When men and women punish each other for truth telling, we reinforce the notion that lies are better.
When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us.
Changing how we see images is clearly one way to change the world.
It’s in the act of having to do things that you don’t want to that you learn something about moving past the self. Past the ego.
One of the most subversive institutions in the United States is the public library...
While it has become “cool” for white folks to hang out with black people and express pleasure in black culture, most white people do not feel that this pleasure should be linked to unlearning racism.
I would also say that, in practice, many more Americans are anarchists than would ever use that term.
I think inequality is in our minds. I think this is what we learn through practice. The bridge of illusion must be shattered in order for a real bridge to be constructed. One of the things we learn is that inequality is an illusion.
The transformative power of love is not fully embraced in our society because we often wrongly believe that torment and anguish are our ‘natural’ condition.
The true teacher is within us. A good teacher is someone who can help you to go back and touch the true teacher within, because you already have the insight within you.
I have created a life style that supports contemplation, service to words.
The soul of our politics is the commitment to ending domination.
The word “love” is most often defined as a noun, yet all the more astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb.
Our freedom is sweet. It will be sweeter when we are all free.
I always tell my students that Malcolm X came both to his spirituality and to his consciousness as a thinker when he had solitude to read. Unfortunately, tragically, like so many young black males, that solitude only came in prison.
The challenge these days, is to be somewhere, to belong to some particular place, invest oneself in it, draw strength and courage from it, to dwell in a community.
I think stress is anything going on in our lives that impinges on our capacity to have optimum well being.
Both men and women remain in dysfunctional, loveless relationships when it is materially opportune.
Class is rarely talked about in the United States; nowhere is there a more intense silence about the reality of class differences than in educational settings.
A generous heart is always open, always ready to receive our going and coming. In the midst of such love we need never fear abandonment. This is the most precious gift true love offers – the experience of knowing we always belong.