Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Life, Consciousness, and Existence Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Consciousness itself does not hinder living in the present. In fact, it is only to a heightened awareness that the great door to the present opens at all. […]

Self-consciousness, however, does hinder the experience of the present. It is the one instrument that unplugs all the rest. (6.14-15)

Okay, here are the steps: (1) Decide what you want to see; (2) put yourself in the right environment to see it; (3) give yourself wholeheartedly to seeing; (4) bask in enlightenment. You're welcome.

Quote #5

But time is the one thing we have been given, and we have been given to time. Time gives us a whirl. We keep waking from a dream we can't recall, looking around in surprise, and lapsing back, for years on end. (6.25)

You know how some mornings you wake up and the feelings from a dream are still with you, even if you can't remember the details? Just because something happened in the past doesn't mean we're not still living in it.

Quote #6

Slow it down more, come closer still. A dot appears, a flesh-flake. It swells like a balloon; it moves, circles, slows and vanishes. This is your life. (8.53)

Dillard's using words like a microscope here, zooming in and out on geography and time.