After a certain number of years, our faces become our biographies.
Cynthia OzickRead
We're all just bags of bones and muscle and hormones; I'll never understand what makes our minds do the things we do. It's like that statue of the monkey holding a skull. We're trying to use a thing we don't understand to understand ourselves.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the complexity of human existence and consciousness.
Meshell Ndegeocello's quote delves into the enigmatic nature of humanity, suggesting that despite our physical composition as mere 'bags of bones and muscle and hormones,' the workings of our minds remain a profound mystery. The reference to the statue of a monkey holding a skull symbolizes our struggle to comprehend our own consciousness using the very intellect that we scarcely understand.
In practice
During a philosophy class discussion on the complexities of human existence.
After a certain number of years, our faces become our biographies.
God gave you life and bestowed upon you his attributes; eventually you will return to him.
It is absurd to say that there are neither ruins nor curiosities in America when they have their mothers and their manners.
Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.
One has to reach to the absolute state of awareness: that is Zen. You cannot do it every morning for a few minutes or for half an hour and then forget all about it. It has to become like your heartbeat. You have to sit in it, you have to walk in it. Yes, you have even to sleep in it.
There is no doubt that solitude is a challenge and to maintain balance within it a precarious business. But I must not forget that, for me, being with people or even with one beloved person for any length of time without solitude is even worse. I lose my center. I feel dispersed, scattered, in pieces. I must have time alone in which to mull over my encounter, and to extract its juice, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it.
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