Observations and Fabrications

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.

“True politeness is a polish, not a varnish; and should rather be acquired by observation than admonition.”

“A man’s maturity is to have rediscovered the seriousness he possessed as a child at play.”

To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be. The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.

Life will break you.

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.”

“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”

“Compassion was the most important, perhaps the sole law of human existence.”

“The old often envy the young; when they do, they are apt to treat them cruelly.”

“Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you.”

Stop Being so Religious

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.”

“The idealists and visionaries, foolish enough to throw caution to the winds and express their ardour and faith in some supreme deed, have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.”