David Hume Quotes

I--this thought which is called I--is the mould into which the world is poured like melted wax.

The word 'self' is as great a mystery as the word 'other'. It's just a polarity between two mysteries.

There are six senses: five are outer; they tell you about the world. I say something about the light; without eyes you will not know light. Ears say something about the sound; without ears you will not know anything about the sound. There is a sixth sense, the inner sense, that shows and tells you something about yourself and the ultimate source of things. That sense has to be discovered. Meditation is nothing but the discovery of the inner sense.

Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.

Most people have a time-bound awareness. And the reason is they have sacrificed their self for their self-image.

[L]et my reader who is puzzled by my awkward explanations close his eyes for no more than two minutes, and see if he does not find himself suddenly not a compact human being at all, but only a consciousness on a sea of sound and touch . . .

I am unable, when I turn to myself, to recognize any of my faculties or my capacities. The inner sensation which I have of myself informs me that I am, that I think, that I will, that I have sensory awareness, that I suffer, and so on; but it provides me with no knowledge whatever of what I am - of the nature of my thought, my sensations, my passions, or my pain - or the mutual relations that obtain between all these things ... I have no idea whatever of my soul.

I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself.

I have no other self than the totality of the things of which I am aware.

Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought

All thought of something is at the same time self-consciousness [...] At the root of all our experiences and all our reflections, we find [...] a being which immediately recognises itself, [...] and which knows its own existence, not by observation and as a given fact, nor by inference from any idea of itself, but through direct contact with that existence. Self-consciousness is the very being of mind in action.

It seems to me that the real problem is the mind itself and not the problem which the mind has created and tries to solve.

The problem is we think we exist.

We can conceive a thinking being to have either many or few perceptions. Suppose the mind to be reduced even below the life of anoyster. Suppose it to have only one perception, as of thirst or hunger. Consider it in that situation. Do you conceive any thing but merely that perception? Have you any notion of self or substance? If not, the addition of other perceptions can never give you that notion.

How do you know, right now, that you are aware of being aware, or conscious?

Life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.

Consciousness is much more than the thorn, it is the dagger in the flesh.

The forms of my awareness are richer than yours.

The animal is ignorant of the fact that he knows. The man is aware of the fact that he is ignorant.

The world is not outside you.

If you look at all the notions we accept about who we are, you find that they are all based upon our perceptual experiences.

We are what our thoughts have made us

Consciousness is the perception of what passes in man's own mind.

Every individual is in touch with the deeper level of being, the aware consciousness. If these humans form groups, they do not derive their sense of self from the group, which does not mean there cannot be a sense of being part of this group. But the group itself does not become an egoic entity.

There was a young man who said though, it seems that I know that I know, but what I would like to see is the I that knows me when I know that I know that I know.