Certainty is inversely proportional to knowledge.
All in Notes from the Abyss
Day 554: It's Nothing Personal, Just Your Self
‘Talk as much philosophy as you please, worship as many gods as you like, observe all ceremonies, sing devoted praises to any number of divine beings—liberation never comes, even at the end of a hundred aeons, without the realization of the Oneness of Self.’ Shankara
Day 553: Love, Death, and Long Periods of Confusion
‘We can only love what we know, and we can never know completely what we do not love.’ Aldous Huxley
Day 552: We're All Fellow Travelers
‘This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.’ Terence McKenna
Day 551: Buying Bewilderment
‘Reason is like an officer when the King appears; the officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun.’ Rumi
Day 550: Imperfections Are Part of Perfection
‘Do not give your heart to anything else, but to the love of those who are clear joy.’ Rumi
Day 549: Only One Taste
Time devours its own offspring.
Day 548: Exhalation Is (Not) A Metaphor for Dying
‘While we go with the stream, we are unconscious of its rapid course; but when we begin to stem it ever so little, it makes itself felt.’ Fénelon
Day 547: May You Be Happy
‘You can use my soft words
As cushions for your head.’
Hafiz
Day 546: Fear Dissolves in Truth
If you see through fear, see that what you thought was a snake is really a rope, what you imagined was a beast is really a frightened person, you create space for life to sprout new growth, a possibility for change.
Day 545: Dying into One Awareness
‘Nietzsche says that what is important is not the news that God is dead, but the time this news takes to bear fruit.’ Deleuze & Guattari
Day 544: Flipping the Coin of Fate
‘Everything is this act of embracing the present moment, the felt presence of experience, and then moving on to the next felt moment of experience. It’s literally psychological nomadism is what it is.’ Terence McKenna
Day 543: To Live Unclouded by Longing
‘Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.’ Ursula K. Le Guin
Day 542: Procrastination Is an Egg
‘Freedom is not guided by our efforts; it comes from seeing what is true.’ Buddha
Day 541: Occasional Omens
‘At various points in our lives, or on a quest, and for reasons that often remain obscure, we are driven to make decisions which prove with hindsight to be loaded with meaning.’ Sri S. Satchidananda
Day 540: Out of the Fire and into the Frying Pan
‘What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.’ Bukowski
Day 539: Faith or Intuition? (And You Say You Want to Be Alone)
‘Self-being is only real in communication with another self-being.’ Karl Jaspers
Day 538: From the Soul's Point of View
‘I have come to kindle a fire on earth; and what would I rather than that it burnt already.’ Jesus
Day 537: It's Not What You Do, It's How You Do It
‘Can you walk on water? You have done no better than a straw. Can you fly in the air? You have done no better than a bluebottle. Conquer your heart; then you may become somebody.’ Ansari of Herat
Day 536: Some Day I Wish to be Only a Yes-Sayer
‘We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.’ Kurt Vonnegut