Justifiably, it's 'severely difficult' (if not 'impossible') to comment whether 'human beings' are the 'Best' creation ever, on Planet Earth!

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." [Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]


"I am not a human being; I am a human becoming." [Author Unknown]


"Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished." [Nelson Mandela]


"In this century we have made remarkable material progress, but basically we are the same as we were thousands of years ago. Our spiritual needs are still very great." [Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama]


"I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am." [Joseph Baretti, quoted by James Boswell, 1766, commonly mis-attributed to Samuel Johnson [samueljohnson.com/apocryph.html] (Thanks, Frank Lynch!)]


"The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself."[Ralph Waldo Emerson]








"If I see one dilemma with Western man, it's that he can't accept how beautiful he is. He can't accept that he is pure light, that he's pure love, that he's pure consciousness, that he's divine." [Ram Dass]


"The next evolutionary step for humankind is to move from human to kind."[Author Unknown]


"Every human being is a repeated question asked to the spirit of the Universe." [Mihai Eminescu, translated by Oana Platon]


"The human species is made up of seven billion subspecies each consisting of one specimen." [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]


"Man is harder than rock and more fragile than an egg." [Yugoslav Proverb]


"That in man which cannot be domesticated is not his evil but his goodness." [Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin]


"Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is." [Albert Camus]


"A human being: an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing." [Christopher Morley, Human Being]








"The true man walks the earth as the stars walk the heavens, grandly obedient to those laws which are implanted in his nature." [Lemuel K. Washburn, Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays, 1911]


"The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours." [Bertrand Russell]


"Man is rated the highest animal, at least among all animals who returned the questionnaire." [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]


"Ocean: A body of water occupying two-thirds of a world made for man who has no gills." [Ambrose Bierce]


"Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose."[Turkish Proverb]


"Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it. " [John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday]








"In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with humans it is the other way around: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar." [Anton Chekhov]


"Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs." [Aldous Huxley]


"We are perverse creatures and never satisfied."[Nan Fairbrother]


"Modern man is the missing link between apes and human beings." [Author Unknown]


"Human consciousness arose but a minute before midnight on the geological clock. Yet we mayflies try to bend an ancient world to our purposes, ignorant perhaps of the messages buried in its long history. Let us hope that we are still in the early morning of our April day." [Stephen Jay Gould, "Our Allotted Lifetimes," The Panda's Thumb, 1980]


"Such is the human race, often it seems a pity that Noah... didn't miss the boat." [Mark Twain]


"There are too many people, and too few human beings." [Robert Zend]


"It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump." [David Ormsby Gore]








"Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love." [George Bernard Shaw]


"The disastrous history of our species indicates the futility of all attempts at a diagnosis which do not take into account the possibility that homo sapiens is a victim of one of evolution's countless mistakes." [Arthur Koestler, Janus: A Summing Up]


"Men! The only animal in the world to fear." [D.H. Lawrence]


"The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race." [Don Marquis]


"Man embraces in his makeup all the natural orders; he's a squid, a mollusk, a sucker and a buzzard; sometimes he's a cerebrate." [Martin H. Fischer]


"Men are cruel, but Man is kind." [Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 1916]


"Humanity is on the march, earth itself is left behind." [David Ehrenfeld, The Arrogance of Humanism, 1978]


"Human nature, if healthy, demands excitement; and if it does not obtain its thrilling excitement in the right way, it will seek it in the wrong. God never makes bloodless stoics; He makes no passionless saints." [Oswald Chambers]


"Cabbage: a familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head." [Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary]


"Monkeys are superior to men in this: When a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey." [Malcolm de Chazal]


"It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing." [Mariane Moore, "A Grave," Collected Poems, 1951]


"If man were relieved of all superstition, and all prejudice, and had replaced these with a keen sensitivity to his real environment, and moreover had achieved a level of communication so simplified that one syllable could express his every thought, then he would have achieved the level of intelligence already achieved by his dog." [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]








"Every man is in his own person the whole human race, with not a detail lacking. I am the whole human race without a detail lacking; I have studied the human race with diligence and strong interest all these years in my own person; in myself I find in big or little proportion every quality and every defect that is observable in the mass of the race. I knew I should not find in any philosophy a single thought which had not passed through my own head, nor a single thought which had not passed through the heads of millions and millions of men before I was born; I knew I should not find a single original thought in any philosophy, and I knew I could not furnish one to the world myself, if I had five centuries to invent it in. Nietzsche published his book, and was at once pronounced crazy by the world-by a world which included tens of thousands of bright, sane men who believed exactly as Nietzsche believed but concealed the fact and scoffed at Nietzsche. What a coward every man is! and how surely he will find it out if he will just let other people alone and sit down and examine himself. The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner." [Mark Twain]


"Adam ate the apple, and our teeth still ache." [Hungarian Proverb]


"Why was man created on the last day? So that he can be told, when pride possesses him: God created the gnat before thee." [The Talmud]


"Man - a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired." [Mark Twain]


"I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated His ability. " [Oscar Wilde]


"O poor mortals, how ye make this earth bitter for each other." [Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution]


"God pulled an all-nighter on the sixth day." [Author Unknown]


"Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings." [Evan Esar]


"Man - a being in search of meaning." [Plato]


"Ultimately, aren't we all just talking monkeys with an attitude problem!" ["Uncle" Ben, as seen on quotes‑r‑us.org [defunct]]


"The more humanity advances, the more it is degraded." [Gustave Flaubert]


"Nothing feebler does earth nurture than man, Of all things breathing and moving." [Homer, Odyssey]


"Everyone is as God made him, and often a good deal worse." [Miguel de Cervantes]








"Man is a strange animal, he doesn't like to read the handwriting on the wall until his back is up against it." [Adlai Stevenson]


"It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man." [Albert Einstein]


"God doesn't measure His bounty, but oh how we do!" [Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966]


"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness." [Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes, 1911]


"The human race is governed by its imagination." [Napoleon]


"Man uses his intelligence less in the care of his own species than he does in his care of anything else he owns or governs." [Abraham Meyerson]


"Human beings cling to their delicious tyrannies and to their exquisite nonsense, till death stares them in the face." [Sydney Smith]


"Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?" [Pierre Troubetzkoy]


"The small percentage of dogs that bite people is monumental proof that the dog is the most benign, forgiving creature on earth." [W.R. Koehler, The Koehler Method of Dog Training]


"Man was created a little lower than the angels, and has been getting lower ever since." [Josh Billings]


"We have no choice but to be guilty. God is unthinkable if we are innocent."
[Archibald MacLeish, JB, 1958]


"Human beings invent just as many ways to sabotage their lives as to improve them." [Mark Goulston, Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior, 1996]


"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly." [Samuel Johnson]


"What is man's greatest bane? His brother man alone." [Bias of Priene, Maxims]


"Acedia is not in every dictionary; just in every heart." [Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966]


"The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself." [Henry Miller, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, 1945]








"Is man a savage at heart, skinned o'er with fragile Manners? Or is savagery but a faint taint in the natural man's gentility, which erupts now and again like pimples on an angel's arse?" [John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor, 1960]


"God has given a great deal to man, but man would like something from man." [Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin]


"Man is the only trained animal who expects his reward before he does his trick." [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]


"I was surprised just now at seeing a cobweb around a knocker; for it was not on the door of heaven." [Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827]


"I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: He fornicated and read the papers." [Albert Camus]

"Man, when he is merely what he seems to be, is almost nothing." [Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin]


"Give a man secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn it into a garden; give him nine years' lease of a garden, and he will convert it into a desert." [Arthur Young, Travels in France, 1792]


"That's it! When you come to know men, that's how they are: too sensitive in the wrong place." [D.H. Lawrence]


"Occident: The part of the world lying west (or east) of the Orient. It is largely inhabited by Christians, a powerful sub-tribe of the Hypocrites, whose principal industries are murder and cheating, which they are pleased to call "war" and "commerce." These, also, are the principal industries of the Orient." [Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary]


"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be." [William Hazlitt, The English Comic Writers, 1819]


"It is curious to note the old sea-margins of human thought! Each subsiding century reveals some new mystery; we build where monsters used to hide themselves." [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh, 1849]


"Nature is neutral. Man has wrested from nature the power to make the world a desert or to make the deserts bloom. There is no evil in the atom; only in men's souls." [Adlai Stevenson]









"We are each of us born into the arms of mortality, the Lord recognizing our need to be held." [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]


"It is the fancy of every mortal that being cradled in the arms of mortality is a safe place for the time being." [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]


"Men prefer to believe that they are degenerated angels, rather than elevated apes." [William Winwood Reade]


"Man talks about everything, and he talks about everything as though the understanding of everything were all inside him." [Antonio Porchia, Voces,1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin]


"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star." [Stephen Hawking]


"We may be the intelligent species, but we are certainly not the smartest!" [Kyle Short]


"The doctors tell us of a physical disease called fatty degeneration of the heart... there is a moral malady—fatty degeneration of the soul; sooner or later it attacks every man, however noble his career, who puts self forward in his aims; who values fame because of a personal possession." [Frank Lee Benedict, The Price She Paid, 1882]


"My dog is usually pleased with what I do, because she is not infected with the concept of what I "should" be doing." [Lonzo Idolswine]


"Man will do many things to get himself loved; he will do all things to get himself envied." [Mark Twain, Following the Equator, 1897]


"We are all parasites; we humans, the greatest." [Martin H. Fischer]


"Often what we take for a kindness is just someone acting in their capacity as a human being." [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]


"I have often had the impression that, to penguins, man is just another penguin ; different, less predictable, occasionally violent, but tolerable company when he sits still and minds his own business." [Bernard Stonehouse]







"Suppose some mathematical creature from the moon were to reckon up the human body; he would at once see that the essential thing about it was that it was duplicate. A man is two men, he on the right exactly resembling him on the left. Having noted that there was an arm on the right and one on the left, a leg on the right and one on the left, he might go further and still find on each side the same number of fingers, the same number of toes, twin eyes, twin ears, twin nostrils, and even twin lobes of the brain. At last he would take it as a law; and then, where he found a heart on one side, would deduce that there was another heart on the other. And just then, where he most felt he was right, he would be wrong." [G.K. Chesterton, "The Paradoxes of Christianity," Orthodoxy]


"Every man is a volume, if you know how to read him." [William Ellery Channing, "Charge for the Ordination of Rev. Robert C. Waterston"]


"Every human being is a volume, worthy to be studied." [William Ellery Channing, Lecture II on the Elevation of the Labouring Portion of the Community, 1840]


"It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man." [Aeschylus, Agamemnon]


"God is less careful than General Motors, for He floods the world with factory rejects." [Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960]



"Man's greed for power and for money
Has strangled, within his own soul,

The richness and beauty of Truth
That would help him to reach his goal!"

[Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "God's Gifts to Man" (1940s)]











"Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external circumstances and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them." [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]


"So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty billion dollars and 'vroom'! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky." [Russell Baker, New York Times, 1969 July 21st]


"Every human being is a 'problem' in search of a solution." [Ashley Montagu]


"Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve." [Erich Fromm, Man for Himself, 1947]


"When freedom from want and freedom from fear are achieved, man's remains will be in 'rigor Mortis'." [Martin H. Fischer]


"Man is nature's sole mistake." [W.S. Gilbert]


"Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice." [George Orwell]


"The average man's judgment is so poor, he runs a risk every time he uses it." [E.W. Howe]


"Man -�� a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." [Alexander Hamilton]


"First God created time; then God created man that man might, in the course of time, perfect himself; then God decided that He'd better create eternity." [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]


"We're animals. We're born like every other mammal and we live our whole lives around disguised animal thoughts." [Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams]









"Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason allows us to discover it. I have given the evidence to the best of my ability; and we must acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man, with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system ��with all these exalted powers. ��Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin." [Charles Darwin (1809–1882), final paragraph of The Descent of Man, 1871]








"Grant fretted and irritated him.... He had no right to exist. He should have been extinct for ages.... That, two thousand years after Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, a man like Grant should be called ��and should actually and truly be the highest product of the most advanced evolution, made evolution ludicrous.... The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant, was alone evidence enough to upset Darwin. [Henry Adams (1838-��1918), The Education of Henry Adams, Chapter XVII! Adams wrote this third-person autobiography in 1905. It was first publicly published in 1918 from the 1907 private printing.]







"Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment." [R. Buckminster Fuller]


"Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts." [David Herbert Lawrence, White Peacock, 1911]


"The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I am on the side of the angels." [Benjamin Disraeli]


"I viewed my fellow man not as a 'fallen angel', but as a 'risen ape'." [Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape]


"Evolution: that last step was a doozy!" [Terri Guillemets, 1988 September, Biology journal]


"Man desired concord; but nature knows better what is good for his species; she desires discord. Man wants to live easy and content; but nature compels him to leave ease... and throw himself into roils and labors." [Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose, 1787]


"Perchance God will pity a race that sought the better angels of its nature and found only its lesser demons." [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]


"The thief and the murderer follow nature just as much as the philanthropist." [T.H. Huxley, "Evolution and Ethics," 1893]


"Many people believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature, when they are only repelled by man." [William Ralph Inge]


"People are like birds: on the wing, all beautiful; up close, all beady little eyes." [Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966]


"Evolution is individual;� devolution is collective." [Martin H. Fischer]










"A strong, brave man is born each month,
each year God gives a sage to men,


A poet each ten years, perhaps,
but an unselfish person,when?"


[Frederic Ridgely Torrence, The House of a Hundred Lights: A Psalm of Experience After Reading a Couplet of Bidpai, 1899]



"I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd. I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition.... Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. " [Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass]


"As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities." [Voltaire]


"I demand of you, and of the whole world, that you show me a generic character... by which to distinguish between Man and Ape. I myself most assuredly know of none." [Carl Linnaeus, 1788]


"In creating the human brain, evolution has wildly overshot the mark." [Arthur Koestler]


"We have a world for 'each one', but we do not have a world for 'all'." [Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin]


"We are 'survival machines' — 'robot vehicles' blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes." [Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene]


"I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite." [Henry David Thoreau, journal, 1852 April 2nd]


"Nature does not deceive us; it is we who deceive ourselves." [Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762]


"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles." [Machiavelli]


"Evolution: one small step for man, one giant leap backward for mankind." [Terri Guillemets]


"Are we marionettes, or are we creatures of free will who just happen to have a lot of jerky reflexes?" [Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com]


"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." [Author Unknown]

Chinese Flowers:

great thread Kaustuv and this is so very true!

Thank You 'Zero'! May You Keep 'Shining' (as Always)!

Marriage is the intimate union and equal partnership of a man and a woman. It comes to us from the hand of God, who created male and female in his image, so that they might become one body and might be fertile and multiply (See Genesis chapters 1 and 2). Though man and woman are equal as God's children, they are created with important differences that allow them to give themselves and to receive the other as a gift.


Marriage is both a natural institution and a sacred union because it is rooted in the divine plan of creation. In addition, the Catholic Church teaches that the valid marriage between two baptized Christians is also a sacrament – a saving reality and a symbol of Christ's love for his church (See Ephesians 5:25-33). In every marriage the spouses make a contract with each other. In a sacramental marriage the couple also enters into a covenant in which their love is sealed and strengthened by God's love.


The free consent of the spouses makes a marriage. From this consent and from the sexual consummation of marriage a special bond arises between husband and wife. This bond is lifelong and exclusive. The marriage bond has been established by God and so it cannot be dissolved.


In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, the priest or deacon, the two official witnesses, and the congregation all witness the exchange of consent by the couple who themselves are considered to be the ministers of the sacrament. In the Eastern Churches the sacrament is conferred by the priest's blessing after receiving the couple's consent.


Permanency, exclusivity, and faithfulness are essential to marriage because they foster and protect the two equal purposes of marriage. These two purposes are growth in mutual love between the spouses and the generation and education of children (procreative).


The mutual love of a married couple should always be open to new life. This openness is expressed powerfully in the sexual union of husband and wife. The power to create a child with God is at the heart of what spouses share with each other in sexual intercourse. Mutual love includes the mutual gift of fertility. Couples who are not able to conceive or who are beyond their child-bearing years can still express openness to life. They can share their generative love with grandchildren, other children and families, and the wider community.


As a result of their baptism, all Christians are called to a life of holiness. This divine calling, or vocation, can be lived in marriage, or in the single life, or in the priesthood or consecrated (religious) life. No one vocation is superior to or inferior to another. Each one involves a specific kind of commitment that flows from one's gifts and is further strengthened by God's grace. All vocations make a unique contribution to the life and mission of the Church.


The family arises from marriage. Parents, children, and family members form what is called a domestic church or church of the home. This is the primary unit of the Church – the place where the Church lives in the daily love, care, hospitality, sacrifice, forgiveness, prayer and faith of ordinary families.

'Spiritual Growth Benefits and Tips' [by Remez Sasson]



Spiritual growth is an inner process, not only for people seeking spiritual awakening, and who live in monasteries or ashrams, but for every one.

Spiritual growth is essential for a better, happier and more harmonious life, free of tension and strain, fear and anxiety.

What is spiritual growth?

Actually, this term is not correct and is misleading. The spirit is perfect and does not need to grow. It needs to 'awaken' and know itself. The spirit is already an inseparable part of the One Spirit, which is present everywhere. This knowledge and understanding is hidden beneath thoughts, desires, feelings and habits. What you need to do is to remove everything that hides this knowledge and understanding.

Spiritual growth is the process of getting rid of wrong concepts, thoughts and beliefs about who you are and about the world in which you live. Through this process, you increase your awareness of your real essence, which is beyond the ego and the personality.

In this process you drop negative and limiting habits, erroneous thoughts and beliefs, and let the inner self within you shine out.

It is a process of looking inside you, shedding your illusions and uncovering your true essence, which is always present, but hidden beyond the ego-personality.

Seems too far-fetched? No, it isn't. I am not stating anything new or extraordinary.

Spiritual growth benefits:

1. Realization of who you really are.

2. Increased feeling of happiness and bliss.

3. Experiencing a state of inner peace.

4. Circumstances and situations do not affect your state of mind.

5. Becoming more patient and tolerant.

6. The ability to rise above frustration, disappointment and negative feelings.

7. Increased inner strength and confidence.

8. More common sense and seeing things as they really are.
Imagine a radiant bulb of light, hidden beneath layers of various materials. In order to let the light of the bulb shine out and illuminate the surroundings, you do not have to increase the light or change the bulb. All you have to do is to take away the layers that are covering it. As you remove a layer after layer, the light becomes stronger and shines more radiantly.


How do you remove the layers that are covering the light of your inner self? This requires some inner work.

You can do this inner work, without changing anything in your environment. You don't need to go and live in an ashram. All you need is a strong desire, perseverance and planning your day right, so that you find the time for this inner work.


Spiritual growth tips:

01. Learn to focus your mind and remove unnecessary thoughts.

02. Practice meditation every day.

03. Read spiritual literature and spiritual quotes.

04. Associate with people, who went through this process.

05. Developing a certain degree of emotional detachment would be very useful, so that outside conditions would have less effect on your mind and moods.

06. Acknowledge the fact that you are a spirit with a physical body, not a physical body with a spirit. If you can accept this idea, it will change your attitude toward many things in your life.

07. Look inside you, and try to find out what it is that makes you feel alive.

08. Always try to look at the bright side of life. Your inner self is stronger than your circumstances. Don’t let circumstances and situations dictate to you how to feel or think.

09. Endeavor to focus your attention on everything you do, instead of letting your attention go wherever it desires.

10. Do your best to be tolerant, patient, tactful and considerate.









'Consciousness, Awareness, and Your Real Essence' [by Remez Sasson]


Watch your consciousness closely, this sensation of being aware and alive, and observe what you feel. I do not mean that you look at the contents of your mind. I mean becoming fully aware of the sensation of being alive and existing.

This consciousness I am referring to, is not the awareness of having a body, emotions or thoughts, but of something beyond.

This consciousness is your inner being, real essence. We all experience this consciousness constantly, but never investigate it or try to be intently aware of it. This is because the mind and the attention flow outside, to the external world, and rarely inside.

You might ask: "Why do I need to be aware of this consciousness? I have never thought about it before. Why now?"

You are this consciousness, and therefore, you ought to know about it. If you own a car, don't you want to know, at least superficially, how to take care of it? If you own a TV, a mobile phone or some other electrical appliance, don't you want to know how to use it efficiently, and understand, at least a little, how it works?

The more you become aware of your consciousness, the more you become conscious and aware of its power, and can utilize its power. Calmness, peace of mind, freedom from anxiety and worry, inner strength and happiness are some of the by-products of becoming conscious and aware of your inner consciousness.

When watching a beautiful, breathtaking landscape, do you sometimes become immersed and overwhelmed by it, and for a few moments cease to be aware of your body, feelings and thoughts? For a little while you become merged in some sort of silence.

A little while later, your mind starts verbalizing about the landscape, and you become aware again of your feelings and thoughts. You return to your ordinary consciousness and awareness of your body and its sensations.

You did not lose consciousness during this experience. It was a happy and joyous experience, in which you became aware of something beyond your ordinary awareness.

This consciousness is beyond the body, feelings and thoughts. It is beyond beliefs, attitudes, names, gender, family and social or economic status. It is your inner being.

Body feelings and thoughts are changeable and impermanent. Even the cells of the body change in time. Yet, the Higher Consciousness never changes. It is immutable. It holds everything else together like a string that holds a necklace of pearls. It is constant, but all the 'things' attached to it or revolving around it always change.

When you reject every component as not your 'I', the residue that remains is something, which cannot be described, only lived. It is an impersonal 'I'. It cannot be the object of thought, because it is above and beyond thoughts and the mind.

You can know, experience and be this 'I', but you cannot think about it or analyze it, as it is not an outside object. This 'I', this consciousness is the real you.

Talking about this consciousness is like mental acrobatics, because this consciousness is beyond thoughts, and therefore, beyond words. It is fully experienced only when thoughts cease, whether unintentionally, as in the above case of watching a landscape, or intentionally when special exercises are performed to enhance it.

By teaching yourself to be aware and immersed of this consciousness, the mind and the flow of thoughts calm down, and you experience inner peace. This is usually done through meditation and proper mental attitude.

Developing the ability to focus the mind is a great help. Reading spiritual literature, or coming in contact with people who are on the same path, and who more advanced than you, practicing meditation, and trying to be aware of your Awareness, Consciousness, and Being, are the golden key that opens the door of Enlightenment.

You do not need to search for this Consciousness. It is here, and you are living in it all the time. You only forgot it. You are letting thoughts rule your life. The sky is always up there. If you don't see it, this is because of the clouds that cover it. In the same way the clouds of thoughts cover your Consciousness, but by removing them you become aware of it.

This Consciousness I am talking about, is not the everyday, ordinary awareness of your body and personality. It is not the awareness of the world around you. It is a sort of 'Higher Consciousness' that stands beyond the ordinary consciousness.

The ordinary consciousness is changeable and intermittent. At times we are aware of the outer world and at other times unaware or only partially aware. There are times of sleep and times of wakefulness. Yet, the 'Inner Consciousness' is always present. It never ceases to be and is always present. It is at the background of whatever happens in life.

This is just a short article trying to define the Consciousness – Inner awareness.







'Consciousness, Awareness and the Mind' [by Remez Sasson]



Someone wrote to me a few days ago, saying that he read one of my the articles, 'You Are not the Mind', and the article made him feel uncomfortable. He couldn't accept the idea that he is not his mind. He asked, 'What does the word mind mean? How can it be that I not my mind? Can you give me more information about 'who I am,' and what is the mind? I don’t see the difference.'

For people who have been meditating for a long time, and for people conversant with teachings of 'Sri Ramana Maharshi' and with non-duality, this is not a strange idea.

The brain is the physical vessel of the mind. The mind creates thoughts, and thoughts manifest as words. Different thoughts pass the mind all the time. Can you say that you are these passing thoughts?

The mind is composed of the thoughts you think. What happens when you stop thinking, such as when in deep sleep? Where is the mind then, and if you are the mind, where are you? Did you cease to exist?

If you examine the state of your mind when you are very happy, you will discover that there is some kind of elation and inner peace. You feel happy and alive, but your mind is not disturbed by thoughts.

When one is in deep meditation, there are no thoughts, or almost no thoughts, and yet, the one who is meditating is conscious and alive.

In all these above-mentioned situations, it is as if there is a different awareness-consciousness present, peaceful and all embracing. This awareness-consciousness is independent from the mind, always existing, and is the awareness-consciousness supervising the mind. This awareness-consciousness can tell the mind about what to think, and can also stop the thinking process, and enjoy inner peace, with no distracting thoughts.

This consciousness-awareness is you, the real you. The mind is the instrument you use to function and act in the world. If you are not aware of this consciousness-awareness, it is because you never tried to train your mind and discipline it. You never tried to look at it with detachment, and you have always allowed it to become your master, instead of your servant.

Discovering the real and unchanging component that is you, the Spirit, doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, weak or strange. On the contrary, you become more alive, strong and energetic. It doesn't make you passive. On the contrary, you become more alive, and can do more.

Concentration exercises and meditation, in time, lead to experiencing, and then living, in this 'higher consciousness' state. Experiencing this consciousness has always been the aim of many spiritual traditions. This consciousness is always present, but covered by thoughts, worries, fears and desires. It is like a radiant and strong light bulb that is covered by many layers of covers, so that the light is not seen. Your role is to uncover this bulb of light.

The mind and the ego

You are an inseparable part of the 'Spirit,' of the creative principle, but to experience the external world you need the mind.

The mind is the 'ego,' the individual, whom you think you are. This ego is composed of your thoughts, mind and feelings. This is not so easy to grasp, since people identify with this ego, and live through it. It is as if you are wearing a certain garment, and believe that this garment is part of your body, and is you, and you never realize that you can take it off, and still live and exist.

Proving to yourself that you are not the mind

By learning to focus your mind, you prove to yourself that you are not the mind, but the power that controls the mind. By being able to silence the mind, and enjoy a state of inner peace and calmness. You prove to yourself that the mind is a tool, and that it is not you. This idea is difficult to grasp for a lot of people, and the only way to prove it is by learning to focus the mind, through concentration exercises, and through meditation.

Concentration, meditation, and learning to direct the mind according to your own will, prove that you are not your mind. Can the mind control itself, or does it need some higher power to control it? This leads you to realize that you are separate from the mind, otherwise how can you master it? It is you, the real you that is directing the mind. The ability to focus the mind or stop its activities in accordance with your willpower awakens the understanding that you are not your mind, and this is a great step toward self-realization.

I know this article doesn't explain and clarify enough what is the awareness-consciousness mentioned here, and what the mind and the ego are. These are subjects, which are not easy to explain in words. I intend to write more on this subject in the future.






'Meditation and the Spiritual Consciousness beyond the Mind' [by Remez Sasson]




A regular practice of meditation has a profound effect on the mind and on one's awareness and consciousness. Regular practice of meditation calms down the restlessness of the mind, and therefore, makes it possible to experience, and become aware something, which is beyond the scope of the mind.

Thoughts are like clouds that hide the sun, or like waves that make it impossible to see the bottom of the lake. When the mind becomes calm and there are no thoughts, you can see things that your thoughts and your constant mental activity hide. You become aware of your real essence, the consciousness that is beyond the mind.

Spiritual Consciousness

One of the main benefits of a regular practice of meditation is inner peace. In a state of inner peace, when the restlessness of your mind stops, you become aware of a different, vast sort of consciousness. A certain kind of calm, joyous, and powerful consciousness arises in you, which is different from the ordinary, everyday consciousness. This is Spiritual Consciousness.

This state is like an altered state of consciousness. It is not a state of trance, and you do not lose of awareness of the world around you. On the contrary, you become more conscious and more alive. It is an awareness that encompasses both the earthly and spiritual planes.

At first, you will experience it very briefly and sporadically, not necessarily during meditation, but in the midst of your daily activities, in your everyday life. It might suddenly, or gradually, fill your awareness for a brief moment, and then go away.

As you continue with daily meditations, the duration of this altered state of consciousness will gradually get longer. In order to experience this state of awareness more often and for longer periods, and also, to turn it into a constant state of consciousness you need to be able to quiet your mind more deeply, and for longer periods.

This is a state of spiritual consciousness. The main requirement for this spiritual consciousness to manifest is a silent mind, when the restlessness of the mind disappears. This is the way to making this experience permanent.

How can you hasten this process? There are a few things you could do.

1. Continue to meditate every day.

2. Learn to focus your mind, making it one-pointed.

3. Try to become more aware of your thoughts, and how they enter and pass through your mind. If you practice meditation regularly, it won't be too difficult to do.

4. View your thoughts with some dispassion. Learn to be little detached, so that thoughts do not agitate your mind.

5. Always try to be focused on what you are doing, not allowing thoughts, feelings and people to distract you and control your attention.

6. At different times of the day, for a few minutes, try to become aware of your consciousness, of your awareness, and of the feeling that you exist. Don't discuss or analyze your awareness, just be conscious of it, without thoughts and without words.


This state, this spiritual consciousness, is a state of light, happiness and joy, but also of inner power, focus, practicality and common sense. It is called by many names, Nirvana, Samadhi, Self Realization, Cosmic consciousness, Higher Self or Spiritual Consciousness. The name is only an outer label. The content is more important, and it is the same under all these labels.

All techniques of meditation, eventually, lead to this state of awareness, to the awakening of the spiritual consciousness.







'Asking the Question, "Who Am I"?' [by Remez Sasson]




All meditation techniques are means to the same final target, to empty the mind from thoughts, discover the real 'I', and 'awaken' a wider sort 'consciousness'.

Sounds complicated? No, not at all. You don't have to be a superman to do that. It's a natural process that everyone goes through, some more deeply, and others superficially.

The purpose of meditation is to 'unlearn' all the 'wrong' concepts we have acquired, and then, to help us discover who we really are. This realization is usually mental at first, until we really KNOW experimentally.

We are not the physical body and the ego, which is comprised of our thoughts and feelings, but something else. By delving inside ourselves, usually with the help of meditation, into our consciousness and sense of awareness, we come to know ourselves. We 'discover' our real 'I'.

This Real 'something', is like a bright bulb of light, which is hidden from sight by many covers. We have to strip away the covers. These covers are our thoughts, feelings, and mental habits. By stripping them away, we uncover the internal bright light of our true being.

We don't have to create this 'something' that is our true being. We only have to take away everything that covers it.

1. For a few moments, look inside yourself, at your awareness, trying to focus on it. Feel this awareness, this consciousness, this sense of existence and of being alive.

2. It might not be so clear to you what you actually need to do, but nevertheless try it.

This feeling of existence, of consciousness, is always with you, no matter where you are or what you are doing. It is an unchanging and continuous essence. You are not always aware of it, because your mind is usually occupied with thoughts, because of feelings that cloud your mind, and because of the sense impressions coming through your five senses.

All this is not something theoretical, metaphorical, or mystical. It is a fact. It is the common experience of everyone, but it is often ignored.

When looking at some object and thinking about it, there is 'you', and there is the object. You are not the object. You are the one looking at it or using it.

In the same way, you are the one looking at your body, taking care of it, and using it. In the same sense, you are not the body, but the one using it. Yes, this might seem weird to you, but if you think deeply about what I am saying, you will begin to accept it.
'

This also applies to your mind and thoughts.

Thoughts, feelings and beliefs change, sometimes radically, but you retain the same awareness, the same consciousness of your being. The 'I', the pure aware that is beyond thoughts remains as it is.

Everything comes and goes, but your 'I', your feeling of being alive and existing, is always the same, never changing. This 'I' is your real Self.

Asking the question, 'Who Am I'?

Try the following meditation:

1. Find the time and place to be alone and undisturbed.

2. Pay attention to your body, feelings and thoughts, while at the same time being aware that it is you, who are examining them. You, your awareness – consciousness is looking at them. This means that you are not them, but 'something' outside, looking at them.

3. One minute you might be thinking or feeling something, and the next minute another thought or feeling pops up. Ask yourself, who is it that is aware of the thoughts and the feelings? Focus on this question, trying to find the answer.

4. The answer will come not through analysis and verbal thinking, but as understanding, awareness, intuition, realization, not in words.

5. After a few minutes, start to ask yourself the question, 'who am I?'

6. Ask the question and wait for the answer, without trying to find it through thinking. Both question and answer have to be without words. The real answer doesn't come in words. It is a feeling, realization with no words or thoughts. It is an intuitive knowledge, with absolute certainty.

7. When you become aware of the answer you experience a sense of bliss. This state is called by many names by different traditions, such as Cosmic Consciousness, Samadhi, Nirvana or Self-Realization.

8. Finally, try, without forcing yourself, to stop thinking and just 'be', meaning, feeling your real being, without identifying with your thoughts or personality.


The question, 'Who am I', as a trigger for Self Realization, was a method taught by 'Sri Ramana Maharshi', the great Sage of India.

As you progress, the moments of blissful inner peace and silence will occur more often, increasing in length, and the breaks between them would get shorter.

This meditation has to be practiced with a spirit of detachment, and without tension. In time, you will become more aware of your Consciousness, your Real 'I', and act and do everything from its viewpoint, not the ego's point of view.

One day, you might find that this Consciousness has become your natural state of awareness, irrespective of where you are and what you are doing.









'Meditation Is a Pleasant Experience' [by Remez Sasson]



Imagine yourself standing on the beach, watching the waves rushing to the shore and then returning back to the ocean. Feel the cool, pleasant breeze, and breathe the intoxicating smell of the ocean.

Tune in to the feeling of calmness that you experience now.

Stay with this image and feeling for a while. It is pleasant, isn't it?

This scene is taking place in your imagination and is not real. However, you are able to create an experience that feels like being real.

For a few moments you were in a meditative state. You were practicing meditation. Was it difficult? No, I would say that it was a pleasant experience.

Even daydreaming, to a certain extent, resembles meditation. The difference is that in meditation you need to focus your mind, and not let it wander where it wants, unlike daydreaming, where the mind left free to roam where it wants.

Actually, not all meditations focus on mental images. You might also meditate on ideas, inspiring sentences, positive qualities, objects, sounds, or on nothing at all.

Meditation began gaining popularity during the second half of the twentieth century, and more and more people are becoming aware of its benefits. However, many regard meditation only as a means to relax the body and mind, when actually, it is a lot more than this.

Life in the West is full of tension and rush, and therefore, meditation is becoming recognized as an effective technique for relaxing the body and the mind. Relaxation is very important, but it is only one of the results of meditation.

After gaining some experience, you will start to like meditation. It will turn into a pleasant experience.

What Are the Benefits and Goals of Meditation?

1. Meditation relaxes the body, calms the mind, and minimizes tension.

2. After a period of practice, the racing and rushing of thoughts in the mind slow down, not only during meditation, but also in daily life.

3. Gradually, you will experience more happiness, tolerance, understanding, and a feeling of inner strength.

4. Your ability to focus your mind will get stronger

5. Your mind will become stronger and under your control

6. Your ability to enjoy the present moment would increase

7. The tendency to criticize, lack of satisfaction, and blaming others would decrease.


Nowadays, there are many books about meditation. There are lectures and workshops too, so it is quite easy to find information about meditation, or someone to guide you.








'5 Reasons Why You Need Concentration When You Meditate' [by Remez Sasson]



What happens a few minutes after you start to meditate? You suddenly discover that you stopped meditating, and were thinking about something else.

This happens due to lack of concentration and the inability to focus the mind. This happens not just with meditation, but with every other activity, be it work, study, or anything else that requires focusing the attention.

The tendency of the mind is always to move, to jump from one thought to another, never standing still. This is very unhelpful and distracting. This habit needs to be changed, if you want to progress on the path of meditation.

5 Reasons Why You Need Concentration for Better Meditation

1. You need concentration to be able to focus on the topic of your meditation

Without concentration, your mind will wander from one thought to another, and that’s not meditation.

Sitting down for ten twenty or thirty minutes, with the intention to meditate, but instead, just daydream and think about everything under the sun is not meditation.

2. Lack of concentration wastes your time

This has much to do with the previous point. When sit down to meditate, but your mind is constantly moving from one thought to another, you accomplish nothing. You just waste your time.

You need to focus, and not allow other thoughts distract your attention. To do so, you need willpower and self-discipline. You also need to teach yourself to focus. This you can do by practicing focus exercises.

If you daydream or let your mind fly from one thought to another like a butterfly, there is no meditation and no progress.

You might enjoy daydreaming and just sitting down, but the time passes, and you make no progress.

3. Focusing your mind reduces the number of thoughts in your mind

Focusing on one thought or topic prevents other thoughts from entering your mind. It is like a gatekeeper that keeps unwanted visitors away.

4. Lack of concentration allows all kinds of thoughts to arise in your mind

If you lack concentration you won't be able to stop the constant flow of thoughts in your mind. These thoughts are often negative and weakening, or about things you have read, heard or seen, and are of no importance.

These thoughts tend to occupy the mind all the time, preventing you from entering a deeper state of meditation.

5. You need concentration for inner peace

The stronger your concentration is, the more control you have over your mind. With a well-developed ability you would be able to make your mind quiet.

When the mind becomes quiet, you enter into a state of inner peace. This leads to heightened awareness, a sense of bliss and to the realization of deeper truths about life and about you.

This happens because inner peace removes the thoughts that cover your inner sight. It's like removing the clouds that hide the sun.










'7 Tips for Better Meditation' [by Remez Sasson]


There are a lot of factors that do not allow a focused, deep, and disturbance-free meditation. However, there is a lot you can do to avoid disturbances and obstacles to a better meditation.

In this short article I have collected a few tips to improve your meditation experience. If you have been learning to meditate, I am sure you are already familiar with these tips, but it is always good to be reminded again and again.

When you know something, it doesn't mean that you use this knowledge, and therefore, it is a good idea to be reminded often.

Tips for Better Meditation

1. Make peace with your mind

After sitting down to meditate, and just before you begin, tell yourself that all thoughts and all problems will have to wait until you finish meditating. Repeat these words firmly several times, so that you remember them when thoughts start to disturb your meditation. Tell your mind that however pressing a thought might be, it has to wait until you finish your meditation.

2. Avoid factors that cause interruptions and distractions

There are a lot of interruptions and distractions that attract the attention and disturb meditation. There are several things you can do to avoid them.

(a) Meditate in a place, where you are alone and undisturbed.

(b) Close the windows and doors of your room.

(c) Take the phone off the hook.

(d) Turn off the TV and the radio.

(e) Turn off your computer.

(f) Switch off your cell phone.


3. Meditate at the same time of the day

If you are a beginner, meditating at the same hour would soon become a habit. The mind will automatically remember to meditate at the same hour, and there will be less mental resistance to meditate. Early mornings or early evenings are good times for meditation, but you can choose any other convenient hour.

4. Meditate at the same place

Try to arrange a place for meditation. It could be a special room, a corner in a room, your office, or in a garden. Try to use the same place, at least in the beginning. This will make your mind associate meditation with a certain place, making it easier to meditate.

5. Don't eat before meditation

After eating, the energies of the body are directed toward the digestive processes at the expense of the mental processes. This is one of the reasons for feeling drowsy after eating a heavy meal. Meditation requires alertness and focus, and therefore, it is helpful to do it with an empty stomach.

Please note that hunger is also an obstacle, which can disturb your concentration. If you are too hungry, you may eat a fruit, a slice of bread, or drink a glass of water or juice. That's okay.


6. A comfortable posture with a straight back

Sit in a comfortable posture.

During meditation, there is a flow of energy upwards through the spinal column. It is important therefore, to hold your back straight, but without straining it.

It is important to be comfortable so that your mind is free to concentrate. You may sit on the floor, if you find it comfortable, or you may choose to sit on a chair. Do what is more comfortable and less strenuous for your body.


7. Don't tense your body

There is often, a tendency to tense the body when meditating, concentrating, or doing any mental work. This is a common habit, which you need to avoid, since it tires the body and the mind, and stands in your way to a better and deeper meditation.

It is highly recommended that you learn to relax your body. You can find relaxation techniques by searching for them on the Internet.

It is also recommended that you develop the habit of being more aware of the tensions in your body. During the day, every time you feel that you are your tensing your body, stop what you are doing and relax your muscles to undo the tension. If you often do so, this action will turn, in due time, into a habit.

These are just a few simple tips to help you have a better, more focused and useful meditation.

















'GOD' resides in 'Wisdom' And in 'Each' And 'Every' Beautiful Thing Found On 'Earth'!