Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
Abraham Joshua HeschelRead
Solitude is a necessary protest to the incursions and the false alarms of society's hysteria, a period of cure and recovery.
Interpretation
Solitude allows for introspection and healing away from societal pressures.
In this quote, Abraham Joshua Heschel emphasizes the importance of solitude as a means of resisting the chaos and distractions created by society. He suggests that taking time away from the noise of everyday life is essential for personal recovery and reflection, allowing individuals to regain their sense of self in a world often filled with confusion and false concerns.
In practice
During a retreat, one might say, 'Remember, solitude is a necessary protest to the incursions of society's hysteria.'
Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
Normal consciousness is a state of stupor, in which the sensibility to the wholly real and responsiveness to the stimuli of the spirit are reduced. The mystics, knowing that man is involved in a hidden history of the cosmos, endeavor to awake from the drowsiness and apathy and to regain the state of wakefulness for their enchanted souls.
Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.
The worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The rejection of reason is cowardice and betrays a lack of faith.
We worship God through our questions.
When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.
In the United States, man does not feel that he has been torn from the center of creation and suspended between hostile forces. He has built his own world, and it is built in his own image: it is his mirror. But now he cannot recognize himself in his inhuman objects, nor in his fellows.
Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery.
Commending the victims to almighty God's mercy, I implore his strength upon all involved in rescue efforts and in caring for the survivors.
I still believe that capitalism is too harsh and I believe that, even within that, there is a lot of satisfaction and beauty if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, although that doesn't eradicate the reality of the suffering. It's all true at once, kind of humming and sublime.
The life of a sannyasin should be a life of no expectations. And then every moment is such a bliss, such a benediction, because whatsoever God gives is so much. Then you always feel grateful. But your desires are so much that whatsoever God gives always looks so little; and you feel frustrated, and you feel complaints, and you cannot feel grateful. And without gratitude, there is no possibility of prayer arising in your heart. Gratitude is prayer.
Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.