Go to the truth beyond the mind. Love is the bridge.
Stephen LevineRead
Nothing is more natural than grief, no emotion more common to our daily experience. It's an innate response to loss in a world where everything is impermanent.
Interpretation
Grief is a normal and universal response to loss, reflecting the transient nature of life.
This quote by Stephen Levine emphasizes that grief is an inherent and natural part of the human experience. It acknowledges that loss is a significant aspect of life, and the emotions that arise from it are experienced by everyone. In a world characterized by impermanence, recognizing and accepting grief is essential for understanding the human condition.
In practice
In a speech about coping with loss during a memorial service.
Go to the truth beyond the mind. Love is the bridge.
In Chinese, the word for heart and mind is the same -- Hsin. For when the heart is open and the mind is clear they are of one substance, of one essence.
I have seen many die, surrounded by loved ones, and their last words were βI love you.β There were some who could no longer speak yet with their eyes and soft smile left behind that same healing message. I have been in rooms where those who were dying made it feel like sacred ground. (26)
Our suffering is caused by holding on to how things might have been, should have been, could have been.
If there is a single definition of healing it is to enter with mercy and awareness those pains, mental and physical, from which we have withdrawn in judgment and dismay. (48)
I have seem even those who have long since abjured God die in grace. . . . Atheists don't use their drying to bargain for a better seat at the table; indeed they may not even believe supper is being served. They are not storing up 'merit.'; They just smile because their heart is ripe. They are kind for no particular reason; they just love.
A critique does not consist in saying that things aren't good the way they are. It consists in seeing on just what type of assumptions, of familiar notions, of established and unexamined ways of thinking the accepted practices are based... To do criticism is to make harder those acts which are now too easy.
All significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts.
If you stumble over mere believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe? Reason is excellent for getting food, clothing and shelter. Reason is the very best tool kit. Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater
Force is the only language the imperialists can hear, and no country became free without some sort of violence.
The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.
As precious as life itself is our heritage of individual freedom, for man's free agency is a God-given gift.
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