Consciousness...

Before the world was, consciousness was. In consciousness it comes into being, in consciousness it lasts and into pure consciousness it dissolves. At the root of everything is the feeling "I am". The state of mind "there is a world" is secondary, for to be, I do not need the world, the world needs me.

The world comes into being only when you are born in a body. No body - no world.

All the universe of experience is born with the body and dies with the body; it has its beginning and end in awareness, but awareness knows no beginning, nor end.

To be born means to create a world round yourself as the centre.



Nisargadatta Maharaj from 'I Am That'