, Oh, its only that (He speaks to me in English), its only thatgone!
Exactly what Sri Aurobindo did when he was here: his hand seemed to come, take hold of the pain, and the illness went away.
0 1964-01-04, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It was the same thing with you I saw that. He regards you like this (gesture of looking down on Satprem), and then, youre not a pundit (!), you havent had the religious education of the countryhe regards you as a beginner, he isnt at all conscious of where your mind is, of where your mind can reach. I told him, but even that he doesnt quite understand. But once, I saw (it was at the time when I was giving him meditations downstairs), he had made a remark that was quite preposterous on the fact that people here meditated with eyes closed and that I, too, had my eyes closed when I meditated. It was reported to me. That was long ago, years ago. He was going to come and see me the next morning, so I said, Wait, my friend, Ill show you! And the next day, I meditated with my eyes open (Mother laughs)the poor man! When he went downstairs, he said, Mother meditated with her eyes open, she was like a lion!
Thats it, you understand, theres a gap.
--
Last time, when he came to meditate, just before he came upstairs, all of a sudden I felt the Lord coming (He has a particular way of becoming concrete when He wants me to do something), and He became concrete with the will that I should take advantage of this mans goodwill to widen his consciousness. It was very clear. And He became concrete with a Power, you know, one of those overwhelming Powers and a wonderful Love. It came like that, and he was caught in the Movementwhat he was conscious of, I cannot say. But when he left the room, he said he had had an experience. And this time, he was quite sincere, spontaneous, natural, not trying to to make a show.2 It was very good.
No, you might have gained something [with X], but its a something you would have found quite small; if you had felt it, you would have thought, Oh, really, that was it!?
0 1964-01-28, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, division of religion, of country, of interest! If people felt like brothersnot brothers who quarrel but brothers conscious of their common origin
(B.) When are you coming?
0 1964-02-22, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have never seen such an intensity in the cells, in the consciousness of the cells you know, an almost desperate intensity: Weve had enough, enough of this Falsehood!the Truth, the Truth, the Truth. And then that Light bah-bah! They were conscious of the light. conscious of a dazzling light.
Look, its the kind of giddiness one has when one has drunk a bit too much thats it, the giddiness caused by alcohol.
0 1964-03-07, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then one has to hold still, put the Force and Now, I am conscious of where it comes from, of what it is, of who it is (when it comes from someone), of all that. And the response can be perfectly conscious and willed. And when I restore order here (gesture to the abdomen), it restores order there, too.
This, in the realm of thought, is something that has been there for a very long timevery long, years and years: the shock that comes from outside exactly as if it were its YOUR thought, but it comes from over there, it isnt actually here; and then the response. Since soon after the beginning of the century, this work has been going on. Afterwards, there was all the psychic work, in the same way (gesture of widening): the identification and the response. Then the vital work, which I began with Sri Aurobindo when we were staying over there [at the Guest House]; then the physical work, but there its gropingly learning ones job. Now there is a sort of certainty (not absolute and constant, but not far away), a sort of certainty: you see, you come into contact with something, and then you know instantly what should be done and how it should be done; the vibration comes, meets a response, and goes back and this is going on every minute, all the time.
0 1964-03-28, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And the light and warmth were expressed, that intensity of Ananda, that bliss You understand, it wasnt in opposition to but like a COMPLEMENT of this vibratory knowledge, which was I cant say a coldly scientific knowledge because that introduces mental notions, but it was of such a wisdom! A knowledge so wise, so calm, so imperturbably quiet, absolutely free from any notion of good and evil, of divine, of positive and negative, absolutely independent of all of thatpurely material. And with an absolute power. Then in these same cells, which were fully conscious of this knowledge of vibrations as being the supreme means of control for their harmony, suddenly there arose in them a sort of not a flame (a flame is dark in comparison), a luminous Ananda: Love in its perfect reality.
And it was translated like this: Its so much more marvelous when we know its You!
0 1964-07-28, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He left everything, but he knows darn well that he left everything! Hes very conscious of his sacrifice, which means that in his consciousness theres no correspondence between what he gave and what he has receivedwhat he gave, as when you stake everything on a future benefit.
Anyway, hes coming back.
0 1964-08-11, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There was an experience the night of the 8th, which lasted at least two hours by the clock, maybe more. An experience I had never had before. In fact, it wasnt at all the experience of a person, because I was very conscious of the return to the personal consciousness, and in a very interesting way: everything was felt as a diminishing. The return lasted nearly half an hour. Its inexpressible with words.
For two hours, it was the experience of Omnipotenceof THE LORDS Omnipotence for two hours, with all the decisions that were made then, that is to say, the expression of what was going to be translated in the earth consciousness. There was such a simplicity about it! Such obviousnesswhat we customarily call natural. So obvious, so simple, so natural, so spontaneous, without even the memory of what might be an effort the constant effort you have to make in material life just to live, just to keep all those cells together.
--
But outwardly, that sort of film its like a thin film of difficulties, of complications, added on by the human consciousness (its much stronger with man than with the animal; the animal doesnt have that, very littleit has it more and more because of man, but very little; its something specific to man and the mental function), its something very thinas thin as an onion skin, as dry as an onion skinyet it spoils everything. It spoils everything ONLY FOR THE HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS. At the time [of the experience], it was unimportant. Unimportant, in the sense that it takes away all the Beauty, all the Power, all the Magnificence of the thing for the human consciousness. For man, it is of paramount importance. But for the Action, its almost negligible. Basically, its rather that it makes it difficult for man to become conscious and PARTICIPATE; otherwise, my feeling is that truly the time has come for things to get done: that experience was a NEW descent, that is, something new entering the terrestrial manifestation; it wasnt that I became conscious of how the world is: I WAS the Lords Will coming into the world to change it. Thats what it was. And that action was only very slightly affected (assuming it was affected at all) by that stupid onion skin of human mentality.
In fact, that was the interesting point: when you come back to the other side (its not even coming back to the other side, its a curious thing that happens..), I remember, when I became conscious again of this body, its gestures had become dry, sterile, thinstupid. And yet it was still in an intense Bliss and a total self-giving: it was at the height of its joy; and yet what it was doing, its appearance, oh, it all seemed so silly!
--
Not conscious? Not conscious of what?
Of what I am, of what I do. I tell you, I am not conscious of whats going on, of the progress I may or may not be making.
Thats quite secondary.
--
There is a part of your being (not far: it isnt something very far away, its very close), a part of your being which is on the contrary extremely conscious and LUMINOUSLY conscious, and not only conscious but responsive: it receives and respondsit vibrates. I can see very clearly that you arent conscious of itoh, in the first place, you wouldnt be pulling that sour face, youd be laughing all the time if you were conscious of it! Because its very luminous and golden, very joyful. Its just about the opposite of the grumbler! But it isnt far away! It isnt miles away: its there. But there is a sort of thin film. Its an onion skin: all our difficulties are onion skins. An onion skin, you know: its terribly thin, but nothing can get through.
We have to be patient.
0 1964-08-22, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I had the experience (I knew what it was, but I didnt know the consequences or how to express it), I had the experience of my body consciousness going completely out of the body (that must be what happens when one dies, mustnt it?), and for apparently for ten or fifteen minutes, I dont know, it was over, the physical world no longer existed, the body no longer existed. But I was very conscious of a movement of forces and of an action; that corporeal consciousness was even repeating its mantra, that was very interesting: it was repeating its mantra and watching the effect of the mantra on the vibrations of forces. But the consciousness left the body over there (gesture to the bathroom) and came back into it here (on the bed). I was carried.. and what happened between the two, I dont know. But when you reenter your body (that is, when the most material part of the consciousness has left the body, when you faint or go into a state of cataleptic trance, and then reenter your body), its very painful, very painfulall the nerves hurt. So then, suddenly, I felt a lot of pain like that (it lasts two seconds, thats nothing), and then I felt that I was lying on cushions! (Laughing) My last impression was of standing over there!
Its the first time in my life that has happened. Always, whenever I fainted, I would remain conscious of what was happening to my body; often, I would even see it I would see it lying on the floor, for instance; but I would remain conscious. This is the first time.
But the effect afterwards was queer, as if all the functionings had lost their (what can I call it?), their captain they no longer knew what to do. And in the head, at first it felt as if it had grown very, very big, and then there were vibrations You know, I often mention those Vibrations of Harmony that try to enter the vibrations of Disorder (its something I often see now, even with my eyes open: they come through, enter, there are formations, all sorts of things), but that was going on in my head. My head was big (!), and inside, there were all those dots of the white light of Harmony, moving about with a great intensity and power, within a dark gray medium. It was interesting. But I was conscious only of that the entire relationship with the body had vanished. And the whole day long I had the feeling of a lack of government in the body, as if everything followed its own impulsion; it was very hard to keep it all together.
0 1964-08-26, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Not at all, they are conscious of a collective work to be done. And they communicate among themselves to organize that collective work.
Yes, I understand that very well; in other words, the heart cells tend to form a heart again, the liver cells to form a liver again, and so on. But I am up against this problem: here is an aggregate of cells making up this body; do they have a will for this body to continue, or? But when a body decomposes, the cells do not remain cells: the end is dust.
--
You see, for our consolation we are told in every possible way that the work done isnt lost and that all this action on the cells to make them conscious of the higher life isnt lost thats not true, its absolutely lost! Suppose I leave my body tomorrow; this body (not immediately, but after a time) reverts to dust; then all that Ive done for these cells is perfectly useless! Except that the consciousness will come out of the cells but it always does!
Its really during the Workers lifetime that the thing must be done.
--
One cannot imagineone cannot imagine what a grace it is to have someone in whose hands you can place yourself entirely! By whom you can let yourself be guided without having the need to seek. I had that, I was very, very conscious of it as long as Sri Aurobindo was there. And when he left his body, it was a dreadful collapse. One cannot imagine. Someone you can refer to with the certainty that what he says will be the truth.
Theres no path, the path has to be blazed out!
0 1964-10-07, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is the thing I am conscious of in my own work.
The most material consciousness, the most material mind, is in the habit of having to be whipped into acting, into making effort and moving forward, otherwise its tames. So then, if it imagines, it always imagines the difficultyalways the obstacle, always the opposition, always the difficulty and that slows down the movement terribly. So it needs very concrete, very tangible and VERY REPEATED experiences to be convinced that behind all its difficulties, there is a Grace; behind all its failures, there is the Victory; behind all its pain and suffering and contradictions, there is Ananda. Of all the efforts, this is the one that has to be repeated most often: you are constantly forced to stop, put an end to, drive away, convert a pessimism, a doubt or a totally defeatist imagination.
0 1964-10-10, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But with you, its the same thing, because you were already conscious when you were small (without being conscious of it), and when all those terrible things2 happened to you, there was something that remained conscious, but those things cultivated the pessimism that pessimism of the physical mind. And now you have to undo all that work. And what a work it is, phew!
You understand, it was IMPOSSIBLE, impossible for me to believe in (believeeven understand) all those movements of betrayal, of jealousy, all the movements of negation of the Divine in human beings and thingsit was impossible, I didnt understand! But it came from every side, striking and striking and striking. So all that had to be undone.
0 1964-10-14, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
These last few nights, an experience has been developing. There is a sort of objectification, like scenes unfolding in which I am one of the characters; but it isnt me, it is some character or other that I play in order to have the double consciousness, the ordinary consciousness and the true consciousness at the same time. There was a whole series of experiences to show simultaneously the True Thing and the sort of half-death (its his word that makes me think of this I am too dead), the half-death of the mind. In those experiences, the state of ordinary mentality is something dry (not exactly hard because its crumbly), lifeless, without vibrationdry, cold; and as a color, its always grayish. And then, there is a maximum tension, an effort to understand and remember and knowknow what you should do; when you go somewhere, know how you should go there; know what people are going to do, know Everything, you see, is a perpetual question of the mind (its subconscious in the mindsome are conscious of it, but even in those who are apparently quiet, its there constantly that tension to know). And its a sort of superficial thing, shallow, cold and dry, WITHOUT VIBRATION. At the same time, as if in gusts, the true consciousness comes, as a contrast. And it happens in almost cinematographic circumstances (there is always a story, to make it more living). For instance, last night (its one story among many, many others), the I that was conscious then (which isnt me, you understand), the I that was playing had to go somewhere: it was with other people in a certain place and had to go through the town to another place. And she knew nothing, neither the way nor the name of the place she was going to, nor the person she had to seeshe knew nothing. She knew nothing, but she knew she had to go. So then, that tension: how, how can you know? How can you know? And questioning people, asking questions, trying to explain, You know, its like this and like that, innumerable details (it lasts for hours). And now and then, a flood of lighta warm, golden, living, comfortable lightand the feeling that everything is prearranged, that all that will have to be known will be known, that the way has been prepared beforeh and that all you have to do is let yourself live! It comes like that, in gusts. But then, there is an intensity of contrast between that constant effort of the mind, which is an enormous effort of tension and concentrated will, and then and then that glory. That comfortable glory, you know, in which you let yourself go in trusting happiness: But everything is ready, everything is luminous, everything is known! All you have to do is let yourself live. All you have to do is let yourself live.
Its as if a play were performed to make it more living, more realone subject, another subject, this, that. If you enter a certain state, then another time enter the other state, you can remember the difference and its useful, but in this form of a play, with the double consciousness, the opposition becomes so real, so concrete that you come out of it wondering, How can you go on living in this aberration when you have once TOUCHEDtouched, experienced the True Thing?
0 1964-11-07, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And I was left with this problem: who was standing there? Very tall, with a splendid dress, and then a person (who was a human person, but much shorter), a white person beside me, all white. And just when I become conscious of this, when I see this, the head empties completely of something, and the face of the person standing (who was me) smiles. And then, the other part of me that was lying down in my bed said, What! Its odd, I am fainting; how is it that I am fainting?I am in my bed!
I got up and didnt feel anything physically, it didnt correspond to anything.
0 1964-11-14, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Hitler asserted that Falsehood should govern the world and that it was governing it. And he was very conscious of being the instrument of the Asura who had himself called the Lord of Nations, who is precisely the present, current representation of the Asura of Falsehood (the one who was born the Lord of Trutha lovely story).
Thats why Sri Aurobindo clearly and openly took the side of the Alliesit wasnt out of love for the British!
0 1964-11-25, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its the first time, because even when I have an experience, even the first time, I remember, when we began collective meditations and Sri Aurobindo came down and literally sat on the [Ashram] compound, it was very interesting, of course, and very compelling,2 but I was conscious of time. And this time There have been ups and downs, good experiences and bad ones, all kinds of things, but I have always been conscious of time, while yesterday I myself was astounded. I heard the gong and I had the feeling it had just started. There was even something in the body that was jubilant like a child: Its going to last half an hour, its going to be like this for half an hour (it was funny, you know) ah, the true life at last! That was the bodys feeling, and it was going to last half an hour. Bong! bong! As if it had been robbed of its joy!
Its curious.
--
Perhaps it was that very childlike, but very spontaneous and very simple movement of the body, conscious of Matters imperfection, We are so impure that we cannot even burn in front of You!perhaps thats what provoked that answer.
It was a wondera brief wonder!
0 1964-11-28, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have decided not to play this year for January 1st. Even last year, I very much hesitated to play because I was absolutely conscious of the inadequacy the poorness and inadequacyof the physical instrument; but there was a sort of reasonable wisdom which knew how a refusal to play would be interpreted [by the disciples], so I playedwithout satisfaction, and it wasnt worth much. But the music I heard yesterday was so much THAT, SO much what I would like to play, that I said to myself, Well, now it would be unreasonable to want to keep in a personal manifestation something that has a much better means of expression [Sunil]. So I have decided to say No for January 1st. But I will see if Sunil couldnt prepare something on the theme of next years message, something that would be recorded and played for everyone, in an anonymous wayno need to say, Its by this or that person, its music, thats all.
You know that they are printing two calendars, one here and one in Calcutta. In the Calcutta calendar, I look happy and I greet with folded hands; so I wrote underneath, Salut Toi, Vrit [Salute to you, O Truth]. In English (theyre a bit slow, you know!), they wanted something more explicit, so I wrote, Salute to the advent of the Truth. I am going to give the subject to Sunil: Make some music on this.
0 1965-03-03, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Just two or three days ago I wrote something in reply to a question, and I said something like this: Sri Aurobindo is the Lord, but only a part of the Lord, not the Lord in His totality because the Lord is Allall that is manifested and all that is not manifested. Then I wrote: There is nothing that isnt the Lord, nothing there is nothing that isnt the Lord, but those who are conscious of the Lord are very rare. And this unconsciousness of the creation is what constitutes its Falsehood.
It was so obvious suddenly: This is it! This is it! How did Falsehood come about?Just like this: it is the creations unconsciousness that constitutes the Falsehood of the creation. And as soon as the creation becomes conscious again of BEING the Lord, Falsehood will cease.
--
It came as something obvious. People ask, What is it that is called Falsehood? Why is the creation made of Falsehood?It isnt an illusion in the sense of being nonexistent: its quite existent, but its not conscious of what it is! Not only un conscious of its origin but un conscious of its essence, of its truth. It isnt conscious of its truth. And thats why it lives in Falsehood.
This aphorism is magnificent. There is nothing to say, of course, it says everything.
0 1965-03-10, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is when everything falls silent in order for man to become conscious of his Origin that, in his folly, to keep himself amused, man conceives or carries out the most stupid things.
To keep himself amused, because he cant bear the strength of the Light.
0 1965-03-20, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I was telling Pavitra a few days ago: all those physical disorders of the body, those disorders in the functioning or even organic disorders, suddenly (naturally, the constant state is one of aspiration: an intense, continuous, conscious aspiration) and suddenlysuddenlyan almost stupefying Response: all disorder disappears, not only inside but around (around, sometimes over a rather vast extent), and everything becomes automatically organized, harmonized, without the least effort, and it starts (Mother draws the great waves of the eternal Movement) moving within an extraordinary progressive harmony; then, with no apparent reason, without anything having changed in the consciousness and any outer circumstances making a difference, pfft! it reverts to what it was before: disorder, conflict, chaos, things that grate. And then, as you arent conscious of the why, you dont have the key!
I told him, thats why people who very much tried to find, but in vain, spoke of Gods Will; but that (Mother shakes her head) that seems to be irreconcilable with, as I said, the knowledge you have when you have passed beyond the Mind. The Mind can say that to itself in order to give itself peace, but its thoroughly, thoroughly unsatisfying, because it postulates an unacceptable arbitrariness, which is felt as contrary to the Truth. But then, how do you explain those kinds of reversals? Naturally, others, like Buddha, spoke about Ignorance; they said, You are ignorant; you think you know, but you are ignorant. But the key he gave isnt satisfying, either. Because when you have taken care to establish down to the cells of the body an apparently unshakable equanimity, how can you accept the ignorance factor?
--
The body follows the action very well and does all that it has to do, but when around it there are consciousnesses that feel or think otherwise, that still has a considerable action; although the consciousness isnt affected: its perfectly lucid, it sees the whole play all the time, and it is conscious of the forces that come and of the whole play. So how is it that, the consciousness being conscious of the forces that come, those forces still have the power to act on the cells directly? Thats a problem.
It means a cellular interdependence that makes the program very, very, VERY difficult.
0 1965-04-28, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I received all this news this morning; for several hours I have been living through the consciousnesses with this problem: the fact that he is still living. And there is always (for consciousnesses such as those) Death with a big question markwhat is it exactly? What happens exactly [when one dies]? What is the change in consciousness? Is there a change in consciousness? What happens? Because my work (the promise I gave) consists in making him, before he leaves his body, conscious of the eternal Truth. So for at least three hours this morning I was confronted with this problem (thats why I was completely withdrawn when I came), and I said to myself, But until one is the master of life and death, one knows nothing!
Thats why I was a little absorbed.
0 1965-05-19, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats why certain minds have postulated that the creation was the result of an error. But we find all the possible conceptions: the perfect creation, then a fault that introduced the error; the creation itself as a lower movement, which must end since it began; then the conception of the Vedas according to what Sri Aurobindo told us about it, which was a progressive and infinite unfolding or discoveryindefinite and infiniteof the All by Himself. Naturally, all these are human translations. For the moment, as long as we express ourselves humanly, its a human translation; but depending on the initial stand of the human translator (that is, a stand that accepts the primordial error, or the accident in the creation, or the conscious supreme Will since the beginning, in a progressive unfolding), the conclusions or the descents in the yogic attitude are different. There are the nihilists, the Nirvanists and the illusionists, there are all the religions (like Christianity) that accept the devils intervention in one form or another; and then pure Vedism, which is the Supremes eternal unfolding in a progressive objectification. And depending on your taste, you are here or there or here, and there are nuances. But according to what Sri Aurobindo felt to be the most total truth, according to that conception of a progressive universe, you are led to say that, every minute, what takes place is the best possible for the unfolding of the whole. The logic of it is absolute. And I think that all the contradictions can only stem from a more or less pronounced tendency for this or that position, that other position; all the minds that accept the intrusion of a fault or an error and the resulting conflict between forces pulling backward and forces pulling forward, can naturally dispute the possibility. But you are forced to say that for someone who is spiritually attuned to the supreme Will or the supreme Truth, what happens is necessarily, every instant, the best for his personal realizationthis is true in all cases. The unconditioned best can only be accepted by one who sees the universe as an unfolding, the Supreme growing more and more conscious of Himself.
(silence)
0 1965-05-29, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All in all, the question may not be so much a transformation of Matter as of becoming conscious of the true unfolding.
Thats precisely what I mean. The transformation can take place up to a point without your even being conscious of it!
You see, it is said that there is now a great difference, that when man came, the animal didnt have the means of taking notice; well, I say its exactly the same thing: in spite of all that man has realized, man doesnt have the means; certain things may happen, but he will know they did only much later, when something in him is sufficiently developed to enable him to take notice.
0 1965-06-30, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its the same thing with me, but I told them. Only, one should be conscious of the movement, and then, very quietly but very, very confidently, very confidently, you tell them as you would children, No, its not your duty to do this; this isnt your duty.
All chronic illnesses come from that. There may be an accident (something happens, an accident) and then there is a sort of submissive and unconscious goodwill that causes the effect of the accident to be repeated: We must repeat, we must repeat, we must repeat that (gesture in a circle). And it stops only if a consciousness is in contact with the cells and can make them understand that No, in this case, you mustnt go on repeating! (Mother laughs)
0 1965-07-24, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I saw that very clearly, it was part of the sadhana of this material mind. Then I offered it all to the Lord and stopped thinking about it. And when I received your letter, I thought, Its the same thing! The same thing, its a sort of unhealthy need this physical mind has to seek the violent shock of emotions and catastrophes to awaken its tamas. Only, in the case of A. breaking his head, I waited two days, thinking, Let us see if it happens to be true. But nothing happened, he didnt break his head! In your case, too, I thought, I am not budging till we get news, because it may be true (one case in a million), so I keep silent. But this morning I looked again and saw it was exactly the same thing: its the process of development to make us conscious of the wonderful working of this mind.
Oh, indeed, as soon as there is a little scratch, something in the being immediately sees terrible illnessesimmediately.
--
There is a lot to do, a whole lot. But it may go relatively fast. When you observe, you realize that what takes the most time is becoming conscious of what must be changed, having a conscious contact that enables it to change. Thats what takes the most time. The change itself There are recurrences, but its growing much less intense. It all depends on the amount of unconsciousness and tamas in the being; as it grows less, the experience grows stronger.
***
0 1965-08-21, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The cells, the whole material consciousness, used to obey the inner individual consciousness the psychic consciousness most of the time, or the mental (but the mind had been silent for a long time). But now this material mind is organizing itself like the other one, or the other ones, rather, like the mind of all the states of beingdo you know, it is educating itself. It is learning things and organizing the ordinary science of the material world. When I write, for instance, I have noticed that it takes great care not to make spelling errors; and it doesnt know, so it inquires, it learns, it looks up in the dictionary or it asks. Thats very interesting. It wants to know. You see, all the memory that came from mental knowledge went away a long, long time ago, and I used to receive indications only like this (gesture from above). But now its a sort of memory being built from below, and with the care of a little child who educates himself but who wants to know, who doesnt want to make errorswho is perfectly conscious of his ignorance, and who wants to know. And the truly interesting thing is that it knows this knowledge to be quite more than relative, simply conventional, but it is like an instrument that would like to be free of defects, like a machine that would like to be perfect.
It is a rather recent awakening. There has been a sort of reversal of consciousness.
0 1965-09-25, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And the body consciousness (which is now taking form more and more clearly), even the one that is subject to the old habit, is conscious of the divine existence, I might say (the existence of the Divine and almost the divine existence), but it still has a sense of helplessness, and also, within that helplessness, of a complete surrender to the divine Will: If we arent ready, it will be like that [= the dissolution]. And there is a part that feels ready, that understands and knows how things must be and wants them that way, and the two clash. Its not that one is for the Divine and the other against, nothing of all that old business is there any longer: there is the complete acceptance of the Divine, but the sensation of not being ready the sensation that the world isnt ready (it wasnt at all an individual affair, not at all, it was a terrestrial consciousness).
And you clearly feel in this struggle (which lasted the whole night and the whole morningyesterday, I wasnt in too brilliant a state), you clearly see, its visible that its not a question of a forceful will or its not that: the SUBSTANCE must be ready. If the substance isnt ready, a forceful, powerful action visibly causes a dissolution. And then all that has been built has to be rebuilt. This idiotic death, you see, reduces it all to nothing, and the whole work is wastedwhat goes out is what came in with a little more experience, thats all. Thats nothing.
0 1965-10-13, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It lasted long enough (gesture showing a very swift alternation from one state to the other: conscious of His Presence and oblivious of His Presence), like a demonstration. And with this Smile You know, when I say, The Lord is smiling, it means something; its not that I see a face smiling, but its a a sunny vibration You know, the sun is dull and drab and cold and almost black in comparison. And then with that gone (same alternating gesture) with that here, with that gone. Which means that those who will come and manifest, who will exist when everything is changed, they will lack the sense of wonder at the opposition.
You know, you can only be filled with wonder! (How can I put it?) A sort of laughterof sunny laughterwhich is full of an intensity of love and Yes, this must be the Ananda, the true Ananda.
0 1965-11-13, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And then, all of a sudden, in all this chaos, this struggle, this friction, this suffering, and this ignorance and this darkness and this effort and this and that (oh, its much worse than when it takes place in the mind: its here [in the body] and its a question, yes, of life and death in the true sense of the phrase, that is to say, of existence or nonexistence, of consciousness or total unconsciousness and then how much it costs to find out anything!), and then, all of a sudden, just one drop its not even a drop (its not liquid!), its not even a flash of lightning, its yes, its a vibration, a DIFFERENT vibrationluminous, so wonderfully sweet, peaceful, powerful, absolute. Its like something lighting up (gesture like a burst of light or a luminous pulsation). And then theres no need anymore of discussion or explanation or anything: youve understoodits to become conscious of THAT, its to live THAT.
It happened this morning.
0 1965-12-25, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But she is sweet, your mother. She is going to have the joy of her soul. You know, there is a joy in being more conscious of ones soul than of the material worldyou may keep yourself busy, you may see clearly, you may understand, you may do what you have to do, all that remains, its very fine, but, behind, there is a Light. A light, something warm, warm with a luminous, golden warmth. Its really the sense of immortality, of something that doesnt depend on a form or on circumstances. Its a consciousness in which one instantly has the feeling that there was no beginning, there is no end. And a sort of very strong sweetness, very strong, behind everything. It takes you through life; even all the difficulties dont matter when you have caught hold of that. Its something very intimate, which expresses itself with difficulty, but which is like a support, something that holds you up always, in any circumstances.
Thats what your mother will have.
0 1966-01-14, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There. Well, I am glad that you were conscious of what you told me (!)
Oh, I was conscious of that hell every minute.
Its good, very good. You were much closer than usual. Much closer, like something physically close.
0 1966-01-31, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When one does the work I am doing and is in contact with all the petty reactions of the physical body, of the most material consciousness mon petit, it would be absolutely disheartening and sickening to anyone having an ideal. But that thats how it is, so thats how it is: it must changewe are here so that it will become different. And as long as we arent conscious of it, it will never change. Therefore one must rejoice when one is conscious, thats all.
All discoveries are always graceswonderful graces. When you discover that you cant do anything, when you discover that you are a fool, when you discover that you have no capacity, when you discover that you are so petty and mean and stupid, well Oh, Lord, I thank You so much, how good You are to show me all this! And then, its over. Because the minute you discover it, you say, Now this is up to You. You will do what has to be done for all this to change. And the best part of it is that it does change! It does change. When you do like this (gesture of offering to the Heights), sincerely: Oh, take it, take it, take it, rid me of it, let me be only You
0 1966-03-04, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am absolutely conscious of the inadequacy of words, but through the words, we must catch hold of the Thing. The difficulty for human thought, and still more for expression, is that words always have a sense of beginning.
(silence)
--
Thats another experience of the last few days. It came to me in a certain and absolute way (although its very hard to express) that this so-called error of the material world as it is, was indispensable for what youve just said; that is, the material mode or the material way of perceiving, of becoming conscious of things, that mode was gained through the error of this creation and would not have existed without it, and its not something that will vanish into nonexistence when we have the true consciousness its something thats an ADDITION in a special way (and it was perceived and lived at that time in the essential Consciousness).
It was like a justification of the creation, which made possible a certain mode of perception (which we could describe with the words precision, exactness in the objectification), which couldnt have existed without that. Because when that Consciousness the perfect Consciousness, the true Consciousness, THE Consciousness was there, present and lived to the exclusion of any other, there was a something, like a vibratory mode, if I may say so, a vibratory mode of objective precision and exactness, which couldnt have existed without this material form of creation. You know, there was always that great Why?the great Why like this?, Why all this? which resulted in what is expressed in the human consciousness by suffering and misery and helplessness and all, all the horrors of the ordinary consciousness why? Why this? And then, the answer was like this: In the true Consciousness, there is a vibratory mode of precision, exactness, clearness in the objectification, which couldnt have existed without that, which wouldnt have had an opportunity to manifest. Thats certain. It is the answer the all-powerful answer to the Why?
0 1966-03-30, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It lasted about fifteen to twenty minutes in complete stability and I continued doing my normal activities (it was during the time of my toilet I wash my mouth and gargle), purposely it comes at that time to show that it is absolutely independent from the activity. And it comes more often at that time than when I sit in meditation. When I sit in meditation generally begins a kind of all-around-the-earth activity or even universal activity, it becomes conscious of that, but this bodys experiences are not thereto have the body experience you must live in your body! It is why the ancient sages or saints didnt know what to do with the body, because they went out of it and sat, and then the body is no more concerned. But when you remain active, then its the body that has the experience.
That is the secret.
0 1966-04-13, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The hands feel, they feel its possible. They are so conscious of the Vibration they feel that anything is possible. The other day, E. fell down, I dont know how, and she injured her knee, she was covered with bruises and scratches. And she wore a dress that only reached down to here (!), so I saw. I said, What happened? She answered, I fell down. Then this hand (Mothers right hand) quite spontaneously went and passed over her knee, like that, and I felt all the vibrations at my fingertips: its like needlesneedles of lightand it vibrates and vibrates and vibrates. So I put my hand like that, and suddenly she said, Oh! She was flabbergasted: all the pain had gone.
But there were marks, bruises they should go, but it takes time. On me the effect is almost immediate, especially the right hand.
0 1966-05-18, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You can know it only if you go into the vital FULLY CONSCIOUS: conscious of your own vital and conscious in the vital world as you are conscious in the physical world. You go there consciously. Then it isnt a dream, it doesnt have the character of a dream: it has the character of an activity, an experience, and thats very different.
Because there are indeed those worlds of the vital where you are persecuted terrible worlds, worlds of torture and persecution, arent there?
0 1966-06-29, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So we could define it like this: when the the (I never know which name to use!) became conscious of Himself, that created the world.
In the Upanishads, they say tapas3 created the world.
--
At any rate, its not a very philosophical way to put it at all, its very childlike, but its much truer than metaphysical sentences: When the Lord became conscious of Himself, that created the world.
So, lets note down your definition for the child.
--
When the Lord became conscious of Himself, that created the world.
Now your turn to say!
0 1966-07-09, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Every time I have been conscious of the Power, the experience has been similar. The Will from above is expressed by a vibration, which certainly gets clothed in vital power but acts in a subtle physical. There is a perception of a certain quality of vibration, which is difficult to describe but gives a sense of something coagulated (not broken up), something that feels denser than air, extremely homogeneous, with a golden luminosity, an AWESOME power of propulsion, and which expresses a certain willit doesnt have the nature of human will but more the nature of vision than that of thought: its like a vision imposing itself in order to be realized, in a domain very close to material Matter, but invisible except to the inner vision. And That, that Vibration, exerts a pressure on people, on things, on circumstances, in order to fashion them according to its vision. And its irresistible. Even people who think the opposite, who want the opposite, do what is willed without wanting it; even things that are opposed in their very nature are turned around.
For national events, relations between nations, terrestrial circumstances, thats how it acts, constantly, constantly, like an AWESOME Power. So then, if you are yourself in a state of union with the divine Will, without the thought and all the conceptions and ideas interfering, you follow, see, and know.
0 1966-09-28, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So then, to return to the letter, when you are conscious of this Forcethis Force, this Compassion in its essential reality and see how it can be exerted through a conscious individual, you have the key to the problem.
Ive had experiences1
0 1966-11-03, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is the soul. There is the soul, which is quite simply an emanation of we can call it the supreme Consciousness, supreme Reality, supreme Truth, anything, whatever they like, its all the same to meany words they like. But anyway, the soul is an emanation of That, a direct emanation. In the body, That becomes clothed in the psychic being. The psychic being is a being which is progressively formed throughout all the existences. So are you talking about the soul, are you talking about the psychic being (which is first an embryo and eventually becomes a conscious, perfectly independent being), or are you simply talking of the life of an individual consciousness after death? Because thats yet another thing. There are proofs of that; but in that case, its a quite vital consciousness of an inferior order, and it may happen to immediately come back into another body through some combination of circumstances (it was into the same family that the father had come back), and to come back with the memory. Otherwise, according to the experiences of those who have studied the question, its only the psychic being in the process of being formed that retains the memory of its former existences. But it retains the memory of the material, purely physical existence ONLY FOR THOSE MOMENTS WHEN IT PARTICIPATED. So, instead of all those stories that are told (and are made up), you only have memories like that (Mother draws a series of points in space with her fingertips), which may be more or less detailed, more or less complete, but which are only fragmentary memories of the MOMENT when the psychic physically manifested. Lots of people do have this sort of memory, but they dont know what it is. Most of the time they regard it as dreams or imaginings. Those who know (that is to say, who are conscious of what goes on in their physical consciousness) can see that its memories.
The number of memories of this kind Ive had is almost incalculable. But it doesnt have the same character as the memories of the higher consciousness (then its not a memory: its a sort of vision the higher beings2 have of life; but thats something else). The memories I speak of are memories of the psychic being, they have a different character: a rather personal character, I mean there is the sense of a PERSON remembering something. While the others, the visions from above, are memories of an acting consciousness. But the memories of the psychic being arent mentalized, that is, if for instance at the time of the recollection you werent paying attention to the way you were dressed or the surroundings, you dont remember them. You only remember what took place and especially what took place from the point of view of the consciousness and the feelings and the inner movements.
0 1966-11-19, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And the habit of constantly complaining about difficulties, oh, how futile, useless all that seemeda waste of time. We waste our time protesting against what mustnt bewe just shouldnt think about it! We shouldnt be conscious of it, thats all! It should be outside the consciousness; when we are able to have a purely luminous consciousness, this perfectly harmonious, luminous, benevolent consciousness free, ultimately, from all that we drag along from a difficult past.
Thats it: the power to free oneself from the past, not to drag that behind foreverto surge into the light and stay there.
0 1966-11-26, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, there is an insistence (the same insistence as this Gentlemans, at any rate) on the impossibility of the thing, and it gives such obvious proof. Naturally, the inside doesnt budge, it smilesit doesnt budge but the body that gives it terrible tension. Because its very conscious of its infirmity (it cant boast of being transformed), very conscious that its millions of miles away from transformation. So so it doesnt take much to convince it. Whats more difficult is to give it the certitude that things will be different. It doesnt even understand very well how they can be different. Then there come all other beliefs, all other so-called revelations, the heavens and so on. The whole of Christianity and Islam have very easily solved the problem: Oh, no, things here will never be fine, but over there they can be perfect. That goes without saying. Then there is the whole of Nirvanism and Buddhism: The world is an error that must disappear. So it all comes in waves, and the body feels very you understand, it would like to have a certitude of its possibility. That doesnt often happen to it. But the attack was too strong; it was from everything and everywhere at the same time, so strong: This Matter CANNOT be transformed. So it fought and fought and fought, and suddenly it was obliged to lie down. But as soon as it lies down and abandons itself completely, there is Peace, and such a strong Peaceso strong, so powerful. Then its fine.
It came with hosts of suggestions (they arent suggestions: they are formations), adverse formations of disorganization; like, for instance the one C. [one of Mothers attendants, who has just fallen ill] received. I was warned two days beforeh and and tried my best: I couldnt I couldnt, he gave way. So now its dragging on and on (the doctor himself says theres no reason for it to last so long), its dragging on because he gave way. So all that must be slowly won back. And it comes to everyone, to every circumstancenot to me, never to me because it has no effect on me: if the suggestion comes, I say, So what! I dont care. So it doesnt try, its useless. But it comes to everyone, to disorganize everything and everyone, one after another. This morning, it was everybody at the same time, a complete disorganization of everything. I resisted and resisted and resisted, then suddenly something (Mother makes a gesture). So the body said, All right.
0 1966-12-07, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont know, there may exist somewhere in the mental region something ready-made, but I think it would then be like some of those things Sri Aurobindo wrote,2 which came ready-made, as they were; there were even things that didnt conform to his own view: it came imperatively. But now I dont have that experience at all. Or else, it would be like what happened the other day: for two or three minutes, as I told you, there was someone playing. It must have been the same phenomenon. But then, the feeling is quite different: you no longer exist, you are hardly conscious of what goes on. And that would be incorrigible, I may say, in the sense that it would come ready-made and you couldnt change anything in it, or else it would no longer be the same thing, it would be something you did actively. As soon as the mind becomes active, its finished. Finished. It may come from your supraconscient, but it becomes a quite personal thing.
But that inspiration comes from the highest region, the region beyond all individualizations. Thats why its something we find difficult to formulate and explain. Its complete, perfect in itself, but it doesnt have anything of the character of our mental formulation, not at all; it doesnt even have the character of a formulated idea. And its absolutely imperative, absolutely. But then, as soon as it touches the mental zone, it seems to attract words. My impression is that the more silent I am, the more precise it is; in other words, the more inactive the mind is, the more precise the expression. So thats what it is, its that force coming down and attracting words. Its not even ideas (it doesnt come through the region of ideas): its an experience, its something living which comes and which, to take expression, catches hold of words. What came on Sunday was like that: I was asked that question on the Grace, then I was seized by a concentrated, extremely strong silence for maybe a minute (not even that long), and it came. Then I spoke. I heard myself speaking. But then it clearly came through Sri Aurobindo.
0 1966-12-21, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I told you: The book MUST be written, but its not necessarily the one that has been written: its the one that must be written! (Mother laughs). To me, you understand, there is a difference. Somewhere there is something that MUST be said, and that something is very useful: I see that the people, for example, who have come to place trust in you because of the book on Sri Aurobindo, will read you with an opening of mind, and if at that time you give them a sort of sensation of the experience, it will help them a lot. Its in that sense I say this book is useful. But for you personally, if youd rather rewrite it completely than correct it, it doesnt matter. Only, for you to be capable of rewriting it without falling back into the old state, you must have a decisive awareness of the difference in condition. Suppose you said, Ill rewrite the book, and once you started writing the same conflict recurred, that would be useless. Something must take place there, in the mind, thats where you must become totally conscious of the vibrations.
I see fairly clearly all that must be cut out. But theres a lot to cut out!
--
Whats necessary isnt to destroy, its to become the master of the expression of your inspiration. You must be the master, that is to say, you mustnt receive the thing as it comes and write it as it comes. You must receive the inspiration and be conscious of the phenomenon of expression. Then it will be perfect.
I was in the habit of being motionless and letting things flow down.
0 1967-01-18, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You understand, even if this body is told, You will have to last a hundred or two hundred years for the work to be done without trance, it says, Its all the same to me. All it wants is to be conscious. All it wants is, Lord, to be conscious of Your consciousness, nothing else. Thats its sole, exclusive will: To be conscious of Your consciousness, that is, to consciously become You in another mode. But it isnt in a hurry, because it has no reason to be in a hurry.
You said just before (if I understood rightly) that state could last for years. Were you referring to the state of trance?
--
There are billions of elements in the body, so its a mixture of receptivity and non-receptivity. Its still mixed. And that mixture is why the appearance2 remains what it is. Well then, to make everything receptive in every element is a work, you understand, a formidable work. If it had to be done in detail, it would be impossible, but through the pressure of the Force it can be done. So then, the trance would be made necessary precisely so that its done quickly (relatively quickly). This work is BEING DONE (I am conscious of it), you understand (laughing), only it may stretch over hundreds of years! Thats what Sri Aurobindo said: a state of consciousness has to be established in which the collective life of the cells can be preserved for as long as desired; that means the Lords Will must be sufficiently active to keep the balance between all those elements for as long as necessary for all of them to change. And always, it has always been said that the most external form would be the last to change; that the whole internal, organic functioning would be changed before the external form, the appearance (its only an appearance, of course); that the appearance would be the last to change.
It seems to me to be the legacy of primordial habits the habits of Matter. This Matter, of course, comes from total unconsciousness, and throughout the ages and all the ways of being, it returns to total consciousness it goes from one extreme to the other; well, its these habits of static immobility that give this need for trance. It shouldnt be necessary. Only (how can I explain?), logically, as things are, it depends on the balance between the bodys capacity of receptivity and its external activity: its obviously far more receptive when it is immobile, because its energies are occupied with the transformation.
0 1967-02-11, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It happens to me now and then during the day. I go into a certain state (it only lasts for a minute or two), a strange state: you are fully awake and fully conscious, and at the same time totally unaware of time and things around you not exactly of things around you, but not conscious of them in the same way I dont know how to explain.
Recently, the illness of Mother's attendant: the only somewhat positive element among those immediately near Mother. She will have to leave Mother's service in August, 1970. After that there will be no positive elements left near Mother. Hence the following sentence.
0 1967-02-18, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That story of little S. has taught me much. Because I saw that little girl this morning. She is black-skinned, of courseshe was all luminous. All luminous. And I dont think she is conscious of it (perhaps only insofar as Y. has flattered her thats always possible), but its very spontaneous in her, she wasnt trying to put on airs, she didnt come to strike a pose: she simply came to take the fruit and flower for Thoth. She was here in front of my table; when I saw her come in I said, Strange. This little girl who is so black-skinned she was clearer than others.
And this letter is so strong!
0 1967-03-07, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How is the soul conscious of being and existing after death, once it is separated from its physical, vital and mental beings?
The soul is a spark of the Supreme Divine, I do not see how the Lord needs a body in order to be conscious of being.
Its nothing very new, but its a broadening of the consciousness. And all these questions have in fact been coming into the atmosphere lately, giving at first the impression that man knows nothing about deathhe doesnt know what it is, doesnt know what happens, he has built all kinds of hypotheses but has no certainties. And by pressing onby insisting and pressing on I have reached the conclusion that there is really no such thing as death.
0 1967-04-03, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then, at the same time, at the same moment, there came the experience (not an objectified one), the experience that the Will is on a much lower level than That, or rather, much more external. Because the Will sees and doessees AND doeswhereas there, its not seeing AND executing AND doing, or seeing AND being: its simultaneous. Its something above visionabove vision and above will something (silence) something that IS. And at that moment, simultaneously, that is to say, without any possible space (space or time, of course, its quite outside that, because its not a vision that sees itself seeing, its not a perception thats conscious of its perception, not a consciousness conscious of its consciousness), it IS, like that (one could say), such as it will be projected in space and time.
So when we say, To want what God wants or To unite with the divine Will, its our way of looking (gesture from the bottom upwards, or from below to above). And its quite approximate. But there And the marvellous thing is that its not what we in our infirmity may conceive of as a simplification, its really the Whole: the manifested, the non-manifested, the yet-to-be-manifested, everything, but everything the Whole. At that second, when you are there, its omnipotence. Omnipotence, absolute freedom, the unforeseeable, and the existent whole. And that
0 1967-04-05, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We talked about the future. It seemed to me that almost all the teachers were anxious to do something so the children would become more conscious of why they are here. At this point, I said that in my opinion, telling the children about spiritual things often had the opposite result and that those words lost all their value
Spiritual things, what does he mean by spiritual things?
0 1967-04-12, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To me, its very sensitive, because the equilibrium is very conscious, very willed, very organized, and naturally that makes a considerable difference; for them (laughing) its just like that, a fantasy. And then, they are convinced (Y. included) that humanity can make great progress with that! It makes them conscious of a whole realm they didnt know. But it creates one more falsehood in the consciousness, because the perception of ONE aspect of reality to the detriment of all others is a dreadful falsehood. As I said, the impression it made on me was: Its a good way to go mad.
To them its accidental, because they take the medicine and think, When I will stop taking the medicine, naturally it wont happen again but thats not true! It can give the being the habit of disorder, the habit of imbalance.
0 1967-04-27, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I told you about that experience (which has been growing increasingly concrete and constant) of the Vibration of Harmony (a higher harmony expressing the essential Consciousness in its aspect of love and harmony and, as it draws nearer to the manifestation, of order and organization), and of the nearly constant and general vibration of disorder, disharmony, conflictin reality, Matters resistance to this Action. The two vibrations are like this (Mother slips the fingers of her right hand between those of the left), as if they interpenetrated each other and a simple movement of consciousness sent you to one side or the other, or rather, the aspiration, the will for realization, put you into contact with the Vibration of Harmony, and the SLIGHTEST slackening made you lapse into the other. It has become constant. And then, on the 24th, right from morning there was a constant aspiration, a constant will for the triumph of the Vibration of Harmony. Then I sat down at my table as I always do, about five or ten minutes before it began. And instantly, with a puissancea puissance capable of crushing an elephantthis Vibration of Harmony came down like that, massive to the point that the body lost the sense of its existence altogether: it became That, it was conscious of nothing but That. And the first quarter of an hour literally flashed by in a second. Then, there were three people in the room; one of the three, or maybe all three, felt a malaise (nothing surprising!), and that woke me up: I saw the light (I burn a candle on my table) and I saw the time, but it wasnt me something saw. Then there was a sort of pacifying action on the place, and thengone again. And one second later, the call of the end!1
Its the first time that has happened to my body. It always used to remain conscious. Sri Aurobindo, too, told me the same thing, that he never, ever, had samadhi in his body. Neither did I: I always, always, always used to remain conscious. While that only the Force remained, there was nothing left but the Force at work: there was a concentration here, a concentration on the whole country, and a concentration on the whole earth. And all that was conscious, like that (vast gesture above the head), at work. But something massive, as powerful as an elephantenough to crush you.
0 1967-05-06, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
They weep a little (weep, well ), they lament a little; they are very conscious of their infirmity and they pray a lot, but they still have the sensation that they would need some tranquillity and a certain amount of time for the supreme Harmony to be able to penetrate everywherewhich is silly, but So they feel they are, not exactly in contradiction but somewhat constrained or weighed down by the multitude the immensityof the material work. You understand, this [body] can hardly eat anymore, doesnt have time to rest anymore, even at night now theres much work I had resolved to remain quiet at night, but theres work and it has to be doneso the result of it all is that (gesture of friction). They [the cells] are silly, they still feel, Oh, if I could stay very quiet, then I would change. They need a slap. Thats all.
Theres still some friction.
0 1967-05-24, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Divine is an absolute of perfection, eternal source of all that exists, whom we grow progressively conscious of, while being Him from all eternity.
Once, Amrita told me too that for him it was something simply unthinkable. So I answered him, No! That way doesnt help. Just think that the Divine is everything (to the fullest possible extent, of course), everything we want to become in our highest, most enlightened aspiration. All that we want to become thats the Divine. He was so happy! He told me, Oh, that way it becomes easy!
0 1967-06-03, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Maybe not. When I was a kid, I was quite conscious of being able to PULL something down from above, and that the answer was there, above. Children just dont know, in fact. If they were told, if they were shown and made to understand that the knowledge is there, that you can catch hold of it
Yes.
0 1967-06-24, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(After a silence) The near totality of the bodys movements are movements of habit. Behind, there is the consciousness of the physical mind (what I call the cellular mind) which is constantly conscious of the divine Presence and anxious to allow nothing but That; then a whole work is going on to change, to shift the origin of movements. I mean that instead of them being just automatic; out of habit, the divine Consciousness and Presence automatically makes the movements (Mother makes the gesture of forcing the consciousness into the body).
But its quite quite inexpressible, that is, as soon as you try to express it, it becomes mentalized, its no longer the thing. Thats why its very difficult to express. I cant speak of it.
0 1967-07-22, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I took it as one of the signs that the Force is really at work. Because I dont think that man had done any yoga, he knew nothing about those things; he is just a gentleman-whos-had-an-injection-of-penicillin which he cant tolerate (those accidents happen fairly often), nothing more. There was just this idea that the brain is the conscious part of the being, and if he concentrated there His idea was, I want to know whats happening, I want to be conscious of whats happening, I want to see whats happening. So thats what pulled the Force. A simple thing.
It seems to me there is a progress in human consciousness thats my impression.
0 1967-08-19, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This morning, during the experience, the body felt the whole bliss of the condition, but it was very conscious of its incapacity to manifest and very conscious in such a perfect peace, like this (gesture with the palms of the hands open upward), in which there wasnt even the intensity of the need. It was simply a vision of how things were, how the condition was. And it was something like this: the conditions of the earth are such, the conditions of the substance are such that a local and momentary manifestation, as an example, is not impossible, but the transformation that would make possible the new Manifestation of the supramental being and not just as an isolated case, but with its place and role in earth lifedoes not appear to be immediate. That was the impression.
And there was no anguish to know or anything of the sort, there was simply a very tranquil vision of things, absolutely devoid of almost any need: it was like this (same gesture with palms open), as peaceful as can be, smiling, tranquil, with a sense of eternity. All that in this body, which was totally, entirely conscious of its incapacity. Naturally, the body, for its part, very clearly feels it neither knows nor is able to know or will or do: simply like this (gesture with palms open), as peacefully open, receptive, surrendered as possible. And that was the result (the vision that the Manifestation was not for the immediate future).
And it always ends in the same way: What You will.
0 1967-08-26, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is a double thing that complements one another (same intertwined gesture), and with a reciprocal action: as the Manifestation becomes more conscious of itself, its expression becomes more perfect, and also truer. The two movements go together.
(silence)
0 1967-09-13, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then she came to see me. And there was a veritable battle; really, for an hour it was absolutely a battle with her. Because she kept pushing me, she wanted to know: Why do you turn me down? Why do you shut your door? Why do you refuse me? So I was driven to tell her everything: how she is imprisoned, how her religion is like a structure in which she is shut, how one cant do the yoga until one breaks out of it, etc.it all came out. Because I was really driven to it. I felt I was fighting a veritable battle, and two or three times, I was very conscious of a sort of little thing going like this [gesture like the tongue of a snake], just a malevolent little vibration two or three times: Ah, I thought, thats it. And at the same time, a kind of quite sincere distress in her, when she said, I have been wanting to come to India for twenty years now, I have been waiting for this moment for twenty years, so why do you close your door on me?
Its difficult to break free from that grip.
--
They tell me, Your look purifies me. I dont want to go into such considerations and do not answer anything, but there is only the Presence and the Action. I dont even try to know, neither what happens nor how nor what He does nor what takes placenothing. The only thing that comes into me (into this consciousness) is the state of the person who is there: thats very clearly recorded. (Laughing) The other day, there was a very amusing experience. A girl here has taken a fancy to a gentlemannei ther of them is very young, that is, they are neither children nor young people: they are both over thirty, or between twenty-five and thirty. So she writes him letters, long letters, sends him sweets, sends him flowers, and he passes it all on to me. (There is nothing more than that.) It was her birthday, and she must have had a rather guilty conscience, I supposeas for me, I had completely forgotten the story. She came for her birthday, I received her as I always do, in the same wayand suddenly, gnawing pains, cramps, sharp pains in the stomach. I wondered, Whats going on in her? What is all this? And it went on for quite a while, I had to make a little concentration to make it go. Then in the afternoon, the gentleman (I dont think they meet) sends me a letter and a box of sweets she had sent him. Ah! (Laughing) I said, So there! She was afraid I would scold her and had gnawing pains in the stomach! There you are. Thats how it is, you understand, its a kind of work in a general unification. And peoples reactions are felt in my body, thats how I become aware of it, conscious of it. (Laughing) At times its bliss, at other times stomach cramps!
Its amusing.
0 1967-09-20, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Only an observation, which is really very interesting: its that everyone has said the same thing, all those who have had the Experience have said the same thing but each one in his own way, so it looks like something different. Yesterday it was so clear, and again the whole morning, from early morning: this way, that way, this one here, that one there (Mother shows different facets), the philosophers, founders of religions, sages of all countries they have always said the same thing. For instance, the Buddhas teaching and, say, the Christian teaching, seem to be so different, but its always the same thing. That is to say, there is ONE state (if you catch hold of it), ONE state in which you are conscious of the divine Consciousness (not conscious of: conscious through or conscious with, I dont know how to explain its the divine Consciousness which is conscious, that is, the Consciousness in its essence), and there are no more problems there, no more complications, no more explanations, nothing anymoreeverything is as clear as can be. So then, each one has tried to explain that, and naturally it has become confused, incomplete, incorrect, with one explanation clashing with anotherwhile everyone is talking about the same thing!
It came yesterday in relation to a boy who sent me the letter from one of his friends, in which he said the usual nonsense: I dont believe in God because I cant see him. The usual little stupidity. And in that connection, I saw (I looked, like that, looked for a long time), I saw that the one who rejects, the one who asserts, the one all that, all of it is (how could I put it?) variations on the same theme, even when it appears to be saying the contrary.
--
There is the vision, an extremely complex and at the same time complete vision, that those, for instance, who have tried to explain the power of imagination, of thought or will or faith (all those things: the direct action on matter), the vision that each of those things has caught hold of one little aspect of the Thing, but in the Thing, there are no divisions; its something which, when you perceive or conceive it, is divided into scores of little things, but its essentially (how should I put it?) a way of being, a state of consciousness its a WAY OF BEING, not even a state of consciousness because that implies being conscious of something and its not that: its a way of being. And that way of being is what, in the human consciousness, expresses itself as Ah, the Divine!by opposition, you understand. Its a PERFECTLY NATURAL and spontaneous way of being but how, how does That become this? How does That become distorted? You constantly, constantly (gesture as of tiny reversals) switch from one to the other, back and forth, over and over again, as if to learnto learn how That becomes this (the mechanism of the passage). To us it looks like (to us, to all this poor consciousness that has gone through innumerable woeful experiences), it looks like a relapse into the old state; therefore its not that. But whats the mechanism?
In the end, we would have the solution only if we found the how and the why.
0 1967-10-04, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If he is conscious of the Possibility, then it will be fine. Because at least he will be on his guard. But I havent seen him, I only saw his photo, and the first contact with the photo was like this: Be careful.
I also had a recoil. But I put it down to prejudices. I dont trust my feelings, you understand, in my life Ive had such abhorrence of this Christianity.
0 1967-11-22, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its a denial of all the spiritual assertions of the past: If you want to live fully conscious of the divine life, leave your body the body cannot follow. Well, Sri Aurobindo came and said, Not only can the body follow, but it can be the base that will manifest the Divine.
The work remains to be done.
0 1967-11-29, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The memories you are referring to, those mentioned in the newspapers, are the memories of the vital being, when exceptionally it has come out of a body in order to enter another. That happens, though not frequently. The memories I am referring to are those of the psychic being, and one is conscious of them only when one is in conscious relationship with ones psychic being. There is no contradiction between the two things.
***
0 1967-12-06, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When you realize those two attitudes simultaneously, the contagion is abolished: the mental contagion (the one Sri Aurobindo refers to here, the one you get when you admire something), the mental contagion, the vital contagion, and EVEN THE PHYSICAL CONTAGIONwhen the cells realize that, you stop catching illnesses. Because formerly (for a long time), whenever something occurred in the sphere of influence of the action, there used to be a repercussion (in Mother). For a very long time, it was dangerous. Then it became reduced to a sense of unease which would become conscious, and conscious of the why the why and the how. It was reduced to a state of unease, but it was still tiresome. And now its a kind of I cant say knowledge, because its not mental, but an awareness (theres no word for it in French), a perception and nothing more, it doesnt have any action (that is, any repercussion in Mothers body). So then, the whole problem lies there:
There are those who found this, the vertical ascent to the heights, and who isolated themselves from the world (they werent able to do that completely because they didnt have the knowledge, but they tried). Thats not the solution. Then there are those who want to help, the generous ones who are like this (gesture of horizontal expansion), and who catch everything, even the mental illnesses of all the people around them. The truth is the two together: this, the passive, receptive state (vertical gesture), and that, the active state of action and radiating influence (horizontal gesture). And the body has become wholly conscious of the dual movement and is working to realize it in detail.
A great problem has been solved.
0 1968-05-22, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And this body, if you ask it, the only thing There are two things its conscious of: a more and more intense adoration in the cells, oh, like this (gesture like a rising flame), and at the same time, such an acute sense of the extent to which the cells are not what they should be, of the unworthiness of their condition. Those two things are constant and constantly together. And thats all. And when I am told of cases like this one, of disease or something else (I am told three, four, five such cases every day, things like that constantly happen I gave you this one as a very concrete example because its happened just now and you know R.), the body isnt even aware of being used as an intermediary, because its too conscious of its infirmity, of what it should be and isnt yet. Its like that cure [of the swelling of Mothers face], it was a cure like R.s, almost spontaneous: it happened all of a sudden and went away. But of course, the body is perfectly conscious of the splendor of a Marvel a Marvel beyond all understanding.
And then, there is in the consciousness the very strong feelingvery strong that the time has come.
0 1968-06-03, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Abhijit says, If a cell becomes conscious of its own personality, there is a risk that it may act in its own interest without regard for the collective interest.
(Mother laughs) The interest of a cell!
--
Theres a second question: Must each cell be conscious of its unity with the center?
Thats not how it is.
--
I have even seen that those cells that have been specially developed and have become conscious of the divine Presence within themselves, when the concentration that gives shape to the body is stopped and the body dissolves (it dissolves little by little), all those conscious cells spread out and enter other combinations in which, through contagion, they awaken the consciousness of the Presence each of them had. So then, its through this phenomenon of concentration, development and scattering that Matter in its totality evolves, so to speak, and learns through contagion, develops through contagion, experiences through contagion.
But what enters other combinations isnt the cell itselfits the subtle consciousness of the cells?
0 1968-06-08, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It would be like a unity, a unity made of innumerablebillions, you knowinnumerable bright points. A SINGLE consciousnessa single consciousness made of innumerable bright points conscious of themselves.
It seems perfectly stupid, but
0 1968-06-12, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I wondered Several times Ive wondered if it wasnt for your own good because if you became very conscious of that part of your beingone is so free, so peaceful, so powerful that sometimes it makes one feel disgusted with the earth! Several times Ive wondered if it wasnt for your own good.
Because there, its something that continues: you understand, its not dreams, its a reality that continues.
0 1968-06-29, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its a movement of acceleration: its the great work of the whole creation to consciously return (return is another silly wordturn to would be better), to become again, to identify again, not by abolishing the whole work of development and ascent, but Its like a multiplication of the facets of Consciousness, and that multiplication is growing increasingly coherent, organized and conscious of itself.
Individualization is only a means to make the innumerable details of the Consciousness more complex, more refined, more coherent. And individualization we shouldnt mistake it for physical life; physical life is ONE of the various means of that individualization, with such fragmenting and such limitation that it compels a concentration that intensifies the details of the development; but once that is done, it [individualization] isnt the lasting truth.
0 1968-07-10, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The physical consciousness is conscious only physically, so my expression isnt clear enough: For no reason its conscious of. Thats all.
The other question?
0 1968-09-04, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Last night, for instance, when Sri Aurobindo came, I brought him a big drawing, like this, a drawing with writing on it, and I told him, See, I wanted to show you this, how interesting it is, how amusing! And it was When I am awake, I dont know what it is. It was something I had kept aside to show Sri Aurobindo, and as soon as he came I showed him, saying, See how interesting it is! And awake, I dont know what it is. There would seem to be a whole LIFE like thata whole life, a whole activity going on, yes, very near, probably in the subtle physical, but very near. Very, very concrete, not at all the impression of a dream. Thoroughly concrete, with sensations. And a continuity: even when I am not conscious of it, it continues, and when I become conscious, the continuation is there: Ill become conscious of it again farther ahead, and it has changed while I wasnt conscious there.
It looks like a material region (material, that is, physical) where the consciousness is more awake the consciousness is very clear, very clear, and sharp, you know: sharp perceptions.
0 1968-09-07, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have told you many times, and couldnt repeat it too often, that we are not made of a piece. Within ourselves we have lots of states of being, and each state of being has its own life. All that is gathered together in a single body, as long as you have one, and acts through a single body; thats what gives you the sense of a single person, a single being. But there are many of them, and there are in particular concentrations on different planes: just as you have a physical being, you have a vital being, a mental being, a psychic being, and many others with all possible intermediaries. So when you leave your body, all those beings will scatter. Its only if you are a very advanced yogi and have been capable of unifying your being around the divine center that those beings remain linked together. If you havent been able to unify yourself, then at the time of death, all that will scatter: every being will go back to its own region. With the vital being, for example, your various desires will separate and each of them will go and chase its realization quite independently, because there will no longer be a physical being to hold them together. While if you have united your consciousness to the psychic consciousness, when you die you will remain conscious of your psychic being, and the psychic being will return to the psychic world which is a world of bliss, joy, peace, tranquillity, and growing knowledge. But if you have lived in your vital and all its impulses, each impulse will try to realize itself here and there. For instance, for the miser who was concentrated on his money, when he dies the part of his vital that was concerned with his money will hook on there and will keep watching over the money so no one takes it. People wont see him, but he is there nonetheless, and very unhappy if something happens to his dear money. Now, if you live exclusively in your physical consciousness (which is difficult, because, after all, you have thoughts and feelings), if you live exclusively in your physical, when the physical being disappears, you disappear along with it, its over. There is a spirit of the form: your form has a spirit that lives on for seven days after your death. The doctors have declared you dead, but the spirit of your form is alive, and not only alive but conscious in most cases. It lasts for seven to eight days, and after that, it too dissolves I am not talking about yogis, I am talking about ordinary people. Yogis have no laws, its quite different; for them the world is different. I am talking about ordinary people living an ordinary life; for them its like that. So the conclusion is that if you want to preserve your consciousness, it would be better to center it on a part of your being which is immortal; otherwise it will evaporate like a flame into thin air. And happily so, because if it were otherwise, there might be gods or kinds of superior men who would create hells and heavens as they do in their material imagination, inside which they would shut you up. (Question:) It is said that there is a god of death. Is it true? Yes. As for me, I call him a genius of death. I know him very well. And its an extraordinary organization. You cant imagine how organized it is! I think there are many of those genii of death, hundreds of them. I met at least two of them. One I met in France, the other in Japan, and they were very different. Which leads me to believe that depending on the mental culture, the education, the countries and beliefs, there must be different genii. But there are genii for all manifestations of Nature: there are genii of fire, genii of air, water, rain, wind; and there are genii of death. Any one genius of death is entitled to a certain number of dead every day. Its truly a fantastic organization. Its a sort of alliance between the vital forces and the forces of Nature. If, for example, he decided, Here is the number of people I am entitled to, say four or five, or six, or one or two (it varies from day to day), if he decided so many people would die, hell go straight and set himself up near the person whos going to die. But if you (not the person) happen to be conscious, if you see the genius going to the person but do not want him or her to die, then, if you have a certain occult power, you can tell him, No, I forbid you to take this person. Thats something which happened, not once but several times, in Japan and here. It wasnt the same genius. Which makes me say there must be many of them. If you can tell him, I forbid you to take this person and have the power to send him away, theres nothing he can do but go away; but he wont give up his due and will go elsewhere there will be a death elsewhere. (Question:) Some people, when they are about to die, are aware of it. Why dont they tell the genius to go away? Two things are needed. First, nothing in your being, no part of your being, should wish to die. That doesnt often happen. You always have, somewhere in you, a defeatist: something tired or disgusted, which has had enough, something lazy or which doesnt want to fight and says, Ah, well, let it be over, so much the better. Thats enoughyoure dead. But its a fact: if nothing, absolutely nothing in you consents to die, you will not die. For someone to die, there is always a second, if a hundredth part of a second, when he consents. If there isnt that second of consent, he will not die. But who is certain he doesnt have within himself, somewhere, a tiny bit of a defeatist which just yields and says, Oh well? Hence the need to unify oneself. Whatever the path we may follow, the subject we may study, we always reach the same result. The most important thing for an individual is to unify himself around his divine center; that way he becomes a real individual, master of himself and of his destiny. Otherwise, he is a plaything of the forces, which toss him about like a cork in a stream. He goes where he doesnt want to, is made to do what he doesnt want to, and finally he gets lost in a hole without any way to stop himself doing so. But if you are consciously organized, unified around the divine center, governed and led by it, you are the master of your destiny. Its worth trying. At any rate, I find its better to be the master rather than the slave. The feeling of being pulled by strings and being made to do things you may or may not want to do is a rather unpleasant sensation. Its quite irksome. Well, I dont know, I, for one, found it quite irksome even when I was a small child. When I was five, I began finding it wholly intolerable, and I sought a way for it to be otherwisewithout anyone being able to tell me anything. Because I knew no one capable of helping me, and I didnt have the luck you havesomeone who can tell you, Here is what you must do. There was no one to tell me. I had to find it all by myself. I found it. I began at the age of five. And you, its a long time since you were five?
Well cut out the end.
0 1968-09-11, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I think it was in relation to someone I saw (I dont remember), and I noticed that a very great power was there; and the PHYSICAL being, the body, was conscious of the presence of the psychic being, which was constantly there, behind. It hasnt gone. Conscious.
It was a day when someone had come (I forget who), and the whole Force which was there before concentrated on that personit was the same thing: the Force, the Presence, with the same Pressure on the person. And then, it was the psychic being which said, But I havent gone, Ive remained here! With its full consciousness, you understand. Its the intermediaries [i.e., the mind and the vital] that have gone.
0 1968-09-21, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its very conscious of its imbecility and (how can I explain?) at the same time it has the feeling that that very consciousness of its imbecility is an obstacle; that it should only feel it is the supreme Truth, the supreme Reality. And then everything would be well.
Ah, go and take rest.
0 1968-09-25, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Naturally, those who are fully conscious of their psychic cannot possibly deceive themselves, because if they refer their problem to the psychic, they can find the divine answer there. But even for those who are in contact with their psychic, the answer doesnt have the same character as the mental answer, which is precise, categorical, absolute, and imposes itself the psychic answer is more a TENDENCY than an assertion. Its something that can still have different interpretations in the mind.
Which brings me back to my experience of yesterday. After looking at the problem, I reached the conclusion that its impossible to reproach a human being who does the best he can according to his consciousness, because how can he go beyond his own consciousness? Thats precisely the error most people make: they judge someone else according to their own consciousness, but the other person doesnt have their consciousness! Therefore they cant judge (I am only talking about people of goodwill, of course). To the vision of a more complete or higher consciousness, someone else is in error, but to the person himself, hes doing as best as he can what he thinks he has to do.
0 1968-09-28, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How does one become conscious of the physical being?
See that, the physical being! Its senseless!
--
The near totality of humanity is conscious ONLY of the physical being. Through education, the number of people conscious of their vital and mind goes on increasing. As for the human beings conscious of their psychic being, their number is relatively minimal.
Theyre a bit theyre very ignorant, these children.
0 1968-10-26, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, its not at all, it has nothing to do with vital or mental difficulties or any of that. The body isnt conscious of that, not interested in thatnot interested: when people recount vital or mental difficulties, it finds them quite childish. But the MISERY this body lives in thats what is awful.
There have even been moments
0 1968-10-30, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We might say, the Consciousness growing more and more conscious of itself. That was the impression.
And everything is a means for it to grow conscious of itself.
That explains everything, besides. Thats what explains everything.
The means for the Consciousness to become conscious of itself.
(silence)
0 1968-11-16, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That is to say, becoming conscious of its very existence instantly hampers the work. It ought not to be aware that it exists.
In fact, thats what makes it ill, thats when its conscious of itself.
(silence)
0 1968-11-23, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But this notion of the descending Supermind, of a permeating Consciousness, is OUR translation. The experience came as the experience of an eternal fact: not at all something just now taking place. That its all the result of states of consciousness is certain (whether there is something beyond, I do not know, but at any rate I have the positive experience of that). Its movements of consciousness. Why, how? I dont know. But looking at it from the other side, the fact that something belonging to this terrestrial region as it is has become conscious, is what gives the impression that something has taken place. I dont know if I can make myself understood. I mean that this body is just the same as all the rest of the earth, but for some reason or other, it happens to have become conscious in the other way; well, that normally should be expressed in the earth consciousness as a coming, a descent, a beginning. But is it a beginning? What has come? You understand, theres NOTHING but the Lord (I call it the Lord for the convenience of language, because otherwise), theres nothing but the Lord, not anything elsenothing else exists. Everything takes place within Him, consciously. And we are like grains of sand in this Infinity; only, we are the Lord with the capacity of being conscious of the Lords consciousness. Thats exactly it.
(silence)
0 1968-11-27, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its mostly this: for the body, everything is a phenomenon of consciousness, and when it wants to do something, it almost no longer understands the meaning of knowing how to do it; it must be conscious of the manner of doing it. And not only for itself, but for all the people around it. Thats becoming such an obvious fact. So to learn from someone else, to learn, for instance, the manner of doing a thing for the body its only by doing it and at the same time applying the consciousness that it can learn. And what one explains, what someone else may explain, seems it seems hollowlifeless, hollow.
Its becoming more and more like that.
--
But all that is very conscious of being some kind of chatter. Its not the translation of what is.
There is also the perception that little by little, following all these experiences, every aggregate (what, for us, is a body) is getting used to having the power to bear the true Consciousness. It requires a play of adaptation.
0 1969-02-08, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo was very, very conscious of this general confusion, and so he didnt much like he wanted absolutely no propaganda, but he also didnt much like attempts to explain things to people and make them understand, because he very well knew how useless it is. He very, very often said it to me: no propaganda whatsoever, of course, and above all, above all, no attempt to make people understand: the maximum effect one can obtain is the effect of the Consciousness at work in the world (universal gesture), because in everyone it produces the utmost the person can do the utmost of what he can understand, he understands through the influence of the pressure of the Consciousness. As soon as words intervene, the whole mind makes a mess of it.
Certainly, Sri Aurobindo must have had experiences analogous to the ones Ive had; now I am absolutely convinced of that. Because people who are fullfullof a complete goodwill, who are under the constant Influence, who make an effort, they are (gesture at ground level) from another world. So those who dont put any goodwill into it
--
To be viable, this would demand that all Auroville workers should be yogis, conscious of the Divine Truth.
6) Has the time come to aspire to, set up or attempt a general organization, or should we wait for the correct attitude and people?
0 1969-02-19, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The body is very conscious of its infirmity and of the Grace. For instance, there are painful, difficult moments, but its per-fect-ly aware that its because of its incapacity to open, to give itself, to change. And a profound joy, VERY CALM, but very vastvast, you know, the cells feel a broadening. That goes on increasing little by little. Its only when theres a physical pain or something a little acute that the body is obliged to hang on, otherwise And even that comes from this idiotic spirit of self-preservation (Mother laughs) in the depths of any cellular consciousness it knows that. It knows it. Its an old habit. But all that, little by little (little by little, but in reality very fastvery fast), is changing.
All the groups of cells, all the cellular organizations have to do their not surrender, a complete self-abandon, in complete trust. Thats indispensable. For some, its the spontaneous, inevitable, constant movement; with others, it comes as soon as theres a difficulty; yet others need to be churned a little in order to learn. So then, the various functions are taken up in turn, in a marvelously logical order, following the bodys functioning. Its something marvelous, only the body is a poor thing, very poor thing thats very true.
0 1969-02-22, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, and the experience was that that same immutable peace (which is neither peace nor immutable! Its something), that same Thing was there in inert unconsciousness. It was so concrete! And then, the whole curve of the creation for that and That to become apparently one (but they ARE onethey are one). We might say (but it becomes sentences, its sentences): for that and That to become conscious of their identity But its a sentence.
(long silence)
0 1969-02-26, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats what is taking the place of the conscious will as regards moving the body, for its internal functioning and for its action. And when the moment comes (it takes place gradually, but theres a moment) for the old functioning the ordinary functioningto be eliminated or to disappear and be replaced by That (gesture above), the result is (wobbly gesture), I dont know if its long or brief, but theres just a difficult transition. So then the body is caught between (here or there, on one spot or another, for one thing or another) between the old habit and the new functioning. Theres just a transition of anguish. In most of its parts, the body is conscious of the stupidity of that anguish, but the function or the part or is seized with panic. Then it takes a material stillness for order to be restored.
Thats a wholly inadequate and stupid description, but I dont know what to do! There are no words. Its an approximation.
0 1969-03-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It also explained the use the raison dtre and the use, the utilizationof emotions: how all those things which in their incomplete state are seem to be obstacles and things to be got rid of, how, as soon as the consciousness is clarified, union is established, separation has disappeared, how all those things take their place and their full usefulness. Now I dont remember, but a few days ago I had such an interesting example! I dont remember (thats deliberate, I dont remember anything), but out of a movement of consciousness here (and now the body is very conscious of this presence of the superman consciousness, its very open and grateful, and very conscious), well, it saw a movement something resembling compassion, a keen compassion, but with the emotion the vital feels when it has compassion (what the vital adds, that is); it saw that, and immediately saw the resulting effect and the response. It was someone (I forget who, the memory is deliberately taken away), it had to do with something that had happened to someone; this body consciousness reacted with a sort of moved pity, and that multiplied the power TENFOLD the effect of the power on the curebecause it was completely impersonal. It was the Power using that [emotion] as a means of action.
Constantly, constantly, its: learn and learn and learn. Interesting! (Mother laughs)
0 1969-04-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This Consciousness is at present showing this body, making it not understand, but feel (Mother feels the air) its neither feel nor understand, its becoming conscious of the vibrations that belong (how could I put it?) to destruction, I might say, the vibrations that belong to the process of destruction in the world, and the vibrations that belong to the process of progress without destruction.
Those experiences last for several hours every day, and they make you feel the two sides like that, with a clear distinction, very clear, in what people do, in what they say, in the relationship with events, and also the different states of consciousness (everything takes place in the consciousness, of course, its not at all a thought, its not formulated, I dont know how to explain). And this Consciousness also teaches action in silenceat a distance as well as in the presence. All kinds of things, its constantly, constantly teaching one thing or another. And not formulated: there are no formulas, its not thoughts, but states of consciousness. And the relationship between the various states of consciousness: how they dovetail with one another, how they mix with one another, how they can be separated, how It cant be explained: it can be lived (the body is being taught how to live), but it cant be explained. For everythingeverything, all activities.
0 1969-05-03, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And then, death Just yesterday (yesterday afternoon), I had an example. An accident took place, have you heard about it?1 Theyre really wondering how it happened. As for me, I INSTANTLY saw that there was in the girl a psychic will (which she wasnt conscious of: she only felt an unease), but there was a psychic will to die (why? I dont know, I havent yet seen why). That was clear. And how everything was arranged to favor that, its almost miraculous (you dont talk about it because people will say youre going mad if you call such a misfortune miraculous). But habitually, all those who go into the swimming pool have to put their name down when they go out (thats the rule). Yesterday, the man who kept the register had asked to go to Madras at 6, so he wasnt there and no ones name was noted down, and so they didnt know Things like that. She went to see the groups captain and told her, I am tired, I dont feel well, I want to go; the captain said, Yes, yes, you can go. (Of course, it was foolish not to check that she had left; the captain was busy and just thought, All right, shes leaving.) The girl was then at the shallow end of the poolimpossible to get drowned there, unless you do it quite deliberately (they found her at the other end). But the pool was full of peoplenobody saw anything. You see, everything was arranged just to force her to die.2 Every precaution is in place, and not one worked. And as soon as they told me the news of the accident, as soon as I was told, I immediately looked, and I saw, in the place of her psychic, a peaceful will, like this (Mother stretches out her two arms in an immutable gesture). They were working hard: they worked for hours; first they took all the water out (they know how to do that), they drained the body of the water, then started workingtractions and all that to try to make her brea the againthey worked for hours (they were ready to work the whole night), they did all they could. And the psychic was like this (same gesture), that is, immutable, determined. But she didnt know [that she was going to die]: it came through her vital to reach her, and she felt quite ill at ease, she said, Oh, I want to go out. So they told her, Yes, thats right, you should go. And because she had said that, naturally no one was worried when they didnt see her (no one had put their names down, so they couldnt check); its only when they found her clothes She had been under water for over an hour.
This Consciousness was so conscious of the movement in everyone, of every reaction, it was extraordinary! And its this Consciousness that saw this, that showed me this: a psychic like this (same immutable gesture), like an irrevocable decision. And for this Consciousness, you understand, its like someone who decides to move to a new house, or to a new room, or even to change clothes. Why do you make so much, so much fuss about that?
I havent said any of this, because I havent said anything to anyone.
0 1969-05-17, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its the Supreme conscious of Himself
Yes.
--
The Supreme partially conscious of Himself.
that pursues a line of development.
--
You understand, the states one could be in when one was in the highest consciousness esthose that were united, were automatically one with the Supreme Consciousness and were conscious of the wholethose states have become the bodys natural state. Effortlessly, spontaneously: it cannot be otherwise. So whats going to happen? How is it going to take expression? I dont know
Its contrary to all habits.
0 1969-05-21, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am wondering whether the consciousness [of Pavitra] has been especially preserved intact because it entered here [into Mother], or whether its always like that? Where does someone conscious go? Does he remain here?1 I told you, with Amrita, its a sort of not too precise form; its always there, now resting, now waking up, but he doesnt seem to be particularly interested in material things. While Pavitra, from what I see, seems to be conscious of them. Its something rather remarkable, I think.
I have seen cases of people who took interest and continued to take interest in what goes on [here], but then they have an independent form. While with Pavitra, its something else.
--
All these last few weeks, there has been a sort of constant I cant call it preoccupation, but a sort of need to know: to what extent and how do those who have left remain conscious of the things they used to do, for instance, take interest in them, look after them (supposing they have the means to do so)?
A case such as Sri Aurobindos is quite different: its as if he had been multiplied. He has a constant presence in the subtle physical: he goes about, visits a number of people, and he is conscious of a lot of things, he intervenes in a lot of things, but a considerable numberit has multiplied his action. But thats exceptional.
(silence)
--
Mother means "here, conscious of the things of the earth."
Pavitra was the School's director and the Ashram's general secretary.
0 1969-05-31, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ooh! That explains all the visions Ive had. I thought I put the blame on my body, thinking this poor body has an unfortunate atavism: constantly dreadful, frightful imaginations but they werent imaginations, it was conscious of what was going on. Oh!
Oh, what youre telling me is very interesting, because yesterday (these last few days, these last three days), faced with the horror of the perception of things, this body (which is quite the opposite of sentimental, its never, never been sentimental) started weeping. It didnt weep materially, but it was And with an inner intensity, it said, Oh, why does this world exist? Like that, it was so awful, sad, miserable so miserable and so horrible, you know, oh! But it instantly gets the Responsenot a response with words, its simply like an immensity opening in the Light. Then, theres nothing more to say.
0 1969-07-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For instance, during my sleep, I would often wake up in the middle of a meditation, or else I was conscious of being seized by a force and moving on elsewhere things like that. Now there are never any phenomena of that sort anymore. Its a complete void, or else chaotic activities.1
(Mother remains silent)
0 1969-08-06, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I no longer feel I am dreaming, you understand: its an activity I grow conscious of.
But Sri Aurobindo was its odd, he looked as if younger. He was happy, and very amused, passing all kinds of remarksremarks full of humor, you know!about things and people. I noticed he was as if brighter, I dont know how to put it.
--
The body is growing INTENSELY conscious of what responds to the true Influence, and whats still the residue of habit and the universal, terrestrial development (general, terrestrial), very conscious. Sometimes, its almost painful, you know, that old way of being.
And at certain times, the vision is almost veiled, as though I were seeing through a veil; at other times its ABSOLUTELY precise. I cant believe it depends on the eyes.
0 1969-08-23, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But in fact, with this pressure, you realize that people are always ten times more stupid than you thought they themselves know nothing about it (but thats the habit: one is generally very un conscious of ones own stupidity), but even when you thought you were conscious of what theyre like, you werent even remotely aware of what theyre like!
(silence)
0 1969-09-03, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, all those beasts came from every side and looked at that (Mother stares wide-eyed), almost with respect and admiration; it was very odd, like something marvelous they had never seen. You know, it was extraordinary, and so, so vivid, so real! And God knows I didnt think about it I saw. I looked at that, and the sort of admiration of those beasts for this extraordinary animal. A silky fur (Mother feels it), very silky, a thick fura heavy, thick fur, golden brown. And it was a female. She sat like that, peaceful, as if conscious of her superiority!
Very amusing.
0 1969-09-24, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He is conscious of this Power, but he says one needs to have the TOTAL vision, the vision of TOTAL Harmony. Because, he says, its all an equilibrium, a wonderful harmony, and we mustnt cause any disequilibrium, we must obey the Law, follow the Law of Harmony, but its a TOTAL Law, of course, and we mustnt make any mistake. I need the total vision, he says. Take the Ashram: its a center of light where there is total harmony; then theres a circle around it, Pondicherry, which is already darker
Very dark!
--
Right now, for three days he has been fasting; hes stopped eating. He said, Ill go and see Mother like this, without having taken any food. So for three days he has been taking nothing but water The wonderful thing is that there isnt an atom of mentalization, its all an experience that springs forth. And all that youve said, all that Sri Aurobindo said, he has experienced. He is conscious of the Moment in the History of the earth, he feels all that. So he wants to participate in the Work.
(after a silence)
0 1969-10-11, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its not so much for those poor little ones, because they have a special protection (all thats conscious in them is like that, cherished). Its the ignominy of humans. They must become conscious of their ignominy They find it quite natural.
This world is revolting from one end to the other. Theres nothing I would keep nothing of this world, nothing.
0 1969-10-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Grace is always with you, you know that. You have given A.R. the possibility of being conscious of it too.
Tenderness and blessings.
0 1969-10-18, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And thats why (because he is very conscious of the Divine Presence), thats why I said, Dont ask me what you should do: its in your body that you must find out. I cant say, because because the Divine realizes himself differently in everyoneo therwise there would be only one person!
I dont want to give him any advice at all, I absolutely refuse to do that.
--
The body seems to be very highly conscious of (what can I call it?) a sort of stupidity. Yes, a sort of enduring and stupid goodwill. Its very conscious of that. And its led to understand that this state was indispensable for the work to be done, that someone who (naturally, the least bad will is out of question), that without this sort of (its not unconsciousness), this sort of ignorant simplicity (something like that), without that, endurance would become very difficult.
It doesnt ask any questions, but now and then, its conscious of its state of mediocrity, and so, quite naturally, it wonders how it happens to have been chosen to do this work? And it clearly appears to be a sort of goodwill arising from its sense of insignificance. The least sense of capacity and worth takes away all endurance. But it doesnt have that at all, so that enables it to go on.
Did I tell you the story of that child who came here? That child came, holding this (Mother points to a small yellow bird on her table); he thought it was a swan: its a goose, of course, but he thought it was a swan, and he gave it to me very nicely, saying, Its You. I saw in his thought that he was convinced it was a swan, that is to say, the soul. But then, I saw with my own eyes that it was a goose (Mother laughs), and I said, Yes, its true! (Laughter) and that was precisely Oh, Im keeping it, its precisely thata goose (Mother laughs).
0 1969-10-25, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(After a silence) As I see him, its because he needs the thing to be manifested through a personal consciousness. A personal consciousness, I mean someone [Mother] who is conscious of bearing the Divine, who feels, I bear the Divine, you understand? When that isnt there (the Divine is there, thats all, but there isnt I am the Divine), he cant feel. And Ill go farther: I dont think there are many Europeans or Westerners who can feel it. Indians, its because of atavism. But all those who are westernized cannot feel any longer. They need the sense of the person, the person who says, I am, you understand. But this body (laughing), the body has gone beyond the stage where it says, I am! The very idea makes it laugh.
Thats why.
--
It must be that. There are innumerable layers of consciousness. The development (the universal development) has progressively enabled us to become conscious of each layer; the more developed one is, the more one perceives the differences between layers. And its only when one is conscious of ALL the layers of consciousness and when they form nothing but a unity (but a unity conscious of its multiplicity), its only then that whats in the deepest depths the Supreme Consciousness can manifest fully. And in bodies, there are still layers that arent fully conscious; there are still layers that remain as a residue of all that preceded: the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, all that. So the whole fully conscious part of the cells is fully illumined, but Besides, one just has to see (Mother shows the skin of her hands, visibly untransformed). It has become EXTREMELY sensitive, the slightest shock causes a It has become extremely sensitive. It appears not to have the same density but the appearance is exactly the same. Those who have an inner vision see something [another form of Mother], but thats only because they have the capacity of inner vision. So thats it [i.e., the residue]. You understand, in the consciousness of the cells, there is the consciousness which is internal to the cells, so to speak, and which is fully, fully conscious, but theres something that remains like this (Mother gestures to show a crust-like covering the residue). So then, that work a man like A.R. hasnt done, you see: its a sort of hazy general consciousness. He himself is conscious of something stronger than his body, and which uses his body, it seems to me. In the world, its very useful and can give birth to all sorts of things. But he isnt ready for the transformation, you understandhimself, his body. He has a sort of inner certitude that it CAN be, but I dont know unless the Lord wants it to take place that way; that would be amusingreally, I would find it very amusing!
Because he speaks of a work of transformation of the cells.
--
But the consciousness there (gesture above Mother) is very conscious that these (Mother touches her hands) arent hands! (Mother laughs) Try as you might, they arent! It may be a refined body, but they arent hands. And when I sit here, like that, when this body is sitting and someone is there, its no longer conscious of itself; its not at all conscious of a Force flowing through it, no longer conscious of itself theres the Divine Presence acting. And it becomes conscious of the others receptivity, of the action of this Force in others, all of itand this (the body) no longer exists.
But its only a beginning.
0 1969-11-05, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For instance, some people had rancor for a long time, without saying anything they are forced to say it. Thats how it is. Theres a very strong pressure for the transformation. And naturally, thats why I am flooded with people. Because theres one point on which I dont yield, its the hours of so-called sleep; from 8 at night till about 8 in the morning, it makes twelve hours during which the inner work can be done, and that I dont want to touch. Of course, twelve hours is a lot: its half of the day So the other twelve hours, its an avalanche. But I am holding on to that, because those are the hours when the most important work is done. (Its a little less, its really like that between 9 and 5 in the morning, rather; thats really when the work is concentrated on the transformation.) Its not that the rest of the time is a denial, not at all: that state of consciousness is immutable. Basically, I dont think there are many minutes, even in a days twenty-four hours, when the body isnt conscious of the divine Presence thats how the body is. But the daytime hours are spent in action, theyre for others; the night hours are for its own transformation.
So these hours of action are like that. Every day, I see at least three or four people whom it was quite unnecessary to see; so thats noted, but its not a lot; for most people, something is done, its really something getting done. It stirs, you understandit stirs. At times, there are even quite astonishing things.
0 1969-11-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And the only way is you understand, its to cling to the Supreme Consciousness (Mother clenches her two fists), and to cling to such a point that It alone existsnot to be directly conscious of the surrounding ill will. Thats very important. You see, there is NOTHING but the Supreme, all the rest doesnt exist, isnt true. Like this (same gesture with clenched fists). So then, one must do like that, hold on like that, as if you stood on a peak surrounded by attacking waves.
You understand, the consciousness can no longer feelit sees, it is aware, but it can no longer feel, thats over. But the physical is still I thought that was over, but it can still feel.
0 1969-11-19, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I might put it this way (for the convenience of expression, Ill say the Supreme and the creation): In the Supreme its a unity that contains all possibilities perfectly united, without differentiation. The creation is, so to speak, the projection of all that makes up that unity, by dividing all opposites, that is to say, by separating (thats what was caught by those who said that creation is separation), by separating: for instance day and night, white and black, evil and good, and so on (all that is our explanation). All together, all of it together is a perfect unity, immutable and indissoluble. The creation is the separation of all that makes up this unitywe might call it the division of the consciousness the division of the consciousness, which starts from unity conscious of its unity to arrive at unity conscious of its multiplicity IN UNITY.
So then, this route is what, for us for the fragmentsis expressed as space and time.
And for us as we are, each point of this Consciousness has the possibility of being conscious of itself AND conscious of the original Unity And thats the work now being accomplished, that is to say, each infinitesimal element of this Consciousness, while retaining this state of consciousness, is now recapturing the total original state of consciousness the result is the original Consciousness conscious of its Unity AND conscious of the whole play: all the innumerable elements of this Unity So for us, it gets expressed as the sense of time: going from the Inconscient to this state of consciousness. And the Inconscient is the projection of the primeval Unity (if we may say soall those words are completely stupid), of the essential unity un conscious of its own Unity thats the Inconscient. And this Inconscient is growing increasingly conscious in beings who are conscious of their infinitesimal existence and AT THE SAME TIMEthrough what we call progress or evolution or transformationwho manage to be conscious of the original Unity.
And that, as it was seen, explained everything.
--
And evil, what we call evil, has its INDISPENSABLE place in the whole. But it would no longer be felt as evil the minute one became conscious of Thatnecessarily Evil is that infinitesimal element looking on its infinitesimal consciousness; but because consciousness is essentially ONE, it recaptures, regains the Consciousness of Unityboth together. And thats what, THAT IS WHAT has to be realized. Its a marvelous thing. I had the vision: at the time, there was the vision of THAT. And the beginnings (is it beginnings?), what they call in English the outskirts, whats farthest from the central realization, becomes the multiplicity of things, also the multiplicity of sensations, feelings, everything the multiplicity of consciousness. And that action of separation is what created, what constantly creates the world, and what at the same time creates everything: suffering, happiness, all, all, all that was created, through its what we might call diffusion but its absurd, its not a diffusion: we live in the sense of space, so we say diffusion and concentration, but its nothing like that.
I understood why Thon used to say that we are at the time of Equilibrium. That is to say, its through the equilibrium of all those innumerable points of consciousness and all those opposites that one recaptures the central Consciousness. All that one can say is stupidjust while I am saying it, I see how stupid it is; but theres no other way Its something something SO CONCRETE, so true, you understand, so ab-so-lute-ly THAT.
--
There are no words that can express the magnificence of the Grace: how everything is arranged for things to move as fast as possible. Individuals are miserable insofar as they arent conscious of that, as they take a false position with regard to what happens to them.
But whats difficult is the thought that every instant, it must be it IS perfection.
--
Ill give you an example. For a few days I had difficulties with Z and there was a sort of need to exert a pressure on him so he would rectify a few of his movements. Today he made at least four or five mistakes (they werent perceptible, in the sense that I didnt have a sensation of them: it was taking place there, like that, some distance away), but he was conscious of them in a COMPLETELY different way from usually, and he admitted it (which he never did before), and in the end he said he was changing (which is true). And all of it not only without one word, but without one movement of consciousness: simply the Pressure. So there. Thats a proof. Everything would be done automatically, like an imposition of the Truth, without any need to intervene: simply remaining in the true consciousness, thats all, its enough.
There.
0 1969-11-26, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In the morning, I had the experience of an awesome Force which came, weighing on all things. Thats also what others felt the whole day long. A force most people told me, A joyous force. But as for me, when I went there [to the balcony], the difference was that the body was more conscious of its state of transitory uncertainty.
(Mother goes off again)
0 1969-11-29, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, thats it, its exactly that: its not at all an instrument of knowledge, not at all (Knowledge is up above, constantly), its an instrument of organization and work-organization, the body has grown very conscious of the lack of organization in things and people. And thats very interesting: how an activity ought to be organized, how thoughts ought to be organized in the brain, how everything, everything. Especially in that line, and thats very interesting.
Ultimately, mental power is really a power of organization: each thing in its own place, and the TRUE relationship between things.
0 1969-12-20, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its very interesting. The first effect of every new progress is a more total and complete perception of the incapacity we live in in ordinary life. Thats the first result, because one begins to feel, see, sense, perceive how things should be, and so (gesture of a gap opening abruptly). Its really the effect of the Grace if its graded and apparently slow, because any rapid movement would produce such a despair at the opposition between the two that one couldnt bear it. The body is growing increasingly conscious of its infirmity, its incapacity; the clearer the consciousness becomes, the more conscious the body grows, so one must be very careful because it shouldnt topple over.
(Mother suddenly turns to Sujata)
0 1970-01-31, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats just what I was seeing, I understand why. This morning the problem was there: the individual consciousness, even very vast, cannot realize, that is to say, cannot concretely understand the possibility of being conscious of everything at the same time. Because thats not the way it is. So it finds it difficult to understand that THE Consciousness is conscious of EVERYTHING at the same time: in the whole, in the totality as well as in the smallest detail. That
Yes, its difficult. But its comforting!
0 1970-02-07, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And it will be the perfect government when everyone is conscious of the inner Divine and obeys Him and Him alone.
Ill write, then a sequel will come, but I dont have the time to note it down.
Someone from Auroville wrote to me that he thought he had come here to obey no one but himself (or words to that effect), but he noticed there are rules and laws. And he said, I am not going to do any of this; I am a free man and refuse to do this. This was reported to me, naturally,2 so I wrote to him (I dont remember): One is free only when one is conscious of the Divine and conscious that it is the Divine who makes decisions in everyone, otherwise one is the slave of ones desires, ones habits, of all conventions. I sent him that, and he kept quiet.
Thats what I wanted to add here [to this aphorism]. We should say: One is free only when it is the Divine who makes decisions in each of us, otherwise men are the slaves of their desires, their habits, of all conventions, all laws, all rules. And the more they think themselves free, the more bound they are!
--
A few people here fell ill suddenly and unexpectedly, and some of them were conscious: they wrote to me that they suddenly became conscious of something else something they didnt know and it was in the imbalance caused by their illness that they suddenly caught that.
Theres a VERY STRONG action. But, of course, people expect everything to go smoothly according to their conception, and then they are surprised: how come this divine Consciousness is at work and there are so many difficult or painful or unexpected things?They dont understand. But this body understands very well! Not for one minute has it complained. It hasnt even not for a second has it put the blame on others. It only said to itself, Poor thing, you still have quite a lot of this old Disorder.
0 1970-02-11, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Equality cannot be manifested until all men are conscious of the Supreme Lord.
Fraternity cannot be manifested until all men feel equally issued from the Supreme Lord and one in His Unity
0 1970-02-28, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It has become so conscious of its own imbecility that the first effect was to say, Its hopeless; it has to dissolve for something else to take the place. And then theres always that Smile looking on here, making no fuss. So so it tries to be still.
You see, it has gone beyond the stage of imbecility where you say, Why are these things like this?It sees clearly, sees very well why they are like this. But things are so vast, so general that Its difficult for the body consciousness to remain in that state of universality all the time.
--
To make a sentence (because all this looks like sentences), its knowing that one lives in a falsehood, knowing what that falsehood is, knowing, in flashes, what the Truth is, and yet being unable to adjust the two. And seeing why. Because theres a whole path to travel so this falsehood can abdicate before the Truth, can be transformed into Truth, and in a TRUE waynot arbitrarily but truly. So that requires all kinds of experiences, adjustments, and for us here, it means time, it needs time. It cant be done instantly. And when the body sees, when it becomes conscious of its imbecility, it would like, it aspires for that to disappear instantly, so things grate.
Ah, its not easy.
0 1970-03-25, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You see, there is this fact that existence itself needs to depend on something material, which naturally brings back every time an old recurring difficulty. That question of food All that is under observation at the moment (a very minute observation, which I might almost call scientific), and, well, the cells are conscious of the divine Force and of the power that Force gives, but they are also conscious that in order to last as they are, even in a state of transformation, they still need this complement of something coming from outsidewith that, every time you swallow a new difficulty. All that I said on the [change of] functioning is increasingly proven, but there is this thing [food] that remains, and that means stomach and blood and all the rest With that, can we conceive (I dont know), can we conceive something that works in this way yet without deteriorating? Something capable of constant progression? (One can last only if the progression is constant.) Is this capable of progress? For the moment, its like this (gesture hanging in balance).
All that was automatic has almost disappearedwhich has caused a great reduction from the standpoint of capacities; its replaced by a consciousness with a certain power, which didnt exist previously: thats an improvement. But all things considered, well, if I take the ordinary stand, I can no longer do what I used to do when I was twenty, quite obviously. Perhaps I know a hundred thousand times more than I knew, but This body, the body itself knows: it feels, its capable of knowing all that it didnt know then. But from a purely material standpoint (Mother shakes her head, pointing to her bodys incapacity). Could it come back? I dont know. Theres a question mark there. I dont know. And it could last only if the capacities came back; as Sri Aurobindo very wisely put it, who would want to go on in a body that keeps losing all its capacities?3 You know, sight isnt clear anymore, you dont hear clearly anymore, cant speak clearly anymorev anyway you cant walk freely, you can no longer carry a weightall kinds of things.
--
For the body consciousness that remains conscious when the body is asleep, the world as it is is dark and muddyalways. That is, its always a half-darknessyou can hardly seeand mud. And that isnt an opinion or a thought: its a material FACT. Consequently, this [body] consciousness is already conscious of a world that would no longer be subject to the same laws.
The cells are quite, absolutely convinced that (Ill put it in the simplest way) the Lord is all-powerful, you understand? Only, what theyre not convinced of is whether He WANTS (laughing) it to be this way or that, that is to say, whether He wants the transformation to be done in an already existing body, or in stages.
0 1970-03-28, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That experience I had it in 1912 (1912 or 13, I dont remember), in Paris. I was in Paris. Once, I had an anxiety about someone who was to travel to Paris and arrive at a certain time; time was passing and passing, and the person didnt arrive. Then, at one point, I had a sort of anguish, I wondered what had happened. And that anguish suddenly You see, I was already conscious of my psychic being (I had been for a long time), and that anguish suddenly became extraordinarily intense, and it made (bursting gesture) like fireworksa marvel! So I understand what he means by a fierce form of delight. But it was purely psychological, it wasnt physical. 1912 or 13.
But physically, the bodys whole experience now is that it only has to to give itself unreservedly, to abandon itself totally to the divine Presence, and the pain, any pain at all, disappears.
0 1970-04-11, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont know if this is special to it, but the atmosphere (Mother feels the air around her) is full of the most absurd suggestions. All that disappears only when its ACTIVELY concentrated. Thats the way it is most of the time, but still there are moments For instance, at mealtimes its very difficult, as if each mouthful had to be consciously taken as an offering, fully conscious of the Divine. Otherwise, it wont do at all I cant eat, cant swallow.
I dont know if thats special to this body or if it will be the same thing for all bodies. Naturally, its fully aware that this is a transitional period, but its very difficult.
--
Its a curious situation. The being isnt at all turned in on itself: theres nothing, its like this (Mother stretches her arms into the infinite). Its like this. Maybe thats why: it receives forces but doesnt keep them, they hardly enter at all [into Mother], its like this (gesture of a continuous flow through Mother and spreading outward), all the time. All the time like that. So if I am told about something, it makes a point (Mother pinches a point in space between her two fingers), a point of concentration for a moment; otherwise its all the time like that (same gesture of continuous flow), all the time. It goes like this, like this (same gesture of outward flow). It feels the body feels forces coming, but it doesnt even feel them going through, doesnt feel its giving them, not at all, its like that (same gesture of spreading). It all goes through without through what, one doesnt know Very nonexistent. Very nonexistent. And then, if the body starts being conscious of itself or of something, its MOST unpleasant, a discomfort.
I have noticed that with receptive people (I see people, lots of them), with receptive people, it starts flowing and flowing and flowing like that. And nothing else: no thought, no not even sensation. But the strange thing is that if the body becomes conscious of itself it doesnt suffer, thats not suffering, but something which is an inexpressible discomfort.
(Mother holds Satprems hands for a long time, looking at him)
0 1970-04-18, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But I had the clear knowledge that what I was conscious of last night is something taking place all the time, but I am not aware of it because so as not to increase the burden of consciousness. Right now, from an ordinary standpoint, for an ordinary human being, the number of things that are conscious at the same time [in Mother] is something tremendous! And its without fatigue, effort, difficulty, its NATURAL, but many more get done consciously and without being relayed to the center of consciousness so so it doesnt get too much!
There is also this well-known thing: according to the concentration of the consciousness, the value of time changes. Thats perpetual and constant. The same circumstances, the same everyday little events I am made to feel with the ordinary consciousness, and then three or four different consciousness esand their value changes. It goes from a long, interminable time to a second. Which means a demonstration of the unreality of time as we perceive it here thats every day, all the time.
0 1970-05-13, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Whenever the body manages not to think about itself (I dont know how to explain this, because its not a thought), not to be conscious of itself, then things are better.
(silence)
0 1970-07-04, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But its rather strange, I could put it this way: its about the only part (gesture from the cheek to the chin) thats conscious of the way people are and of what comes from them, and which still has reactions we could call personal. That is to say, if the atmosphere is troubled, well, theres disorder [in that part in Mother], its subject [to the outside disorder] and that seems to be the only part. Otherwise, all the rest is as if bathed, constantly bathed in the Divine, and automatically everything goes to the Divine. The divine Will goes through (gesture of descent and diffusion through Mother) and causes it to actautomatically. So then, at certain times, for some reason or other, the body calls (the mantra I told you), and as a result (gesture of dilation) suddenly the cells go into a blissit only lasts a minute (not even a minute, a few seconds), but the simple fact of saying that, and its bliss. Afterwards, everything starts up again (gesture indicating the normal rhythm).
Its very interesting.
0 1970-07-11, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What I am conscious of is the Consciousness there (gesture above); thats something unchanging. This (gesture to the forehead): blank. If it starts stirring, its very uncomfortable, but generally it doesnt stir at allone day it stirred for a few minutes, and it was extremely unpleasant. Its like this (gesture like a motionless bar), blank: a blank feeling, like blank paper. This (gesture from the throat to the mouth) is the connection with people, and thats EXTREMELY unpleasant, really extremely unpleasant (I cant say), and materially it results in the deterioration of teeth and Very unpleasant. Here (gesture to the heart) I told you, all energies, from below the feet (Mother gestures as if pulling it all upward), all that was brought up to here. Here (gesture to the heart), its like a sun, always. Its like a radiant sun: thats where I work; thats where I work from. But with the centers there (gesture to the base of the spine), all the energies have been as if brought up to the heart.
And thats so natural. This and this (gesture to the heart and above the head), its so natural that I dont even observe it anymore: its my way of being.
0 1970-08-01, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, completely distorted. I said it was serious. Because they arent conscious, the government wasnt at all conscious of the danger. So I had them warned. But I didnt say it was inescapable; I said it was dangerousif it were inescapable, I wouldnt have done anything!
You know that Calcuttas walls are all covered with slogans: The Chairman of China is our chairman. The atmosphere is like that. A gentleman who, I think, headed the University there,1 or the official in charge of education, came here to ask us to go and do something in Bengal I saw him. It seems he is scared stiff. He asked us to go and do something. So its almost officially that were called there.
0 1970-10-07, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its not that the body isnt conscious, but it feels too clearly that it isnt transformed. But its conscious. What you call absorbed is that its conscious of the work of transformation (Mother makes a gesture of churning).
How much time it will take, it doesnt know.
0 1970-11-25, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its something like emotion, but an emotion that knows, an emotion that understands. Its not a thought. Its really interesting. And every time, it becomes increasingly conscious; every time, I say to myself, This time, I wont let myself get caught! (laughter) But this time, I was more conscious of what it was. And its a new thing which is beyond the mind, the intellectual and the whole comprehension, and its a way of being that (I dont know what to call it), its something like an emotion, but very clear and VERY conscious.
And strong! It has an extraordinary force.
0 1971-01-11, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Physical vision requires a much more continuous concentration. The physical vision serves to stabilize. It gives continuity to things. The same with hearing. So when neither of them are there, you become conscious of the thing directly, which gives you the true knowledge of it. That is probably how the Supermind will work.
My physical vision and hearing have been pushed into the background to be replaced by identity through consciousness for the growth of consciousness.
The way of relating to things, of knowing, is through an identification of the consciousness with the thing or person. Instead of having the usual sense of separateness, you have a constant sense of union. There are quite interesting experiences. People call me and think about me. That comes into my field of consciousness. And after some time I am told, So and so has come, or Something has happened to so and so, and I say, I know. I wasnt told anything at the time it happened, but I was conscious of it as if it were happening to a part of me.
***
0 1971-01-16, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But personally, even physically I kept a contact with everyone I dont know who remained conscious of it, but I kept a contact with everyone, especially with you; with you I had the feeling that nothing stopped, that I was seeing you regularly, that nothing stopped. And I saw Sujata too. It all depends on peoples receptivity. I didnt have the slightest feeling there was a break in our relationship or anything of that kindnot the slightest. And its only well, its only the day before yesterday that I thought, Oh, it must be time for the Bulletin, perhaps I should find out what hes done. And then there was that note of Zs (what shall I say?) it came as the result of something, and it was also the beginning of something, in a most definite manner. I didnt know, and Z was there at the time cleaning the room, so I told her, and after telling her, I thought perhaps it could be used.
I dont know how she noted it down, whether it makes sense.
--
Yes. You were saying that the whole functioning of sight and hearing had probably been suppressed so that you may be conscious of things directly, without using the sense organs.
Yes, but that note is already ancient history, because I have started to see again, but in another way. I have started to see and hear again.
0 1971-07-03, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So people come and tell me, I have this problem, that problem. Look, I tell them (exasperated tone), no wonder the whole world is like that! It can perish for all I care it would be a relief. There you are. But then (gesture of a marvelous flash). Three minutes of splendor for twelve hours of misery. Thats the ratio. And for a body that truly, sincerely thinks only of the Divine, wants only the Divine. But it is utterly conscious of its incapacity.
You know, its like a live demonstration of the existence of the Divine and what the Divine existence isan absolute existence and what it isand then what it has become.
0 1971-07-10, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The experience in the body is very interesting. All so-called moral, intellectual, psychological suffering, in other words, the suffering of the consciousness that is not purely material, seems childish to the body. Yesterday, it had (what shall I say? I dont know how to explain it). It doesnt feel things in relation to itself, it feels things (silence) IN others, but with a general consciousness, not a personal one; and it has such a horror of physical suffering, that is to say illnesses, accidents, that it wondered why, why the world exists like that.1 It then understood why some people dont want to have a body anymore (that always seemed absurd before), it understood why. It was such an intense experience! It had an aspiration, something like a prayer, but its not a prayer: May the world change! May the world change. It HAS to changeor else disappear. The idea of disappearing had not come before, it seemed it used to think that the world was moving towards a harmonious perfection; but, you see, its long the length of time is terrible! There was an aspiration of incredible intensity for the transformation. Everything looks so dreadful because because the transformation must, MUST take place. That anyone can be satisfied with a world like this is impossibleits impossible to a physical consciousness that is conscious of the Divine. Its impossible, it absolutely has to change. And that was so vivid I was gripped by it all night and all day, even while seeing people, with such an intensity: it must change, it must change.
The being, the inner consciousness can say and be conscious that that suffering is unreal, but the physical consciousness cantit cant, it HAS to change. Its not a matter of merging with a consciousness, leaving this physical consciousness to disappear: it has to change, it has to change. I cant put it into words, I cant say it.
0 1971-07-21, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is conscious of that, but momentarily: just what is required to be able to maintain continuity. Thats all.
(silence)
0 1971-07-24, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I tell you, we are no longer here, we are not yet there. So it seems stupid. The body is more and more conscious, and it is conscious of the old habits that pull backwards but it is also conscious of the new possibilities that are there, that try to. Theres only one movement to make, a movement of adherence, and everything would be all rightMARVELOUSLY all right. The old thing is like an old wall being torn down. Thats it. So its quite a ridiculous situation.
The body feels its no longer here: this holds no reality for it anymore, but its not yet THERE. So its like this (oscillating gesture between the two). It aspires. It has learned to invoke the Divine all the time, all the time, all the time, whatever it is doing, whether there are people present, whether its speaking or not; whatever it does, there is a constant invocation. That way, its all right. But its not positive yet. (Mother coughs) And this cold seems to go away and then it comes back. Its not an ordinary cold.
0 1971-08-07, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If you are conscious, really conscious of that, thats how you can change circumstances.
And you feel a power over one of those webs?
--
I am conscious of the Action on small points, but now it is here, now there (scattered gesture throughout space); its not theres nothing continuous as in the mind.
Inexpressible.
0 1971-09-08, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The body is realizing, becoming conscious of what in it prevents it from being immortal, and at the same time of what can be immortal in it. It has had moments of agony as never before in its whole lifein connection with death, which has never happened before. And it has understood that its very constitution was causing this, and what it had to change. I am as though on the threshold of an extraordinary discovery, but.
(silence)
0 1971-10-02, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When I am like this (gesture of being motionless and interiorized), I am simply conscious of that Force (same gesture of pressure), and then sometimes, a particular point (gesture of a ray being aimed) or a detail goes consciously through through the personality (I dont know how to say it), and there its it seems irresistible: curing someone, even getting a thief arrested (!), things like that. Its strange.
Its curious.
0 1971-11-17, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And its particularly noticeable for food, because when I am in that consciousness which comes as soon as I dont do anything, as soon as I sit quietlyit isnt like something that comes in (gesture toward a center), its like something (expanding gesture) which develops, which is free to develop. Well then then its very good. But if I am in the ordinary consciousness and I eat (its time for a meal), oh, its so difficult that I feel its going to be impossible to eat anything! And in the other case, it goes down without my even noticing it. And yet I am conscious of what I am eating.
But what I am saying now isnt it. Its something else. You see, the consciousness is still like this (gesture of oscillating from one side to the other). Both are there. So. But then I cant find a way to make myself understood, because new words would have to be invented.
0 1971-11-27, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You remember, I had told you that the Divine wanted the individual consciousness to have the experience of the Divine; well that was it. That was it, it was the individual consciousness (since I became conscious of it) seeing the world. All of a sudden the world became what it is for the Divine. It is indescribable.
Obviously it has to begin with the consciousness, and afterwards, little by little, things will become such, meaning, become aware of themselves such as the Divine is aware of them.
0 1971-12-18, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In my case, I dont know, the work was done for me I did nothing. Thats how it was done, very radically. It could be done because I was VERY conscious of my psychic (the psychic being which was formed through all the lives), I was very conscious of it, and it remained; it remained and enabled me to deal with people without its making any difference, thanks to that psychic presence. Thats why there were very few apparent changes. So I can speak only of what I know, and Ill say this: the psychic has to remain very much in comm and of the whole being the whole bodily beingguiding the life, then the mind has time to be transformed. Mine was simply sent away.
You see, the transformation of the bodily mind was indispensable because thats the only one I had left, you follow? Very few people would accept that. (Laughing) In my case, it was done without asking my opinion! The work was very easy.
0 1972-01-08, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I prefer to. You see, I would like to abolish this personality as much as possible, leaving only an external form. All the time, I would be only a transmitting channel, like this (gesture of something flowing through Mother). And I dont even ask to be conscious of it.
I feel the Divine Presence all the timeall the timevery strongly, but.
0 1972-01-12, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I remember, the experience is still very vivid. As I told you, T.J. has a very childish consciousness, so I said to her: you see, its as if the Whole (not the Divine separate from the creation: the Whole) projected itself on a screen in order to see itself. Therefore its infinite, its foreverits never the same and it never ends. Its like a projection to visualize the details and be conscious of oneself in another way.8
The metaphor is quite childlike, of course, but very evocative thats how I saw it then. Exactly the impression of an infinite Whole projecting itself endlessly.
--
When I had that experience of the world, it was the experience itself, conscious of itself. It wasnt something I knew, it was something that WAS.
But language, words are inadequate.
0 1972-01-15, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
YESyes, oh, yes! Theres a big change! A big change. Only, the resistance has sort of (Mother clenches her fist) crystallized a little to resist, so its become more evident. Thats all. You have to be more obstinate. More obstinate. I tell you, just offer that being; you are conscious of it, you offer it to the Divine morning and evening: Do whatever You want with it, do whatever You want. You understand? Using your leg as a pretext.
Yes, Mother.
--
When the body became conscious of what was happening, its prayer, the prayer of the body was: Let me know when the time for dissolution comes, if dissolution is necessary, so that everything in me will accept the dissolution, but only in that case. Well. Oh, its so strange, the states of consciousness are strong, limpid, precise, but they cant express themselves. There are no words.
One day its one thing, another day another thing.
0 1972-01-29, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Better not say felt: ask whether he was conscious of somethingbecause felt may suggest a vital or physical sensationif he was conscious of something.
(Mother plunges in till the end, then Sujata approaches her)
0 1972-02-02, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This [radical change] could be accomplished because I was very conscious of my psychic it remained and enabled me to deal with people, with no differencethanks to that psychic presence.
It is the psychic that deals with people. It was ALWAYS the psychic that dealt with people, and it continues. This [radical change] didnt make any difference.
0 1972-03-30, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We are here to give up all desires and to turn towards the Divine and to become conscious of the Divine.1 To realize and manifest the Divine in our life is the way, not to become animals, living like cats and dogs.
Sujata enters.
0 1972-04-08, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Perhaps you remember that in January, Msgr. R. wrote to you, and you concentrated on him for a long time; then you asked me to write him and ask if he had been conscious of something.1 I have received his reply: one letter addressed to me and another to you. Heres what he writes to me (his answer was delayed because of Cardinal Tisserants death):
My brother,
0 1972-04-12, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If you can experience that its the Divine that does everything, then with an unshakable faith, you say, All your arguments are worthless; the joy of being with the Divine, conscious of the Divine, surpasses everythingit surpasses the creation, surpasses life, surpasses happiness and success, it surpasses everything (Mother raises one finger): THAT.
Thats all. Then all is well. And its over.
0 1972-04-15, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It struck me, I never forgot it. All at once, my psychic being was there: I am conscious of my psychic being, it protects me, I fear nothing. Those may not have been the exact words, I dont know, but that was the general reply.
(long silence)
--
Its true. It is true, but I wasnt sure you were fully conscious of it.
Oh, I was! I felt but Im always afraid of deluding myself, you know.
0 1972-04-26, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
As for me, the purpose of this body is now simply: the Command and the Will of the Lord, so I can do as much groundwork as possible. But it isnt the Goal at all. You see, we dont know, we dont have the slightest knowledge of what the supramental life is. Therefore we dont know if this (Mother pinches the skin of her hand) can change enough to adapt or notand to tell the truth, I am not worried about it, its not a problem that preoccupies me too much; the problem I am preoccupied with is building that supramental consciousness So IT becomes the being. Its that consciousness which must become the being. Thats whats important. As for the rest, well see (its the same as worrying over a change of clothing). But it must truly be IT, you see. And in order to do that, all the consciousness contained in these cells must aggregate, form and organize itself into an independent conscious entity the consciousness in the cells must aggregate and form into a conscious entity capable of being conscious of Matter as well as conscious of the Supramental. Thats the thing. Thats what is being done. How far will we be able to go? I dont know.
You understand?
0 1972-04-29, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You are more conscious of what has to be demolished than of what is being built.
Yes, its trueyes, I am very conscious of that.
Yes, of what must be demolished, but its more interesting to be conscious of whats being built.
But, Mother, when at every step youre made to face all sorts of things that arent very that you want to get rid of.
0 1972-05-26, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Each cellular nucleus holds in its chromosomes the plan of the entire organism. The chromosomic apparatus of any one cell represents both the totality of the individual and the local organ it belongs to. This organization could best be compared to that of an ideal human community in which each member would be conscious of the whole community and at the same time of his own intelligent personal function within the community.
(Werner Schupbach)
0 1972-05-31, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ah! Ah! You see. Oh, listen, it sounds utterly absurd, but Ill tell you. This consciousness here is as though conscious of the divine decisions; as though there isnt a single trifle that cant be an occasion to leave the body if the Divine decides that the body has to go, nor is there a single moment when one cant have the feeling of immortality if the Divine decides that one should have the feeling of immortality. The SAME thing. Do you understand what I am saying? The SAME thing.
For example, take that image I keep having of you sitting on that bench and staring at me likeyes, as if saying, What on earth is this! because I visited Government House (I used to come very often during Barons time, but I stopped coming after he left), so I came and you seemed to be saying, What on earth is this? as if yes, as if you were thinking, How quickly one forgets! or something of the sort3anyway you werent overly friendly! (laughter) At least that was my impression. But why does it keep recurring like that? You see, that encounter that occasion was the starting point the starting point of a great action between us, together. A great action together. So why these trifling little ripples, just when destiny was being shaped?
0 1972-06-07, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The body is comfortable only when it is conscious of the divine Force acting (gesture of descent through the body), but otherwise its.
Any concentration on the body itself causes a kind of strange discomfort, a discomfort which stops only when it is conscious of the Forceof the Force working (same gesture of descent through Mother), the Force working, when That comes and flows through it. Then the I cant say the old method is gone, its not at all that, its something.
(Smiling) Theres a phrase that comes to me in English: the joy of nothingness.
0 1972-07-29, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have no preference: its REALLY what You will. For a time, I had hoped to be conscious of what You will but now theres only: what You will (hands open).
To be conscious of You.
To be conscious of You.
(Mother closes her eyes, palms upwards, and plunges in. Then her eyes open, immense, immobile.)
0 1972-09-13, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When you are conscious of the whole world at the same time, then you can become conscious of the Divine.
My idea is not that being conscious of the world automatically makes you conscious of the Divine, but when your consciousness is vast enough to see and be conscious of the whole world, then you become capable of.
How can I say it? I dont want to be too specific. I mean I want each one to understand according to his capacityyou follow? Do you follow what I mean?
--
I purposely put alors [then] because otherwise it would mean that by becoming conscious of the whole world, you automatically become conscious of the Divinewhich isnt true. Its but one aspect of the Divine. Thats why I put alors.
All right?
Yes, yes, Mother. But if you read it literally, it means you have to be conscious of the whole world
in order to be capable of becoming conscious of the Divine. Thats the idea. But I dont want to put it in those terms, you see. I want each one to
to understand in his own way, from his own particular level.
0 1972-12-13, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Well, personally, I am always there. So. Whats difficult for me is to become conscious of the world as it is.
What did I tell you last time?
0 1973-01-01, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When you are conscious of the whole world at the same time, then you can become conscious of the Divine.1
Original English.
0 1973-01-31, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Personally, I have a strange impression. In the past, years ago, I used to feel that a part of my consciousness was vast, was this or that; but now I understand fully well what you mean by an old piece of bark (you know, Theres only an old piece of bark left), I feel I am only a mass of flaws, of imperfections, of dark elements and so on, but the other part of myself completely eludes me. There is only this sort of facade full of unpleasant and clashing and false things. While the other part, the other me I dont know, it eludes me completely. I know its there, but I am mainly conscious of all this thats in front of me.
(Mother plunges in)
0 1973-02-08, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The psychic being is the Divines representative in the human being. Its true, you know: the Divine isnt something far-off and out of reach; the Divine is within you, but you arent fully conscious of it. You have rather so far it is acting more as an influence than a Presence. It must become a conscious Presence, so at each moment you can ask yourselves how how the Divine sees.
Thats how it is: first, how the Divine sees; then, how the Divine Wills then, how the Divine does. It has nothing to do with going off to inaccessible regions: its RIGHT HERE. Although, for the moment, all the old habits and the general unconsciousness have put a sort of lid on it, which prevents us from seeing and feeling. We must we must lift that, lift it off.
Basically, we must become conscious instruments conscious conscious of the Divine.
Normally it takes an entire lifetime, or even several lives in some cases. But here, in the present conditions, you can do it in a few months. Those who have an ardent aspiration can do it in a few MONTHS.
--
To be conscious of your psychic being, you must be able to have felt the fourth dimension, felt it once, otherwise you cannot know what it is. Oh, Lord!
Its been seventy years since Ive known what the fourth dimension ismore than seventy years.
--
Otherwise, to be conscious of your own consciousness, you must mentalize it. Its dreadful, dreadful!
There you are.
--
There isthere is, but you arent conscious of it. You must you must its the mind that prevents you from feeling it. One Must BE, you see. All you do is mentalize everythingeverything. What you call consciousness is thinking things out; thats what you call consciousness. But thats not it at all! Thats not consciousness. Consciousness should be wholly lucid and WORDLESS.
(Mother closes her eyes)
--
All no! They are not all the same age, even when they are the same physical age. Some children are primitive. One should. You see, if you yourself were fully conscious of your psychic being, you would know which children are psychically developed. Some children have only an embryonic psychic the age of the psychic varies enormously. Normally, it takes several lives for the psychic to become completely formed, and its the psychic that passes from one body to another; thats why we arent conscious of our past livesbecause we arent conscious of our psychic being. But sometimes, at some MOMENT the psychic being participated in a particular event, it became conscious; and that creates a memory. Sometimes you may find you have a partial recollection of something, the fleeting memory of a circumstance or event or thought, or even of an action. Its because the psychic was conscious of it.
(silence)
0 1973-03-10, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, I think so. I think its the only thing to do. Personally I keep repeating, What You will, what You will, what You will. Let it be as You will, may I do as You will, may I be conscious of what You will.
And also: Without You, its death; with You, its life. By death, I dont mean physical deathit might happen, it might be that if I lost the contact now, it would be the end but thats impossible! I feel that I AM THATWith some resistances the present consciousness may still have, thats all.1
0 1973-03-19, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We replace religion with spiritual life, which is truer and both deeper and higher, that is to say, closer to the Divine. For the Divine is in all things, but we are not conscious of it.
This is the immense progress that men must make.
02.01 - The World-Stair, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
That Matter might grow conscious of its soul
And like a busy midwife the life-power
02.06 - The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Life, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yet conscious of some light prompting his soul.
Attracted to strange far-off shimmerings,
02.07 - The Descent into Night, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A hidden Puissance conscious of its force,
A vague and lurking Presence everywhere,
03.03 - The Inner Being and the Outer Being, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yoga to become conscious of the great complexity of our nature, see the different forces that move it and get over it a control of directing knowledge. We are composed of many parts each of which contri butes something to the total movement of our consciousness, our thought, will, sensation, feeling, action, but we do not see the origination or the course of these impulsions; we are aware only of their confused pell-mell results on the surface upon which we can at best impose nothing better than a precarious shifting order.
There are, we might say, two beings in us, one on the surface, our ordinary exterior mind, life, body consciousness, another behind the veil, an inner mind, an inner life, an inner physical consciousness constituting another or inner self. This inner self once awake opens in its turn to our true real and eternal self. It opens inwardly to the soul, called in the language of this Yoga the psychic being which supports our successive births and at each birth assumes a new mind, life and body. It opens above to the Self or spirit which is unborn and by conscious recovery of it we transcend the changing personality and achieve freedom and full mastery over our nature.
03.10 - Hamlet: A Crisis of the Evolving Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Hamlet is the third stage; it is a vision of sattva-guna and a creation attempted by that vision. The human consciousness that was imprisoned in the vital mind, is released here into the higher or pure mind. The soul escapes from its sheath of sheer hunger and desire and egoism and self-aggrandisementyearns for light, more light. Lear is a dark mass of unconsciousness, crude and violent, even like the naked and raging elements into whose arms he is thrown; Macbeth is the beginning of consciousness in which one is conscious of one's own self alone, and keenly and deliberately attached to it,here light has dawned, but a lurid light. Hamlet is consciousness that is seeking to transcend the barrier of the little self and its narrow and vulgar appetites and impulses. Man here comes into touch with something that is impersonal, other-regarding, afar; he has grown interests that are not merely mundane, utilitarian, pragmatic, self-centred, but abstract, metaphysical, beyond the individual's own and immediate concern: he has now ideals and aspirationshe is a seeker of the true, the good, the beautiful. He has been initiated into the divinedaivanature. Culture, refinement, sensibility, understandingall the graces of a truly rational being make Hamlet the very flower of an evolving humanity.
Over against the personality of Hamlet stands another which represents false height, the wrong perfection, the counterfeit ideal. Polonius is humanity arrested in its path of straight development and deviated into a cut-de-sac of self-conceit and surface urbanity, apparent cleverness and success and pretentious and copy-book morality. When one has outgrown the barbarian, one runs the risk of becoming a snob or philistine. It is a side table-land, as it were, on mid-heights, the standard perhaps of a commoner humanity, but which the younger ideal has to transcend or avoid or even to destroy, so that it may find itself and live its own life. To the philistine too the mere biological man is a taboo, but he seeks to confine human nature into a scheme of codes and maxims and lifeless injunctions and prohibitions. He is also the man of Reason but without the higher inflatus, the living and creative Something More the poetry, the vision, the dream that would transfigure the merely pragmatic, practical, worldly wise the bourgeoisinto the princely aristocratic idealist, elevate the drab terre terre To-day into the glory of a soaring To-morrow.
03.10 - Sincerity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This central sincerity, however, has to be worked out in actual life. For, one may be true in the spirit, but falseweak, that is to sayin the flesh. The light of the central being usually finds its way first into the mind. One becomes then mentally sincere: in other words, one has the idea, the thought that the Divine is the goal and nothing else can or shall satisfy. With the light in the mind, one sees also in oneself more and more the dark spots, the weaknesses, the obstaclesone becomes conscious of one's feelings, discovers elements that have to be corrected or purged. But this mental sincerity, this recognition in the understanding is not enough: it remains mostly ineffective and barren with regard to life and character. One appears at this stage to lead a double life: one knows and understands, to some extent at least, but one is unable to act up even to that much knowledge and understanding. It is only when the power of sincerity descends still further and assumes a concreter form, when the vital becomes sincere and' is converted, then the urge is there not only to see and understand, but to do and achieve. Without the vital's sincerity, its will to be transformed, one remains at best a witness, one has an inner perception of consciousness of the Divine, but in actual living one lets the old ordinary nature to go its own way. It is the sincerity in the vital,-its win to possess the Divine and the Divine alone, its ardour to collaborate with the Divine the conscious that brings about the crucial, the most dynamic change. Sadhana instead of being a mere mental occupation, an intellectual pursuit, acquires the urgency of living and doing and achieving. Finally, the vital sincerity, when it reaches its climax, calls for the ultimate sinceritysincerity in the body. When the body consciousness becomes sincere then we cannot but be and act as decided and guided by the divine consciousness; we live and move and have our being wholly in the divine manner. Then what the inmost being, the psychic, envisages in the divine light, the body inevitably and automatically executes. There is no gap between the two. The spirit and the fleshsoul and bodyare soldered, fused together in one single compact entity. One starts with the central sincerity in the psychic being and progress of sadhana means the extension of this sincerity gradually to all the outlying parts and levels of the being till, when the body is reached, the whole consciousness becomes, as it were, a massive pyramid of loyalty.
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04.01 - The Birth and Childhood of the Flame, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And make dumb Matter conscious of its God.
Although our fallen minds forget to climb,
04.02 - The Growth of the Flame, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Or conscious of some splendour hidden above
They leaped to find her in a moment's flash,
04.05 - The Immortal Nation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A nation or people then possesses or is composed of several souls or several layers of an oversoul. Even like the individual it has a physical soul, that is to say, a body consciousness, a vital soul, a mental soul and finally the true or inmost soul, the oversoul. When one lives in any of the inferior souls, one has precarious and disintegrated lifewhe ther it is a nation or an individual. It is only when one is conscious of one's inmost self, then only the person or the people can attain some kind of immortality, the power of rejuvenation in those external parts the mental, vital and physical that make up the terrestrial life and that are ever subject to decline, decay and death.
A nation, however, that has achieved something, created something, made a strong formation in the mental or in the vital world may die physically, but the formation, the creation, the achievement remains and continues to be alive in the terrestrial atmosphere, in the general consciousness of man. Ancient Greece is dead, Augustan Rome is gone, but the mind of light that Greece brought into play, the cast of social character that Rome established are among the permanent acquisitions of human culture and civilisation. They have gone into the making of the warp and woof of the standard human life today. Apart, however, from this general survival, could there be a reappearance of the very soul of a nation in another nation, in the same way as an individual soul reincarnates itself in another individual body? That question is asked, as sometimes it has been suggested, from certain significant and striking similarities, that ancient Greece incarnated in modern France and that there is a Roman stamp in the British nation. The possibility may not be altogether ruled out of court. But still it must be understood that the two phenomena are not quite identical, there is a difference in nature and kind. Rebirth in the sense of reincarnation is especially an individual phenomenon, the individual forming a divine centre, a focus of consciousness which the group is not; the group is more a field and a frame for the individual in spite of a conscious existence of its own.
04.09 - Values Higher and Lower, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It may be that for most men the physical life is of first and primary importance and they look upon the spiritual life, 'if ever they do, as a secondary pursuit; even as children consider food and play as the one thing needful, study or mental exercise quite a secondary or tertiary affair occupying a small side corner. This is because the taste for the higher life belongs to a more developed consciousness, not because it is something really dependent and derivative. Indeed, we do in fact see peopleindividually or collectively (like the early Christians, for example)suddenly becoming conscious of the burning reality of the Spirit, in the midst of and in spite of the most adverse and all-engrossing outer physical conditions, and follow it caring nothing. So the Christ directs: Follow Me, let the dead bury their dead; and the Indian Shastra enjoins: Yadahareva virajet tadahareva pravrajet the day you feel unattached, that very day go out of the world and away.
To the spiritual seeker the higher values are the first things that come first: to the ordinary man it is otherwise, lower values come first and claim topmost priority. To the experience of the spiritual seeker one should give greater value, for he has the experience of both the values, while the ordinary man knows only of one variety. Naturally, as we have said, there is synthesis, a fusion of the two values; but that is elsewhere for the present, not actually here and now.
05.02 - Gods Labour, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The usual idea of God (as the theists hold, for example) is that he is an infinite eternal impassible being, aloof from human toils and earthly turmoils, himself untouched by these and yet, in and through them, directing the world for an inscrutable purpose, unless it is for leaning towards it and stretching out the hand of Grace to those of the mortals who wish to come out of the nightmare of life, sever the coils of earthly existence. But the Divine in order to be and remain divine need not hold to his seat above and outside the creation, severely separated from his creatures. He can, on the contrary, become truly the ordinary man and labour as all others, yet maintaining his divinity and being conscious of it. After all, is not man, every human being, built in the same pattern, a composite of the earthly human element supported and infused by a secret divine element? However, God, the individual Divine, does become man, one of them and one with them. Only, his labour thereby increases manifold, hard and heavy, although for that very reason full of a bright rich multiple promise. The Divine's self-hurilanisation has for it a double purpose: (I) to show man by example how he can become what he truly is, how he can divinise himself: the Divine as man lives out the life of a sadhakawholly and completely; (2) to help concretely by his own force of consciousness the world and man in their endeavour for progress and evolution, to give the help wholly and completely from the innermost status of the self down to the most external physical body and the material field. This help again is a twofold function. The first is to make available, gather within easy reach, the high realisations, the spiritual treasures that are normally stored in a heaven somewhere else. The Divine Man brings down the divine attributes close to our earth, turns them from mere far possibilities into near probabilities, even imminent realities. They are made part and parcel, constituent elements of the earthly atmosphere, so that one has only to open one's mouth to brea the in, extend one's arms to seize and possess them: even to this opening and this gesture man is helped by the concrete touch and presence of the Divine. Further, the help and succour come in another way which is more intimate, more living and appealing to man.
A great mystery of existence, its central rub is the presence of Evil. All spiritual, generally all human endeavour has to face and answer this Sphinx. As he answers, so will be his fate. He cannot rise up even if he wishes, earth cannot progress even when there is the occasion, because of this besetting obstacle. It has many names and many forms. It is Sin or Satan in Christianity; Buddhism calls it Mara. In India it is generally known as Maya. Grief and sorrow, weakness and want, disease and death are its external and ubiquitous forms. It is a force of gravitation, as graphically named by a modern Christian mystic, that pulls man down, fixes him upon earth with its iron law of mortality, never allowing him to mount high and soar in the spiritual heavens. It has also been called the Wheel of Karma or the cycle of Ignorance. And the aim of all spiritual seekers has been to rise out of itsome-how, by force of tapasy, energy of concentrated will or divine Gracego through or by-pass and escape into the Beyond. This is the path of ascent I referred to at the outset. In this view it is taken for granted that this creation is transient and empty of happinessanityam asukham (Gita)it is anatta, empty of self or consciousness (Buddha) and it will be always so. The only way to deal with it, the way of the wise, is to discard it and pass over.
05.02 - Of the Divine and its Help, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Do not strive and struggle to do. Only be conscious of what is being done for you.
There is a Power that is not grim and violent, but smiling and translucent and yet irresistible. It does not give out heat and soot but radiates a soothing and persuasive clarity. It is not the Fire of our earth that burns and bruises, smokes and crackles-it is something like the serene and silent luminousness, the steady and unaging radiance of the distant stars that energises the cosmic symphony.
05.04 - Of Beauty and Ananda, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Speech is self-expression. It is the organ of self-consciousness. The nature of the speech shows the nature of the self-consciousness. The degree of perfection in utterance measures also the extent to which one is conscious of oneself.
Beauty is the soul's delight perfectly articulate and organised.
05.06 - Physics or philosophy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What is the world that we see really like? Is it mental, is it material? This is a question, we know, philosophers are familiar with, and they have answered and are still answering, each in his own way, taking up one side or other of the antinomy. There is nothing new or uncommon in that. The extraordinary novelty comes in when we see today even scientists forced to tackle the problem, give an answer to it,scientists who used to smile at philosophers, because they seemed to assault seriously the windmills of abstract notions and airy concepts, instead of reposing on the terra firmaof reality. The tables are turned now. The scientists have had to start the same business the terra firmaon which they stood as on the securest rock of ages is slipping away under their feet and fast vanishing into smoke and thin air. Not only that, it is discovered today that the scientist has always been a philosopher,' without his knowledgea crypto-philosopher,only he has become conscious of it at last. And furthermirabile dictum!many a scientist is busy demonstrating that the scientist is, in his essence, a philosopher of the Idealist school!
Physical Science in the nineteenth century did indeed develop or presuppose a philosophy of its own; it had, that is to say, a definite outlook on the fundamental quality of things and the nature of the universe. Those were days of its youthful self-confidence and unbending assurance. The view was, as is well-known, materialistic and deterministic. That is to say, all observation and experiment, according to it, demonstrated and posited:
05.11 - The Soul of a Nation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A nation is a living personality; it has a soul, even like a human individual. The soul of a nation is also a psychic being, that is to say, a conscious being, a formation out of the Divine Consciousness and in direct contact with it, a power and aspect of Mahashakti. A nation is not merely the sum total of the individuals that compose it, but a collective personality of which the individuals are as it were cells, like the cells of a living and conscious organism. The psychic being or soul of a nation is indeed conscious; it knows its raison d'tre, its life purpose, its destiny, the role it has to play in the divine scheme as the divine instrument. And its will for it has a will, the expression of its consciousness, the Divine's impulse in and through itis inevitable, sooner or later it will fulfil itself. Even like the soul of a man, the nation's soul is behind all the movements that form its external life, supporting, building, guiding its political, economic, social or cultural make-up. The individual can know of and come in contact with the nation's soul in and through his own soul. When one becomes conscious of his psychic being then only one is in a condition to be conscious of the psychic being of the collective person of his nation or the nation with which he has inner affinity.
There are periods in the life cycle of a nation, critical moments, when it is in deadly peril, when its very existence is threatened, attacked by enemy forces either from within or from without. Such was the case when, for example, Britain was invaded by the Spanish Armada or when France was being subjugated by England. Those were very anxious times, but in each instance the soul of the nation came forward and inspired the nation to react and go through the ordeal and survive. Jeanne d'Arc may be considered as the embodiment of France's national soul, as on a still earlier occasion that same soul embodied itself in St. Genevieve. But a nation may fall on much more evil days, namely, when it loses contact with its very soul, goes astray, its life movement taking a wrong curve. A nation can deny its soul, even as an individual may and the result is disaster. Germany is a terrible example of such a tragedy in our own day.
05.26 - The Soul in Anguish, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It seems that the School of Anguish is on the borderl and between the second and the third stage, that is to say, the vital rising into the mental or the mental still carrying an impress of the vital consciousness. It is the emergence of the Purusha consciousness, the individual being in its heart of hearts, in its pure status: for it is that that truly evolves, progresses from level to level, deploying and marshalling according to its stress and scheme the play of its outward nature. Now the Purusha consciousness, as separate from the outward nature, has certain marked characteristics which have been fairly observed and comprehended by the exponents of the school we are dealing with. Sartre, for example, characterises this beingtre en soi, as distinguished from tre pour soi which is something like dynamic purusha or purusha identified or associated with prakrtias composed of the sense of absolute freedom, of full responsibility, of unhindered choice and initiation. Indeed, Purusha is freedom, for in its own status it means liberation from all obligations to Prakriti. But such freedom brings in its train, not necessarily always but under certain conditions, a terrible sense of being all alone, of infinite loneliness. One is oneself, naked and face to face with one's singleness and unbreakable, unsharable individual unity. The others come as a product or corollary to this original sui generisentity. Along with the sense of freedom and choice or responsibility and loneness, there is added and gets ingrained into it the sense of fear and anxiety the anguish (Angst). The burden that freedom and loneliness brings seems to be too great. The Purusha that has risen completely into the mental zone becomes wholly a witness, as the Sankhyans discovered, and all the movements of his nature appear outside, as if foreign: an absolute calm and unperturbed tranquillity or indifference is his character. But it is not so with regard to the being that has still one foot imbedded in the lower region of the vital consciousness; for that indeed is the proper region of anguish, of fear and apprehension, and it is there that the soul becoming conscious of itself and separate from others feels lone, lonely, companionless, without support, as it were. The mentalised vital Purusha suffers from this peculiar night of the soul. Sartre's outlook is shot through with very many experiences of this intermediary zone of consciousness.
The being immersed in Prakriti, as normally it is, in relation and communion with others, may entertain as a pleasure and luxury, the illusion of its separateness and freedom: it can do so at ease, because it feels it has the secret support of its environment, it is courageous because it feels itself in good company. But once it rises out of the environmental level and stands truly apart and outside itit is the mental being which can do so more or less successfully the first feeling is that of freedom, no doubt, but along with it there is also the uncanny sense of isolation, of heavy responsibility, also a certain impotence, a loss of bearings. The normal Cartesian Co-ordinates, as it were, are gone and the being does not know where to look for the higher multi-dimensional co-ordinates. That is the real meaning of the Anguish which suddenly invades a being at a certain stage of his ascending consciousness.
06.03 - Types of Meditation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The last process gives us the clue to the fourth type of meditation the type, in fact, which is recommended for us, both because it is the easiestfollowing as it does the line of least resistance, also because it gives the fullness of the result demanded. Instead of trying to manipulate the mental force with one's personal will and effort, instead of seeking to control and comm and the consciousness, the best thing to do would be to remain quiet as far as it is normally possible for one without struggle and then turn the gaze to the other side, deep inward or high upward, become more conscious of the light, the Will that brought you to this Path, to be alive with the secret delight, the flaming aspiration that is there within you behind all the turbid turmoil of the surface life and consciousness. This Presence and Guidance will of itself place before you the elements and movements that are to be rejected and those that are to be accepted and given your sincere assent those that help you in doing the necessary gesture. Indeed, if you do not resist too much, it will throw out what is to be thrown out and bring in what is to be brought in. That is how the instrument will be cleansed and refined. Silence will be put in, for that is the basis; but not silence alone, for it will be unified with a new dynamism expressing the Divine's Willpersonal choice there will be none, neither for absolute quietude nor for mere activity.
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06.04 - The Conscious Being, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The mind, however, has a central consciousness which may be called the Witness Mind, the Purusha in the mind. It stands apart and observes whatever is happening in the mind and in other parts as well; it is in fact the observer of the whole dhra. The other parts are the vital and the physical. The vital too has its own central consciousness, its witness Purusha, which observes all the vital movements and also through its own angle the other parts. Likewise the physical has a Purusha and it too observes through its own consciousness. The mental Purusha says, I see I am thinking, reasoning, etc.; the vital Purusha says, I see I am angry, violent or enjoying, energising, etc.; the physical Purusha says, I see I am acting, walking, running, etc. Now each of these three Purushas, in an ordinary person, stands separately, each is conscious in its own way; they are not clearly conscious of each other; they intermix, but not happily, they are more often than not at cross purposes. Very rarely are they unified and harmonised or bound together as a team for serving a common purpose, a single aim. That union and harmonisation can be done only through the supreme Purusha, the Divine Witness who is the true conscious Being, the one Purusha behind or above all the others, whose light first of all centralises in the psychic being and then through it is canalised into its delegates or emanations on the lower levels, the mind, the vital and the physical.
What is consciousness? It is the inverse of Inconscience. It is the creative essence of the universe: without consciousness there is no creation. Inconscience means non-existence. The supreme Non-manifest becomes conscious of itself, that is, objectifies itself, sees itself created or reflected in multiple centres: that is the origin of all creation. By consciousness all is, by unconsciousness nothing is. Consciousness is light, consciousness is life.
The original consciousness is one and indivisible and at its highest potential. But when it gets devolved and divided, i.e., individualised, it gets at the same time diffracted and minimised, like the reflections in a rough mirror. What we normally understand by consciousness is this diminished degree of it in the individual. But although diminished and diffracted in many forms and modes, the basic consciousness is still the divine consciousness which is there behind and at the origin of all the partial formulations. It is through this core of Divine Presencewhich is nothing else than the psychic that the individual maintains and develops its contact with the Divine, grows into the fullness of the divine consciousness even as an individual and earthly embodiment.
06.17 - Directed Change, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
You have to accept this principle of change and move onto be one with the cosmic spirit,never to stand still or turn back, but look forward and forge ahead. To be stagnant means to die and be fossilised. Now, if things change continually, it means things can change and must be changed. Only, one must see to the direction in which the change occurs. A change can be, after all, for better or for worse. And you have the power, if you are conscious with the right consciousness, to direct the change and even to initiate one of the right order. Have you ever climbed a hill? There are many ways, paths, issues leading towards the top, some more or less direct, some zigzag, others winding or taking a long round. This does not matter, provided you look upward, have the sense of direction to the summit, then you mount up. Otherwise if you have your face downward or look below, you move downward away from the top. In the same way changes that happen will be directed according to the direction of your look. And there is only one direction towards which you must turn your look: towards the summit, towards the highest goal. It is to grow conscious, to grow more and more conscious-to be conscious of yourself, to be conscious of the universe and to be conscious of the Divine who dwells in you and permeates the world and then to manifest the Divine, in your physical life and in the physical life of the world.
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06.21 - The Personal and the Impersonal, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Somewhat on the same line the vital too has to proceed to transform itself. It must get rid of its ignorant and violent impulses, its obscure formations: it must be thoroughly cleansed and purified. For that it must learn to be quiet and silentabsolutely still and passive; and in that quiet passivity to feel, to be conscious of the Divine Presence, to be saturated with it. When once that is done, it is called upon to come out and take part in active life. Normally, however, the tendency is, when one has withdrawn and lived an inward quieted life, on coming back to outer life, to turn to the old accustomed ways and reactions; one falls back into the old groove of the consciousness. The vital should then make the experience and the realisation of the Divine Presence dynamic so that it may be a living reality; the vital must be conscious of it in the midst of all activities, not merely in the indrawn state. The energy of the vital must be put out into a complete and perfected living, but it must not run into old moulds and take up the habitual modes; with the constant sense of the Divine, the ever present truth and beauty of the Divine's consciousness, the vital will possess a new life and create a new pattern of living.
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06.26 - The Wonder of It All, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The ordinary consciousness takes for granted the things that exist as they are. It does not question; it finds everything very natural and as a matter of course. It sees and expects to see the same old familiar things repeated and is not struck by any extraordinary note in them. That is the unconsciousness of the ordinary consciousness. But when you begin to be conscious, when you look about and gaze at things, you awake, as it were, from sleep, and begin to question, to wonder: why is it like this, how is it so, what is it, to what purpose etc. etc. Normally you see the sun rise, rain fall, earth rotate but you do not spend a thought over any of these objects or happenings, except so far as they are useful or simply nuisance. But when there is a light in you and you become conscious, conscious of yourself and of things around you, everything acquires an importance, a sense and you are full of wonder, wondering at a wonderful creation. The more you advance, the more the light grows in you, all the more your wonder increases. As your awareness increases, your interest too increases. A new beauty surrounds, flows out of every object and event. You do not take things for granted and let them pass mechanically, but greet everyone of them as a guest, with whom you wish to make acquaintance and be familiar, each one having a message for you and yourself something to deliver. That is a source of inexhaustible delight and of ever increasing knowledge.
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06.34 - Selfless Worker, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Prayer says: I look for my conscious mind and I find it no more. . .1 Normally one is conscious of oneself. Whatever one does or whenever one does something, the consciousness always remains behind, I am here, I am doing. And if this sense of I am is not there, one can do nothing. All action stops automatically if I do not see or feel that I am acting. But that is the nature of ordinary consciousness; in the spiritual consciousness things are otherwise. Spiritual consciousness means the consciousness in which this sense of I am doing or even I am has disappeared, got dissolved. Truly, the work is done not by me, by the sense of illness, but by Prakriti, Nature, apparently by Lower Nature, secretly by Higher Nature. When the I disappears, the force that has been working continues to work, only the sense of I attached to it (in ignorance and by ignorance) is no longer there. Or, the I has completely merged itself into the working Force and is one with it. What is conscious is not the personality or the individual I, but the Force of action.
The Mother: Prayers and Meditations, 7 April 1914
07.08 - The Divine Truth Its Name and Form, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
When we are conscious of the Divine, do we see Him in all things in some particular form?
You expect to see a divine form in each and all things? It may happen so. But I am not sure; I have the impression that there is a large part of imagination in such experiences. You may, for example, see the form of Krishna or Christ or Buddha in every being or thing. But I say that much of human conception enters into this perception. Otherwise what I was telling you just now would not be true. I said all who have the consciousness of the Divine, all who get the contact with the Divine, wherever one may be, to whatever age or country he may belong, all have the same essential experience. If it were not so, the Hindus would always see one of their gods, the Europeans one of theirs, the Japanese a third variety and so on. This may be an addition of each one's own mental formation, but it would not be the Reality in its essence or purity which is beyond all form. One can have a perception of the Divine Presence, a very concrete perception, one can have even a personal contact with the Divine, but it need not happen in and through the kind of form you imagine; it is something inexpressible, beyond all explanation or definition, it is evident only to one who has the experience. It may be as you are suddenly lifted up into a peculiar condition, you find yourself in the presence of the Divine which takes a form familiar to you, a form you have been accustomed to associate with the Divine, because of your education, your up-bringing and tradition. But, as I say, it is not the supreme essence of the experience: the form gives after all a limitation to the experience, takes away from it its universality and a large measure of its power.
07.12 - This Ugliness in the World, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Everything in the world has at its source a supreme truth, how is it then that the world has become ugly in its expression? Why are things at all ugly? Because there are other things that intervene between the Source and the manifestation. For example, if I asked you: Do you know your true being? what would you say? You do not know; it would be wonderful if you did. It is the same with all beings and things. And yet you are already a sufficiently developed being, a thinking being, and have gone through many stages of refinement; you are not quite the lizard crawling on the wall! Still you cannot tell what is the truth of your being. That is the secret of the deformation in the world. It is because there is all the unconsciousness the Inconscient that has been created by the fact of separation from one's origin. It is this inconscience which prevents the Source from manifesting in its own nature, although it is there always. It is there, therefore that all things exist, the world exists; but in its expression it is deformed, because it has to manifest itself through inconscience, through ignorance and obscurity. But how did it come about? The will to create was originally a will that projected itself towards individual formation; what it arrived at, however, was not the true individual (or individualisation) but a breaking up of the solid unity into infinitesimal fragments. The original indivisible unity became a sum of infinitely divided unities. These unities or units were individualisations of things separate and feeling and acting as such. It is precisely the feeling of separation from others that gives you the impression that you are an individual. Otherwise you would feel that you were only a fluid mass. That is to say, you are no longer conscious simply of your rigid outer form and all that cuts you off from others and makes of you a separate individual, you are conscious of the vital forces that move about everywhere, of the inconscient that is the foundation of all, you have the impression that you are a moving mass with all kinds of contradictory movements in it, which cannot be separated from each other. You would not have the impression that you are an individual being, but that you are something like one note or vibration in a whole complex. The original will was to form individual beings capable of becoming conscious again of their divine origin. This process of individualisation created the necessity that to be an individual one must feel oneself separate: that is why one is cut off from the original consciousness, at least apparently, and is fallen into inconscience. For the Life of life is the Origin alone and if it is separated from that source, consciousness naturally turns into unconsciousness and you lose trace of the truth of your being. That is the process of the creation or formation of the world by which the pure origin does not manifest directly in its essence and purity, but through deformation, that is to say, unconsciousness and ignorance. That is how ugliness came in, death and disease, wickedness and misery and all. It is the movement, I say, brought in by the necessity of individual formation that has produced these things, each and every one of them, that is the one source of the multiple evil in all its modes and vibrations. I do not say this was indispensable that problem I may take up later on. But for the moment I direct you to the source in order to show the remedy. And there is no point in questioning why it is so. As I said, the only way to settle the world problem is to be conscious again, to recover the lost consciousness. Of course, if you say like some religions that good is good and evil is evil and they will always remain so, then there is no longer any problem. An eternal struggle binds the two together and whichever wins for the moment will make the world a little better at one moment and a little worse at another. But the two exist, continue to exist eternally and indissolubly intertwined. But you have seen it is not like that; one can come out of the tangle into the perfect unity of the truth, for it is that which is the only and original source.
It is this perfect truth, let me repeat, that has scattered itself abroad, into these innumerable little atoms, into these insignificant brain cells which, in spite of all their ignorance, are still moved by a secret stir of consciousness: these little specks of darkness reach out towards light which they can find, for it is within them. They will arrive at what they seek. It may take time more or less, but they will reach in the end. That is then the remedy: it lies in the very heart of evil itself.
07.13 - Divine Justice, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
To judge by appearances, by apparent success is an act of complete ignorance. Even in the case of a person hardened to the core, who has apparently the utmost success, there is a counterpart: exactly this hardening, this evil that is put up thicker and thicker between the outer consciousness and the inner truth becomes also more and more unbearable. The outer success has to be paid for very dearly. One must be very great, very pure, one must have a very high, very unselfish spiritual consciousness to be able to succeed and yet not be affected. There is nothing so difficult to bear than success. That is the true test in life. When you are not successful, you turn very naturally to yourself, go within you, seek there comfort for the outer failure. And they who have the Flame within them and the Divine helping them truly, that is to say, if they are mature enough to get the help, if they are ready to follow the path, must expect blows coming upon them one after another, because that helps. Indeed that is the most powerful, most direct and most effective help. But if you have 'Success, take care! Ask yourself, at what price you have had it? What is the thing you have paid for the success? Of course, there are people of a different kind. They who have gone beyond, who are conscious of their soul, who are entirely surrender they can succeed and success does not touch them. But one has to rise very high to be able to shoulder the burden of success. It is perhaps the last and final test that the Divine puts to anyone. He says: Now that you are noble and high and unselfish, you belong to Me alone. I shall make you triumph. We shall see if you can bear the blow!
To the Asuras too the Divine gives what they ask for. Generally it is in that way that their end comes all the sooner. An Asura is a conscious being. He knows that he has an end. He knows that the attitude he has taken in this universe will necessarily destroy him after a time. Of course the Asura's time is much longer than human time. Even then he knows that there will come an end for him, for he has cut himself from Eternity. What he seeks is to carry out his desires to the utmost extent possible till the day of his doom, when the final defeat comes. And very possibly if he is allowed his way the defeat will be hastened. That is why exactly when great things are about to happen, at that moment the adverse forces become the most active, most violently active and apparently the most successful. They are given a free field as it were to rush to their doom.
07.19 - Bad Thought-Formation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I do not think so. Things spoken of in relation to animals as monstrous are not really due to a bad will. Let us take for example the insect world. Of all animals it is this species which seems to have most the attribute of wickedness, something akin to a bad will. It may, however, be simply that we are applying our own mode of consciousness to theirs, we impute bad will to an action which is not really of the kind. For example, there are insects whose larva can live only upon a living being; they have to feed upon a living creature, they do not get nourishment from dead flesh. So the parent insect before laying the eggs that are to become larvae first prepares the ground: it finds another insect or a small animal, stings into a nerve centre and paralyses it; then safely lays eggs in that paralysed body, which not being dead feeds the larvae when they come out of the eggs. All this looks very much Machiavellian. But nothing is reasoned out there, it is pure instinct. Would you call it bad will? It is simply the will to propagate. You can say perhaps that these insects are moved by a spirit of the species which is conscious and has a conscious will and that this will is an evil will. These beings that create or form the various species of the insect worldmany working in a much more monstrous way than the example I have givenmust then truly be frightful, inspired by a perverse and diabolic imagination. Quite possible. For it is said that the origin of the insect world is in the vital; the builders of that world belong to the vital and not to the material plane of consciousness; in other words, they not only symbolise, but they represent and live the evil will. They are fully conscious of their evil will and they exercise that will deliberately and with a set purpose. Man's bad will is often only a reflection, an imitation of the bad will of vital beings which is a will clearly hostile to created world and whose express intention it is to make things as painful, as difficult, as ugly, as monstrous as possible. It is these beings, some say, that have created the insects. Even then, the insects cannot be described as representing the evil will, since they do not do mischief purposely, they are moved by an unconscious will in them. The bad will is really that will which does evil for the sake of doing evil, which seeks to destroy for the sake of destroying, that takes pleasure in doing wrong. In the animal I do not think there is this kind of evil will, especially in the higher species. What is there is the instinct of self-preservation, obscure and violent reactions, but not the kind of evil that human will shows in the perverse human mental. I believe it is the human mind under the direct influence of vital beings that begins to work in the perverse way. Titans, Asuras are the beings of ill-will, they belong totally to the vital world and when they manifest themselves in this world of ours, they mean mischief, they do evil for the sake of doing evil, they destroy for the sake of destroying, they have the delight of negation.
What is instinct exactly? It is Nature's consciousness. Nature is conscious of her action; it is not an individual consciousness. It is a global or collective consciousness. There is also a consciousness of the species. Each species has its consciousness which is called sometimes the spirit of the species, that is to say, a conscious being presiding over a particular species. Nature is conscious in the sense that she knows what she wants, she knows her whither and her how, her end and the way to go towards it. To man much of Nature seems incoherent, because his consciousness is narrow and he has not an overall vision. When you look at the small details, the little fragments, you do not understand; you do not find any link, sequence, sense. But Nature has a conscious will, she is a conscious being. Perhaps the word being is too human. When we speak of Nature's being, we naturally think of the human being, only a little bigger, or perhaps much bigger but working more or less in the same way. But it is not so. Instead of the word being, I would prefer the word entity. The conscious entity that is Nature has a conscious will and it does things much more deliberately and purposively than map, and it has formidable forces at its disposal. Man speaks of blind and violent Nature. But it is man who is blind and violent, not nature. You say an earthquake is a terrible affair. Thousands of houses crash into dust, millions of people are killed, whole cities devastated, entire portions of earth are swallowed up etc., etc. Yes, from the human point of view Nature seems monstrous. But what has she done after all? When you get a knock on your body somewhere there appears a blue patch. Are you worried about it? Your earthquake is nothing more than a reshuffling of a cell in your body. You destroy thousands of cells every moment of your life. You are monstrous! That is the relative proportion. And consider, we are speaking of earth alone and earthly events. But what is this earth itself in the bosom of the universe? A point, a zero. You are walking on the ground and are not looking down. You place one step forward and then another and you trample thousands of innocent ants under your feet. If you were an ant you would have cried out, what a cruel and stupid force! Imagine other forces stalking about much bigger than yourself and under their casual steps millions of creatures like you are crushed, continents are pressed down and mountains kicked up. They do not even notice such catastrophic happenings! The only difference between man and ant is that man knows what happens to him and the ant does not. But even there are you sure?
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07.20 - Why are Dreams Forgotten?, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
To become conscious of all the various movements of your nights, to recover them in your memory, some sort of training is necessary. The different states of the being in which you roam at night are, as you have seen, usually separate from each other. There is a gap in between two states; you jump from one to the other. There is no highway passing through all the domains of your consciousness connecting them without break or interruption. That means forgetfulness. When you leap from one into the other, you push back, that is forget, the one you leave behind. So you have to construct a bridge and very few people know how to do it; it requires more engineering skill than to build a material bridge. You may have very wonderful experiences in sleep, but you forget them all; perhaps you remember, as I have said, the last one, the one nearest to the physical mind. The best way then to remember and become conscious of the whole night is to begin at the end and go backward. Catch hold of the last image that still persists in your memory, like the loose end of a thread and then pull, pull slowly, till image after image comes back: it is something like the unrolling of a cinema film in the reverse direction. When you lose trace, stop and concentrate a little; try to call back whatever stray bit or faint impression still persists or can be more easily revived and then again pull slowly, gently, pick up whatever shows itself, try to join the bits. In this way, after some trial and training you will be able to recover a good part of the lost underworld.
There are, however, many ways of setting about the thing. For you must know that your nights are not all the same. Each one is different and brings its own kind of sleep and dream. As each day is different having its own particular kind of activity, each night too likewise comes with its peculiar experiences. You may think that one day is more or less exactly like the previous day, that you are doing the same thing from day to day; but it is not so. Outwardly the activities may appear to be the same, but really their nature and significance vary from one day to another. No two moments are alike in the universe. Your night too is an universe of its own kind. Each night brings its own problem and needs its own solution.
07.29 - How to Feel that we Belong to the Divine, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Three hundred years is the minimum, I should say. You must realise what it means to transform the body. The body with all its organs and functionings works automatically without the intervention of your consciousness, and is built upon an animal plan. If your heart stops for the hundredth part of a second, your body goes off. You cannot do without a single one of your organs and you must keep watch over their proper functioning. Transformation means the replacement of this purely material arrangement by a systematic concentration of forces. You must bring about an arrangement of forces, according to a certain kind of vibration, replacing each organ by a centre of self-conscious energy which governs through the concentration of a higher force. There will no longer be a stomach, no more a heart even. These things will give place to a system of vibrations which represent what they really are. The material organs are symbols of energy centres; they are not the essential reality, they only give a form or figure to it under certain circumstances. The transformed body will function through its real energy centres, not through their representatives as developed in an animal body. For that you must first of all be conscious of these centres and their functionings; instead of an unconscious automatic movement there has to be a movement of conscious control. Thus one will have at his disposal not physical animal organs but the symbolic vibrations, the symbolic energies. This does not mean that there will not be any definite recognizable form. The form will be built up with qualities rather than with solid (dust) particles. It will be, so to say, a practical or pragmatic form: it will be supple and mobile, unlike the fixed grossly material shape. As the expression of your face changes with your feeling, impulsion, even so the body will change according to the need of the inner movement: have you never had this kind of experience in your dream? You rise up in the air and you give as it were a push with your elbow in one direction and your body extends that way; you give a kick with your foot and you land somewhere else: you can be transparent at will and go easily through a solid wall! The transformed body will behave somewhat in the same way, it will be light, luminous, elastic. Lightness, luminosity, elasticity will be the very fundamental qualities of the body.
To prepare such a body 300 years is nothing; even a thousand years will not be too much. Naturally, I am speaking of the same body. If you change your body in between, it will no longer be the same body. At 50 the body already begins to wear out. But, on the contrary, if you have a body that goes on perfecting itself; if each passing year represents a step in progress, then you can continue indefinitely: for after all, you are immortal.
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The world progresses. And being in the world you too must progress. It is a progress, however, which the Divine effects in you without your knowledge or collaboration. The progress is therefore very slow; Nature does not calculate the time she takes for her work, she has eternity before her and she is not in a hurry. Centuries and millenniums are mere instants in her march forward. One day she will arrive at the goal she has fixed for her, even at the complete transformation of the body and the advent of the superman. But the work will be hastened if there is conscious collaboration from man. Most people, by far the largest majority indeed, are not conscious of the action of the Divine in them. To be conscious means to be attentive of what is being done, to be receptive and to be passive to its influence. The more you give yourself and the more sincere you are, the swifter and the more assured is your realisation. You can do in a few moments what would otherwise take years. That is the aim of Yoga.
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07.33 - The Inner and the Outer, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The external part of the being is turned to the Divine: you are conscious of your ideal and as much as possible you conform your behaviour to it. You appear what you want to be. But just behind the line, on the other side of your consciousness in the subconscious, as it is called the picture is different. The light has not touched there: the movements go the other way. Thingsthoughts, impulses, feelingshide which you would not like to own. Not that you consciously and deliberately hide them: but they are there as inevitable part and parcel of the original ordinary nature. They form the backyard of the consciousness; there are all kinds of nooks and corners, if not quite open spaces, which have accumulated darkness and dirt. This two-sidedness is common, in fact, universal; you have to be one-sided, that is, of one piece, wholly turned to the light. You must be conscious of these hidden elements and bring them out, expose them to the light calmly, candidly, fearlessly, so that the luminous force may act on them. They have to be pulled out and rejected, or if possible, to be purified and changed. Some are capable of change and become right movements; others are wholly wrong, they belong to the inferior consciousness and have to be cast away without pity.
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07.37 - The Psychic Being, Some Mysteries, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
There are two kinds of progress in the psychic and they are very different. One consists in its formation and building and organisation; for the psychic begins by being only a little divine spark hidden in the inner person and out of this spark comes and gradually develops an independent conscious person who has his own will and activity. As I say, the psychic being is originally like a spark from the divine consciousness: it grows into a conscious individuality through the experiences of successive lives. This progress then is like the progress of the growing child. It is a thing in formation and it remains so for a long time in most human beings. It is not a fully individualised being there, not fully conscious and master of itself; it needs many births, one after another, to build itself and become fully conscious. In the end, however, there does come a time when it is a completed personality, fully individualised, fully conscious of itself and its destiny. When such a psychic being incarnates in a human being, it makes a great difference. For the man is born free, so to say, he is not bound to his circumstances, his surroundings or his origin or atavism, like ordinary people. When he comes upon earth, he feels he has a work to do in the world, he has a mission to fulfil. To that extent then his cycle of progress is completed, that is to say, he has no more need to take birth in a body to make further progress. Till then rebirth is a necessity, it is compulsory; for it is through reincarnation i.e. by taking up a new body that he progresses, develops and grows. It is in the physical life and in the physical body that the soul slowly builds itself until it becomes a fully conscious being. But once it is fully formed, it is free either to take birth or not to do so at will. There then one kind of progress comes to an end. But if the fully formed being now wishes to become an instrument for the work of the Divine, if it chooses to be a worker upon earth to help in the fulfilment of the cosmic purpose of the Divine, instead of going away and resting in the psychic bliss of its own world, then he has to make a new kind of progress, a progress towards capacity to work, to organise and execute the work, to express and embody the will of the Divine. As long as the world continues, as long as he chooses to work for the Divine, he will continue to progress. But if he wishes to withdraw into the psychic world and gives up or refuses to work for the divine Plan, then he can remain in the static state beyond the range of progress. For, as I have said, progress exists only upon earth in the physical world. You cannot progress everywhere. In the psychic world there is a kind of blissful repose. You remain what and where you are without moving.
Everything upon earth progresses, has to progress. All men, without exception, even those who have no sense of the psychic, whether they wish it or not, must progress. The psychic progresses in them in spite of themselves and they have to follow the curve of its growth and development. That is to say, man ascends in the scale of life and grows, grows exactly as a child does. In the process of growth there comes a time when one reaches the summit and one changes the direction or the plane of progress. At the outset there is the purely physical progress, like that of the child; then there comes the mental progress, later on the psychic progress and the spiritual progress, so that unless progress changes it direction, when it has reached its limit on a particular level, one has to come down the curve, that is to say, instead of progression there will be retrogression, which means in the end disintegration and decomposition. Precisely because in the purely physical world there cannot be a perpetual and constant progress, there is in this domain this curve of growth, apogee, decline and decomposition. All that does not advance must recede. This is exactly what happens in the domain of matter. Matter does not know how to progress indefinitely, it has not learnt it; so after a time it is tired of progressing or growing. Given this constitution, one cannot go beyond a limit. But there is in man side by side with his physical growth, a vital growth and a mental growth as well. The mental especially can progress long after the body has ceased to progress. The body does not grow; even when it is declining, the mind still can continue to grow, to rise to higher heights. There is a mental ascension contrariwise to the physical descent. But they who do Yoga, who become conscious of their psychic being and are identified with it, who live with its life, never cease to progress, they move upward till the last breath of their life; even when they die their progress does not stop. The body is on the decline, because it cannot keep pace with the inner march forward, it cannot transform itself and mould itself into the rhythm of the inner consciousness. The discrepancy increases so much between the two, that there is a snap at the end and that is death. However, on the purely spiritual level too there is no progress. The domain of the pure spirit means a static condition; there is no progressive movement there, for it is beyond the field of progress, beyond all manifestation. For when you are merged in the Spirit, you have come out of creation and there is no question of progress, or even of any movement.
When the psychic is about to take rebirth does it choose its form beforehand?
07.38 - Past Lives and the Psychic Being, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Most people are not at all conscious of what is happening in them. Their consciousness or being is a mixture of mental, vital and physical elements, a kind of hotchpotch. There are a few, very few indeed, who are conscious conscious of what is beyond the three, viz, their psychic being. For it is only that element which endures, persists through successive lives. Certain people have known or learnt some rudiments of the matterwho believe in rebirth, but conceive it in the most childish manner. Their idea is as if the person changed his body like a robe. There are persons even who have written books describing seriously all the lives they had passed through since the time they were monkeys! As I have said, it is the psychic element alone that persists after death, all the rest gets dissolved. And in 999 cases out of 1,000, the psychic is a very small formation lying behind and taking little part in the actual life of the person. I speak of the average man, not of the Yogi, that is to say, one who has a developed psychic being to the extent that it is capable of controlling and guiding the outer life. How often does an ordinary man get in contact with his psychic being? Years and years pass for many or most to have just a passing taste of this movement. It is this moment that abides and is carried over to the next life, all other things are simply effaced. At a given point of our life, there comes a special circumstance, there is a call within, an absolute inner necessity that brings forward the psychic and the contact is made perhaps for an instant. That experience is preserved in the psychic memory. More than the outer circumstances and the physical events, however, what is cherished in the consciousness is the intimate emotion, the vibration that accompanied the perception at the time. At the most, a word said, a phrase heard, just a passing scene is all that is stored, net and clear, engraved as it were. But above all it is the soul's state that is the most important thing. I t is these scattered elements that serve as stepping-stones or sign-posts on the soul's forward journey. They are the constants that build up the personality of a man. On rare occasions there is a larger clearing, the circumstances preserved are sufficiently definite to point to a date and a historical person. Usually, however, one cannot say, I was such a person, I lived in such a country or did such things. These psychic flashes, more in some cases, less in others, are the only genuine and au thentic records of the story of a person's lives.
It is a being who is completely identified with his psychic, who has organised his whole person, in all its parts, around this centre, in fact, a being of one piece, entirely and solely turned to the Divine that can alone remember or hold in his consciousness something like a totality of his personal history. For in his case even when the body drops, the other parts being integrated and taken up into the soul substance maintain their individual existence; the personality formed around the psychic continues to exist with its memory intact: even it can pass from one life to another without losing the consciousness.
07.39 - The Homogeneous Being, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
There are many examples of such double, triple, quadruple or multiple personalities. The separate personalities are not conscious of each other, each acts independently and goes its own way. They live together, but do not mix or mingle with each other; they are contained in the same body, that is the only connection. It is like a sack in which pebbles and pearlsif they are indeed real pearlshave been thrown together and the only bond of union is the sack. This is not homogeneity; this is called heterogeneity.
I knew a person who had a will, a clarity of thought and ideas, who prepared intelligently all that needed to be done with regard to a particular work. All on a sudden there was a reversal of the whole being. Another person surged up who not only did not carry on the work of his predecessor, but undid it all. He destroyed in 10 minutes what had taken months for the other to build up. And you can understand the dismay of the first person when he came back and saw the havoc done: he had to start all over again.
08.01 - Choosing To Do Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
To do Yoga you must want it consciously, you must know first of all what it is,know what it is and then take the resolution. And once the resolution is taken you must waver no more. When you go to it, you must take it up fully conscious of what you are doing. When you say "I want to do Yoga," you must know what you are deciding about. That is why when I have spoken to you I have not laid much stress upon this aspect of the thing. I have surely spoken about it and even perhaps a good deal I am here to speak, and you to listen; but what I mean is that whatever I may have said generally, it is only when individually one comes to me and says that he wants to do Yoga, that I say "yes" (or "no", if necessary). For such persons things become different, the conditions of life become different, particularly inner things and conditions.
Always there is a Consciousness here and it acts constantly to rectify your position: all the while it puts you in the face of obstacles that prevent you from progressing; it makes you dash your nose against your own errors and blindnesses. But this happens only in the case of those who have decided to do Yoga. For others the Consciousness acts as a light, a knowledge, a force for progress, so that you may reach the maximum of your capacities, develop yourself as far as possible in an atmosphere as favourable as it may be, leaving you, however, completely free to choose.
08.02 - Order and Discipline, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
You must become conscious of yourself, conscious in every detail. You must organise what you call yourself around the psychic centre, the divine centre of your being so that you can possess a single, cohesive, fully conscious being: as this centre is wholly consecrated to the Divine, if all the elements are organised harmoniously around it, they too get consecrated to the Divine. Thus, when the Divine wills it, when the time comes, when the work of individualisation is complete, then the Divine permits you to let your ego melt in Him, so that you may exist for the Divine alone. But it is the Divine that takes the decision. You should have done the whole preliminary work first, become a conscious being, solely and exclusively centred around the Divine and governed by Him. When your ego has served its purpose in forming a complete individual out of you, when that work has been perfectly, fully achieved, then you can say to the Divine, "Here, I am ready now; do you want me?" The Divine generally says, "Yes". Then everything is worked out, everything accomplished. You become a true instrument for the Divine's work. But the instrument must be built up first.
You are sent to school, you are asked to do exercises (both mental and physical); do you think it is just to put you to trouble? No, it is because a surrounding is absolutely necessary where you can learn to form yourself. If you tried by yourself this work of individualisation, integral formation, all alone in one corner, you would be asked nothing till you have done it; but you are not likely to do it, not a single child would do it, he would not even know how to do it or where to begin. If a child is not taught how to live, he would not be able to live, he would not know how to do anything. The most elementary movements it is not able to do unless it is taught. Therefore if every one were to go through the whole experience, unaided, in the matter of forming his individuality, he would be dead long before he could begin to exist even. That is the utility of the experiences of others, accumulated through centuries, of those who have had the experience and who tell you, "If you want to go quick, and learn in a few years what needed centuries to learnwell, do this, do that, this way, that way, read, study, attend to your lessons at school, in the playground." Once you are on the way, you can find your own method if you are a genius. But in the beginning you must know from others how to stand on your legs and walk. It is not easy to go all by oneself. That is why one needs education.
08.07 - Sleep and Pain, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
You do many things at night in your sleep. You forget most of them. If however you recall them, become conscious of them, you can begin controlling them. Before being conscious, without being conscious of a thing, you cannot have control over it. It is by being conscious that you get the power for control. If you can control your activities in sleep, you can have a restful sleep. Sometimes when you get up you find yourself more tired than when you went to bed. It is because you are in the habit of doing very many useless things in your sleep, running about wildly in your vital, wandering chaotically in your mind, etc., etc. Naturally when you get up you do not seem to have tasted any rest. Sometimes you get into bad quarters, dark and ugly regions and you struggle there, fight there, receive blows, give blows and you are prostrate in the end. All that you can avoid, when you become conscious and gain control.
When one sees oneself dead or dying, it may mean several things. It may mean a spiritual death or a vital death or the death of some part in you that is to go; in the last case it means a progress in the consciousness. It may be also a premonition. The significance depends upon the context.
08.13 - Thought and Imagination, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
When you think of a person or a thing you are immediately I there and come into contact with the object of your thought. But this happens in the thought world only; you know nothing of the vital or physical context of the object. Thought is conscious of thought only in the mental world; by your thought you can be conscious of the mental atmosphere of the distant object, of the thought of the person to whom you go, but nothing else, absolutely nothing of his vital or physical.
If you want to know of the vital you must go to the object vitally; it means an exteriorisation that leaves the body at least three-fourths in trance. And if you want to see things physically you will have to go out in your most material subtle physical; that leaves the body in an entirely cataleptic condition. These things cannot be done without there being someone by your side who has the right knowledge and who can protect you.
08.22 - Regarding the Body, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
You have to enter into the disposition of the cells, your inner physical organisation, if the body is to answer to the force that descends. First of all, you must be conscious of your physical cells, you must know their different functions, the degree of receptivity in each, which of them are in good condition and which are not. Even the simple thing you do not know whether you are tired or not, not to speak of why you are tired. You do not know if you have a pain somewhere, and why it is there. It is exactly for this reason that you run to the doctor. For you have the illusion that the doctor would know better how to look into what is there inside your body and what is happening there. That does not seem to be quite rational, but there is the habit. Who can look into oneself so precisely, accurately, positively, as to know exactly what is out of order, why it is out of order, how it has come to be so? All that is a matter of pure observation. And then only arises the problem of doing the thing that will bring about a new order which is a much more difficult affair. And yet this is only the ABC of body-transformation.
***
08.29 - Meditation and Wakefulness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
To have good meditation or contact with the inner world, if you are obliged to go into Samadhi, then your normal consciousness will remain always the same without changing. In other words, people who have a higher consciousness only in deep meditation, once they come out of it, are not worth more than what they were before. All their defects are there which they get back as soon as they get back their previous consciousness.1 Such people never progress; for they never establish a connection between their deeper consciousness, the truth of their being, and their external being. They take off their external being like a robe and put it aside in a corner telling it "keep quiet, my dear friend, you bother me" and they enter into contemplation, meditation, their deep experience or realisation; and when they return they put on their robe again which has not changed in the meanwhile, even might have become more dirty than ever. So they remain where they are or become worse, in their outward nature, in spite of their meditation. If you want to change your external being, you must remain conscious of it and while being conscious have other experiences: you must not lose contact with it if you wish to derive full benefit out of your experiences.
There are many such people who meditate for long hours, some almost all the time; but if by chance they are disturbed in their meditation by someone calling them or making noise, they fly into a rage, shout and abuse the whole world; they become more nasty than they would have been had they remained ordinary men without trying meditation. The reason is, as I say, that they neglect to associate their outer life with their deeper consciousness: they cut themselves into two, there is one bit that is within making progress and another bit outside that goes from bad to worse, for it is left wholly uncared for.
08.34 - To Melt into the Divine, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
You must form yourself, you must be conscious of yourselfnot in a general way but in every detail. Every detail of what you call yourself must be organised around one centre, your true self, the divine being in you, so that the whole may be a cohesive organised entity. When thus wholly conscious, harmoniously organised around the divine centre, then it can be wholly consecrated, united with the Divine: then the time comes, the Divine permits the true union to be made. When the individualisation is complete then He lets you merge your ego into the Divine, you live and exist for the Divine alone.
***
09.02 - The Journey in Eternal Night and the Voice of the Darkness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A victor spirit conscious of my force,
Not as a suppliant to thy gates I came:
09.03 - The Psychic Being, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
There are not very many fully developed souls upon earth. Evidently those who have reached a certain culture, a certain growth, a certain individualisation have instinctively the tendency to come together and form groups. It is then that we come across in particular epochs and climes fully formed beings gathering together. But you must not believe that that gives in any way the exact measure of human culture and growth. That is only a spray of foam on the surface. Even among those who already form a selection, there is not perhaps one in a thousand who can be called truly an individual being, conscious of himself, united with his psychic being, governed by his inner law and therefore partially at least if not wholly free from external influences; because being a conscious entity when these influences come he sees them, those that seem to agree with his inner growth and normal development he accepts and those that contradict he rejects. And instead of being a chaos, or in any case a frightful mixture, he is an organised individual being, conscious of himself, moving in life, knowing where he wants to go and how to go.
That is the best of mankind that Nature is capable of producing. They are men still, but the top of mankind. They are ready to become something else. But unless and until one becomes that, one remains in greater part an animal with only just a little beginning of manhood. It is only that that one can call Man. And I am saying this in the hope that you will become such a one.
09.05 - The Story of Love, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Love comes from the very origin of the universe. Love in its essence, I say, that is, before the manifestation, is the delight of identity. Something there was which became conscious of the identity. And that is precisely Love. Afterwards comes the manifestation of Love. In its highest form, when it comes back to its origin across all its history of manifestation, it becomes the felicity of union. The sense of union comes as a consequence of the sense of separation. The passage through the whole manifested universe gives the sense of separation from the origin and the return to the origin is the felicity of reunionunion of two things which were separated and are united again. That is Love in its great circuit of manifestation.
When it climbs back to its origin, it returns to the starting point with something more than what it had before it started. It is the experience of the universe and universality. Fundamentally, that is the reason for the existence of creation. Consciousness would not be what it is had it not been expressed in a creation. There is an enrichment of consciousness through the experience gathered in an objective universe, a richness of content and a plenitude it would not have if there were not a manifested universe.
09.09 - The Origin, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
To make you understand more easily, I may say, That is within us, That is part of our consciousness somewhere. Otherwise we would never be able to be conscious of it. If we did not carry the Divine within ourselves, in the essence of our being, we would never be aware of Him, it would be an impossible task.
You can turn the problem the other way round. The very moment you conceive and feel in one way or another, or even, to begin with, you admit that the Divine is within you and you are also within the Divine, that itself pushes the door a little, half-opens it. And if subsequently a great aspiration comes and an intense need to know and to be, then you can glide in. When you have glided in, you become conscious of what one is.
There is only one thing to be found, not two.
09.18 - The Mother on Herself, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
When I look at people and when I am occupied with them, I have the will I do not say it is always possibleanyhow, I have the will to see in them their psychic being, their ideal, what they want to do, what they want to become, to hold it and bring it out to the surface. That is all my work. What I see, I try to draw out to the front. When I do this, with the exception of a very few instances when people are somewhat conscious, I am not always sure of the kind and degree of their external consciousness. And when I put questions to someone, it is to know the difference between what he is conscious of and what I see. I am doing this all the while. And that is why it seems as in did not know.
There is a vast difference between what you know of yourself and what I know of you. What I know of you is evidently what you ought to become. Your external being one can see well. But between that and the inner being that I see there is the vital mental region which is the most important thing from the human point of view; for what one has to become must be repeated there first, if it is to be materialised. But as I say, the gap is wide between what you know of yourself, what is actively conscious in you and what you are in the truth of your being. This intermediary region is somewhat difficult for me to be familiar with or comprehend: for it is a cloudy region for me, a domain of falsehood. You must note the distinction between a lie and a falsehood. A lie is that which is altogether unreal, which has not been, which is not there. A falsehood is that which is not true, in the sense that it is not the expression of your truthnot at alland yet, it is that of which you are mostly externally conscious. Very very few are there who have the inner perception of what they want to become, what they want to do, what the truth of their being is. There are not many of that kind. For some, the thing comes and is then veiledjust a lightning flash for a moment and then all is dark. For me it is a perpetual question to know what is the state of the superficial consciousness which is for me so unreal, so untrue.
10.01 - A Dream, #Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Harimohon saw again that the ascetic had been starving for many days, and for the last two his body had experienced extreme suffering because of hunger and thirst. Reproachingly Harimohon asked, Whats this, Keshta? Babaji loves you so much and still he has to suffer from hunger and thirst? Have you no common sense? Who shall feed him in this lonely forest home of tigers? The boy answered, I will feed him. But look here for another bit of fun. Harimohon saw the tiger go straight to an ant-hill which was close by and break it with a single stroke of the paw. Hundreds of ants scurried out and began stinging the ascetic angrily. The ascetic remained plunged in meditation, undisturbed, unmoved. Then the boy sweetly breathed in his ears, Beloved! The ascetic opened his eyes. At first he felt no pain from the stings; the all-enchanting flute-call which the whole world longs for, was still ringing in his earsas it had once rung in Radhas ears at Vrindavan. At last, the innumerable repeated stings made him conscious of his body. But he did not stir. Astonished, he began muttering to himself, How strange! I have never known such things! Obviously it is Sri Krishna who is playing with me. In the guise of these insignificant ants he is stinging me. Harimohon saw that the burning sensation no longer reached the ascetics mind. Rather every sting produced in him an intense ecstasy all over his body, and, drunk with that ecstasy, he began to dance, clapping his hands and singing the praise of Sri Krishna. The ants dropped down from his body and fled.
Stupefied, Harimohon exclaimed, Keshta, what is this spell? The boy clapped now his hands, swung round twice on his foot and laughed aloud, I am the only magician on earth. None shall understand this spell. This is my supreme riddle. Did you see it? Amid this agony also he could think only of me. Look again. The ascetic sat down once more, self-composed; his body went on suffering hunger and thirst, but his mind merely perceived the suffering and did not get involved in it or affected by it. At this moment, a voice, sweeter than a flute, called out from the hill, Beloved! Harimohon was startled. It was the very voice of Shyamsunder, sweeter than a flute. Then he saw a beautiful dusky-complexioned boy come out from behind the rocks, carrying in a dish excellent food and some fruits. Harimohon was dumb-founded and looked towards Sri Krishna. The boy was standing beside him, yet the boy who was coming resembled Sri Krishna in every detail! This boy came and throwing a light on the ascetic, said, See what I have brought for you. The ascetic smiled and asked, Oh, you have come? Why did you keep me starving so long? Well, take your seat and dine with me. The ascetic and the boy started eating the food from the dish, feeding each other, snatching away each others share. After the meal was over, the boy took the dish and disappeared into the darkness.
1.001 - The Aim of Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Likewise, there is an inherent and underlying basic aim which is transcendent to the immediate purpose visible in front of any particular individual who puts forth effort, just as the legs do not walk for their own sake, the eyes do not see for their own sake, the stomach does not eat for its own sake, and so on, and they seem to be functioning for some other purpose. They can miss this purpose, and then there is what we call dismemberment or disintegration of the personality. When the aim is missed, the effort loses its motive power and it becomes a fruitless effort, because an effort that has missed its aim cannot be regarded as a meaningful effort. Also, it may be possible that we may be conscious of an immediate aim before the effort, but the aims that are further behind or ahead may not be visible to our eyes.
I will ask a question. We eat food every day so that we may be alive. But why do we want to be alive? Is there a purpose behind it? This question we cannot answer. Here is a question which is beyond ordinary logic. Why should we work so hard, and eat, and maintain ourselves, and exist? After all, we are doing all this for existing. Why do we want to exist? Suppose we do not exist; what is the harm? These kinds of questions will be pressing themselves forward when we go deep into the aims of the different activities of our life. Finally, when we press the aim to its logical limits, we will find that the human brain is not meant to understand it.
1.002 - The Heifer, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
41. And believe in what I revealed, confirming what is with you; and do not be the first to deny it; and do not exchange My revelations for a small price; and be conscious of Me.
42. And do not mix truth with falsehood, and do not conceal the truth while you know.
--
194. The sacred month for the sacred month; and sacrilege calls for retaliation. Whoever commits aggression against you, retaliate against him in the same measure as he has committed against you. And be conscious of God, and know that God is with the righteous.
195. And spend in the cause of God, and do not throw yourselves with your own hands into ruin, and be charitable. God loves the charitable.
196. And carry out the Hajj and the Umrah for God. But if you are prevented, then whatever is feasible of offerings. And do not shave your heads until the offering has reached its destination. Whoever of you is sick, or has an injury of the head, then redemption of fasting, or charity, or worship. When you are secure: whoever continues the Umrah until the Hajj, then whatever is feasible of offering. But if he lacks the means, then fasting for three days during the Hajj and seven when you have returned, making ten in all. This is for he whose household is not present at the Sacred Mosque. And remain conscious of God, and know that God is stern in retribution.
197. The Hajj is during specific months. Whoever decides to perform the Hajj—there shall be no sexual relations, nor misconduct, nor quarrelling during the Hajj. And whatever good you do, God knows it. And take provisions, but the best provision is righteousness. And be mindful of Me, O people of understanding.
1.004 - Women, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
131. To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. We have instructed those who were given the Book before you, and you, to be conscious of God. But if you refuse—to God belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. God is in no need, Praiseworthy.
132. To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. God suffices as Manager.
1.005 - The Table, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
7. And Remember God’s blessings upon you, and His covenant which He covenanted with you; when you said, “We hear and we obey.” And remain conscious of God, for God knows what the hearts contain.
8. O you who believe! Be upright to God, witnessing with justice; and let not the hatred of a certain people prevent you from acting justly. Adhere to justice, for that is nearer to piety; and fear God. God is informed of what you do.
--
35. O you who believe! Be conscious of God, and seek the means of approach to Him, and strive in His cause, so that you may succeed.
36. As for those who disbelieve, even if they owned everything on earth, and the like of it with it, and they offered it to ransom themselves from the torment of the Day of Resurrection, it will not be accepted from them. For them is a painful punishment.
--
88. And eat of the lawful and good things God has provided for you; and be conscious of God, in Whom you are believers.
89. God does not hold you accountable for your unintended oaths, but He holds you accountable for your binding oaths. The atonement for it is by feeding ten needy people from the average of what you feed your families, or by clothing them, or by freeing a slave. Anyone who lacks the means shall fast for three days. That is the atonement for breaking your oaths when you have sworn them. So keep your oaths. Thus God makes clear His Revelations to you, that you may be grateful.
--
100. Say: “The bad and the good are not equal, even though the abundance of the bad may impress you. So be conscious of God, O you who possess intelligence, that you may succeed.”
101. O you who believe! Do not ask about things that would trouble you if disclosed to you. But if you were to ask about them while the Quran is being revealed, they will become obvious to you. God forgives that. God is Forgiving and Clement.
10.08 - Consciousness as Freedom, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I have laid stress on consciousness, but consciousness has three facets or steps. The first is simple consciousness, the next is self-consciousness and the last supra-consciousness. First you become conscious of a thing, next you become conscious that you are conscious of the thing, last something else is conscious in and through your consciousness.
***
1.008 - The Spoils, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
29. O you who believe! If you remain conscious of God, He will give you a criterion, and will remit from you your sins, and will forgive you. God is possessor of infinite grace.
30. When the disbelievers plotted against you, to imprison you, or kill you, or expel you. They planned, and God planned, but God is the Best of planners.
--
69. So consume what you have gained, legitimate and wholesome; and remain conscious of God. God is Forgiving and Merciful.
70. O prophet! Say to those you hold prisoners, “If God finds any good in your hearts, He will give you better than what was taken from you, and He will forgive you. God is Forgiving and Merciful.”
1.009 - Repentance, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
119. O you who believe! Be conscious of God, and be with the sincere.
120. It is not for the inhabitants of Medina and the Desert-Arabs around them to stay behind the Messenger of God, nor to prefer themselves to him. That is because they never suffer any thirst, nor fatigue, nor hunger in the cause of God, nor do they take one step that enrages the disbelievers, nor do they gain anything from an enemy, but it is recorded to their credit as a righteous deed. God does not waste the reward of the righteous.
Wikipedia - Awareness -- State or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, or sensory patterns
Seitokai Yakuindomo -- -- GoHands -- 13 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Comedy School Shounen Slice of Life -- Seitokai Yakuindomo Seitokai Yakuindomo -- On his first day of high school at the formerly all-girl's Ousai Private Academy, Takatoshi Tsuda is called out for his untidy uniform by the student council president Shino Amakusa. In apology for delaying Takatoshi for his first class—and stating that the group needs a male point of view to accommodate the arrival of boys at the school—Shino offers him the position of vice president of the student council. Though unwilling, Takatoshi finds himself appointed as the newest member of the student council having yet to even step foot inside the school building. -- -- Takatoshi soon realizes that the other student council members who are more than a little strange: President Shino, who is studious and serious in appearance, but actually a huge pervert, fascinated with the erotic and constantly making lewd jokes; the secretary Aria Shichijou, who may seem like a typical sheltered rich girl, but is just as risque as the president, if not more so; and finally, the treasurer Suzu Hagimura, who may act fairly normal, but has the body of an elementary school student and is extremely self-conscious of it. Surrounded by these colorful characters, the new vice president must now work through a nonstop assault of sexual humor and insanity. -- -- 406,166 7.59
Seitokai Yakuindomo -- -- GoHands -- 13 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Comedy School Shounen Slice of Life -- Seitokai Yakuindomo Seitokai Yakuindomo -- On his first day of high school at the formerly all-girl's Ousai Private Academy, Takatoshi Tsuda is called out for his untidy uniform by the student council president Shino Amakusa. In apology for delaying Takatoshi for his first class—and stating that the group needs a male point of view to accommodate the arrival of boys at the school—Shino offers him the position of vice president of the student council. Though unwilling, Takatoshi finds himself appointed as the newest member of the student council having yet to even step foot inside the school building. -- -- Takatoshi soon realizes that the other student council members who are more than a little strange: President Shino, who is studious and serious in appearance, but actually a huge pervert, fascinated with the erotic and constantly making lewd jokes; the secretary Aria Shichijou, who may seem like a typical sheltered rich girl, but is just as risque as the president, if not more so; and finally, the treasurer Suzu Hagimura, who may act fairly normal, but has the body of an elementary school student and is extremely self-conscious of it. Surrounded by these colorful characters, the new vice president must now work through a nonstop assault of sexual humor and insanity. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 406,166 7.59
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