“Our sense of time is notoriously subjective and thus dependent upon the quality of our attention, whether of interest or boredom, and upon the alignment of our behavior in terms of routines, goals, and deadlines. Here the present is self-sufficient, but it is not a static present. It is a dancing…”Tagged: Time
“There is no difference in principle between sharpening perception with an external instrument, such as a microscope, and sharpening it with an internal instrument, such mescaline, LSD, or psilocybin. If they are an affront to the dignity of the mind, the microscope is an affront to the dignity of…”Tagged: Inner Experience
“The lowbrow way of forgetting oneself is to get drunk, to be diverted with entertainments, or to exploit such natural means of self-transcendence as sexual intercourse. The highbrow way is to throw oneself into the pursuit of the arts, of social service, or of religious mysticism. These measures are…”Tagged: Entertainment, Identity, Media Manipulation
“For a long time we have been accustomed to the compartmentalization of religion and science as if they were two quite different and basically unrelated ways of seeing the world. I do not believe that this state of doublethink can last. It must eventually be replaced by a view of the world which is…”Tagged: Seeing Seeing
“When we attempt to exercise power or control over someone else, we cannot avoid giving that person the very same power or control over us.”Tagged: Control, Power, People
“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.”Tagged: Problems, Questions, issues
“Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live.”Tagged: tomorrow, Today, present, Future
“There is no joy in continuity, in the perpetual. We desire it only because the present is empty.”Tagged: Nihilism, humanity, The Universe, Reality, Perception
“You cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it. Indeed, you cannot grasp it, just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket. If you try to capture running water in a bucket, it is clear that you do not understand it and that you will always be disappointed, for in…”Tagged: Nihilism, humanity, The Universe, Reality, Perception
“If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so. If this world is a vicious trap, so is its accuser, and the pot is calling the kettle black.”Tagged: Nihilism, humanity, The Universe, Reality, Perception
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”Tagged: Life, Meaning Of Life, alive, Being Alive, Meaning