To live completely, wholly, every day as if it were a new loveliness, there must be dying to everything of yesterday,
otherwise you live mechanically, and a mechanical mind can never know what love is or what freedom is.
Krisnamurti
A long weekend in Ireland
The spirituality of work arises from the inside out. It does not depend on the job we have but on the way we do the job we have. Work is holy because we are holy – if we bring our holiness to it.
But so is rest holy.
The Sabbath is not simply a day off; it is a day up – a day to remember who we are beyond what we do.
Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully
Marcus Aurelius reminding us that external events or people cannot corrupt our inner self — only our own choices and thoughts can.
It is in your own power to maintain the beauty of your soul, or to be a decent human being.
If once you realize this, you will never lose it again.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5, section 16
A noble lord once visited the monk Ryōkan in search of rare wisdom. Ryōkan said nothing. Instead, he took up his brush and composed a haiku. The lord read it, bowed in understanding, and quietly returned to his castle.
The wind gives me
Enough fallen leaves
To make a fire.
Ryōkan Taigu, 1758–1831
When stumped by a life choice, choose “enlargement” over happiness.
I’m indebted to the Jungian therapist James Hollis for the insight that major personal decisions should be made not by asking, “Will this make me happy?”, but “Will this choice enlarge me or diminish me?”
Oliver Burkeman
Give up defining yourself – to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life.
And don’t be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it’s their problem.
Whenever you interact with people, don’t be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence.
You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.
Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
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