“And as he looked, turning the leaf over and back, Aethon saw that the cities on both sides of the page, the dark ones and the bright ones, were one and the same, that there is no peace without war, no life without death, and he was afraid.”
― Cloud Cuckoo Land
― Cloud Cuckoo Land
“Stories are compasses and architecture, we navigate by them, we build our sanctuaries and our prisons out of them, and to be without a story is to be lost in the vastness of a world that spreads in all directions like arctic tundra or sea ice.”
― The Faraway Nearby
― The Faraway Nearby
“Fear of death is fear of surrender to Infinity.
Learn to surrender, to exist at Infinity while alive, and fear of death dissolves.
Fear of death is fear of the Unknown.
Realize the Wonder, the Eternal Unknowability of the Totality of Existence, and fear of death is transcended.
If happiness or freedom depends on the Answer to the Question, then there can be no happiness or freedom.
The Question cannot be satisfactorily or finally Answered.
For one who abides at Infinity, happy and free, at ease with his Ultimate Ignorance, the Question and the Answer are equally unnecessary.
What began will come to an end.
What is Wonderful is not threatened.
The Process of the Totality of Existence is Transcendental and Eternal.
Only a fraction of the Whole can pass away in any moment, since only a fraction of the Whole appears in any moment.
Therefore, the Heart Itself is always already Full of Wonder and Love.
"I" is the body-mind, the fraction of the Whole that is now appearing and will soon disappear.
"I" must be surrendered to the Heart, to the Whole, which is Infinity, Wonder, and Love.”
― The Eating Gorilla Comes in Peace: The Transcendental Principle of Life Applied to Diet and the Regenerative Discipline of True Health
Learn to surrender, to exist at Infinity while alive, and fear of death dissolves.
Fear of death is fear of the Unknown.
Realize the Wonder, the Eternal Unknowability of the Totality of Existence, and fear of death is transcended.
If happiness or freedom depends on the Answer to the Question, then there can be no happiness or freedom.
The Question cannot be satisfactorily or finally Answered.
For one who abides at Infinity, happy and free, at ease with his Ultimate Ignorance, the Question and the Answer are equally unnecessary.
What began will come to an end.
What is Wonderful is not threatened.
The Process of the Totality of Existence is Transcendental and Eternal.
Only a fraction of the Whole can pass away in any moment, since only a fraction of the Whole appears in any moment.
Therefore, the Heart Itself is always already Full of Wonder and Love.
"I" is the body-mind, the fraction of the Whole that is now appearing and will soon disappear.
"I" must be surrendered to the Heart, to the Whole, which is Infinity, Wonder, and Love.”
― The Eating Gorilla Comes in Peace: The Transcendental Principle of Life Applied to Diet and the Regenerative Discipline of True Health
“All her life she has been led to believe that she is a child born at the end of things: the empire, the era, the reign of men on earth. But in the glow of the scribes' enthusiasm, she senses that in a city like Urbino, beyond the horizon, other possibilities might exist, and in daydreams she takes flight across the Aegean, through her spread fingers, until she alights in a bright clean palace, full of Justice and Moderation, its rooms lined with books, free to anyone who can read them.”
― Cloud Cuckoo Land
― Cloud Cuckoo Land
“And when a book goes out of the world, the memory dies a second death.”
― Cloud Cuckoo Land
― Cloud Cuckoo Land
Ian’s 2025 Year in Books
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