Wisdom for Our Dis-eases
In my last post I mentioned a recent article I wrote for Spirituality & Health about twelve cultural/spiritual dis-eases. These are energies in our culture or in ourselves that can make it difficult for us to experience well-being and to grow personally and spiritually. Here is a sampling of wisdom quotations from people throughout the ages who have addressed the existential realities of being human--fresh perspectives that can help hoist us out of old cognitive grooves that create dis-ease.
Comparative mind
There is only one of you for all time. Fearlessly be
yourself. Anthony Rapp
Whoever envies others does not obtain peace of
mind. --Buddha
Pursuing happiness
Happiness is a byproduct of an effort to make
someone else happy. --Gretta Brooker Palmer
Holiness is a greater ideal by far than happiness
because it embraces struggle. --David Wolpe
Materialistic attachment
Trying to satisfy one’s desires with possessions is
like trying to put out fire with straw. --Confucius
Attachment brings manifold miseries, non-
attachment brings manifold bliss. --Sivananda
Saraswati
Low body image
True freedom is being without
anxiety about imperfection. --Seng-ts’an
I stand in awe of my body. --Henry David Thoreau
Low self-esteem
Settle yourself in solitude and you will come upon
God in yourself. --Teresa of Avila
Between God and the soul there is no between.
--Julian of Norwich
Shame
You, as much as anyone in the entire universe, are
deserving of your love and compassion. --Buddha
I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in
darkness the astonishing Light of your own being.
--Hafiz
Imperfect love
Love finds its soul in feelings of incompleteness,
impossibility, and imperfection. --Thomas Moore
Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are
mistakes in the sense that almost certainly, in a
more perfect world...both partners might be found
more suitable mates. But the real soul mate is the
one you are actually married to. --J.R.R. Tolkien
Speed
If the mind can get still enough, something sacred
will be revealed. --Helen Tworkov
A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is
sound. A mind that is still is divine. --Meher Baba
Doubt
If you hear a voice that says you cannot paint, then
by all means paint and the voice will be silenced.
--Vincent van Gogh
Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good
we oft might win by fearing to attempt.
--William Shakespeare
Fear
Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would
like to see you living in better conditions. --Hafiz
Every suffering is a seed, because suffering impels
us to seek wisdom. --Bodhidharma
Boredom
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the
miraculous in the common. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are two ways to live your life. One is as
though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though
everything is a miracle. --Albert Einstein
Absolute certainty
Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I
have found a truth.” --Kahlil Gibran
The infinite transcends every particular content of
faith. --Moses ben Jacob Cordovero