Everyone post some favorite quotes!

[zerostao]

the quality of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts

[Ajay0]

The root of virtue is a mind free from the three poisons of aversion, attachment, and ignorance. ~ Phakchok Rinpoche


All vices are connected to the feeling of wanting or desiring. All desires keep us in the illusion of fulfillment that is gained only for a fleeting moment. ~ Dadi Janki ( Prajapita Brahmakumaris )


To think and act under the influence of vices is to commit violence because the soul is violating its true nature of peace, joy, love and power. The five forms of violence committed by human beings are to indulge in five vices—lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego. All vices are connected to the feeling of wanting or desiring. All desires keep us in the illusion of fulfillment that is gained only for a fleeting moment. ~ Dadi Janki ( Prajapita Brahmakumaris )

[Nintendao]

"The issue is not how clever we humans are in figuring out how nature works, it is how clever nature is in following our laws!" ~Richard Feynman, more or less

[doc benway]

[Ajay0]

Ethical discipline is a necessary pre-requisite for philosophical enquiry and Self-realisation. Ethics is an enquiry into the nature of good and is concerned with an analysis of the concepts of good and bad, virtue and vice, right and wrong. ~ Swami Sivananda

 

Ethics lead to restraint of the lower self and thereby the mind is calmed. Through calmness of mind, discrimination dawns and one knows the Self. Without ethical perfection there is no spiritual progress. ~ Swami Sivananda

Edited December 31, 2022 by Ajay0

[liminal_luke]

Leaving sex to the feminists is like letting your dog vacation at the taxidermist.

 

- Camille Paglia

[C T]

The mountains whisper for me to wander; my soul hikes to the call. ~ Angie Weiland-Crosby

Edited January 10, 2023 by C T

[Taomeow]

Your comfort zone will one day become your confront zone.  

Your confront zone will one day become your comfort zone.

(Others need not be involved.)

-- Loretta M. Wollering

[Cobie]

“People who need people, Are the luckiest people in the world We're children, needing other children And yet letting a grown-up pride Hide all the need inside Acting more like children than children …”
(Bob Merrill) 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Cobie

[Invisible Acropolis]

Quote

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” 

 

- Mike Tyson

 

[Taomeow]

Because competition is so central to our culture, because acquisition is so deeply rewarded, because this cultural urge to acquire is insatiable, and because this acquisition is inevitably based on the exploitation of others, there can be no limit to how thoroughly our culture will exploit others, both human and nonhuman. And because increasing competition leads so easily and obviously, when our lives are at stake, to increasing hatred of our competitors (as well as hatred of those who resist our exploitation), there can be no limit as to the depth and breadth of our culturally induced hatred, both of our direct peers and of those from whom we wish to steal.

 

 -- Derrick Jensen

[doc benway]

"Whenever we touch nature

we get clean.

People who have got dirty

through too much civilization

take a walk in the woods,

or a bath in the Sea.

They shake off the fetters

and allow nature to touch

them.

It can be done within or

without.

Walking in the woods,

lying on the grass,

taking a bath in the sea,

are from the outside;

entering the unconscious,

entering yourself through

dreams, is touching nature

from the inside and this is

the same thing

things are put right

again."

Carl Jung Dream Analysis:

Notes on a Lecture Given, 1928-1930

 

 

[Taomeow]

To speak another language is to possess another soul. -- Charlemagne

[Taomeow]

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

-- Galileo Galilei 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Taomeow

[silent thunder]

Bad religion is arrogant, self-righteous, dogmatic and intolerant.  And so is bad science.  But unlike religious fundamentalists, scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are based on faith.  They think they know the truth.

 

~Rupert Sheldrake

[C T]

"IN most of our relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another our costumes of identity are on straight." ~ Ram Dass 

[Ajay0]

We have a saying in Tibet that engaging in the practice of virtue is as hard as driving a donkey uphill, whereas engaging in destructive activities is as easy as rolling boulders downhill. ~ Dalai Lama (Ethics for the New Millennium)

 

We have a saying in Tibet that engaging in the practice of virtue is as hard as driving a donkey uphill, whereas engaging in destructive activities is as easy as rolling boulders downhill. It is also said that negative impulses arise as spontaneously as rain and gather momentum just like water following the course of gravity. What makes matters worse is our tendency to indulge negative thoughts and emotions even while agreeing that we should not. It is essential, therefore, to address directly our tendency to put things off and while away our time in meaningless activities and shrink from the challenge of transforming our habits on the grounds that it is too great a task. ~ Dalai Lama (Ethics for the New Millennium)

 

In particular, it is important not to allow ourselves to be put off by the magnitude of others' suffering. The misery of millions is not a cause for pity. Rather it is a cause for developing compassion.

 

We must also recognize that the failure to act when it is clear that action is required may itself be a negative action....inaction is attributable less to negative thoughts and emotions as to a lack of compassion. It is thus important that we are no less determined to overcome our habitual tendency to laziness than we are to exercise restraint in response to afflictive emotion. ~ Dalai Lama (Ethics for the New Millennium)

[Invisible Acropolis]

Quote

Flourishing parasols, we reach the chronograms' extremity;
Riding on the mist, I wander to Lofty Whirlwind Peak.
The Lady of the Supreme Primordial descends through jade interior doors;
The Queen Mother opens her Blue-gem Palace.
Celestial people—What a Crowd!
A lofty meeting inside the Cyan Audience Hall.
Arrayed Attendants perform Cloud Songs;
Realized intonations fill the Grand Empty Space.
Every thousand years, her purple crabapple ripens;
Every four kalpas, her numinous melon produces abundantly.
This music differs from that at the feast in the wilderness—
So convivial, and certainly infinite.

 

— Wu Yun 

 

[Taomeow]

When no one knows the way, anyone can become the guide. -- African proverb

[C T]

"There is a fundamental field of information that is the source of our consciousness. Consciousness is not an epiphenomenon of our brain; it is, in fact, something your brain is tuned to, just as a radio is tuned to certain channels of information."

 

~ Nassim Haramein

[silent thunder]

22 minutes ago, C T said:

"There is a fundamental field of information that is the source of our consciousness. Consciousness is not an epiphenomenon of our brain; it is, in fact, something your brain is tuned to, just as a radio is tuned to certain channels of information."

 

~ Nassim Haramein

He's a true inspiration.  Really remarkable work he's been pursuing for several decades now, all while the bearers of the 'standard model' of academia attack him relentlessly.  I sense his insights will be of massive benefit and influence in the coming centuries.  Game changing insights into the nature and tenets of the source field/structure of the vacuum as per Dirac's discoveries and its influence/interactivity with the phenomenal and noumenal realms... it's Tesla level realization on several fronts.  His 8 part series on amazon is riveting.

Edited March 12, 2023 by silent thunder

[stirling]

25 minutes ago, C T said:

"There is a fundamental field of information that is the source of our consciousness. Consciousness is not an epiphenomenon of our brain; it is, in fact, something your brain is tuned to, just as a radio is tuned to certain channels of information."

 

~ Nassim Haramein

 

Along the same lines:

 

Quote

It is commonplace nowadays to equate the mind with the brain, or to insist that the mind is nothing more than a function of the brain. But this is merely a metaphysical belief that has never been validated through scientific research. While the mind and brain are clearly correlated in precise ways that have been revealed through advances in cognitive neuroscience, the exact nature of those correlations remains a mystery. This mystery, however, is veiled by the illusion of knowledge that the mind-body problem has already been solved. But, while all other branches of modern science have focused on the direct observation of the natural phenomena they seek to understand, the cognitive sciences have insisted on avoiding such direct observation of mental phenomena. The simple reason for this choice is that subjectively experienced mental processes and states of consciousness do not fit within the materialist paradigm that has dominated science since the beginning of the 20th century. - B. Allan Wallace

 

From:

 

https://tricycle.org/article/six-questions-b-alan-wallace/

[silent thunder]

“Physics and evolution point to the same conclusion: spacetime and objects are not foundational. Something else is more fundamental, and spacetime emerges from it.”
― Donald D. Hoffman

 

“Hence our decline of insight as we shift our gaze from human to ant to quark. Our decline of insight should not be mistaken for an insight into decline—a progressive poverty inherent in objective reality. The decline is in our interface, in our perceptions. But we externalize it; we pin it on reality. Then we erect, from this erroneous reification, an ontology of physicalism.”
― Donald D. Hoffman, The Case Against Reality

 

“No conscious agent can describe itself completely. The very attempt adds more experiences to the agent, which multiplies the complexity of its decisions and actions in light of those new experiences, which requires yet more experiences to capture those more complex decisions and actions, and so on in a vicious loop of incompleteness. A conscious agent must therefore remain, at least in part, unconscious to itself. Recall that what conscious realism claims to be fundamental is not just conscious experiences, but conscious agents. An agent cannot experience itself in its entirety, no matter how large its repertoire of experiences.”

~ Donald Hoffman

[stirling]

29 minutes ago, silent thunder said:

“Physics and evolution point to the same conclusion: spacetime and objects are not foundational. Something else is more fundamental, and spacetime emerges from it.”
― Donald D. Hoffman

 

“Hence our decline of insight as we shift our gaze from human to ant to quark. Our decline of insight should not be mistaken for an insight into decline—a progressive poverty inherent in objective reality. The decline is in our interface, in our perceptions. But we externalize it; we pin it on reality. Then we erect, from this erroneous reification, an ontology of physicalism.”
― Donald D. Hoffman, The Case Against Reality

 

“No conscious agent can describe itself completely. The very attempt adds more experiences to the agent, which multiplies the complexity of its decisions and actions in light of those new experiences, which requires yet more experiences to capture those more complex decisions and actions, and so on in a vicious loop of incompleteness. A conscious agent must therefore remain, at least in part, unconscious to itself. Recall that what conscious realism claims to be fundamental is not just conscious experiences, but conscious agents. An agent cannot experience itself in its entirety, no matter how large its repertoire of experiences.”

~ Donald Hoffman

 

I love Donald Hoffman. I use his stuff often for more science-centric students to get them to let go of reifying their experience. I often share this one:

 

https://www.ted.com/talks/donald_hoffman_do_we_see_reality_as_it_is

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by stirling

[silent thunder]

1 hour ago, stirling said:

 

I love Donald Hoffman. I use his stuff often for more science-centric students to get them to let go of reifying their experience. I often share this one:

 

https://www.ted.com/talks/donald_hoffman_do_we_see_reality_as_it_is

 

That talk was my introduction to Hoffman and his research and insights into the nature of our perceptual modeling process.  I deeply appreciate it.  The mirroring aspects of Hoffman's work to my own experiences in long term meditation are staggeringly intimate.

 

For any inclined, this extended 2 hour interview explores the concepts in that ted talk in greater depth and is a really wonderful conversation/exploration of the research.