“Most people live in almost total darkness… people, millions of people whom you will never see, who don’t know you, never will know you, people who may try to kill you in the morning, live in a darkness which — if you have that funny terrible thing which every artist can recognize and no artist can define — you are responsible to those people to lighten, and it does not matter what happens to you. You are being used in the way a crab is useful, the way sand certainly has some function. It is impersonal. This force which you didn’t ask for, and this destiny which you must accept, is also your responsibility. And if you survive it, if you don’t cheat, if you don’t lie, it is not only, you know, your glory, your achievement, it is almost our only hope — because only an artist can tell, and only artists have told since we have heard of man, what it is like for anyone who gets to this planet to survive it. What it is like to die, or to have somebody die; what it is like to be glad. Hymns don’t do this, churches really cannot do it. The trouble is that although the artist can do it, the price that he has to pay himself and that you, the audience, must also pay, is a willingness to give up everything, to realize that although you spent twenty-seven years acquiring this house, this furniture, this position, although you spent forty years raising this child, these children, nothing, none of it belongs to you. You can only have it by letting it go. You can only take if you are prepared to give, and giving is not an investment. It is not a day at the bargain counter. It is a total risk of everything, of you and who you think you are, who you think you’d like to be, where you think you’d like to go — everything, and this forever, forever.”

Quote by James Baldwin, from the book The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings

The Path is Clear – Ride the Storm

Something Wonderfully Bold

“Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns…We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small.”

“Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain.”

“Attention is the most basic form of love. By paying attention we let ourselves be touched by life , and our hearts naturally become more open and engaged.”

“Charlotte Joko Beck, Zen teacher and author, teaches that the “secret” of spiritual life is the capacity to “… return to that which we have spent a lifetime hiding from, to rest in the bodily experience of the present moment—even if it is a feeling of being humiliated, of failing, of abandonment, of unfairness.” Through the sacred art of pausing, we develop the capacity to stop hiding, to stop running away from our experience. We begin to trust in our natural intelligence, in our naturally wise heart, in our capacity to open to whatever arises. Like awakening from a dream, in the moment of pausing our trance recedes and Radical Acceptance becomes possible.”

“There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.”

All quotes by Tara Brach

A Million Really Exciting Things

“For everything bad, there’s a million really exciting things, whether it’s someone puts out a really great book, there’s a new movie, there’s a new detective, the sky is unbelievably golden, or you have the best cup of coffee you ever had in your life.”

“If I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s not to be so judgmental of other people.”

“An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn’t know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch.”

“Nothing is a hobby – each discipline is its own world with its own high standards. Of course, every artist has ‘minor works’ that they do, but I don’t think I have any ‘minor disciplines.'”

“I think we have a creative impulse where suffering can magnify our work, but so can joy. You can be in love and write the greatest love song ever. Sometimes I think too much suffering makes it difficult to do one’s work.”

“I never felt oppressed because of my gender. When I’m writing a poem or drawing, I’m not a female; I’m an artist.”

All quotes by Patti Smith

You Control the Chapters

“You’re basically telling your story. We’re all writing a book, whether you realize it or not. And the beautiful thing about the book that you write, is that you control the chapters. Whether one chapter ends bad or not, there is another chapter that starts after that. And it keeps on going, and your job is to make sure that your book ends well. And when that book ends well, you’re going to look back at your story and you’re gonna say, “I wouldn’t have had it any other way, because I did it the right way. I worked, and I got what the fuck I worked for at the end, like I was suppose to.” No matter what, it will pay off. For some it takes more time than others, for some it’s faster. One man or woman’s journey has nothing to do with the next. Focus on yours and yours only. You’re competing with yourself. That’s who you’re competing with — yourself! Nobody else. There is nobody else holding you back but you. That’s it. In any craft, whether you choose comedy, acting, the business world — whatever it is, it’s you against you. You can’t become the best version of you until you realize your self worth.”

Quote by Kevin Hart

Terence Mckenna Interviews Ram Dass

I rewatched a video I posted on this blog in 2011 — and it still delights me! It’s an interview between Terence Mckenna and Ram Dass‬. It’s actually four short Youtube videos of one discussion. You can click on the link below to view the original blog post. It may not be for everyone — but I highly recommend it!

Link: www.sundayisforlovers.wordpress.com/2011/04/10

Magic of Thinking Big

“Think little goals and expect little achievements.”

“Remember, you see in any situation what you expect to see.”

“Then it dawned on me that no one else was going to believe in me until I believed in myself.”

“Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of others.”

“Do what you fear and fear disappears.”

“Action cures fear.”

“How you think determines how you act. How you act, in turn, determines how others react to you.”

“Belief triggers the power to do.”

All quotes by David J. Schwartz