Rational Mysticism Quotes

“According to Zen legend, when a visitor asked the fifteenth-century master Ikkyu to write down a maxim of “the highest wisdom,” Ikkyu wrote one word: “Attention.” The visitor asked, irritably, “Is that all?” This time, Ikkyu wrote two words: “Attention. Attention.”
― John Horgan, Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment

“Buddha suggested as much when he told his monks, “‘Actions exist, and also their consequences, but the person that acts does not.”
― John Horgan, Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment

“If you think you are advancing toward unity with God or the absolute,” he said, “and are not growing in love and charity toward your fellow person, you’re just deluding yourself.”
― John Horgan, Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment

“But no, I decided, he is just a man at peace with himself and with life—an accomplishment rare in its own right.”
― John Horgan, Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment

“suggestion of some cognitive scientists that there is no unified self at the core of each individual; the self is just a byproduct of the interaction of a host of cognitive functions.”
― John Horgan, Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment

“At a time when I was trying to make something of myself, they were a destabilizing influence.”
― John Horgan, Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment