I am convinced that the deepest desire within each of us is to be liberated from the controlling influences of our own psychic madness or patterns of fear. All other things—the disdain of ordinary life, the need to control others rather than be controlled, the craving for material goods as a means of security and protection against the winds of chaos—are external props that serve as substitutes for the real battle, which is the one waged within the individual soul.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that true freedom lies in overcoming our internal struggles rather than seeking external validation or material security.
Caroline Myss articulates a profound understanding of human desire, asserting that what we truly seek is liberation from our internal fears and chaotic thoughts. She indicates that many of our external pursuits, such as the desire for control or material possessions, are merely distractions that prevent us from addressing the real conflict within ourselves, advocating for a journey inward to confront and resolve these inner battles for true peace and fulfillment.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might say, 'As Caroline Myss puts it, our greatest desire is to free ourselves from our internal chaos.'
When we harbor negative emotions toward others or toward ourselves, or when we intentionally create pain for others, we poison our own physical and spiritual systems. By far the strongest poison to the human spirit is the inability to forgive oneself or another person. It disables a person's emotional resources. The challenge...is to refine our capacity to love others as well as ourselves and to develop the power of forgiveness.
Wounds are the means through which we enter the hearts of other people. They are meant to teach us to become compassionate and wise.
Healing is a different type of pain. It’s the pain of becoming aware of the power of one’s strength and weakness, of one’s capacity to love or do damage to oneself and to others, and of how the most challenging person to control in life is ultimately yourself.
Being of service is not an option, it is a biological necessity. Every kind of action we do for someone is a reanimation of our own life force - and of the other person's.
If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.
Realization is not knowledge about the universe, but the living experience of the nature of the universe. Until we have such living experience, we remain dependent on examples, and subject to their limits.
I contend that non-violent acts exert pressure far more effective than violent acts, for the pressure comes from goodwill and gentleness.
Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it; this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What to do? Where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough.
When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only believe our belief about Him.
Adventures come to the adventurous, and mysterious things fall in the way of those who, with wonder and imagination, are on the watch for them; but the majority of people go past the doors that are half ajar, thinking them closed, and fail to notice the faint stirrings of the great curtain that hangs ever in the form of appearances between them and the world of causes behind.
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