Quotes:
- "This book's main purpose is not to add new information or beliefs to your mind or to try to convince you of anything, but to bring about a shift in consciousness, that is to say, to awaken" - Page 6
- "Only by awakening can you know the true meaning of that word" - Page 7
- "An essential part of the awakening is the recognition of the unawakened you, the ego as it thinks, speaks, and acts, as well as the recognition of the collectively conditioned mental processes that perpetuate the unawakened state" - Page 7
- "...unless you know the basic mechanics behind the workings of the ego, you won't recognize it, and it will trick you into identifying with it again and again" - Page 8
- "Trying to become a good or better human being sounds like a commendable and high-minded thing to do, yet it is an endeavor you cannot ultimately succeed in unless there is a shift in consciousness" - Page 12
- "You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness." - Page 13
- "All we can perceive, experience, think about, is the surface layer of reality, less than the tip on an iceberg. Underneath the surface appearance, everything is not only connected with everything else, but also with the Source of all life out of which it came." - Page 25
- "When you don't cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life" - Page 26
- "The quicker you are in attaching verbal or mental labels to things, people, or situations, the more shallow and lifeless your reality becomes, and the more deadened you become to reality" - Page 26
- Words reduce reality to something the human mind can grasp, which
isn’t very much. Language consists of five basic sounds produced by the
vocal cords. They are the vowels a, e, i, o, u. The other sounds are
consonants produced by air pressure: s, f, g, and so forth. Do you believe
some combination of such basic sounds could ever explain who you are, or
the ultimate purpose of the universe, or even what a tree or stone is in its
depth?
- "The unchecked striving for more, for endless growth, is a dysfunction and a
disease. It is the same dysfunction the cancerous cell manifests, whose only
goal is to multiply itself, unaware that it is bringing about its own destruction
by destroying the organism of which it is a part." - Page 37
- "As a spiritual practice, I suggest that you investigate
your relationship with the world of things through self-observation" - Page 38
- "Don't take the ego too seriously" - Page 42
- "How do you let go of attachment to things? Don't even try. It's impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them" - Page 45
- "No ego can last for long without the need for more. Therefore,
wanting keeps the ego alive much more than having. The ego wants to want
more than it wants to have. And so the shallow satisfaction of having is
always replaced by more wanting." - Page 46
- "Wanting is structural, so no amount of content can
provide lasting fulfillment as long as that mental structure remains in place." - Page 47
- "No matter what you have or get,
you won't be happy. You will always be looking for something else that
promises greater fulfillment, that promises to make your incomplete sense of
self complete and fill that sense of lack you feel within." - Page 48
- "The content of the ego varies from person to person, bu in every ego
the same structure operates." - Page 60
- "Nonreaction
to the ego in others is one of the most effective ways not
only of going beyond ego in yourself but also of dissolving the collective
human ego. But you can only be in a state of nonreaction if you can
recognize someone's behavior as coming from the ego, as being an
expression of the collective human dysfunction. When you realize it's not
personal, there is no longer a compulsion to react as if it were." - Page 62
- The moment you become aware of
the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old,
conditioned mind-pattern.
Ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego
cannot coexist." - Page 64
- "All egoic motivations are self-enhancement
and self-interest,
sometimes cleverly disguised, even from the person in
whom the ego operates." - Page 98
- "Awareness is the greatest agent for
change." - Page 99
- "Suffering has a noble
purpose: the evolution of consciousness and the burning up of the ego." - Page 102
- "Accepting means you allow yourself to feel whatever it
is you are feeling at that moment. It is part of the isness
of the Now. You
can't argue with what is. Well, you can, but if you do, you suffer." - Page 184
- "Unconscious people – and many remain unconscious, trapped in their egos throughout their lives – will quickly tell you who they are: their name, their occupation, their personal history, the shape or state of their body, and whatever else they identify with. Others may appear to be more evolved because they think of themselves as an immortal soul or living spirit. But do they really know themselves, or have they just added some spiritual sounding concepts to the content of their mind? Knowing yourself goes far deeper than the adoption of a set of ideas or beliefs. Spiritual ideas and beliefs may at best be helpful pointers, but in themselves they rarely have the power to dislodge the more firmly established core concepts of who you think you are, which are part of the conditioning of the human mind. Knowing yourself deeply has nothing to do with whatever ideas are floating around in your mind. Knowing yourself is to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind." - Page 186
- "You might say, “I know I am an immortal spirit,” or “I am tired of this
mad world, and peace is all I want” until
the phone rings. Bad news: The
stock market has collapsed; the deal may fall through; the car has been
stolen; your motherinlaw
has arrived; the trip is cancelled, the contract has
been broken; your partner has left you; they demand more money; they say
it's your fault. Suddenly there is a surge of anger, of anxiety. A harshness
comes into your voice; “I can't take any more of this.” You accuse and
blame, attack, defend, or justify yourself, and it's all happening on autopilot.
Something is obviously much more important to you now than the inner
peace that a moment ago you said was all you wanted, and you're not an
immortal spirit anymore either. The deal, the money, the contract, the loss or
threat of loss are more important. To whom? To the immortal spirit that you
said you are? No, to me. The small me that seeks security for fulfillment in
things that are transient and gets anxious or angry because it fails to find it.
Well, at least now you know who you really think you are." - Page 187
- "If peace is really what you want, then you will choose peace. If pace
mattered to you more than anything else and if you truly knew yourself to be
spirit rather than a little me, you would remain nonreactive and absolutely
alert when confronted with challenging people or situations. You would
immediately accept the situation and thus become one with it rather than
separate yourself from it." - Page 188
- "If the thought of lack – whether it
be money, recognition, or love – has become part of who you think you are,
you will always experience lack. Rather than acknowledge the good that is
already in your life, all you see is lack." - Page 190
- "There is the dream, and there is the dreamer of the dream. The dream
is a short-lived
play of forms. It is the world – relatively real but not
absolutely real. Then there is the dreamer, the absolute reality in which the
forms come and go. The dreamer is not the person. The person is part of the
dream. The dreamer is the substratum in which the dream appears, that
which makes the dream possible. It is the absolute behind the relative, the
timeless behind time, the consciousness in and behind form. The dreamer is consciousness itself – who you are." - Page 209
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