Kindling Inspiration
“I learned… that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.”
–Brenda Ueland (American Feminist and Author, 1891-1985)
Inspiration
“We would not – from here – counsel anyone to be guided by influences from without. … If these come as in inspirational writings from within, and not as guidance from others – that is different … the inspirational may develop the soul of the individual, while the automatic may rarely reach beyond the force that is guiding or directing.”
–Edgar Cayce (American Healer, Mystic and Psychic, 1877-1945)
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)
When You Get Better Everyone Gets Better
“This is why alchemy exists,” the boy said. “So that everyone will search for his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he was in his former life. Lead will play its role until the world has no further need for lead; and then lead will have to turn itself into gold. That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
–Paulo Coelho (Brazilian Writer, 1947-)
Spiritual Magnetism
“He [Peter Deunov] is the greatest spiritual magnet yet able to appear on the earth. He will magnetize his disciples with the magnetism of love, and they in turn will transmit this magnetism to humankind as a whole.”
–René Guénon (a.k.a. Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya, French Intellectual, Metaphysician and Writer on the Perennial Philosophy, 1886-1951)
Why Change?
“We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.”
–Jim Rohn (American Businessman, Author, Speaker and Philosopher 1930-2009)
Facts, Ideas and Inspiration
“A fact in itself is nothing. It is valuable only for the idea attached to it, or for the proof which it furnishes.”
–Claude Bernard (French Physiologist, 1813-1878)
Science and Poetry
“In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it’s the exact opposite.”
–Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (English Mathematician and Physicist, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University from 1932-1969, and, in 1933, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1902-1984)
The Need for Myths
“Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mold-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of “the rat race” is not yet final.”
–Hunter S. Thompson (American Journalist and Writer, 1937-2005)
A Candle or a Fire?
“When you light a candle, the slightest breeze can extinguish its tiny flame. But if you light a brazier, the most violent winds will only fuel it.
And what about you? If you are only a tiny flame, the slightest breeze will blow you out. But if you are a brazier, the stronger the wind blows, the stronger your fire will grow.
Yes, if you are small, frail and sickly, if you are not yet strong, the slightest challenge can flatten you. But if you are sturdy and resilient, all difficulties will only increase your dynamism, your willpower and your love.
How often we have seen this! When the weak are the slightest bit contradicted or challenged, they become discouraged, give up and give in, while the strong are inspired and become even more determined to carry on and brave all obstacles.
Well now, don’t ask me which of these you are. You can find this out for yourself: if the least difficulty in life brings you to a halt, you are still only a candle flame.”
–Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (Bulgarian Spiritual Master, 1900-1986)
