Being mindful is not a matter of thinking more clearly about experience; it is the act of experiencing more clearly, including the arising of thought… - Sam Harris

How is it that, in this one area of our lives [religion], we have convinced ourselves that our beliefs about the world can float entirely free of reason and evidence?

Being wisely selfish and being selfless can amount to very much the same thing. There are centuries of anecdotal testimony on this point — and, as we will see, the scientific study of the mind has begun to bear it out. There is now little question that how one uses one’s attention, moment to moment, largely determines what kind of person one becomes. Our minds — and lives — are largely shaped by how we use them.

There will always be some delay between the first neuropsychological events that kindle my next conscious thought and the thought itself. And even if they weren't — even if all mental states were truly coincident with their underlying brain states — I cannot decide what I will next think or intend until a thought or intention arises. What will my next mental state be? I do not know — it just happens. Where is the freedom in that?