Wednesday, November 24, 2010

An observation worth pondering:

There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.

- Jack London from The Call of the Wild

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:42 AM

    How do we reconcile this with teachings on self awareness and mindfulness and observer consciousness?

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  2. Anonymous7:13 PM

    I wonder if he means the complete forgetfulness of the separate sense of self or the "I", by total absorption into whatever...?
    annie c

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think I like Annie's approach to this.

    I would suggest that there is a difference between self-awareness and self-consciousness. Perhaps what London is saying is that we're most alive when we forget our over-concern about self, when we forget our ego-clinging.

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