- "the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. and you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."
- "so many people walk around with a meaningless life. they seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. this is because they're chasing the wrong things. the way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to the community around you, and devote yourself into creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
- "sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. and if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must believe you can trust them, too--even when you're in the dark. even when you're falling."
- "once you learn how to die, you learn how to live."
- "because most of us walk around as if we're sleepwalking. we really don't experience the world fully, because we're half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do."
- "we are too involved in materialistic things, and they don't satisfy us. the loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted."
- "love each other or perish. it's good, no? and it's so true. without love, we are birds with broken wings."
- "don't cling to things, because everything is important."
- "but detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. on the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. that's how you're able to leave it."
- "if you hold back on the emotions--if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them--you can never get to being detached. you're too busy being afraid, too afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. you're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails."
- "turn on the faucet. wash yourself with the emotion. it won't hurt you. it will only help. if you let the fear inside, if you pull it on like a familiar shirt, then you can say to yourself, 'all right, it's just fear, i don't have to let it control me. i see it for what it is."
- "same for loneliness: you let go, let the tears flow, feel it completely--but eventually able to say, 'all right, that was my moment with loneliness. i'm not afraid of feeling lonely, but now i'm going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and i'm going to experience them as well."
- "aging is not just decay, you know. it's growth. it's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand that you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it."
- "we put our values in the wrong things. and it leads to very disillusioned lives."
- "these were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. they were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. but it never works. you can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness of for comradeship."
- "money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness."
- "if you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. they will look down at you anyhow. and if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. they will only envy you. status will get you nowhere."
- "do the kind of things that come from the heart. when you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things."
- "don't let go too soon, but don't hang on too long."
- "death ends a life, not a relationship."
- ". .to pay attention to your loved ones are speaking, as if it were the last time you might hear them."
feb 27 2016 ∞
feb 27 2016 +