Being & Essence

I was born, I exist.

I can, therefore I am.

I conceive, I can, I will, I am.

"I think; therefore I am." It was a woman that taught me to say "I am; therefore I think."

The chief rights are the rights of existence and self-determination.

I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

He belongs only to himself, for he is a free being.

The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

Man is a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements: and so he is their quintessence.

In endowing us with memory, nature has revealed to us a truth utterly unimaginable to the unreflective creation, the truth of immortality. The sole purpose of human existence is to kindle light in the darkness of mere being.

The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not?

The best is to consider that we have a home somewhere, and only then does one really love the world.

All the miseries of mankind come from one thing, not knowing how to be alone.

The lack of wealth is easily repaired but the poverty of the soul is irreplaceable.

By dint of not following their own nature they have no nature to follow. Their human capacities are withered and starved, they become incapable of any strong wishes or native pleasures, and are generally without either opinions or feelings of home growth, or properly their own.

Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being.

At the bottom of the psyche is simply World.

It is impossible to exist without affecting others in both positive and negative ways.

Be thyself.

Know thyself.

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it is at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.

Do our own work and know yourself.

Above all, respect yourself.

You must be one man.

Be true to oneself.

Why should we be in such a desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

A balance between Self and Others.

For a conscious being, to exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

Man is what he believes.

Existence precedes essence.

Of the universal mind each man is one more incarnation.

To accept what you are is to be content, and contentment is the greatest wealth. To work with patience is to gather power. To surrender to the Eternal Flow is to be completely present.

If we go down into ourselves we find we possess exactly what we desire.

We find God in our own being which is the mirror of God.

Not wishing to be other than they are, they cannot conceive the alternative: another self capable of renewal.

When Judaism speaks of immortality its primary meaning is that man contains something independent of the flesh and surviving it; his consciousness and moral capacity; his essential personality, a soul.

Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.

To atone is to be at one with God, to sink self into the non-self, to achieve a mystic unity with the source of being, finding peace.

Ego is the Self setting itself apart.

The soul is the mirror of the universe.

I may not embrace or command this universal order, but I can be at one with it, for I am of it.

That which fills the universe I regard as my body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature.

To preserve one's mental and physical constitution and nourish one's nature is the way to serve Heaven.

Not to be separate from the primal source constitutes what we call Heavenly man. Not to be separate from the essential nature thereof constitutes what we call the Spirit-like man. Not to be separate from its real truth constitutes what we call the Prefect man.

The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having. - Henry Miller

 

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