Momenti di apertura della coscienza, occasionali e sfuggenti



"But there are moments when one’s own life feels less precious, or less crucial – and not in a despairing way. And without the support of any imagined afterlife. It might be that the fear of not-existing is – if only for a little while – less intense.

Perhaps looking out over the ocean at dusk or walking in woodland in winter, or listening to a particular piece of music Bach’s double violin concerto, that it would be alright not to exist; one can contemplate a world in which one is no longer present with some tranquility and still feel appreciative of life. 

In such rare moments of higher consciousness, one’s mortality is less of a burden; one’s interests can be put aside; you can fuse with transient things: trees, wind, waves breaking on the shore. From that higher point of view, status doesn’t seem important, possession don’t seem to matter, grievances lose their urgency; one is serene. 

If certain people could encounter you at this point they be amazed at the transformation.

These higher states of consciousness are short lived. We have to accept that. We shouldn’t aspire to make them permanent – because they don’t sit so well with many of the very important practical tasks that we need to attend to.

We don’t need to be always in them. But we do need to make the most of them. We have to harvest them and preserve them so that we can have access to them when we need them most. The problem is that when we are in these higher states of mind we have highly important insights; but we lose access to them when we return to the ordinary conditions of life. 

And so we don’t get the benefit of the insight that was there in those special moments".

Know yourself.


I momenti di apertura della coscienza sono occasionali e sfuggenti. Ecco perche' e' importante avere sempre con se' il proprio Moleskine (a proposito di quello che dicevamo qualche giorno fa commentando un'osservazione di Emerson).

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