Timeless Awareness
“Organismic awareness is what we, on the Ego Level ordinarily, but clumsily, refer to as seeing, touching, tasting, smelling and hearing. But in its very purest form, this “sensual awareness” is non-symbolic, non-conceptual, momentary consciousness. Organismic awareness is awareness of the Present only you can’t taste the past, smell the past, see the past, touch the past, or hear the past. Neither can you taste, smell, see, touch or hear the future. In other words, organismic consciousness is properly timeless, and being timeless, it is essentially spaceless. Just as organismic awareness knows no past or future, it knows no inside or outside, no self or other. Thus pure organismic consciousness participates fully in the nondual awareness called Absolute Subjectivity.”
–Ken Wilber (American Philosopher, 1949-)
Awareness of a Dark Age
“An age is called “dark,” not because the light fails to shine but because people refuse to see it.”
–James A. Michener (American Writer, 1907-1997)
From Empathy to Enlightenment
“Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun.
Let not the fierce Sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it from the sufferer’s eye.
But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain, nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is removed.
These tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal.”
–Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Russian Author, Translator and Founder of the Theosophical Society, 1831-1891)
“The Voice of the Silence (Verbatim Edition)” (Helena Petrovna Blavatsky)
Unseen Connections
“We keep passing unseen through little moments of other people’s lives.”
–Robert M. Pirsig (American Novelist, 1928- )
“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values” (Robert M. Pirsig)
The Zigzag Way
“The more zigzag the way, the deeper the scenery. The winding path approaches the secluded and peaceful place.”
–Huang Binhong (Chinese Art Historian and Painter, 1865-1955)
Developing Awareness
“We always have a tendency to see those things that do not exist and to be blind to the great lessons that are right there before our eyes.”
–Paulo Coelho (Brazilian Writer, 1947-)
“The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest for Ancient Wisdom” (Paulo Coelho)
The Art of Sauntering
“It takes days of practice to learn the art of sauntering. Commonly we stride through the out-of-doors too swiftly to see more than the most obvious and prominent things. For observing nature, the best pace is a snail’s pace.”
–Edwin Way Teale (American Naturalist and Pulitzer Prize -Winning Writer, 1899-1980)
“Circle of the Seasons (Edwin Way Teale Library of Nature Classics)” (Edwin Way Teale)
The Wisdom of the Woods
“How deep our sleep last night in the mountain’s heart, beneath the trees and stars, hushed by solemn-sounding waterfalls and many small soothing voices in sweet accord whispering peace!
And our first pure mountain day, warm, calm, cloudless, –how immeasurable it seems, how serenely wild! I can scarcely remember its beginning.
Along the river, over the hills, in the ground, in the sky, spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm, new life, new beauty, unfolding, unrolling in glorious exuberant extravagance–new birds in their nests, new winged creatures in the air, and new leaves, new flowers, spreading, shining, rejoicing everywhere.”
–John Muir (Scottish-born American Naturalist, Writer, Founder of the Sierra Club, and “The Father of the National Park System,” 1838-1914)
“My First Summer in the Sierra: Illustrated Edition” (John Muir)
The Simplest Meditation
“Meditative thinking need by no means be “high-flown.” It is enough if we dwell on what lies close and meditate on what is closest; upon that which concerns us, each one of us, here and now; here, on this patch of home ground; now, in the present hour of history.”
–Martin Heidegger (German Philosopher, 1889-1976)
Feeling the Force
“If a man doesn’t delight in himself and the force in him and feel that he and it are wonders, how is all life to become important to him?”
–Sherwood Anderson (American Writer and Poet, 1876-1941)
