Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 “You cannot speak of a beginning of consciousness. The very idea of beginning and time are within consciousness. To talk meaningfully of the beginning of anything, you must step out of it and the moment you step out, you realize that there is no such thing and never was. There is only reality in which no ‘thing’ has any being on its own. Like waves are inseparable from the ocean so is all existence rooted in being.”