History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think. The dynamics of the natural world are complex, interconnected, and often nonlinear, while human thought and understanding tend to be linear and fragmented. This mismatch leads to misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and unintended consequences, giving rise to many of the significant challenges we face. In this context, it becomes evident that psychic processes, including consciousness, thoughts, emotions, feelings, and motivations, are deeply conditioned by the fundamental principles of nature and biological processes. Our ways of thinking and perceiving are inherently influenced by the intricate web of life and the physical world around us. Therefore, to truly understand the nature of our psychic processes, we must recognize and appreciate the profound impact of the natural world on the human mind.
Countries with high levels of atheism are . . . the most charitable both in terms of the percentage of their wealth they devote to social welfare programs and the percentage they give in aid to the developing world.
Why do people believe that there are dangerous implications of the idea that the mind is a product of the brain, that the brain is organized in part by the genome, and that the genome was shaped by natural selection?
To find out actually what takes place when you die you must die. This isn't a joke. You must die - not physically but psychologically, inwardly, die to the things you have cherished and to the things you are bitter about. If you have died to one of your pleasures, the smallest or the greatest, naturally, without any enforcement or argument, then you will know what it means to die. To die is to have a mind that is completely empty of itself, empty of its daily longing, pleasure; and agonies. Death is a renewal, a mutation, in which thought does not function at all because thought is old. When there is death there is something totally new. Freedom from the known is death, and then you are living.