Self-awareness

Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals. Self-awareness, though similar to sentience in concept, includes the experience of the self, and has been argued as implicit to the hard problem of consciousness.

Quotes

• As I walked by myself, I talked to myself
  And myself replied to me;
  And the questions myself then put to myself,
  With their answers, I give to thee.
  • Bernard Barton, "Colloquy with Myself", line 1. First appeared in Youth's Instructor (December 1826); included in Household Verses (London: George Virtue, 1845), p. 221.

• Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.
  • John Calvin, Book I Ch. 1 "The Knowledge of God and of Ourselves Mutually Connected - Nature of this Connection" as translated by Henry Beveridge.

• How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, "Who in the world am I?" Ah, that's the great puzzle!
  • Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865), chapter 2; reprinted in Philip C. Blackburn and Lionel White, ed.., Logical Nonsense: The Works of Lewis Carroll (1934), p. 177.

• The test of a civilized person is first self-awareness, and then depth after depth of sincerity in self-confrontation.
  • Clarence Day, "A Wild Polish Hero", The Crow's Nest (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1921), p. 167.

• To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are. ... The very people who are most self-dissatisfied and crave most for a new identity have the least self-awareness. They have turned away from an unwanted self and hence never had a good look at it.
  • Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind (New York: 1954), #151

• Ruthless toward itself, the Enlightenment has eradicated the last remnant of its own self-awareness.
  • Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, E. Jephcott, trans., p. 2

• I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all? I do not know that it is. I have been the instrument of doing the following things; but they would have been done by others; some of them, perhaps, a little better.
  • Thomas Jefferson, "Services of Jefferson" (1800?), reported in Paul L. Ford, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1896), vol. 7, p. 475.

• One self-approving hour whole years out-weighs
  Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas.
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epistle IV, line 249.

• The psyche is awareized energy, in a state of constant creativity; a psychic pattern of multidimensionally expressed; each point within it changing in relationship to all other points, and thus altering the entire pattern or model. Each self is immersed in the psyche, yet immersed in its own individuality simultaneously, experiencing reality in time and out of it at once.
  • Jane Roberts, Psychic Politics: An Aspect Psychology Book, p. 166.

Whether you become a daughter, sister, lover, partner, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother, or anything else with complete honesty, the satisfaction you'll find in becoming yourself cannot be found in becoming any of these relative beings.

• Whether you become a daughter, sister, lover, partner, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother, or anything else with complete honesty, the satisfaction you'll find in becoming yourself cannot be found in becoming any of these relative beings.
  • Sanu Sharma

• Speak no more:
  Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
  And there I see such black and grained spots
  As will not leave their tinct.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act III, scene 4, line 88.

• Go to your bosom;
  Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.
  • William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act II, scene 2, line 136.

• When you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new dimension of consciousness has come in.
  • Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (1997)

• Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in, something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence.
  • Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (1997)

• Be present as the watcher of your mind.
  • Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (1997)

• “I am bored.” Who knows this?

“I am angry, sad, afraid.” Who knows this?

You are the knowing, not the condition that is known.

• Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks (2003)

• When the ego is at war, know that it is no more than an illusion that is fighting to survive. That illusion thinks it is you. It is not easy at first to be there as the witnessing Presence, especially when the ego is in survival mode or some emotional pattern from the past has become activated, but once you have had a taste of it, you will grow in Presence power, and the ego will lose its grip on you. And so a power comes into your life that is far greater than the ego, greater than the mind. All that is required to become free of the ego is to be aware of it, since awareness and ego are incompatible. Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. This is why we may also call it Presence. The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose is to bring that power into this world. And this is also why becoming free of the ego cannot be made into a goal to be attained at some point in the future. Only Presence can free you of the ego, and you can only be present Now, not yesterday or tomorrow. only Presence can undo the past in you and thus transform your state of consciousness. p. 50
  • Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, (2005)

• There are many subtle but easily overlooked forms of ego that you may observe in other people and, more important, in yourself. Remember: The moment you become aware of the ego in yourself, that emerging awareness is who you are beyond ego, the deeper “I.” The recognition of the false is already the arising of the real. For example, you are about to tell someone the news of what happened. “Guess what? You don't know yet? Let me tell you.” If you are alert enough, present enough, you may be able to detect a momentary sense of satisfaction within yourself just before imparting the news, even if it is bad news. It is due to the fact that for a brief moment there is, in the eyes of the ego, an imbalance in your favor between you and the other person. For that brief moment, you know more than the other. The satisfaction that you feel is of the ego, and it is derived from feeling a stronger sense of self relative to the other person. p. 52
  • Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, (2005)

• There is a luxury in self-dispraise;
  And inward self-disparagement affords
  To meditative spleen a grateful feast.
  • William Wordsworth, The Excursion (1814), Book IV.

• 'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours;
  And ask them what report they bore to heaven:
  And how they might have borne more welcome news.
  • Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night II, line 376.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 696.

• Summe up at night what thou hast done by day;
  And in the morning what thou hast to do.
  Dresse and undresse thy soul; mark the decay
  And growth of it; if, with thy watch, that too
  Be down then winde up both; since we shall be
  Most surely judg'd, make thy accounts agree.
  • George Herbert, The Temple, The Church Porch, next to last stanza.

• Let not soft slumber close your eyes,
  Before you've collected thrice
  The train of action through the day!
  Where have my feet chose out their way?
  What have I learnt, where'er I've been,
  From all I've heard, from all I've seen?
  What have I more that's worth the knowing?
  What have I done that's worth the doing?
  What have I sought that I should shun?
  What duty have I left undone,
  Or into what new follies run?
  These self-inquiries are the road
  That lead to virtue and to God.
  • Isaac Watts, Self Examination.

See also

• The Ageless Wisdom Teachings
• Awareness
• Consciousness
• Ego
• Fear
• Four Noble Truths
• Introspection
• Large-group awareness training
• Mindfulness
• Narcissism
• Optimism
• Self Actualization
• Self religion