Liberation from ego is what we shramanas are seeking, O Exalted One. If I were your disciple, O Venerable One, I’m afraid it might befall me that my ego would be pacified and liberated only seemingly, only illusorily, that in reality it would survive and grow great, for then I would make the teaching, my discipleship, my love for you, and the community of the monks into my ego!
My lie has been miserable and difficult, and yet to others and sometimes to myself, it has seemed rich and wonderful. Man’s life seems to me like a long, weary night that would be intolerable if there were not occasionally flashes of light, the sudden brightness of which is so comforting and wonderful, that the moments of their appearance cancel out and justify the years of darkness.
My God, rather than come to such a pass it would have been better for the Jews and every one else, let alone the Egyptians, to have perished in those days and forthwith of a violent and becoming death instead of this dismal pretence of dying by inches that we go in for today. Yes indeed!
He had very few doubts, and when the facts contradicted his views on life, he shut his eyes in disapproval.
If you order, with the absolute conviction that his wish will come, it will happen that way. But you mix the desire, fear and regret, and that is a contradiction.
There are few people who know how to listen and I have not met anybody who can do so like you.
The mind cannot live in nature, only against nature, only as its counterpart.
Look at a person carefully long enough, and you’ll know more about him than he himself does.” The.
Manche denken, Festhalten macht uns stark. Aber manchmal ist es das Loslassen.
Too much thinking was still not good for me.
In any case, the life of a drunk is presumably livelier than that of the ordinary well-behaved citizen. And then – I read that once somewhere – the life of a hedonist is the best preparation for becoming a mystic. People like St. Augustine are always the ones that become visionaries.
It was the first time they had come to blows; but their cowardice outweighed even their anger, and no serious damage resulted.
We passed for jolly, unruly, even dangerous rioters, which was untrue of me, and we enjoyed a doubtful but heroic reputation.
For one scant day he had loved himself, felt himself to be unified and whole, not split into hostile parts; he had loved himself and the world and God in himself, and everywhere he went he had met nothing but love, approval, and joy.
Everyone who has changed the course of human history, every last one was able to do so only because he was ready for his destiny. That’s true of Moses and the Buddha, Napoleon and Bismarck. The wave that carries us, the star that guides us – we cannot choose it.
I already thought on that first evening of our meeting how glorious it would be to spend one’s whole life regarded by those beautiful, candid eyes, and how it would then be impossible ever to think or do ill.
One can acquire money, fame and distinction, but one cannot create happiness or unhappiness, not for oneself or for others. One can only accept what comes, although one can, to be sure, accept it in entirely different ways.
No, my dear, how should I be sad? I, who have been rich and happy, have become even richer and happier now. My son has been given to me.
Now, instead of being just attracted, I was really in love, and it seemed that a thin, grey veil had fallen from my eyes and that the world lay before me in its original divine light as it does to children, and as it appears to us in our dreams of Paradise.
Therefore, it seems to me that everything that exists is good – death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly. Everything is necessary, everything needs only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding; then all is well with me and nothing can harm me.