“I believe that I possess this value: to serve Jesus. I am less at peace than if my goal would be to attain a professorship and a good life, but I live. And that gives me the tremendous feeling of happiness, as if one would hear music. One feels uprooted, because one asks, what lies ahead, what decisions should I make-but more alive, happier than those anchored in life. To drift with released anchor.” IfsGivingFeelsShouldBelieveFeelingsWould BeLyingValuesAsksJesusI BelieveGoalDecisionChristianityAliveGive MeGood LifeShould IAnchorsProfessorship Author:Albert Schweitzer
“If you are obsessively active, please at least pause to ask yourself why and to listen for the answer from the still, quiet voice alive and well within you. I don't have an answer for the hurry sickness afflicting our society and our souls. But I do trust that the how-to-stop-it is within you, and you can change your pace if you want to.” IfsWantWellsStillsSoulAsksVoiceAnswersAlivePleaseQuietActiveSicknessOur SocietyPaceWithin YouPausesQuiet Voice Author:Sue Thoele
“The most important part of the practice is for the question to remain alive and for your whole body and mind to become a question. In Zen they say that you have to ask with the pores of your skin and the marrow of your bones. A Zen saying points out: Great questioning, great awakening; little questioning, little awakening; no questioning, no awakening.” MindLittlesImportantWholeBodyAsksPracticeAliveSkinsBonesAwakeningQuestioningMind And BodyMarrow Author:Martine Batchelor
“My friends ... they usually rib me about how I just sleep in and watch Oprah and that I don't really have a proper job. I've given up arguing now, so I just agree with them, even though half the time I realise I've started work before they have. Still, it's best to keep the romantic idea alive. If they call around midday and ask if they woke me, I always say yes.” IfsStillsIdeasJobsAsksGivenSleepHalfWatchesAliveMy FriendsAgreeArguingRealisingGiven UpRibs Author:Markus Zusak
“My mother phones daily to ask, "Did you just try to reach me?" When I reply no, she adds, "So, if you're not too busy, call me while I'm still alive," . . . and hangs up.” IfsTryingStillsMotherAsksAliveAddBusyPhonesCall MeToo BusyHang Ups Author:Erma Bombeck
“Safety lies in catering to the in-group. We are not all brave. All I would ask of writers who find it hard to question the universal validity of their personal opinions and affiliations is that they consider this: Every group we belong to - by gender, sex, race, religion, age - is an in-group, surrounded by an immense out-group, living next door and all over the world, who will be alive as far into the future as humanity has a future. That out-group is called other people. It is for them that we write.” PeopleWorldWritingHardAgeLyingHumanityNextAsksSexRaceOpinionAliveDoorsGroupsUniversalSafetyBraveGenderImmenseOutsidersValidityAffiliationCateringPersonal Opinions Book:The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination Source: The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination
“Global warming is already acting upon us with an accelerated feedback and compounded effect that may be irreversible! We do not have eons or centuries or many decades. Most of us alive today may not even have the luxury of saying 'Après moi, le déluge' because we will be around to experience it ourselves. And if you think it will be 'interesting' or 'exciting,' ask the tsunami survivors if that's how they felt. This time the plutocratic drive to 'accumulate, accumulate, accumulate' may take all of us down, once and forever.” IfsThinkingMayTodayPoliticalAsksFeltInterestingActingForeverAliveEffectsCenturyExcitingDecadesLuxuryGlobal WarmingSurvivorFeedbackLive For TodayTsunamiIrreversible Author:Michael Parenti