Your Latent Powers
“Faculty X is simply that latent power in human beings possess to reach beyond the present. After all, we know perfectly well that the past is as real as the present, and that New York and Singapore and Lhasa and Stepney Green are all as real as the place I happen to be in at the moment. Yet my senses do not agree. They assure me that this place, here and now, is far more real than any other place or any other time. Only in certain moments of great inner intensity do I know this to be a lie. Faculty X is a sense of reality, the reality of other places and other times, and it is the possession of it — fragmentary and uncertain though it is — that distinguishes man from all other animals.”
–Colin Wilson (English Novelist and Writer on Philosophy, Sociology and the Occult, 1931-)
Following the Light
“Follow the light where it leads, and do not underestimate the possibilities and resources in this human life that each one of us has been privileged to be given.”
–Huston Smith (Chinese-born American Religious Studies Scholar and Emeritus Professor at Syracuse University, 1919-)
“The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life” (Huston Smith)
With the Right Nourishment, We Can Make Anything Grow
“There was a time when the trees were luxuriant on Ox Mountain.
Because it is on the outskirts of a great metropolis, the trees are constantly lopped by axes. Is it any wonder that they are no longer fine? With the respite they get during the day and night, and with moistening by rain and dew, there is certainly no lack of new shoots which emerge, but then cattle and sheep come to graze upon the mountain. That is why it is as bald as it is. People, seeing only its baldness, tend to think that it never had any trees. But can this possibly be the nature of a mountain? Can what is in man be completely lacking in moral inclinations?
A man ‘s letting go of his true heart is like the case of the trees and the axes…
If, in spite of the respite a man gets during the day and night and of the effect of the morning air upon him, scarcely any of his likes and dislikes resemble those of other men, it is because what he does in the course of the day once again dissipates what he has gained…
Others, seeing his resemblance to an animal, will be led to think that he never had any native endowment. But can this be what a man is genuinely like?
Given the right nourishment, there is nothing that will not grow.”
–Mencius (a.k.a. Mengzi Meng-tse, Chinese Philosopher, c.370-284 B.C.)
Genuine Human Potential
“We all have potentials beyond those we are now using and perhaps others of which we are even unaware; humanity and the environment are a single system; we can improve how we treat ourselves and our surroundings; humanity CAN change for the better.”
–Peter Russell (English-born Futurologist and Writer, 1946-)
“The Global Brain: Speculation on the Evolutionary Leap to Planetary Consciousness” (Peter Russell)
Bringing Forth Your Potential
“Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
Quoting The Gospel of Thomas, verse 70 in:
“Living Buddha, Living Christ 10th Anniversary Edition” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Expressing Your Unique Life Force
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.”
–Martha Graham (American Dancer, Teacher and Choreographer, 1894-1991)
Exploring Unrealized Possibilities
I think that it would be fair to say that few of us have the courage to really explore outside of our comfort zone. Milan Kundera talked about that in a slightly different sense, but what he has to say may well resonate for you.
“The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented. It is that crossed border (the border beyond which my own “I” ends) which attracts me most. For beyond that border begins the secret the novel asks about. This novel is not the author’s confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become.”
–Milan Kundera (Czech Author and Critic, 1929-)
Expressing Your Potential
“Each life expresses one of nature’s emergent potentials that may prove significant for the whole.”
–Edgar Mitchell (American Scientist, Apollo 14 Astronaut and Founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, 1930-)
Your Potential To Blossom
“Like a flower bud, human life has the potential to blossom fully. Blossoming of human potential to fullness is yoga.”
–Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Indian Spiritual Teacher and, in 1982, Founder of the Art of Living Foundation and the International Association for Human Values, 1956-)
The Artist Inside You
“Meister Eckhart said, ‘Become aware of what is in you, announce it, pronounce it, produce it, and give birth to it.’ This passion for ‘giving birth’ is within each one of us. We all have an artist inside, we all want to give our images back to the community. That is the task in this moment of need for creativity.”
–Matthew Fox (a.k.a. Timothy James, American Theologian and Priest, 1940-)
“Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life” (Matthew Fox)
