Metahuman

Reality is much more malleable than anyone supposes. Most of the limitations that you feel are imposed on you personally are actually self-imposed.

You are living in an interpreted world, and your body is part of the interpretation. Change the interpretation, and you will experience your body in a new way.

Repetition leaches meaning away, even from the most profound sayings.

Human nature is in love with its own self-created drama, and the more stark the contrast between good and evil, the more we cling to our story. If the human race is waiting for the day when either good or evil is triumphant, the only predictable outcome is that the drama is designed to last an eternity.

Adult life is a compromise between getting what you want and going along with social norms, between an all-consuming “I” as the center of the universe and a muted “I” that’s a small cog in the vast machinery of society. The balance isn’t easy to live with, and countless people fall into the trap of feeling insignificant, while a few are allowed to

We are so used to the clumping process that we don’t catch ourselves doing anything. But we are constantly taking transient experiences, cramming them into prearranged slots, turning discontinuity into continuity, and making solid what is actually fluid.

At its most universal, enlightenment is simply expanded self-awareness. We go beyond stories, beyond fixed boundaries, beyond the rickety construct of “I,” and, in doing so, awareness effortlessly expands. It expands naturally, of its own accord, because stories, boundaries, and limitations were artificial to begin with.

The only way to break the spell is to reverse the normal explanation of how things work. By this I mean putting the experience first. The normal explanation is to put things first, which makes common sense.

When we see that “I” is a mental construct—and a very shaky one at that—it becomes open to change.