One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name - Sir Walter Scott.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Albert Einstein on Delusion

Here is a extract from the 'Tibetan Book of Living and Dying' by Sogyal Rinpoche, a teacher of Buddhist meditation, quoting the great scientist Albert Einstein. It is one of those rare and refreshing glimpses of 'science' embracing unquantifiable and indefinable concepts of 'compassion' and 'beauty':
"A human being is part of a whole, called by us "the Universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself,  his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us , restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in it's beauty."



Originally from Albert Einstein, 'Ideas and Opinions', translated by Sonja Bargmann (NY Crown publishers, 1954) quoted in Sogyal Rinpoche, 'The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying'  Pg 99 (Pub Harper 2002)


Andante

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