Worshipping the teapot instead of drinking the tea.
When we think we’re separate, we lose power. Whenever I say “my,” I have lost my power. Power is not my power; it is not enlarging oneself as a separate individual. It is only gainable as part of a larger whole. Then you communicate with the rest of yourself — which may be a tree. You, reciprocally, are moved by the universe. Whenever you shut down connectedness, you get depressed. Psychic awareness breaks in as a gift. It’s fearful to know we’re connected to everything in the universe, because then we’re responsible.
The thing that eats the heart is mostly heart.
Elusion is a relation in which one pretends oneself away from one’s original self, then pretends oneself back from this pretence so as to appear to have arrived back at the starting point. A double pretence simulates no pretence. The only way to “realize” one’s original state is to forgo the first pretence to it, but once one adds a second pretence to it, as far as I can see, there is no end to the series of possible pretences. I am. I pretend I am not. I pretend I am. I pretend I am not pretending to be pretending.
We milk the cow of the world, and as we do We whisper in her ear, “You are not true.”
A cover of darkness, separation, and confusion are necessary prerequisites for the eventual rebirth of a lost and wandering soul.
Lord, hear me out, and hear me out this day: From me to Thee’s a long and terrible way.
I am simply a human being, more or less.
A memory of love disguised as a meadow. . . .
“It came to me . . . that when people fall in love they entrust to each other the idea of themselves.”
“Do you mean their own idea of themselves?”
“I mean the essential idea of them that perhaps they don’t even know themselves. Each holds out to the other this obscure and unknown thing for the other to perceive and keep safe.”
Eternity is not the hereafter. Eternity has nothing to do with time. . . . This is it. If you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here’s the place to have the experience.
Abel and Cain met after Abel’s death. They were walking in the desert when they recognized each other from afar because they were both very tall. The brothers sat on the ground, lit a fire, and began to eat. They kept silence just like somebody tired at the end of the day. In the sky there shone a star that was still nameless. In the light of the flames, Cain saw the scar of the stone on Abel’s forehead and, dropping the piece of bread he was about to eat, begged him to forgive his crime. Abel answered: “Was it you who killed me or was it I who killed you? I do not remember anymore. Here we are sitting together again just like before.” Cain said: “Now I know that you have indeed forgiven me because forgetting is forgiving. I will also try to forget.” Abel spoke slowly: “That is right. As long as there is remorse, there is guilt.”
