“We often seem to value activity above all else, but like all beings we need to rest and recuperate. I suspect the widespread occurrence of depression in our culture is linked to our refusal to allow ourselves quiet time. Feeling the need to remain constantly busy – mentally or physically – in socially productive activity can prevent us from turning inward to simply be with ourselves. Such inward turning requires time and might lower productivity and social standing. It is not that all activity is bad, but many of us are far out of balance and our activity does not come from a place of stillness and wisdom.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude
“It is sometimes said that when the student is ready the teacher appears. It seems more likely that we are always in the presence of teachers, and at different stages in our development we become open to their teachings.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude
“A human being is part of the whole called by us ‘the universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection of a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein, via Solitude
“Where are we trying to get to with our incessant activity? To the stars? But we’re already as among the stars as we will ever be. Better quality of life? The quality we seek is lost in the seeking. Truly we have it backward with our continual striving for what we don’t have and avoidance of what we do. What we crave most deeply we have always had.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude
“The aliveness, peace, beauty, and love I seek are never out there, but always right here right now.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude
“The strong sensations we generally label as pain are inherent to living, but we can work with the quality of our experience in relation to these sensations. If we resist them, our resistance actually intensifies the sensations and thus creates additional pain. Another common way we intensify pain is by taking it personally and having a ‘why me?’ attitude. If we can relax into pain as a natural part of living that everyone experiences, and let go of the self-judgment that something is wrong with me because I’m experiencing pain, we can alleviate our suffering to a large degree. Much of our suffering is caused by attachment to our sense of a separate autonomous ‘I’ that can somehow achieve a permanent state of affairs with only pleasure and no pain.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude
“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” – Diane Ackerman, via Blog of Jonathan Fields
“Everything we say signifies; everything counts, that we put out into the world. It impacts on kids, it impacts on the zeitgeist of the time.” ~ Meryl Streep, via Blog of Jonathan Fields
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” ~ George Bernard Shaw, via Blog of Jonathan Fields
“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.” ~ Goethe, via Blog of Jonathan Fields
“Each moment of our life, we either invoke or destroy our dreams.” ~ Stuart Wilde, via Blog of Jonathan Fields
“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give — which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving.” ~ Katharine Hepburn, via Blog of Jonathan Fields
“Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a f@*$%load of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.” ~ Dave Eggers, via Blog of Jonathan Fields
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” ~ Antoine De Saint Exupery, via Blog of Jonathan Fields
“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.” ~ Rita Mae Brown, via Blog of Jonathan Fields
“I spend so much time worrying about whether people will like and respect me in the years ahead, but there is nothing I can do to make that happen. I can only work on liking and respecting myself and others, look for Spirit in each of us, and learn to accept inevitable frustration, fear, and anger without blaming myself or the external world. My task is to stay centered, not manipulate others to make me feel ok.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude
“Gaining enlightenment is an accident. Spiritual practice simply makes us accident-prone.” ~ Zen Saying, via Solitude
“People say that what we are all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive.” ~ Joseph Campbell, via Solitude
“We have seriously confounded luxury with necessity in our culture, and can no longer differentiate between what we want in order to maintain a particular lifestyle (with its social relationships and sensual pleasures) and what we actually need for physical survival. We have confounded social identity with biological and spiritual being to the point of believing we will die if we lose our social standing, which is often based on the material wealth we have accumulated. This accelerating spiral of desires becoming necessities is driving our suicidal rush to destroy the Earth we depend on for our actual physical survival.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude
“Not only is everything I experience part of who I am, Spirit-filled, and not to be rejected, but there is no need to go searching for something special anywhere else. Everything life has to offer is always right here wherever I am right now. There is no place more alive and sacred than this place. No time more alive and sacred than this time.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude