There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a total annihilation of all that you believed in and thought that you were.
Interpretation
Transformation often requires deep personal turmoil and a complete reassessment of one's identity and beliefs.
This quote by Vilayat Inayat Khan suggests that true rebirth or profound personal transformation comes only after experiencing significant suffering or existential crisis. The 'dark night of the soul' signifies the difficult process of dismantling one's previous self-conceptions and beliefs in order to emerge renewed and enlightened on the other side.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth and resilience.
Overcome any bitterness that may have come because you were not up to the magnitude of the pain entrusted to you. Like the mother of the world who carries the pain of the world in her heart, you are sharing in a certain measure of that cosmic pain, and are called upon to meet it in joy instead of self pity.
To claim you are more detached, more alien to everything than anyone, and to be merely a fanatic of indifference!
In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are and where we came from.
Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of character can ripen more fully than in life
It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and the judgement of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect.
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.
Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe. They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.