It’s Simple… and Difficult
The absence of engagement, the hours spent in one or another form of channel-surfing, is actually the chief cause of our anxiety and mental exhaustion, the sleep of the spirit the chief cause of our…
Category: Commonplace book
“Infuriating Things” by Sei Shōnagon
A very ordinary person, who beams inanely as she prattles on and on. Some newcomer steps in and starts interfering and lecturing the old hands as if she knows it all. —The Pillow Book, translated…
Today’s One-Liner (#349)
Hell is not other people (as a resentful toad once said); it is ourselves. –Reinaldo Arenas, The Color of Summer Or The New Garden of Earthly Delights, 169 Note: The “toad” refers to French philosopher…
A Simplifying Renunciation
Thus, you should carefully consider which among the main things you want in life is the most important, and renounce all the others to dedicate yourself to that thing alone. Among the many matters that…
Way beyond Books
[Sri Anandamayi Ma] never sees fit to read books and thus… testifies to the fact that wisdom is not dependent on book learning—a truth too shocking to be accepted by most academicians. –Alexander Lipski, in…
Reframing Criticism
When [Dipa Ma] stood up against something she felt was wrong, sometimes others would blame and criticize her. But she was not bothered by this. She told me, “Why be upset? Even the Buddha had…
Get with It!
Learn self-conquest, persevere thus for a time, and you will perceive very clearly the advantage which you gain from it. As soon as you apply yourself to contemplation, you will at once feel your senses…
Today’s One-Liner (#345)
Like an athlete who accepts a grueling training regimen because she knows it will stretch her physical capabilities, the mystics accept hardship because they know from experience that trials draw out their best. –Sri Eknath…
Being Interested
When a cowhand got on the bus at Hugo, and smiled at all of us in there, a whole busload of people, I knew that he was more interested in mankind than 10,000,000 New School…
Today’s One-Liner (#344)
True holiness consists in doing God’s will with a smile. –Saint Teresa of Calcutta, in Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God, 67