Guy Finley Quotes

It's only when we are able to see our own behavior that we are able to wake up and start making conscious choices.

Man ordinarily is a robot. He lives apparently awake, but not really. He walks, he talks, he acts, but it is all as if in sleep - not conscious of what he is doing, not conscious of what he is saying, not conscious of all that surrounds him. He moves surrounded in a dark cloud of unawareness. According to Gautama the Buddha, this is the original sin: to live unconsciously, to act out of unconsciousness. In fact, the word 'sin' comes from a root which means forgetfulness. Sin simply means that we are not conscious, aware, alert, that we don't have any inner light to guide us.

It's you who are telling me; opening my eyes to things I'd looked at so long that I'd ceased to see them.

Awareness is our true self; it's what we are. So we don't have to try to develop awareness; we simply need to notice how we block awareness with our thoughts, our fantasies, our opinions, and our judgments. We're either in awareness, which is our natural state, or we're doing something else.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

I've worked all my life on the subject of awareness, whether it's awareness of the body, awareness of the mind, awareness of your emotions, awareness of your relationships, or awareness of your environment. I think the key to transforming your life is to be aware of who you are.

He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature.

And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.

Whatever is your present experience, you can recognize the spaciousness that allows it to be. You are this spaciousness, this awareness, this love. Deeper love and more spacious awareness is the best lesson you can get from any experience.

Awareness means that whatsoever is happening in the moment is happening with complete consciousness; you are present there. If you are present when anger is happening, anger cannot happen. It can happen only when you are fast asleep. When you are present, immediate, transformation starts in your being, because when you are present, aware, many things are simply not possible. All that is called sin is not possible if you are aware. So, in fact, there is only one sin and that is unawareness.

It's just a constant thing when the mind starts to wake up to itself.

Learning to cultivate an awareness of the known and unknown within one's being often leads to a healthier and more realistic sense of self.

The only time that any of us have to grow or change or feel or learn anything is in the present moment. But we're continually missing our present moments, almost willfully, by not paying attention.

Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold

You are not what happens in your life. You are the space in which it happens, which is consciousness itself.

Without the ability to think about yourself, to reflect on your life, there’s really no awareness, no consciousness. Consciousness doesn’t come automatically; it comes through being alive, awake, curious, and often furious.

This is how most people live: alive, but not conscious; conscious but not aware; aware, but intermittently.

And we can't avoid an inch of our own experience; if we do it causes a blur, a bleep, a puffy unreality. Our job is to wake up to everything, because if we slow down enough, we see that we are everything.

A lot of exercise is mindless; you can have music or the radio on and not be aware. But if you're aware in anything you do - and it doesn't have to be yoga - it changes you. Being present changes you.

I think and that is all that I am.

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

What a liberation to realize that the 'voice in my head' is not who I am. 'Who am I, then?' The one who sees that.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

People talk about this 'bucket list': 'I need to go to this country, I need to skydive.' Whereas I need to think as much as I can, to feel as much as I can, to be conscious and observe and understand me and the people around me as much as I can.