I ask no risen dust to teach me immortality; I am conscious of eternal life.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the idea that true understanding of life and eternity comes from within rather than external teachings.
Theodore Parker's quote reflects a deep philosophical perspective on immortality and the nature of existence. It emphasizes that knowledge of eternal life should not rely on what is left behind by the dead, but rather on one's own consciousness and awareness of life. This statement suggests that the essence of life and continuity transcends physical existence and invites individuals to seek truth and understanding from their own inner experience.
In practice
During a philosophical discussion on existence and consciousness.
A democracy,- that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.
Want and wealth equally harden the human heart, as frost and fire are both alien to the human flesh. Famine and gluttony alike drive away nature from the heart of man.
The books which help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is by easy reading; every man that tries it finds it so. But a great book that comes from a great thinker, β it is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth, with beauty too.
No man is so great as mankind.
Outward judgment often fails, inward judgment never.
You may not, cannot, appropriate beauty. It is the wealth of the eye, and a cat may gaze upon a king.
Asanas penetrate deep into each layer of the body and ultimately into the consciousness itself.
The mind we have when we practice zazen is the great mind: we don't try to see anything; we stop conceptual thinking; we stop emotional activity; we just sit. Whatever happens to us, we are not bothered. We just sit. It is like something happening in the great sky. Whatever kind of bird flies through it, the sky doesn't care. That is the mind transmitted from Buddha to us.
...you find yourself studying the fine colors on the river, you feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and you are filled with a hard, aching love for how the world could be and always should be, but now is not.
Or shall I go out as a light does, not first blown out by the wind, but grown tired and weary of itself - a burnt out light? Or finally, shall I blow myself out, so as not to burn out?
Unless I understand the Cross, I cannot understand why my commitment to what is right must be precedence over what I prefer.
In thy face I see the map of honour, truth and loyalty.
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