Commonplace

Books aren’t just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings.

Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so.

You can’t help but do philosophy. You can only do it well or do it badly.

A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words "make" and "stay" become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.

The Third World is not poor. You don’t go to poor countries to make money. There are very few poor countries in this world. Most countries are rich! The Philippines are rich! Brazil is rich! Mexico is rich! Chile is rich! Only the people are poor.

But there’s billions to be made there, to be carved out, and to be taken. There’s been billions for 400 years! The capitalist European and North American powers have carved out and taken the timber, the flax, the hemp, the cocoa, the rum, the tin, the copper, the iron, the rubber, the bauxite, the slaves, and the cheap labour. They have taken out of these countries.

These countries are not underdeveloped, they’re overexploited!

Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but it is enough.

You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.

Picture a wave, in the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through. And it’s there. And you can see it, you know what it is. It’s a wave.

And then it crashes in the shore, and it’s gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be, for a little while.

You know it’s one conception of death for Buddhists: the wave returns to the ocean, where it came from and where it’s supposed to be.

Things which do not grow and change are dead things.

Despite knowing the journey and where it leads, I embrace it and welcome every moment.