“You have each come at the appointed time by invitation to undergo tests of your skills and your talent, your creativity, your thought processes, and, most importantly, the testing of yourself. What are your limits? How far can you push beyond those limits? What are your flaws? How might those flaws impede your abilities ? Uncomfortable questions, but questions we each must answer, for only when we know ourselves— faults and strengths alike— will we have access to the full potential that is within us.”
Weis, Margaret (2011-10-11). The Soulforge: The Raistlin Chronicles, Volume One (p. 364). Wizards of the Coast Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Quote from "The Soulforge"
"You cannot hide from danger. Death floats on the air, creeps through the window, comes with the handshake of a stranger. If we stop living because we fear death, then we have already died."
Weis, Margaret (2011-10-11). The Soulforge: The Raistlin Chronicles, Volume One (p. 336). Wizards of the Coast Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Weis, Margaret (2011-10-11). The Soulforge: The Raistlin Chronicles, Volume One (p. 336). Wizards of the Coast Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
"The Pain of Being Human" (from "Turning Pro")
Today's bit of wisdom from Steven Pressfield's Turning Pro:
"The Gnostics believed that exile was the essential condition of man. Do you agree? I do.
The artist and the addict both wrestle with this experience of exile. They share an acute, even excruciating sensitivity to the state of separation and isolation, and both actively seek a way to overcome it, to transcend it, or at least to make the pain go away.
What is the pain of being human? It's the condition of being suspended between two worlds and being unable to fully enter into either.
As mortal flesh, you and I cannot ascend to the upper realm. That sphere belongs to the gods. But we can't put it out of our minds either. We can't escape intimations and half-memories of... what? Some prior sojourn, before birth perhaps, among the immortals or the stars.
Our lot, instead, is to dwell here in the lower realm, the sphere of the temporal and the material — the time-bound dimension of instincts and animal passions, of hate and desire, aspiration and fear.
You and I are called to the upper realm (and it is calling to us), but we're having a pretty good time (sometimes ) down here in the sphere of the senses. Bottom line: we're marooned in the middle, stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again."
Pressfield, Steven (2012-05-30). Turning Pro (p. 45). Black Irish Books. Kindle Edition.
"The Gnostics believed that exile was the essential condition of man. Do you agree? I do.
The artist and the addict both wrestle with this experience of exile. They share an acute, even excruciating sensitivity to the state of separation and isolation, and both actively seek a way to overcome it, to transcend it, or at least to make the pain go away.
What is the pain of being human? It's the condition of being suspended between two worlds and being unable to fully enter into either.
As mortal flesh, you and I cannot ascend to the upper realm. That sphere belongs to the gods. But we can't put it out of our minds either. We can't escape intimations and half-memories of... what? Some prior sojourn, before birth perhaps, among the immortals or the stars.
Our lot, instead, is to dwell here in the lower realm, the sphere of the temporal and the material — the time-bound dimension of instincts and animal passions, of hate and desire, aspiration and fear.
You and I are called to the upper realm (and it is calling to us), but we're having a pretty good time (sometimes ) down here in the sphere of the senses. Bottom line: we're marooned in the middle, stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again."
Pressfield, Steven (2012-05-30). Turning Pro (p. 45). Black Irish Books. Kindle Edition.
Monday, October 21, 2013
On Habits, Part 2 - from "Turning Pro"
Steven Pressfield gives us a pretty clear vision of what it means when you fall into bad habits instead of building positive ones. When one gives in to Resistance, "addiction replaces aspiration" . . . and one's calling is lost:
"The pre-addictive individual — i.e., you and I when we're young — experiences a calling. To art, to service, to honorable sacrifice. In other words, we experience positive aspiration. A vision of the higher, realized self we might become. The intimation of this calling is followed immediately by the apparition of Resistance.
Fear.
Self-doubt.
Self-sabotage.
What makes this moment so soul-precarious is that most of us are unconscious, in the event, of both our aspirations and our Resistance. We're asleep. We know only that something is wrong and we don't know how to fix it. We're restless. We're bored. We're angry. We burn to accomplish something great, but we don't know where to begin and, even if we did, we 'd be so terrified that we still couldn't take a step. Enter: a drink, a lover, a habit. Addiction replaces aspiration. The quick fix wins out over the long, slow haul."
Pressfield, Steven (2012-05-30). Turning Pro (p. 25). Black Irish Books. Kindle Edition.
"The pre-addictive individual — i.e., you and I when we're young — experiences a calling. To art, to service, to honorable sacrifice. In other words, we experience positive aspiration. A vision of the higher, realized self we might become. The intimation of this calling is followed immediately by the apparition of Resistance.
Fear.
Self-doubt.
Self-sabotage.
What makes this moment so soul-precarious is that most of us are unconscious, in the event, of both our aspirations and our Resistance. We're asleep. We know only that something is wrong and we don't know how to fix it. We're restless. We're bored. We're angry. We burn to accomplish something great, but we don't know where to begin and, even if we did, we 'd be so terrified that we still couldn't take a step. Enter: a drink, a lover, a habit. Addiction replaces aspiration. The quick fix wins out over the long, slow haul."
Pressfield, Steven (2012-05-30). Turning Pro (p. 25). Black Irish Books. Kindle Edition.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
On Habits, Part 1, from "Turning Pro"
I am trying to get back to reading things that I find spiritually uplifting and blogging about what I am reading. It is a habit I had that I have let fall by the wayside. It is therefore somewhat ironic, I suppose, that my first such post in a long while is about habits, from Steven Pressfield's Turning Pro:
"We can never free ourselves from habits. The human being is a creature of habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones. We can trade in the habits of the amateur and the addict for the practice of the professional and the committed artist or entrepreneur."
Pressfield, Steven (2012-05-30). Turning Pro (Kindle Locations 301-303). Black Irish Books. Kindle Edition.
"We can never free ourselves from habits. The human being is a creature of habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones. We can trade in the habits of the amateur and the addict for the practice of the professional and the committed artist or entrepreneur."
Pressfield, Steven (2012-05-30). Turning Pro (Kindle Locations 301-303). Black Irish Books. Kindle Edition.
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