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This is a time when it is frightening to be alive, when it is hard to think of human beings as rational creatures. Everywhere we look we see brutality, stupidity, until it seems that there is nothing else to be seen but that – a descent into barbarism, everywhere, which we are unable to check. But I think that while it is true there is a general worsening, it is precisely because things are so frightening we become hypnotized, and do not notice – or if we notice, belittle – equally strong forces on the other side, the forces, in short, of reason, sanity and civilization.
- Doris Lessing, British novelist Of course we would all like to "believe" in something, like to assuage our private guilts in public causes, like to lose our tiresome selves; like, perhaps, to transform the white flag of defeat at home into the brave white banner of battle away from home. And of course it is all right to do that; that is how, immemorially, things have gotten done. But I think it is all right only so long as we do not delude ourselves about what we are doing, and why. It is all right only so long as we remember that all the ad hoc committees, all the picket lines, all the brave signatures in The New York Times, all the tools of agitprop straight across the spectrum, do not confer upon anyone any ipso facto virtue. It is all right only so long as we recognize that the end may or may not be expedient, may or may not be a good idea, but in any case has nothing to do with "morality." Because when we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something, not that it is a pragmatic necessity for us to have it, but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the land, and then is when we are in bad trouble.
- Joan Didion, American writer and journalist “Difference must be not merely tolerated but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic. Only then does the necessity for inter-dependency become unthreatening. Only with that inter-dependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate, as well as the courage and sustenance to act where there are no charters.”
- Audre Lorde, American writer, professor, philosopher, intersectional feminist, poet and civil rights activist Today I go back to the sea
And the wind-beaten rise of the foam. Today I go back to the sea And it's just as though I was home. It's just as though I was home again On this ship of iron and steam. It's just as though I'd found again The broken edge of a dream. - Langston Hughes, American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist It is more important to tell the simple, blunt truth than it is to say things that sound good. Life is not a contest of eloquence.
It is more important to act in behalf of everyone than it is to win arguments. Life is not a debating society. It is more important to respond wisely to what is happening than it is to be able to explain everything in terms of certain theories. Life is not a final examination for a college course. The wise person is not collecting a string of successes. The wise person is helping others to find their own success. There is plenty to go around. Sharing success with others is very successful. The single principle behind all creation teaches us that true benefit blesses everyone and diminishes no one. The wise person knows the reward for doing the work arises naturally out of the work. The cracks between the paving stones
Like rivers of flowing veins Strange people who know me Peeping from behind every window pane The girl I used to love Lives in this yellow house Yesterday she passed me by She doesn't want to know me now Can you see the real me? Can you? Can you? Can you see the real me? Can you? - Pete Townshend, British musician We believe profoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, spirit. Those who can preserve their self-hood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree; not a ripple upon the shining pool - those, in the mind of the person of nature, possess the ideal attitude and conduct of life.
If you ask us, "What is silence?" we will answer, "It is the Great Mystery. The holy silence is God's voice." If you ask, "What are the fruits of silence?" we will answer, "They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character." - "Wisdom of the Native Americans," edited by Kent Nerburn One may suddenly be aware one is a human doing when, in fact, one is a human being. One may wish to explore one's identity as a human being and discover one is, in fact, being itself. One may explore being further and discover being is experiencing itself as the form of the world for the purpose of infusing it with love. One may explore this purpose further and find being does so for no other purpose than it is its nature to do so.
Human beings can have experiences and worldviews that extend beyond the personal level of psyche and outer events, including:
We want the world to allow the unconditional fulfillment of all our aspirations, and since this does not happen, we fall prey to suffering. Our search for happiness is more often founded on our illusions than on reality. It is pointless to try to shape the world to fit our desires: we must transform our minds.
- Matthieu Ricard, Nepalese French writer, photographer, translator, and Buddhist monk |
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January 2026
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