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Mystical experiences nearly always lead one to a belief that some aspect of consciousness is imperishable. In a Buddhist metaphor the consciousness of the individual is like a flame that burns through the night. It is not the same flame over time, yet neither is it another flame.

Marilyn Ferguson

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Marilyn Ferguson
Age: 70 †
Born: 1938
Born: April 5
Died: 2008
Died: October 19
Author
Writer
Grand Junction
Colorado
Consciousness
Flames
Belief
Metaphor
Individual
Buddhist
Night
Nearly
Imperishable
Another
Experiences
Burns
Always
Aspect
Mysticism
Time
Neither
Mystical
Like
Lead
Flame

More quotes by Marilyn Ferguson

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The difference between transformation by accident and transformation by a system is like the difference between lightning and a lamp. Both give illumination, but one is dangerous and unreliable, while the other is relatively safe, directed, available.
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Spirituality is a kind of virgin wisdom, a knowing that comes prior to experience.
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Our biggest failure is our failure to see patterns.
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...As Thomas Kuhn pointed out in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, new scientific theories in any field are regarded with skepticism because scientists become attached to the old perspective earlier in their careers.
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Things fall apart, so they can fall together at a higher level of order.
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So long as we need to control other people, however benign our motives, we are captive to that need. In giving them freedom, we free ourselves.
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We live what we know. If we believe the universe and ourselves to be mechanical, we will live mechanically.
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Before we choose our tools and technology, we must choose our dreams and values, for some technologies serve them, while others make them more unobtainable.
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Making mental connections is our most crucial learning tool, the essence of human intelligence to forge links to go beyond the given to see patterns, relationships, context.
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The East contemplated the forest the West counted the trees...the mind that knows that trees and the forest is a new mind.
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The other side of every fear is a freedom.
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Power is a central issue in social and personal transformation. Our sources and uses of power set our boundaries, give form to our relationships, even determine how much we let ourselves liberate and express aspects of the self. More than party registration, more than our purported philosophy or ideology, personal power defines our politics.
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It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear . . . . It's like being between trapezes. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to.
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We cannot leave the trap until we know we are in it.
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Never have so many been so high so often. When a Boston research group decided to compare the effects of marijuana on experienced and inexperienced users, it took them two months to line up nine student subjects who had never used marijuana.
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Many artists have said that when life itself becomes fully conscious, art as we know it will vanish.
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When one begins the transformative process, death and birth are imminent: the death of custom as authority, the birth of the self.
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Cultural transformation announces itself in sputtering fits and starts, sparked here and there by minor incidents, warmed by new ideas that may smolder for decades. In many different places, at different times, the kindling is laid for the real conflagration-the one that will consume the old landmarks and alter the landscape forever.
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If we are to find our way across troubled waters, we are better served by the company of those who have built bridges, who have moved beyond despair and inertia.
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Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future.
Marilyn Ferguson