oliver jeffers

 

I believe that

the universe is one being,

all its parts are different expressions of

the same energy, and they are all in communication

with each other, influencing each other, therefore

parts of one organic whole. This is

physics, I believe, as well as

religion.

 

The parts

change and pass, or die,

people and races and rocks and stars,

none of them seems to me important in itself,

but only the whole. This whole is in all its parts so beautiful,

and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled

to love it, and to think of it as divine. It seems to me that this

whole alone is worthy of the deeper sort of love;

and that here is peace, freedom,

I might say a kind of

salvation.

 

I think that

one may contribute (ever so slightly)

to the beauty of things by making one’s own life

and environment beautiful, so far as one’s power reaches.

This includes moral beauty, one of the qualities

of humanity, though it seems not to

appear elsewhere in the

universe. 

 

Robinson Jeffers

 

hevrin khalaf, may she rest in peace

 

There is

only one way to strive for

decency, reason, responsibility,

sincerity, civility, and tolerance, and

that is decently, reasonably,

sincerely, civilly, and

tolerantly.

 

Václav Havel

 

 

What is

needed for dramatic change

is an accumulation of acts…We know that it

does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and

peace, but only a small, determined group

who will not give up during

the first, second, or

hundredth

gale.

 

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

 

 

True

understanding in

a person has two attributes:

awareness and action. Together they

form  a natural tai chi. Who can enjoy

enlightenment and remain

indifferent to suffering

in the world?

 

This is not

in keeping with the Way.

Only those who increase their service

along with their understanding

can be called men and

women of Tao.

 

from Hua hu Ching, Chapter 53

 

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Utopians

are often especially

sensitive to the evils of the world

and, craving certainty, purity, and completeness,

firmly reject the evils as totally as possible, wishing to avoid

any compromises with them. Instead, utopians assert an

alternative vision of the world which they would like

to come into being. Their visionary belief may be

labeled “religious” or “political”—

it matters little for this

discussion.

 

They await

a “new world” which is

to come into being by an act of God,

a change in the human spirit, by autonomous

changes in economic conditions, or by a deep spontaneous

social upheaval—all beyond deliberate human control. These

believers are primarily concerned with espousing the “true”

understanding of the evil and the principles by which

people should live, gaining converts, living with the

least possible compromise until the great change

arrives. They may deliberately seek to establish

ways of living and communities which

exemplify their principles and which

may inspire others to do

likewise.⁹³

 

The most

serious weakness of

this response to the problem

of this world is not the broad vision,

or the commitment of the people who believe

in it. The weakness is that these believers have

no effective way to reach the society of their dreams.

Condemnation of social evil, espousal of an alternative

order of life, a deep personal commitment, and an effort

to live according to it, are all good and necessary, but

unfortunately alone they do not transform human

society and institutions. To do that, an instrumen-

tally effective program of achievable steps for

dealing with the evils of existing society

and for creating an improved

social order is

required.⁹⁴

 

Gene Sharp