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Quote by Francisco Varela

“I'm a biologist who has been interested in the biological roots of cognitive phenomena.”

Quote by Francisco Varela

Author

Francisco Varela

Francisco Varela was a prominent biologist, born on September 7, 1946, and passed away on May 28, 2001. His research focused on cognitive science, bio philosophy, and systems biology, profoundly influencing the development of modern biology and cognitive science. more

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“The emergence of a unified cognitive moment relies on the coordination of scattered mosaics of functionally specialized brain regions. Here we review the mechanisms of large-scale integration that counterbalance the distributed anatomical and functional organization of brain activity to enable the emergence of coherent behaviour and cognition. Although the mechanisms involved in large-scale integration are still largely unknown, we argue that the most plausible candidate is the formation of dynamic links mediated by synchrony over multiple frequency bands.”

“The relations that define a system as a unity, and determine the dynamics of interaction and transformations which it may undergo as such a unity constitute the organization of the machine.”

May Machines Organization Relation Transformation Unity Determine Interaction Dynamics

Author:Francisco Varela

“As Buddhist teachers often point out, knowledge, in the sense of prajña, is not knowledge about anything. There is no abstract knower of an experience that is separate from the experience itself.”

Teacher Buddhist Abstract

Book:The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience

Source: The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience

“The cybernetics phase of cognitive science produced an amazing array of concrete results, in addition to its long-term (often underground) influence”

Long Term Results Influence Long Term Concrete Phases Cognitive Cognitive Science Cybernetics

Book:The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience

Source: The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience

“All our suffering is associated with this pre-occupation. All loss and gain, pleasure and pain arise because we identify so closely with this vague feeling of selfness that we have. We are so emotionally involved with and attached to this "self" that we take it for granted.”

Self Feelings Pain Suffering Loss Pleasure Involved Gains Arise Granted Occupation Vague Pain And Pleasure

Author:Francisco Varela

“[M]any people would accept that we do not really have knowledge of the world; we have knowledge only of our representations of the world. Yet we seem condemned by our consitution to treat these representations as if they were the world, for our everyday experience feels as if it were of a given and immediate world.”

People Ifs World Feels Seems Given Accepting Treats Everyday Representation Knowledge Of The World

Author:Francisco Varela

“The importance of recovering the customs and the institutions of the past thus inaugurating the archaeological approach to art.”

Art Past Approach Importance Institutions Customs Recovering

Author:Raja Ravi Varma

“Spirituality does not mean going away from life. Spirituality means becoming alive in the fullest possible way so you are not just alive on the surface, you are alive to the core.”

Way Mean Doe Spirituality Alive Becoming Surface Core Going Away

Author:Jaggi Vasudev

“How Human beings are, that is how the society will be. So, creating human beings who are flexible and willing to look at everything rather than being stuck in their ideas and opinions definitely makes for a different kind of society. And the very energy that such human being carry will influence everything around them.”

Humans Looks Kind Ideas Different Energy Human Beings Opinion Influence Willing Creating Stuck Different Kinds Flexible

Author:Jaggi Vasudev

“Always think of what is useful and not what is beautiful. Beauty will come of its own accord.”

Thinking Beautiful Accord

Author:Nikolai Gogol