You can't push on a string. Unsolicited monologues get little attention. However, we have people's attention when we respond to their questions. When we question others, they give us their mouth. When they question us, we have their ears. As our questions arouse their curiosity, eventually they might question us, open their ears and let us enter their mind....
When Victor was 13, he didn't need glasses but marveled at the experience of those who did as they saw the world completely differently when they did and didn't wear glasses. Poor eyesight seemed like a blessing that could lead to great insight. To the myopic, much of the distant world is ambiguous; making it clear to them that in their natural state, without the intervention of glasses, they don't know what they are looking at; this realization is the first step to wisdom. Unlike most people who are never in doubt but often wrong about what they see. Realizing our ignorance arouses our curiosity, putting us on a never-ending journey of discovering the newness of everything as everything is forever in flux; inherently ambiguous until our glasses or mind make things seem clear temporarily. Interestingly, those who wear glasses have, statistically, a significantly higher IQ than those who don't. That doesn't mean they are inherently smarter, just the they use their mind wondering about the nature of things because they realize they don't know what they are looking at. That’s the essence of wisdom....
Love is like light. It can be bent and redirected but can never be broken. The more light that's emitted, the more shines back at us. Without light, we are in a cold dark place. With light, we can connect with everything around us. Light is what we see everywhere but rarely notice....
It is what it is whatever it is. What it is is of no matter. What matters is that it is....
Even the most wonderful people take a shit which doesn't smell good to anyone but themselves. How we feel about them depends on how we see them, as a hole or as a whole....
An expert, when authenticating an artwork, rarely appreciates an artwork as someone who is simply looking at an artwork. When an artwork is expertly proclaimed a "fake," most people can no longer see it through their eyes as they did before the proclamation. They see it through their mind and their mind sees through their ears. When we focus on the details, we often fail to see the beauty of the whole....
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” “When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.” “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” “People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” “Many people think excitement is happiness...
Before birth, we are one with everything. After birth, we begin self-defining ourselves as finite beings apart and separate from everything that is not us. This process is at first frightening, painful, overwhelming. In reaction, we cry. However, those in midlife are deaf to our cries as they joyously celebrate our birth. As we approach death, we are at peace. We die without a tear, knowing we are transitioning to be again one with everything. However, those in midlife cry as we depart. As misery loves company, they are sad to see us go. Those in midlife view newborns and the dying as understanding little. However, maybe they know something of which those in midlife are oblivious....
The past is a comic and tragic illusion our mind creates. When we believe the illusion is real, our experience of the present is also an illusion....