if we have not found the heaven within,we have not found the heaven without
Interpretation
True happiness and fulfillment come from within rather than from external circumstances.
This quote suggests that our inner state of being determines our experience of the world. If we have not developed a sense of peace, joy, or 'heaven' within ourselves, then our attempts to find happiness in the external world will be futile. The essence of this message emphasizes the importance of inner fulfillment as a prerequisite for experiencing joy and contentment in life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-acceptance.
What a host of little incidents, all deep-buried in the past -- problems that had once been urgent, arguments that had once been keen, anecdotes that were funny only because one remembered the fun. Did any emotion really matter when the last trace of it had vanished from human memory; and if that were so, what a crowd of emotions clung to him as to their last home before annihilation? He must be kind to them, must treasure them in his mind before their long sleep.
The first quarter-century of your life was doubtless lived under the cloud of being too young for things, while the last quarter-century would normally be shadowed by the still darker cloud of being too old for them; and between those two clouds, what small and narrow sunlight illumines a human lifetime!
Most of what we strive for in our modern life uses the apparatus of goal seeking that was originally set up to seek goals in the state of nature.
Justice is the insurance which we have on our lives and property. Obedience is the premium which we pay for it.
Why is it so difficult to assemble those things that really matter in life and to dwell among them only? I am referring to certain landscapes, persons, beasts, books, rooms, meteorological conditions, fruits.
When I started out, nearly every architect I knew was working in public practice; that's where the radical thinking was done. But, there's always a danger of looking back as our fathers did and saying, 'Things were better then.'
And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like "Poo-tee-weet?
In the life of the human spirit, words are action, much more so than many of us realize who live in countries where freedom of expression is taken for granted. The leaders of totalitarian nations understand this very well. The proof is that words are precisely the action for which dissidents in those countries are being persecuted.
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