furyu

Would you be completely unconscious of comfortable shoes? No. Something better than comfortable shoes are shoes that you know are comfortable. So in the same way self-consciousness adds something to life. It is one thing to be happy and not know it, and it is another thing to be happy and to know it! It is like one's voice in the shower room or bathtub, which has more resonance than one's voice in the open air. That's why temples and cathedrals and resonating boxes for guitars and drums are created --- to give this little quality of echo, for all echo is a certain kind of feedback which enables you to reflect upon what you are doing and to know that you know.

-- Alan Watts Uncarved Block, Unbleached Silk