Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing [Hardcover ed.] 0977339106, 9780977339105

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Begin

now

to

he

w fiat you

~

St.

wiffhe hereafter.

Jerome

~

WISDOM forthe Soul FIVE MILLENNIA

OF PRESCRIPTIONS FOR SPIRITUAL HEALING Complied

& edited by

Larry Chang

Wherever you are

~

is

the entry point.

Kahir

~

Copyrighted material

The

fips

of the wise are as the doors of a

cabinet; no sooner are they opened, But the treasures areyoured before you. Like unto trees of

gold arranged

in beds of silver, are

wise sentences uttered in due season.

~

Khemetic Saying

~

Copyrighted material

The words that

cnfigfiten the soul are

~

moreyrecxous thanjewefs.

Hazrat Khan

~

FIVE MILLENNIA

OF PRESCRIPTIONS FOR SPIRITUAL HEALING Compifed

& Edited by

Larry Chang

You have come

~

here tojind

what ijou

Buddhist aphorism

G

ahreadij have.

~

GNOSOPHIA WASHINGTON

Wisdom jor the Souf: OF PRESCRIPTIONS FOR SPIRITUAL HEALING

FIVE MILLENNIA Copyright

© 2006

by Laurence Chang

All rights reserved.

No

part of this

book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any fomi or by any means, electronic or manual, including photocopying,

recording or by any information storage

and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in critical articles

or reviews.

Published by:

Gnosophia Publishers

PO Box 3 183 DC 20010-0183 USA

Washington,

http://www.wisdomforthesoul.org

[email protected]

Publisher's Cataloging-in 'Publication

Wisdom

for the soul

spiritual healing

/

:

five

millennia of prescriptions for

compiled

& edited by Larry Chang.

—

1st ed. p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

LCCN 2005933148 ISBN 0-9773391-0-6 1.

Self-realization— Quotations,

2. Spiritual

maxims,

life-Quotations, maxims, etc.

PN6084.S45W57 2006

I.

etc.

Chang, Larry.

158.1

QBI05-600159 First printing

Printed in

2006

USA

Copyrighted material

ents

Much

appreciation to Michael Davidson and Eddie

Maddox of Decatur,

Georgia;

Sammie

Georgia; Charmaine Limonius and

Nicely of Atlanta,

Txema Beato

of

New York, and Kingston, Jamaica; and Carl Neita and Namon Armstrong of Washington, DC, for opening their hearts and homes to me in my time of

Manhattan,

need, and with that, access to their personal libraries

from which

much of the

material herein was drawn.

And

John Evelyn Scott who took care of business while I wandered off doing this work; to Lisa Moore for her editorial assistance and proofreading; and Jessica Jones to

who encouraged me

along the way.

I Be

the cay\d(e or the mirror that reffects

~

Edith Wfiarton

it.

~

Copyrighted material

GUIDE TO USAGE

NAMES

:

For the most part, authors are

referred to in the text by the are

names they

most widely known, with birth and/or

other names listed in the index. For

example, Juan de Ypes

is

shown

as

John

of

the Cross, and indexed as such. Chinese

and Japanese names adhere to their order family name first, then given name,

of

throughout. Romanization of Chinese

names

follows the pinyin system.

ABBREVIATIONS USED: b.

bom

Common Era

BCE

Before the

c.

circa (about)

C.

Century

CE

Common Era

d.

died

fl.

flourished

Ibid.

from the same source

ed(s)

editor (s)

tr(s).

translator (s)

Copyrighted material

I Contents

Acknowledgments

5

Guide

6

to

Usage

Disclaimer

8

Introduction

9

Table of Subjects

17

Biographic al I nd e x

771

A uthor

819

Abo ut

the

Give your

ears,

Give your heart Ityrojits

hear the sayings,

to

understand them;

toyut them

in

your

heart.

~ Amenemoj>e ~

Copyrighted material

Discfaimer This book

is

designed to provide access to utterances and

may

expressions of opinion that

enlighten and inform.

While the reader may derive comfort and their perusal,

it is

relief

from

not intended to replace consultation

with the appropriate professionals for medical conditions.

I 'Tis the

good reader

hook; a

good head cannot read amiss:

that makes the

good in

every hook heJinds passages which seem confidences or asides hiddenjrom affefse

and unmistakahhj meantJor

~

his ear.

Rafph Wafdo Emerson

~

Copyrighted material

INTRODUCTION 9

Introduction Another book of quotations? Indeed there

are

numerous excellent extant anthologies of quotations,

but these tend to be very broad, with a bias toward classical and well-known authors. This anthology focuses

on the inner

on personal development and

life,

in chronological order.

The

self-actualization.

The quotations have been

and encourage, and they have been arranged by category and by author

selected to inspire, enlighten

resulting timeline of thought in itself is useful

and instructive

as

it

demonstrates very clearly the evolution of consciousness evident in the contemporary thinking on particular subjects.

One

or

more quotations

in

each

classification will

be sure to strike a responsive

chord in the reader.

Be tter than a thousand sayings composed of meaningless statements

is

a single meaningful

statement on hearing which one becomes calm. 563-483 BCE ~ The Dhammapada, Thomas Cleary,

~

Buddha,

c.

The words

~

Hazrat Khan, 1882-1927

In the stress of modem

may

relate or

throw

realizing that there

tr.,

1994

that enlighten the soul are

we seek solutions, or at least some insight from whatever quarter, that on the challenges we may be facing. We can take some small comfort in

no need

to reinvent the wheel.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's what others have labored hard for.

~

We have

jewels.

life,

light is

more precious than

~

writings, so that

a legacy of recorded thought spanning

some

five

The Logos

is

Somebody somewhere has

We can refer to what they have

probably been there, done that already.

we can

shall gain easily

millennia in various world cultures that

addresses every conceivable condition that has faced the individual.

experience, and

you

BCE ~

Socrates, 469-399

learn from them. There

is

something here

thought and

said of the

for everyone.

digging a channel for water to reach the next generation. is one who brings the word of God; who have come before are helpful. ~ 1207-1273

During every generation there Still

~

the sayings of those

Jalaluddin Rumi,

Mathnawi

III,

2537-2538

The Pocket Rumi Reader, Kabir Helminski,

ed.

All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to truly ours,

we must think them over

again honestly,

till

make them

they take root in our personal

experience.

~

Johann von Goethe, 1749-1832

The wisdom of the

~

Benjamin

Disraeli,

—

wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations. 1804-1881

~

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

INTRODUCTION Like

many before me,

I

10

have been a compulsive collector of quotations for years and sought a

to organize them for ready reference for my own use. As a counselor, I them as suggestions for clients to clarify particular issues before them. I more often than not found that someone had already expressed so cogently and concisely, and oftentimes poetically, the

convenient way in which offered

precise intangible

struggled to describe.

I

All of us encounter, at least once in our

think forever. There are

who

the secrets of life;

men whose

blurt out

life,

some individual who

phrases are oracles;

utters

words that make us

who can condense

an aphorism that forms a character, or

one sentence

in

illustrates

an

existence.

~ I

Disraeli

love quotations because

~ became

it is

thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed

a joy to find

much authority by someone ~

with

It

~

recognized wiser than oneself.

Marlene Dietrich, 19014992

so

I

had

difficulty in

conducting meaningful exchanges without peppering them, perhaps

unbearably pedagogically at times, with references to what someone else had pedantic in e-mail correspondence where

way,

my own inadequacies

I

have

fingertip access to the files

said.

I

am

at

on my hard

my most

drive. In this

of thought and expression are camouflaged and compensated

for,

creating

the spurious impression of great erudition.

I

quote others only the better to express myself.

~ I

Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592

~

always have a quotation for everything

~

-

it

saves original thinking.

~

Dorothy Sayers, 18934957

Have His Carcass

Next

~

to being witty yourself, the best thing

Christian Nestell Bovee,

18204 904

is

being able to quote another's wit.

~

Thoughts, Feelings and Fancies, 1857

If

I

quote

liberally,

it is

not to show off book learning, which at

my

stage of life

can only

invite ridicule, but rather to bathe in this kinship of strangers.

~ Tuan Yi-Fu, 1930- ~ Who Am I? An Autobiography of Emotion, Mind, and Spirit, Due

to faulty

memory

or sluggish synapses, however,

utterances. This collection

me

to save

is

as

I

1999

tended to mangle even well-known and noble

much for my own convenience, and As the exercise of handling these

untold embarrassment.

occasion of learning and a revelation, contributing greatly to in

my

literary education,

Misquotation

is

I

cannot

lay

filling

delectation, as for

anyone

quotations was in

itself

else's,

an

conspicuously rudimentary gaps

claim to Pearson's vindication:

the pride and privilege of the learned.

A widely read man never quotes

accurately, for the obvious reason that he has read too widely.

~

Edward Hesketh Gibbons Pearson, 1887-1964 Common Misquotations, 1937

~

Introduction,

While

I

would not expect the reader

have been known to happen. Like

someone repeated of what someone attributions appear, then

corrections will be

made

I

to indulge

me

in the children's else said. If

my

apologize ahead of time.

in misquoting within these pages, stranger things

game of telephone, I am merely repeating what sources got it wrong somehow, or incorrect If

in future editions. Likewise,

inaccuracies are brought to I

will readily

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

my

attention,

surrender any of the lines for

INTRODUCTION which I claim authorship, not necessarily because more illustrious sources. often quote myself;

I

~

it

adds spice to

George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950

I

I

I

never originated them but in deference to

earlier,

my conversation.

~

in Reader's Digest, 1943

One-line biographies of the authors, and citations of sources, are included where possible. Readers' curiosity

may

may be

act as

aroused to delve further into the

an introduction, a doorway to a

It is

good thing

an uneducated

for

life

and work of the authors. Their inclusion here thought and delight.

infinite universes of

man

books of quotations. The quotations, when

to read

engraved upon the memory, give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

~

Winston Churchill, 1874-1965

M} Early Life, I

~

1930

cannot better outline and describe the process of making

else?)

someone

One

could say of me that in this book

providing of my

~ The

string

criteria

own

only the string to

have only made up

I

them

tie

it

It is

is

it

may

be, differs

from the selective

own

infinitely malleable

criticism,

Its

preponderant worldview

creation, our experience of

it

reflects

based on our

and subject to our control, hence

it is

the

empowerment.

basis of our

is

flowers,

intended to parcel together related themes

purpose of self- analysis, elucidation and empowerment.

an inordinate amount of material

only scratching the surface relatively

bunch of other men's

eschews and omits expressions of unhelpful

the perennial philosophy and accepts a reality of our prevailing attitude. This attitude

There

a

together.

have provided, homespun and rough-drawn though

of most traditional collections in that

carping and cynicism, however trenchant and witty. for the

than by quoting (what

~

Montaigne

I

this collection

else:

—

available,

filtering for negativity

Of what

few were chosen.

and

I

have been through a great deal of it —

and unhelpfulness.

Many were

still

called but

remained, only those quotations characterized by clarity of

thought, lyricism or sonority, or possessed of that distinctive authoritative ring, were selected for inclusion. All spoke directly to me,

some

albeit in a whisper,

but they are

all

imbued with

a high

degree of authenticity.

A man will turn over half a library to make one book. ~

Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784

way

In the same

have a need

that

to feast

~

we sometimes hunger

on choice

for,

nay, crave, a particularly well-prepared dish, so

selections of words

we

and well-turned phrases that our souls may be

nourished.

A quotation at the right moment ~ Some

Talmud, 2

lld

th

-5

C.

is

like

bread in a famine.

CE ~

fit as easily in one category as another, and the reader may very To mitigate this somewhat, cross-indexing is provided but ultimately on my own subjective responses for which I take full responsibility. Another

quotations will be found to

well question their assignment.

the choices were based studied departure

more than

is

the inclusion of quotations from less familiar sources, tending to encompass,

heretofore, thinkers and writers of non-western cultures, of people of color, from the

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

INTRODUCTION earliest

12

recorded Khemetic civilization to the present time. Creating a forum for unfamiliar and

seldom heard voices makes

it

a

more

inclusive,

Voices previously drowned out

...

more global representation.

can have special meaning

in the struggle to eradicate

inequality.

~

Allan Hutchinson

~

Despite this intention, however, the preponderance of Western authors limitations

and a

is

not surprising given the

of selecting from available writings in English. In some instances,

priori bias

quotations have been rendered as well in their original languages.

men are interdependent. Every nation is an heir of a vast treasury of ideas and labor to which both the living and the dead of all nations have contributed. Whether we realize it or not, each of us lives eternally "in the red." We are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women. All

~

Martin Luther King,

The Words

Jr.,

1929-1968

of Martin Luther King,

Jr.,

~

Coretta Scott King,

ed.,

1983

What began as a divertissement soon took over to become an obsession with no apparent end in sight. am still discovering words of wisdom; new profundities are being uttered every day. Perhaps I

have inadvertently stumbled upon the ultimate perpetual motion machine,

I

as future editions of

number will have to reflect and include latterly revealed and newly minted expressions of wisdom. The criteria for selection will evolve and the categories themselves will tend to proliferate as hitherto undefined distinctions of psycho-spiritual subtleties become established. indeterminate

The majority of those who put together collections who eat cherries or oysters: they begin by choosing ~ Sebastien Chamfort, 1741-1794 ~ There are a number of ways to

many

this

anthology can be used.

The

of verses or epigrams resemble those the best and end by eating everything.

first

and most obvious

is

as a reference

of the world's great quotations, providing quick access to part of humanity's greatest legacy:

recorded thought. They are cross-referenced and indexed by subject and author.

The

lips

of the wise are as the doors of a cabinet; no sooner are they opened, but the

treasures are poured before you. Like unto trees of gold arranged in beds of silver, are wise

sentences uttered in due season.

~

Khemetic Saying

Term Tchaas: Egyptian

The teachings

~ Proverbs,

Muata Ashaya Ashby,

ed.,

1994

of elegant sayings

Should be collected when one can. For the supreme

gift

of words of wisdom,

Any price will be paid. ~ Nagaijuna, c. D-2 nd C. CE ~ tl.

The wisdom of the

wise and the experience of the ages

nation's proverbs, fables, folk wisdom,

~ The

art

of thinking

is

practiced by

which we think. There

them and the

is

effect they

all

of us with greater or lesser

much we can learn from have on

us.

is

preserved, into perpetuity, by a

maxims, aphorisms and quotations.

~

William Feather, 1889-1981

In this way,

facility.

Language

the words selected by others,

we

refine

and

clarify

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

our

own

is

how

the

medium

in

they combined

thinking process.

INTRODUCTION

When ideas fail, ~ If

we have

words come in very handy.

Johann von Goethe, 1749-1832

need to communicate the

a

able to express

been

13

~

results of this process to

another

human being, we need

to be

what we think in a way that convinces them of what we think. Reference to what has is often an effective way to do this, for the recipient commonly shares in the same

said before

literary legacy.

An apt quotation is like ~

L. E.

Landon

Romance and

a

lamp which

flings its light

over the whole sentence.

~

Reality,

1848

A quotation in a speech,

article or

book

is

like a rifle in the

hands of an infantryman.

It

speaks with authority.

~

Brendan Francis

~ much

Researchers, speakers and writers will find calling, likes to relate to

thinking.

what others have

said

to

mine

here, but everyone, regardless of station or

and quote whatever amplifies or supports our

adds another dimension, gives validity and increases the legitimacy of what

It

are able to allude,

however

obliquely, to

some

we

say

if

we

prior well- turned, but hopefully not well-worn,

utterance.

A book that furnishes no quotations

is,

~

~

Caroline Ponsonby Lamb, 1785-1828

me judice, no book — it

a plaything.

is

Crochet Castle

hate quotations. Tell

I

~

me what you know. ~

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

Journals of Ralph

Waldo Emerson, 1863

By

by proclivity - and by delight, we

~

necessity,

new make

All minds quote. Old and

thread that

is

mind.

It

ineffable

may

to utilize

itself

quote.

warp and woof of every moment. There

with some prophetic

Wisdom

for the Soul

can be both diagnostic and

human

the

not a twist of these two strands

complacently caps ~ Emerson ~

The second way

all

~

Emerson

spirit, to self-treat

is

... The highest statement of new maxim from the oldest learning.

as a field guide to varying

prescriptive, allowing us to identify

how

no

experiences and states of

and better understand the

whatever sense of dissatisfaction or dis-ease may come upon

suggest a regimen to follow or an antidote to apply. If Anger

wish to assess

is

philosophy

is

us;

it

our current challenge, we may

others have dealt with their own, and then be directed to consider the remedies

of Acceptance, Composure, Equanimity or Forgiveness. Cross-references to therapeutic elements to restore or

enhance

spiritual

tone are

listed as Syntonic, while toxic or injurious

elements as classed

Each quotation may be regarded as a mind pattern for the replication of neuropeptides, those amino acids produced by the body and that control the emotions and immune system. as Dystonic.

1

1

Neuropeptides provide the physiological basis for the emotions

in

.

.

.

The

striking pattern of neuropeptide receptor distribution

mood-regulating areas of the brain, as well as their role in mediating communication through the whole organism, makes

neuropeptides the obvious candidates for the biochemical mediation of emotion. information processing uniquely

neuropeptide -

Candace

may evoke

Pert,

when occupying

a unique "tone" that

is

It

may be

too that each neuropeptide biases

receptors at nodal points with the brain and body. If so, then each

equivalent to a

mood

state.

"Neuropeptides: The Emotions and Bodymind," in Noetic Sciences Review, No. 2, Spring 1987

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

INTRODUCTION

14

This messenger molecule (neuropeptide) and cell-receptor communication system

is

the

psychobiological basis of mindbody healing, therapeutic hypnosis, and holistic medicine in general.

~

Ernest Rossi

~

The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing

Let the buyer beware, however:

Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no

~

George Santayana, 1863-1952

A cursory consultation may leave

less wise, to

balance

it.

~

the reader questioning or confused.

The

sections

on Questioning

and Uncertainty could prove helpful here or may lead the reader from Conflict and Struggle through

Acceptance of Change and Paradox

to a Decision or Solution arrived at

with Determination while

we may have

whole person rather than

maintaining the Integrity of Self.

As with

holistic therapies,

we

will discover that

to treat the

we make out our own prescriptions, individually and specifically suited to our condition and temperament. Ultimately, we each have to listen to our own inner voice, follow our own innate wisdom, but in this we can be deal with isolated symptoms. Resonating with ideas from different classifications,

guided and reminded by the voices of prophets and ordinary folk

alike.

All verbal teachings are just to cure diseases. Because diseases are not the same, the

remedies are also different ... True words are those that actually cure sickness; if the cure manages to heal, then all are true words. If they can't effectively cure sickness, all are false words. True words are false words when they give rise to views. False words are true words

when

they cut off the delusions of sentient beings. Because disease

unreal medicine to cure

~ It

will

the

Baizhang Huaihai, 749-814

do no good, however,

most

As with

else,

Nothing ever becomes your

Life

-John

is

only

most accurate and percipient diagnosis and to prescribe it. Some change of thought and behavior has to be the more we put into it is the more we will get out of it.

we do not

if

everything

unreal, there

~

to arrive at the

efficacious remedy,

initiated.

is

it.

real

has illustrated

Keats, 1795-1821

apply

till it is

experienced — even a Proverb

is

no proverb

to

you

till

it.

~

Letter Co George and Georgiana Keats, 1819

March 19

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

~

Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963

~

Jesting Pilate

No

character

~

how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good may be, if one has not taken advantage of every opportunity to act, one's may remain entirely unaffected for the better.

matter

sentiments

William James, 1842-1910

one's

~

way that would suggest for the reader to use this book is as a guide to contemplation and meditation. As with other inspirational texts, a selection could be chosen each day, at random or in The

third

I

any order, and used as a focus of attention. required or

is

No

particular religion, belief system or practice

is

here being recommended. Care has been taken to avoid quotations that favor any

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

INTRODUCTION

15

particular religious tradition over any other. In keeping with the self-empowering focus of the collection, deistic, transcendent

The only way

to read a

and devotional readings have been excluded.

book of aphorisms without being bored

is

to

open

it

at

random

and,

having found something that interests you, close the book and meditate.

~

Prince Charles-Joseph de Ligne, 1735-1814

Melanges

The random

militaires, litteraires at sentimentaires,

~

1795-181

selection of a quotation from the collection by each

group could become a means of introduction, an icebreaker, the group

wisdom

what that quotation means

circle, if you will.

to

member of a workshop or focus member shares with the rest of

as that

how it relates to them personally — a wisdom becomes disseminated, amplified and

her or him, and

In this way, encapsulated

experienced in application.

It is

my

fervent hope that readers will derive as

anthology as

I

have had in compiling

it. I

much enlightenment and enjoyment out

trust that

it

will

of this

be found to reflect more closely, not

Chesterton's, but rather Evans' observation:

You could compile

book

the worst

in the world entirely out of selected passages from the

best writers in the world.

~

G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936

Wisdom wisdom

~ If

nothing

is

meaningless until your

experience has given

back and enjoy.

Hazrat Ali, 599-661 -

I've

meaning

...

and there

mind

had so

much enrichment - and

also gets tired so refresh

it

is

is

I

hope you do

too.

by wise sayings.

~

the ability to plug into the shared

all,

Life itself

fun.

Nahjul Balagha: Sermons and Letters of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib, Sayed Ali Reza,

One of the joys of reading is ~ Ishmael Reed, 1938- ~

~

it

~

Bergen Evans, 1904-1978

else, sit

in Peak of Eloquence

After

own

in the selection of wisdom.

Like your body your

~

~

a quotation

...

Jorge Luis Borges, 1899-1986

~

in Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories, 1987

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Cr.,

wisdom of mankind.

1984

Afftruhj wise thoughts have been thought afreachj

thousands of times; hut

make them

trufy ours,

to

we must

think them over again honestfu, tifftheu take root in

ourjpersonai experience.

~

Johann von Goethe

~

Copyrighted material

SUBJECT INDEX 17

I Tabfe o

ABILITY

21 22

ACCEPTANCE ACCOMPLISHMENT / ACHIEVEMENT / EXCELLENCE

2d 28 11

ACTION / EFFORT ACTUALIZATION / FULFILLMENT

jects

CONSCIENCE CONTINUITY CONVICTION / PRINCIPLE COST

164

166 170 172

COURAGE

174

CREATIVITY / DISCOVERY / INNOVATION

M

ADVERSITY AFFIRMATION / APPROVAL AGE /AGEING

11 44 12

ANGER APPEARANCE / FORM

49

APPRECIATION

178

CRITICISM

/

JUDGMENT

183

DANCE / MOVEMENT

188

DARING / CHALLENGE DEATH / DYING

190

DECISION / DECISIVENESS

200 204 208 2 16

193

ART ATTACHMENT ATTENTION / AWARENESS

52 51 6Q 62

ATTITUDE

69_

DEFEAT DEFERMENT / DELAY DELUSION DEPENDENCE

AUTONOMY / CONTROL

23

DEPRESSION / DESPAIR / DISTRESS

AVOIDANCE / DENIAL / REFUSAL BALANCE BEGINNING / ENDEAVOUR BEING / ESSENCE / SOUL

22

DESIRE

218

29

DETACHMENT

222

81 86 9Q

DETERMINATION / PERSISTENCE / RESOLVE

9fi

BELIEF / RELIGION

BREAKTHROUGH / EPIPHANY / TURNING POINT

DIFFERENTIATION / DIVISION

202

214

224

/

SEPARATION

228

CAUSE CELEBRATION CENTERING

102

DILIGENCE DIRECTION

107

DISCIPLINE

108 Ill

DISCLOSURE / VERACITY DISPATCH DISTRACTION / DIVERSION

238

CHANGE CHAOS UNCERTAINTY CHARACTER

119

DIVERSITY / MULTIPLICITY

122

DREAMS / DREAMING ELOQUENCE / POETRY ENGAGEMENT / INTEGRATION / INVOLVEMENT ENJOYMENT / PLEASURE ENLIGHTENMENT / REALIZATION / TRANSCENDENCE

246 250 256

/

CHOICE / VOLITION COLLABORATION / SYNERGY COMMITMENT / DEDICATION

1

16

125

128

COMMUNICATION 13 COMPARISON / COMPETITION 134 COMPASSION / EMPATHY / KINDNESS — 136 COMPLACENCY 141 COMPOSURE / PEACE / TRANQUILITY — 143 CONFIDENCE CONFLICT / OPPOSITION CONFORMITY CONGRUENCE / RESONANCE

234 236 242

243

257

260 263

267

147

EQUANIMITY ETHICS / MORALITY

149

EVIL

275

152

156

EXAMPLE EXPECTATION / HOPE

278 280

EXPEDIENCE EXPERIENCE

283

159

CONNECTION / INTERBEING / INTERDEPENDENCE

232

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

272

284

SUBJECT INDEX 18

EXPLORATION

287

LITTLE

470

EXPRESSION FAILURE /ERROR FAITH

290

LOGOS

292

LONELINESS

474 478

297

FOCUS / INTENTION FORGIVENESS

314 318

LOQUACITY LOVE- AGAPE LOVE EROS MANIFESTATION MEANING MEANS MEDITATION

FRIENDSHIP GIVING / SERVING GOAL / IDEAL / PURPOSE GOODNESS / VIRTUE

322

MEMORY

509

327

MIND MODERATION

511

338

GREED

340

FAULT FEAR

303

FEELING / EMOTION

306

300

FLEXIBILITY

/

FLOW / FLUX

31

333

-

480 482

487

494 497 502 503

516

/SORROW

342

GROWTH EXPANSION

344 348 349

MUSIC ONENESS / UNITY / WHOLENESS OPENNESS / RECEPTIVITY OPPORTUNITY OPPRESSION OPTIMISM / POSITIVISM

351

PARADOX

538

356

PARTNERSHIP / MARRIAGE PASSION PATIENCE

540

GRIEF

/

GUILT HABIT HAPPINESS / CONTENTMENT HASTE / IMPATIENCE

HATE HAVING / POSSESSING HEALTH / HEALING HUMILITY / MODESTY HUMOR / LAUGHTER IDEA /OPINION IDENTITY

358

360 363 372

374 378 381

IMAGINATION IMPERMANENCE INACTION

384

INDIVIDUALITY

393

INDULGENCE / TEMPTATION

398

INFLUENCE / EFFECT INGENUITY INITIATIVE

INNOCENCE

409

INSANITY INSECURITY /RISK INSIGHT / INSTINCT / INTUITION INSPIRATION INTEGRITY

387

518 52

529 532

535

536

PERSPECTIVE POLARITY / CONTRAST

544 547 549 553

POSSIBILITY / POTENTIAL

557

POWER

562

PRACTICE PREPARATION / READINESS PRESENCE

566 569 571

PRUDENCE QUESTIONING / DOUBT

579 585

400

REALITY RECIPROCITY / REFLECTION

407

REGRET

595

408

596

411

RELATIONSHIP RELATIVITY RELEASE

413

RENEWAL

604 609

416

RESPECT

613

420

RESPONSIBILITY

422

RESTRAINT RETREAT / WITHDRAWAL REVENGE

614 618 620

391

581

589

601

INTROSPECTION / SELF-KNOWLEDGE —427 JEALOUSY / ENVY 431 JOURNEY /PATH 433

SEEKING

LAZINESS

438

SELF

LEARNING LEGACY

SELF-RELIANCE

624 628 633

SENSIBILITY / SENSUALITY

636

LIBERATION / LIBERTY / FREEDOM

440 446 449

SEX /SEXUALITY

640

LIFE /LIVING

455

SHADOW

LILA/ LEISURE

458

LIMITATION LISTENING

462

SILENCE / STILLNESS SIMPLICITY SINCERITY / AUTHENTICITY

468

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

622

644 647 651 655

Copyrighted material

SUBJECT INDEX SKILL / TALENT / RESOURCES

658

SOLITUDE SOLUTION

661

SPIRITUALITY

669

SPONTANEITY STRENGTH STRUGGLE SUBMISSION / SURRENDER

674 676

666

678

19

TOLERANCE TRANSFORMATION TRUST TRUTH UNCONSCIOUS / SUBCONSCIOUS UNDERSTANDING VALUE /WORTH

713

734 740

715

718

720 726 728

730

SUCCESS SUFFERING

682

VICE VISION /VISUALIZATION

685

WAR

SURVIVAL

693

744

SYNTHESIS TACT / DISCRETION

694 696

WEALTH PROSPERITY WISDOM

752

TEACHING THINKING / THOUGHT

698 701

WONDER MYSTERY WORK WORRY

TIME

706

ZEAL /ZEST

765

TODAY

710

680

/

AGGRESSION / VIOLENCE /

/

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

735

748 757 762

Copyrighted material

Copyrighted material

ABILITY 2

I

I ABILITY Related States

& Conditions: Accoiiiplishineiit/Achievement/Excellence, Action/Effort, Actualization/Fulfillment,

Creativity/Discovery/Innovation, Expression, Ingenuity, Initiative, Manifestation, Means, Power, Skill/Talent/Resources,

Strength

Syntonic: Affirmation/Approval, Collaboration/Synergy, Confidence, Courage, Daring/Challenge, Decision/Decisiveness, Desire, Deteriuination/Persistence/Resolve, Diligence, Discipline, Dispatch, Expedience, Flexibility/Flow/Flux,

Focus/Intention, Learning, Openness/Receptivity, Practice, Preparation/Readiness, Self-Reliance

Dystonic: Complacency, Conformity, Defeat, Deferment/Delay, Dependence, Distraction/Diversion, Failure/Error, Fear, Haste/Impatience, Inaction, Laziness, Limitation

For the things we have to learn before we can do

The world

them, we learn by doing them.

woman

~

384-322

Aristotle,

Nicomachean

BCE ~

Ethics,

Richard McKeon,

II, 1,

ed.,

1103a, in The Basic Works of Aristotle,

natural plants, that need

abilities are like

pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too

bounded

~

it is

man or woman is able

about what a

little

what

a

man

or

to

do that counts.

~

Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915

~

1941

To Natural

cares very

knows;

much

~

what one

and

fitted to do,

is

it, is

to secure

the key to happiness.

~

John Dewey, 1859-1952

except they be

at large,

in by experience.

Francis Bacon, 1561-1626

find out

an opportunity to do

One

~

of the greatest discoveries a

of his great surprises,

to find

is

man makes, one

he can do what he

was

You

learn to speak by speaking, to study by

studying, to run by running, to just the

~

same way, you learn

ability

to love

by loving.

new

Baltasar Gracian y Morales, 1601-1685 Ordculo manual y arte de prudencia, 1647

Do

~

~ John Henry Newman,

not

let

what you cannot do

you can do. -John Wooden, 1910-

mark where presumption

overshoots and diffidence

amazing what ordinary people can do

We

~

all

have

~

his ability to

do and the

Stevie

be done

~

Frederick Douglass, 1817-1895

try, you don't know what you can't do. Henry James, 1843-1916 ~

many would never ~ Basil W. Matuiin, Laws

try if

difference

how we

is

use

him

till

he

tries,

"Here

~

is

an opportunity

~

to.

Anthony J. Robbins, 1960-

We don't know who we in Writer's

for

my own

myself to do whatever

can do. ~ Martha Grimes

and

they were not forced

1847-1915

~

celebrate like never before,

~

Unless you

in

what

Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to

ability to get

is

The

Wonder, 1950-

yourself, to

one knows what

ability.

interfere with

~

it.

proper application of his powers to things needed

No

they set

falls short.

1801-1890

Man's greatness consists in

~

if

itself

assignment.

~

Ability hits the

It's

out without preconceived notions. ~ Charles Kettering, 1876-1958 ~

develops and reveals

increasingly with every

afraid he couldn't do. Henry Ford, 1863-1947 ~

in

~

Francis de Sales, 1567-1622

Great

~

work by working;

me

to

power, is

my own

necessary."

~

are until

we

see

what we

~

Handbook

of the Spiritual Life, 1916

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

22 ACCEPTANCE

I ACCEPTANCE Related States

& Conditions: Affirmation/Approval, Appreciation, Compassion/Eiupathy/Kindness,

Congruence/Resonance, Equanimity, Love-Agape, Oneness/Unity/Wholeness, Openness/Receptivity, Reciprocity/Reflection, Tolerance, Understanding

Syntonic: Connection/Interbeing/Interdependence, Detachment, Engagement/Integration/Involvement, Flexibility/Flow/Flux, Forgiveness, Friendship,

Humor/Laughter, Learning, Listening, Optimism/Positivism, Patience,

Preparation/Readiness, Respect, Synthesis, Trust

Dystonic: Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Comparison/Competition, Conflict/Opposition, Criticism/Judgment, Delusion, Differentiation/Division/Separation, Fear, Fault, Hate, Jealousy/Envy, Revenge, War/AggressioiVViolence

Open yourself to

the Tao, then trust your natural

responses; and everything will

~

Laozi,

fall

Flow with whatever

mind be

into place.

570-490 BCE ~

you

~ Life

is

are doing. This

Zhuangzi,

Don't

resist

be

them -

reality.

that only creates sorrow. Let

Let things flow naturally forward

in

whatever way they

~

Laozi

BCE ~

He who cannot do what he wants must make do with what he can.

~

like.

lot;

one cannot be

first

Terence,

c.

Aesop,

BCE ~

190-159

For gold c.

fl.

550

BCE ~

brought upon you, and in

is

tested in the

fire,

and acceptable

men

in

the furnace of humiliation.

~ Against necessity, against

is

changes that humble you, be patient.

in

everything.

its

strength,

no one can

Joshua ben

Sira,

2nd C.

BCE ~

in Apocrypha, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 2:4-5,

RSV

1957

and win.

Aeschylus, 525-456

BCE ~

Let us follow our destiny, ebb and flow. Whatever

may happen, we master

He who

~

your

the ultimate.

is

369-c. 286

c.

Accept whatever

~

let

~

Be content with your

fight

happening and

a series of natural and spontaneous changes.

reality

~

is

Stay centered by accepting whatever

free.

submits to fate without complaint

Euripides,

c.

485-406

is

wise.

-Virgil, 70-19

fortune by accepting

it.

BCE-

BCE ~ Don't be surprised,

The

ideal

man bears

dignity and grace,

the accidents of life with

384-322

Aristotle,

startled;

Don't cause a disturbance,

circumstances.

~

Don't be

All things will arrange themselves.

making the best of

BCE ~

Don't exert pressure; All things will clarify themselves.

The beauty

of the soul shines out

when

a

man

-

Huainan

st

Zi, 1

C.

BCE -

bears with composure one heavy mischance after

another, not because he does not feel them, but

because he

~

Aristotle

The

is

a

man

of high and heroic temper.

greatest devotion, greater than learning and

~

happens

to be.

Hasidic Saying

it is

forbidden to be put right becomes

lighter by acceptance.

-

~

praying, consists in accepting the world exactly as it

What

Horace, 65-8

The

fates lead

BCE him who

will

- him who

won't, they

drag.

-

Seneca,

c.

4 BCE-65

CE -

~

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

ACCEPTANCE 23 Seek not that the things which happen should

happen happen

Since

we can

you wish; but wish the things which

as

to be as they are,

and you

~

have a

will

we cannot

get

what we

what

like, let us like

get.

Spanish Saying

~

tranquil flow of life.

~

Epictetus, 50-120

~

What cannot be

altered,

must be borne, not

blamed.

Make

the best of what

the rest as

~

it

Epictetus

in

is

~

~ Thomas

Fuller,

1608-1661

~

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. ~ Baruchde Spinoza, 1632-1677 ~

Adapt yourself to the

life

truly love the people

with

Spiritual Teachings of

Understand.

you have been given; and

When we

whom destiny has

surrounded you. ~ Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 The

our power, and take

naturally happens.

see ourselves in a situation

be endured and gone through,

~

it is

which must meet it

best to

with firmness, and accommodate everything to

Marcus Aurelius, Mark Forstater,

tr.,

2000

in the best

way

it

practicable. This lessens the evil,

while fretting and fuming only increase your

own

tomients.

you woven

in the

pattern of your destiny, for what could

more

Accept whatever comes fit

your needs?

~

Marcus Aurelius

Vex not

thy

happen in

~

aptly

the course of things; they

How

ludicrous and

~

anything that

at

~ arrival

.

let us

not

entertain

them

1207-1273

.

.

all,

~

the best thing one can do

to let

is

it

when

it's

rain.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882

~

.

meanness

...

Do

all!

not despise your situation; in

suffer

~

bear the cross unwillingly, you

make

it

act,

to the infinite.

~

happened

is

the

it

first

so;

acceptance of what has

step in

overcoming the

consequences of any misfortune. William James, 1842-1910

~

in soaring

high and pressing forward, as in knowing

adapt and limit oneself. ~ Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592

heaven and

Henri-Frederic Amiel, 1821-1881

Be willing to have

~ much

you must

a

burden, and load yourself more heavily; but you must bear it. ~ Thomas a Kempis, c. 1380-1471 ~

Greatness of soul consists not so

it

and conquer. From every point on earth we

are equally near to

~ If you

John Henry Newman, 1801-1890

For after raining

new

~ Jalaluddin Rumi,

them:

find

may

~

a depression, a

Welcome and

we

We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.

life.

Every morning a

A joy,

~

1743-1826

Jefferson,

Let us take things as

astonishment

Marcus Aurelius

Thomas

attempt to distort them into what they are not

spirit at

is

~

~

heed not thy vexation. outlandish

to

how

to

Tilings cannot always go your way. Learn to accept in silence the

~

minor aggravations, cultivate the gift consume your own smoke with

of taciturnity and

an extra draught of hard work, so that those about Things without remedy, should be without regard;

what

~

is

done,

is

done.

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

If you are

wise, live as

you can;

if

your complaints.

~

~

you cannot,

as

you would.

~

Baltasar Gracian y Morales, 1601-1685

If

we cannot

is

within our reach.

you may not be annoyed with the dust and soot of

live

~

French Saying

what we

~

love,

we must

~

We win half the battle when we make minds

~

to take the world as

we

find

it,

up our

including the

thorns.

~ get

William Osier, 1849-1919

Orison

S.

Maiden, 1850-1924

~

love what

Take what you

~

get

Jamaican Saying

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

till

you get what you want.

~

Copyrighted material

24 ACCEPTANCE Life

not always what one wants

is

make

the best of it, as

to be, but to

it

the only

it is, is

way of being

And

~

happy.

~ Jennie Jerome Churchill, against the tide

To

hard and uncertain.

is

Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955

workings of the great natural force

is

safe

and

easy.

~

Ralph Waldo Trine, 18664958

has no other discipline to impose,

but realize

it,

than to accept

fall

Every

Take what aim in

life

in is

given,

and make

it

over your way.

has always been to hold

Not

My

my own with

moment

Henry

Miller,

a

is

seems

as such.

it

~

1891-1980

~

~

that mental condition in

is

liberate,

we

accept

it.

I

not only bow to the inevitable, Thornton Wilder, 1897-1975 ~

I

am

by

fortified

it.

~

oppresses.

it

~

Carl Jung, 1875-1961

Psychological Reflections, Jolande Jacobi

& R. F. Hull, eds.,

1953

My

advice to you

why

not to enquire

is

but just enjoy your ice cream while

Almost any event

which

~

LinYutang, 1895-1976

The Importance of Living, 1937

anything unless

Condemnation does not

Peace of mind

you have accepted the worst.

against: with.

Robert Frost, 1874-1963

We cannot change ~

What

open mind. golden one for him who has the faced with an

with what you're asked to accept.

whatever's going.

~

we run

can become a source of beauty,

if

vision to recognize

~ Always

and strength,

joy,

~

Andre Gide, 1869-1951

we would

everything

to,

despise, serves to defeat us in the end.

completely overcomes only what one

assimilates.

~

if

unquestioningly.

life

away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or nasty, painful, evil,

One

~

Everything we shut our eyes

go with the tide and thus take advantage of the

~

means — we have

~

1854-1921

Life

Rowing

that automatically

everything to gain.

will

put on a

new

face

when

it's

or whither,

on your

plate.

~

received with cheerful acceptance, and no

Wilder

~

questions asked.

~

Henry S. Haskins,

b.

~

1875

Meditations in Wall Street, 1940

Accept yourself as you

are.

never see opportunity.

You will not

move toward Each day of human

life

contains joy and anger,

pain and pleasure, darkness and decay. Each

design

moment

- do not

is

try to

light,

~

etched with nature's grand

order of things.

~

Morihei Ueshiba, 1883-1969

to accept

important thing

is

In the face of an obstacle

The

whatever comes and the only

meet

and with the best that you have

~

you

Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962

which

secret to success

life

that

we

it

with courage

is

to learn to accept the

really accept

{Catherine Mansfield, 1888-1923

ask yourself:

What

is

undergoes a is

the

~

Nelson Mandela, 1918-

to

improve on the worst

accepted the worst,

.

.

.

it.

True acceptance

~

Then proceed have

we have nothing more

to lose.

them as they are. demands and

always without

Gerald Jampolsky, 1925-

Love

When we

is

expectations.

~

~

the worst thing that can

happen? Then prepare to accept

to

bear the intolerable.

Peace of mind comes from not wanting to change

mystery.

First

impossible to

to give.

~

change. So suffering must become love. That

~

is

do without the indispensable, and

others, but by simply accepting

Everything in

are not deserving.

~

~

tr.,1992

that you

will feel

overcome, stubborness is stupid. ~ Simone de Beauvoir, 1908-1986 ~

impossible, to

You have

you

Maxwell Maltz, 1899-1975

will

feel free to

growth and

deny or oppose the cosmic

The Art of Peace, John Stevens,

it;

Otherwise you

Is

Don't go.

Letting

Go of Fear,

try to force

See

~

1979

anything. Let

God opening

life

be a deep

let-

millions of flowers every day

without forcing the buds. ~ "Osho" Rajneesh, 1931-1990

~

Dying for Enlightenment, 1979

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted male rial

ACCEPTANCE 25

A serene acceptance of what

is

but by keeping the mind clear

promotes health, it

also puts a person

and

changing.

~

Bemie

Siegel, 1932-

Love, Medicine

~ is

same way

society in the

~ Wole Soyinka,

1934-

as nature does.

~ When

the

Man

Died: Views,

Reviews, and Interview on Wole Soyinka's Controversial Book,

1975

works when you choose what you've Werner Erhard, 1935- ~

Life

~

This

~

greatest truths.

It is

one of the a great truth because once we

we transcend it. Once we truly difficult — then life is no longer

truly see this truth,

know

that

difficult.

life is

Because once

it is

will miraculously

~

A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment,

William A. Gaines, 1971-

got.

a great truth,

is

Always

your friend

it

1999

Most of my major disappointments have turned out to be blessings in disguise. So whenever anything bad does happen to me, I kind of sit back and feel, well, if I give this enough time, it'll turn out that this was good, so I shouldn't worry about it too much.

Acceptance Life is difficult.

Make

it.

moment

it.

the

principle of accepting the challenges of life, of

Interview by John Agetua in

you had chosen

life.

Eckhard Tolle, 1948-

The Power of Now:

that

if

the present

not your enemy. This

ally,

transform your

1986

Only one thing can be guaranteed and

as

it

not against

it,

~

& Miracles,

Whatever

act.

contains, accept

work with

change things that need

in a better position to

Accept — then

...

I

can

is

the answer to

no

find

~ all

serenity until

my

problems today

accept that person,

I

place, thing, or situation as being exactly the is

supposed to be.

~

Alcoholics

way

it

~

Anonymous

accepted, the fact that

Acceptance

difficult no longer matters. M. Scott Peck, 1936-2005 ~

is

not submission;

it is

life is

~

The Road Less

Travelled,

acknowledgement of the

deciding what you're going to do about

1978

~ M. some things. It's wonder on them and do some speculation, but the main thing is you have to accept it - take it for what it is, and get on with It

facts of a situation.

Then

it.

~

Kathleen Casey

just ain't possible to explain

interesting to

your growing.

~ Jim Dodge,

1945-

~

ourselves: us for

~

live lives little different

the beasts, and

mean

don't

that badly.

I

than

mean

that they accept whatever happens day to day

without struggle or question or regret.

To them

things just are, like the earth and sky and

we

are so thankful

who we

are

Down

when someone

and accepts

Natalie Goldberg

Writing

There are people who I

We walk through so many myths of each other and sees

us.

~

the Bones,

1986

Resistance causes pain and lethargy.

new

practice acceptance that

It is

when we

possibilities appear.

~ Unknown ~ There to

no

is

master

limit to truths.

all

We should be prepared

of them. In being prepared to accept

seasons.

~

Celeste de Blasis, 1946-

any and

~

all

trying to

The

start seeing life as a training

what we need

~

an which we

transition from rebellion to acceptance has

extremely important consequence school

... ...

in

to teach us

truths

change

...

just as

it

comes, without

our needs, we become

to suit

change and control. By master our

full

I

mean

receive with

minds, open and without resistance.

mean

It

know everything. Rather, it means that you may not know anything at all in a

~

situation, but

Accept what comes to you totally and completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go. ~ Deepak Chopra, 1947-

it

of the anxiety that comes from the urge to

doesn't

to learn.

Piero Fenucci, 1946-

free

~

Journey Into Healing: Awakening the

that you

you have become

are to feel the joy.

Wisdom Within You, 1994

so

open

to the

you can approach and accept anything. Even pain. We have to be just as willing to touch and acknowledge the pain as we infinite possibilities that

Why?

without the other. ~ Angel Kyodo Williams

Because one doesn't exist

~

Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace,

2000

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

26 ACCOMPLISHMENT / ACHIEVEMENT / EXCELLENCE

I ACCOMPLISHMENT / ACHIEVEMENT / EXCELLENCE Related States

& Conditions: Actualization/Fulfillment, Creativity/Discovery/Innovation, Daring/Challenge,

Goal/Purpose, Health/Healing, Liberation/Liberty/Freedoin, Success, Solution, Wealth/Prosperity

Syntonic: Action/Effort, Affirmation/Approval, Decision/Decisiveness, Determination/Persistence/Resolve, Diligence,

Dreams/Dreaming, Exploration,

Discipline,

Faith, Focus/Intention, Imagination, Ingenuity, Initiative, Inspiration, Learning,

Manifestation, Opportunity, Passion, Possibility/Potential, Power, Practice, Preparation/Readiness, Self-Reliance, Skill/Talent/Res o urc es Vision /Vis u aliz ation ,

Dystonic: Complacency, Conflict/Opposition, Conformity, Defeat, Deferment/Delay, Delusion, Dependence, Distraction/Diversion, Failure/Error, Fear, Habit, Haste/Impatience, Inaction, Insecurity/Risk, Laziness, Limitation, Regret,

Worry

Before the gates of excellence the high gods have

placed sweat; long

when

the road and steep at

is

the heights are reached, then there

first;

is

but

Hesiod,

700

c.

fl.

one

will

never have to

must

die.

Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1715-1747

Reflexions

though grievously hard in the winning.

~

In order to carry out great enterprises, one live as if

~

ease,

~

maximes

et

BCE ~

No

Works and Days

limits are set to the ascent of man,

and to each

and every one the highest stands open. Here

We

not an

~

what we repeatedly do. Excellence then,

are

act,

Aristotle,

is

~

but a habit. 384-322

commonly

it is

when

said:

Cicero,

Hasidic Saying

De

Finibus

Bonorum

et

through

Malorum, 45

wings.

BCE

1207-1273

who have

things are attainable.

But they, while their companions

Were

~

~

more

glory in

~

1622-1673

upward

slept,

in the night.

are not judged by the height

~

you have

risen,

but from the depth you have climbed.

~

~

achieved real excellence in any art

one thing in common, that

toiling

kept

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882

You

it.

~ Jean-Baptiste Moliere,

possess

all

Fowell Buxton, 1786-1845

The heights by great men reached and Were not attained by sudden flight,

Why prefer to crawl

greater the obstacle, the

overcoming

All

~ Thomas

life?

~ Jalaluddin Rumi,

ordinary talent and extraordinary

perseverance,

~

10643 BCE

You were born with

The

"hard tasks are pleasant

they are finished."

~

~

BCE ~ With

For

it is

only your personal choice that decides.

is,

a

mind

Frederick Douglass, 1817-1895

Strive to

to

make

obey nature, to be one with nature, throughout the

~

the

make something

~

of yourself; then strive to

most of yourself.

Alexander Crummel, 1819-1898

~

four seasons of the year.

~

~

Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694 The Narrow Road to the Deep North Nobuyuki Yuasa, tr., 1966

Conquering any

& Other Travel Sketches,

joy, for

it

Aim

~ at perfection in everything,

things it,

it is

and persevere,

~

it

in

most

who aim

up as unattainable.

Lord Chesterfield, 1694-1773

~

Henri-Frederic Amiel, 1821-1881

The

one a secret

a boundary-line

and

liberty.

~

Private Journal of Henri-Frederic Amiel, C. Brooks, ed.,

1935

at

come much nearer to it than and despondency make them

will

those whose laziness give

though

unattainable; however, they

difficulty always gives

means pushing back

adding to one's

The say

~

greatest pleasure in

life is

doing what people

you cannot do.

Walter Bagehot, 1826-1877

WISDOM FORTHE SOUL

~

Copyrighted material

ACCOMPLISHMENT /ACHIEVEMENT / EXCELLENCE 27 To

accomplish great things, we must not only

act,

but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

~

Anatole France, 1844-1924

~

The person who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race

Excellence

...

There's no such thing as Perfection. But, in striving

to

is

do

we can

for perfection,

~

a

common thing in an uncommon way. ~ Booker T. Washington, 18564915 ~

achieve excellence.

Vince Lombardi, 1913-1970

~

No matter what you do, do your best at it. If you're bum there is. ~ Robert Mitchum, 1917-1997 ~

going to be a bum, be the best

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but

from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes Efficiency of a practical flawless kind

may

the achievement of a difficult task that

be

reached naturally in the struggle for bread. But there

~

Isaac Rubin, 1923-

and unmistakable touch of love and pride

beyond mere gives to

which

our best. ~ Theodore

something beyond — a higher point, a

is

subtle

after

demanded

If a

almost an inspiration which

skill;

work

all

that finish

what

1857-1924

~

almost art -

is

called to be a street sweeper, he should

is

even

streets

Michelangelo painted or

as

Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote

art.

is

man

sweep

~ Joseph Conrad,

poetry.

He

should sweep streets so well that

the

all

hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here

Deep down

in every

human

soul

is

longing, impulse, and ambition to

and enduring

fine

If

...

a

hidden

lived a great streetsweeper

~

do something

The enemy

Grenville Kleisei, 1868-1953

when

Excellence means

a

~

~

man

or

woman

who

did his job well.

1929-1968

~

Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1883-1955

of the "best"

Stephen Covey, 1932-

First

Things

The

best

First,

is

the "good."

~~

1994

asks of

himself or herself more than others do.

~

Jr.,

you are willing great things

are possible to you.

~

Martin Luther King,

~

moments

body or mind

is

usually occur

stretched to

its

when

a person's

limits in a

voluntary effort to accomplish something

Do

best one in your line. in the ordinary way;

You must not

let

your

do something that

life

difficult

and worthwhile.

things in an extraordinary way; be the

little

run

~

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1934-

~

Flow. T)vz Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990

will dazzle

the world

~

Paramahansa Yogananda, 1893-1952

People with a high level of personal mastery

~

mode. They never

a continual learning

There

ain't

but there

~

no man can avoid being born

ain't

no

man

got to be

Satchel Paige, 1900-1982

All great spiritual

work -

—

is

average,

or

moments when its when

creators are lost completely in their actions,

they forget themselves altogether, and are free

from self-consciousness. ~ Walpola Rahula, 1906-1997 What

the

is

process.

It is

their ignorance, their incompetence, their

...

an immense

They

~

belief in themselves

also

and

common

~

YousufKarsh, 1908-1995 December 3

~

is

growth

Only

for those

who do

not see the

the reward."

Fifth Discipline:

~

The Art and

Practice of

The Learning

Organization, 1990

For

me

it's

the challenge

—

the challenge to try to

as

work hard. At the crucial moment of decision, they draw on their accumulated wisdom.

a

they are deeply self-confident.

Peter Senge, 1947-

in their

have great determination

well as an ability to

And

areas.

"journey

Buddha Taught, 1959

It is

a lifelong discipline. People with a

high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of

Paradoxical?

~

have found that great people do have in

mission.

not something you possess.

mastery

The I

term "personal

and white. But personal

definiteness, of black

at those

as the

mastery," creates a misleading sense of

common.

~

artistic, poetic, intellectual

produced

Sometimes, language, such

live in

"arrive."

beat myself or do better than to

keep in mind not what

what

~

I

have to

try to

I

I

did in the past.

I

try

have accomplished but

accomplish in the future

Jackie Joyiier-Kersee, 1962-

~

in Parade, 1978

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

28 ACTION / EFFORT

I ACTION / EFFORT & Conditions: Ability, Beginning/Endeavour, Collaboration/Synergy, Daring/Challenge,

Related States

Decision/Decisiveness, Diligence, Direction, Engagement/Integration/Involveiiient, Expedience, Exploration,

Growth/Expansion, Habit,

Means, Opportunity, Practice, Preparation/Readiness, Seeking

Initiative, Manifestation,

Syntonic: Attitude, Change, Choice/Volition, Commitment/Dedication, Confidence, Congruence/Resonance, Conviction/Principle, Courage, Desire, Determination/Persistence/Resolve, Discipline, Dispatch, Focus/Intention, Ingenuity, Inspiration, Power, Prudence, Skill/Talent/Resources, Strength, Today, Zeal/Zest

Dystonic: Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Chaos/Uncertainty, Comparison/Competition, Complacency, Conflict/Opposition, Conformity, Cost, Defeat, Deferment/Delay, Delusion, Dependence, Depression/Despair/Despondency, Distraction/Diversion, Failure/Error, Fear, Haste/Impatience, Inaction, Insecurity/Risk, Laziness, Limitation,

The

possession of knowledge, unless accompanied

by a manifestation and expression in action, the hoarding of precious metals

Knowledge,

foolish thing.

-

a vain

like wealth,

is

is

like

and

A

The way of the

~

to act but not to

is

compete.

570490 BCE ~

Turning

matter, what matters

is

Dharma.

What matters is action rightly performed. ~ Buddha, c. 563483 BCE ~

it

Kongfuzi,

c.

There

~

BCE ~

The Analects of Confucius, IV.24, Arthur Waley,

of any

test

Pindar,

man

lies in

at

is

your meaning.

who come

And

after you.

The

CE ~

367

Bible, c.

1989

That knowledge which remains only on your

action.

~

a right to your actions,

is

very superficial. that you act

is

fruits.

Imam Ali

-

The intrinsic upon it.

value of

~

Hazrat Ali, 599-661

Nahjul Balagha: Sermons and Letters of

Ibn Ahi Talib, Sayed Ali Reza,

tr.,

1984

for action's sake.

And do not be attached to inaction. ~ Bhagavad Gita, c. 400 BCE ~ Stephen Mitchell,

What

is

tr.,

is

not action

achieves nothing,

body gets

results.

Yoga Vasistha

~

on

As long

as the

quiet,

cannot

2000

done by the mind

by the body

~

to those

all.

in Peak of Eloquence

2:47,

harmony with the moment. For

your purpose; in doing

is

tongue

but never to your actions'

Act

the chance,

CE ~

nothing better than for you to rejoice in

is

knowledge

You have

C.

Ecclesiastes 3:21-22 tr.,

~

518438 BCE

th

attend solely to doing well that which must be

done

in deed.

55 Lc. 479

-5

~

Saying

Irish

doing

A gentleman covets the reputation of being slow in word but prompt

ud

~

Leave the result

~

The buddhas

over in your mind won't plough the

every deed done in

Dhammapada

The

the effort.

field.

~

Words do not

Babylonian Talmud, 2

Shabbat 151b

sage

Daode Jing

~

make

~

Buddhist Saying

the means, and the strength.

Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient

Egypt and Greece, 1908

Laozi,

~

Act while you can: While you have

~

Hermes Trismegistus

in The Kybalion:

~

yourself must

are only teachers.

intended

for use.

~

You

Worry

.

is .

.

action,

The

what

physical

is

body

mind has not reached supreme act.

Action caused by

random

is

said that action influenced

done

the other hand, the mental

it

is

momentum

action, not essential action. Therefore

desire, while action

by things

is

it

human

uninfluenced by things

is

the

action of Heaven.

~

Lu Dong

The

Bin,

Secret of the

VIII.27,

c.

798

~

Golden Flower: The Classic Chinese Book of Life, Cleary, tr., 1991

Thomas

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

ACTION / EFFORT 29 Deed, not words

~ John Fletcher,

shall

Our deeds detemiine

speak me.

1579-1625

~

us, as

our deeds. ~ George Eliot, 1819-1880

Boast not of what thou would'st have done, but do

What thou would'st. ~ John Milton, 1608-1674 ~

in

much

as

The Journals of Andre Gide, Justin O'Brien,

The emotions

we determine

~ tr.,

are not always subject to reason

but they are always subject to action. It is

~

wear out than to

better to

I

the Faith,

~

action

~

1786

have always thought the actions of men the best

interpreters of their thoughts.

-John The

is

made

is its

and cannot Unless

rust.

rest

Get

it

will

up

~

better than well said.

Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790

it.

Begin

it.

it

~ or believe you can

Action has magic, grace, and power in 1749-1832

happens

Alfred

to deliberate; but

when

the time for

till it

a thing to be done; the

are

thought and live; let

we

for right action

us be alive and doing; let us act

we have,

since

we have not what we

~ John Henry Newman,

is

to

to

do next.

~

— not

the principal thing

to

remain with

it

into all

~

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926 Maria

M. D. Herter Norton,

1801-1890

on what

Rilke eds.,

1892-1910,

Bannard Greene

J.

&

1945

speaks so loud that

is

the

work of many men; Action, of

wish.

~

~

for action.

Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961

~

We know what a person thinks not when he

~ I

Charles de Gaulle, 1890-1970

Never mistake motion

us

What you do

knowing what

Herbert Hoover, 1874-1964

Deliberation

for true thought. Let us live while

and

as in

~

much in knowing what

one alone.

for

for action,

not of words.

a thousand shapes

—

made

Adler, 1870-1937

consists not so

Letters of Rainer

~

We

act.

things.

There can be no acting or doing of any kind, thing once recognized, doing in becomes possible. ~ Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881 ~

~

the-mood, but always forcibly to convert

in.

~ is

away

the dream, with the intention, with the being-in-

~

Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821

be recognized that there

fritter

~

action arrives, stop thinking and go

~

be sane, don't

at the level of events

do in the ultimate

That

Take time

F.

Wisdom

~

now.

~ Johann von Goethe,

things;

take a place wherever you are and be

Trust movement.

~

Whatever you think you can do do, begin

Do

...

Men must not only know, they must ~ W. E. B. Du Bois, 1868-1963 ~ Life

is

action.

till it

and think and taste and see, all is in vain. ~ Thomas Traherne, 1637-1674 ~

Well done

~

somebody; get action. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919

for action,

be employed. Idleness

will.

William James, 1842-1910

your time

~

Locke, 1632-1704

soul

...

When

thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion,

rust out.

Richard Cumberland, 1631-1718

The Duty of Contending for

1947

cannot hear

what you say. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882 ~

~

what he

tells

thinks, but by his actions.

Isaac Bashevis Singer,

1904-1991

~

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

It is

in vain to say

satisfied

beings ought to be

~

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906-1945

~

with tranquility: they must have action;

and they

~

human

will

make

it if

they cannot find

Charlotte Bronte, 1816-1855

~

The proof that one it.

~

truly believes

Bayard Rustin, 1912-1987

is

in action.

~

Jane Eyre, 1847

Do-so

~

is

more important than

Pete Seeger, 1919-

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

say-so.

~

Copyrighted material

30 ACTION Apply

EFFORT

/

Get

yourself.

the education you can, but

all

then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there,

~

make

happen.

it

don't

sidelines,

make

~

progress by standing

Shirley Chisholm, 1924-2005

you've done the mental work, there comes a

point you have to throw yourself into the action

~ 1989

Effective People,

one must

also carry

through and meet

The purpose must

challenges.

is

not so

its

~

much whether

you

it,

last

aren't any

more

effective

week, in your unenlightened

than you state.

Until

knowledge, awareness, insights, and

What

understandings are translated into action, they are

a person actually

achieves what she has set out to do; rather

about

were

result in strivings;

intent has to be translated into action.

counts

Phil Jackson, 1945-

You can know a hundredfold more today than you knew a week ago, but if you don't do anything

not enough to find a purpose that unifies one's

goals;

That means not

your teammates and your opponents.

~

Stephen Covey, 1932-

It is

line.

only being brave, but being compassionate towards

Act or be acted upon.

~

you sympathy; sweat

~

and put your heart on the

~

but they render a

salty,

you change.

yourself,

The 7 Habits of Highly

and sweat are

Jesse Jackson, 1941-

Once

on the

whimpering and complaining. You make

progress by implementing ideas.

~

tears

will get

Lee Iacocca, 1924-

You

Both

different result. Tears will get

of no value.

~

it

matters whether effort has been expended to reach

McGraw, 1950- ~

Phillip

Life Strategies:

Doing What Works, Doing What Matters, 1999

the goal, instead of being diffused or wasted.

~

Mihaly

Csikszeiitniihalyi, 1934-

~

Expressing what you are

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990

The

truth of the matter

the right thing to do.

~

is

that you always

The hard

H. Norman Schwarzkopf 1934-

part

is

is

taking action.

You can

have a great many ideas in your head, but what

makes the difference is the action. Without action upon an idea, there will be no manifestation, no results, and no reward.

know

doing

it.

~

~

~

Miguel Ruiz, 1952-

The Four Agreements, 1997

The haves and have

nots can often be traced to

the dids and didn't dos.

~

You

William Raspberry, 1935-

Ability

is

what

~

you're capable of doing. Motivation

determines what you do. Attitude determines well you do

~

Lou

how

~

Regrets and wishes will not change what has been or

ton of abstraction.

is

by taking action now,

fulfill

Ralph Marston, 1961-

Stop

Arthur Bloch, 1938-

is

will be. It

when

the best of your

~

An ounce of application is worth a ~

sitting there

with your hands folded looking

on, doing nothing.

Murphy's law, 1977

Knowing

what

possibilities.

~

~

~

Gretzky, 1961-

you can, that you

it.

Holtz, 1937-

Bookers Law:

miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.

~ Wayne

we must

not enough;

apply. Willing

is

Get into action and

and glorious life. Now. You have ~ Eileen Caddy ~ The Dawn of Change, 1979

do

to

live this full it.

not enough; we must do.

~

Bruce Lee, 1940-1973

~

The man who

rolls

up his sleeves seldom loses his

shirt. I

have never been especially impressed by the

~ Thomas Cowan ~

heroics of people convinced that they are about to

change the world struggle to

.

I

am more awed

make one

by those

small difference after

who

The more you

~

do, the

Angie Papadakis

more you

are.

~

another.

~

Ellen

Goodman, 1941-

~

Try not. Do, or do not. There ~ Yoda ~

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

is

no

try.

Copyrighted male rial

ACTUALIZATION / FULFILLMENT

3

I

I ACTUALIZATION / FULFILLMENT & Conditions: Art, Autonomy/Control, Being/Essence/Soul, Centering, Cieativity/Discovery/Innovation,

Related States

Death/Dying, Dreams/Dreaming, Expression, Goal/Purpose, Growth/Expansion, Happiness/Contentment, Identity, Individuality, Integrity, Liberation/Liberty/Freedom, Lite/Living,

Love-Agape, Manifestation, Meaning,

Possibility/Potential,

Work

Power, Presence, Renewal, Responsibility, Self-Reliance, Success, Solution, Value/Worth, Wealth/Prosperity,

Syntonic: Affirmation/Approval, Breakthrough/Epipbany/Turning Point, Commitment/Dedication, Confidence,

Congruence/Resonance, Conviction/Principle, Courage, Daring/Challenge, Decision/Decisiveness, Determination/Persistence/Resolve, Diligence, Discipline, Engagement/Integration/Involvement, Exploration, Faith, Focus/Intention, Forgiveness, Giving/Serving, Health/Healing, Imagination, Initiative, Introspection/Self-Knowledge,

Learning, Listening, Meditation, Optimism/Positivism, Passion, Practice, Preparation/Readiness, Release, Transformation, Trust, Understanding, Vision/Visualization,

Wisdom,

Zeal/Zest

Dystonic: Anger, Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Comparison/Competition, Complacency, Conformity, Criticism/Judgment, Defeat, Deferment/Delay, Delusion, Dependence, Depression/Despair/Despondency, Distraction/Diversion, Failure/Error, Fear, Greed, Guilt, Hate, Inaction, Insecurity/Risk, Jealousy/Envy, Laziness, Limitation, Loneliness, Regret,

As you

~

Do you know

think so shall you become.

~

Khemetic Saying

Temt Tchaas: Egyptian

overtake

Proverbs,

Muata Ashaya Ashby,

ed.,

1994

do you wish If you

As

man

a

desire

is,

acts, so

so

does he become. As a man's

his destiny.

is

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, c. 1400-c. 800 BCE ~ The Upanishads, Swami Prabhavanada Frederick Manshester,

us,

that disease and death

no matter what we to be doing

must needs

are doing?

when it

.

.

.

what

overtakes you?

...

have anything better to be doing when you

are so overtaken, get to

~

Worry

work on

that.

~

Epictetus, 50-120

~

&

trs.,

1975

Everything you wish to eventually achieve, you can

have right now,

We

are

we are arises with With our thoughts, we make the

what we

our thoughts.

think. All that

Buddha,

c.

563-483

BCE ~

The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha, Thomas Byron, 1976

A man's fortune must first be changed from within. ~

Chinese Saying

if

you don't refuse

it

to yourself.

means taking no notice of the and

past,

living

now

in

~

ed.,

~

this

trusting the future to providence,

union with faith and justice. Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 ~

world.

~

And

The

Spiritual Teachings of

Marcus Aurelius, Mark

Forstater,

Cr.,

2000

As

~

a

man

The

thinketh in his heart, so

Bible, c.

367

is

he.

CE ~

Proverbs 23:7

When

the personal

be regulated;

when

life is

cultivated, the family will

Begin to be the family

state will be in order;

regulated, the

is

and when the

state

is

order, there will be peace throughout the world.

From

the

people, life

~

Son

all

of

Heaven down

to the

~

now what you will

Jerome, 345-420

be hereafter.

~

in

common

must regard cultivation of the personal

Let yourself be silently drawn by the pull of what

you

~

really love.

Jalaluddin Rumi, 1207-1273

~

as the root or foundation.

Kongfuzi,

c.

551-c. 479

BCE ~

Who

Da Xue

stands already

on heaven's topmost dome

needs not to search for ladders.

Man is made by his belief. As he becomes.

~

Bhagavad Gita,

c.

400 BCE ~

believes, so he

~ Rumi ~ The outward work work is great.

~

will

never be puny

Meister Eckhart, 1260-1327

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

if

the inward

~ Copyrighted material

32 ACTUALIZATION

FULFILLMENT

/

The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the sum of his own works.

~

Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616

There but

entirely too scattered. Likewise there

true music, but seductive tunes

dancing drown

me

to

~

mind of each of us,

true literature in the

is

it is

it

out.

Only

Thus

in this

it is

when our

habitual thoughts correspond with

Orison

Destiny choice:

is

Maiden, 1850-1924

S.

is

more important

~

grasp

I

for

It is

not a thing to be waited

thing to be achieved.

way can

~

no matter of chance.

it is

and alluring

sweep away external things and search

the essential.

to do,

our desires.

~

William Jennings Bryan, 1860-1925

a

matter of

for, it is

a

~

after

my own

Life

is

what we make

it,

always has been, always

will be.

authenticity.

~ Hong Zicheng,

1596

fl.

~ Grandma Moses,

~

1860-1961

~

Caigentan: Vegetable Roots Discourse, 1.57, Robert Aitken 6k

Daniel

W.

Kwok,

Y.

2006

trs.,

But you can catch yourself entertaining habitually certain types of ideas and setting others aside; and

The only

comes from squandering

true happiness

ourselves for a purpose.

~

William Cowper, 17314800

that,

I

think,

where our personal destinies are

is

largely decided.

~

~

Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947

~

Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 1954

Make

the most of yourself, for that

is all

there

is

of

The moment

you.

~

~

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 18034882

~

that any

may be

you, you

sure

life,

however good,

it isn't

A. C. Benson, 1862-1925

your real

stifles

life.

~

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe

makes

in the heroic

~

Benjamin

heroes.

Within yourself lies the cause of whatever enters

~

1804-1881

Disraeli,

do anything you to that desire

out to accomplish

set

if

you hold

with singleness of purpose.

~ Abraham Lincoln,

life. To come into the full realization of own awakened interior powers is to be able to

into your

your

You can have anything you want - if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be,

condition your

life

would have it. ~ Ralph Waldo

Trine, 1866-1958

In

Tune With

the Infinite,

lies

behind us and what

tiny matters

~

compared

lies

what

to

before us are

lies

Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894

within

us.

~

seemingly

trivial,

which worthily used

~ John Ruskin,

us has a

which will

1819-1900

gift,

be a

and the

is

gift also

~

fullest realization

Do

to his race.

your work you are taking part in the

continue to believe that with your feeling and greatest; the

more strongly you cultivate in yourself this belief, the more will reality and the world go forth from it.

~

~

Rainier Maria Rilke, 1875-1926

Letters of Rainer

Maria

M. D. Hercer Norton,

Rilke eds.,

1892-1910,

J.

Barmard Greene 6k

1945

when you have found Most of us achieve only

at rare

realization of the fact that they

~

moments

worth

living

and your

belief will

~

it

passes true existence by.

feel the deficiency at

Our destiny changes with our thoughts; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish

life

does not

participate in true fulfilled existence, that, as

were,

create the fact.

~ James

a clear

have never tasted

the fulfilment of existence, that their life is

we

~

it.

William James, 1842-1910

Believe that

is

of our faculties

of the world in which

Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970

him and

~

the real me," and

that attitude, follow

genuinely satisfying

fullest exercise

live.

Seek out that particular mental attitude which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, "This

1897

is

however

peculiar to

is

that

accompanied by the

~ The weakest among

what you

~

~

1809-1865

The happiness

What

in exact accord with

it

We nevertheless

moment, and in some - somewhere - what we are

every

measure

strive to find

seeking.

Somewhere,

in

some province of the world we stand, where we

or of the mind, except where

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

ACTUALIZATION / FULFILLMENT 33 have been

— but

set

it is

there and

that the treasure can be found

we

stand, that

we should

... it is

make

try to

hidden divine

light of the

nowhere here,

else

Genius

where

your mind.

~

shine the

F.

~

Martin Buber, 1878-1965 The Way of Man, 1966

Anybody can do

We

do.

~

it.

You may not reach your city mirage If it

image out there

its

...

your desert

were you could not reach your

is

is

remove the mental blocks that stand between you and your destiny. What thought has done, thought can undo.

~

Ernest Holmes, 1887-1960

supreme law and

-Madame

1898-1993

interference of an outsider. If they are to be

become

actualize himself, to

You have your

~

~

human

life

—

brush, you have your colors, you

Nikos Kazantzakis, 1885-1957

this

I

all

the urge to expand,

-

the tendency to express

1

~

96

and don't be

bliss

afraid,

and doors

will

to be

doors.

Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987 ~ Campbell & Bill Moyers, The Power

in Joseph

of Myth, 1988

dared believe that something inside

them was superior

~

By

evident in

the capacities of the organism, or

all

Becoming a Person,

Follow your

~ who

is

open where you never knew there were going

~

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those

which

self.

Carl Rogers, 1902-1987

On

paint paradise, then in you go.

~

the

is

~

his potentialties.

the directional trend

and activate the

must come from within.

Bottome, 1884-1963

do. This

logic of life.

extend, develop, mature

Phyllis

~

Chiang Kai-Shek, 1898-2003

organic and

Neither situations nor people can be altered by the

~

mind to we

The mainspring of creativity appears to be the same tendency which we discover so deeply as the curative force in psychotherapy — man's tendency to

mean

This Thing Called You, 1948

altered, that alteration

his

One by

one, without frenzy or impatience, you are going to

~

makes up

capable of greater things than

Day by day we become what we

not a

not external.

goal.

all

~ Norman Vincent Peale,

of good in a single

in

Fortunately, your destiny

are

realize.

~

Georgia Douglas Johnson, 1886-1967

day, but

about anything with himself

just

that he really wants to and

you make

as big as

is

Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940

in

is

~

life.

~

Your world

what

the ability to put into effect

is

If you deliberately set

to circumstance.

~

Bruce Barton, 1886-1967

unimportant.

It is

what

I

less

than you are

capable of becoming, you will be deeply unhappy for the rest

Where I was born and how

out to be

I

have lived

of your

life.

~ Abraham Maslow,

is

have done with where

in

I

Ken

~

1908-1970

Wilber, Transformations of Consciousness, 1986

have been that should be of interest.

~

Georgia O'Keefe, 1887-1986

A musician must make music,

~

a poet

Talk about

it

only enough to do

only enough to feel to

understand

it.

it.

it.

Think about

Contemplate

it

Dream about it

it

only enough

only enough to be

the need to

write,

What

a

we may

man's desire

if

he

is

an

artist

must

paint,

to be at peace with

man can be,

he must be. This

call self-actualization

for fulfillment,

namely

...

is

It refers

to the

tendency for him to become actually in what he

it.

~ Jean Toomer,

1894-1967

Essentials: Definitions

~

potentially: to

and Aphorisms, 1931

~ It is

not your environment,

it is

determination of your future

and shape your

will

-

that one

is

is

Maslow

~

you — the quality of

that will decide your

We

all

carry

it

within

fullness of wisdom,

us:

supreme strength, the

unquenchable

joy. It

is

never

thwarted, and cannot be destroyed.

lives.

Beiijamin Mays, 1895-1984

become everything

capable of becoming.

your minds, the integrity of your souls and the

~

must

himself.

~

~

Huston Smith, 1919-

We

have the

ability to shape,

reject anything

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

~ change, accept or

we want. Open our minds

to

Copyrighted material

34 ACTUALIZATION positive thought

become

and

1921-

~ you can

internal,

Then you can

take care of the external.

easily

avoid the

and latch on to the eternal.

~ Joseph Lowery,

1924-

also helpful to realize that this very

we have,

reality

pleasures

it

human,

to be fully

according to your

no

beliefs.

here right

that's sitting right

aches and

its

~

are given the gifts of the gods;

creative energy that

who

are those

think

~

Richard Bach, 1936-

It's

~ Pema Chodron, You

who win

those

later,

they can.

~

can take care of the

infernal

Sooner or

and prosperity can

each of us.

a reality for

~ Johnnie Colemon, If you

FULFILLMENT

/

faith,

is

...

exactly what

awake,

fully

body that

now

...

with

we need

fully alive.

~

1936-

you create your

Yours

is

You must begin

the

makes your world. There

limitations to the self except those

are

you believe

the person you

~

to think of yourself as

want

becoming

to be.

~

David Viscott, 1938-1996

in.

~ Jane Roberts, 19294984 ~

I

The Nature of Personal

experience and dedicated learning that ultimately

1974

Reality,

have come to discover through earnest personal

the greatest help

Your own need to be shines out of any dream or creation you can imagine.

~ James

Earl Jones, 1931-

~

happens

Voices and Silences, 1993

~

was character that got

It

commitment

moved

that

us out of bed, us into action,

Zig Ziglar, 1926-

~

the real world whether we want them to or not. The choices made by an observer alter, in an

unpredictable manner, the real physical events.

deeply and inextricably involved

Consciousness

is

in this picture,

not a by-product of materiality.

~

and the

skill,

than the effects of observation "couple" or enter into

Fred Alan Wolf, 1934-

The Body Quantum: The

New

is

no other

one's best, dedicating

have no end but

to

an ongoing process.

is

~

Bruce Lee, 1940-1973

the

The

self-help; that there

— doing

Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have

and

discipline that enabled us to follow through.

~

is

help but self-help

oneself wholeheartedly to a given task, which

~ Physics of Body, Mind, and Health,

1986

Destiny

no

1942-

will

must be stronger

~

as destiny does. If you believe

is

control, then

~ Wess Roberts,

We

But the

will.

skill.

~ Muhammad Ali,

you have

you have no control.

1946-

~

always attract into our lives whatever

we

think

about most, believe in most strongly, expect on the deepest level, and imagine most vividly!

Over

the endless dark centuries of evolution, the

human nervous system has become so complex that it is now able to affect its own states, making it

to a certain extent functionally

independent of

environment.

A person can make himself happy, or

miserable, regardless of what

is

doomed

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1934-

~

The sooner you

When you should

~

realize that

is

simply because

later,

all

it

things.

your outer purpose better.

have seen the limitations of your outer

It's

what you do with your

Millard Fuller, 1935-

make you

happy, and you

life

Eckhard Tolle, 1948-

The Power of Now:

not your blue blood, your pedigree or your

~

make

it

it

~

A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment,

1999

that

Everything that happens to

counts.

~

sooner or

subservient to your inner purpose.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990

college degree.

to "fail"

subject to the law of impermanence of

purpose, you give up unrealistic expectation that

consciousness.

It's

~

cannot give you lasting fulfilment the

happening

"outside," just by changing the contents of his

~

Shakti Gawain, 1948-

Ultimately, of course, every outer purpose

is

genetic blueprint and of the objective

its

~

we make,

is

us,

and every choice

a reflection of what

we

believe about

We cannot outperfomi our level of selfesteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more than ourselves.

we

believe

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

we

are worth.

The

things

we

believe

Copyrighted material

ACTUALIZATION / FULFILLMENT 35 and say about ourselves come back

many

to us in

you achieve

ways. Self-motivation comes from self-knowledge.

~

We must inspire ourselves by believing we have we

the power to accomplish everything do.

We must put faith in our ability to

ans

spirit

them

~

and picture our

set

Marston

There

use

create a

life is

to create a

life

~

is

a creative

Brian

~

Anthony Appiah, 1954-

1

notions Just

it,

and you can make

want

I

situation or context

~ Whoopi Goldberg,

I

so.

it

I

believe

place myself.

1955-

~

to

change

in their lives in

an

and everything

instant. I've learned that the

dreams into

to turn our

are within us, merely waiting for the day

reality

when we

decide to wake up and claim our birthright.

You

~

Anthony J. Robbins, 1960-

purpose of our

lives.

They

concentrate our focus and

The only reason we

~

complete and your success in

life

about you. Robert Anthony ~

There

move

us in a direction.

really pursue goals

themselves will never term;

it's

make

who you become,

is

to cause

us as

happy

you overcome the

you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of

~

is

a burning desire to

make a change. Go forward, go backward. Whatever it takes! But you can't blame accomplish, to

other people or society in general.

When we

It all

comes from

do the impossible we

realize

are special people.

~

~

Jan Ashford

If

you know you want

—

Gita Bellin

have

it,

it.

~

A Sharing of Completion and Celebration, The is,

secret of making

first

1983

of

all,

something work in your

make

the deep desire to

the faith and belief that

see

All that you are, you are right now. All that you be, begins in this

For

as can't, only won't. If

takes

it

it

lives

work; then

can work; then

to hold

that clear definite vision in your consciousness and

fulfillment.

to be.

it

in the long

obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can

Robbins

no such thing

is

you're qualified, all

are simply a tool to

ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by

when you

moment.

live

it

Now is

fully,

Ralph Mars ton, 1961-

a great place

it

working out step by

thought of doubt or ~ Eileen Caddy ~

step,

without one

disbelief.

Footpnnts on the Path, 1976

with love, with

gratitude, with purpose, anything

~

are wholly

your mind.

Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate

can

is

out the

be in direct proportion to your ability to accept

we

~

but

this truth

virtually anything

we need

resources

give

for bringing

life,

hand

continued to recognize the power individuals

have

~

in

this

lives in each moment that we Remember each moment happens only once

Roberta Andersen

will

~

~ I've

We are responsible

how

over

I

whatever

to be, in

a lot of control

and can never be retrieved again.

the whole world can be your canvas.

...

dream

belong to wherever

no say over the hand dealt us

meaning of our own live.

with no preconceived

to a thing

change inner

change

Adams ~

We have played.

December

Interview by Neir Eschel, Daily Princetonian, 2003

come

first

will

Succeed, 1985

we do have

response to circumstances.

If you

must

then outer conditions

out of what the

world has given you. Self-construction K.

sense in attempting to change

accordingly.

How to

~

is little

beliefs,

~

Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color, 1993

To

special

life.

external conditions; you

to be.

Iyanla Vanzant, 1953-

making your own

~

out to

mind way we want

lives the

at

contribution to

is

possible.

Often people attempt they try to have

~

more

to live their lives

things, or

backwards:

more money,

in

order to do more of what they want so that they Fulfillment doesn't

someone

come from

you're not.

It

trying to become comes from expressing, in

each moment, the unique and genuine person you truly are.

The

success that matters

is

the success

will

be happier.

reverse.

The way

You must

do what you need

first

be

it

actually works

who you

is

the

really are, then,

to do, in order to

have what you

want.

~

Margaret Young

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

~

Copyrighted material

36 ADVERSITY

I ADVERSITY & Conditions: Age/Ageing, Chaos/Uncertainty, Conflict/Opposition, Death/Dying, Defeat, Evil,

Related States

Failure/Error, Fear, Grief/Sorrow, Impel manence, Insanity, Limitation, Loneliness, Oppression, Insecurity/Risk,

Shadow,

Struggle, Suffering, Vice, War/Aggressioit/Violence

Syntonic: Acceptance, Action/Effort, Attention/Awareness, Autonomy/Control, Beginning/Endeavor, Centering, Collaboration/Synergy, Composure/Peace/Tranquility, Confidence, Creativity/Discovery/Innovation, Courage,

Daring/Challenge, Decision/Decisiveness, Detachment, Determination/Persistence/Resolve, Equanimity, Expedience, Faith, Flexibility/Flow/Flux, Forgiveness, Friendship, Health/Healing,

Humor/Laughter, Ingenuity, Insight/Instinct/Intuition,

Inspiration, Introspection/Self-Knowledge, Learning, Liberation/Liberty/Freedom,

Love-Agape, Meditation, Opportunity,

Optimism/Positivism, Patience, Power, Prudence, Release, Renewal, Self-Reliance, Solution, Skill/Talent/Resources, Strength, Transformation, Trust, Understanding, Vision/Visualization,

Wisdom, Worry

Dystonic: Anger, Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Comparison/Competition, Complacency, Criticism/Judgment,

Deferment/Delay, Delusion, Dependence, Depression/Despair/Despondency, Distraction/Diversion, Fault, Greed, Guilt, Haste/Impatience, Hate, Inaction, Jealousy/Envy, Laziness, Regret, Revenge

Perils

and misfortunes, and want, and pain, and

more or less the certain lot of every man cometh into the world. It behooveth thee,

When your inner spirit is in harmony with Nature can adapt

injury, are

it

that

For this

therefore,

O child of calamity,

early to fortify thy

substance to function, but works on whatever its way. We can compare it to consumes whatever is thrown in it: if

obstacles are put in

portion of human

the

~

Akhenaton,

c.

1385-c. 1355

BCE ~

possibilities.

does not need any special matter or

mind with courage and patience, that thou mayest support, with a becoming resolution, thy allotted evil.

and

easily to all events

spirit

a bonfire that fire is

feeble

it

strong blaze feeds

can be extinguished, but a on everything, and its flames

grow ever higher. Perilous conditions are circumvented

Look

takes measures of precaution.

the danger; not at will bring

~

its

symptoms. Cutting the roots

~

loss

Buddha,

~

Marcus Aurelius, 121-180

The

Spiritual Teachings of

~

Marcus Aurelius, Mark

Forstater,

tr.,

2000

cause for congratulations.

Yijing,c. 1150

But gentle flames are not enough

BCE ~

"Ta Chu: Major Restraint" in The Photographic Dhiresha McCarver, tr., 1997

Even

when one

to the cause of

I

it

Ching,

and betrayal can bring us awakening. c.

BCE ~

563-483

The gem cannot be

is

under the

hammer and

~

for iron;

eagerly draws to itself the fiery dragon's breath.

That iron

the dervish

who fire,

Jalaluddin Rumi, 1207-1273

bears hardship:

he happily glows red.

~

"Tire Fire the Dervish Needs,"

Mathnawi

Rumi Reader, Kabir Helminski,

ed.,

II,

829-30, The Pocket

2001

polished without friction, nor

Endure rough surfaces that smooth you. ~ Rumi ~

man perfected without trials. ~ Kongfuzi, c. 551-c. 479 BCE ~

"Tire Lost Camel," This Longing: Poetry, Teaching Stories, and Letters of

Difficulties strengthen the

body.

~

Seneca,

c.

4 BCE-65

Rumi, Coleman Barks and John Moyne,

How much strength each man has

CE ~

~ Thomas

~

Horace, 65-8

BCE ~

1988

best proved

would have

lain

a Kenipis,

c.

1380-1471

~

it ...

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances,

is

by occasions of adversity.

Adversity reveals genius; prosperity conceals

dormant.

trs.,

mind, as labour does the

The

troubles that chase

you away

also

show the

road.

~

Kigezi (Southwest LIganda) Saying

in Black

Woman's Gumbo Ya-Ya, Terri

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

~

L. Jewell, ed.,

1993

Copyrighted material

ADVERSITY 37 The

vagaries of

though

To

life

~

falls

Franklin

~

Prosperity

is

~

In the hour of adversity be not without hope,

~

be

a great teacher; adversity

is

a greater.

Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and

from black clouds.

~

Nizami Ganjavi, 1141-c. 1209

strengthens

~

William

it.

Hazlitt,

~

1778-1830

the ego considers to be a devastating

hurricane

is,

as far as the universe

concerned, a

is

perfectly natural event, a link in the endless chain

of cause and effect.

continues

its

The

universe, having

no

ego,

Providence has hidden a charm in undertakings which

who

~ Madame Swetchine,

existence without rendering

The Writings

When we

empty of ego we,

are

too,

can carry on in Little

calm acceptance of life's varying events. ~ Hanshan Deqing, 1546-1623 ~ to

Dreamland, Jy Dili Shakya,

tr.,

of

Madame

minds

are

but great minds

seem almost

1998

difficult

appreciated only by those

is

dare to grapple with them.

judgments about hurricanes or ocean breezes.

Journey

to

then undergo a development and display an energy

Ikkyu Sojun, 1394- 1481

What

is

of which they were previously unsusceptible.

to this fleeting world.

For crystal rain

resources

cast into the very lap of fortune, for our faculties

painful,

teach us not to cling

~

own

be thrown upon one's

~

1782-1857

Swetchine, A. de Falloux, ed., 1869

tamed and subdued by misfortune, above them ... Some minds

rise

to create themselves, springing

up

under every disadvantage and working their

Sweet

are the uses of adversity,

Which Wears

And

solitary

like the toad, ugly

our

life,

~

Washington

Whenever

in the stones,

and good in every

~ William Shakespeare, 1564T616 As You Like It, 1600

~

When you encounter difficulties

and

thing.

evil befalls us,

them with gentleness and

it

into good.

~

shall

we

the

is

we ought to ask how we can

suffering,

perhaps

first

turn

take occasion, from one

many

flowers.

~

path to truth.

~ Lord Byron, 1788-1824 "Don Juan," 1819

~

time.

Francis de Sales, 1567-1622

~ Difficulties are

The human

own

first

Leigh Hunt, 1784-1859

Adversity

bend

Spiritual Meditations

his

So

bitter root, to raise

contradictions, do not try to break them, but

He knows not

a thousand

~

1783-1859

Irving,

ourselves, after the

brooks,

~

way through

exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running

Sennons

irresistable

obstacles.

and venomous,

yet a precious jewel in his head;

this

but

strength that hath not

met

~

meant

spirit is to

to rouse,

not discourage.

grow strong by

William Ellery Channing, 1789-1842

conflict.

~

adversity.

~

Benjonson, 1572-1637

When a man is pushed,

~

tormented, defeated, he

has a chance to learn something; he has been put

Our

strength often increases in proportion to the

obstacles imposed

~

Paul

De

upon

on

ignorance,

it.

Rapin-Thoyras, 1661-1725

~

...

is

he has gained

facts,

learned his

cured of the insanity of conceit, has

got moderation and real

~ Our real

his wits

skill.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

~

blessings often appear to us in the shapes

of pains, losses and disappointments; but

have patience, and we soon

shall see

let us

them

in their

There

~

is

no education

Benjamin

Disraeli,

like adversity.

1804-1881

~

proper figures.

~ Joseph Addison,

1672-1719

Thy

~

fate

is

Those things that hurt

~

instruct.

Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790

~

the

common fate

of all;

some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882 Into each

life

~

"The Rainy Day"

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

38 ADVERSITY That which caused us trial shall yield us triumph; and that which made our heart ache shall fill us with gladness. The only true happiness

is

to learn,

to advance, and to improve; which could not happen unless we had commenced with error, ignorance, and imperfection. We must pass

through darkness, to reach -Albert Pike, 18094891 ~

It is

often better to have a great deal of hami

happen to one than a little; a great deal may arouse you to remove what a little will only accustom you to endure.

~

Face adversity promptly and without flinching, and

light.

you will reduce its impact. ~ Winston Churchill, 1874-1965

Adversity draws

men

together and produces beauty

and harmony in

life's

relationships, just as the cold

Be of good courage,

passed in the difficult

panes, which vanish with the warmth.

required of us

~

S0ren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855

to deal

with

forces, the

To young and

Turn every

given: in

its

old, then, the

character, to

trial

same advice must be

to account,

however

trifling

~

I

th

in Four Centuries of Jewish

Umansky

Under

are often stronger

Many

Women's

& Dianne Ashton, eds.,

the pressure of

a

man will

trial

Spirituality,

Ellen

hands that work on Maria

Rilke

us.

eds.,

~

1892-1910,

J.

Bannard Greene

and responsibility we

than where there

is

no

am grateful

I

for all

my

problems. After

became stronger and

I

that were

able to

grew in

pressure.

difficulty

...

each one was overcome,

more

~

J.

all

meet those

my

C. Penney, 1875-1971

The Deliverance of Mark Rutherford, 1923

~

of clutter, find simplicity.

me makes me ~

stronger.

1889

discord, find lies

~

Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

meet us at every turn. They are the accompaniment of life. They result from combinations of character and individual Difficulties

idiosyncracies

overcoming them we

and they only who have suffered

strong,

From

opportunity.

Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900

Difficulties exist only that in

I

~

hamiony. In the middle of difficulty

may grow

come.

he

has surprised himself by a resource and coolness

kill

to

still

difficulties.

which he never suspected before. ~ Mark Rutherford, 1831-1913 ~

~

&

1945

Out

Twilight of the Idols,

is

would never have amounted to anything were it I was forced to come up the hard

way

M.

1992

acknowledge that in

That which does not

What

not for adversity.

~

C.

...

as a polishing

into the jeweler's prize.

Rachel Simon, 19

lost

love the difficult and learn

Rainier Maria Rilke, 1875-1926

M. D. Herter Norton,

make of it

we

In the difficult are the friendly

it.

Letters of Rainer

instrument that will change the roughest stone

~

that

is

never

is

~

before you, and time

all is

of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-

~

~

Grenville Kleiser, 1868-1953

and patient

~

Helen

if

.

.

.

We could never learn to be brave

there were only joy in the world.

Keller,

1880-1968

~

are able to save.

~

Annie Besant, 1847-1933

Some

Difficulties of the

Difficulties

Inner

Life,

~ Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. ~ Henry Kaiser, 1882-1967 ~

1913

come. But they do not

will see that

last forever.

You

they pass away like water under a

The

difficulties

which

I

meet with

in order to

my existence are precisely what awaken mobilize my activities, my capacities. ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1883-1955 ~ realize

bridge.

~

Sri

The

Saradamani Devi, 1853-1920

ability to thrive

circumstances

~

is

and

live

~

under adverse

Be grateful even

people. Dealing with such obstacles

~

evil

~

~

and terror and misery, and they

follow you. Face them,

and they

Vivekananda, 1863-1902

is

an essential

part of training in the Art of Peace.

The Marrow of Tradition, 1901

from

and bad

the surest guaranty of the future.

Charles Chestnutt, 1858-1932

Fly

for hardship, setbacks,

and

Morihei Ueshiba, 1883-1969

The Art of Peace, John Stevens,

Cr.,

~ 1992

will

will flee.

There are two ways of meeting

~

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 1984-1987, 1:339

alter the difficulties or

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

you

difficulties:

alter yourself to

You meet

Copyrighted material

ADVERSITY 39

When written in Chinese,

them.

~

The

~

Bottome, 1884-1963

Phyllis

word

the

"crisis" is

composed of two characters - one represents

stars are constantly shining,

but often we do

danger and the other represents opportunity. ~ John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 ~

not see them until the dark hours.

~

EarlRiney, 18854955

~

A successful man

one who can

is

lay a firm found-

ation with the bricks that others throw at him. Difficult times

life is

in every

me

have helped

better than before

how

way and

to understand

infinitely rich

that so

~

many

~

Sidney Greenberg, 1917-

and beautiful Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and

things that

one goes worrying about are of no importance

repeat to yourself the most comforting words of

whatsoever.

This too, shall pass.

~

~

Isak Dinesen, 1885-1962

~ Ann Landers,

We learn as much from sorrow as from joy, much from illness

as

If you

as

from health, from handicap as

~

Pearl S. Buck, 1892-1973

want

a place in the sun, you've got to expect

a few blisters.

~

from advantage - and indeed perhaps more.

Abigail van Buren, 1918-

~ Adversity causes some

Do

not take

all,

do not

life's

let

you, for in reality they are

nothing but dream experiences are

bad and you have

them

~

Above

experiences too seriously.

them hurt to

...

bear them, do not

make

Remind

Paramahansa Yogananda, 1893-1952

~

true, every trial

error,

afterward

many

are

satisfaction or happiness in

conquer and goals

~

we

life

find

no

is

an attempt of nature, of the natural,

momentarily

~

Eva

"The

breaks up, which

Meaning

and shine when the sun

~

~

is

viewpoint and subject to constant change. In

~

Awakening:

A

Sufi Experience,

~

1999

if

teaches us anything,

some

it

defeats.

may

be that

Look

at a

it's

nec-

diamond:

than that

it is

coal;

and

less

It

it is

than that,

fossilized leaves or just plain dirt.

~ Maya Angelou,

1928-

—

in terms of

interpret our personal difficulties to

Vilayat Khan, 1916-2004

the

revealed only

the result of extreme pressure. Less pressure,

it is

ourselves.

when

~

essary to suffer is

is

fact,

of the pain caused by our problems stems in

own unchanging biases

~

out, but

is

ot Crisis"

crystal; less

how we

~

a light within.

Kubler-Ross

If life

part from our

but tough people do!

Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross, 1926-

there

Those issues that you face are not fixed in time and space; they are relative to your particular

much

last,

darkness sets in their true beauty is

it.

Pierrakos, 1915-1979

Spiritual

times never

Robert H. Schuller, 1926-

People are like stained glass windows; they sparkle

is

painful, but transformation

unthinkable without

~

Should you shield the canyons from the

~

down and

1923-1996

their carvings.

cosmic lawfulness of the universe, to effect change ...It tears

you toward what

only hide, for a time,

windstonns, you would never see the beauty of

~

Psycho-Cybernetics, 1960

Crisis

will

real

without obstacles to

to achieve.

Maxwell Maltz, 1899-1975

directs

your path to peace and fulfillment.

~

conquer environment, solve

problems, achieve goals, and

is false

~ Tough

are built to

moments, that every

exhausts some tempting form of

and every adversity

~ OgMandino,

strong at the broken places.

We

~

only a step toward success, every

detection of what is

Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961

to break; others to

thyself, in the darkest

failure is

a part of yourself.

The world breaks everyone and

men

break records. ~ William Arthur Ward, 1921-

If circumstances

Par-a-gram

~

all:

~

1918-2002

The

ultimate measure of a

stands in

moments

man is not where

he

of comfort and convenience,

but where he stands at times of challenge and

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

40 ADVERSITY we

controversy.

~

Martin Luther King,

1929-1968

Jr.,

~

deliberately set problems for our children to

solve. It

Strength to Love, 1963

is

through the pain of confronting

problems that we learn

Wise people

...

learn not to

dread but actually to welcome problems because

Nothing

is

The

predestined:

obstacles of your past

can become the gateways that lead

new

to

~ M.

~

Ralph Blum, 1932-

it

whole process of meeting and solving

in this

problems that

beginnings.

~

is

life

has

its

meaning.

~

Scott Peck, 1936-2005

The Road Less

1978

Travelled,

Book of Runes, 1982

The healthy

The way we

problem

see the

not what happens to

happens

us,

the problem

is

.

.

.

It's

but our response to what

Of course,

to us that hurts us.

things can

~

sorrow. But our character, our basic identity, does

The

all.

most

In fact, our

Peck

Different

you are not alone.

freedom to handle

~

~

difficult

circumstances in the

Stephen Covey, 1932-

The 7 Habits of Highly

do

are in adversity for conscience's sake,

~

Peter Gomes, 1942-

so as well.

~

Life's

Effective People,

early

Drum: Community Making and Peace, 1987

When you

to inspire others to

how

difficult

character and develop the internal powers, the

and

distinguished by

is

crisis.

~

experiences become the crucibles that forge our

future

an individual's

fact,

psychological health

he or she can meet

hurt us physically or economically and can cause

not have to be hurt at

hardly one marked by an

life is

absence of crises. In

1989

challenges are not supposed to paralyse you.

They're supposed to help you discover

who you

are.

Diseases can be our spiritual in our lives that

seem

flat tires

-

disruptions

~

Bernice Reagon, 1942-

to be disasters at the time

but end by redirecting our lives in a meaningful

The way

way.

put up with the rain.

~ I

~

Bernie Siegel, 1932-

~

have always grown from

my problems and work out -

challenges, from the things that don't that's

~

when

I've really learned.

Carol Burnett, 1933-

lives are disrupted

stress that

It is

how

In every crisis there

determines whether they will profit from

gift for

Richard Bach, 1936-

Susan

It's

~

is

a message. Crises are

way of forcing change — breaking down

L. Taylor,

1946-

old

~

the irritations of life

Larry Chang, 1949-

which create

pearls.

~

Sometimes when the world purpose

~

you

is

dark

it is

for a

Otherwise you would not see the

...

light

of the tunnel you're supposed to choose.

~

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990

~

~

people respond to

Mihaly Csikszentniihalyi, 1934-

Every problem has a

you want the rainbow, you gotta

by tragic accidents, and are subjected to stresses of

misfortune or be miserable.

~

if

something new and better can take their place.

various kinds. Yet such blows do not necessarily

dimmish happiness.

it,

structures, shaking loose negative habits so that

~

even the most fortunate

see

I

Dolly Parton, 1946-

nature's

~ Many

~

in

hands.

its

~

Krista Belles

One

~

of the secrets of life

is

to

make

stepping stones

out of stumbling blocks.

~

Jack Penn

~

Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes

between success and

failure.

Problems

call forth

Botanists say that trees need the powerful

our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create

winds

our courage and our wisdom.

the sap

It is

only because of

our problems that we grow mentally and

When we human human

desire to

spirit,

we

spiritually.

encourage the growth of the

challenge and encourage the

to flex their trunks is

drawn up

March

and main branches, so

to nourish the

budding leaves.

Perhaps we need the gales of life in the same way,

though we

~

dislike

Jane Truax

enduring them.

~

capacity to solve problems, just as in school

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

AFFIRMATION / APPROVAL 4

I AFFIRMATION / APPROVAL Related States

& Conditions: Acceptance, Autonomy/Control, Being/Essence/Soul, Celebration, Centering,

Collaboration/Synergy, Congruence/Resonance, Identity, Individuality, Integrity, Love-Agape, Meaning, Mind, Presence, Relationship, Renewal, Respect, ValueA^orth

Syntonic: Appreciation, Confidence, Conviction/Principle, Courage, Engageiuent/Integration/Involvement, Faith, Forgiveness, Giving/Serving, Humor/Laughter, Insight/Instinct/Intuition, Inspiration, Introspection/Self-Knowledge,

Meditation, Optimism/Positivism, Trust, Understanding, Zeal/Zest

Dystonic: Anger, Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Comparison/Competition, Conformity, Criticism/Judgment, Defeat, Delusion,

Dependence, Depression/Despair/Despondency, Fear, Greed, Loneliness, Oppression, Regret,

Above

~

th

C.

BCE ~

of his

~ Happiness

~

384-322

BCE ~

change; nor dread your Martial,

40-c. 104

c.

are,

and wish not to nor long for

last day,

it.

~

and wonderfully made. 367

-John

speak the truth,

And say, "Your words are excellent." And when you notice others acting well, Encourage them in temis of warm approval. Extol

them even

When

in their absence;

they're praised by others,

skill

in

knowing

Shantideva, 7 C. ~ The Way of the Boddhisattva, Padmakam,

~

He who all

~

~

~

seeks for applause only from without has

happiness in another's keeping.

Oliver Goldsmith,

c.

1728-1774

must love your neighbor

~ as yourself,

it is

at

you love yourself as your neighbor.

Sebastien Chamfort, 1741-1794

~

qualities.

th

care not so

others, as

tr.,

1997

much what am in the opinion of am in my own. would be rich of

what

Every

man

made

great or small by his

Friedrich

stamps his value on himself

von

Schiller,

own

...

man

is

will.

1759-1805

~

I

I

I

myself and not by borrowing.

~

his

least as fair that

~ I

and right

own assent to yourself, and the constant own reason, and not of others, that make you believe.

Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662

If you

do the same.

But when the qualities they praise are yours, Appreciate their

just

-

your

should

~

who

grounded on

Milton, 1608-1674

voice of your

CE ~

Psalm 139:14

all

self-esteem,

Well manag'd.

It is

am fearfully ~ The Bible, c.

I

Praise

~

Oft-times nothing profits more

Than Be content with what you

~

blessed without the acceptance

Yoruba (Southern Nigeria) Saying

self-contentedness.

is

Aristotle,

man can be own head.

For no

things, reverence yourself.

all

Pythagoras, 6

Guilt, Hate, Insecurity/Risk, Jealousy/Envy, Limitation,

Worry

Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592

~

Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will

only feel satisfaction as he

is

satisfied in

himself.

~ Self-love,

As

~

my liege,

is

not so

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

Henry V,

II:iv,

1599

William

Hazlitt,

1778-1830

~

vile a sin

self-neglecting.

~

There

is

not a person we employ

who

does not,

like

ourselves, desire recognition, praise, gentleness,

forbearance, patience.

~

Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

~

Copyrighted material

42 AFFIRMATION / APPROVAL

A man cannot be comfortable without his own

I

have to

live

approval.

I

want

be

~ Mark Twain,

1835-1910

~

~

to

with myself, and so

fit

for

myself to know.

~

Edgar A. Guest, 1881-1959

"Myself

When you cannot get

a

compliment any other way,

No one can make you

pay yourself one. ~ Twain ~

~ The deepest

principle in

human

nature

Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962

The courage

~

William James, 1842-1910

learn to love oneself- thus do

teach -

I

may

with a wholesome and healthy love: that one

endure to be oneself, and not go roving about

And

verily,

tomorrow

it is

~

no commandment

to learn to love oneself.

arts the finest,

most

Thus Spake Zarathustra, Thomas

for

Rather

it is

~

1952

reveals that deep inside us

of all

listening to,

worthy of our

Once we

touch.

curiosity, tr.,

to Be,

We do not believe in ourselves

~

Common,

The Courage

until

someone

1909

trust,

worth

sacred to our

believe in ourselves

we can

risk

wonder, spontaneous delight or any

cummings, 1894-1962

e. e.

valuable,

is

experience that reveals the

~

human ~

spirit.

love oneself is the beginning of a life-long

Always admire the good in others, and forget not sometimes to admire the good in yourself.

romance.

~

the courage to accept oneself,

is

PaulTillich, 1888-1965

...

today and

and most patient.

subtle, last

Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900

To

to be

in spite of being unacceptable.

~ One must

~

the

is

craving to be appreciated.

~

without your

feel inferior

consent.

Oscar Wilde, 1856-1900

An Ideal

-

~

Husband, 1895

~

LinYutang, 1895-1976

Looking Beyond, 1955

A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them,

Make

for

raise

they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.

~

consider

men

my

the greatest asset

develop the best that

I

is

possess. in a

The way

man is

~

to

~

curious paradox

just as

~

~

I

am, then

I

is

that

when

I

accept myself

can change.

Carl Rogers, 1902-1987

~

not look for approval except for the

The most important point is to accept stand on your two feet. ~ Shumyu Suzuki, 1905-1971 ~

consciousness of doing your best.

~

then

~

self-image strongly held essentially determines

Maxwell Maltz, 1899-1975

The

Charles Schwab, 1862-1939

Do

ability,

by appreciation

and encouragement.

~

1898-1993

what we become.

among

arouse enthusiasm

ability to

own

10 per cent.

~

Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939

Our I

a true estimate of your

it

~ Norman Vincent Peale,

Bernard Baruch, 1870-1965

Above

a

wholesome

~

discipline, be gentle

yourself, for always there will

with

be greater and lesser

persons than yourself.

~ Max Ehrmann,

1872-1945

yourself and

Self-love seems so often unrequited.

~ Anthony Dymoke

Powell, 1905-2000

~

~ The kinds

Desiderata, 1927

of people

who can go on to greater who really like

emotional maturity are those Affimiation of life

is

the spiritual act by

which man

himself to his

life

to its true value.

make more

~

with reverence in order to raise

To

affirm

life is

to deepen, to

inward, and to exalt the will to

Albeit Schweitzer, 1875-1965

~

live.

themselves, even

if

the world seems to turn against

them. Their self-worth does not

ceases to live unreflectively and begins to devote it

on

rest

on

events, but

their opinions of themselves. Their inner

security lies in the confidence that they will be able to

contend with bad breaks;

if

they can't change

the situation, they will nevertheless

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

somehow

Copyrighted material

AFFIRMATION / APPROVAL 43 endure. They take reverses as part of the normal

Once you

pattern of living.

other people before you please yourself, and you

~

Theodore

How

to

Irwin, 1907-

Cope with

~

you be

successful.

when you I

am

somebody.

am me.

I

~

like

I

being me.

I

A truly strong person does not need the more than

When we

and accept and approve of

really love

we

ourselves exactly as

then everything in

are,

~

are forever looking outside ourselves, seeking

approval and striving to impress others. But living to please others

is

a poor substitute for self-love, for

no matter how family and friends may adore us, they can never satisfy our visceral need to love and honor ourselves.

~

Vernon Howard, 1918-1992

Raquel Welch, 1940-

We approval

a lion needs the approval

of sheep.

~

own instincts — only then can You become more satisfied, and

are other people tend to be satisfied by

what you do.

~

~

Louis L'Amour, 1908-1988

of others any

And

make me somebody.

don't need nobody to

must please

begin to follow your

1971

Crises,

get rid of the idea that you

life

~

Susan

L. Taylor,

1946-

~

Lessons in Living, 1995

works.

~

~

Louise Hay, 1926-

We can accept the compliments we receive when we give them to ourselves first. We can build our

An individual's self-concept is the core personality.

affects every aspect of

It

of his

human

confidence by celebrating our small victories and successes.

We can support the faith and

trust

behavior; the ability to learn, the capacity to grow

others have in us by supporting and having faith in

and change, the choice of friends, mates and

ourselves.

careers.

It is

no exaggeration

positive self-image for success in

~ Joyce

to say that a strong,

the best possible preparation

is

Brothers, 1927-

Your problem

is

~

you're

. .

1931-

You've got to love yourself enough, not only so be able to love others.

~

more

And

more insecure, the we become. The more we like to

frequently, the

aggressive

throw our weight about and say people should recognize us.

If

they don't recognize us for

goodness, then they will recognize us for being

~ Desmond Tutu,

Love

Academy

~

God

in you,

and respect

Betty Shabazz, 1934-1997

To have

good in

yourself.

~

is

which

potentially to have

~ Joan Didion,

~

if

Marge

you

1934-

~

like yourself,

feel

yourself that question, right now, out loud and let

the answer be yes

Piercy, 1936-

it

.

.

.

Because what other people

may have to say about you is simply their opinion. It's not who you are. Their opinion about you is reality. Reality

RuPaul, 1960All

is

what

It

The

greatest pleasure in

your

own

Blair

inside you.

life is

being pleased with

efforts.

Underwood, 1964-

Each day

is

~

Hang Out, 1995

Lettin

~

silently affirm that

person with

~ and

what other people think about

much credence. All that matters is how you about yourself. Do you love yourself? Ask

of your

everything.

Live as

foolish to give

~

us so

~

that sense of one's intrinsic worth

constitutes self-respect

It's

~

of Achievement, 2004 June 12

yourself, appreciate yourself, see the

you, see the

~

1931-

Cornel West, 1954-

not

stroppy (obstreperous) Interview,

way

~

that others will be able to love you, but that you'll

~

We, each of us, need so much to be affirmed. For each of us has — gnawing away at the center of our being — a sense of insecurity, some more than others.

really fine, just the

are.

Iyanla Vanzant, 1953-

Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color, 1993

too busy holding on to

.

your unworthiness.

~ RamDass,

acknowledge that we are

we

~

life.

begins with our willingness to

It all

you

whom you would

are the type of

like to

spend the

rest

life.

Bob Moawad

~

may happen.

~

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

44 AGE /AGEING

I AGE /AGEING Related States

& Conditions: Chaos/Uncertainty, Conflict/Opposition, Death/Dying, Defeat, Dependence,

Depression/Despair/Despondency, Failure/Error, Fear, Grief/Sorrow, Impermanence, Insanity, Insecurity/Risk, Limitation, Loneliness,

Memory, Oppression, Shadow,

Time

Solitude, Struggle, Suffering,

Syntonic: Acceptance, Autonomy/Control, Balance, Centering,

Compos ure/PeaceAranquility, Confidence,

Connection/Inteibeing/Interdependence, Creativity/Discovery/Innovation, Continuity, Courage, Dance/Movement,

Detachment, Deteriiiination/Persistence/Resolve, Equanimity,

Faith, Flexibility/Flow/Flux, Forgiveness, Friendship,

Giving/Serving, Health/Healing, Humor/Laughter, Introspection/Self-Knowledge, Learning, Lila/Leisure, Liberation/Liberty/Freedoni, Love-Agape, Love-Eros, Mind, Meditation, Opportunity, Optimism/Positivism, Possibility/Potential,

Power, Presence, Release, Renewal,

Self, Self-Reliance, Sex/Sexuality, Sensibility/Sensuality,

Today,

Transformation, Strength, Wisdom, Zeal/Zest

Dystonic: Anger, Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Comparison/Competition, Criticism/Judgment, Deferment/Delay, Delusion, Distraction/Diversion, Fault, Greed, Guilt, Habit, Haste/Impatience, Hate, Inaction, Jealousy/Envy, Laziness, Regret,

Revenge, Worry

He who

is

of a calm and happy nature will hardly of age, but for someone with the

feel the pressure

To

resist

opposite disposition, youth and old age are equally

them

a burden.

love.

427-347 BCE ~ The Republic, Book 1, c. 360 BCE

~

~

Plato, c.

me

Give

a

young

man

of the old, and an old

in

whom there is something in whom there is Guided so, a man may

man

something of the young.

grow old in body but never

~

Cicero, 106-43

in

mind.

mind and

the heart

must

in parallel vigor one

Karl von Bonstetten, 1745-1832

— and

to

keep

exercise, study

and

~

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

~ I

BCE ~

the frigidity of old age one must combine

the body, the

Johann Richter, 1763-1825

~

have often noticed that a kindly, placid good-

humor is

companion of longevity, and,

the

I

suspect, frequently the leading cause of it.

The harder we work we reveal it.

~

Tertullian,

De

cultu

c.

to conceal our age, the

160-240

more

~

Walter Scott, 1771-1832

Sir

Waiter

Scott's

good

to

When one

grow old content.

Cold and heat change

The

~

pearl of my

mind

my

years

~

appearance;

fl.

730-850

~

~

Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592

may

his his

be.

~

not length of life, but depth of life.

The afternoon knows what

best to burn, old wine to drink, old

and old authors

Francis Bacon, 1561-1626

~

the

~

morning never

suspected.

~

Swedish Saying

is

~

opportunity no

Than youth

~

and

no matter what

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

For age

friends to trust,

in himself

feel old,

~

1580

Old wood

company

he cannot

Bronson Alcott, 1799-1888

It is

The value of life does not lie in the number of years but in the use you make of them ... Whether you have lived enough depends on your will, not on the number of your years.

~

finds

stays safe.

Han-shan "Cold Mountain",

Essais,

Journal 1825-1832, 1890

~

feminarum

pursuits, It's

~

to read.

And

as the

itself,

though

less

in another dress

evening twilight fades away

The

~

sky is filled with stars, invisible by day. Henry Wadswoith Longfellow, 1807-1882 ~

"Morituri Salutamus"

WISDOM FORTHE SOUL

Copyrighted material

AGE /AGEING 45 And

end

in the

count.

the

It is

not the years in your

it's

life

life

that

~

1809-1865

~

For him in vain the envious seasons

Who bears eternal summer in his soul. ~

Player,

not entirely a time of life;

is

ideals.

be seventy years young

is

sometimes

more

far

cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

~

Holmes

~

as

You

are as

young

Years

...

as

young

fear; as

who have

are so old as those

Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

it is

a state of

may

as

your

faith, as old as

your self-confidence, as old your hope, as old as your

as

wrinkle the skin, but to give

up interest wrinkles the

soul.

Mac Arthur, 1880-1964 ~

Douglas

outlived

enthusiasm.

~

your

despair

~ None

I

of years. People grow old only by deserting their

1861

your doubt; as young

To

day

~

mind. Nobody grows old by merely living a number

18094894 ~

Oliver Wendell Holmes,

The Old

am reborn. Each

I

again.

Pablo Casals, 1876-1973

Youth

roll

Each day

for age.

must begin

in your years.

~ Abraham Lincoln,

remedy

In the central place of every heart there

~

recording chamber. So long as

it

is

a

receives a message

- so long are down and our

of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage In spite of illness, in spite

even of the archenemy

sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual

date of disintegration

if

one

is

unafraid of change,

insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big

and happy in small ways. Edith Wharton, 1862-1937 ~

things,

~

heart

young

thought

in

And you will

you remain young in body.

will

find that

the wires are

all

covered with the snow of pessimism and

is

the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you

grown old. ~ Mac Arthur ~

Men are In the degree that you keep

When

you young.

wine — some turn to vinegar, but the

like

best improve with age.

~

Pope John XXIII, 1881-1963

It

takes a long time to

~

Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973

~

your body will in turn aid your mind, for body helps

mind the same as mind builds body. ~ Ralph Waldo Trine, 1866-1958 ~ In

Tune With

The

~

the Infinite,

longer

I

live,

It is

~

the

more

beautiful

Frank Lloyd Wright, 1869-1959

wonderful to be young, but

mature and rich

desirable to be

Bernard Baruch, 1870-1965

life

becomes.

~ it is

~

~

Picasso

is

~

~

We cannot live in the

riper.

~ not old until regrets take the place of

John Barrymore, 1882-1942

who

You're as old as you

feel.

~

~

silly.

morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true, will at evening have become a lie.

old

is

tell

me

their

~

Ai den, 1884-1966

Elizabeth

Growing afternoon of life according

program of life's morning. For what was

~

I'm not interested in age. People

age are

1873-1958

grow

dreams.

like ourselves.

~ May Becker,

to the

We don't grow older, we

A man

equally

in experience.

We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more

become young!

1897

no more than

a

bad habit which a

busy person has no time to form. ~ Andre Maurois, 1885-1967 ~

great in the

~

Carl Jung, 1875-1961

~

If you

continue to work and to absorb the beauty

in the

world around you, you will find that age

does not necessarily

who works and

is

mean

getting old

never bored

is

never

...

The man

old.

Work

and interest in worthwhile things are the best

Old age

isn't so

bad when you consider the

alternative.

~

Maurice Chevalier, 1888-1972

in

The

New York Times,

Youth has

to

~

1960

do with

spirit,

not age.

Men of 70

or

60 are often more youthful than the young. Theirs is

~

the real youth.

Henry

Miller,

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

1891-1980

-

Copyrighted male rial

46 AGE /AGEING The

You're never too old to become younger.

-Mae West,

-

1892-1980

— It is

to be

assumed that

man were

if

to live his

sunset of his

life

as his happiest period,

much

of trying to postpone the

build up to

and gradually

it,

Madeleine L'Engle, 1918-

No matter how

-

LinYutang, 18954976

~

as

a fountain of youth:

is

of people you love.

lives

we grow

older, hear true nature's

—

horizons are not narrowed by age, but extended.

I

We

out of my

when we have no

are old

future

left,

but

maturing keeps us young, since growing old makes steadily easier to leave nonessentials

on the one thing

focus

ourselves as a it

-

Karlfried

The Call for

medium

for the great Life within us

Durckheim, 18964988

the Master,

behind and

think what

—

Vincent Nash,

tr.,

The mistake

1989

age.

-

George Burns, 18964996

lose

if

is

to think

we

It

19004982 Takes Time

bloom and not been plucked more goes on after In the same way, we

are the

the plant has not

If

falls off.

our youthful bloom, but there

Toby Johnson, 1945-

is

a lot

Gay

Spirituality:

~

The Role of Gay 2000

Identity in the

Transformation of

Consciotisness,

Knowing means becoming

Satchel Paige,

to get

you didn't know how old

you was? in Carson Kanin,

is

soul spirit to

more going on.

Human

would you be

my

~

to the florist's, a lot

the flower wilts and

you don't have to

—

old

allow

Shirley MacLaine, 1934-

and sent

get old.

-

and the

to tap

~

learned mostly with aging

I

the whole plant.

itself.

-

can't help growing older, but

How

have defeated

will truly

own way and my brain.

speak to

may

-

life

When you learn

that matters: perfecting

drives toward manifestation of

as

You

you

Sophia Loren, 1934-

your mind, your

it is

you bring in your

and are focused on growing, then our future

voice,

it

can keep the

~

John Cassavetes, 1929-1989

this source,

we mature

get, if you

alive.

talents, the creativity

The Importance of Living, 1937

If

you

old

desire to be creative, you're keeping the man-child

There

existence.

-

that you

-

and happiest period of his

as the best

it

and instead

feared old age, be

able actually to look forward to

is

the other ages you've been.

all

life

poem, he would be able to look upon the

like a

great thing about getting older

don't lose

to

old

Become Young, 1978

is

To say someone is knows something, or

old.

to say that this person

has experienced something valuable. Furthermore, the mature self is hardened in the field of

Age

is

mind,

-

a question of mind over matter. If you don't it

Paige

doesn't matter.

experience by awareness. In contrast, the word

young refers not

—

— I

never

just to age

but also to the absence

of awareness.

feel age

...

If you

have creative work, you

Malidoma Some, 1956-

—

The Healing Wisdom of Africa, 1999

don't have age or time.

-

Louise Nevelson,

19004988

-

Age

is

no

barrier.

It's

a limitation

you put on your

mind

Age

-

is not important unless you are a cheese. Helen Hayes, 19004993 -

—

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, 1962-

Live your

The

secret to the fountain of youth

is

to think

~

life

—

and forget your

Frank Bering

age.

—

youthful thoughts.

- Josephine

Baker,

19064975

-

You

don't stop laughing because

you grow

old;

you

grow old because you stop laughing. If you carry with you your childhood, you never become older. - Abraham Sutzkever 1913- — in The Neiv York Times

—

Michael Pritchard

No one

—

grows old by living — only by losing interest

in living.

—

Marie Beyon Ray

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

~

Copyrighted material

ANGER 47

I

ANGER Related States

& Conditions: Conflict/Opposition, Death/Dying, Depression/Despair/Despondency, Failure/Error, Fear,

Feeling/Emotion, Grief/Sorrow, Hate, Impel manence, Insanity, Jealousy/Envy, Limitation, Loneliness, Oppression, Revenge,

Shadow, Struggle,

Suffering, Unconscious/Subconscious, War/Aggression/Violence,

Worry

Syntonic: Acceptance, Appreciation, Attention/Awareness, Autonomy/Control, Balance, Cause, Centering,

Compassion/Empathy/Kindness, Composure/Peace/Tranquility, Connection/Interbeing/Interdependence, Detachment, Equanimity, Expression, Faith, Flexibility/Flow/Flux, Forgiveness, Friendship, Giving/Serving, Health/Healing,

Humor/Laughter, Introspection/Self-Knowledge, Learning, Listening, Love-Agape, Meditation, Moderation, Oneness/LJnity/Wholeness, Reciprocity/Reflection, Release, Renewal, Respect, Restraint, Silence/Stillness, Solitude,

Wisdom

Tolerance, Transformation, Truth, Understanding,

Dystonic: Adversity, Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Comparison/Competition, Criticism/Judgment, Defeat, Determent/Delay, Delusion, Dependence, Differentiation/Division/Separation, Distraction/Diversion, Fault, Greed, Guilt, Haste/Impatience, Insecurity/Risk,

Memory,

Passion, Regret

Indulge not thyself in the passion of anger;

whetting a sword to

murder thy

~

wound

thine

own

You

it is

~

Khemetic Saying

~

Proverbs,

As

its

Muata Ashaya Ashby,

ed.,

convulsions overturns whole

up

trees,

and

an earthquake

as

cities,

~

man overcome

that will be angry for anything will be angry for

Sallust, 86-c.

For he

his is

Let a

~

Buddha

who

likewise he

that

.

slow to anger

and he that ruleth

is

better than the mighty;

his spirit

34

BCE ~

so the rage

Ibid.

He

.

nothing. in

of an angry person throws mischief around them.

~

.

1994

He fury teareth

deforms the face of nature, or its

not be punished for your anger, you will

anger by love.

Temt Tchaas: Egyptian

a whirlwind in

will

be punished by your anger

breast, or

friend.

than he that taketh a

gives

who

no

fuel to fire puts

takes precautions against

~

it

out,

and

does not in the beginning nurse

wrath and does not puff himself up with anger

Plutarch,

c.

it

and destroys

it.

~

46-c. 120

city.

~

Solomon, 10 th C.

BCE ~

When in

Proverbs 16:32

If you are

patient in one

moment

of anger, you will

are the

Chinese Saying

~

is

.

.

we damage

How much more

.

grievous

consequences of anger than the causes of

it.

~

Marcus Aurelius, 121-180

The

Anger

the aim of inflicting pain,

our souls even more

escape a hundred days of sorrow.

~

anger we reject other people, or turn on

them with

a stone cast into a wasp's nest.

Spiritual Teachings of

~

Marcus Aurelius, Mark

Forstater,

tr.,

2000

~ Malabar Saying ~ One who

controls occurring anger as one would a

chariot gone off the track, that one

~

call a

I

The wise conquer by strength, rather than The malevolent fall by their own rage. Tibetan Saying

anger.

~

charioteer; other people just hold the reins.

~

~

Buddha, c. 563483 BCE The Thomas Cleary, tr., 1994

Although you may spend your

You

,

But

Holding on to anger

is

the intent of throwing

who ~ Buddha ~

the one

like grasping a it

at

someone

hot coal with

else;

you

are

will if

Your

~

not exhaust

you quell your

real

enemy

Nagarjuna,

will st

fl.

all

c. l

your

own

-2

be ud

life killing,

foes.

anger,

slain.

C.

CE ~

gets burned.

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

48 ANGER There

is

no passion

so

much

sincerity of judgment as

~

If you

transports the

doth anger.

Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592

way

don't find a

covert hostility, or

to express

way,

direct, constructive

~

it

~

Samuel Richardson, 1689-1761

to angry people,

~

triggering your

~ For every minute you are angry you lose sixty

out

as indirect,

will eventually burst forth as

explosive rage or violence.

Angry men make themselves beds of nettles.

your anger, in a

will leak

it

It

might well attract you

with the unconscious intention of

own

anger.

~ A journey of Discovery,

Shakti Gawain, 1948-

Return

to the

Garden:

1989

seconds of happiness.

~

~

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

People

who

carry a lot of anger inside without

being aware of it and without expressing

Every wave of passion restrained

your favor.

It is

anger for anger, as with

~

a balance in

is

therefore good policy not to return

~

Vivekananda, 1863-1902

allow thoughts of anger

...

for

no

~

Eckhard Tolle, 1948-

pull

it

down, and

allowed to continue will eventually tear

if

to pieces

it

by externalizing themselves in particular forms of

When you

1999

are angry, the chemicals of anger are

synthesized and flow throughout the body, bonding to is

and influencing millions of cells. Soon the angry; the white blood cells are angry.

unhealthy anger —

disease.

Ralph Waldo Trine, 1866-1958

latent anger.

~

A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment,

to exercise

sway, they have a corroding and poisoning effect

upon the organism; they will

own

that triggers their The Power of Now:

~

are

by other angry people, and often

anger that certain people pick up subliminally and

The Complete Works of Sutami Vivekananda, 1984-1987, 6:136, 1926

When you

it

be attacked, verbally or even

likely to

physically,

apparent reason. They have a strong emanation of

true morality.

all

more

~

liver

If this is

repressed or inappropriately

expressed (as opposed to a positive cathartic

— then the white blood may become belligerent, refusing to

release of pent-up feeling) I

have learned through

supreme lesson: conserved

is

to

bitter experience the

my

conserve

anger,

and

one

as heat

transmitted into energy, even so our

anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that

can move the world.

~ Mahatma Gandhi, Anger

is

1869-1948

a great force. If you

~

can control

can

it, it

move

the

Sivananda, 1887-1963

felt.

is

a

Then

~

normal emotion it is

over with.

if it is

If one

expressed

keeps a

when on

lid

it, it

later,

resentment and hate explode, destroying others, or

~

in,

tasks.

& Miracles,

On the

other hand,

if

you

feel

happy and secure, all of the cells feel happy. ~ Kenneth S. Cohen, 1952 — The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy

What

I've

that

generally hurts you

it

When

learned about being angry with people

~

Waldron, Oprah!

there

is

more than

it

is

hurts them.

~

1954-

A

Day

with Oprah, 1987

anger or frustration in you or

around you, instead of focusing on the anger, focus on the seed of compassion, focus on love and resolution. sets

destroying oneself.

Bernie Siegel, 1932-

Love, Medicine

perform their

in Robert

develops into resentment or hate. Sooner or

they are held

liver

~ Oprah Winfrey,

whole world.

Anger

and

Healing, 1997

be transmuted into a power which can

~

cells

The thought form of resolution in itself field that enables the mind to

up a resonant

perceive methods of resolution.

~

1986

Dhyani Ywahoo ~ Our Ancestors, 1987

Voices of

To

function successfully in our complex world

it is

necessary for us to possess the capacity not only to express our anger but also not to express

not only need to know in different

ways

how

to

match

the right style of expression.

~

M. Scott Peck, 1936-2005

The Road Less

Travelled,

We

to deal with our anger

at different times

most appropriately

it ...

~

how

but also

the right time with

But

it is

not the feeling of anger

make changes.

It is

how you

take the anger that you feel and rather than raging.

addressing

~

You can

wrong with

Angel Kyodo Williams

itself

that will

respond to

use

make it

it

it.

You can

productive

as a catalyst for

great energy and power.

~

Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace,

2000

1978

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

APPEARANCE / FORM 49

I APPEARANCE / FORM & Conditions: Age/Ageing, Art, Conformity, Death/Dying, Delusion, Differentiation/Division/Separation,

Related States

Distraction/Diversion, Dreams/Dreaming, Ethics/Morality, Evil, Failure/Error, Fear, Having/Possessing, Ideas/Opinions, Identity, Imagination,

Impermanence,

Little,

Memory, Mind,

Logos, Manifestation, Meaning,

Polarity/Contrast, Reality, Reciprocity/Reflection, Seeking,

Shadow,

Perspective,

Simplicity, Vision/Visualization,

Wealth

Syntonic: Appreciation, Attention/Awareness, Balance, Connection/Interbeing/Interdependence, Detachment, Disclosure/Veracity, Enlightemnent/Realization/Transcendence, Equanimity, Faith, Focus/Intention, Insight/Instinc t/Intuition, Oneness/Unity/Wholeness, Questioning/Doubt,

Retreat/W ithdrawal,

Sensibility/Sensitivity,

Sincerity/Authenticity, Value /Worth, Truth

Dystonic: Attachment, Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Comparison/Competition, Criticism/Judgment, Defeat, Dependence, Greed, Jealousy/Envy, Regret, Worry

The way to be

~

to gain a

what you

good reputation

is

to

The

endeavor

desire to appear.

Khemetic Saying

Term Tchaas: Egyptian

~

~ Muata Ashaya Ashby,

Proverbs,

true

mind has no form: what has form

ed.,

Ibid.

1994

Each form you

As

the

moon is perfect,

in spite of its

waxing, which do not exist in perfect, in spite of its

it,

so

is

waning and

Atman ever

1100

BCE ~

see has

its

unseen archetype.

If

the form

~

Jalaluddin Rumi, 1207-1273

"This Body

seeming imperfections.

~ Mahatma Dattatreya, c.

is

ultimately illusory.

Is

is

transient,

essence

its

is

eternal.

~

a Rose"

The Pocket Rumi Reader, Kabir Helminski,

ed.,

2001

in Vyasa, Srimad Bhagavata, XI

Since you have perceived the dust of forms,

Outside show

~

Aesop,

fl.

is

a

550

c.

poor substitute for inner worth.

BCE ~

perceive the wind that since

moves them;

you have perceived the foam,

perceive the ocean of Creative Energy. If you

seek direct understanding, don't hold on to

any appearance whatsoever, and

~

Bodhidharma, 440-533

~ Rumi ~ "You Are an Eye," Matbnawi VI, 1460

Ibid.,

you'll succeed.

~ He who

Forms and so Exist

forth,

which we sense

by general acclaim, though

seeks

God under

settled

the form, while missing the

directly,

logic disallows

form

lays hold of

God concealed

in

it.

12604327 ~

~

Meister Eckhart,

If

you seek the kernel, you must break the

them. They're

deceiving, like polluted substances

false,

common C. ~

Regarded in the

~

th

And

view as clean.

Shantideva, 7 The Way of the Boddhisattva, Padmakara,

tr.,

farther

1997

are all conditioned. Cognition

of mind, empty silence

you

fix

the

is

is

Lu Dong

The

Bin,

in control, so

Secret of the

Thomas

Cleary,

c.

798

you would know the

shell.

reality

of

must destroy the appearance, and the you go beyond the appearance, the nearer

a function

~

will

be to the essence.

Eckhart

~

the substance of mind. If

completely or comprehend

~

is

We can know ourselves quite well, but for all that

mind on anything conditioned, then

temperament

if

nature, you

you

Forms

likewise,

it

you cannot govern

it

thoroughly.

~

Golden Flower: The Classic Chinese Book of Life, tr., 1991

we never sufficiently scrutinize ourselves, and we take more pains to appear as we should than to actually be what we should. ~ Madame de Sable, 15994678 ~ The Maxims of Madame de

Be

as

Sable,

Arthur Chandler,

tr.

you would seem to be. Fuller, 16084661 ~

~ Thomas

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

50 APPEARANCE There

is

an

/

FORM

infinity of modes of

conduct which

human

the

It is

condition to question one god after

appear ridiculous, the secret reasons of which are

another, one appearance after another, or better,

wise and sound.

one apparition

~

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680

~

have laughed in bitterness and agony of heart, at

what

the contrast between

~

I

seem and what

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864

The

I

is

The Gods, 1934

Not

till

the

spirit is

changed can the form be

The form is merely an expression of the within. We may succeed in seemingly altering

altered. spirit

that addresses itself to the eyes

the spell of the

moment;

the eye of the

only

is

body

is

not

~

~ George Sand, 1804-1876 Handsome Lawrence, 1872

the form but the alteration will be a believe

1869-1948

~

"Non- Violence - The Greatest Force," The Hindu, 1926

November

8

Cheerfulness and content are great beautifiers and

There

are

famous preservers of good looks.

sex, or

physique of another person

Charles Dickens, 1812-1870

The world

~

nothing, bearing the semblance of reality. Set not

your affections upon

~

state that the exterior,

~

is

indifferent to

communion of

mind with mind; but these people need not detain us. There are some statements that no one ever thinks of believing, however often they are made.

~

it.

Baha'u'llah, 1817-1892

some people who

them, that they care only for the

but a show, vain and empty, a mere

is

mere make-

the spirit within remains unalterable.

if

~ Mahatma Gandhi,

always that of the soul.

~

not the same as

~

Alain Chattier, 1868-1951

am!

~

1850

Scarlet Letter,

The beauty

which

the truth of appearance.

~ I

after another, always pursuing the

truth of the imagination,

Maximes, 1664

G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936

~

The Defendant, 1901

Gleanings, No. 153

The It is

amazing how complete

beauty

~

is

is

the delusion that

goodness.

and the seen are

Ramana Maharshi and

we awake,

our waking

You can

-

a matter of

you

inference only.

~

Sri

Yukteswar, 1855-1936

It is

Science,

visible,

~

take

no

the

Path of Self-Knowledge, 1954

credit for beauty at sixteen. But

are beautiful at sixty,

will

it

be your

own

if

soul's

doing.

~

~

Marie Stopes, 1880-1958

~

1949

only shallow people

appearances.

rid

dreams are found, when

to be insubstantial, so

perceptions are likewise unreal

The Holy

rope and the

what exists is only the rope. ~ Ramana Maharshi, 1879-1950 ~

The Kreutzer Sonata, 1890

Just as objects seen in our

like the

of the appearance of a serpent you cannot see that

~

Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910

seer

appearance of a serpent therein. Until you get

who do

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, not judge by

The mystery of the world

not the

is

~

invisible.

Oscar Wilde, 1856-1900

yet they

hide not the unbeautiful.

the

Khalil Gibran, 1883-1931

~

The Prophet, 1923

~

in Susan Sotuag, Against Interpretation, 1966

Do

not get caught up with the form and

appearance of a challenge. The Art of Peace has

Behind

all this

beauty

...

there

is

some

spirit

no form —

it is

the study of the

hidden of which the painted forms and shapes are

~

but modes of manifestation, and

The Art of Peace, John Stevens,

that

I

desire to

become

in

it is

with

this spirit

Cr.,

spirit.

~

Morihei Ueshiba, 1883-1969

1992

harmony.

~

~

Wilde

De

Profundis and Other Writings, 1987

As we

persist in judging

appear to be, we are

all

one another by what we taking part in a great

masquerade.

Love comes

~

in at the eye.

~ A Book of Pleasures,

~

Joel Goldsmith,

1892-1964

~

William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939

in C. E.

Montague, The Right

Place:

1924

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted male rial

APPEARANCE / FORM Do

not

than

~

try to

appear better than you

nor worse

are,

to be can't

really necessary.

is

~

LinYutang, 18954976

~

on

All that shimmers

we

the surface of the world,

call interesting,

is

and ignorance. ~E. M. Cioran, 19114995 The

dies,

but

who you

5

I

appear

keep up appearances for ever.

~

Stephen Levine, 1937-

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the

all

appearance of foolishness, they are willing to

the fruit of inebriation

remain actually

~

~

Time, 1971

Fall Into

never

Turning Toward the Mystery, 2002

Looking Beyond, 1955

that

Who you really are

fools.

Alice Walker, 1944-

in All the

Women Are

~

White, All the Blacks Are Men, But

Us Are Brave: Black Women's

Like flying fish over water, most of us observe only

Some of

Studies, Gloria T. Hull, Patricia

& Barbara Smith, eds.,

Bell Scott,

1982

the surface of life without grasping what's really

happening underneath. This leads

made

to hastily

~

Vilayat Khan, 1916-2004

A

Awakening:

Everything external in

merely by attempting to

~

1999

Sufi Experience,

A wave on the ocean has a beginning and an end, wave

and a death. But the wave

is

empty.

a form

is

If

a

wave only it

wave

will

sees

sees that it

it is

will

death. Each

wave

the water

free

~

its

form, with

its

beginning and

is

if

is

going to

die,

Because searching

~

be to

the

Prajnaparamita

living

while we're alive

live

from the

release our inner selves

~

Tae Yun Kim, 1946to

spiritual

...

to

behind a facade designed to

to external definitions of who

self,

Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross, 1926-

it is

and what

~

Price, 1927-

mean

mask, an

illusion, disguising

~ Wisdom Within You, 1994

they reach such complexity that

lives in fear

is

completely identified with

knows

itself as

...

Finally, the pressure of

suffering created by this apparent dysfunction forces consciousness to disidentify

consciousness, but

awakens

~

look past the color of other people's skin, likely to see that they are a lot like us.

Famous Amos, 1937-

~

when

~

Watermelon Magic, 1996

it

it

from

lost

dream of form: it is

at a far

from form and it

regains

Eckhard Tolle, 1948-

~

A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment,

Attributes that are considered appealing today

There

attractive surface attitudes but with the

...

a society that reveres beauty is

and youth

that people judge others

on

to the

their

nth

self-

deeper level than

it.

The Power of Now:

may The danger of living in

its

be out of style tomorrow degree

its

form and therefore

Interview, Essence, 1975 February

more

completely loses

of the annihilation of its physical or

psychological form

a thing.

~

it

them. In present-day humans,

When we we're

our

limitations.

Consciousness takes on the disguise of fomis until

consciousness

not feeling good about you, what you're

wearing outside doesn't

a

which has no

Journey Into Healing: Awakening the

itself in

Leontyne

first

~

Deepak Chopra, 1947-

disguise. It only

~

obvious at

death

are.

If you're

is

Inner Power, 1991

convincing, true

Our concern must comes with

insight than

Although our package of skin and bones looks very

~

~

that

to

Why?

takes time and effort to search below

it

Seven Steps

but

Heart Sutra, 1988

confonn

we tend

cause of a situation

from birth and death.

Thich Nhat Hanh, 1926-

The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on

we

more

requires

for the

surface appearances.

water, identifies itself with the

born and

lives,

glance;

the

be emancipated from birth and is

our

try to do.

symptoms of something wrong in we usually try to get rid of the symptoms see the

look only at the surface of most situations.

and water.

be afraid of birth and death. But

water, then

come about

what we

causing the symptoms. Unfortunately,

it is empty of a separate which has been made

possible thanks to the existence of wind

end,

internal in

instead of getting rid of the mental condition that's

The

of water, but

is full

A wave

self.

first

or rearrange external

fix

conditions. Yet, that's usually

When we a birth

was

life

thought, so no permanent change can

conclusions.

are unfortunately a great

many

1999

people with

same old

rubbish underneath.

~ Raymond Charles Barker ~

ornamental rather than inherent value.

~

Ibid.

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

52 APPRECIATION

I APPRECIATION Related States

Little,

& Conditions: Acceptance, Affirmation/Approval, Age/Ageing, Appearance/Form, Art, Belief/Religion,

Dance/Movement, Enjoyment/Pleasure, Friendship, Happiness/Contentment, Having/Possessing, Legacy,

Celebration,

Love-Agape, Meaning, Music, Paradox, Polarity/Contrast, Presence, Reality, Reciprocity/Reflection,

Sensibility/Sensitivity, Simplicity, Spontaneity,

Today, Value/Worth, Wonder/Mystery

Syntonic: Attention/Awareness, Balance, Centering, Collaboration/Synergy, Congruence/Resonance, Connection/Iiiteibeiiig/Iiiterdependence, Desire, Detachment, DisclosureA^eracity, Diversity/Multiplicity,

Enlightenment/Realizatioii/Tianscendence, Equanimity, Faith, Focus/Intention, Giving/Serving, Health/Healing,

Humor/Laughter, Introspection/Self-Knowledge, Liberation/Liberty/Fieedom, Listening, Learning, Memory, Oneness/Unity/Wholeness, Openness/Receptivity, Questioning/Doubt, Retreat/Withdrawal, Sincerity/Authenticity, Silence/Stillness, Solitude,

Truth

Dystonic: Anger, Attachment, Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Complacency, Conflict/Opposition, Criticism/Judgment, Defeat, Delusion, Dependence, Depression/Despair/Despondency, Distraction/Diversion, Greed, Grief/Sorrow, Haste/Impatience,

Hate, Jealousy/Envy, Regret, Revenge, Worry

Reflection

is

the business of humankind; a sense of

their state

is

the

first

themselves in joy? sorrow

~

is

Is it

who remembereth

Proverbs,

Muata Ashaya Ashby,

ed.,

1994

not spoil what you have by desiring what you

once among the things only hoped Epicurus, 341-270

is

but the parent of

all

Cicero, 106-43

man

a

~

every other day,

Jalaluddin Rumi, 1207-1273 Secret: Versions of

Rumi, John

~ Moyne and Coleman

Barks,

1984

not only the greatest virtue,

Though heaven-and-earth

other virtues.

BCE ~

of sense

Epictetus, 50-120

like

of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Open

into being a second time.

who does not

grieve for

what

he has not, but rejoices in what he has.

~

on another's back does not town is.

far the

we wake up empty and open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds

~

for.

BCE ~

A thankful heart

is

how

frightened. Don't

crs.,

He

carried

African Saying

Today,

have not; remember that what you now have was

~

is

appreciate

~

not in mercy then that

~

Temt Tchaas: Egyptian

~

He who

allotted unto us?

Khemetic Saying

Do

duty: but

eternal,

in a

won't come

I

life

of a

years, the days slip by very quickly.

my good

fortune to have been born in this interval.

I

~

is

Even

hundred

must not miss the chance

to appreciate

happiness, nor allow myself to dwell

It is

my life

of

upon empty

existence.

Take

full

possess,

hanker

~

account of the excellencies which you

and after

remember how you would them, if you had them not.

in gratitude

Marcus Aurelius, 121-180

When you

precious privilege

Marcus Aurelius

it is

This

is

rejoice

to be alive

-

~

The

Bible, c.

367

Kwok,

fl.

1596

crs.,

~

&

2006

think of the person

who

planted

the tree.

~

Vietnamese Saying

~

Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything

the day which the Lord has made. Let us in

Y.

to breathe, to

~

and be glad

W.

When eating fruit,

think, to enjoy, to love.

~

Daniel

~

morning, think of what a

arise in the

~ Hong Zicheng,

Caigentan: Vegetable Roots Discourse, 1.107, Robert Aitken

good.

~

Baltasar Gracian y Morales, 1601-1685

~

it.

CE ~

Psalm 118:24

WISDOM FORTHE SOUL

Copyrighted material

APPRECIATION 53

A man dies before we

appreciate him.

~

~

Jabo (Liberia) Saying

I

would rather be able

to appreciate things

have than to have things

am

I

cannot

I

not able to

appreciate.

A prudent man will think more fate

~

Gracian

~

important what

has conceded to him, than what

~

Once

me The back does not know what until

it is

torn

the shirt does for

it

Blessings are oftentimes not valued

The

to a dinner.

Fuller,

1608-1661

till

grace and thanks are to you."

~

they are

~

your hands, but

Whenever you commend, add your reasons doing

so; it

this

is

approbation of a

for

which distinguishes the

man of sense

from the

flattery of

Richard Steele, 16724729

~ Maxim Gorky,

A poor ~

~

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our

let it go,

and precious

big

life

We have

sycophants and admiration of fools.

this

and you learn

to stand

and

stare.

~

William H. Davies, 1871-1940

"Leisure,"

The Collected Poems of William H. Davies, 1916

What

wonderful

a

realized

~

~

you over.

George Colman, the Younger, 1762-1836

it

life I've

had

!

only wish

I

Colette, 1873-1954

The aim

~

of life

is

-

appreciation; there

having more of them

Gratitude for

a gift

~

1763-1827

a just appreciation of things will enable us to

possess

them

in tranquility, or console ourselves for

their loss.

~ Madame Swetchine,

1782-1857

on your present

all

men have

Charles Dickens, 1812-1870

Phillips Brooks,

name

love,

and

to

man is

discontented if his

discontent does in fact paralyse his power of

Chesterton

~

Unless we learn the lesson of self-appreciation and practice

~

~

it,

we

shall

spend our

lives imitating

Aida Overton Walker, 1880-1914

The

faculty of appreciation

just like the

no

ocean.

~

receptivity,

bottom of the it

whether a

other

~

makes one light. Life is is no appreciation,

When there

it.

1835-1893

Be glad of life because

little

of pessimism or progress,

people and deprecating ourselves.

some.

Don't be chary of appreciation. Hearts are

~

appreciation

1869

blessings, of which every

unconsciously hungry for

matters very

in the

~ ed.,

has many; not on your past misfortunes, of

which

less

~

appreciating what he has got.

~

The Writings of Madame Swetchine, A. de Falloux,

Reflect

G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936

Autobiography, 1936

~

It

Only

you have

is no sense in no sense in

of them.

my bedspread

from the Pure Land.

Issa,

if

is

gifts,

even snow on

~

I'd

sooner.

not appreciating things; and there

man

in

of care,

full

if,

it

once

~

1868-1936

no time

at

it is.

property.

Francjois-Marie Voltaire, 1694-1778

Praise the bridge that carried

~

hostess asked

grace to you,

said, "I will say

Vivekananda, 1863-1902

how

~

I

Happiness always looks small while you hold

~ Thomas

~

was invited

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 1984-1987, 8:132, 1926

gone.

own

I

to say grace.

madam. My

~

off.

~ Jamaic an Saying ~

~

~

Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915

has denied.

it

gives

you the chance

to

work, and to play and to look up at

which

~

is

man sinks like sea. He cannot

hollow, which

is

Hazrat Khan, 1882-1927

a piece of iron to the float like the

boat

receptive.

~

The Mysticism of Sound and Music, 1991

the stars.

~

Henry Van Dyke, 1852-1933

~ And ever has it been known that love knows its own depth until the hour of separation. ~ Khalil Gibran, 1883-1931 ~

not

The Prophet, 1923

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

54 APPRECIATION You have sum total

easily in

it

your power to increase the

of this world's happiness now.

another

How? By

~

giving a few words of sincere appreciation to

someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.

~

Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955

of this

~

life

and in eluding the implacable grandeur

life.

Albert Camus, 1913-1960

"Summer

in Algiers,"

The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, 1955

We

humans think we

how

example, knows If you can't have what you want, be grateful for what you have. Keep thinking constantly of all the big things you have to be thankful for instead of

complaining about the

~

Carnegie

little

things that

annoy you.

that

is

it is

~

much

and

to love

to admire in this

an act of ingratitude not

content in

for

orchid and the snail and join our palms reverently

~

so

an orchid,

are smart, but

to produce noble,

symmetrical flowers, and a snail knows how to make a beautiful, well-proportioned shell. Compared with their knowledge, ours is not worth much at all. We should bow deeply before the

monarch

before the

There

~

1936

to be

life

happy and

this existence.

LinYutang, 18954976

tree.

The

~

all

species will help

~

Thich Nhat Hanh, 1926-

The Sun

~

and the magnolia

butterfly

feeling of respect for

us recognize the noblest nature in ourselves.

My

Heart:

Arnold Kotlev,

ed.,

From Mindfulness

to Insight

Contemplation,

1988

The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, 1962

So much of human that

we should be

and happiness

life

unashamedly and learn

this subjectivity

cultivate the seeing eye

the beauties that

lie

subjective

us,

and be grateful

the greatest

is

for for

ingratitude,

and we must conclude that the world looks sick because the soul looking on subjective,

why not

is

sick

...

Lin

On

the

be subjectively happy rather

when our

of America,

...

has

happy is appreciating and what you have, instead of what you don't

have.

~

~ Woody Allen,

1935-

The

goodness

roots of

all

lie

in the soil of

Dalai Lama, 1935-

~

said to be alive in those

moments

Stop and listen to the heart, the wind outside, to

~

one another,

to the

erious

comes moment

life. It

changing patterns of this mystafter

moment, out of

nothing, and disappears into nothing. Live with

1930

less

"Grumbles"

who

~

talent for being

liking

hearts are conscious of our treasures.

Woman of Andros,

capable of gratitude as one

1950

Thornton Wilder, 1897-1975

The

The

~

Wisdom

as

Elie Wiesel, 1928-

appreciation for goodness.

~

We can only be ~

~

If life is all

than subjectively sad?

~

is

emerged from the kingdom of the night.

to

and the perceptive soul

around

Of all human vices,

it.

No one is

not to take advantage of

fools

the widespread tendency to

~

grasping and

more appreciation and

Jack Komfield, 1945-

caring.

~

undervalue one's already achieved need-

even to devalue them and throw them away. Self-actualizing persons are relatively exempted from this profound source of human gratifications, or

unhappiness. In a word, they are capable of "gratitude."

The

blessedness of their blessings

remains conscious. Miracles remain miracles even

The

direct experience of the consciousness of love

gratitude. Gratitude

is

is

the process of recognizing

what is true. Gratitude is an act of awareness. Without awareness, there is no recognition of anything and, therefore, no love of anything. ~ Tae Yun Kim, 1946- ~ Seven Steps

to

Inner Power, 1991

though occurring again and again. The awareness of undeserved good luck, of gratuitous grace,

guarantees for them that

never grows

life

remains precious and

stale.

~ Abraham Maslow,

1908-1970

Appreciative words are the most powerful force for

good on earth.

~

~

George

W. Crane ~

Motivation and Personality, 1954

There If

so

there

is

much

a sin against

life, it

in despairing of

life

consists perhaps not as in

hoping

I

isn't a

day that goes by that

can't believe I'm here. This

~

Leslie

Darin

is

I

don't think

...

so wonderful.

~

for

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

ART 55

I ART Related States

& Conditions: Ability, Accomplishment/Achievement/Excellence, Appearance/Form,

Attention/Awareness, Celebration, Communication, Cieativity/Discovery/Innovation, Dance/Movement,

Dreams/Dreaming, Eloquence/Poetry, Exploration, Expression, Idea/Opinion, Meaning, Music, Power, Presence,

Lila/Leisure, Legacy, Manifestation,

Identity, Imagination, Individuality,

Reality,

Shadow, Truth, Unconscious/Subconscious,

Vision/V isualization, Wonder/Mystery Syntonic: Appreciation, Commitment/Dedication, Congruence/Resonance, Confidence, Desire, Determination/Persistence/Resolve, Diversity/ Multiplicity, Flexibility/Flux/Flow, Focus/Intention, Ingenuity, Insight/Instinct/Intuition, Inspiration, Integrity, Introspection/Self-Knowledge, Openness/Receptivity, Questioning/Doubt,

Passion, Reciprocity/Reflection, Renewal, Retreat/Withdrawal, Sensibility/Sensitivity, Sincerity/Authenticity, Silence/Stillness, Simplicity, Spontaneity, Solitude

Dystonic: Attachment, Comparison/Competition, Complacency, Criticism/Judgment, Defeat, Delusion, Dependence,

Depression/Despair/Despondency, Distraction/Diversion, Fault, Greed, Habit, Haste/Impatience, Hate, Inaction, Jealousy/Envy, Limitation, Loquacity, Oppression, Regret, Revenge,

Art

~

is

a higher type of knowledge than experience.

Aristotle,

BCE ~

384-322

Worry

Of such wisdom,

the poetic passion, the desire of

beauty, the love of art for

its

own

sake, has most.

For art comes to you proposing frankly to give

Art

an opening for the heart. makes the divine silence in the

nothing but the highest quality to your moments as

offers

True

art

soul

they pass, and simply for those moments' sake.

~

break into applause.

~

Shamseddin

The tr.,

Gift:

Haf'iz,

Poems by Hafiz

~

1320-1390 the

Walter Pater, 1839-1894-

Studies in the History of the Renaissance,

1873

Great Sufi Master, Daniel Ladinsky,

1999

The

artist is

nothing without the

gift,

but the

gift is

nothing without work.

Where

the spirit does not

there

no

~

is

work with the hand,

~

Entile Zola,

1840-1902

art.

Leonardo da Vinci, 14524519

~

Art

is

the

most intense mode of individualism that

the world has

The mediator

of the inexpressible

is

the

work of

art.

~ Johann von Goethe, object of art

is

1749-1832

thought, and then

~

known.

~

Oscar Wilde, 18564900

in

The

Fortnightly Review,

~

1891

~ Art

The

~

to crystallize

~

emotion into

is

not a thing;

it is

a way.

Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915

~

in form.

fix it

Francois Delsarte, 1811-1871

~

The

greatest art of

all is

the art of living

best preparation for the art of living

All that

is

good

in art

talking to another,

the expression of one soul

is

and

is

precious according to the

greatness of the soul that utters

~ John Ruskin,

1819-1900

is

— and

the

the cultiv-

The cultivated heart is in the human who knows and appreciates our heritage and who can absorb and understand and

ated heart.

being

our history;

it.

~

translate this understanding into action in the

present and also into action for tomorrow.

Art

is

a

human

activity, consisting in this, that

man consciously, signs,

hands on

one

~

Henrietta Szold, 1860-1945

to others feelings

he has lived

Art

is

the imposing of a pattern

through, and that other people are infected by

our aesthetic enjoyment

these feelings and also experience them.

pattern.

~

~

by means of certain external

Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910

~

~

is

on experience, and

recognition of the

Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947

~

Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 1954

WISDOM FORTHE SOUL

Copyrighted material

56 ART Art when every

understood

really

human being.

It is

is

the province of

simply a question of doing

things, anything, well. It

is

not an outside, extra

an end, it defeats itself. ~ Henry Miller, 1891-1980

-

The Wisdom of the Heart, 1941

thing.

~

Robert Henri, 18654929

The Art

Spirit,

The new work of art does not

~

but in finding a

When

the artist

kind of work

his

alive in

is

may

any person, whatever

be, he

becomes an inventive,

searching, daring, self-expressive creature.

becomes

interesting to other people.

upsets, enlightens,

understanding.

and opens ways

Where

are trying to close the book,

there are

~

still

who

those

more pages

He

are not artists

and shows

it

.

The new

soul.

Art can express eternal

truth,

not simply works of art;

is

color of sunsets in

harmony of colors, can

tious

medium

its

Du

Bois,

the spirit that

its

and the

soul

handkerchief, that can dance

a flaming world and E. B.

it is

in

not limited to ...

a

man

raise this apparently

to suggest absolute

make

18684963

the world dance too.

~

Art does not reproduce what

ible

and convincing

plastic Art, it is

is

visible;

it

makes

and

rising

PaulKlee, 18794940

~

The

great truths

life,

development,

universally intellig-

hands of the master of

in the

and the soul of man, in the stage when

from emotion to

intellect, looks, receives

uplifted towards a higher

is

development, a diviner knowledge.

~

things visible.

...

of religion, science, metaphysics,

become concrete, emotional,

the suggestion and

~

the era of

profound truths with a perfection which language

knows beauty, that has music

~ W.

is

using a simple combination of lines, an unpreten-

labors with difficulty to reach

on

it is

the expression of form and appearance

insignificant

possible.

Ibid.

Art

era

and soul-making.

.

.

Ibid.

He

disturbs,

for a better

he opens

new

spiritual creativity

~

consist of making a

producing an objet d'art or in self-therapy,

living or

1923

Aurobindo, 1892-1950

Sri

Lights

~

on Life-Problems, Kishor Gandhi,

ed.,

1950

Creative Credo, 1920

Art Artists

who

live

and work with

spiritual values

cannot and should not remain indifferent conflict in

and

~

to a

is

a celebration of

of the consciousness.

~

Pablo Picasso, 18814973

Art

~

is

not and never has been subordinate to moral

values.

Moral values

values are

We ~

all

know

that art

is

not truth. Art

is

a

lie

which

us realize truth.

Picasso

~

Herbert Read, 1893-1968

which the highest values of humanity

civilization are at stake.

makes

an indecent exposure

life ...

human

are social values; aesthetic

values. Morality seeks to restrain

them by them significant

the feelings; art seeks to define externalizing them, by giving

~

form.

~ Only work which

is

Read

~

the product of inner

compulsion can have spiritual meaning. ~ Walter Gropius, 18884969 ~

Real art

is

illumination.

never had before or

It

gives a

man

an idea he

up ideas that were

lights

formless or only lurking in the shadows of his

The

artist

must attune himself to that which wants and pennit the process to happen

to reveal itself

mind.

~

It

adds stature to

life.

Brooks Atkinson, 1894-1984

~

through him.

~

Martin Heidegger, 18894976

~

The

arts are a necessity in

surprising

The

true

work of art

is

a creation not of the hands,

but of the mind and soul of the

artist.

art, feel

is

only a means to

abundant.

It

life,

to the

it

for

were.

it

at

human

life ... It is

learned to live without all,

let their sensibilities

Then men become

coarse and

vulgar.

~ Art

no need

atrophy as

~ Nancy Prophet, 18904960 ~

how men have

life

merely points the way

more in becoming

LinYutang, 1895-1976

~

Looking Beyond, 1955

...

Art should be

a satire

and a warning against our

paralyzed emotion, our devitalized thinking and

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

ART 57 our denaturalized living

should restore us to

... It

health and sanity of living and enable us to recover

from the fever and delirium caused by too

mental

activity. It

should sharpen our senses, re-

establish the connection

our

human

much

between our reason and

nature, and assemble the ruined parts

of a dislocated

life

The Art

~

goal of life

way

rapture.

is

to experience

it.

Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987

~

is

the

in Reflections on the Art of Living:

Diane K. Osbon,

There

one

is

1991

ed.,

art,

A Joseph Campbell Companion,

no more no

less: to

do

things

all

again into a whole, by restoring

with artlessness.

our original nature.

~

~

~

Lin

Piet Hein,

~

1905-1996

The Importance of Living, 1937

Art Store up things to say, ideas, feelings, observations of life. Pour yourself out.

have

to

Then

have things to lop

lop off later;

off from.

There are no

rules to follow in art, the theater, the novel.

have

~

to find yourself

Lin

and everything

You

else follows.

~

Looking Beyond,

The

you

1

men

reminding

of their humanity and the promise

of their creativity.

~

enhanced meaning

in

it

with

memorable form - or

is

not

~

Jacques Barzun, 1907-2005

The House of Intellect, 1959

The

job of the artist

is

always to deepen the

~

Francis Bacon, 1909-1993

in

The Sunday Telegraph, 1964

The

artist

~

within must fight the battle for Meaning

wood and

stone.

But

his

Way,

as that of

leads from ignorance, delusion,

Everyman,

folly, self-inflation

All arts contribute to the greatest art of all:

~

-

the art of getting through

point of practicing an art

you are than

natural appearances,

life,

~

life

.

.

.

not, therefore,

it is

an escape

but an expression of the significance of

a stimulation to greater effort in living.

Henry Moore, 18984986

~

shed

ultimate in art

~ Duke Ellington,

is

self-expression, not escape.

1899-1974

~

all

to

is less

become your

truth, to be able to

sham, imposture and bluff in relation to

yourself and others. True art

of the

~

little self,

is

is

not an indulgence

but a manifestation of the

Frederick Franck, 1909-

Art as a Way:

Art

The

The

who

life.

~

18984956

Because a work of art does not aim at reproducing

from

...

to discover

and phoniness to truth and authenticity

Bertolt Biecht,

it

~

with pen on paper, or brush on canvas, or chisel in

~

Lewis Mumford, 18954990

Lebenkunst

else

art.

mystery.

955

has a special task and duty - the task of

artist

sensation and embodies

distills

A Return to the Spiritual Roots,

an antidote

Self.

~

for violence.

It

1981

gives the ecstasy,

the self-transcendence that could otherwise take the form of drug addiction, terrorism, suicide, or warfare.

But not only medicine, engineering, and painting are arts; living

itself is

an

art

-

in fact, the

important and at the same time the most

difficult

and complex art to be practiced by man. ~ Erich Fromm, 1900-1980 ~ Life beats

down and

~

up in the morning

~

crushes the soul and art

reminds you that you have one. Stella Adler,

1902-1992

is

Romare Beaiden, 1914-1988

Cyril Connolly,

Bearden

all

created things.

1903-1974

Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraint it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.

~

the

~

method of levitation,

Albert Camus, 1913-1960

Anais Nin, 1903-1977

-

& Death,

~

1960

in order to separate

oneself from enslavement by earth.

~

make a miraculous come back and make some

~

Resistance, Rebellion is

~

you're any kind of artist you

statements in shapes and colors of where you were.

Previous Convictions, 1963

Art

sun coming

enough.

the conscious apprehension of the

unconscious ecstasy of

~

is

journey and you can

~

~ Art

~

We look too much to museums. The

If

~

RolloMay, 1909-1994

most

Art

is

not an end in

itself. It

into a higher spiritual order,

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

introduces the soul

which

it

expresses and

Copyrighted material

58 ART some sense

in

Our

explains.

~ Thomas Merton, 1915-1968 No Man Is an Island, 1955, 1983

~

feel that art

which characterizes

eye of the storm.

do with an

prayer, too,

A

~

Madeleine L'Engle, 1918-

All art

~

and the

arrest of attention in the midst of

is

a kind of confession,

more or

less oblique.

~

James Baldwin, 1924-1987

Art

is

inseparable from

life,

and form and content

are one.

Saul Bellow, 1915-2005

~

~

Work, George Plimpton,

in Writers at

such

find the truth.

think that art has something to

I

distraction.

~

we

has something to do with the

achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. stillness

to paint or sing or write, for only in

is

response do

~ I

truest responsibility to the irrationality of the

world

ed.,

Paule Marshall, 1929-

1967

Art

An artist creates out of the materials of the moment, never again

~

true

is

~

is

for

everyone - paint,

of music,

like a piece

most international thing

the

to be duplicated. This

I

is

know.

~

Richard Demaico, 1930-

of the painter, the musician, the dancer, the actor, the teacher, the scientist, the businessman, the

To reproach

fanner -

radical relation to the world has to be a complaint

we

it is

true of us

whatever our work, that

all,

are artists so long as

concreteness of a

we

are alive to the

moment and do

some other purpose. ~ M. C. Richards, 19164999 Centering,

not use

about it

to

artists for

for

~

~

like

~

we

practice are apprenticeship.

The

big

is

~

burned

we

so

then people ultimate

personality.

work of art

We

of being able to life is

necessity ourselves, our

is

become what we want to become; if we don't avail ourselves of this

Vilayat Khan, 1916-2004

A

Sufi Experience,

Art

in

more itself

~

of art

can

change -

affect

is

Everybody's God. ... if

It's

just

the whole of civilization

memory of it, even their own art. It is a

don't have any

will start to build

a function.

1933-

~

is

an open-ended concept evolving

familiarity or uselessness.

1999

~

a form of power; it

it

has impact,

DonBurgy, 1937-

can not only move

in Jeanne Noble, Beautiful, Also,

us, it

Many fully

~ Are

the Souls of

A History of the Black Woman in America,

My

Artists,

~

1977

it

makes us move. Ossie B. Davis, 1917-2005

away from which has been eroded by

existing information

~

in the

direction of increasing information and

Contemporary

Any form

Sisters:

—

~ Yoko Ono,

a great loss

Awakening:

~

is,

each endowed with the faculty

are

potential.

~

artist.

that they're inhibited

life.

Richards

The

art

being a burden.

Susan Sontag, 1933-2004

Everybody's an

our

is

reproach

to

reproaching consciousness

1989

All the arts art

And

art as such.

than one way,

having an insufficiently

Black

1978

artists

we know

it

life itself

becomes

will vanish.

Art

is

only a stopgap, an imperfect effort to wrest

meaning from an environment where nearly everyone

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power

have said that when

conscious, art as

~

is

sleepwalking.

Marilyn Ferguson, 1938-

~

The Aquarian Conspiracy, 1980

narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds

him of the richness and

When power corrupts, establishes the basic

diversity of his existence.

poetry cleanses. For art

human

truths

which must

~ John F. The

New

Kennedy, 1917-1963

about by rules we did not believe art in

our

lives

as art finds its

serve as the touchstone of our judgement.

in

For too long we have played games we did not care

~

its

own

~

getting well ever an

Robert Lowell,

Jr.,

art,

or art a

1917-1977

~

way

to get well?

risking, in

~

there

was

Life lived

own way, makes its own friends and its own eyes To the

self,

.

.

.

as to the artist, success

place to stay, only a Is

in. If

was paint-by-number.

music, sees with

transformed

York Times, 1963 October 27

it

is

never a

momentary reward. Joy

is

in

making new.

Ibid.

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

ART 59 Art

~

way of possessing

a

is

Marvin Gaye, 1939-1984

destiny.

Art has a way of opening us up and allows us

~

vulnerable, to deal with our ambiguities and incongruities and contradictions, so that

The essence

own

of art

creativity

is

the relationship between one's

and matter, whether

it's

the muscles

to be

we can

grow and mature and develop.

~

Cornel West, 1954-

~

in dancing, or paints, or the strings of an

instrument. Art as meditation awakens the artist in

when

everybody, and

that happens spiritual energy

~

Matthew Fox, 1940-

& Rebecca McClen Novick, Voices from the Edge,

that

as

is

1994

we contemplate our world and have

In the arts

chance no longer

opaque

to be strangers to the to reason as

it is

deep

the

self

transparent to

the imagination.

~ Thomas Moore, Original

Self,

.

~

Malidoma Some, 1956-

~

When an

actor

is

creatively.

When

moment, he

in the

engaged in listening

for the

a painter

or she

is

next right thing is

painting, he or she

a plan, but that plan

soon

is

own plan.

This

is

often expressed as "The brush takes the next

Progressive art can assist people to learn not only

about the objective forces at work in the society in but also about the intensely social

live,

character of their interior

~

.

and the

artist

The Healing Wisdom of Africa, 1999

surrendered to the painting's

2000

which they

only a thin line between the

is

may begin with

~

1940-

an artisan of the sacred can cooperate

healer.

"Counting Our Original Blessings," Interview with David Jay

Brown

artist as

in bringing the sacred to birth in this world

There

flows.

~

The

stroke." In dance, in composition, in sculpture, the

experience

is

the same:

we

are

more

the conduit

than the creator of what we express.

~

Cameron ~

Julia

lives.

~

Angela Davis, 1944-

Cooking

Those who want to follow the Way of Beauty must break away from cultural dictatorship and move out into no-man's land where everything

and unknown. They must learn to

is

new

is

one of the best ways

for

your authentic

self to

remind your conscious

artist.

Like the union of canvas and pigment,

cooking

is

self that

you

are

an

alchemy, a work of Wholeness-in-

progress. live outside

of

~

Sarah Ban Breathnach

~

stereotypes and worn-out attitudes, and free

themselves from any bonds interests, or habits

They must

learn

—

all

roles, ties, ideologies,

them back.

that might hold

over again, without fear or

The

Piero Fenucci, 1946-

this

~

Inevitable Grace: Breakthroughs in the Lives of

Women

-

Guides

to

Great

Men and

your Self-Realization, David Kennard,

... is

to

become

consequence of the fonner function, the purpose of

hesitation, to be themselves.

~

essential function of art

personally enlightened, wise, and whole. Then, as a

wisdom, the purpose of art,

community enlightened,

~

tr.,

Peter

London

wise,

is

to

make

the

and whole.

~

1990

Do All true

artists,

whether they know

it

from a place of no-mind, from inner

or not, create

stillness.

The

mind then gives form to the creative impulse or insight. Even the great scientists have reported that their creative breakthroughs came at a time of

~

Eckhard Tolle, 1948-

A

problems posed in

pictures

we

we

Guide

~

The

lie

solution to the

outside in the

realm of fresh thinking about perennial

honest feelings and awakened

No More

to Spiritual

write, the

issues, in

spirit.

Marita Golden, 1950-

music we

write,

and the

is

down

prayer

- not

the Artist Within,

the vulgarised notations

1989

handed

to us in the scriptures, but a fresh vital

discovery of one's world.

~

Secondhand Art: Awakening

Enlightenment, 1999

paint are dialogues with our deepest

consciousness.

~

do not

realms of technique and formula; they reside in the

Art Often, what

art

~ London ~

mental quietude. The Power of Now:

not set stock in correct responses, in familiar

ways, or in the ways of others.

own

special presence in the

Marc Chagall was once asked if he attended work is his

a synagogue; he answered that his prayer.

~

Joseph Zinker

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

~

Copyrighted material

60 ATTACHMENT

I

ATTACHMENT Related States

& Conditions: Appearance/Form, Commitment/Dedication, Conviction/Principle, Death/Dying, Delusion,

Dependence, Desire, Distraction/Diversion, Engagement/Integration/Involvement, Greed, Habit, Having/Possessing, Indulgence/Temptation, Passion, Regret, Insecurity/Risk, Seeking, Sex/Sexuality, Value/Worth, Vice, Wealth Syntonic: Autonomy/Control, Balance, Centering, Detachment, Enlightenment/Realization/Transcendence, Equanimity, Iiiipermanence, Love-Agape, Meditation, Mind, Moderation, Prudence, Questioning/Doubt, Release, Restraint,

Retreat/Withdrawal, Self-Reliance, Simplicity, Spirituality, Transformation

Dystonic: Conformity, Criticism/Judgment, Defeat, Fear, Grief/Sorrow, Jealousy/Envy, Limitation, Loneliness, Struggle, Suffering,

Worry

Avoid attachment to both what And what is unpleasant. Losing the pleasant causes

is

pleasant

attainment

~

grief.

Dwelling on the unpleasant also causes

Do

it

The

pass,

that the separation will not diminish you.

Clinging to what

is

dear brings sorrow.

Clinging to what

is

dear brings

To one who There

~

grief.

is

reached.

~

Ashtavakra Gita

10.4,

John Richards,

1994

tr.,

not cling to the pleasant.

Let

So

changing things that the everlasting joy of

is

is

entirely free

no sorrow or

Buddha,

563-483

c.

surest sign of a

that he

ceased.

fear.

from endeamient

him even

When

bondage;

man of the

highest

wisdom

is

unattracted by the pleasures of the

is

world, for in

the subtle tendencies have

these tendencies are strong, there

when

they have ceased, there

is

is

liberation.

fear.

~

BCE ~

Yoga Vasistha

~

DJiammapada If you

The thoughtful relish

exert themselves; they do not

attachment. Like swans leaving a lake, they

abandon one attachment

~

after another.

don't

know that everything comes from the mind, become attached. Once attached, you're

unaware. ~ Bodhidharma, 440-533

~

Ibid.

Clinging cannot be limited; even to be attached to

Those

in

whom

the

mind

is

correctly cultivated in

the limbs of perfect enlightenment,

attachments and enjoy being

and

who have

stopped

all

free

who have no

from grasping,

compulsion, attain

is

to go astray. Just let

own way and

there will be

~

Jianzhi Sengcan, 526-606

~

Ibid.

Pitiful are

Do not remain in the dualistic state; Avoid such pursuits carefully. If there is even a trace Of this and that, right and wrong,

those who, acting,

are attached to their action's fruits.

The

wise

results,

and

~

things be in their

"On Believing in Mind"

perfect nirvana here in this world.

~

the idea of enlightenment

neither coming nor going.

is

man

lets

go of all

The Mind-essence

whether good or bad,

Although

focused on the action alone.

Bhagavad Gita,

c.

400 BCE ~

Do

will

dualities

be

lost in confusion.

come from

not be attached even to

When

2:49-50

all

the

mind

this

the

One,

One.

exists undisturbed in the

Way,

Nothing in the world can offend,

The than

essential nature of bondage

and

desire,

liberation. It

is

its

elimination

is

is

nothing other

known

as

simply by not being attached to

And when

a thing

can no longer offend,

It

ceases to exist in the old way.

~

Sengcan

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

~

Copyrighted material

ATTACHMENT "Thoughtlessness"

with a mind

~

is

and

to see

to

know

all

things

from attachment.

free

61

are of your ideals, the greater your

heart breaks.

~

Dajian Huineng, 638-713

The fonder you

~

~

LinYutang, 1895-1976

Between Tears and Laughter, 1943

Getting Is

an

It is

To

~

of things and clinging to emptiness

rid

If

of the same kind;

illness

just like

throwing oneself into a

fire

avoid being drowned.

Yongjia Xuanjue, 665-713

~

we

could put material things into their proper

place,

and use them without being attached to

them,

how much

freer

in Zen and Zen Classics, R. H. Blyth, ed.

need.

External attachment

Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and

~ is

attachment to sense-

attachment

objects. Internal

dispassionate

Brahman,

who

man, absorbingly devoted

alone able to renounce both

is

known

has

continue to

feel

the reality of

attachment

...

to

He

Brahman cannot

to this world.

attachment has not known Brahman.

feels

Peace Pilgrim, 1908-1981 Work

~

He who He

~

Simone Weil, 1909-1943

Gravity

Do

& Grace,

Shankara's Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, trs.,

just

Swami Prabhavananda

because people themselves give

Satya Sai Baba, 1926-

When one

courageous.

kinds of understanding, produce so

likes

and

many

many

various

understand that things do not

fears. Just

existence from your

own

them come

single

in

Baizhang Huaihai, 749-814 The Pocket Zen Reader, Thomas

Wherever

there

is

mental impulse of

~

If

ultimate goal

way

and the

to that reconciliation of opposites

is

to

~

Moore, 1940-

~

is

someone who

is

purified

of the motives towards grasping, greed, 12'

attachment.

C.

Lee Lozowick, 1943-

~

your feelings All our experience,

everything

teachings.

1275-1351

we

is

may be

is

fleeting.

things but to seeing things as they are and not

attached to anything, however

there

our relationships,

doesn't lead to our not caring about people or

~

trying to control

soul that

all

are "attached" to,

Change is not just at the end of our lives — when we die - but every moment. That realization

a worldly thing.

~ Muso Kokushi, The

to attachment,

Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship, 1994

you get emotional

much good

is

ways to embrace both

to find

A mature human being

become enlightening

becomes

is

attachment and resistance

dig deeply into the nature of each.

about enlightening teaching, it

there

~

Cleary, ed., 1999

about things of the world, they

when

to.

Carlos Castaneda, 1931-1998

Our

~ forget

one becomes

lose,

are timid only

only

attachment

Gampopa, 1079-1153

you

We

it

The jewel Ornament of Liberation,

If

has nothing to

~

Brings endless misery.

~

~

something we can cling

~ Thomas Association with

you have

into

imagination mistakenly clinging to appearances.

~

all

and proudly called your own.

rise to

vain and arbitrary attachments that they create so

rise to

to things of

A moment comes when you have

empty-handed, leaving

to depart

many

originate of themselves. All of

1982

~

much attachment

not cultivate too

laboriously collected

1947, 1978

kinds of opinion, and give

Own Words,

Her

the world, which appeal to carnal desires and

~ It is

~ in

1947

sensual thirsts.

~

Shankara, 686-718

Then we

Attachment is a manufacturer of illusions and whoever wants reality ought to be detached.

remains deluded and sensebound.

& Christopher Isherwood,

be.

self-identification

is

with the ego and the modifications of the mind.

The

we would

wouldn't burden ourselves with things we don't

in

it,

will

not arrive at the

~

Sharon Salzberg

what we

can't control.

~

"The Open Heart," Beliethet.com

liberty of the divine.

~ John of the Cross,

1542-1591

~

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

62 ATTENTION / AWARENESS

I ATTENTION / AWARENESS Related States

& Conditions: Appreciation, Art, Being/Essence/Soul, Breakthrough/Epiphany/Turning Point,

Enlightenment/Realization/Transcendence, Focus/Intention, Imagination, Insight/Instinct/Intuition, Inspiration, Introspection/Self -Knowledge, Meaning, Meditation,

Memory, Mind,

Perspective, Oneness/Wholeness/Unity,

Possibility/Potential, Presence, Relativity, Seeking, Self, Sensibility/Sensitivity,

Shadow,

Spirituality,

Thinking/Thought,

Unconscious/Subconscious, Understanding, Vision/Visualization, Wonder/Mystery Syntonic: Balance, Centering, Compassion/Einpathy/Kindness, Congruence/Resonance, Detachment, Diversity/Multiplicity, Equanimity, Exploration, Flexibility/Flux/Flow, Growth/Expansion, Integrity,

Liberation/Libeity/Freedom, Listening, Love-Agape, Love-Eros, Openness/Receptivity, Questioning/Doubt, Passion, Practice, Reciprocity/Reflection, Release, Renewal, Retreat/Withdrawal, Silence/Stillness, Simplicity, Spontaneity, Solitude,

Synthesis, Tolerance, Transformation

Dystonic: Anger, Attachment, Avoidance/Denial/Refusal, Comparison/Competition, Complacency, Criticism/Judgment, Delusion, Depression/Despair/Despondency, Distraction/Diversion, Fault, Fear, Greed, Guilt, Habit, Haste/Impatience,

Hate, Insecurity/Risk, Jealousy/Envy, Limitation, Loquacity, Oppression, Regret, Revenge, Worry

Consciousness has no origin and arising

from the

an

is

How many common

illusion

organs and sense data

six

Ignorant worldlings think wrongly that

.

it is

which,

.

causal,

conditional and due to the self as such, according to the

way

their consciousnesses differentiate

discriminate while they do not

know

~

Buddha,

Attention

The

c.

is

Augustine of Hippo, 354-430

inattention

1966

dying.

is

~

not watch

~

~ 21, Thanissaro Bhikkhu,

are neither earth, water,

For liberation

know

fire, air

or even ether.

yourself as consisting of

consciousness, the witness of these.

If

only you will

remain resting in consciousness, seeing yourself as distinct

from the body, then even

become happy, peaceful and

—

Ashtavakra Gita

1.3-4,

John Richards,

free

now you will

from bonds.

~

... is

BCE ~ the vital need, for he

who

does

soon overwhelmed. The sternman

is

moment and ~

the vessel

is lost.

Epictetus, 50-120

1994

a single thought arises, then true

mindfulness

is

born; this

is

pure attention.

When

the celestial potential

is

suddenly activated in the

midst of silent trance,

is

this

attention? This

is

what

is

not spontaneous

meant by

acting without

striving.

~

Lu Dong

The

tr.,

upon awareness,

1998

tr.,

When not You

384-322

need only sleep a

Buddha

~

survival.

Aristotle,

Watchfulness

attentive never stop; the inattentive are dead

Dhammapada,

awaken our

ultimate value of life depends

mere tr.,

already.

~

~

and the power of contemplation rather than upon

Upasaka Lu K'uan Yu (Charles Luk),

living;

things are trodden underfoot

carefully,

astonishment.

The

that the

BCE ~

563-483

Sutra,

examined

and

language they use has no real meaning. Surangama

if

Bin,

Secret of the

VIII.30,

c.

798

~

Golden Flower: The Classic Chinese Book of Life, Cleary, tr., 1991

Thomas

Oh, how wonderful!

If you attain real, true

am awareness No less!

understanding, birth and death don't affect you

I

~

Ibid.

itself!

you

~

~ tongue, to the end that

ears,

two eyes and but one

we should hear and

see

for

Linji Yixuan, d.

in Zen Essence: ed.,

—

You needn't seek wonders come of themselves.

are free to go or stay.

wonders,

Nature has given us two

perception and

867

~

The Science of Freedom, Thomas Cleary,

tr.

&

1989

more than we speak.

~

Socrates, 469-399

BCE ~

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

ATTENTION / AWARENESS 63 Unawareness

the root of all

is

The

evil.

~ Unknown Egyptian Monk ~ are deluded

and

of doubt, even a

full

thousand books of scripture are

When you have word

~

~

&

Even

if

the quality of attention.

~

Charles Dickens, 1812-1870

~ if

you

realize that

activities are all like

dreams

and you view them with detachment, not giving rise

to grasping

this

is

virtually

James Cardinal Gibbons, The Ambassador

awakening from the

to

1896

of Christ,

awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred million to a poetic or divine life. To be millions are

awake

to be alive

is

...

We must learn to reawaken

and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical

and rejecting discrimination, then tantamount

and every pursuit

~

a bird without

The

you have not awakened,

your perceptions and

a deep

serviceable, safe, certain, remunerative,

is

in is

and

interest in

~

attainable quality in every study Cr.

wings.

Moslih Sa'adi, 1184-1291

We rarely forget that which has made Tryon Edwards, 1809-1894

The one

The Science of Freedom, Thomas Cleary,

A traveller without observation ~

upon our

even one

~

1989

ed.,

attention,

is

impression on our minds.

not enough.

much.

Fenyang Shanzhao, 947-1024

in Zen Essence:

still

realized understanding,

already too

is

good memory

attention to a subject depends it.

When you

secret of a

means, but by infinite expectation of the dawn. ~ Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862 ~

dream.

~ Muso Kokushi, in

Dream

~

1275-1351

Only

Conversations on Buddhism and Zen,

Thomas

Cleary,

~

1994

tr.,

What

is

this

To

mind?

Who is hearing these Do To

dawns

which we

one thing

a great experience

opportunity;

~

to

are awake.

~

experiencing nature.

sounds?

not mistake any state for

Self-realization,

that day

Thoreau

it is

is

essential,

an

not enough to have

It is

essential to feel

it.

~

Walter Bagehot, 1826-1877

but continue

ask yourself even more

Grow antennae, not

Intensely,

~

What is it that hears? ~ Bassui Zenji, 1327-1387 ~

It is

is

~

delightful to feel that

intelligent.

Alertness brings awareness and awareness

horns.

James Angell, 1829-1916

one

is

wide awake and

A little self-consciousness here

is

not

a light offensive.

that in a

~

Searing flash obliterates

all

traces of the ghost.

John Lancaster Spalding, 1840-1916

~

Thoughts and Theories of Life and Education, 1897

Let your True Nature shine forth in perfect clarity.

~

~

Hanshan Deqing, 1546-1623

"Puriry

Your Mind," Poems by

Cheung,

Silly

Everyone

Mountain, Upasaka Richard

feeling

is

familiar with the

more or

less alive

on

phenomenon

of

different days.

tr.

Everyone knows on any given day that there are

The

greatest part of mankind

asleep,

.

.

.

may be

said to be

and that particular way of life which takes

up each man's mind, thoughts and actions,

may

~

~

true art of memory

is

Attention

is

a tacit

~

and continual compliment.

~ Madame Swetchine,

1782-1857

if

these were greater to be,

we

...

Compared with

are only half awake.

ed.,

1869

Morals, 1943

Our nomial waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special of consciousness, whilst

all

about

by the filmiest of screens, there

~

The Writings of Madame Swetchine, A. de Falloux,

display

William James, 1842-1910 ~ "The Energies of Men," Essays on Faith and

the art of attention.

Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784

the incitements

~

~

William Law, 1686-1761

him which

of the day do not call forth, but which he might

what we ought

very well called his particular deam.

The

be

energies slumbering in

it,

lie

of consciousness entirely different.

through

life

type

parted from

it

potential forms

We may go

without suspecting their existence; but

apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

Copyrighted material

64 ATTENTION / AWARENESS are there in

all

The man who

their completeness.

~ James ~

independent.

"Mysticism," The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902

~

One

What

should pay attention to even the smallest

crawling creature, for these too

may have

a

~

may wish

to

us, and even the smallest communicate with a man.

~

Black Elk, 1864-1950

is

~

really to create

is

The Right

Place:

all

If

~

A Book of Pleasures,

1924

of use and custom and behold

wonderful,

it,

as

it

all

if

~

The aim

make your dreams come

PaulValery, 1871-1945

true

is

to

Henry

first

~

aware that we are only

is

to

we can

till

we

to live

means

to be

1891-1980

The moment one

-

gives close attention to anything,

Miller

becomes

it

a mysterious, itself.

—

To

be

fully

is

to

be wholly conscious of one's being:

unconsciousness, half consciousness or deficient

-

become conscious of the contents ... As human

that press upwards from the unconscious as

and

to live,

is

Miller,

consciousness

Man's task

mind,

all sides.

partially

awake.

fully

A. R. Orage, 1873-1934

steadily in the

awesome, indescribably magnificent world in

awake is the condition of becoming and making ourselves

more

of life

even a blade of grass,

~

To be

it

aware.

~ to

which keeps

have surveyed it accurately on ~ Theodor Reik, 1888-1969 ~

aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely

~

Journal

The best way wake up.

it

memory

were, for the

time.

Arnold Bennett, 18674931

~

Gods Are Dead, 1932

there be anything that can be called genius,

subject

is

only one can detach oneself, casting off

~

the

consists chiefly in ability to give that attention to a

Every scene, even the commonest,

first

in a passionate imaginative

it is

Llewelyn Powys, 1884-1939

the fullness of its

it.

C. E. Montague, 1867-1928

privilege, his exceptional

consciousness our true rewards are to be won.

~

Rightly to perceive a thing, in

man's great

consciousness, and

Now That qualities,

~

Virginia Woolf, 1882-1941

experience? Consciousness and again

valuable lesson to teach

ant

aware of himself is henceforth

is

discern, the sole purpose of

of itself;

it is

is

a state of being

not in possession

existence, but not fullness of being.

To

be aware wholly or integrally of oneself and of

all

the truth of one's being

far is

the necessary

condition of true possession of existence. existence

is

to kindle a light in the darkness of

~

mere being.

~

Words

~

Carl Jung, 1875-1961

Memories, Dreams and Reflections, 1962

Awakening begins when

a

man

George Gurdjieff,

one

~

P.

is

realises

one

is

he

is

asleep, at that

-

James Thurber, 1894-1961

-

to go.

The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving a new destination where a person gains what he

moment

did not have, or

becomes what he

in the dissipation of one's

already half-awake.

D. Ouspensky, 18784947

of Sri Aurobindo, First Series

but around in awareness. realizes that

know where 1877-1949 ~

in P. D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, 1949

When one

-

1892-1950

Let us not look back in anger, or forward in fear,

going nowhere and does not

~

Sri Aurobiiido,

~

concerning oneself and

is

not.

It

at

consists

own ignorance

life,

and the gradual

growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual

Imagine that you're awake and walking about

amongst people who

how can you communicate with them? You realize that

-

sleep;

sleeping.

now you

~

You used

to be like that yourself.

in Vilayat Khan, Awakening:

But

In our periods of fervor, is

like to

supreme

are awake.

Hazrat Khan, 1882-1927

~

A Sufi Experience,

-

they can

have no idea about your awareness because they're still

awakening.

Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963

have

we

real lucidity

liberty,

which

get a glimpse of what ...

it

We get near to

consists in the

power of

being attentive to everything, and changing the 1999

sort

of attention

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

we

give each thing according to

Copyrighted material

ATTENTION / AWARENESS 65 the nature of the thing

what

well for

and seeing each so

itself,

that each takes

it is

its

order of reality, and the soul bears

upon the

the bee

~

Regamey,

P. R.

Poverty:

Sheed,

An Essential tr.,

good

flower, for the

b.

can

it

as

yield.

~

1900

Element

it,

Rosemary

in the Christian Life,

1949

is

not

failure,

naked

a return to that

It is

awareness, that vision unclouded by commentary, which we enjoyed as babies in the days when we saw no difference between knower and known,

deed and happening. ~ Alan Watts, 1915-1973

Like the glow-worm; dowdy, minute, passive, yet full

defeat or suicide.

nonlinear

justly represent a

world. But this intellectual silence

place in the

down upon

code cannot

linear

In

My Own Way,

~

1972

of mystery to the poet, and passionate

significance to

fellows; so everything

its

everybody eternally radiate their dim those

who

under the

The

care to seek. last leaf cries,

and

As you open your

light for

"Pick me"; the forgotten

The

old house hidden in the hollow

approach of its

agitates itself violently at the

life

will

to try.

improve of a beautiful

It's

paradox; the more you open your consciousness,

book, in the forgotten book shop, screams to be discovered.

awareness,

you won't even have

itself,

strawberry hidden

the fewer unpleasant events intrude themselves into your awareness.

~

Dead authors cry, "Read me"; "Remember me"; dead ancestors

~

Thaddeus Colas, 1924-1997

The Lazy Man's Guide

to

Enlightenment, 1972

predestined admirer.

dead friends cry,

cry,

"Unearth me"; dead

sympathetic

continually to enter into

~

places, "Revisit

spirits, living

Each of us is ... capable of outflowing attention and awareness, or withdrawing it. And this is all

we need

~

usually call

human

evolution

awakening of the divine nature within Peace Pilgrim, 1908-1981 Life and Work

Peace Pilgrim: Her

is

~

highest ecstasy

is

is

Her

Own Words,

1982

be

awake, aware, in

vital,

the task that

Weil

its fullest.

David Steindl-Rast, 1926-

the rarest and purest form of

it

~

... it

mind and

dispersed

~

which we master and back in a flash our

the miracle by

is

restore ourselves

can

call

restore

it

to wholeness so that

we can

For the ordinary mind, whose mind

is

live each minute of life. Thich Nhat Hanh, 1926- ~

a

checkerboard of crisscrossing reflections, opinions,

The

and prejudices, bare attention

now,

impossible; one's

~

areas of our lives,

The Music of Silence, 1995

~

itself

all

never accomplished, but

~

generosity.

~

is

remains the goal.

Mindfulness is

see in

Ibid.

To

us.

~ in

the attention at

Simone Weil, 1909-1943

Attention

we

the

~ The

pemiissive, loving

other people.

~

~

full,

our minds, in our bodies, in our environment, in

The Unquiet Grave, 1944

What we

Give

to do:

attention to absolutely everything that

communion.

1903-1974

Cyril Connolly,

me": and

and dead, are trying

virtually

thus centered not

life is

but in one's ideas about

Philip Kapleau,

is

1909-2004

on

reality

river of our perceptions continues to flow, in the sunlight of

peacefully,

our awareness,

and we are serene

...

when

but

flows

it

the sun of

awareness shines on the river of our perceptions,

it.

~

the

mind

is

transformed.

~ Hanh ~ Our

attention

is

to affirm this

life,

The Sun

not to bring

order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to

which is mind and one's

wake up

to the very

so excellent

one's

desires out of

act of its

it

own

-John Cage,

its

Arnold Koder,

ed.,

way and

One's only task

~

is

to realize oneself.

R. D. Laing, 1927-1989

~

accord.

1912-1992

~

Life

think myself into silence and, by writing, help

others similarly spellbound by thoughts and words to

come

Contemplation,

lets

is

absolutely super and wonderful. There

shouldn't be any sadness in I

to Insight

1988

life

once one gets

we're living,

My Heart: From Mindfulness

to silence

— which

is

the realization that a

aware of all things at

all

it.

People should be

times; they should

experience the extremities of life, completely.

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

fulfill

themselves

Why does everyone want to go to

sleep

Copyrighted material

66 ATTENTION / AWARENESS when

the only thing left

~

Edward Albee, 1928-

in

The

New

to stay

is

awake?

gestalt, in the totality

~

to the experience. It

moment. You were You were not holding on

of the

not clinging to anything.

York Times, 1971

was flowing - through you, moment you

around you, by you, in you. At that

So habitual

the trance of ordinary

is

could say that

human beings

life

are a race that sleeps

and awakens, but does not awaken

fully.

half-awake

we

is

that one

sufficient for the task

Because

customarily

do, few of us are aware of the dysfunction of our

were the experience. You were the flow

You

...

had transcended the separation that thought

You were

creates.

the

moment

in all

its

fullness.

~ Ram Dass ~ A Meditator's Guidebook,

Journey of Awakening:

1978

condition.

~

Arthur Deikiuan, 1929-

~

we

suspect that

I

notes. Messages,

what Wisdom means: To be changed without the slightest effort on your part, to be transformed, believe it or not, merely by waking to the reality that is not words, that lies beyond the reach of words. If you are fortunate enough to be Awakened thus, you will know why the finest language is the one that is not spoken, the finest action is the one that is not done and the finest change is the one that is not willed. ~ Anthony deMello, 1931-1987 ~ This

is

Introduction,

One Minute Wisdom, 1986

Consciousness

not a product of the physiological

is

processes in the brain but

is

a primary attribute of

totality

~

is

is

not

bestial,

we knew how

only

cries, revelations,

to listen, to read the

signs.

~ Sam Keen, The Passionate

1931-

Each person energy

~

Life: Stages

of Loving, 1983

allocates his or her limited attention

either by focusing

it

intentionally like a

or by diffusing

...

it

in desultory,

beam of random

movements. The shape and content of life depend on how attention has been used. Entirely different realities will emerge depending on how it has been invested.

~

If

~

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1934-

The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990

attention, or psychic energy,

self,

but divine.

~

Stanislav Grot, 1931-

If

are all recipients of cosmic love

omens, voices,

homogenized into each day's

are

commensurate with the

of existence; the deepest nature of

humanity

events.

Flow:

existence. In the last analysis, the individual

psyche of each of us

and appeals

and

if

the self is the

consciousness

...

sum

is

directed by the

of the contents of

(which) are the result of different

ways of investing attention, then we

"Planetary Survival and Consciousness Evolution"

When

awareness

is

identified with thoughts

we

Consciousness

is

not a

going

(are)

round and round, with no clear causes or

effects.

but

strictly linear system,

only exist in a certain time/space dimension. But

one in which circular causality obtains. Attention

when awareness

shapes the

goes behind thought,

to be free of time

we

into existence, exist, and pass

millisecond.

are able

and see thoughts appearing and

disappearing, just watching thought fomis

And when

away

~

self,

and

is

in turn shaped by

Greater awareness does not come in a single

in a

concentration allows us to see the space between

piece by piece, and each piece

two thoughts, we see

by the patient

there.

There

is

no thought

We realize that thought exists against the

backdrop of no thought. Against the backdrop of

we exist. And there we edge of perceiving who we are.

emptiness, of nothing, at the

~ RamDass, in

Ram Dass

6k

1931-

are

Grist for the Mill,

~ M.

Scott Peck, 1936-2005

The Road Less

how

1976

effort of study

Travelled,

point early in our

conscious

There have been moments like "I

am

No

in

your

life

when you

concepts, no thoughts

aware" or "That

is

a tree" or

"Now am I

meditating." Just pure awareness. Openness. spacious quality in your existence

moment your image

.

.

.

A

For that

of yourself was lost in the

truth

how

we

~

1978

we wish

threshold of awareness.

were pure awareness.

and observation of

everything, including ourselves.

At some

~

Stephen Levine,

It comes slowly, must be worked for

blinding flash of enlightenment.

the intensity of

eternity.

it.

Ibid.

come

lives,

we decide

just

We establish a We choose how stark a

to be.

are willing to admit into consciousness,

readily

we

will

examine contradictions

how

in

our

we wish to penetrate. we see and hear, we can filter reality to suit our level of courage. At every crossroads we make the choice again for lives

and

beliefs,

Our brains can

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

deeply

censor what

Copyrighted material

ATTENTION / AWARENESS 67 To awaken is not to hold the idea of awakening. You can't practice waking up. And you can't fake it or imitate it. You have to actually want to wake

greater or lesser awareness.

~

~

Marilyn Ferguson, 1938-

The Aquarian Conspiracy, 1980

one you can count on. You're not

up. You're the

Enhanced awareness promotes in all of us the traits that abound in the creative person: Whole seeing. Fresh childlike perceptions. Playfulness, a sense of

The ability to focus attention become lost in the object of contemplation. The ability to deal with many complex ideas at the same time. Willingness to flow. Risk-taking.

in

other-dependent. Everything you need Just rely

thus

You're the final

not

~

a relaxed way, to

on

completely up to you.

is

& Simple,

Those who

preconscious material. Seeing what

amazement.

~

is

there rather

~

expected or conditioned.

is

~

Steve Hagen, 1945-

Buddhism Plain

diverge from the prevailing view. Access to

than what

here now.

is

- immediate direct experience. authority. Whether you awaken or

are

1997

awake

of constant

live in a state

~

Jack Kornfield, 1945-

Ibid.

Your

The bodhisattva never

seeks a trance state,

bliss,

or

He is simply awake to life situations as He is particularly aware of the continuity

Silent

Intelligent,

Master

is

completely aware, infinitely

and ready to give you

all

the insight,

absorption.

infonnation, and direction you need to

they are.

dreams, ambitions, and goals. In

of meditation with generosity, morality, patience,

and energy. There awake.

~ Chogyam Trungpa, Cutting-

Through

1939-1987

Spiritual Materialism,

~

is

is

Matthew Fox, 1940-

~ to be

successful, balanced, or healthy.

mean

awake than

What

awake? Perhaps to be

to be

lively imagination,

does

to be

means

to

living with a

~ Thomas

Moore, 19402000

which you

what's going on, in quite the

it's

we

are.

some, the

Wisdom Within You, 1994

Whatever you put your attention on Chopra

grow

will

life.

~

more aware changes

Once

act.

you've glimpsed

very difficult to get caught up

nothing but awareness, the to.

If

Larry Chang, 1949-

you enter a lower

it.

~ state or

even a

defiled state

with clear awareness, then that state will transform into

its

corresponding wisdom. So

if you

enter

passion with awareness, you will find compassion.

~

1944-

is

Once you know something, you cannot unknow

~

same old way.

~ Joseph Goldstein,

it

~

composite of all the things we pay attention ~ Chopra ~

~

Just the fact of being slightly in

Deepak Chopra, 1947-

Consciousness

be an individual, in every

instance manifesting the originality of who

way

capable of crying out

responding honestly and

Original Self,

the

is

and when you give

healing process begins.

~

temptation to follow mere habit or collective It

or organ

tissue,

for attention,

stronger in your

it

courageously to opportunity and avoiding the

values.

Any cell,

Journey Into Healing: Awakening the

may be more important

It

1991

~

contain geometric patterns of amazing beauty.

~

Steps to Inner Power,

1973

no end to the beauty for the person who aware. Even the cracks between the sidewalk

There

your

Consciousness is the Source of all your true desires. ~ Tae Yun Kim, 1946- ~ "Image V: You Have the Power to Fulfill Your Dreams," Seven

a continual feeling of

is

fulfill

fact, this

If you

enter anger with awareness, you will find

clarity.

Attention

is

~ Ken Wilber,

the intention to live without

~ I

Timothy

think

it

Miller, 1944-

pisses

God

off

Alice Walker, 1944-

The Color

Purple,

1982

~

~ 1996

~

When we if

you walk by the color

purple in a field somewhere and don't notice

~

1949-

A Brief History of Everything,

reservation in the he re -and -now.

talk about mindfulness,

we

are

describing conscious living and alert presence of

mind. Mindfulness helps us bring our innate it.

awareness into sharper focus; attention to

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

what we

it

helps us pay

are doing as

we

are doing

it.

Copyrighted material

68 ATTENTION / AWARENESS Paying attention helps us the present

moment

helps us to see

-

in

- what

truly see

Awakening

like a river is

richness and depth.

on. Simply put, attention pays

~ Lama Surya Das,

and appreciate,

live in,

all its

is

It

actually going

Only then

will

you know

the point to live from.

off.

~

1950-

swallowed by the

immensity of the ocean.

~

Ji

Aoi

~

Isshi

Creating a Spiritual Life from Scratch,

to the Sacred:

1999

The

very nature of attention changes. Prior to this

attention was comparable to a rigid steel arrow.

Perception

... is

communion between

a constant

This arrow had a very precise goal — each act of

ourselves and the living world that encompasses

attention directed at a target threw

us.

~

David Abram, 1957-

Radio interview, "Insight

the obscurity of inattention.

~

& Outlook," by Scott London,

1999

are

no longer innocent, you

are

condemned

to

~

One

much

so that

is

attained,

begins to see

simultaneously - so

~

Michael Eric Dyson, 1958-

out - so

multidirectional attention as a shock.

awareness.

the rest into

all

the awakening,

law changes and the arrow of attention

this

diffuses, fans

You

With

much

which comes

things

all

so that the earthly

landscape acquires an unprecedented richness.

The

simple act of paying attention can take you a

~

long way.

~

Attention or awareness heart of practice absolute

itself.

Lyons,

That's

:

Mind Candace

Cutting Through the Conditioned

Human

natural forces in the universe.

is.

in

life is

There

is

nothing

attention

among

is

the

most powerful

When an individual

decides to turn his or her attention to

other than this present moment; there

understanding something, accomplishing

there

something, changing something, the resources

is no past, no future; there is nothing but this. So when we don't pay attention to each little this, we

is

miss the whole thing.

And

the contents of this can

be anything. This can be straightening out our sitting

don't

mats. Chopping an onion, visiting one

want

contents of the

moment

absolute. That's be. If

we could

never be upset.

all

are;

there

is,

each moment

and

all

If we're upset, it's

moment, but one moment

If

axiomatic that

Charlotte Joko Beck Special: Living Zen,

—

Jack

Manno ~

Privileged Goods:

Commoditization and

Environment and

Society,

Its

~

Be

alert for

every

~

joy,

any sign of beauty or grace, offer up

be awake at

Sogyal Rinpoche

all

moments.

~

Through cooking we can become more responsive to what is happening around us. In the very same way that the Chinese cook was able to sharpen his knives just by using them,

1994

swiftly passes by,

our only chance Each of us must aspire

and with to

Implications for

2000

we can sharpen our

by living them with awareness,

Time

and the

world begins to change

we miss not just one

after another, we're in

trouble.

~

available to that individual are mobilized,

is

there ever will

pay attention, we would

totally

we're not paying attention.

Nothing

we

matter what the

to visit. It doesn't

I

2001

the secret of life and the

there

all

tr.,

moment

is

every

...

Awakening

Dialogues with Stephen }ourdain, Gilles Farcet, ed.,

~

Keanu Reeves, 1964-

~

Stephen Jourdain

in Radical

it,

awaken.

moment

lives

by

moment.

~ Bettina Vitell ~ A Taste of Heaven and Earth,

1993

Be aware.

Do not squander our ~ Beck ~

It's

your

Just by listening with your eyes fold

that you are living. Don't pick and

life.

choose

one

you can

life

back on yourself and

merge into that primal

when

you'll

else suffers

be there. All of it

more

if

you waste

it

is

yours.

No

than you. Be

patient with yourself and make every effort to be fully attentive so that

~

you don't waste any of it.

Angel Kyodo Williams

~

Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace,

stream of awareness

2000

WISDOM FORTHESOUL

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ATTITUDE 69

I ATTITUDE Related States

& Conditions: Affirmation/Approval, Appreciation, Attachment, Avoidance/Denial/Refusal,

Belief/Religion, Celebration,

Commitment/Dedication, Comparison/Competition, Complacency, Criticism/Judgment,

Daring/Challenge, Decision/Decisiveness, Defeat, Dependence, Detachment, Determination/Persistence/Resolve, Differentiation/Division/Separation, Discipline, Equanimity, Faith, Fault, Fear, Flexibility/Flux/Flow, Insecurity/Risk,

Meaning, Mind, Moderation, Openness/Receptivity, Optimism/Positivism, Patience, Perspective,

Initiative, Laziness,

Preparation/Readiness, Presence, Questioning/Doubt, Relativity, Respect, Responsibility, Restraint, Self-Reliance, Sensibility/Sensitivity, Sincerity/Authenticity,

Thinking/Thought, Tolerance, Unconscious/Subconscious, Understanding,

Wonder/Mystery, Zeal/Zest Syntonic: Attention/Awareness, Balance, Breakthrough/Epiphany/Turning Point, Centering,

Compassion/Einpathy/Kindness, Congruence/Resonance, Disclosure/V eracity, Diversity/Multiplicity, Enlighteiiment/Realization/Transcendence, Exploration, Focus/Intention, Goal/Purpose, Growth/Expansion,

Humor/Laughter, Insight/Instinct/Intuition, Inspiration, Introspection/Self-Knowledge,

Love-

Integrity, Learning, Listening,

Agape, Love-Eros, Meditation, Practice, Reciprocity/Reflection, Release, Renewal, Retreat/Withdrawal, Silence/Stillness, Simplicity, Spontaneity, Solitude, Transformation, Vision /Visualization

Dystonic: Anger, Delusion, Depression/Despair/Despondency, Distraction/Diversion, Failure/Error, Greed, Guilt, Haste/Impatience, Hate, Jealousy/Envy, Limitation, Loneliness, Regret, Revenge,

If you

are distressed by anything external, the pain

not due to the thing

is

itself,

but to your

own

A good-natured man has the whole world happy out

~

estimate of it; and this you have the power to

Worry

to be

of.

Alexander Pope, 1688-1744

~

revoke at any moment.

~

Marcus Aurelius, 121-180

~

The fountain of content must

Meditatiom, 170-180

mind, and he

human If

your heart

there

even

is

is

then even in a dark chamber

bright,

blue sky.

If

your thoughts are gloomy, then

in broad daylight cruel

~ Hong Zicheng,

fl.

1596

demons appear.

~

Caigentan: Vegetable Roots Discourse, 1.65, Robert Aitken

Daniel

W.

Y.

Kwok,

trs.,

&

see,

2006

is

enough

light for those

and enough darkness

who

desire only to

for those of a contrary

am

Blaise Pascal,

1623-1662

knowledge of

and multiply the

still

his

grief

life

he

~

determined to be cheerful and happy in

whatever situation

I

may be,

for

I

have

also learned

from experience that the greater part of our

on our

and not on our circumstances.

~

spring up in the

own disposition will waste

in fruitless efforts

happiness or misery depends

disposition.

~

little

nature as to seek happiness by changing

anything but his

away

has so

proposed to remove. ~ Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784

I

There

who

dispositions,

We carry the seeds

of the one or the other about with us in our minds, I

have always preferred cheerfulness

latter

I

to mirth.

The

consider as an act, the fomier as an habit of

wherever we go. ~ Martha Washington, 1732-1802

~

Mercy Oris Warren, in Mary and Martha Washington, Benson John Lossing, ed., 1886 Letter to

mind. Mirth fixed

is

short

and permanent

~ Joseph Addison,

and

transient, cheerfulness

.

1672-1719

~

Nothing can stop the

man with

the right mental

attitude from achieving his goal; nothing

A cheerful temper, joined make beauty

attractive,

with innocence

knowledge

will

delightful,

and

on earth

can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. ~ Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826 ~

wit good-natured.

~

Addison

~

The measure of mental health find

~

Wl^nOM FOR THF

is

the disposition to

good everywhere.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

~

Copyrighted material