A journal on life's amusing ironies: December 2004

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Humanity's Legacy

It's so amazing how there are lots of different movies in the world. We live in a time where most of the dominant movies are from the hollywood of today.

Most of us are not aware of movies from other places in the world. Or from other time for that matter. Hollywood movies of decades ago are just as good, if not better as today. European movies have a different feel, but equally satisfying to experience. So do Japanese, Korean and Chinese movies. If I could only understand Indian language, I'm sure I would appreciate the greatness of their art as well.

This collection of movies is humanity's legacy to it's own. These movies are the creations of the greatest minds as a testament to their experiences (both good and bad) and their enduring spirit as we--as a species--continue our existence.

I have but only a short glimpse of this elegant trapestry and I'm so grateful.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Quote

When you strive to be someone, you lose yourself;
When there is no you, you find yourself.

Friday, December 03, 2004

WoW

I've been spending lots of time playing World of Warcraft (WoW). And I can't begin to describe the experience. The WoW world is just amazing. You can spend your time just walking around and be awed by the surroundings. Although I have made some friends there (you easily make friends when you're one of the highest-leveled characters around ;) ), I prefer to do quests alone.

I love doing quests alone--going out there, and facing the challenges all by yourself. I love it not because of some greedy scheme to level up faster (which is actually slower, since quests sometimes are too difficult to do and require a partner or two), but just there's a part of me that wants to face my fears alone. I feel that as I play the game and facing the demons, I'm facing my own demons in my life.

Sometimes, it feels like I'm looking for redemption of some sort. But redemption from what? I don't know... There are things that I can't quite yet understand, but I feel like I have always been running away from something. When I face those monsters in the game, I am fearless and don't care if I die. I need to take those risks, I need to exorcize the demons within me...

Quotes

"Placing the blame or judgment on someone else leaves you powerless to change your experience. Taking responsibility for your beliefs and judgments gives you the power to change them."
--Byron Katie

"True surrender is more like saying 'Please relieve me of my dollar. I really don't want or need it. I want to experience the joy of not having it...'"
--Adyashanti

"If you know the highest you can achieve is total failure, then the bar is set pretty low."
--Adyashanti

"If we lived forever, if the dews of Adashino never vanished, if the crematory smoke on Toribeyama never faded, men would hardly feel the pity of things. The beauty of life is in its impermanence. Man lives the longest of all living things... and even one year lived peacefully seems very long. Yet for such as love the world, a thousand years would fade like the dream of one night."
--Kenko Yoshida

"What I know about dying is that when there's no escape, when you know that no one is coming to save you, there's no fear... You no longer have anything to lose. And in that peace, there is only you."
--Byron Katie

"This moment, stop right where you are. Stop all effort to get whatever you think will give you fulfillment, whatever you think will give you truth. All that is required is one instant of truly stopping."
--Gangaji

"...If he pulled the trigger, and shot me dead, I'd be fine. Truly and utterly fine. I could see the bullet going into my body, my body dying but not me. I was the consciousness aware of this consciousness that was aware of itself. And That cannot die. This consciousness that I am cannot die. I knew that if this body fell dead, I would remain. That which I realized in that moment was the most freeing and simple of Truths. Death was nothing."
--Judith Crop, "Awake at Gunpoint"

"...There truly is no separation. No aspect of "me" is in opposition to the emptiness which it is made from. I do not exist. More accurately, I am existence itself. I include everything I see and everything I don't see. I am not bound by the event of me. The event of me is infused with who I truly am."
--Roslyn Moore, "This Bursting Heart"

[It is a] myth that [when I’m truly enlightened] I can rest in some assuredness that I will never again feel insecure, or feel fear, or feel doubt, or feel those emotions that we don’t want to feel. Forget it. That’s not it. That’s the pipe dream. That’s the opium that’s sold to the masses. And they eat it up and they never get there, and they end up disillusioned. That’s not how it works. Freedom is never freedom “from.” If it’s freedom “from” anything, it’s not freedom at all. It’s freedom “to.” Are you free enough to be afraid? Are you free enough to feel insecure? Are you free enough not to know? Are you free enough to know that you can’t know? Are you free enough to be totally comfortable, to know that you can’t know what’s around the next corner? How you will feel about it? How you will respond to it? That you literally can’t know? Are you free enough to be totally at ease and comfort with the way things actually are? That’s freedom.
--Adyashanti

"Those losses caused me to improve more & wake up [to] the meaning & purpose of my life."
--Manny Pacquiao

"Every rejection is a brick on my castle"

"There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way."
--Christopher Morley

"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
--Viktor Frankl

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
--Viktor Frankl

"Maximus set an example of self-mastery, steadiness of purpose, and good cheer that no circumstance, not even illness, could extinguish. He combined in beautiful measure gravity with charm, and he did whatever needed to be done without making a fuss. Everyone believed what he said was what he thought and that he never acted with an intention to do harm of give offense. Nothing surprised or frightened him, and he never seemed to be in a hurry or slow to accomplish a task.
He was neither intimidated and embarrassed on one hand, nor aggressive and suspicious on the other. So giving, forgiving, and loyal was he by nature that he appeared to be a man whose virtues were inborn rather than acquired. It is unimaginable that anyone ever felt inferior or superior around him, perhaps as a result of his pleasing sense of humor."
--Marcus Aurelius, "Emperor's Handbook"

"Only when you seek the truth within will you find the love you can never lose."

--Byron Katie, A Thousand Names For Joy

"No man is a failure who has friends."

--It's A Wonderful Life

A journal on life's amusing ironies