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Seek not that things should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.

Epictetus

The child’s character is still so unformed that I cannot say what I think of it. He behaves like a spoiled child, but he does not lack intelligence. We shall have to wait and see what is inside this chrysalis. Perhaps an artist?

A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

“Life is futile,” says my new therapist, Michaela, “and no one gets out of it alive. There is only love.”

Emma Forrest

I like low-budget movies and expensive restaurants.

Heaven and Earth are not kind:
The ten thousand things are straw dogs to them.

Sages are not kind:
People are straw dogs to them.

Yet Heaven and Earth
And all the spaces between
Are like bellows:
Empty but inexhaustible,
Always producing more.

Longwinded speech is exhausting.
Better to stay centered.

5

Something marvellous happened to me. I was transported to the seventh heaven. There sat all the gods assembled. As a special dispensation, I was granted the favour of making a wish. “Do you wish for youth,” said Mercury, “or for beauty, or power, or a long life; or do you wish for the most beautiful woman, or any other of the many fine things we have in our treasure chest? Choose, but only one thing!” For a moment I was bewildered; then I addressed the gods, saying: “My esteemed contemporaries, I choose one thing — that I may always have the laughter on my side.”