Liminal

 "New pond.
No sound of a frog
Jumping in.
...
Past has passed away.
Future has not arrived.
Present does not remain.
...
I don’t tell the murky world
to turn pure.
I purify myself
and check my reflection in
the water of the valley brook."

- Ryōkan (1758 - 1831)

Subliminal Worlds

"'Can we perceive those inorganic beings, don Juan?' I asked. 'We certainly can,' he replied. 'Sorcerers do it at will. Average people do it, but they don't realize that they're doing it because they are not conscious of the existence of a twin world. When they think of a twin world, they enter into all kinds of mental masturbation, but it has never occurred to them that their fantasies have their origin in a subliminal knowledge that all of us have: that we are not alone.'"

- Carlos Castaneda (1925 - 1998)
The Active Side of Infinity

Liminal Beauty

"The question is not what you look at,
but what you see. It is only necessary
to behold the least fact or phenomenon,
however familiar, from a point a hair's breadth
aside from our habitual path or routine,
to be overcome, enchanted by its
beauty and significance."

- Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

Liminal State of Awareness

"There is another place that can be summoned through practice that is not the imagination, but more a secondary positioning of your mind with regard to spiritual matters… It is a kind of liminal state of awareness, before dreaming, before imagining, that is connected to the spirit itself. It is an “impossible realm” where glimpses of the preternatural essence of things find their voice. Arthur lives there. Inside that space, it feels a relief to trust in certain glimpses of something else, something other, something beyond."

- Nick Cave (1957 - )
Faith, Hope and Carnage

Subliminal Knowledge

 "Can we perceive those
inorganic beings,
don Juan?" I asked.
"We certainly can," he replied.
"Sorcerers do it at will.
Average people do it,
but they don't realize that
they're doing it because
they are not conscious of the
existence of a twin world.
When they think of a twin world,
they enter into all kinds
of mental masturbation,
but it has never occurred
to them that their fantasies
have their origin in a
subliminal knowledge that
all of us have:
that we are not alone."

- Carlos Castaneda (1925 - 1998)
The Active Side of Infinity

Ego and Truth

"... we have not perceived the whole truth unless we have also perceived that the truth must operate.  If we think it is the "Ego" or the "I" that operates, we are confused.  (For example, that we follow truth because we are "honest," so that the Ego makes a "choice" ---as if the Ego could with meaning and sense choose to be "dishonest" and thus follow a falsehood.)  In reality, it is the truth that operates, outside of the preferences of the Ego.  And indeed, the truth can even operate on the Ego, by perceiving and understanding its motivations deeply.  So what happens is that the basic principle of the individual ceases to be the Ego and is truth instead.

Now, at present, this happens in a restricted domain, such as science or art.  But to see the basic principle of truth itself, it would be necessary for the individual to allow truth to operate unhindered in every field.  A basic part of the whole truth is to perceive the falsity of every operative idea that is really false.  This is extraordinarily difficult, as our motivations are confused and twisted in a very complicated way.  Many of our false ideas operate subliminally, or even subconsciously.  The problem is far more difficult to understand, than for example the theory of relativity, so that it requires a sustained and serious effort. "

- David Bohm

(1917 - 1992)