Each of us is the Universe experiencing itself …

• The Universe is the body of God. Bernard Haisch
• You are the universe experiencing itself. Ziad Masri
• Man is a piece of the universe made alive. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The universe delights in itself through the form. Eckhart Tolle
• We are the universe pretending to be individuals. Deepak Chopra
• You are the universe expressing itself as a temporary form. Eckhart Tolle
• Mind is a tool invented by the universe to see itself. Robert Anton Wilson
• Each of us is an aperture through which the whole cosmos looks out. Alan Watts
• You are the Universe expressing itself as a human for a little while. Eckhart Tolle
• At this very moment, the cosmos is thinking through you. Deepak Chopra and Menas Kafatos
• You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself. Alan Watts
• Your self is the universe, and you perceive the universe through a state of mind. Frederick Lenz
• The universe is a giant perceptual matrix. It perceives itself through its substance. Frederick Lenz
• The universe is experiencing itself for a brief moment as a human being. And as a plant. Eckhart Tolle
• Sight, sound, and all other qualities arose so that the universal mind could experience itself. Deepak Chopra
• I used to feel like a guy experiencing the universe and now I feel like the universe experiencing a guy. Jim Carey
• The universe wants to experience itself more fully through you. The universe is conscious through you. Anthony Lambert
• Life is the universe’s way of experiencing itself. Awareness is Life’s way of experiencing the universe. Anthony Lambert
• The universe wants to know its own source. There is an outward movement into creation and a rerun movement that wants to realise itself in its essence through you. Eckhart Tolle
• We are the eyes of the cosmos. So that in a way, when you look deeply into somebody’s eyes, you’re looking deep into yourself, and the other person is looking deeply into the same self. Alan Watts
• Each person’s life – each life-form, in fact – represents a world, a unique way in which the universe experiences itself. And when your form dissolves, a world comes to an end – one of countless worlds. Eckhart Tolle
• Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence. Alan Wilson Watts
• We do not “come into” this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean “waves,” the universe “peoples.” Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. Alan Wilson Watts
• …in not too long a time, it’s going to become basic common sense that you are not some alien being who confronts an external world that is not you, but that almost every intelligent person will have the feeling of being an activity of the entire universe. Alan Watts
• The only real “you” is the one that comes and goes, manifests and withdraws itself eternally in and as every conscious being. For “you” is the universe looking at itself from billions of points of view, points that come and go so that the vision is forever new. Alan Watts
• Once the conviction: ‘I am not the body’ becomes so well grounded that he can no longer feel, think and act for and on behalf of the body, he will easily discover that he is the universal being, knowing, acting, that in him and through him the entire universe is real, conscious and active. Nisargadatta Maharaj
• And because we are alive, the universe must be said to be alive. We are its consciousness as well as our own. We rise out of the cosmos and we see its mesh of patterns, and it strikes us as beautiful. And that feeling is the most important thing in all the universe—its culmination, like the color of the flower at first bloom on a wet morning. Kim Stanley Robinson
• Evolution is the development of the energy of the universe in such a way that it has an increasing ability to consciously control itself and the universe around it. It is a progressive change from the unconscious to the conscious. We are the universe trying to comprehend itself. Man is the corporeal manifestation of the universe trying to control its own destiny. Man is God in the process of coming into existence. James Hart
• We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: star-stuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring. Carl Sagan

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… becoming conscious of itself …

• The All is conscious. It is self-aware. Adyashanti
• The universe is self-aware through us. Amit Goswami
• We are the universe itself becoming aware. Natalie Batalha
• We are the eyes of the universe looking at itself. Deepak Chopra
• Through you, the universe is becoming aware of itself! Eckhart Tolle
• You are the universe which is becoming conscious through you. Eckhart Tolle
• We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. Carl Sagan
• You are a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. Eckhart Tolle
• Consciousness … is the phenomenon whereby the universe’s very existence is made known. Roger Penrose
• Matter has reached the point of beginning to know itself. . .. Man is a star’s way of knowing about stars. George Wald
• Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself. Thomas Nagel
• The human is that being in whom the Universe activates, reflects upon, and celebrates itself in conscious self-awareness. Thomas Berry
• With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
• Through conscious beings the universe has generated self-awareness. This can be no trivial detail, no minor byproduct of mindless, purposeless forces. We are truly meant to be here. Paul Davies
• You are not in the universe, you are the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle. Eckhart Tolle
• You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.  Eckhart Tolle
• The “secret intention” of the Lila is the “transformation” from unconscious matter to conscious beings to individuals in the cosmos who recognize their place in the Divine and the Sachchidananda that permeates life and existence with that level of awakening. Matthew W. Morey
• The universe has become not only conscious and aware of itself but capable in some respects of choosing its path into the future–though all three, the consciousness, the knowledge, and the choice, are dispersed over a vast crowd of beings, acting both individually and collectively. Thomas Nagel
• The scientific story of the evolving cosmos is a new version of this ancient myth. It relates how the oneness of unconscious nature has become conscious of itself through evolving into ever more complex forms, until it reaches the human form in which it is conscious of being conscious. Tim Freke
• It’s taken 14 billion years for matter to gain the capacity to become conscious of itself. If this is true, it wouldn’t make any sense that the whole point of enlightenment would be to escape from the whole process at the very instant that the universe is beginning to awaken to itself. Andrew Cohen
• Evolution is the development of the energy of the universe in such a way that it has an increasing ability to consciously control itself and the universe around it. It is a progressive change from the unconscious to the conscious. We are the universe trying to comprehend itself. Man is the corporeal manifestation of the universe trying to control its own destiny. Man is God in the process of coming into existence. James Hart
• He always reminded us that every atom in our bodies was once part of a distant star that had exploded. He talked about how evolution moves from simplicity toward complexity, and how human intelligence is the highest known expression of evolution. I remember him telling me that a frog’s brain is much more complex than a star. He saw human consciousness as the first neuron of the universe coming to life and awareness. A spark in the darkness, waiting to spread to fire. Greg Iles

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… coming to know and understand itself

• We are the universe pretending to be individuals. Deepak Chopra
• We’re made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself,” Carl Sagan
• The Creator wants to experience itself from an infinite number of perspectives… Ziad Masri
• Without us here to witness, the universe is just pointless physics unfolding. Daniel H. Wilson
• We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself. Brian Cox
• Sight, sound, and all other qualities arose so that the universal mind could experience itself. Deepak Chopra
• The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.  Carl Sagan
• We are the universe trying to comprehend itself. Man is God in the process of coming into existence. James Hart
• Matter has reached the point of beginning to know itself. . . . Man is a star’s way of knowing about stars. George Wald
• The vastness carries a non-personal desire to experience itself. This appears to be the purpose of human life-for the vastness to meet itself everywhere it turns. Suzanne Segal
• We are the eyes of the cosmos. So that in a way, when you look deeply into somebody’s eyes, you’re looking deep into yourself, and the other person is looking deeply into the same self. Alan Watts
• Quite possibly, the purpose of the universe is to provide a congenial home for self-conscious creatures who can ask profound questions and who can probe the nature of the universe itself. Owen Gingerich
• This is a cyclical process of expansion that is literally endless. As one cycle comes to completion, the universe is “completed” and another is born to allow for more experience and expansion. Ziad Masri
• We are the Cosmos made conscious. Life is the means by which the universe understands itself. And for me, our true significance lies in our ability to understand and explore this beautiful universe. Brian Cox
• Our universe is still unfolding and human beings are active and creative participants. Creativity is both the universe’s ordering principle and its process, part of the greater creativity of nature. Gregory Cajete
• The Universe is a unity, an interacting and genetically-related community of beings bound together in an inseparable relationship in space and time… The human is that being in whom the Universe activates, reflects upon, and celebrates itself in conscious self-awareness. Thomas Berry
• The scientific story of the evolving cosmos is a new version of this ancient myth. It relates how the oneness of unconscious nature has become conscious of itself through evolving into ever more complex forms, until it reaches the human form in which it is conscious of being conscious. Tim Freke
• While the functions continue to function, it is now seen that they have always been engaged not for a personal purpose, but to do whatever the vastness deems obvious in the service of freedom. The vastness has its own non-personal desire to perceive itself directly through itself using the circuitry of every human being. Suzanne Segal
• The fundamental motif at the heart of many ancient myths is that the primal oneness of being is manifesting as the multiplicity of life, so that it can come to know itself. As the Gnostic sage Simon Magus says in ‘The Great Announcement’: There is one power… begetting itself, increasing itself, seeking itself, finding itself… One root of the All. Tim Freke
• Source not only resides in us, but is Us. Source, God, Universe, whatever your choice of Name is, it’s all the same. In the inception of the Universe, Source became curious and chose to make Itself vulnerable to the experiences of Its choosing. Whether it was living in pure energy, or living as solid matter as we see It, plant, animal, insect, human, and yes even inanimate objects. Hillis Pugh
• The pivotal role of observers in quantum theory is very curious. Is it possible that we have a cosmic purpose after all? Did the universe blossom into an untold number of realities, each containing billions of galaxies and vast oceans of emptiness between them, just to produce a few scattered communities of observers? Is the ultimate goal of the universe to observe its own splendor? Mark Alpert
• I love to think of the whole universe together as one eternal fact. I love to think that everything is alive; that crystallization is itself a step toward joy. I love to think that when a bud bursts into blossom: it feels a thrill. I love to have the universe full of feeling and full of joy, and not full of simple dead, inert matter, managed by an old bachelor for all eternity. Robert Green Ingersoll
• Evolution is the development of the energy of the universe in such a way that it has an increasing ability to consciously control itself and the universe around it. It is a progressive change from the unconscious to the conscious. We are the universe trying to comprehend itself. Man is the corporeal manifestation of the universe trying to control its own destiny. Man is God in the process of coming into existence. James Hart
• There, all around you and within you, is Life. Look and see what it is, look and see that beneath and beyond that small package of human fears and desires called you-the-person there lurks the splendor and magnificence of the cosmos itself, by whatever name you prefer to call IT. Each of these human lives that we so fearfully protect are simply another novel variation of the game of finding one’s Self over and over in countless disguises. Roger Stephens
• There was a message written in pencil on the tiles by the roller towel. This was it: What is the purpose of life? Trout plundered his pockets for a pen or pencil. He had an answer to the question. But he had nothing to write with, not even a burnt match. So he left the question unanswered, but here is what he would have written, if he had found anything to write with: To be the eyes and ears and conscience of the Creator of the Universe, you fool. Kurt Vonnegut

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… coming to rediscover its oneness

• The primal oneness of unconscious awareness is arising as separate centres of consciousness, because through these centres of consciousness it can come to know that all is one. Life is on a journey from unconscious oneness through conscious separateness to conscious oneness. Tim Freke
• The fundamental motif at the heart of many ancient myths is that the primal oneness of being is manifesting as the multiplicity of life, so that it can come to know itself. As the Gnostic sage Simon Magus says in ‘The Great Announcement’: There is one power… begetting itself, increasing itself, seeking itself, finding itself… One root of the All. Tim Freke