Our conceptions of the world affect our perceptions of the world which, in turn, condition the way we subsequently conceive the world.
Stephen Batchelor[Mindfulness] is not concerned with anything transcendent or divine. It serves as an antidote to theism, a cure for sentimental piety, a scalpel for excising the tumor of metaphysical belief. (130)
Stephen BatchelorEvasion of the unadorned immediacy of life is as deep-seated as it is relentless. Even with the ardent desire to be aware and alert in the present moment, the mind flings us into tawdry and tiresome elaborations of past and future. This craving to be otherwise, to be elsewhere, permeates the body, feeling, perceptions, will - consciousness itself. It is like the background radiation from the big bang of birth, the aftershock of having erupted into existence.
Stephen BatchelorThis body is fragile. It is just flesh. Listen to the heartbeat. Life depends on the pumping of a muscle.
Stephen Batchelor