The objective of science is life, and the objective of wisdom is death.
Science says: ‘We must live,’ and seeks the means of prolonging, increasing, facilitating and amplifying life, of making it tolerable and acceptable; wisdom says: ‘We must die,’ and seeks methods that prepare us to die well.”
Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish Poet, novelist, and playwright, 1864 – 1936
We have reduced our way of speaking about mystery to rational explanations;
but …… mystery enters through the heart.
Pope Francis address to Brazilian bishops, 27 July 2013
The Spiritual journey is not about finally getting to a place that’s really swell. Thinking that we can find some lasting pleasure is what in Buddhism is called samsara, a cycle that goes round endlessly and causes us to suffer greatly…. Instead, this very moment is the perfect teacher, and lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are. However, most of us do not take these situations as teachings. We run like crazy. We use all kinds of ways to escape. There are so many ways that have been dreamt up to get us away from this moment, to soften its hard edge, deaden it so that we do not have to feel the full impact of the pain that arises when we cannot manipulate the situation to make us come out looking fine.
Pema Chodron, When Things fall apart.
Photo of Dun Laoghaire Harbour, Co. Dublin
Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.
Pema Chodron
Practice will not eliminate negative emotions. Emotions are part of the palette of life, part of the way consciousness moves. Not only can’t you get rid of them, but you’d feel empty and impoverished if you did. Practice can change your relationship to emotions, so that instead of being swamped by certain feeling states, you can hold them, contain them, see into their essence, and ultimately, use emotions in the service of your liberation.
Sally Kempton
We are taught to make sense of things by imposing our judgement on everything in front of us. Naturally, as we grow up, we question some of the judgements and interpretations thrown our way, we agree with some and we disagree with others, and fit our personal understanding with our experience. But we rarely question the act of judging itself. Without much analysis we simply keep interpreting and reinterpreting reality as good or bad, right or wrong, useful or detrimental, fun or boring, constantly tweaking our conceptions as new experiences reinforce or undermine what we think we “know”
Karuna Cayton, The Misleading Mind
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