Week 2019-24

[#belief, #action]
“Every belief that you hold manifests itself in some manner by either causing you to take some form of action or by preventing you from taking action. If you don't believe something is possible, you won't even attempt it.” (Chris Prentiss, “Zen and the Art of Happiness”, 2006)

[#truth, #expectations]
"An ignorant man believes that the whole universe only exists for him: as if nothing else required any consideration. If, therefore, anything happens to him contrary to his expectation, he at once concludes that the whole universe is evil. If, however, he would take into consideration the whole universe, form an idea of it, and comprehend what a small portion he is of the Universe, he will find the truth." (Maimonides, "Guide for the Perplexed", cca. 1190)

[#limits, #creativity]
"I dislike frontiers, political or intellectual, and I find that ignoring them is an essential catalyst for creative thought. Ideas should flow without hindrance in their natural course." (Michael Atiyah)

[#models, #growth]
“Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.” (John Stuart Mill)

[#experience, #perception]
"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them." (Kahlil Gibran)

[#growth, #life]
"It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow." (Robert Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", 1974)

[#vision, #dreams]
"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens." (Carl Gustav Jung)

[#happiness, #self]
"The great majority of spiritual teachings are based on the idea of seeking happiness while standing in afixated self, whereas Zen states that happiness comes through dissolving and unfixating that self. In other words, by dissolving we mean that act oj true love which is the total giving of one's being to the so called other." (Joshu Sasaki Roshi)

[#knowledge, #self]
"Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms." (Khalil Gibran)

[#learning, #mastery]
"It is known that, when we learn or train in something, we pass through the stages of shu, ha, and ri. These stages are explained as follows. In shu, we repeat the forms and discipline ourselves so that our bodies absorb the forms that our forebears created. We remain faithful to these forms with no deviation. Next, in the stage of ha, once we have disciplined ourselves to acquire the forms and movements, we make innovations. In this process the forms may be broken and discarded. Finally, in ri, we completely depart from the forms, open the door to creative technique, and arrive in a place where we act in accordance with what our heart/mind desires, unhindered while not overstepping laws." (Endō Seishirō)

Week 2017-30

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." (Roald Dahl)

"There is nothing in this world which does not speak. Every thing and every being is continually calling out its nature, its character, its secret; the more the inner sense is open, the more capable it becomes of hearing the voice of all things." (Inayat Khan)

"Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot.
Seek the path that demands your whole being." (Rumi)

"When mind is still, then truth gets her chance to be heard in the purity of the silence." (Sri Aurobindo)

"Bringing joy to one heart with love is better than one thousand repetitive prayer recitings." (Sufi saying)

"In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." (Albert Camus)

"Let your mind wander in the pure and simple.
Be one with the infinite.
Let all things take their course." (Zhuangzi)

"Things are not difficult to make; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the state of mind to make them." (Constantin Brâncuși)

"To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved." (George MacDonald)

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." (Anaïs Nin)

Week 2017-10

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." (Winston Churchill)

"Where shall we begin? There is no beginning. Start where you arrive. Stop before what entices you. And work! You will enter little by little into the entirety. Method will be born in proportion to your interest." (Auguste Rodin)

"The most dangerous of our prejudices reign in ourselves against ourselves. To dissolve them is a creative act." (Hugo von Hofmannsthal)

"[…] there are no backwaters. There is only one river, and we are all in it." (Scott Russell Sanders, “Writing from the Center”, 1997)

"There is another interesting paradox here: by immersing ourselves in what we love, we find ourselves. We do not lose ourselves. One does not lose one’s identity by falling in love." (Lukas Foss)

"If you look for the truth outside yourself, it gets farther and farther away." (Tung-shan)

"If one will just think about what he is to do for the day at hand, he will be able to do anything. If it is a single day's work, one should be able to put up with it. Tomorrow, too, is but a single day." (Hagakure)

"Maturity of mind is the capacity to endure uncertainty." (John Finley)

"No object is mysterious. The mystery is in your eye." (Elizabeth Bowen)

"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." (Nelson Mandela)

Week 2016-52

"One's work may be finished some day, but one's education never." (Alexandre Dumas)

"Be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves." (Rainer Maria Rilke)

   
"Make a game of finding something positive in every situation. Ninety-five percent of your emotions are determined by how you interpret events to yourself." (Brain Tracy)

"Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable." (William Pollard)

"The dark night of the soul is when you have lost the flavor of life but have not yet gained the fullness of divinity." (Ram Dass)   

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct arising from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the object it loves." (Carl Jung)

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." (Victor Frankl)

"The first step is to penetrate the clouds of deceit and distortion and learn the truth about the world, then to organize and act to change it. That's never been impossible and never been easy." (Noam Chomsky)

"To accomplish great things we must dream as well as act." (Anatole France)

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly." (Henri Bergson)

Week 2016-50

"Many men go fishing all their lives not knowing it is not fish they are after." (Henry David Thoreau)

"The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists." (Japanese saying)

"Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." (George Bernard Shaw)  

"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding." (Khalil Gibran)

"He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future." (Quevedo)

"We carry within us the wonders we seek without us." (Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich, "Religio Medici")

"The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat." (Napoleon Hill)

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we have a clear picture of it." (Benedict Spinoza)

"If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins." (Benjamin Franklin)

"Childhood is the world of miracle and wonder; as if creation rose, bathed in the light, out of the darkness, utterly new and fresh and astonishing. The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us." (Eugène Ionesco)