"We human beings tend to experience ourselves as something separate from the whole we call the Universe.
This is actually an optical delusion of our Consciousness.
It's like a prison for us. Our task is to free ourselves from this prison by [widening] our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of Nature in its beauty.
The striving for such an achievement is a path to our liberation and the only true foundation of our inner peace and security."
"Optical delusion" - that's good. My Zen teachers refer to this as "not one, not two"...referring to the experience of being a self that's boundaried and the reality of a boundless self and, indeed, no-self at all. This seeming paradox poses constant challenges...I've never seen this quote from Einstein. What a scientist-mystic he was.
Albert Einstein —
"We human beings tend to experience ourselves as something separate from the whole we call the Universe.
This is actually an optical delusion of our Consciousness.
It's like a prison for us. Our task is to free ourselves from this prison by [widening] our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of Nature in its beauty.
The striving for such an achievement is a path to our liberation and the only true foundation of our inner peace and security."
"Optical delusion" - that's good. My Zen teachers refer to this as "not one, not two"...referring to the experience of being a self that's boundaried and the reality of a boundless self and, indeed, no-self at all. This seeming paradox poses constant challenges...I've never seen this quote from Einstein. What a scientist-mystic he was.
I've used this quote in my book YOGAi. ;)
Of course you have. I probably saw it there and saw it here anew.