Enjoy the World Without Judging It
I just heard that the author of these words has recently moved on. Or as a good friend used to say: “Been promoted!”
“To enjoy the world without judgment is what a realized life is like.”
–Charlotte Joko Beck (American Zen Teacher and Author, 1917-2011)
The Whole in Every Part
“Every discernible part or process is a sort of microcosm or hologram. That is to say, the whole is expressed in or implied by every part, as is the brain in each one of its cells.”
–Alan W. Watts (English-born American Philosopher, Writer, Speaker and Expert in Comparative Religion, 1915-1973)
“Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion” (Alan W. Watts)
Don’t Ignore Wrongs Done to Others
“To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.”
–Saint Thomas Aquinas (Italian Dominican Friar, Theologian and Philosopher, 1225-1274)
The Holographic Universe
“Classical science has always viewed the state of a system as a whole as merely the result of interaction of its parts. However, the quantum potential stood this view on its ear and indicated that the behavior of parts is actually organized by the whole.”
–Michael Talbot (American Writer, Intellectual and Proponent of the Holographic Model of Reality, 1953-1992)
“The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality” (Michael Talbot)
Climbing On the Shoulders of Your Teachers
“Often nothing keeps the pupil on the move but his faith in his teacher, whose mastery is now beginning to dawn on him ….
How far the pupil will go is not the concern of the teacher and master. Hardly has he shown him the right way when he must let him go on alone.
There is only one thing more he can do to help him endure his loneliness: he turns him away from himself, from the Master, by exhorting him to go further than he himself has done, and to “climb on the shoulders of his teacher.”
–Eugen Herrigel (German Philosopher and Daishakyôdô Practitioner, 1884-1955)
Beyond the Borderline
“That there is something beyond the borderline, beyond the frontiers of knowledge, is shown by the archetypes and most clearly of all, by numbers, which this side of the border are quantities but on the other side are autonomous psychic entities, capable of making qualitative statements which manifest themselves in a priori patterns of order.”
–Carl G. Jung (Swiss Psychologist and Psychiatrist, 1875-1961″
“Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies” (C. G. Jung)
Listening For the Truth
“The world is dying for want, not of good preaching, but of good hearing.”
–George Dana Boardman (American Baptist Minister, 1801-1831)
A Tale Worth Thinking About!
I first heard an old version of this tale in an old Sufi teaching story, on the perils of mindless conformity.
Here is a new re-telling by a truly great writer who sees more deeply into the world than most.
“Once upon a time, powerful wizard, who wanted to destroy an entire kingdom, placed a magic potion in the well from which the inhabitants drank. Whoever drank that water would go mad.
The following morning, the whole population drank from the well and they all went mad, apart from the king and his family, who had a well set aside for them alone, which the magician had not managed to poison. The king was worried and tried to control the population by issuing a series of edicts governing security and public health.
The policemen and the inspectors, however, had also drunk the poisoned water, and they thought the king’s decisions were absurd and resolved to take no notice of them. When the inhabitants of the kingdom heard these decrees, they became convinced that the king had gone mad and was now giving nonsensical orders. They marched on the castle and called for his abdication. In despair the king prepared to step down from the throne, but the queen stopped him, saying: ‘Let us go and drink from the communal well. Then we will be the same as them.’
And that was what they did: The king and queen drank the water of madness and immediately began talking nonsense. Their subjects repented at once; now that the king was displaying such ‘wisdom’, why not allow him to rule the country? The country continued to live in peace, although its inhabitants behaved very differently from those of its neighbors. And the king was able to govern until the end of his days.”
–Paulo Coelho (Brazilian Writer, 1947-)
Even Now, Medicine Remains Both Science and Art
“Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life, which must be understood before they may be guided.”
–Paracelsus (a.k.a. Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, Swiss Physician and Alchemist, 1493-1541)
Mastery: The Key to Lasting Self Confidence
“The foundation of lasting self-confidence and self-esteem is excellence, mastery of our work.”
–Brian Tracy (Canadian-born American Author and Expert on Business and Personal Development, 1944-)
