Consciousness - thoughts from Sam Harris

August 8, 2023

"Consciousness" - the course by Sam Harris

The Series: "Mysteries & Paradoxes" - by Sam Harris

Quotes

Favorite quotes from the audio transcript:

Consciousness is all you have. It's all you are, as a matter of experience. It's what makes the people you love worth loving; it's what makes your failures to love so tragic. It's what puts the sting in every missed opportunity. It is the substance of every joy and every sorrow.

[This is all] about consciousness and its contents.
Everything we care about or can care about, and everyone who can care in turn — this entire reality is given its substance by the fact of consciousness. Consciousness is the most important thing in the universe. I would even say it's the only important thing in the universe, because it's the carrier of all value: actual and possible.

And it's this reality in each moment that awaits your attention. You can either notice the nature of your experience clearly — really clearly — or you can be lost in thought. In each moment, thought will tend to capture you and lull you to sleep. And the practice of meditation is to notice this more and more, and then to wake up.
Wake up.