Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.

Once you transcend the external differences, anything can be merged with anything.

The menu is not the meal.

To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.

If you can dispense with reputation, then you are free from care. Reputation is only a visitor, but reality is here to stay.

A person with a mind is bound to be filled with conceptions. These conceptions prevent him from knowing things directly, so a person with a mind shall never really know.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

Rocks have their dreams, and the earth changes. . . .But when the mind becomes conscious, when the rate of evolution speeds up, then you have to be careful. Careful of the world. You must learn the way. You must learn the skills, the art, the limits. A conscious mind must be part of the whole, intentionally and carefully--as the rock is part of the whole unconsciously. Do you see? Does it mean anything to you?

Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views - then the world will be governed.

Division and differentiation are the processes by which things are created. Since things are emerging and dissolving all the time, you cannot specify the point when this division will stop.

To be whole is to be part; true voyage is return

When a man does not dwell in self, then things will of themselves reveal their forms to him. His movement is like that of water, his stillness like that of a mirror, his responses like those of an echo.

The eye encompasses the beauty of the whole world.

The good painter must paint two things: a person and the essence of his soul.

Nothing is more apt to deceive us than our own judgment of our work. We derive more benefit from having our faults pointed out by our enemies than from hearing the opinions of friends.

The great man presides over all his states of consciousness with obstinate rigor.

A good painter has two main objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard as he has to represent it by the attitude and movement of the limbs.

If anyone wishes to see how the soul dwells in its body, let him observe how this body uses its daily habitation; that is to say, if this is devoid of order and confused, the body will be kept in disorder and confusion by its soul

He who wishes to see how the soul inhabits the body should look to see how that body uses its daily surroundings. If the dwelling is dirty and neglected, the 82 body will be kept by its soul in the same condition, dirty and neglected.

The painter or draftsman ought to be solitary, in order that the well-being of the body not sap the vigor of the mind.

The organ of perception acts more readily than judgment.