If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!

What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, “This life which you now live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal ...

What is fire without that for which it burns?

What is money without her for whom he earns?

What is justice without those for whom to serve?

What is a mother without a daughter to preserve?

The dark night of the soul
comes just before revelation.

When everything is lost,
and all seems darkness,
then comes the new life
and all that is needed.

Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?

Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

Of the terrible doubt of appearances,
Of the uncertainty after all, that we may be deluded,
That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all,
That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only,

The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

John Rodney Mullen (born August 17, 1966) is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, inventor, and public speaker who practices freestyle and street skateboarding. He is widely considered the most influential street skater in the history of the sport, being credited for inventing numerous tricks, including the flatground ollie, kickflip, heelflip, impossible, and 360-flip. As a ...

This post will serve as Part II of Philosophy Primary Sources and a supplement to Primary Sources & Encyclopedias (check out the Links section for even more research sources). There are certain books that are essential to an education about the human condition of which I believe should be available for free and with easy access ...

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

The Vision of Christ that thou dost see

Is my Vision’s Greatest Enemy.

Thine has a great hook nose like thine;

Mine has a snub nose like to mine.

Do you ever stop and imagine, “We are living on a giant rock that is hurtling through space around a gigantic ball of fire!”

Sitting fixedly, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Nonthinking. This is the art of zazen.

– Dōgen Zenji