art of living

Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.

Besides such exercises, one must learn to be concentrated in everything one does, in listening to music, in reading a book, in talking to a person, in seeing a view. The activity at this very moment must be the only thing that matters, to which one is fully given.

Recall how long you’ve been putting off these things, how often you have received an opportunity from the gods and yet did nothing. You must finally accept that you are part of the universe, one with a grand administrator, the spring to your small stream. You have a limited, fixed time here, and if you fail to clear the clouds from your mind, it wi

Do you get angry with people with sweaty armpits and bad breath? What good does it do you? Mouths smell. Armpits stink. —But if he were reasonable, he’d fix it. Well you have a brain, you’re rational...tell him! Stir his rational mind with your own. Show him his error. If he listens, it will cure

What then is worth being valued? The audience clapping? No. Nor the clapping of tongues in the form of praise.

We are all part of One; we are One. This being so, it should not make any difference whom we love. Love should be essentially an act of will, of decision to commit my life completely to that of one other person.

Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous.[3]

Do external things distract you? Give yourself time to learn something new and constructive. Stop being whirled about. But you must also avoid being swept the other way, and become a trifler grown weary by a purposeless life, with thoughts and activities flying in all directions.

her). The awareness of human separation, without reunion by love—is the source of shame. It is at the same time the source of guilt and anxiety.