...a mind that has finally (in its last step forward) re-created chaos on its own. - Albert Camus
Nostalgia for the life of others. This is because, seen from the outside, another's life forms a unit. Whereas ours, seen from the inside, seems broken up. We are still chasing after an illusion of unity. - Albert Camus
Man has to suffer. When he has no real afflictions, he invents some. - Jose Marti
What really raises one's indignation against suffering is not the suffering intrinsically, but the senselessness of suffering. - Nietzsche
He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. - Montaigne
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces. Between stars - on stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places. - Robert Frost
Religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who have been there.
"Do not try to drive pain away by pretending that it is not real; Pain, if you seek serenity in Oneness, will vanish of its own accord." Seng-ts'an
"It's going to hurt now. Anything dead coming back to life hurts." Toni Morrison
Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defence against one's own despised and unwanted feelings. Alice Miller
"What is hell...... it is the suffering of being unable to love." Father Zossima in F. Dostoevsky's: The Brothers Karamazov (I,VI.3.i)
How long after you are gone will ripples remain as evidence that you were cast into the pool of life? - Grant M. Bright
Our hopes are but memories reversed.
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, I have made this place around you, If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here. No two trees are the same to Raven. No two branches are the same to Wren. If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you, You are surly lost. Stand still. The forest knows Where you are. You must let it find you. - From the poem 'Lost' - David Wagoner
The tremendous world I have in my head. But how to free myself and free it without being torn to pieces. - Franz Kafka
For years I was smart, I recommend pleasant. - Jimmy Stewart (From the movie: Harvey - 1950)
Talking about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself. - Nietzsche
"The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth... the purpose of this world is not 'to have and to hold' but 'to give and serve'" - Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell
"The impetus that makes you fly is our great human possession. Everybody has it. It is the feeling of being linked with with the roots of power, but one soon becomes afraid of this feeling. It's damned dangerous! That is why most people shed their wings and prefer to walk and obey the law. But not you. You go on flying. And look! You discover that you gradually begin to master your flight, that to the great general force that tears you upward there is added a delicate, small force of your own, an organ, a steering mechanism. How marvelous! Lacking that you would be drawn up to the heights, powerless - which is what happens to madmen. They possess deeper intimations than people who remain earthbound, but they have no key and no steering mechanism and roar off into infinity. But you... you are going about it the right way." - Hermann Hesse
The unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates
~A Native American Legend
Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.
-Waters, Gilmour, Wright
A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
-Gilmour, Moore, Ezrin, Carin
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.
The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things;
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear;
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
The sound of wings. — Amelia Earhart (1897-1937),
No amount of security is worth the suffering of a life lived chained to a routine that has killed your dreams. — Kent Nerburn
Until the pain of remaining the same hurts more than the pain of change, most people prefer to remain the same. — Dr. Richard D. Dobbins
"There is a difference between sticking with something you struggled for and getting rid of it when it's rotten and starts to make you sick." -Stephen King
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters by Portia Nelson
Chapter 1: I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in... I am lost... I am helpless... It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter 2: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in this same place. But it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter 3: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in... it's a habit... but my eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault, my responsibility. I get out immediately.
Chapter 4: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.
Chapter 5: I walk down another street!
Pain and Suffering is inevitable but, Misery is optional. -unknown
"The best mind altering drug is the truth" -Lily Tomlin
If you want to shrink something, you must 1st allow it to expand. If you wish to get rid of something, you must 1st allow it to flourish. If you want to take something, you must 1st allow it to be given. This is called the subtle perception of the way things are. -Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
"Healing... does not come from increasing the amount of light in our lives, but from reaching into the shadow and drawing unreconciled elements of ourselves into the light where they can be healed." -Greg Johnson & Rob Knutz (Grace Unfolding)
"There are some things we do not understand, yet they exist nonetheless" -Worf 'Star Trek, The Next Generation'
"Truth hurts - not the searching after; the running from!" -John Eyberg
"A tiny mirror can reflect a strong beam when it faces the light" - unknown
The Best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. -unknown
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; Who looks inside, awakes. -Carl Jung
"neurosis is the natural by-product of pain avoidance - Carl Jung
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. -Marcel Proust
"The mind that made you sick can also make you well" -unknown
Neurosis is the suffering of a soul which has not discovered its meaning. Carl Jung
"There is no birth of consciousness without pain." Carl Jung
". . . every psychic advance of man arises from the suffering of the soul. . . ." ("Psychotherapists or the Clergy" [_CW_ 11: 497]) Carl Jung
"Look, I really don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive, you got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colourful and lively." --Mel Brooks
"Nobody can give you a solution, until you tell them the problem" -Steve Hebert
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." --Ursula LeGuin
Nothing in life is trivial. Life is whole wherever and whenever we touch it, and one moment or event is not less sacred than another. -Vimala Thakar
Shame deadens the feelings of being human, and leads to rage. The sources of love for the self are love from others, and one's own love for oneself. Children who fail to receive sufficient love from others, fail to build up reserves of self-love, and the capacity for self-love, which enable them to survive the inevitable rejections and humiliations which even the most fortunate of people cannot avoid. Without feelings of love, the self feels numb, empty, and dead. To be overwhelmed by shame and humiliation causes the destruction of self-esteem. Without a certain amount of self-esteem, the self collapses and the soul dies. (Gilligan)
"The soul needs love as vitally as the lungs need oxygen; without it, the soul dies, just as the body does without oxygen."(Gilligan)
"But a joyless life is a synonym for hell. A man who does not love and cannot love, is in effect, condemned to hell.* His entire environment, from which -without love- he is cut off, is without enjoyment for him, and thus the world he "lives" in is a source of emptiness and emotional suffocation for him. Both the world and the self are experienced and perceived emotionally as being dead, inanimate, without a soul--without feelings.".................. (Gilligan)
"Since the sense of aliveness and humanness that comes from loving includes a vulnerability to pain, only those who are capable of risking pain can experience joy. Emotional health is not the absence of pain. It is the capacity to bear painful feelings when they occur, without letting them stop us from loving others and continuing to feel worthy of love ourselves. A person can expose himself to the vulnerability of loving another person only if he has enough self-esteem to protect himself from the devastation he would suffer if that love were not reciprocated. He cannot afford to give to another the love which he cannot give himself. If he has taken the chance and lost, the results can be immediately and devastatingly lethal, to others and to himself. Without love (by which I mean here love for oneself), the self collapses, the soul dies, the psyche goes to hell.
When you shame a person, it hurts. Shaming is the purposeful assault on the soul, that inner spirit which animates the person. When shamed, the victim marshals its resources to protect the soul. Normally, an individual has sufficient self-esteem to survive most attacks, and has the ability to change or exit the situation. However, in situations where self-esteem is insufficient, persistent and severe attacks may reach the inner core of the soul, leading to the response of rage and violence. Concomitant to such situations, is the physical and psychic pain which can be so overwhelming that the mind protects itself by automatically and unconsciously numbing itself, resulting in an individual that cannot feel. When the assault is extreme and inescapable, as may happen in child abuse, the result can be soul murder, leaving a sociopath, a physical body inhabited by a dead soul, a living machine that can kill or maim without feeling or remorse.
The Voice
There is a voice inside of you, That whispers all day long,
"I feel that this is right for me, I know that this is wrong."
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend, Or wise man can decide,
What's right for you -- just listen to, The voice that speaks inside.
-Shel Silverstein
Listen to the MUSTN'TS
Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child, Listen to the DON'TS;
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS; The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS;
Listen to the NEVER HAVES; Then listen close to me--
Anything can happen, child, ANYTHING can be.
- Shel Silverstein
Do not undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special. Do not set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless. Do not let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past nor for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life. Do not give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying. It is a fragile thread that binds us to each other. Do not be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave. Do not shut love out of your life by saying it is impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give love; The fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly. Do not dismiss your dreams. To be without dreams is to be without hope; To be without hope is to be without purpose. Do not run through life so fast that you forget not only where you have been, but also where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
If we knew we were on the right road, having to leave it would mean endless despair. But we are on a road that only leads to a second one and then to a third one and so forth. And the real highway will not be sighted for a long, long time, perhaps never. So we drift in doubt. But also in an unbelievable beautiful diversity. Thus the accomplishment of hopes remains an always unexpected miracle. But in compensation, the miracle remains forever possible. -Franz Kafka
What Is Success - by Ralph Waldo Emerson
To laugh often and love much.
To win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children.
To earn the approval of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;v
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give of one's self without the slightest thought of return;
To have accomplished a task, whether by a healthy child, a rescued soul, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;v
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exaltation;
To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded!
Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. ~Kahlil Gibran~
At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance. ~ Maurice Wagner ~
Those whose approval you seek most give you the least. ~ Rozanne Weissman
A baby is born with a need to be loved and never outgrows it. ~ Frank A. Clark ~
Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are -- chaff and grain together -- certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away… ~ Dinah Mulock ~
Often the test of courage is not to die but to live. ~ Vittorio Alfieri ~
Have the courage to live. Anyone can die. ~ Robert Cody ~
On Pain from 'The Prophet'
Tell us of Pain
And he said
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.
--Kahlil Gibran--
Many of us spend our whole lives
Running from feeling with the
Mistaken belief that you can
Not bear the pain. But you have
Already borne the pain
What you have not done
Is feel all you are
Beyond that pain
--Kahlil Gibran--
In the hour of adversity
Be not without hope
For crystal rain falls
From black clouds
--Persian Poem--
Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me --Freud Sigmund--
A writer writes not because
He is educated but because
He is driven by the need to communicate
Behind the need to communicate
Is the need to share
Behind the need to share
Is the need to be understood
The writer wants to be understood
Much more than he wants to be
Respected or praised or even loved
And that perhaps is what makes
Him different from others.
--Leo Rosten--
Never apologise for showing FEELING When you do so you apologise for the TRUTH --Benjamin Disraeli--
The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely --Jung Carl--
Every mans work
Whether it be literature
Or music or pictures
Or architecture or anything else
Is always a portrait of himself.
--Butler Samuel --
Three passions have governed my life
The longings for love-the search for knowledge
And unbearable pity for the suffering of humankind
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness
In the union of love I have seen in a mystic miniature
The Prefiguring vision Of the heavens
That saints and poets have imagined
With equal passion I have sought knowledge
I have wished to understand the hearts of people
I have wished to know why the stars shine
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens
But always pity brought me back to earth
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine and of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless
I long to alleviate the evil but I cannot
And I too suffer
This has been my life
I found it worth living
--Bertrand Russell--
“Man is fearful of things which cannot hurt him and he knows it; and he longs for things which can be of no good to him and he knows it; but in truth it is something in man himself of which he is afraid and it is something in man himself for which he longs.” Rabbi Nachman
