Let’s give up the need to believe in fairy tales. Consciousness doesn’t exist or work in mysterious ways outside of or away from the innermost depths of our individual and collective selves. Awakening to consciousness and its movements, its evolutionary leaps forward and its infinite failed attempts to do so, can be clearly and obviously discerned by looking closely at human history  —  from the most heinous crimes of the most notorious dictators to the highest spiritual attainments of our most revered saints and mystical luminaries.

Consciousness is not a mysterious dimension where forces disconnected from human volition are at work making all things possible or not. Consciousness is who we all are at the deepest level of our interiors  —  and how profound our recognition of that is can be seen through the choices we make and the actions we take. The more we not only awaken to that fact but take responsibility for it, the more quickly this world will become the paradise we all long for in our most inspired moments.

(by Andrew Cohen)