If we equate violence with power we will not want ro be powerful unless we also accept being violent. But if we believe that violence equals power we also won't want to be soft and gentle, because in a world where people rely on violence for power this feels dangerous. So we are stuck in a bind wanting to exercise our power, trying to not be violen

Do I want to be told by AI what to write or do I want to hold onto one of the sparks created by my body hurtling through the void?

We think we tell stories, but stories often tell us, tell us to love or to hate, to see or be blind. Often, too often, stories saddle us, ride us, whip us onward, tell us what to do, and we do it without questioning. The task of learning to be free requires learning to hear them, to question them, to pause and to hear silence, to name them, and the

The power of what we secretly want

Do we secretly want to be rich?

Or do we secretly want to lie in the grass with the sun on our face?

Do we think that for us to ever do the second without anxiety we have to have the first.

It's all retch and no vomit.

- Alan Watts