We cannot master everything, taste everything, understand everything, drain every experience to its last dregs. But if we have the courage to let almost everything else go, we will probably be able to retain the thing necessary for us-whatever it may be. If we are too eager to have everything, we will almost certainly miss even the one thing we need
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of focus and letting go of excess in order to retain what truly matters.
In this quote, Thomas Merton reflects on the challenges of trying to experience everything life has to offer. He suggests that by attempting to master and understand every aspect of our lives, we risk losing sight of the most important experiences or lessons that are essential to our personal growth and fulfillment. The wisdom lies in recognizing that less can be more, and that prioritizing what truly matters allows us to cultivate a deeper understanding and appreciation of our lives.
In practice
During a meditation workshop, this quote can inspire participants to focus on the present moment rather than getting overwhelmed with their thoughts.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.
Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
You are made in the image of what you desire.
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
You people are telling me what you think I want to know. I want to know what is actually happening.
The true method of knowledge is experiment.
Develop discipline of self so that you do not have to decide and re-decide what you will do when you are confronted with the same temptation time and time again. You need only decide some things once.
It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute.
Do not take the agenda that someone else has mapped out for your life.
When the soldiers stand leaning on their spears, they are faint from want of food.
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