13 May 2007
Most of us carry scars from having been excluded in our youth, based on some superficial aspect of our appearance or behavior. The social tragedy is that we learn thereby to devalue and exclude others as a pre-emptive tactic, and thus is oppression promulgated. But the personal tragedy for us as individuals is that relationships based on authority or power or even subtle grades of status are as empty for the person on top as for the person beneath; what deeply nourishes us is essential connection that transcends social standing.
– Josh Mitteldorf
12 May 2007
seeker of truth
follow no path
all paths lead where
truth is here
11 May 2007
“It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know it myself.”
“There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.”
–Salvador
Dali, born this day in 1904
10 May 2007
Ascetic:
Someone who believes his appreciation of life is limited not by how much there is to enjoy, but rather by his capacity for enjoyment.
– Josh Mitteldorf, born
this day in 1949
9 May 2007
“Love is that splendid triggering of human vitality the supreme activity which nature affords anyone for going out of himself toward someone else.”
8 May 2007
Like the morning breeze, if you bring to the morning good deeds,
The rose of our desire will open and bloom.
Go forward, and make advances down this road of love;
In forward motion, the pain is great.
To beg at the door of the Winehouse is a wonderful alchemy.
If you practice this, soon you will be converting dust into gold.
O heart, if only once you experience the light of purity,
Like a laughing candle, you can abandon the life you live in your head.
But if you are still yearning for cheap wine and a beautiful face,
Don't go out looking for an enlightened job.
Hafiz, if you are listening to this good advice,
The road of Love and its enrichment are right around the curve.
7 May 2007
“Our most sophisticated attitudes, solidly reasoned ideas, and carefully chosen values…are all irrevocably determined by the idiosyncratic ways we erect our defenses, conscious as well as unconscious. And those, in turn, are dictated by what we fear - what we're defending against. So, said Freud, pay exceedingly close attention to how people express themselves. Then you'll learn how they defend themselves. Help them attend to themselves in the same way and together you'll start observing what's underneath, what's motivating their need to defend. Once you start to see that, you liberate choice. People can start consciously choosing whether they need to stay afraid. But they also can start choosing to modify their defenses and make them more adaptive, more consonant with a happy life, and being who they want to be.”
– Elizabeth
Lloyd Mayer, from Extraordinary
Knowing, p 100