More company increases happiness, but does not lighten or diminish misery.
Thomas TraherneRead
You never know yourself till you know more than your body.
Interpretation
Understanding oneself goes beyond physical existence; it involves deeper self-awareness.
This quote emphasizes that true self-knowledge is not limited to our physical form or senses, but instead requires introspection and a deeper understanding of our thoughts, feelings, and spiritual essence. It suggests that we must explore beyond our mere bodily existence to truly grasp who we are and what it means to be human.
In practice
In a personal development workshop to encourage attendees to look beyond their physical selves.
More company increases happiness, but does not lighten or diminish misery.
We do not ignore maturity. Maturity consists in not losing the past while fully living in the present with a prudent awareness of the possibilities of the future.
Happiness was not made to be boasted, but enjoyed. Therefore tho others count me miserable, I will not believe them if I know and feel myself to be happy; nor fear them.
To love one person with a private love is poor and miserable: to love all is glorious.
Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehensions of the world, than I when I was a child.
The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and think and taste and see, all is in vain.
The world is given to me only once, not one existing and one perceived. Subject and object are only one.
The true opponent in a debate on emptiness is your own ego.
It's very difficult to escape your background. You know, I don't think it's necessary to even try to escape it. More and more, I start to think that it's necessary to see exactly what it is that you inherited on both ends of the stick: your timidity, your courage, your self-deceit, and your honesty - and all the rest of it.
Conventions vs. spontaneity. This is a dialectical choice, it depends on the assessment you make of your own times. If you judge that your own time is ridden with empty insincere formalities, you plump for spontaneity, for indecorous behavior even...Much of morality is the task of compensating for one's age. One assumes unfashionable virtues, in an indecorous time. In a time hollowed out by decorum, one must school oneself in spontaneity.
The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not βthe thinker.β The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter β beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace β arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.
In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.
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