This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
A status not freely chosen or entered into by an individual or a group is necessarily one of oppression and the oppressed are by their nature (i.e., oppressed) forever in ferment and agitation against their condition and what they understand to be their oppressors. If not by overt rebellion or revolution, then in the thousand and one ways they will devise with and without consciousness to alter their condition.
Agitation | Consciousness | Individual | Nature | Oppression | Rebellion | Will | Understand |
Lynn Hill, aka Lynn Hill-Raffa
For me, climbing is a form of exploration that inspires me to confront my own inner nature within nature. It’s a means of experiencing a state of consciousness where there are no distractions or expectations. This intuitive state of being is what allows me to experience moments of true freedom and harmony.
Consciousness | Experience | Freedom | Means | Nature |
Helena Blavatsky, aka Helena Petrovna "H.P." Blavatsky or Madame Blavatsky, born Helena von Hahn
Everything in the Universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is conscious: i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind and on its own plane of perception.
Both dance and dream are brought into being by the consciousness of a moment. They can never be repeated or successfully imitated. But you can dance and dream again. You must, if life is to continue.
Consciousness | Life | Life |
A shape is nothing but a sum of limited views, and the consciousness of a shape is a collective entity.
Consciousness | Nothing |
I start from unified experince and from there acquire, in a secondary way, consciousness of a unifying activity when, taking up an analytical attitude, I break up perception into qualities and sensations, and when, in order to recapture on the basis of these the object into which I was in the first place blindly thrown, I am obliged to suppose an act of synthesis which is merely the counterpart of my analysis.
Consciousness | Object | Order | Perception | Qualities |
It is only the consciousness of a nonexistence which allows us to realize for moments that we are living.
Max Planck, fully Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
Religion represents a bond (Bindung) of man to god. It consists in reverent aw of supernatural might (Macht), to which human life is subordinated [?] and which has in its power (Gewalt) our wellfare and misery (Wohl und Wehe). To remain in permanent contact with this might and keep it all the time inclined to oneself, is the unending effort and the highest goal of believing man. Because only [?] in such a way can one feel himself safe before expected and unexpected dangers, which threaten one in his life, and can take part in the highest happiness – inner psychical peace – which can be attained only [?] by means of strong bond to god and unconditional trust to his omnipotence and willingness to help. As far as here the religion originates in the consciousness of individual man.
Consciousness | Effort | God | Individual | Life | Life | Man | Means | Omnipotence | Peace | Power | Religion | Safe | Time | Trust | God | Happiness |
Max Planck, fully Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.
Consciousness | Regard |
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
In God-realization, the soul drops its separate consciousness and transcends duality in the abiding knowledge of its identity with the Infinite Reality.
Consciousness | Duality | Knowledge | Soul |
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
Everyone is seeking happiness, but few have it; for, lasting happiness dawns only when there is complete freedom from wants. This highest state of non-wanting may outwardly seem to imply inaction and easy of attainment. But, if anyone tries just to sit quietly without inwardly wanting anything and with full consciousness (i.e., without going to sleep), he will realize that such a state of non-wanting is very difficult to attain and that it can be sustained only through tremendous spiritual activity.
Consciousness | Freedom | Will | Happiness |
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
One of the most difficult things to learn is to render service without bossing, without making a fuss about it, and without any consciousness of high and low. In the world of spirituality, humility counts at least as much as utility.
Consciousness | Humility | Service | World | Learn |
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
Infinite consciousness is infinite. It can never lessen at any point in time or space. Infinite consciousness being infinite includes every aspect of consciousness. Unconsciousness is one of the aspects of infiniteconsciousness. Thus infinite consciousness includes unconsciousness. It sustains, covers, pierces through and provides an end to unconsciousness — which flows from, and is consumed by, infinite consciousness.
Consciousness | Time | Unconsciousness |
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
The Infinite alone exists and is Real; the finite is passing and false. The Original Whim in the Beyond caused the apparent descent of the Infinite into the realm of the seeming finite. This is the Divine Mystery and Divine Game in which Infinite Consciousness for ever plays on all levels of finite consciousness.
Consciousness | Mystery |
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
The entire process of withdrawing consciousness from the universe and becoming conscious of the Self is accompanied by an increasing control of all the vehicles of consciousness. Such control is made possible by the vivification and activisation of unused centres of control; and the functioning of new centres brings, in its train, a number of occult powers. These new powers are commonly known as siddhis; and they can come before the aspirant has become spiritually perfect. In fact, egoism can flourish through the acquisition of such occult powers ; and the aspirant may not only take delight in possessing them, but might actually use them for mundane purposes, from which he has not necessarily freed himself. Siddhis are, therefore, rightly regarded as obstacles in the attainment of realization.
Attainment | Consciousness | Control | Self | Universe |
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
The individual mind is the seat of the ego or the consciousness of being isolated. It creates the limited individuality, which at once feeds and is fed by the illusion of duality time and change. So, in order to know the self as it is, consciousness has to be completely freed from the limitation of the individual mind. In other words, the individual mind has to disappear but consciousness has to be retained.
Consciousness | Duality | Ego | Illusion | Individual | Mind | Order | Self | Time |
Perhaps a new kind of inspired physicist, experienced in the yogic modes of perception, might arise to comprehend the further reaches of matter, space and time. A physicist (if he were still called that) trained in yogic perception would compare his discoveries with those derived from today's "normal" physics, and there would probably be a "principle of complementarity" existing between the insights derived from the various consciousness states, "normal" and "yogic". Physics would be entirely empirical (in this broadened sense), its findings with instruments ranging from the ordinary senses and their physical extensions (telescopes, radar, etc.) to the subtle yogic ways (indriyas) of apprehending the universe.
Consciousness | Perception | Space |