World Beyond

Only Pascal

Men are so inevitably mad that not to be mad would be to give a mad twist to madness. --Blaise Pascal

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. --Blaise Pascal

It is deserting humanity to desert the middle way. The greatness of the human soul lies in knowing how to keep this course; greatness does not mean going outside it, but rather keeping within it. --Blaise Pascal

One only consults the ear because one is lacking in heart. --Blaise Pascal

Life and Death

Hiding behind your buffers, you miss life. --Osho

A life never lived is ugly. Life postponed is ugly; life lived is beautiful. --Osho

Tao says nobody is superior and nobody is inferior; nobody is great and nobody is mean, because we belong to one reality, to one Tao. --Osho

Unless rest is achieved in life it cannot be achieved in death. Let this be an absolute rule, that whatever you achieve in your life, you will be able to keep in your death…the end can be great only if the whole journey has been great. Each step of the journey contributes to the end. It is simple, obvious. If you have been dancing your life, your death will be a great dance. If you have just been crying and weeping, your death will be just a crying and weeping—it cannot be otherwise; it concludes your life. --Osho

Being

The room is valuable not because of the walls, but the emptiness within. --Lao Tzu

Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so. --Blaise Pascal

If you listen to Tao, then the message is very simple. Be rooted in your being, and you will be saved from all the troubles, all the troubles that having brings, and the troubles that not having brings, You just be. Being is the goal of Tao. And one thing more to be understood: being, you already are, there is no becoming; you are not to become—it is already the case, you have it within you. --Osho

True stillness comes out of understanding, the understanding that desire is futile. --Osho

Understanding

I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused.  --Graham Greene

Wouldn’t we all do better not trying to understand, accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another, not a wife a husband, a lover a mistress, nor a parent a child?  --Graham Greene

It is not good to be too free.  It is not good to have all one needs.  --Blaise Pascal

A religious person is one who is trying to live his life the best, the most total way he can; in the most alert way he can, he is trying.  And he is not interfering with anybody's life, not even by having an opinion.  --Osho

Meditations from Marcus Aurelius - III

I recently read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a version translated by Gregory Hays.  Aurelius was a Roman emperor during the 2nd century AD.  He was probably the closest example to a "philosopher king" that the world has ever known.  Aurelius was a follower of stoic philosphy which in many ways is quite close to Taoism or Zen Buddhism.  I'm including some of my favorite quotes here:

"All that you see will soon have vanished, and those who see it vanish will vanish themselves, and the ones who reached old age have no advantage over the untimely dead."

"Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life."

"Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time.  The twining strands of fate wove both of them together: your own existence and the things that happen to you."

"Learn to ask of all actions, “Why are they doing that?”  Starting with your own."

"A straightforward, honest person should be like someone who stinks: when you’re in the same room with him, you know it…If you’re honest and straightforward and mean well, it should show in your eyes…It should be audible in your voice, visible in your eyes, like a lover who looks into your face and takes in the whole story at a glance…It should be unmistakeable."

Meditations From Marcus Aurelius - II

I recently read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a version translated by Gregory Hays.  Aurelius was a Roman emperor during the 2nd century AD.  He was probably the closest example to a "philosopher king" that the world has ever known.  Aurelius was a follower of stoic philosphy which in many ways is quite close to Taoism or Zen Buddhism.  I'm including some of my favorite quotes here:

"In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them."

"Remember: Matter. How tiny your share of it. Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate. How small a role you play in it."

"Look inward. Don’t let the true nature or value of anything elude you."

"The best revenge is not to be like that."

"Speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy."

"You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind—things that exist only there—and clear out space for yourself: 

…by comprehending the scale of the world

…by contemplating infinite time

…by thinking of the speed which things change—each part of every thing; the narrow space between our birth and death; the infinite time before; the equally unbounded time that follows."

Meditations From Marcus Aurelius - I

I recently read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a version translated by Gregory Hays.  Aurelius was a Roman emperor during the 2nd century AD.  He was probably the closest example to a "philosopher king" that the world has ever known.  Aurelius was a follower of stoic philosphy which in many ways is quite close to Taoism or Zen Buddhism.  I'm including some of my favorite quotes here:

"Things have no hold on the soul.  They stand there unmoving, outisde it.  Disturbance comes only from within—from our own perceptions."

"Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed.  Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been."

"Constant awareness that everything is born from change.  The knowledge that there is nothing nature loves more than to alter what exists and make new things like it.  All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it.  You think the only seeds are the ones that make plants or children?  Go deeper."

A little wisp of soul carrying a corpse.  – Epictetus (One of Aurelius' favorite philosphers)

"People try to get away from it all -- to the country, to the beach, to the mountains.  You always wish that you could too.  Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like.  By going within.  Nowhere you can go is more peaceful -- free of interruptions -- than your own soul."

Miscellaneous

She is slender and enigmatic – just the two traits men want.  -- Alexander Pushkin

To know our wretchedness without knowing our greatness produces despair.  To know our greatness without realizing our wretchedness inflames our pride.  -- Thomas Morris

Two excesses: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason.  -- Blaise Pascal

Man’s true nature, his true good and true virtue, and true religion are things that cannot be known separately.  - Blaise Pascal

Truth is so obscured nowadays and lies so well established that unless we love the truth we shall never recognize it.  -- Blaise Pascal

Men’s lives are not always consistent with their ideals.  -- Gregory Hayes

A human being survives by his ability to forget.  -- Varlam Shalamov

Quotations Regarding the Tao - VII

The following are excerpts from the book, “Tao: The Pathless Path” by Osho.

"God, life, truth, love, are just four names for the same thing…there is only one, which is the ultimate.  Different people have given different names to it.  That one is valueless because it is the ultimate value.  Beyond it nothing exists, so it cannot be valuable for something else.  You cannot use it as a stepping-stone because there is nothing beyond it; it is the beyond."

"The whole approach of Taoism is that only experience can give you the clue."

"Thoughts never stop on their own.  They stop only when the desiring mind disappears.  That is the meaning of “Best be still.”  That is the Taoist way of saying be desireless.  Hence they say that even the desire to know God, to reach God, is a barrier."

"Taoists don’t have any maps."

"Each day, each moment, free yourself from all that you have known and again become a child.  To become so innocent, like a child, is the way to live and to live abundantly."

Quotations Regarding the Tao - VI

The following are excerpts from the book, “Tao: The Pathless Path” by Osho.

“Be true—it is your life. Be authentic so that it can grow, because all growth happens only when you are true and authentic.  Maybe you will have to pay much—one has to pay; maybe there will be pain—all growth is through pain; maybe you will always be in difficulties, but nothing to be worried about; they are worth it.”

“An untrue life is worse than a true death: a true death is better.  An untrue happiness is worse than a true unhappiness—let this be remembered always.  True tears are better than false smiles, because growth comes through being true.”

“Trust in nature is Tao.”

“Always remember that when a new moment, a new insight, hovers around you, choose the new because the old has not done anything for you, so what is the point of going back?  Even if the new proves wrong then too choose the new.  At least it will be a new adventure; you will come to know something.  Even if you don’t reach the goal, at least you will have learned some courage to move into the unknown, to embrace the unknown.  That will be your gain.  But never choose the old.  Whenever there is a possibility for the new, go into the new.  And go fast because the old is very heavy—it will pull you back.”

“If growth comes through discomfort, inconvenience—good.  Then inconvenience is good, beneficial; then discomfort is good, beneficial.  But always remember one thing: Go on growing.  Don’t become a rut.  Don’t start moving in the same vicious circle again, and again, and again.”