Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
Abraham Joshua HeschelRead
In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves.
Interpretation
Anger can cloud our judgment and shift our focus from seeking truth to defending our own ego.
This quote suggests that when we engage in a controversy and allow ourselves to feel anger, we lose sight of the objective truth. Instead of remaining open-minded and seeking understanding, we become defensive and focus on our personal stake in the matter, which hinders genuine discussion and resolution. Heschel invites us to recognize the importance of emotional control in our pursuit of truth.
In practice
In a debate about climate change, itβs important to focus on facts rather than getting angry at opposing views.
Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
Normal consciousness is a state of stupor, in which the sensibility to the wholly real and responsiveness to the stimuli of the spirit are reduced. The mystics, knowing that man is involved in a hidden history of the cosmos, endeavor to awake from the drowsiness and apathy and to regain the state of wakefulness for their enchanted souls.
Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.
The worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The rejection of reason is cowardice and betrays a lack of faith.
We worship God through our questions.
When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.
HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character.
All writers learn this, in time: don't show your work to other people until it's safely finished. Even discussing your unborn book in quite general terms can be such an undermining experience that, afterwards, you give it up and go to live in Guatemala.
In dealing with a man who thinks you are a fool, it is good sometimes to remind him that you know what he knows but have chosen to appear foolish for the sake of peace.
I remember I was walking through a store, and I saw clothes a 25-year-old would wear. And the conversation in my head was, 'I'm not young and fabulous anymore.' But, immediately, there was a voice that said, 'No, you can be older and fabulous.' In other words, still just as fabulous, but in a different way.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter.
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