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.
I don't believe that in the name of the holiness of the city you have to put barbed wires, machine gun nests, mine pins and everything of that, in the name of the holiness of Jerusalem.
There are no heroes...in life, the monsters win.
Solitude is the place where we can connect with profound bonds that are deeper than the emergency bonds of fear and anger.
Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.
In the act of tearing something apart, you lose its meaning.
She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves… They belonged to her her and were her own, and she entertained the conviction that she had a right to them and they they concerned no one but herself.
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