Live Beyond Limitation

Here are some of the many breathtaking quotes by authors I study, that put my thoughts into words, and guide me day by day:

Alan Lightman (Probable Impossibilities):

• “There are no external limitations. The only limitation is our own imagination. So, we should take the time to think expansively about who we are and what we want to be.”
• “Infinity is not to be feared. Rather, it is to be embraced. We are a part of it.”
• “The cosmos will grind on for eternity long after we’re gone, cold and unobserved. But for these few powers of ten, we have seen, we have felt, we have lived.”

Diane Ackerman (An Alchemy of Mind):

• “The art of the brain is to transcend those daunting limitations and canvass the world.”
• “It is our task to imprint this temporary, perishable earth into ourselves so deeply, so painfully and passionately, that its essence can rise again… we are the bees of the invisible… [Our work is] the continual conversion of the beloved visible and tangible world into the invisible vibrations and agitation of our own nature.”
• “No time is more alive than the intimate now, where truths are eternal.” (aka, my senior quote…)
• (Spirituality provides) a “powerful sense of belonging to the pervasive mystery of nature, of being finite in the face of the infinite, of feeling bent by powerful and unseen forces, which we worshipped.”
• “The sweetest memories arrive unbidden, as gifts given, like flying fish leaping into the sunlight for a moment before plunging back into the dark, churning sea of the unconscious.”

Viktor E. Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning)

• “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”
• “Considers man a being whose main concern consists in fulfilling a meaning rather than in the mere gratification and satisfaction of drives and instincts, or in merely reconciling the conflicting claims of id, ego and superego, or in the mere adaptation and adjustment to society and environment.”
• “Everyones task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.”
• “… in no way is suffering necessary to find meaning. I only insist that meaning is possible in spite of suffering – provided, certainly, that the suffering is unavoidable. If it were avoidable, however, the meaningful thing to do would be to remove its cause… to suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.”

Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now)

• “The light is too painful for someone who wants to remain in darkness.”
• “Silence and space are two aspects of the same thing, the same no-thing. They are an externalization of inner space and inner silence, which is stillness: the infinitely creative womb of all existence.”
• “The outer purpose belongs to the horizontal dimension of space and time; the inner purpose concerns a deepening of your Being in the vertical dimension of the timeless Now… Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now.”
• “You can use a challenge to awaken you, or you can allow it to pull you into an even deeper sleep.”
• “The mind unconsciously loves problems because they give you an identity of sorts. This is normal, and it is insane.”

Yung Pueblo (Clarity & Connection and Inward)

• “I spent years unaware that I was running from myself, always seeking company or entertainment so that I would not have to face the dark clouds storming inside of me. Every moment was an opportunity for diversion, friendships were a means of escape, pleasure a temporary relief of pain. I did not notice that my relationships were shallow because of how far away I was from myself, I did not understand why solitude felt unbearable and why “fun” could not permanently settle turbulent emotions… for far too long I was unaware that the only way for life to improve, for my relationships to feel rich and for my mind to finally experience ease was for me to explore and embrace the anxious unknown that dwelled within.”
• “Taking a moment to figure out how you really feel instead of letting old patterns decide for you is one of the most authentic things you can do.”
• “Make deep connections, not deep attachments.”
• “Letting go doesn’t mean forgetting; it means we stop carrying the energy of the past into the present.”

Carlo Rovelli (The Order of Time)

• “Every day countless people die, and yet those who remain live as if they were immortals.”
• “In the end, every attempt to impose order leaves something outside the frame.”
• “And it seems to me that life, this brief life, is nothing other than this: the incessant cry of these emotions that drive us, that we sometimes attempt to channel in the name of god, a political faith, in a ritual that reassures us that, fundamentally, everything is in order, in a great and boundless love – and the cry is beautiful. Sometimes it is a cry of pain. Sometimes it is a song.”
• “It isn’t absence that causes sorrow. It is affection and love. Without affection, without love, such absences would cause us no pain. For this reason, even the pain caused by absence is, in the end, something good and even beautiful, because it feeds on that which gives meaning to life.”

“The whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature… what is man in the infinite?… [Man] is equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which he was made, and the Infinite in which he is swallowed up.” (Blaise Pascal)