When one realizes one is asleep, at that moment one is already half-awake. - Petr Uspensky

Attaining consciousness is connected with the gradual liberation from mechanicalness, for man is fully and completely under mechanical laws.

Our thought has acquired many bad habits, and one of them is thinking without purpose. Our thinking has become automatic; we are quite satisfied if we think of and develop possible side-issues without having any idea why we are doing it. From the point of view of this system such thinking is useless. All study, all thinking and investigation must have one aim, one purpose in view, and this aim must be attaining consciousness.

Tudo no universo, a partir dos sistemas solares até o homem, e desde o homem até o átomo, ou evolui ou degenera, ou se desenvolve ou se desintegra. Mas nada evolui mecanicamente; só a degeneração e a destruição ocorrem mecanicamente. Aquilo que não pode evoluir conscientemente degenera-se.