Some lives have very strong internal observers: the parent, critic, authority figure or imagined public.
The glory of God is a human being fully alive
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book IV, 20.7
I lived so carefully,
thinking someone was watching.
But the stage was empty;
the audience never came.
Attributed to Osamu Dazai, modern Japanese author of No Longer Human
Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it,
We will have to learn to live with it –
just as we have learned to live with storms.
Paulo Coelho
If you feel that your dreams aren’t coming true, you might think that you need to do more, or to think and strategize more.
In fact, what you might need is less – less noise coming to you from both inside and outside -so that you have the space for your heart’s truest intention to germinate and flourish
Thich Nhat Hanh, Silence
Contentment isn’t about getting what you want – it’s about being at peace with what is.
When you stop measuring life by your preferences,
the heart settles into a natural ease.
Ajahn Sucitto, Kamma and the End of Kamma
What we need to know is already known within.
Sometimes life circumstances require [that] a therapist…embodies the permission-granting authority figure, the simulacrum of an empowering parent, but even that does not always work.
Sooner or later, a person has to understand and revisit the basics: we are accountable for the life we have lived or not lived; we are summoned to choice, courage and perseverance in living this life. From that recognition, the necessity of permission becomes more than obvious; it becomes the vital oxygen we must breathe or we choke to death on the fumes of the unlived life
James Hollis, Living an Examined Life: Wisdom for the Second half of the Journey
Both the poetic and the literal translations have something to provoke reflection
Can you step back from your own mind, and understand all things?
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 10 (Mitchell translation)
[literally Can you comprehend everything without depending on knowing]
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