Sublime
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Therefore, he had to go out into the world, lose himself to lust and power, to woman and money, had to become a merchant, a dice-gambler, a drinker, and a greedy person, until the priest and Samana in him was dead. Therefore, he had to continue bearing these ugly years, bearing the disgust, the teachings, the pointlessness of a dreary and wasted li
... See moreHermann Hesse • Siddhartha
being exiled he has been deprived of his country, his friends and family, and his property, but he has taken with him into exile the things that matter most: his place in Nature and his virtue. He adds, “It is the mind that makes us rich; this goes with us into exile, and in the wildest wilderness, having found there all that the body needs for its
... See moreWilliam B. Irvine • A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
To the passport office to collect my new passport, valid for another ten years. In 1965 I’ll be fifty-nine and the thought makes me feel faint. What’s happened to my life? These ten-year chunks that are doled out to you in passports are a cruel form of memento mori. How many more new passports will I have? One (1965)? Two (1975)? Such a long way of
... See moreWilliam Boyd • Any Human Heart
An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually, the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their indi
... See moreMichael Pollan • How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
WABI SABI is in many ways like the bittersweet taste of the last strawberry in this old Zen tale. It is an expression of the beauty that lies in the brief transition between the coming and going of life, both the joy and melancholy that make up our lot as humans.
Andrew Juniper • Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence
He who departs with the expectation of returning ought to depart calmly. Consider cycles in the natural world: you will see nothing that is actually extinguished; rather, things descend and rise again by turns. Summer is over, but another year will bring it back; winter is gone but will return in its proper months. Night has buried the sun, but day
... See moreLucius Annaeus Seneca • Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius (The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Somehow, with the passage of time, and the deadlines that life imposes, surrendering became the right thing to do.