this_alec

“Dogs have an exaggerated, ebullient, perhaps even excessive capacity to form affectionate relationships with members of other species. This capacity is so great that, if we saw it in one of our own kind, we would consider it quite strange—pathological, even. In my scientific writing, where I am obliged to use technical language, I call this abnormal behavior hypersociability. But as a dog lover who cares deeply about animals and their welfare, I see absolutely no reason we shouldn’t just call it love.”
― Clive D.L. Wynne, Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You

“There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering that leads to more suffering and the suffering that leads to the end of suffering. If you are not willing to face the second kind of suffering, you will surely continue to experience the first. —Ajahn Chah”
― David Chernikoff, Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age

“My body and my psychological states are constantly changing, like the oil and lamps that support the flames. But, like those flames and those lamps, they constitute a causal sequence with a common function. And we have a convention of calling distinct members of such sequences by the same name. So, in one obvious sense, I am not identical to the person called by my name yesterday. We are alike, causally related, but numerically distinct. In another sense, though, we are the same person. We share a name, many properties, a causal history, and a social role; and that, while not involving a self, is enough.”
― Jay L. Garfield, Losing Ourselves: Learning to Live without a Self

“If we truly want to live fully and love well during our limited time on earth, we must recognize the fact that the suffering of turning away from reality is ultimately greater than the suffering of surrendering to what is.”
― David Chernikoff, Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age