Conditioned behaviour

In an adulterated and inadvertent sort of life, there’s a tendency for a man’s past to make his decisions for him. Actually, it’s amazing (not too strong a word!) when this doesn’t happen.

The incidentals of birth and death

When consciousness decides to leave the body, to drop the whole mind/body apparatus, it does so spontaneously. No meetings are convened, permissions sought or variables examined. A breath goes out and doesn’t return.

Have I told you this already?

It is better to contradict oneself than to repeat oneself.

Beyond a certain age, we lose our capacity for surprise. We use a one-holed flute to play the same old themes. We polish our opinions as a dog licks his testicles.

Whitman: “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself.”

The bliss of self-forgetting

Every idea I have of myself is a bad idea.

I am not a limited and separate self.

I do not need to be fixed or improved on.

All that’s required is a capacity for spontaneous, unconditioned seeing.

I need to examine my habits.

“Sex is a habit.”