Cleon

The sense of 'being aware' in mindfulness points to the fact that we generally tend to reify awareness as an inherently existing, separate thing, just as we do with the self, when, in actuality, sensations are awareness. When we see a colour, our sense of 'being aware' of it is a reification: the colour is already awareness itself. But it's importa... See more

the basic conviction in Vedanta: it is not possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling and choice which you call your own should have sprung into being from nothingness at a given moment not so long ago; rather this knowledge, feeling and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sensitive beings.

You yourself actually are not so much an entity that moves around in an environment. You are much more like a whirlpool in a stream. The whirlpool is constant only in its doing, that is to say in its whirling. And, you could recognize individual whirligigs in a stream, but the water is flowing through them all the time. They are never the same for ... See more

"Suppose you do want to acquire a want you haven’t got. The question is, where did the first want—the want for a want—come from? It seems it was just there, just a given, not something you chose or engineered. It was just there, like most of your preferences ... The question just re-arises: Where did that want come from? You certainly can’t go on l... See more

You have to want the lifestyle, not just the outcomes. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense being jealous. The results of success are usually public and highly visible, but the process behind success is often private and hidden from view. It's easy to want the public rewards, but also have to want the hidden costs."

Philosopher and author Albert Camus on the excuses we allow ourselves to live by:

"Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it."

We are wired to seek and sustain relationships and cannot survive without them. The future of the human race won’t turn on space travel or climate tech, but on our ability to attach to others. A sense that we matter, that we can call on and be called upon by others to ease burdens and celebrate joy.

Nobody can read your mind. Share your ideas. Tell people what you’re working on. Communicate your vision, even if it’s only half baked. Stir the pot.

But there is a "self" in the perceiving of these, you are - as the headless way might put it - an empty space in which everything exists, the birds, the trees, the sky, the thought you think of as "you".......it's all part of a single empty openess. It's a tricky thought to wrap your mind around, but it doesn't negate that moment to moment sensatio... See more