"We have a curious illusion about ourselves: that we are a solid, separate ego, encapsulated within a bag of skin, and that this ego somehow animates the body. This illusion is due partly to the way we focus our attention. We concentrate on the relatively stable picture of the world which our senses give us, and we neglect the ceaseless dance of energy which is the real ground of all phenomena.
Yet this energy is not something alien to us. It is ourselves. We are not a rock, nor a tree, nor an animal. We are a flowing river, a cresting wave, a spinning flame. We are the energy that galaxies condense into suns, and suns condense into life-giving planets. We are the energy that flowers into the bodies of men and women, and that awakens in them the marvel of consciousness."
Alan Watts, "The Nature of Consciousness"