Holly

“When have you felt really strong yourself? What was that experience like—in your body, your emotions, and your thoughts? Strength is often quiet, receptive determination rather than chest-thumping pushiness. One of the strongest people I’ve ever known was my mother, who just kept taking care of her family no matter what.”
― Rick Hanson, Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

“While there’s certainly a place for healthy passion and for strong stands against things that are harmful, most of the time we’re just overheated—caught up with some carrot or struggling with some stick. Then we feel driven, rattled, stressed, irritated, anxious, or blue. Definitely not happy. We need to lower the flames.”
― Rick Hanson, Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

“62. O Zeus, our Father! Thou would’st deliver men from all the evils that oppress them 63. If thou wouldst show them the daimon of whom they make use. 64. But take courage; the race of man is divine.”
― Pythagoras, The Pythagorean Golden Verses & Hierocles' Commentary: An Ancient Handbook of Mystic Philosophy

“Start practicing contemplation and watch how this spiritual exercise makes a difference in your life. When contemplation is genuine, it’s nothing but a sudden impulse coming out of nowhere and flying up to God like a spark from a burning coal.8 It’s awesome to count how many times your soul stirs like that in an hour, but, of these, you may only have one instance when you suddenly realize you’ve completely forgotten every attachment you have on earth. You’ll also notice that, because of our human frailty, each impulse rising to God immediately falls to earth in the form of a thought about something you’ve done or something that is still on your list to do. But so what? Right after that, it rises up again as fast as it did before.”
― Anonymous, The Cloud of Unknowing with the Book of Privy Counsel: A New Translation