Frags

Silence is not practiced at the expense of speech. On the contrary, we will value our words to the extent that we value our silences; the fewer our words, the weightier they must be.

There is one path. It is that which you are on. It is the only path -- from which there is no deviation. Now it leads upward into wider light. Now down into a narrow dark. Like a river, it traverses hill and vale, field and wood, disdaining nowhere, welcome in all places and times. Without concern, it nourishes all things.

Our home will not shelter us unless the world becomes our home, our kin will not comfort us unless all creatures become our kin, and our god will not bless us unless all being becomes our god; for our home takes shelter in the world, our kin take comfort in all creatures, and our god is blessed by all that is.

A baby bird breaks through the egg and disregards it, not because it served no purpose, but because it's purpose has been served. So it is with the soul's relation to the material world. Like an egg, or a womb, it is that which shelters and nurtures the soul, until the soul has become sufficiently developed to break through.

 The spiritual world is not altogether hidden behind the material. Truly, the Kingdom of Heaven shines through nature, as a light beneath the door. Thus, in preaching the doctrine of world-transcendence, we do no disservice to the creation as instituted by the Lord, Our God. One does not deny, nor disregard, a doorway by passing through it, -- but, rather, makes proper use thereof; for Heaven cannot be entered, lest the door be apprehended, and the threshold traversed.

Freedom is that commodity which labor cannot secure.

You are here to decide for yourself why you are here;
not to discover a meaning, but to declare one.

I have a mind like a sieve;
it retains only stones, shells, and bones,
and occasional nuggets of gold insight.

Fools give credence to authority and whatever is commonly held.
To their way of seeing, that an idea is original only proves that it is false.

We are in no position to judge a vice which we have not discovered in ourselves. Nor have we any right to judge a vice which we have discovered in ourselves. The former would expose our ignorance -- the latter our hypocrisy.

 It takes courage to be sincere; to be serious, vulnerable, insightful, and to allow others to be serious, vulnerable, insightful; without immediately cracking some careless, stupid joke. Not everything is ironic. Not every reflective moment needs to be shattered with instant levity. Where did we ever acquire this notion that being cool means caring for nothing? Enough with that! It is not cool to be flippant. It is cool to care, to question, to teach, to share what you really think and feel. All of my heart to the sincere, serious people. The ones who make you think. And, yes, I love the ones who make me laugh, but it would be nice if they knew when to stop; when not to make a joke out of everything; when to allow something to stand, a little awkward on the page, if need be, declaring something of substance. Jokes are easy. Apathy is effortless. Cowardice.

How could any momentary pleasure, however exalted, not leave a residue of disenchantment behind; when man is that being who harbors a longing (insatiable by definition) for the Absolute? Even mystical wine has dregs.

Love of hard work must have developed for sound reasons, dictated by necessity, but now we see it encouraged for absurd ones, far beyond the bounds of reason, and dictated by excess. Without a doubt, it is one of the virtues most treasured by materialists (whether or not they practice it themselves), since their luxuries can only be afforded at the cost of tremendous labor. Whereas, idealists naturally esteem love of ease far more than love of labor, and labor only as much as it will afford them ease. Their pleasures are not culled from the earth, nor very long in procuring. They do not require heat, nor cold, nor any treatment at the hand of man. The world as it stands distributes more goods than they could ever make use of or hope to surmise. An idealist is wealthy beyond measure because he does not search for objects of beauty, but, rather, his search ignites the beauty within all objects. He is no less content with the idea of an object than with the object itself. This is why he praises leisure over labor; being over doing; as a man for whom God has performed all things, and is all things.

Mankind harbors a sneaking suspicion that the deepest emotions, insights, and perceptions to which he is sensitive have already occurred to him, and are present in his earliest memories. The aim of all culture is to make infancy articulate. In spite of the reality of evil, if all things are tending towards good, we may say that only good is ever really happening. Indeed, we may have good reason to.