“There is no formula in the spiritual life, but there is a principle that describes the spiritual life: grace + response = growth. This is living in the Spirit. Living in the flesh operates by a principle as well: grace + resistance = decline.”
-Steve Harper, Life in Christ
Art by Hasui Kawase.
“One of the greatest tragedies in mankind’s entire history may be that morality was hijacked by religion.”
― Arthur C. Clarke
“There exists, for everyone, a sentence – a series of words – that has the power to destroy you. Another sentence exists, another series of words, that could heal you. If you’re lucky you will get the second, but you can be certain of getting the first.”
― Philip K. Dick
“Maybe each human being lives in a unique world, a private world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans. . . If reality differs from person to person, can we speak of reality singular, or shouldn’t we really be talking about plural realities? And if there are plural realities, are some more true (more real) than others? What about the world of a schizophrenic? Maybe it’s as real as our world. Maybe we cannot say that we are in touch with reality and he is not, but should instead say, His reality is so different from ours that he can’t explain his to us, and we can’t explain ours to him. The problem, then, is that if subjective worlds are experienced too differently, there occurs a breakdown in communication … and there is the real illness.”
― Philip K. Dick
“Instead of condemning people, let’s try to understand them. Let’s try to figure out why they do what they do. That’s a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism; and it breeds sympathy, tolerance and kindness. “To know all is to forgive all.”
― Dale Carnegie
Art by Kawase Hasui.
“The difference between poets and mystics . . . The mystic nails a symbol to one meaning that was true for a moment but soon becomes false. The poet, on the other hand, sees that truth while it’s true but understands that symbols are always in flux and that their meanings are fleeting.”
― Neal Stephenson, Anathem
Art by Kawase Hasui.
“Life begins on the other side of despair.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
Art by Kawase Hasui.
“I’m going to smile, and my smile will sink down into your pupils, and heaven knows what it will become.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit
Art by Kawase Hasui.
Perhaps this makes it easier to explain why people riot and protest.
“It is in this darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can please of comfort our own minds, when we seem to be useless and worthy of all contempt, when we seem to have failed, when we seem to be destroyed and devoured, it is then that the deep and secret selfishness that is too close for us to identify is stripped away from our souls. It is in this darkness that we find true liberty. It is in this abandonment that we are made strong. This is the night which empties us and makes us pure. Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for spiritual JOY. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and spiritual joy you have not yet begun to live.”
– Thomas Merton, New Seeds Of Contemplation
Open Life Up 