I never had anyone I could call “Master”. No Christ died for me. No Buddha showed me the right path. In the depths of my dreams no Apollo or Athena appeared to me to enlighten my soul
Interpretation
The quote expresses a sense of independence in one's search for meaning and enlightenment, lacking reliance on external figures.
Fernando Pessoa reflects on the absence of traditional spiritual guides or masters in his life, highlighting a profound sense of individualism in the quest for knowledge and enlightenment. He suggests that rather than seeking answers from established religious or mythological figures like Christ, Buddha, or the Greek gods, he feels drawn to navigate his own path and seek truth from within, emphasizing the importance of personal experience and introspection in the journey of life.
In practice
This quote can be used to inspire individuals at a personal development workshop.
I have at this moment so many fundamental thoughts, so many truly metaphysical things to say, that I suddenly get tired and decide not to write any more, not to think any more, but to allow the fever of speaking to make me sleepy, and with my eyes closed, like a cat, I play with everything I could have said.
It's been months since I last wrote. I've lived in a state of mental slumber, leading the life of someone else. I've felt, very often, a vicarious happiness. I haven't existed. I've been someone else. I've lived without thinking.
We all have two lives: The true, the one we dreamed of in childhood And go on dreaming of as adults in a substratum of mist; the false, the one we love when we live with others, the practical, the useful, the one we end up by being put in a coffin.
I'm a man for whom the outside world is an inner Reality.
My dreams are a stupid refuge, like an umbrella against a thunderbolt.
The chill of what I won't feel gnaws at my present heart.
We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal's 'Pensees' and read, 'I am the great silent spaces between worlds.'
I hear the ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppled masonry, and time one livid final flame.
I'm not sure anything makes you an outright good person or bad person - that we're all capable of doing good or bad things. And if you want to know how much good you can do, and how much hurt you can do, just ask somebody you love.
A man who examines each subject from a philosophical standpoint cannot neglect them: he has to omit nothing, and state the truth about each topic.
Don't you know that everybody's got a Fairyland of their own?
The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.
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