Month: April 2024

Back and forth

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Generally, ordinary thinking involves running between that and this.

You are reporting back to yourself all the time.

You do not just think; you think and then report back.

However, when this back and forth petty journey is not happening, there is a transcendental sort of thinking, so to speak. With this kind of thinking, you are seeing things precisely as they are, rather than having to refer back to anyone, because the whole being is seeing.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Milarepa, Lessons from the Life and Songs of Tibet’s Great Yogi

Comparison

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In your dealings with people, can you detect subtle feelings of either superiority or inferiority toward them? You are looking at the ego, which lives through comparison.

The ego’s identity depends on comparison and feeds on more. It will grasp at anything.

If all else fails, you can strengthen your fictitious sense of self through seeing yourself as more unfairly treated by life or more ill than someone else.

What are the stories, the fictions from which you derive your sense of self?

Eckhart Tolle, Silence Speaks

A strange fact

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It never ceases to amaze me:

we all love ourselves more than other people,

but care more about their opinion than our own

Marcus Aurelius

The unexpected and incredible

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We must sense that we live in a world which in some respects is mysterious; that things happen and can be experienced which remain inexplicable; that not everything which happens can be anticipated. The unexpected and the incredible belong in this world. Only then is life whole.

Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Never really alone

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The word “angel” in Hebrew simply means “messenger.” That definition implies anyone or anything awakening us to reality is an “angel.”

Unearthly beings could not teach us more about compassion than a beloved dog jumping in our lap when we need it the most. Every expression of life and nature is throbbing with information about our common source.

We are never really alone. “Angels” are everywhere.

Jim Rigby, minister at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church.

Someone’s angel

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Easter Monday is traditionally known in Italy as “Lunedì dell’Angelo”, (Monday of the Angel)

Everything that is tearing us down today will become a memory, and this memory will be shared as an anecdote or a story or a poem or a play or a warning. It will be shared with another human being, who will then understand that he is not alone in his sadness. This is why we show up for others and tell our tales and listen to others.

The great congregation meets daily, and you are someone’s angel today

Tennessee Williams