Aphorisms of the Ages

There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.

-John Lennon

We may liken truth to a mountain, and the various interpretations of that truth to different paths leading up to the summit. Many people are traveling along all of these paths and every one, while he is at the bottom, thinks his path is the only one; he sees only a small part of the mountain, and may therefore be justified in crying to his brothers, “You are wrong! Come over to my path; this is the only one that leads to the top.” But as all these people progress upward, they will see that the paths converge at the top and that they are all one in the ultimate.

-Max Heindel

Do not believe anything
because it is said by an authority,
or if it is said to come from angels,
or from Gods,
or from an inspired source.

Believe it only if you have explored it
in your own heart
and mind and body
and found it to be true.

Work out your own path,
through diligence.

-Gautama Buddha

When you find the way
Others will find you
Passing by on the road
They will be drawn to your door
The way that cannot be heard
will be reflected in your voice
The way that cannot be seen
Will be reflected in your eyes

-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

How people see the world is often a reflection of how they see themselves. If they think that the world is just a cesspool of lies and deceit, then they themselves may be full of lies and deceit. Watch out for those people who are always telling you just how corrupt the rest of the world is. As the saying goes, “It takes one to know one.”

-David J. Lieberman, Never be Lied to Again

Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivized consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviors are acceptable.

-Terence McKenna

All the forms of Life in the Universe may be looked upon as being manifestations of the One and Universal Principle of Life in various forms; the whole of the Cosmos, being a product of the Universal Mind, may be regarded as universal, absolute consciousness becoming relative in separate forms. The universal consciousness of the Universal Mind forms spiritual centres of consciousness in living beings, whereby each being may feel and know its surroundings; and as the kind of living beings expands, their consciousness and power of sensation and perception expand with it; for all their powers belong to the mind. and not to tbe body: the latter without the mind is merely a form without life.

-Franz Hartmann

“Life is what you make it,” this is very true.
Find beauty and magic in all things,
and the Love that sees you through.
When you look at the world where you live,
seek not your gain, but what you can give.
When a man is poor, and hungers, and thirsts,
serve not yourself til you serve this man first.
When a man is down and seeks shelter from cold, give him shelter.
You’ll receive blessings untold.
Live by the Golden Rule:
Do unto others as you’d have done unto you.
And always remember:
When you destroy, you destroy a part of you, too.
Life is what you make of it!

-Unknown

The Optical Delusion of Consciousness

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the “universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few people near us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

— Albert Einstein

What Gives?

The paradox of our time in this generation is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers; faster internet but less attention span; wider freeways but narrower viewpoints. We spend more but have less; we consume more but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences but less time. We have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgment; more experts but more problems; more medicine yet still, less world wellness.

What gives?

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, stay up too late, wake up too tired, feel too lifeless, suck the life out of others, repeat it over and over, the vicious cycle continues. We eat our emotion, drink our pain and smoke our troubles away. We run away from our fear and cut down our insecurities in the mirror. We have become more socially connected to each other but somehow lost the connection with ourselves.

What gives?

We’ve learned how to make a living but not a life. We’ve added years to our life unfortunately not life to our years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back but have trouble crossing the street to meet a neighbor. We conquered outer space but have yet to crack our inner space. We’ve done a lot of large things but somehow forget about all of the small things.

What gives?

We’ve cleaned up the air but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom but not our prejudice. We write more but learn less. We plan more but accomplish less. We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We have cut our commitments in half but doubled our excuses. We rush through life but forget to enjoy the process. We will openly and honestly give our opinions on others but refuse to take constructive advice for ourselves. We look inside the box for questions and then forget to look outside the box for answers. We spend more time on Facebook and less time with actual Faces. We update our personal status hourly but digress our personal evolution yearly.

What gives?

These are the times of fast food and slow digestion; big men and small character; steep profits and shallow relationships. We are in the days of dual incomes and doubled divorces; fancier houses and broken homes. These are the days of quick trips, disposable coffee cups, one hit fixes, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight or to just hit delete.

What gives?

**This was originally written by Dr. Bob Morehead, but has been altered slightly more than once while bouncing around on the internet since 1998**

What is Inspiration?