Vision Quest Quotes

“Time passes regardless of how we use it; we grow old whether we act or procrastinate. A person who is unwilling to work to accomplishing worthy goals and who does not dream of performing great feats will always be mediocre. A courageous soul works conscientiously to accomplish personal goals that benefit other people. I aspire to find the audacity to create a self that I am not ashamed of being and live a humble and worthy life. The seer never wants for anything but an opportunity to learn and rejoice in life. Every day is a proper day to begin or continue a vision quest to attain insight.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster

“Personal essay writing is analogous to undertaking a vision quest, a potential turning point in life taken to discover intimate personal truths, form complex abstract thoughts, and ascertain the intended spiritual direction of a person’s life.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Life’s shrouded crossing seems to jump off with a hunger to take a blood-quickening journey, a desire to search for enchantment over the next hillock. We launch our feral voyage with a primitive pulsation to explore unknown lands and a desire to become acquainted with both village people and sophisticated ancient civilizations. Along the way, we will meet friends and foes. In our lightest moments, we will make love to a beautiful mate under a canopy of stars. In the darkest hours, we will fret about how to evade danger and scheme how best to conquer our enemies. The rainbow of experiences that we endure will undoubtedly bemuse, bruise, batter, and occasionally sully us. These hard on the hide shards of experience will also reveal our polychromatous character. By undertaking vivid encounters in the wilderness, with any luck, we will discover a numinous interior world. With immersion into a myriad of life shaping experiences, an undeterred person will stumble onto a path leading to personal illumination. The passage of liberation that a crusader must inevitably endure leads to a shocking psychological transformation, a spiritual overhaul allowing the seeker to finally overcome infantile images and febrile delusions that would otherwise continue to derail their fervent urge to forge an emergent personality, acquire wisdom, and attain bliss.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“None of us can discover personal bliss by blindly following the footsteps of other people. We must dare to be originals for we have only one life to live. Living a life that placates other people is fool’s gold.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“In certain ancient civilizations and indigenous cultures there was often a process of initiation that young people would go through before they became adults. In some Native American traditions, for example, the initiate would be put out into the wilderness without any food or any other provisions for survival. He would have to rely on the Universe and his own soul. During the experience, the initiate would fast. He would experience himself confronting the Universe alone. He would be out there for a number of days. This would open up the initiate to a direct experience of something beyond the usual egoic mind and all of its concerns. The initiate would be thrust into an experience that would take him beyond his small, limited self. Such a process existed in our own Tradition going back to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. What was Muhammad doing in a cave when the first revelations of the Qur‘an began if not going through what Native Americans would call a „Vision Quest“? He received direct revelation and inspiration through this practice. (p. 12)”
― Kabir Helminski, In the House of Remembering: The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching

“A journey into the unknown territory of the mind is fraught with confusion and anxiety. I cannot afford delaying embarking on a quintessential mission to discover a reason to endure the heartache and tragedy that inevitably comes with living an all too human existence.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“General propositions – universal laws governing human thinking and human existence – leave room for many individualistic permutations. How shall I survive the specter of tomorrow, what is my life plan, and how will I come to terms with the finite lives of all humankind? How do I heal seeping internal wounds that lacerations weaken personal resolve? A person whom avoids seeking fame and fortune and engages in contemplative thought will enjoy a heightened state of existence. My survival hinges upon shedding the shackles of modern time’s economic rigors; seeking penance through heartfelt contrition; accepting a vision quest devoid of wanting; rejoicing in my budding curiosity; loving nature; giving breath to living without fear and apprehension; and eliminating any form of want or angst from my cerebral being. Unshackling myself from the burdens of the past – guilt, remorse, anger, and petty resentments – is part of the healing process. The other part of a rehabilitation prescription is declaring free rein to live in the present one moment at a time. After all, humankind is the only member of the animal kingdom that walks this earth with the foreknowledge of its ultimate demise, but why would any person allow information pertaining to our personal fate ruin a perfectly good walk in nature’s woodlands with our fellow creatures?”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Allow your inner artist to develop through the conscientious application of passion, personal resources, and natural inquisitiveness. Devote your life’s work to giving light to your virtuous ideas and accomplishing deeds worthy of entering Elysium Fields. While performing elemental labor to meet the biological necessities that secure survival, remember that devotion to public services, performing acts of kindness, and engagement in artistic creations is what makes us human. Art has a more profound impact upon civilization than all the standing armies in the world. Art expresses our humanity while warring reveals our inhumanity.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“My Beloved

Grateful for you and me
for parallel universes and for
I, we and thee

I am grateful for the infinite skies
blessings in disguise
burning infinite grace
for which I need not even chase

Blessings that are blessed
Mother Earth, Father Sky
two and four-legged
winged ones
Bless you
Bless me
fly with me and
fly within me

For now I see
it is you, within me.”
― Ulonda Faye, Sutras of the Heart: Spiritual Poetry to Nourish the Soul

“Life is an ongoing journey where the intrepid traveler explores as many tributaries in the river of life as possible. Living consists of probing for the headwaters leading to shimmering effervescence, which exploratory promises to explain the contours in a person’s passage. We each seek to map the miles logged alongside the muddy embankment that spawns our origin, annals our journey, and cradles our crypts. A hearty and weary traveler alike registers, indexes, interprets, and reinterprets their interweaved encounters with a world suffused with good and evil, imbued with love and hate, saturated with greed and evil, laced with acts of unbelievable tenderness, and consecrated with the lifeblood of our ancestors.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Our genetic map makes us human. Our physical and emotional genomes establish the baseline for us to operate. When we strike out in the world, we seek out vivid encounters with other people and nature that speak loudest to ourselves. What we make of our brilliant experiences modulates who we become. The way we think, feel, and express emotions enables us to personalize our experiences.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“I haughtily dismissed the principles sponsored by philosophers, religious leaders, and the ideas of poets in exchange for seeking financial stability and shallow happiness. I imported into my conceited consciousness the values of a freewheeling American society, a culture that fawns on rich and famous celebrities, applauds fantastic risk-taking, and promotes a permissive lifestyle. I lack serious ambition – romantic or practical – to achieve any intellectual or spiritual worthwhile accomplishments. Decrepit and friendless, I am so lost that I do not even know what bellwether I seek. I went astray by callously disrespecting the life sustaining lessons handed down by our ancestors. Only by stripping myself of the rank costume cloaking personal shame, a remorseful suit of motley skin that I stitched together by living a selfishly tailored life, can embark on a journey to discover a better way to live.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“I seek to examine all factoids that led to personal despair by undertaking an Odyssey-like journey of the mind. I shall attempt to draw from the knowledge gleaned from all sources, and strictly examine crucial events of personal history not to rediscover what I already know, but to examine reminiscent occurrences under a new light of heightened consciousness, and in doing so rewrite my history and pen an enlightened future. Perhaps with resolute effort, I can recast a benighted nightmare into a bounteous prospect for joyful and a meaningful existence. I must undertake an arduous cognitive journey to discover what elusive substance provides purposefulness to living.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Another night, under the moonlight, she speaks to me. The language appears to me- as a dream in a dream. Asked to carry forth with a vision, a great path is presented. The waters to get there are not easy. I navigate, I asked and I doubt. 'Oh, but I must doubt the doubt, just as our great Maharishi had said.' She says, 'you are in the water, flow- swim through it and soon, yes very soon, you shall be freedom horse and you will meet the great wise tree.'

I continue feeling strong, growing in courage, I navigate the waters. I turn around to see- Oh, my journey Soul and friend is there- A little behind; yet, navigating as I am. Can I do it? Images of things and people- once known, situations once scorned. I float past deeper into the vast. I reach the edge of a great cliff- great glowing waters appear- I jump. No thoughts are there. I fall into the depths of the waters. What if I don't resurface? Will I have air to breathe?

I appear above it all. To my right is the grandest of trees. So strong, yet so soft and tender- I rest.

Looking back to everything else- to the Soul waiting above at the water's edge I cry out, 'jump'. Silence.

The journey must continue. The path is clear. The doubts have faded. The Soul is healed. My guides and ancestors ride with me as I am now freedom horse. The call is answered. The tribe awaits. We dance upon the water.”
― Ulonda Faye, Sutras of the Heart: Spiritual Poetry to Nourish the Soul

“I’m fiercely protective of my freedom. My attitude is that people can love it or shove it. They can show love or shove off. They can get with it or get lost. I’m not gonna stop loving my life to the fullest because you’ve caged yourself into living, thinking and feeling small! My mind is expansive and I’m giving my all to follow this deep call of pursuing my vision quest to explore and express every area of life that propels me to progress and evolve!”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones