# 📓 Journal My daily log, newest first. Each day holds what I wrote (**✍️ Entries**) and the quotes I collected on Readwise that day (**📖 Quotes**, with my notes). Every entry and quote links to its author and book. > [!info] How this page grows > - **Entries** arrive from my Quick Entry project and are filed under the date I wrote them; the author, book or subject notes they mention get a backlink too. > - **Quotes** are pulled from Readwise nightly at 11:59 pm and filed under the date I highlighted them. The full collection, sorted by author, lives in [[Quotes]]. --- ## September 2026 ### Wednesday, 30 September 2026 #### ✍️ Entries - **17:59** — Ahhh... so that's why [[Kingdom of the Air|realm of demons]] is called the middle ground or the middle realm - **16:30** — [[The Demonic Conspiracy|1:04:15]] They correspond to the [[Empedocles' Four Elements|four elements]] too. So ether is related to fire, thus the gods inhabit the realm of fire. Demons realm of air/wind. Humans and beasts earth. And other creatures water. - **16:27** — [[The Demonic Conspiracy|1:03:00]] Demons have [[Kingdom of the Air|aerial bodies]], and gods have ethereal bodies. And the god of gods is the only possible being to be bodiless. Ethereal is lighter than air. - **16:24** — [[The Demonic Conspiracy|1:01:30]] [[Augustine]] uses gods and angels interchangeably. Gods are good. Demons are bad. There's a distinction of moral quality. Demons love to be entertained by poetry and plays, but these pleasures are far removed from the gods. - **16:05** — [[The Demonic Conspiracy|59:54]] [[Augustine]] is quoted explaining that god resides in the highest realm which is heaven, humans in the lowliest realm which is the earth, and demons in the middle, which is [[Kingdom of the Air|the air]] - **11:36** — My bad. The metaphysics in [[The Great Divorce - Lewis|The Great Divorce]] runs the other way around, and is more likely coming from, I suspect, the [[Privation Theory of Evil|privation theory of evil]]. The heavenly realm is the real and the solid, and evil is the lack or deprivation of such realness aka goodness. - **11:32** — [[The Demonic Conspiracy|20:00]] our earthly region is described with the attribute of "grossness" which, in Greek, meant "thickness." The earth is thought of as thick and heavy, and the heaven light. Thick and heavy means more body, and light means less of that and more of spirit. The only truly bodiless "things" are the holy trinity. Everything else is embodied to varying degrees. Demons are characterized often by their gluttony and lust, making them attain more weight and more body. This language is seen employed in the [[C. S. Lewis]]' metaphysics in [[The Great Divorce - Lewis|The Great Divorce]], where the closer to heaven one is the harder it is to move due to our weighty bodies, as well as the beings from heaven being more spirit and less body than those who came from hell. - **11:14** — 12:56 of [[The Demonic Conspiracy|Demonological History EP 02]], [[Origen]] is quoted describing demons falling from the heavens onto our airy realm. In other words, this is the same symbolic language used in calling Satan the [[Kingdom of the Air|ruler of the kingdom of the air]]. I shall wait and see how this connects with the "[[Epistle of First Thessalonians|caught up in the air]]" of the often cited [[Rapture|rapture passage]]. ### Saturday, 26 September 2026 #### ✍️ Entries - Visited Riwayat bookstore, which is a nicely curated boutique bookstore with a lot of books on Malaysian history, Malay history, and Southeast Asian history. That was such a nice place, and Ash was lovely to talk to. I picked up two books — collection of papers from [[Straits Philosophical Society]], and a book of [[Malay Divination and Magic]]. Both of those were eye openers to me. The Philosophical Society was a closed door society of colonial elites only open to people educated in Europe. Technically, that's philosophy (as done in academia) done on this land. Didn't know that existed! [[Malay Divination and Magic]] manuscripts are relevant to my current study of [[The Demonological History of the World|History of Magic and Demonology]] from the [[Jonathan Pageau|Symbolic World]]. Can't wait to dig into them! #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[What Is Called Thinking - Heidegger|What Is Called Thinking?]] · [[Heidegger]] · p. 31 > Only after we have let ourselves become involved with the mysterious and gracious things as those which properly give food for thought, only then can we take thought also of how we should regard the malice of evil. > %% rw:1058142052 %% > [!quote] [[What Is Called Thinking - Heidegger|What Is Called Thinking?]] · [[Heidegger]] · p. 19 > The beautiful is not what pleases, but what falls within that fateful gift of truth which comes to be when that which is eternally non-apparent and therefore invisible attains its most radiantly apparent appearance. > %% rw:1058084651 %% ### Tuesday, 8 September 2026 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 216 > The problem of evil is thus the problem of evil itself.³ It's a problem humankind brought on itself by creating ideals that put life in the wrong. > %% rw:1052146660 %% ### Monday, 7 September 2026 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 212 > Nietzsche thought the judgment that life is worthless revealed more about the judges than about life itself. Perhaps all the sages were decadents, old men too weak for life and literally sick of it? If so, they sought revenge. By positing a world beyond this one, they spoiled this one for the rest of us. "Why not a Beyond if not as a means of befouling the Here-and-Now?" (ibid.). Those who condemn this world just reflect their own impotence. The sage's response is nothing if not clever: it's a cosmic version of the fox's decision that the grapes were sour. > %% rw:1052134685 %% --- ## July 2026 ### Friday, 17 July 2026 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Symbolism of Evil - Ricœur|The Symbolism of Evil]] · [[Paul Ricœur]] · p. 6 > It is, in fact, because evil is supremely the crucial experience of the sacred that the threat of the dissolution of the bond between man and the sacred makes us most intensely aware of man's dependence on the powers of the sacred. Therefore the myth of "crisis" is at the same time the myth of "totality": in recounting how these things began and how they will end, the myth places the experience of man in a whole that receives orientation and meaning from the narration. Thus, an understanding of human reality as a whole operates through the myth by means of a reminiscence and an expectation. > %% rw:1034903867 %% --- ## April 2026 ### Thursday, 23 April 2026 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · p. 33 > Only he who abides in love can recognise love, and in the same way his love is to be known. > > **My note:** Harper Perennial > %% rw:1009020104 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · p. 32 > [O]ne must believe in love; otherwise one will never become aware that it exists… believe in love! This is the first and last thing to be said about love if one is to know what love is. > > **My note:** Harper Perennial > %% rw:1009020068 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · p. 32 > There is only one whom a human being should fear—that is God; and there is only one a man should be afraid of—that is himself. > > **My note:** Harper Perennial > %% rw:1009020012 %% ### Saturday, 18 April 2026 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > People try to persuade us that the objections against Christianity spring from doubt. That is a complete misunderstanding. The objections against Christianity spring from insubordination, the dislike of obedience, rebellion against all authority. As a result people have hitherto been beating the air in their struggle against objections, because they have fought intellectually with doubt instead of fighting morally with rebellion. > > **My note:** In the translator notes. > %% rw:1007323646 %% --- ## March 2026 ### Friday, 13 March 2026 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[I See Satan Fall Like Lightning]] · [[René Girard]] · p. 125 > Only the Resurrection, because it enlightens the disciples, reveals completely the things hidden since the foundation of the world, which are the same thing as the secret of Satan, never disclosed since the origin of human culture: the founding murder and the origin of human culture. > %% rw:996014067 %% --- ## January 2026 ### Tuesday, 6 January 2026 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 114 > The wish to displace God that is contained in every attempt to re-create the world is the very essence of the sin of pride. It's pride that can lead to rebellion caused by the contemplation of all the evil in Creation > %% rw:974405284 %% --- ## December 2025 ### Monday, 15 December 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 109 > Giving meaning to the past and hope to the future is the task of any ground on which religion and philosophy meet. > %% rw:966745984 %% > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 108 > Labor distinguishes us from animals, making us the creative beings we projected onto the heavens. While some animals can make particular products at random, only humans produce their own means of production. This is the source of our ability to replace the God we invented. > %% rw:966743981 %% ### Wednesday, 10 December 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 105 > Both religion and philosophy can give meaning to suffering by distinguishing natural from moral evils and dividing responsibility accordingly. > %% rw:965297805 %% > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 105 > Meaningless suffering is unacceptable, so both philosophy and religion go to work to give it meaning. > %% rw:965297587 %% > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 103 > Marx made it easier by leaving the best summary of his own approach to the problem of evil. "Philosophers have hitherto interpreted the world. The point, however, is to change it." > %% rw:965288006 %% --- ## November 2025 ### Saturday, 29 November 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 69 > Solving the problem of evil is not only impossible but immoral. For knowing the connections between moral and natural evils would undermine the possibility of morality. > %% rw:961838920 %% > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 68 > The best of all possible worlds is not a world we could live in, for the very notion of human freedom depends on limitation. > > **My note:** Moral transparency means better behavior but poorer morals > %% rw:961838849 %% > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 68 > A morally transparent world would preclude the possibility of morality. > > **My note:** There is no possibility of good without possibility of evil. > %% rw:961838767 %% > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 66 > Kant thought all moral action has one goal: to realize a world in which happiness and virtue are systematically connected. Every time we act rightly, we are acting to bring the world closer to this ideal. The knowledge that we often fail, and that the world fails to work with us, may lead to despair only faith can heal. In Kant's view we must believe that all our efforts to be virtuous will be completed by a Being who controls the natural world in ways we do not. We have no evidence that such a Being exists. But only such a Being could provide the systematic links between happiness and virtue that reason demands. Reason needs such belief in order to maintain its commitments: to waking up ever again, through half-success and failure, to continue the struggle to create another world. > > **My note:** Kant argues that Leibniz’s best world is not a fact, but a necessary belief, and the object of faith. > %% rw:961838583 %% > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 65 > What do you mean when you say: that should not have happened? Kant says you mean that happiness and virtue should be systematically connected, and the connection should be causal. > %% rw:961834212 %% ### Friday, 28 November 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 55 > Rousseau needed a solution to the question left open by Augustine: how can free will lead to the moral evil that causes natural suffering? > %% rw:961615960 %% ### Thursday, 27 November 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 47 > Evil brings its own misery in big things and small. Rousseau discussed how to punish children, should they need it, in book 2 of Emile. > > He insisted that punishment should follow intrinsically from wrongdoing and should not be experienced as a product of the authority's will. > > For children, he argues, accept natural evils as necessary. What they reject are attempts by other human beings to impose things on them. > > These will always be experienced as arbitrary, hence resented as evils-even if carried out for the child's own good. > %% rw:961331744 %% ### Wednesday, 26 November 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 33 > Poetry itself never seeks the kinds of judgments of meaning and morals that Pope often intended. But philosophy alone is too straightforward, too unambiguous to do justice to the complexity Pope saw in the human condition. Poetry has a wider range of responses than those open to philosophy, mixing tones, changing mood and mode, shifting from the somber to the ironic without looking for grounds. > %% rw:960971760 %% --- ## October 2025 ### Monday, 13 October 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · p. 7 > The way of the unconscious is different. Symbols gather round the thing to be explained, understood, interpreted. The act of becoming conscious consists in the concentric grouping of symbols around the object, all circumscribing and describing the unknown from many sides. > %% rw:947487285 %% ### Friday, 10 October 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] > The rediscovery of the human and cultural strata from which these symbols derive is in the original sense of the word "bildend"-"informing." Consciousness thus acquires images (Bilder) and education (Bildung), widens its horizon, and charges itself with contents which constellate a new psychic potential. New problems appear, but also new solutions. As the purely personal data enter into association with the transpersonal, and the collective human aspect is rediscovered and begins to come alive, new insights, new possibilities of life, add themselves to the narrowly personalistic and rigid personality of the sick-souled modern man. > > **My note:** Symbolic role of education > %% rw:946304637 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] > Every historical inquiry-and every evolutionary approach is in this sense historical-must therefore begin with the transpersonal. > %% rw:946301630 %% --- ## September 2025 ### Sunday, 14 September 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 23 > To connect sin and suffering is to separate the world into moral and natural evils, and to create thereby a framework for understanding human misery. > %% rw:937611430 %% > [!quote] [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] · [[Susan Neiman]] · p. 20 > Some experience of understanding creates expectations of more. > > **My note:** The presence of both happiness and suffering is more of a problem than the existence of just one and not the other, regardless of which one it is. > %% rw:937592995 %% ### Friday, 12 September 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 209 > For every human existence is formed by a series of ordeals, by repeated experience of "death" and "resurrection." And this is why, in a religious perspective, existence is established by initiation; it could almost be said that, in so far as human existence is fulfilled, it is itself an initiation. > %% rw:936960608 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 203 > He will not be truly free until he has killed the last god. > %% rw:936960116 %% ### Wednesday, 10 September 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 166 > The existence of homo religiosus, especially of the primitive, is open to the world; in living, religious man is never alone, part of the world lives in him. > %% rw:936303694 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 158 > In some cultures the luminous epiphanies of solar gods become the sign of intelligence. In the end sun and intelligence will be assimilated to such a degree that the solar and syncretistic theologies of the end of antiquity become rationalistic philosophies; > %% rw:936302318 %% ### Tuesday, 2 September 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 149 > the tree came to express everything that religious man regards as pre-eminently real and sacred, everything that he knows the gods to possess of their own nature and that is only rarely accessible to privileged individuals, the heroes and demigods. > %% rw:933366002 %% --- ## August 2025 ### Friday, 8 August 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 137 > it could even be said that the aquatic symbol awaited the fulfillment of its deepest meaning through the new values contributed by Christianity. > %% rw:923661353 %% --- ## July 2025 ### Friday, 11 July 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 107 > repetition emptied of its religious content necessarily leads to a pessimistic vision of existence. > > **My note:** This is exactly what profane, secular existence entails > %% rw:912924089 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 107 > for him it is by virtue of this eternal return to the sources of the sacred and the real that human existence appears to be saved from nothingness and death. > > **My note:** Eternal return as being saved from death. This idea is echoed in the Chinese New Year myth. > %% rw:912924037 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 106 > In short, through the reactualization of his myths, religious man attempts to approach the gods and to participate in being; the imitation of paradigmatic divine models expresses at once his desire for sanctity and his ontological nostalgia > %% rw:912923954 %% --- ## June 2025 ### Sunday, 29 June 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 101 > This first murder basically changed the mode of being of human life. The immolation of the divine being inaugurated not only the need to eat but also the doom of death and, in consequence, sexuality, the only way to ensure the continuity of life. > > **My note:** Sexuality is a natural consequence of the introduction of death into the human world. Death means life discontinues, and sexuality is the means by which life could continue. Sexuality sustains life the way the fruit of the tree of life used to, but not for the life of one man, but man as a whole. > %% rw:908436769 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 100 > One becomes truly a man only by conforming to the teaching of the myths, that is, by imitating the gods. > %% rw:908435552 %% ### Friday, 27 June 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 93 > From the point of view of profane existence, man feels no responsibility except to himself and to society. For him, the universe does not properly constitute a cosmos --that is, a living and articulated unity; it is simply the sum of the material reserves and physical energies of the planet, and the great concern of modern man is to avoid stupidly exhausting the economic resources of the globe. But, existentially, the primitive always puts himself in a cosmic context. His personal experience lacks neither genuineness nor depth; but the fact that it is expressed in a language unfamiliar to us makes it appear spurious or infantile to modern eyes. > %% rw:907782351 %% ### Wednesday, 25 June 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Hymns on Paradise]] · [[Saint Ephraem]] · p. 85 > Blessed is He who was pierced and so removed the sword from the entry to Paradise. > %% rw:907084131 %% ### Saturday, 21 June 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 92 > Hence the nostalgia for origins is equivalent to a religious nostalgia. > %% rw:905259031 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 91 > Now, it seems obvious that, if religious man feels the need of indefinitely reproducing the same paradigmatic acts and gestures, this is because he desires and attempts to live close to his gods. > %% rw:905258851 %% ### Friday, 20 June 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 82 > life cannot be repaired, it can only be recreated through symbolic repetition of the cosmogony, for, as we have said, the cosmogony is the paradigmatic model for all creation. > %% rw:905006442 %% ### Tuesday, 17 June 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Hymns on Paradise]] · [[Saint Ephraem]] · p. 41 > so that both Nature and Scripture might bear witness to the Creator: > Nature, through man's use of it, Scripture, through his reading it; > > **My note:** This excerpt from Paradise hyms v2 serves as evidence for St Ephreim’s subscription to the vision that God reveals Himself through both nature and scripture. > %% rw:903939360 %% --- ## February 2025 ### Saturday, 22 February 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 91 > One is devoured by Time, not because one lives in Time, but because one believes in its reality, and therefore forgets or despises eternity > %% rw:855610471 %% ### Wednesday, 5 February 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 59 > ignorance is, first of all, this false identification of Reality with what each one of us appears to be or to possess. > %% rw:848316786 %% > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 57 > the myth is supposed to happen-if one may say soin a non-temporal time, in an instant without duration, as certain mystics and philosophers conceived of eternity. > %% rw:848314781 %% > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 57 > In narrating a myth, one reactualises, in some sort, the sacred time in which the events narrated took place. > %% rw:848314753 %% > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 56 > death is often only the result of our indifference to immortality. > %% rw:848311418 %% > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 54 > since every human being tends, even unconsciously, towards the Centre, and towards his own centre, where he can find integral realitysacredness. > %% rw:848310506 %% --- ## January 2025 ### Sunday, 26 January 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 33 > The more a consciousness is awakened, the more it transcends its own historicity: we have only to remind ourselves of the mystics and sages of all times, and primarily those of the Orient. > %% rw:844001766 %% > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 32 > Everyone agrees that a spiritual fact, being a human fact, is necessarily conditioned by everything that works together to make a man, from his anatomy and physiology to language itself. In other words, a spiritual fact presupposes the whole human being --that is, the social man, the economic man, and so forth. But all these conditioning factors together do not, of themselves, add up to the life of the spirit. > %% rw:844000598 %% > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 32 > This man in general is no more than an abstraction: he exists only on the strength of a misunderstanding due to the imperfection of language. > %% rw:844000500 %% ### Saturday, 25 January 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 20 > Etymologically, "imagination" is related to both imago-a representation or imitation-and imitor, to imitate or reproduce. And for once, etymology is in accord with both psychological realities and spiritual truth. The imagination imitates the exemplary models-the Images-reproduces, rethem without end. To have imagination is actualises and repeats and the to be able to see the world in its totality, for the power mission of the Images is to show all that remains refractory to the concept: hence the disfavour and failure of the man "without > imagination"; he is cut off from the deeper reality of life and from his own soul. > %% rw:843596339 %% > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 17 > the longing for something altogether different from the present instant; something in fact inaccessible or irretrievably lost: "Paradise" itself. > %% rw:843593186 %% > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 15 > To translate an image into a concrete terminology by restricting it to any one of its frames of reference is to do worse than mutilate itit is to annihilate, to annul it as an instrument of cognition. > %% rw:843590542 %% > [!quote] [[Images and Symbols - Eliade|Images and Symbols]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · p. 12 > Geographical "reality" might give the lie to that paradisiac landscape, ugly and corpulent women might confront the travellers' eyes; but these they did not see; each one saw only the image he had brought with him. > %% rw:843464379 %% ### Monday, 6 January 2025 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World]] · [[René Girard]] · p. 4 > In every period, any important discovery will threaten some organization of knowledge. > %% rw:834873798 %% --- ## December 2024 ### Sunday, 8 December 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Early Christian Lives]] · [[Caroline White]] · p. 56 > For according to the kind of distorted logic you use, the honour due to the architect is transferred to the building, and the doctor's skill is attributed to the cures and the rewards and praises due to all craftsmen are bestowed instead on the products themselves. > > **My note:** Anthony argues against Roman religion > %% rw:821706209 %% > [!quote] [[Early Christian Lives]] · [[Caroline White]] · p. 54 > 'Answer me: what comes first, mind or letters? And which is the cause of which? Does mind come from letters or letters from the mind?' When they declared that mind was the author and inventor of letters, he said, 'So if anyone's mind is sound, he has no need letters.' > > **My note:** Anthony’s argument against the philosophers who study letters. Interestingly, 2000 years of church history has led a lot of Christians into the same problem of establishing the value of Christianity or their own sect of Christianity in terms of historicity. The same argument can be pitted against them. Who is the ‘one true church’? It’s not a matter of history, but a matter of mind — the mind > of Christ. > %% rw:821705886 %% > [!quote] [[Early Christian Lives]] · [[Caroline White]] · p. 56 > Is all or nothing to be believed in the Christian books? If nothing, you should not acknowledge the name of the cross which you disparage. If on the other hand it is all to be believed, why do you tear apart the divine passion with your stupid arguments, when in the same books the resurrection is connected to the cross? Why do you not at once add the sight of the blind, the hearing of the deaf, the walking of the lame, the cleansing of the leprous, the sea obeying its God who walked upon it, the putting to flight of demons, the resurrection of the dead and the return from the underworld of those who were dead? All these things are included in the divine Scriptures which you falsify, and these same volumes contain the proclamations of divine power and the disgrace inflicted upon death. For this reason cast off the hatred with which you are imbued and you will immediately discover that Jesus is true God and that He took our weak nature upon Himself for the sake of human salvation. > > **My note:** Same argument as to deny the Gospel due to alleged faults within its contents (such as the cruelty of hell for the unsaved) > %% rw:821700938 %% ### Wednesday, 4 December 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Harlots of the Desert]] · [[Benedicta Ward]] · p. 8 > Repentance is not a theory to be worked out but a way of life; > %% rw:820142705 %% --- ## November 2024 ### Friday, 29 November 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Aion]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 16 > Just as the anima becomes, through integration, the Eros of consciousness, so the animus becomes a Logos; and in the same way that the anima gives relationship and related-ness to a man’s consciousness, the animus gives to a woman’s consciousness the capacity for reflection, deliberation, and self-knowledge. > %% rw:818509967 %% ### Saturday, 23 November 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Malebranche]] · [[Nicolas Malebranche]] · p. 337 > Only because God loves Himself do we love anything, and if God did not love Himself, or if He did not continuously impress upon man's soul a love like His own, i.e., the impulse of love that we feel toward the good in general, we would love nothing, we would will nothing, and as a result, we would be without a will, since the will is only the impression of nature that leads us toward the good in general, as we have already said a number of times. > %% rw:815952700 %% ### Wednesday, 20 November 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Transformations of Eros]] · [[Vladimir Sergeevič Solovyëv]] · p. 19 > The chief aim of history is to transform the "natural" organization of mankind (which involves continuous strife and struggle) into a spiritual organization based upon the values of the absolute good. > %% rw:814438681 %% --- ## October 2024 ### Wednesday, 23 October 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Malebranche]] · [[Nicolas Malebranche]] > The real way, they said, of fully instructing yourself in any matter is to propose your opinions on the matter to competent people. > > **My note:** Preface xlii > %% rw:802161234 %% > [!quote] [[Malebranche]] · [[Nicolas Malebranche]] > The most beautiful, the most pleasant, and the most necessary of all our knowledge is, undoubtedly, the knowledge of ourselves. Of all the human sciences, the science of man is the most worthy. > > **My note:** Found in Preface, xxxix > %% rw:802160615 %% ### Monday, 7 October 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[I See Satan Fall Like Lightning]] · [[René Girard]] · p. 74 > Reports of collective violence are intelligible in inverse proportion to the degree of transformation they have undergone. The most transformed are the myths, and the least transformed of all is the Passion of Christ, the only account that completely reveals the cause of violent unanimity, which is mimetic contagion, the contagion of violence. > %% rw:795647140 %% > [!quote] [[I See Satan Fall Like Lightning]] · [[René Girard]] · p. 70 > The peoples of the world do not invent their gods. They de ify their victims. > %% rw:795645559 %% > [!quote] [[I See Satan Fall Like Lightning]] · [[René Girard]] · p. 70 > Satan is mimetic contagion as its most secret power, the creation of the false gods out of the midst of which Christianity emerged. > %% rw:795645499 %% > [!quote] [[I See Satan Fall Like Lightning]] · [[René Girard]] · p. 69 > There is no real subject within this mimetic contagion, and that is finally the meaning of the title "prince of this world," if it is recognized that Satan is the absence of being. > %% rw:795644666 %% --- ## September 2024 ### Friday, 27 September 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[I See Satan Fall Like Lightning]] · [[René Girard]] · p. 21 > From the anthropological aspect the Cross is the moment when a thousand mimetic conflicts, a thousand scandals that crash violently into one another during the crisis, converge against Jesus alone. > %% rw:791073035 %% > [!quote] [[I See Satan Fall Like Lightning]] · [[René Girard]] · p. 20 > The children repeat the crimes of their fathers precisely because they believe they are morally superior to them. > %% rw:791064852 %% ### Saturday, 14 September 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Descartes]] · [[John Cottingham]] > What is called 'common sense' in any age frequently turns out to be the half-digested remains of earlier philosophical theories. > > **My note:** What is common sense. Written in the last page of the general introduction > %% rw:785337694 %% ### Thursday, 5 September 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[I See Satan Fall Like Lightning]] · [[René Girard]] · p. 9 > One always desires whatever belongs to that one, the neighbor. > %% rw:781200509 %% --- ## August 2024 ### Thursday, 29 August 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Aion]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 10 > In other words, it is quite within the bounds of possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature, but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into the face of absolute evil. > %% rw:764590057 %% ### Saturday, 10 August 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 17]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > The religion of love was the exact psychological counterpart to the Roman devil-worship of power. > > **My note:** [309] > %% rw:756159685 %% ### Friday, 9 August 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 17]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > The Age of Enlightenment, which stripped nature and human institutions of gods, overlooked the God of Terror who dwells in the human soul. > > **My note:** [302] > %% rw:755828071 %% ### Thursday, 8 August 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 17]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > No one can train the personality unless he has it himself. And it is not the child, but only the adult, who can achieve personality as the fruit of a full life directed to this end. > > **My note:** [289] > %% rw:755507402 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 17]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > The professional man is irretrievably condemned to be competent. > > **My note:** [284] > %% rw:755441073 %% ### Wednesday, 7 August 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > A human relationship is… based on… imperfection, on what is weak, helpless and in need of support—the very ground and motive for dependence. > > **My note:** [579] > %% rw:755058671 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > It is not that present-day man is capable of greater evil than the man of antiquity or the primitive. He merely has incomparably more effective means with which to realize his propensity to evil. > > **My note:** [574] > %% rw:755054842 %% --- ## July 2024 ### Tuesday, 30 July 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > People think you have only to “tell” a person that he “ought” to do something in order to put him on the right track. But whether he can or will do it is another matter. > > **My note:** [555] > %% rw:752074275 %% ### Saturday, 27 July 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Screwtape Letters]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · p. 61 > Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts, > %% rw:750804399 %% ### Friday, 26 July 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > Marxist education… seeks, like God himself, to remake man, but in the image of the State. > > **My note:** [549] > %% rw:750306581 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > Human knowledge consists essentially in the constant adaptation of the primordial patterns of ideas that were given us a priori. > > **My note:** [548] > %% rw:750306032 %% ### Thursday, 25 July 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > You can take away a man’s gods, but only to give him others in return. > > **My note:** [544] > %% rw:749936818 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > The Christian symbol is a living thing that carries in itself the seeds of further development. > > **My note:** [542] > %% rw:749935997 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself. > > **My note:** [540] > %% rw:749929454 %% ### Wednesday, 24 July 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > …in so far as society is itself > composed of de-individualized human beings, it is completely at the mercy of ruthless individualists. > > **My note:** [535] > %% rw:749673890 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > Consciousness is a precondition of being. > > **My note:** [528] > %% rw:749547522 %% ### Sunday, 21 July 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · p. 63 > [The Christian] does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us. > %% rw:748503804 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > [T]he suggestive parade of State power engenders a collective feeling of security which, unlike religious demonstrations, gives the individual no protection against his inner demonism. > > **My note:** [512] > Difference between State as religion and genuine religion > %% rw:748433457 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > Religion, as the careful observation and taking account of certain invisible and uncontrollable factors, is an instinctive attitude peculiar to man, and its manifestations can be followed all through human history > > **My note:** [512] > %% rw:748433205 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > A creed gives expression to a definite collective belief, whereas the word religion expresses a subjective relationship to certain metaphysical, extramundane factors. > > **My note:** [507] > Difference between “religion” vs “creed” > %% rw:748423921 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > Religion means dependence on and submission to the irrational facts of experience. These do not refer directly to social and physical conditions; they concern far more the individual’s psychic attitude. > %% rw:748422206 %% ### Wednesday, 17 July 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > Rational argument can be conducted with some prospect of success only so long as the emotionality of a given situation does not exceed a certain critical degree. > > **My note:** [490] > %% rw:746975976 %% ### Thursday, 4 July 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 109 > N.B. Pestalozzi evidently subscribes to the Germanic distinction between Kultur and Zivilisation, where the latter term is employed in a pejorative sense. The idea is that culture, deriving ultimately from tillage and worship (cultus), is a natural organic growth, whereas civilization is an affair of the city (civis) and thus something artificial. > > **My note:** German etymology of culture and civilization > %% rw:741712231 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 107 > Society is the greatest temptation to unconsciousness, for the mass infallibly swallows up the individual-who has no security in himself-and reduces him to a helpless particle. > %% rw:741709234 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 105 > Nevertheless, it was the great and imperishable achievement of Christianity that, in contrast to these archaic systems which are all based on the original projection of psychic contents, it gave to each individual man the dignity of an immortal soul, whereas in earlier times this prerogative was reserved to the sole person of the king. > %% rw:741708369 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 104 > in so far as political aims and the State are to claim precedence, psychotherapy would inevitably become the instrument of a particular political system, and it is to its aims that people would have to be educated and at the same time seduced from their own highest destiny. > %% rw:741708104 %% --- ## June 2024 ### Saturday, 29 June 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 95 > But in so far as he is also a part of the world, he carries the world in himself > %% rw:739961957 %% ### Friday, 28 June 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 89 > This image alone is the immediate object of knowledge. The existence of the world has two conditions: it to exist, and us to know it. > %% rw:739425087 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 88 > Medicine too is doubtless aware that sick people exist as well as sicknesses; but psychotherapy knows first and foremost-or rather should know-that its proper concern is not the fiction of a neurosis but the distorted totality of the human being. > %% rw:739424143 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 88 > Theories are not articles of faith, they are either instruments of knowledge and of therapy, or they are no good at all. > %% rw:739420397 %% ### Thursday, 27 June 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 81 > Instinct stimulates thought, and if a man does not think of his own free will, then you get compulsive thinking, for the two poles of the psyche, the physiological and the mental, are indissolubly connected. For this reason instinct cannot be freed without freeing the mind, just as mind divorced from instinct is condemned to futility. > %% rw:738937342 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 81 > an instinct is always and inevitably coupled with something like a philosophy of life, however archaic, unclear, and hazy this may be. > %% rw:738937035 %% ### Tuesday, 25 June 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 78 > One cannot help any patient to advance further than one has advanced oneself. > %% rw:738025879 %% ### Sunday, 23 June 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] > You can exert no influence if you are not susceptible to influence. > %% rw:737142688 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 70 > The needs and necessities of mankind are manifold. What sets one man free is another man's prison. > %% rw:737141288 %% ### Friday, 21 June 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 16]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · p. 69 > each of us can carry the torch of knowledge but a part of the way, until another takes it from him. If only we could understand all this impersonally-could understand that we are not the personal creators of our truths, but only their exponents, mere mouthpieces of the day's psychic needs, then much venom and bitterness might be spared and we should be able to perceive the profound and suprapersonal continuity of the human mind. > %% rw:736248153 %% --- ## January 2024 ### Friday, 19 January 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 2445 > The living soul is not concerned with a dead cause but with a living God. > %% rw:663696618 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 2375 > just as there is no thinking about the world without the premise of the reality of the world, there can be no thinking about God without the premise of the realness of God. > %% rw:663696617 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 2348 > Proofs for the existence of God may add strength to our belief; they do not generate it. > %% rw:663696616 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 2311 > This, indeed, is the greatness of man: to be able to have faith. For faith is an act of freedom, of independence of our own limited faculties, whether of reason or sense-perception. > %% rw:663696615 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 2283 > Knowledge is not the same as awareness, and expression is not the same as experience. By proceeding from awareness to knowledge we gain in clarity and lose in immediacy. What we gain in distinctness by going from experience to expression we lose in genuineness. > %% rw:663696614 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 2259 > All creative thinking comes out of an encounter with the unknown. We do not embark upon an investigation of what is definitely known, unless we suddenly discover that what we have long regarded as known is actually an enigma. > %% rw:663696613 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 2222 > What gives birth to religion is not intellectual curiosity but the fact and experience of our being asked. > %% rw:663696612 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 2195 > To the speculative mind, the world is an enigma; to the religious mind, the world is a challenge. The speculative problem is impersonal; the religious problem is a problem addressed to the person. The first is concerned with finding an answer to the question: what is the cause of being? The second, with giving an answer to the question: what is asked of us? > %% rw:663696611 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1980 > Plato lets Socrates ask: What is good? But Moses’ question was: What does God require of thee? > %% rw:663696610 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1974 > What, then, is reality? To the Western man, it is a thing in itself; to the Biblical Man, it is a thing through God. > %% rw:663696609 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1963 > Inanimate objects are dead in relation to man; they are alive in relation to God. > %% rw:663696608 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1884 > He recognizes only one parent: God as his father. The earth is his sister rather than his mother. Man and earth are equally the creations of God. > %% rw:663696607 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1640 > Forfeit your sense of awe, let your conceit diminish your ability to revere, and the universe becomes a market place for you. > %% rw:663696606 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1635 > In Judaism, yirat hashem, the awe of God, or yirat shamayim, the “awe of heaven,” is almost equivalent to the word “religion.” > %% rw:663696605 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1598 > Knowledge is fostered by curiosity; wisdom is fostered by awe. > %% rw:663696604 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1597 > What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe. > %% rw:663696603 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1371 > For this is the essence of faith: even what appears to us as a natural necessity is an act of God. > %% rw:663696602 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1111 > This is one of the goals of the Jewish way of living: to experience commonplace deeds as spiritual adventures, to feel the hidden love and wisdom in all things. > %% rw:663696601 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1104 > No routine of the social, physical, or physiological order must dull our sense of surprise at the fact that there is a social, a physical, or a physiological order. > %% rw:663696600 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1041 > Wonder or radical amazement is the chief characteristic of the religious man’s attitude toward history and nature. One attitude is alien to his spirit: taking things for granted, regarding events as a natural course of things. > %% rw:663696599 %% ### Friday, 12 January 2024 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[What St Paul Really Said]] · [[N. T. Wright]] · Loc. 253 > The Jew keeps the law out of gratitude, as the proper response to grace – not, in other words, in order to get into the covenant people, but to stay in. Being ‘in’ in the first place was God’s gift. This scheme Sanders famously labelled as ‘covenantal nomism’ (from the Greek nomos, law). Keeping the Jewish law was the human response to God’s covenantal initiative. > %% rw:659130523 %% --- ## December 2023 ### Saturday, 9 December 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Illusion of Superiority]] · [[Christopher Joseph]] · Loc. 79 > Only when we step outside of what we know can we step outside of who we are and truly transform our minds. > %% rw:639254930 %% > [!quote] [[The Madness of Crowds]] · [[Douglas Murray]] · Loc. 2444 > ‘Debate means you are trying to win. Dialectic means you are using disagreement to discover what is true. > %% rw:639064415 %% > [!quote] [[The Madness of Crowds]] · [[Douglas Murray]] · Loc. 2070 > We have spent the first years of this century trying to understand a communications revolution so huge that it may yet make the invention of the printing press look like a footnote in history. > %% rw:639064414 %% > [!quote] [[The Madness of Crowds]] · [[Douglas Murray]] · Loc. 1189 > sometimes when it is nearly impossible to tell what is being said, almost anything can be said and exceptionally dishonest arguments can be smuggled in under the guise of complexity. > %% rw:639064413 %% > [!quote] [[The Madness of Crowds]] · [[Douglas Murray]] · Loc. 496 > where the culture in the recent past would have seen the gay kiss as the aberration – the falling away from the norm – today the culture suggests that the gay kiss is the moment of revelatory truth. > %% rw:639064412 %% > [!quote] [[The Madness of Crowds]] · [[Douglas Murray]] · Loc. 479 > since the phrase ‘It’s only a phase’ is offensive for some people, the idea that it might actually be true for some people is unsayable. > %% rw:639064411 %% > [!quote] [[The Madness of Crowds]] · [[Douglas Murray]] · Loc. 466 > In society at large, when people come out as gay they are celebrated for having arrived at their natural end-point. > %% rw:639064410 %% > [!quote] [[The Madness of Crowds]] · [[Douglas Murray]] · Loc. 360 > one prerequisite for avoiding perpetual confrontation is an ability to listen to people’s words and hold some trust in them. > %% rw:639064409 %% --- ## November 2023 ### Saturday, 11 November 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Madness of Crowds]] · [[Douglas Murray]] · Loc. 214 > The products of the system cannot reproduce the stability of the system that produced them. > %% rw:624748113 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 1008 > Indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin. > %% rw:624606481 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 897 > If the world is only power to us and we are all absorbed in a gold rush, then the only god we may come upon is the golden calf. > %% rw:624606480 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 861 > The Greeks learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere. The modern man learns in order to use. > %% rw:624606479 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 811 > These three ways correspond in our tradition to the main aspects of religious existence: worship, learning, and action. The three are one, and we must go all three ways to reach the one destination. For this is what Israel discovered: the God of nature is the God of history, and the way to know Him is to do His will. > %% rw:624606478 %% --- ## October 2023 ### Monday, 23 October 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 751 > “Everything is within the power of heaven except the awe and fear of heaven.” > %% rw:614626862 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 731 > Two sources of religious thinking are given us: memory (tradition) and personal insight. We must rely on our memory and we must strive for fresh insight. We hear from tradition, we also understand through our own seeking. > %% rw:614626861 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 722 > The mere remembrance of such an event is hardly powerful enough to hold in its spell the soul of man with its constant restlessness and vitality. > %% rw:614626860 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 689 > The prophets are absent when the philosophers speak of God. > %% rw:614626859 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 611 > The worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The rejection of reason is cowardice and betrays a lack of faith. > %% rw:614626858 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 574 > One of the goals of philosophy of religion is to stimulate a critical reassessment of philosophy from the perspective of religion. > %% rw:614626857 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 559 > Things created in six days He considered good, the seventh day He made holy. > %% rw:614626856 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 436 > Philosophy of religion has to be pursued in two ways: as radical understanding of religion in terms of its own spirit and as a critical reassessment of religion from the point of view of philosophy. > %% rw:614626855 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 424 > Religious thinking, believing, feeling are among the most deceptive activities of the human spirit. We often assume it is God we believe in, but in reality it may be a symbol of personal interests that we dwell upon. We may assume that we feel drawn to God, but in reality it may be a power within the world that is the object of our adoration. We may assume it is God we care for, but it may be our own ego we are concerned with. To examine our religious existence is, therefore, a task to be performed constantly. > %% rw:614626854 %% ### Sunday, 15 October 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Intercessors Handbook]] · [[Jennifer Eivaz]] · Loc. 143 > Intercessors are most often birthed in crisis. Once you have seen the impossible made possible through prayer, something happens on the inside of you. Faith is birthed in your heart, and prayer takes on a fervency in your life. You just know that you know prayer will change what needs to be changed. > %% rw:611030496 %% ### Tuesday, 10 October 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 405 > Ideas of faith must not be studied in total separation from the moments of faith. > %% rw:608427838 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 382 > the study of religion has two major tasks to perform. One, to understand what it means to believe; to analyze the act of believing; to ask what it is that necessitates our believing in God. Two, to explain and to examine the content of believing; to analyze that which we believe in. > %% rw:608427837 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 376 > Philosophy may be pursued as a process of thinking thought, of analyzing the content of thinking, such as principles, assumptions, doctrines. Or it may be pursued as thinking about thinking, as radical self-understanding,2 as a process of analyzing the act of thinking, as a process of introspection, of watching the intellectual self in action. > %% rw:608427836 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 368 > the problem of religious philosophy is not how does man arrive at an understanding of God, but rather how can we arrive at an understanding of God. > %% rw:608374896 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 357 > Conceptual thinking is an act of reasoning; situational thinking involves an inner experience; in uttering judgment about an issue, the person himself is under judgment. Conceptual thinking is adequate when we are engaged in an effort to enhance our knowledge about the world. Situational thinking is necessary when we are engaged in an effort to understand issues on which we stake our very existence. > %% rw:608374895 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 348 > Philosophy, then, stresses the primacy of the problem, religion stresses the primacy of the person. > %% rw:608374894 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 341 > Philosophy may be defined as the art of asking the right questions. One of the marks of philosophical thinking is that, in contrast to poetry, for example, it is not a self-sufficing pouring forth of insight, but the explicit statement of a problem and the attempt to offer an answer to a problem. Theology starts with dogmas, philosophy begins with problems. Philosophy sees the problem first, theology has the answer in advance. > %% rw:608374893 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 337 > In the process of thinking, an answer without a question is devoid of life. It may enter the mind; it will not penetrate the soul. > %% rw:608374892 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 333 > The primary task of philosophy of religion is to rediscover the questions to which religion is an answer. > %% rw:608374891 %% > [!quote] [[God in Search of Man]] · [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] · Loc. 329 > Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless. > %% rw:608374890 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 2226 > Atheism has a philosophical need to deify the state through its political rulers—Caesar, Stalin or Mao Zedong. It makes rulers the ultimate source of law. > %% rw:608200776 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 2104 > The modern myth is based on the misunderstood fact that during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Roman Catholic Church integrated the Justinian legal Code, called Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law), as one of the major sources of its legal system. The code was a synthesis of Roman civil law, Church’s canon law, and Christian ethics. At that time it was received as a gift of the Eastern Empire. The code was compiled between ad 529 and 534, not at Rome, but at Constantinople (now Istanbul). > %% rw:608200775 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 2009 > A fundamental assumption behind these catechisms was that God wants faith to be grounded in knowledge, not ignorance. > %% rw:608200774 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 1366 > Hinduism said, “Yes. Your individuality is an illusion: you are God and can become God.” Buddhism agreed that your soul does not exist, and it taught techniques to help you become non-existent. The Bible differed. It said, you are real and important. So important, that the Savior died to give you eternal life. > %% rw:608200773 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 1198 > Few people understand that from the Scottish philosopher David Hume to French Jacques Derrida 61, Westernized Buddhism has demolished the West’s “Age of Reason.”[lxxiii] Demolition succeeded because a key foundation was replaced. Faith in “accident” (chance) replaced faith in Logos (a purposeful, rational Word) as the Creator. > %% rw:608200772 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 1190 > a scientific interest in nature has to begin with the assumption that the world is real. > > **My note:** Two things are implicit here. The world is knowable, and there is something worth knowing about it. The knowability is logos for Jordan Peterson. > %% rw:608200771 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 955 > Revelation requires more than interpretation. It calls for obedience. Such obedience changes history. > %% rw:608200770 %% ### Monday, 2 October 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 404 > Something of the religious conception of the world still persists in the behavior of profane man, although he is not always conscious of this immemorial heritage. > %% rw:608200794 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 294 > “our is holy ground because it is the place nearest to haven, because from here, from our abode, it is possible to reach heaven; hence our world is a high place. > %% rw:608200793 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 248 > To settle in a territory is, in the last analysis, equivalent to consecrating it. > %% rw:608200792 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 205 > The sacred reveals absolute reality and at the same time makes orientation possible; hence it founds the world in the sense that it fixes the limits and establishes the order of the world. > %% rw:608200791 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 187 > Religious man’s desire to live in the sacred is in fact equivalent to his desire to take up his abode in objective reality, not to let himself be paralyzed by the never ceasing relativity of purely subjective experiences, to live in a real and effective world, and not in an illusion. > %% rw:608200790 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 178 > A sign is asked, to put an end to the tension and anxiety caused by relativity and disorientation in short, to reveal an absolute point of support. > > **My note:** What being in sacred space could accomplish. > %% rw:608200789 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 161 > Every sacred space implies a hierophany, an irruption of the sacred that results in detaching a territory from the surrounding cosmic milieu and making it qualitatively different. > %% rw:608200788 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 131 > Revelation of a sacred space makes it possible to obtain a fixed point and hence to acquire orientation in the chaos of homogeneity, to “found the world” and to live in a real sense. > %% rw:608200787 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 111 > The manifestation of the sacred ontologically founds the world. In the homogeneous and infinite expanse, in which no point of reference is possible and hence no orientation can be established, the hierophany reveals an absolute fixed point, a center. > %% rw:608200786 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 100 > For religious man, space is not homogeneous; he experiences interruptions, breaks in it; some parts of’ space are qualitatively different from others. > %% rw:608200785 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 42 > The sacred is saturated with being. Sacred power means reality and at the same time enduringness and efficacy. > %% rw:608200784 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 35 > By manifesting the sacred, any object becomes something else, yet it continues to remain itself, for it continues to participate in its surrounding cosmic milieu. A sacred stone remains a stone; apparently, nothing distinguishes it from all other stones. But for those to whom a stone reveals itself as sacred, its immediate reality is transmuted into a supernatural reality. In other words, for those who have a religious experience all nature is capable of revealing itself as cosmic sacrality. The cosmos in its entirety can become a hierophany. > %% rw:608200783 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 33 > The sacred tree, the sacred stone are not adored as stone or tree; they are worshipped precisely because they are hierophies, because they show some thing that is no longer stone or tree but the sacred, the ganz andere. > %% rw:608200782 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 24 > Man becomes aware of the sacred because it itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane. > %% rw:608200781 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 22 > The aim of the following pages is to illustrate and define this opposition between sacred and profane. > %% rw:608200780 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 21 > The first possible definition of the sacred is that it is the opposite of the profane. > > **My note:** Thesis statement > %% rw:608200779 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 14 > The sacred always manifests itself as a reality of a wholly different order from “natural” realities. It is true that language naively expresses the tremendum, or the majestas, or the mysterium fascinans by terms borrowed from the world of nature or from man’s secular mental life. But we know that this analogical terminology is due precisely to human inability to express the ganz andere; all that goes beyond man’s natural experience, language is reduced to suggesting by terms taken from that experience. > > **My note:** Recount of Otto's exposition on what is sacred or holy. > %% rw:608200778 %% > [!quote] [[The Sacred and the Profane]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 11 > The numinous presents itself as something wholly other”, something basically and totally different. > %% rw:608200777 %% --- ## September 2023 ### Sunday, 3 September 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1685 > a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, > %% rw:608200843 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1634 > Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips. > %% rw:608200842 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1633 > Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions. > %% rw:608200841 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1630 > A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. > > **My note:** Man does not get to define himself, but gets to choose himself. > %% rw:608200840 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1617 > freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. > %% rw:608200839 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1617 > Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. > %% rw:608200838 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1585 > there is a danger inherent in the teaching of man’s “nothingbutness,” the theory that man is nothing but the result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment. > %% rw:608200837 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1516 > “paradoxical intention” on the twofold fact that fear brings about that which one is afraid of, and that hyper-intention makes impossible what one wishes. > %% rw:608200836 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1485 > having been is the surest kind of being. > %% rw:608200835 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1454 > What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms. Logos is deeper than logic. > %% rw:608200834 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1407 > life’s meaning is an unconditional one, for it even includes the potential meaning of unavoidable suffering. > > **My note:** Somewhat represented in story of Jesus > %% rw:608200833 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1400 > Such a value system might be responsible for the fact that the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy.” > > **My note:** Problem of happiness as goal. > %% rw:608200832 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1390 > suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice. > %% rw:608200831 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1383 > When we are no longer able to change a situation—just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer—we are challenged to change ourselves. > %% rw:608200830 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1362 > The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. > %% rw:608200829 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1342 > Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. > %% rw:608200828 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1340 > everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it. > %% rw:608200827 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1311 > Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism). > > **My note:** Consequece of the dying of traditon that teaches what man ought to do. > %% rw:608200826 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1295 > What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. > > **My note:** Another way to see this is that man needs tension, but from the right pair of opposites. Jordan Peterson would suggest order and chaos as a worthy contender. > %% rw:608200825 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1265 > suffering is not always a pathological phenomenon; rather than being a symptom of neurosis, suffering may well be a human achievement, especially if the suffering grows out of existential frustration. > %% rw:608200824 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1264 > Not every conflict is necessarily neurotic; some amount of conflict is normal and healthy. > %% rw:608200823 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1225 > Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a “secondary rationalization” of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning. > %% rw:608200822 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1222 > I speak of a will to meaning in contrast to the pleasure principle (or, as we could also term it, the will to pleasure) on which Freudian psychoanalysis is centered, as well as in contrast to the will to power on which Adlerian psychology, using the term “striving for superiority,” is focused. > %% rw:608200821 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1188 > The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man, is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear any more—except his God. > %% rw:608200820 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1182 > We were not hoping for happiness—it was not that which gave us courage and gave meaning to our suffering, our sacrifices and our dying. And yet we were not prepared for unhappiness. > %% rw:608200819 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1167 > there were two other fundamental experiences which threatened to damage the character of the liberated prisoner: bitterness and disillusionment when he returned to his former life. > %% rw:608200818 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1155 > During this psychological phase one observed that people with natures of a more primitive kind could not escape the influences of the brutality which had surrounded them in camp life. > > **My note:** Frankl is attributing the phenomenon I see so often of people becoming oppressors after coming out of oppression to the 'primitive nature' of such men. > %% rw:608200817 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1132 > Psychologically, what was happening to the liberated prisoners could be called “depersonalization.” Everything appeared unreal, unlikely, as in a dream. > %% rw:608200816 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1111 > there are two races of men in this world, but only these two—the “race” of the decent man and the “race” of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. > %% rw:608200815 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1105 > The boundaries between groups overlapped and we must not try to simplify matters by saying that these men were angels and those were devils. > %% rw:608200814 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1073 > They must not lose hope but should keep their courage in the certainty that the hopelessness of our struggle did not detract from its dignity and its meaning. I said that someone looks down on each of us in difficult hours—a friend, a wife, somebody alive or dead, or a God—and he would not expect us to disappoint him. He would hope to find us suffering proudly—not miserably—knowing how to die. > %% rw:608200813 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1058 > After all, we still had all our bones intact. Whatever we had gone through could still be an asset to us in the future. And I quoted from Nietzsche: “Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker.” (That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.) > %% rw:608200812 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1009 > When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden. > %% rw:608200811 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 1000 > Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. > %% rw:608200810 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 998 > We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. > %% rw:608200809 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 997 > We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. > %% rw:608200808 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 962 > What does Spinoza say in his Ethics? —“Affectus, qui passio est, desinit esse passio simulatque eius claram et distinctam formamus ideam.” Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it. > %% rw:608200807 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 949 > It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future—sub specie aeternitatis. And this is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task. > > **My note:** And the certainty of a future that gives hope lies in the promises of God. Heaven is an eternal hope. > %% rw:608200806 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 946 > Any attempt at fighting the camp’s psychopathological influence on the prisoner by psychotherapeutic or psychohygienic methods had to aim at giving him inner strength by pointing out to him a future goal to which he could look forward. > %% rw:608200805 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 939 > Instead of taking the camp’s difficulties as a test of their inner strength, they did not take their life seriously and despised it as something of no consequence. They preferred to close their eyes and to live in the past. Life for such people became meaningless. > %% rw:608200804 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 918 > A man who could not see the end of his “provisional existence” was not able to aim at an ultimate goal in life. He ceased living for the future, in contrast to a man in normal life. > > **My note:** When the future is uncertain, it might not be n easy thing to even try to seek truth…. Only what is real > %% rw:608200803 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 883 > the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not. > %% rw:608200802 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 879 > If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. > %% rw:608200801 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 878 > in man’s attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces. > > **My note:** Three things meaningful in life: enjoyment, creativenes, and morality (attained in suffering) > %% rw:608200800 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 875 > An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative work, while a passive life of enjoyment affords him the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art, or nature. > %% rw:608200799 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 874 > It is this spiritual freedom—which cannot be taken away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful. > %% rw:608200798 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 862 > everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. > %% rw:608200797 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 754 > The prisoner would have preferred to let fate make the choice for him. This escape from commitment was most apparent when a prisoner had to make the decision for or against an escape attempt. In those minutes in which he had to make up his mind—and it was always a question of minutes—he suffered the tortures of Hell. Should he make the attempt to flee? Should he take the risk? > > **My note:** Kiekegaard's conception of anxiety > %% rw:608200796 %% --- ## August 2023 ### Monday, 28 August 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 705 > One literally became a number: dead or alive—that was unimportant; the life of a “number” was completely irrelevant. What stood behind that number and that life mattered even less: the fate, the history, the name of the man. > %% rw:587569718 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 684 > It is well known that an enforced community life, in which attention is paid to everything one does at all times, may result in an irresistible urge to get away, at least for a short while. > %% rw:587569717 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 645 > No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same. > %% rw:587569716 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 532 > Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance. > %% rw:587569715 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 350 > is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all. > %% rw:587569714 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 298 > If you want to stay alive, there is only one way: look fit for work. > > **My note:** Manufactured "survival of the fittest" > %% rw:587569713 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 288 > The prisoner of Auschwitz, in the first phase of shock, did not fear death. Even the gas chambers lost their horrors for him after the first few days—after all, they spared him the act of committing suicide. > %% rw:587569712 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 80 > “Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run—in the long run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.” > %% rw:587569711 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 35 > Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you. > %% rw:587569710 %% > [!quote] [[Man's Search for Meaning]] · [[Viktor E. Frankl]] · Loc. 28 > Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life. Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage during difficult times. Suffering in and of itself is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it. > %% rw:587569709 %% ### Sunday, 27 August 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 2500 > We also must fight against the temptation to believe that we have somehow been bestowed this wealth because we deserve it; that is a spiritual danger most profound. It is not something we deserve, it is something with which we have been entrusted and we need to use it to change the world, not to make ourselves more comfortable. > %% rw:587146281 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 2043 > it will be a life beautifully lived if you can begin to blur the lines between Spending and Serving. > %% rw:587146280 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 2023 > His lifestyle is fixed, while his generosity grows with his earning power. > %% rw:587146279 %% ### Thursday, 24 August 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 1603 > Temporally, Spenders maximize value today, Savers maximize value in the future, and Servants maximize value in eternity. > %% rw:585397051 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 872 > Authors Don McClanen and Dale Stitt argue that “[Money] becomes Mammon whenever our passion for nice things is stronger than our compassion for the wounded in our world.” > %% rw:585397050 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 869 > “Their property held them in chains. . . . They think of themselves as owners, whereas it is they rather who are owned: enslaved as they are to their own property, they are not the masters of their money but its slaves.” > %% rw:585397049 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 703 > While God’s purposes certainly include delivering justice to the underprivileged, His purposes also include our enjoyment of His blessings. Both purposes are legitimate. > %% rw:585397048 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 690 > Stewardship is the active and responsible management of God’s creation for God’s purposes. > %% rw:585397047 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 679 > Even when we “earn” something (e.g., when we work hard to save money for a down payment on a house) we do so by using skills given to us by God (Psalm 144:1), in a job gifted to us by God (Exodus 20:9), with the support of an organization and a political economy that are both ordained by God (Romans 13:1-2), all of which are held in existence moment-by-moment through God (Colossians 1:17). > %% rw:585397046 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 650 > A faithful reading of Scripture leads not to the question, “How much should I give?” Rather, it leads to the question, “How much do I need to keep?” > %% rw:585397045 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 496 > These traits of our giving—voluntary, generous (even sacrificial), cheerful, and supportive of local ministers and the poor—all reflect God Himself in His generous giving (James 1:17-18). > %% rw:585397044 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 384 > Rather than accumulating wealth in this world, we should accumulate “wealth” in heaven by doing God’s work here on earth. > %% rw:585397043 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 365 > This parable starkly highlights the futility in accumulating wealth here on earth without a vision to use that wealth for eternal purposes. > > **My note:** Speaking of the parable of the rich fool > %% rw:585397042 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 344 > It is not poverty in itself that makes one blessed by God, but the humble, dependent, God-trusting disposition that we often find accompanying the oppressed poor in Scripture. Likewise, riches themselves are not wicked, but only if they are unrighteously obtained or used, a condition that is found only too frequently in this fallen world. > %% rw:585397041 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 256 > As Old Testament scholar Christopher Wright puts it, David “acknowledges the true source of all wealth (God Himself) and the comparative unworthiness of all human giving, which is merely giving back to God what already belongs to Him” (1 Chronicles 29:14). > %% rw:585397040 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 246 > From Boaz’s example we learn that one of the essential functions of wealth is to support “the least of these,” and that maximizing one’s own assets at the expense of those in need is an ungodly practice—on par with stealing, oppression, and injustice. God expects those of us blessed with plenty to actively serve the needs of the poor in our communities. > %% rw:585397039 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 235 > The theme is clear: wealth is a gift from God, and one of the functions of wealth is to provide for one’s community, especially the poor. > %% rw:585397038 %% > [!quote] [[God and Money]] · [[John Cortines]] · Loc. 224 > God intended one of these three tithes to be used to throw a giant festival! God desires that we use His gifts of provision for our own enjoyment, in addition to serving others. > %% rw:585397037 %% ### Saturday, 12 August 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 2795 > Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. > %% rw:583725861 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 2790 > Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most ‘natural’ men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints. > %% rw:583725860 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 2639 > The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose. > %% rw:583725859 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 2637 > There is a paradox here. As long as Dick does not turn to God, he thinks his niceness is his own, and just as long as he thinks that, it is not his own. It is when Dick realises that his niceness is not his own but a gift from God, and when he offers it back to God—it is just then that it begins to be really his own. > %% rw:583725858 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 2322 > when you are tempted not to bother about someone else’s troubles because they are ‘no business of yours’, remember that though he is different from you he is part of the same organism as you. If you forget that he belongs to the same organism as yourself you will become an Individualist. If you forget that he is a different organ from you, if you want to suppress differences and make people all alike, you will become a Totalitarian. But a Christian must not be either a Totalitarian or an Individualist. > %% rw:583725857 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 2082 > in other sciences the instruments you use are things external to yourself (things like microscopes and telescopes), the instrument through which you see God is your whole self. > %% rw:583725856 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 2020 > that is precisely what Christianity is about. This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there is a rumour going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life. > %% rw:583725855 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1767 > The Christian says, ‘Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. > %% rw:583725854 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1741 > Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither. > %% rw:583725853 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1641 > Pleasure in being praised is not Pride. > %% rw:583725852 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1595 > Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. > %% rw:583725851 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1568 > what really matters is those little marks or twists on the central, inside part of the soul which are going to turn it, in the long run, into a heavenly or a hellish creature. > %% rw:583725850 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1514 > Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, > %% rw:583725849 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 3741 > repetition is how you reinforce who you are, what you know, and what life experiences are informing your writing, perspective, and unique point of view. Repetition is how you get people to remember “you.” > %% rw:583725846 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 3276 > The Golden Intersection of great writing is: Answering The Reader’s Question x Telling Them An Entertaining Story > %% rw:583725845 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 3250 > You are not the main character in your story. The reader is. > %% rw:583725844 %% ### Wednesday, 9 August 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1441 > Love in this second sense—love as distinct from ‘being in love’—is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. > %% rw:577142892 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1413 > If love is the whole thing, then the promise can add nothing; and if it adds nothing, then it should not be made. > %% rw:577142891 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1358 > The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection. > %% rw:577142890 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1341 > Every sane and civilised man must have some set of principles by which he chooses to reject some of his desires and to permit others. > %% rw:577142889 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1327 > Before we can be cured we must want to be cured. Those who really wish for help will get it; but for many modern people even the wish is difficult. > %% rw:577142888 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1326 > a man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales-resistance. > %% rw:577142887 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1277 > A real desire to believe all the good you can of others and to make others as comfortable as you can will solve most of the problems. > %% rw:577142886 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1257 > Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either. > %% rw:577142885 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1223 > Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges them by their moral choices. > %% rw:577142884 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1073 > Temperance referred not specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further. > %% rw:577142883 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1059 > Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to be not only ‘as harmless as doves’, but also ‘as wise as serpents’. He wants a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim. > %% rw:577142882 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1019 > You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society. That is why we must go on to think of the second thing: of morality inside the individual. > > **My note:** In Romans, righteousness precedes the establishment of the law. Man cannot attain righteousness by law, but rightneous men would uphold the law. > %% rw:577142881 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 1000 > Morality, then, seems to be concerned with three things. Firstly, with fair play and harmony between individuals. Secondly, with what might be called tidying up or harmonising the things inside each individual. Thirdly, with the general purpose of human life as a whole: what man was made for: > %% rw:577142880 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 925 > the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; > %% rw:577142879 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 921 > a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble—because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out. > %% rw:577142878 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 850 > Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person—and he would not need it. > %% rw:577142877 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 833 > We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. > %% rw:577142876 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 832 > A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works: indeed, he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it. > > **My note:** Faith as a precondition for understanding God. > %% rw:577142875 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 812 > The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. > %% rw:577142874 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 791 > I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. > > **My note:** Jesus was a great teacher, meaning he had great teachings, but they cannot stand independent from his divinity. > %% rw:577142873 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 763 > God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. > %% rw:577142872 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 739 > Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. > %% rw:577142871 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 707 > To be bad, he must exist and have intelligence and will. But existence, intelligence and will are in themselves good. > %% rw:577142870 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 695 > I do mean that wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of some good in the wrong way. You can be good for the mere sake of goodness: you cannot be bad for the mere sake of badness. > > **My note:** Is it possible for a person to aim at nothing but angering the Gods? Or is even that aim really disguised cry for acknowledgement or attention? > %% rw:577142869 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 690 > But in reality we have no experience of anyone liking badness just because it is bad. > > **My note:** Similar to the Socdatic idea of ethics: Those who do bad do not know enough > %% rw:577142868 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 655 > If we ask for something more than simplicity, it is silly then to complain that the something more is not simple. > %% rw:577142867 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 650 > It is no good asking for a simple religion. After all, real things are not simple. > %% rw:577142866 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 582 > In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth—only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair. > %% rw:577142865 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 572 > It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power—it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk. > %% rw:577142864 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 356 > Progress means not just changing, but changing for the better. > %% rw:577142863 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 338 > The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. > %% rw:577142862 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 335 > there are no such things as good and bad impulses. Think once again of a piano. It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the ‘right’ notes and the ‘wrong’ ones. Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another. The Moral Law is not any one instinct or set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune (the tune we call goodness or right conduct) by directing the instincts. > %% rw:577142861 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 318 > The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play: our instincts are merely the keys. > %% rw:577142860 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 300 > First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in. > %% rw:577142859 %% > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 248 > Quarrelling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do that unless you and he had some sort of agreement as to what Right and Wrong are; > %% rw:577142858 %% ### Wednesday, 2 August 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2790 > this paragraph might feel like it’s lacking “depth.” But what you have to remember is that for pieces that have five or more Main Points, the whole reason why a reader is there is because they want to know the Main Points themselves—not necessarily a dissertation on each one. > %% rw:577142917 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2325 > The best way to come up with a compelling PROMISE is to think deeply about 1) outcomes your readers want to receive, or 2) outcomes your readers want to avoid. > %% rw:577142916 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2323 > They want to know what happens in the story before they even read it. > %% rw:577142915 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2233 > if you’re writing about what’s happening within the world of biotechnology, your Audience will only be as big as the number of people actively asking themselves about biotechnology. > %% rw:577142914 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2231 > The size of your audience is a direct reflection of the size of the question you’re answering. > %% rw:577142913 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2166 > The Curiosity Gap is what tells the reader what this piece of writing is about, who it’s for, and what it’s promising—all without revealing the answer. > %% rw:577142912 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2129 > Sometimes, your credibility informs what it is you write about (you’re the Head of Marketing for a startup, and so you believe you’re qualified to write about marketing). Other times, what you write about informs how and where you need to build your credibility. > %% rw:577142911 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2108 > what’s expected is boring. What’s unexpected is exciting, new, and different. > %% rw:577142910 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2069 > If everyone else is using cliché examples—Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods—you can differentiate yourself by using lesser known, more unconventional examples specifically from seemingly irrelevant categories. > %% rw:577142909 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2055 > What makes a list “work” is the fact that it has the potential to pack a ton of valuable information into a very short period of time. > %% rw:577142908 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 2047 > In order for your list to not be clickbait, but actually be meaningful and valuable to a reader, you need two things: Specificity and Speed. > %% rw:577142907 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1981 > What you’re aiming for is the most value you can possibly deliver WITHOUT 1) confusing the reader, or 2) wasting their time. > %% rw:577142906 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1952 > There are five types of writing on the internet. Form #1: Actionable Guide Form #2: Opinion Form #3: Curated List Form #4: Story Form #5: Credible Talking Head > %% rw:577142905 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1808 > the entire secret to getting exposure on your writing online is to find as many ways as possible to make your writing resonate both on a broad level and with a specific audience at the same time. > %% rw:577142904 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1723 > Your goal is to write (ACTION)—and it’s through writing that you will BE “a writer.” > %% rw:577142903 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1632 > In your first six months of writing online, you should be less concerned with “establishing” yourself and more focused on “discovering” yourself. > %% rw:577142902 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1603 > In order to be taken seriously on the internet as an authority in your category and a leader in your industry, niche, or genre, you need to be writing and publishing new material 2x per month. > %% rw:577142901 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1528 > I have a rule I live by, and it goes like this: “The number of hours I spend consuming should never equal or exceed the number of hours I spend creating.” > %% rw:577142900 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1327 > When someone reads your writing on a social site, it feels more objective and “out in the open.” > %% rw:577142899 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1309 > The 5 Phases of Social Platforms—And Why Phase 3 Is Your Window of Opportunity > > **My note:** A good hook that made me want to keep reading > %% rw:577142898 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1265 > As a contributing writer, your job is to produce page views for the publication. In return, you get to leverage the name of the publication for your own Perceived Credibility. > %% rw:577142897 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1216 > People read major publications for three reasons: opinions, news, or to learn how to do something. That’s it. > %% rw:577142896 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1176 > The name of the game is to then spend less on the cost of getting you to click than the profit generated on the ads shown to you within that sixty-second window. > > **My note:** Major publication ad game > %% rw:577142895 %% --- ## July 2023 ### Sunday, 23 July 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1056 > Credibility is in the eye of the beholder—and it’s a ladder anyone can climb. > %% rw:568028280 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1054 > because I was wearing my badge proudly, everyone else took it upon themselves to be proud of my badge too. > %% rw:568028279 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 1045 > What makes a badge of credibility valuable isn’t really the badge itself. It’s how the writer chooses to wear it. > %% rw:568028278 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 824 > “The Rate of Revelation.” This is the rate at which you reveal new information to the reader—and new information is what keeps people interested. For example, a paragraph with a very slow Rate of Revelation would look something like this: > %% rw:567994281 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 818 > When I was in college, one of my teachers used to say all the time, “If your story is reliant on the reader making it past the first few pages, then chances are, your story doesn’t need those pages.” > %% rw:567994280 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 792 > The secret to creating a unique writing style is by doing what would be considered “unexpected” in your chosen category. > %% rw:567994279 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 762 > Categories are how we organize information in our minds. Know your category and you’ll know where readers “fit” you into their own minds. > %% rw:567994278 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 604 > The new way to think about being a writer in the digital age is to turn your writing into a data mining machine. > %% rw:567994277 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 573 > There are 2 types of writers today: those who use data to inform and improve their writing, and those who fail. > %% rw:567994276 %% > [!quote] [[The Art and Business of Online Writing - Cole|The Art and Business of Online Writing]] · [[Nicolas Cole]] · Loc. 471 > Sharing thoughts, stories, opinions, and insights on a platform that already has an active audience. > %% rw:567994275 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 889 > Like karma, the theory of evolution explains self-evident inequality. Therefore, it cannot be the philosophical foundation for faith in human equality. > %% rw:567910832 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 882 > What changed the West was the doctrine of human equality 46. It was a “mystery” that was revealed, first to Peter and then to Paul.[xli] Paul’s vision obligated him to break with his friends’ prejudices and to love and serve the contemptible, hated Gentiles. > %% rw:567910831 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 866 > The Bible changed the world because it was believed to be God’s communication. > %% rw:567910830 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 798 > Truth liberates because it can be questioned, debated, examined, and refined. Truth’s authority comes from understanding. The knowledge of truth may come from outside, but it compels from within as a truth-seeker absorbs it into his heart. That is why “freedom of conscience” is recognized as a “fundamental” human right. > %% rw:567898268 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 785 > Myth-based religions are invented to exploit. They make religion a means of “shameful gain.” > %% rw:567898267 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 784 > The church was to be a community’s source of knowledge. > %% rw:567898266 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 740 > In his epistle, Paul repeatedly asks Titus to confront myth-makers and myth-teachers. Because myth-based religions create and sustain a culture of distrust. > %% rw:567898265 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 738 > Morally debased cultures tend to be controlled by a few wealthy people. Their riches come from power, extortion, and war, not honest and diligent work. “The ease of doing business” is always at a low ebb in a culture of corruption. > %% rw:567898264 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 645 > without seeing sin and salvation through the Bible’s perspective, Europe could not have invented legal, educational, economic, bureaucratic, political, and cultural institutions and traditions that made it an example to the rest of the world. > %% rw:567898263 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 607 > Intellectual hubris is robbing the West of its heritage. A little humility could re-connect us with the West’s true wealth. > %% rw:567898262 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 596 > By forgetting Vadian’s book, has the West amputated its soul? > %% rw:567898261 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 571 > the Bible’s worldview is unique in that its spirituality requires an engagement with the material world. > %% rw:567898260 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 565 > Human authorities, political, intellectual, and ecclesiastical, needed a light purer than their own; an authority higher than humans, yet open to critical investigation. > %% rw:567898259 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 560 > It was a vote against tradition and for freedom-with-responsibility. > %% rw:567898258 %% ### Saturday, 22 July 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 529 > Human beings can and ought to manage or steward time, just like they steward the rest of the created order. > %% rw:567339998 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 516 > Time is to be feared and appeased, not managed. This outlook made India a culture of astrology, in which our times rule over us. > %% rw:567339997 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 501 > Monks, not shepherds or fishermen, needed clocks. Therefore, they invented them. > %% rw:567339996 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 499 > Hermits can live in their own time. They can get up when the sun is warm and go to bed when they want. Communal living, on the other hand, requires a common time. Each monk has to organise his work in ways to get to communal prayers and meals at the same time as others. > %% rw:567339995 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 475 > Skeptics attempt to put Nothingness/Nihilism/Chance into the heart of a society’s literature. Soon they discover that the absence of truth invites the rulers of the day to exercise unbridled and exclusive authority to govern according to their own folly. The abolition of truth creates a vacuum that is filled with force. > %% rw:567339994 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 472 > Shared literature becomes the soul of a society, a nation, a civilization. It gives meaning to individuals and motivation to society. It becomes a society’s light: the authority that settles disputes. 27 > %% rw:567339993 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 447 > God’s children can count on their Father’s promises. > %% rw:567339992 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 441 > They believed the Bible that the Creator gave us the authority to establish our dominion over this world (Genesis 1:26–28). This belief became a basis for Europe’s leadership in modern science and technology. > %% rw:567339991 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 414 > They renounced the world in order to seek God. > %% rw:567339990 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 408 > They needed a new spirit. The spirit of slavery had to be exorcised out of their hearts, so that they might receive a spirit of bravery. A spirit of sonship that takes ownership of one’s inheritance. > %% rw:567339989 %% > [!quote] [[This Book Changed Everything]] · [[Vishal Mangalwadi]] · Loc. 355 > It was Alexander’s sword, not Aristotle’s logic, that conquered the world. > %% rw:567339988 %% ### Friday, 21 July 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 2281 > It seemed to him that at that moment he had cut himself off, as with scissors, from everyone and everything. > > **My note:** The sentence previous to this resolved his outer action, but it is this sentence that concludes his inner and outer experience. This was the main significant outcome. > %% rw:566908856 %% ### Thursday, 20 July 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6852 > Too much stability can cramp the ego, a too independent ego consciousness can become insulated from the unconscious, and self-esteem and self-responsibility can degenerate into presumption and megalomania. > %% rw:566505823 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6802 > The individual is educated up to them, but woe to any who dares to flout the cultural values, for he will instantly be outlawed by the collective as the breaker of the old tablets. > %% rw:566505822 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6799 > The paradox that the breaker of the old canon is incorporated in the canon itself is typical of the creative character of Western consciousness whose special position we have repeatedly stressed. > %% rw:566505821 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6796 > the hero, like the ego, stands between two worlds: the inner world that threatens to overwhelm him, and the outer world that wants to liquidate him for breaking the old laws. Only the hero can stand his ground against these collective forces, because he is the exemplar of individuality and possesses the light of consciousness. > %% rw:566505820 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6793 > The prophetic intensity depends upon the intensity of consciousness, and Moses is rated the greatest prophet because he beheld God by day and face to face. In other words, the profound insight of the activated transpersonal layer, and the sharp vision of a highly developed consciousness, have to be brought into relationship, and not one developed at the expense of the other. > %% rw:566505819 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6773 > Whereas the average individual has no soul of his own, because the group and its canon of values tell him what he may or may not be psychically, the hero is one who can call his soul his own because he has fought for it and won it. > %% rw:566505818 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6771 > The loneliness of Prometheus on the rock or of Christ on the cross is the sacrifice they have to endure for having brought fire and redemption to mankind. > %% rw:566505817 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6770 > He sees things they do not see, does not fall for the things they fall for—but that means that he is a different type of human being and therefore necessarily alone. > %% rw:566505816 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6769 > The suffering entailed by the very fact of being an ego and an individual is implicit in the hero’s situation of having to distinguish himself psychologically from his fellows. > %% rw:566505815 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6757 > the hero, as the vehicle of this effort at compensation, becomes alienated from the normal human situation and from the collective. This decollectivization entails suffering, and he suffers at the same time because, in his struggle for freedom, he is also the victim and representative of the obsolete, old order and is forced to bear the burden of it in his own soul. > %% rw:566505814 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6737 > The artist seizes this image, and in the work of raising it from deepest unconsciousness and bringing it nearer to consciousness, he transforms its shape, until it can be accepted by his contemporaries according to their capacities. > %% rw:566505813 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6717 > The hero’s mythological accession to power is only transpersonally true. He and his world of values may conquer and come to power, but often enough he never lives to experience this power personally. > %% rw:566505812 %% ### Saturday, 1 July 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6704 > Everywhere contact with the archetypes modifies the purely personal world. > %% rw:557164926 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6627 > He who speaks in primordial images speaks with a thousand voices; he enthralls and overpowers, while at the same time he lifts the idea he is trying to express out of the occasional and the transitory into the realm of the ever-enduring. > %% rw:557164925 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6620 > Man can apprehend and know his own being only insofar as he can make it visible in the image of his gods. > %% rw:557164924 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6589 > sacred animals came “before” stockbreeding, just as in general the sacred meaning of a thing is older than its profane meaning. Its objective significance is only perceived afterwards, behind its symbolic significance. > %% rw:556587739 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6425 > During this process ego consciousness proves its difference from all other partial psychic systems—of which it is one—by throwing off that fanatical obsession with itself which is symptomatic of every system’s primary will to self-preservation. > %% rw:556587738 %% --- ## June 2023 ### Monday, 19 June 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 6284 > The kind of experience we shall have is prescribed by the archetypes, but what we experience is always individual. > %% rw:550649845 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5919 > Originally, consciousness did not possess enough free libido to perform any activity–plowing, harvesting, hunting, waging war, etc.—of its own “free will,” and was obliged to invoke the help of the god who “understood” these things. > %% rw:550649844 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5911 > The more anthropomorphic the world of gods becomes, the closer it is to the ego and the more it loses its overwhelming character. > %% rw:550649843 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5793 > all knowledge rests on an aggressive act of incorporation. > %% rw:550649842 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5639 > Herein lies the real revolutionary quality of the hero. He alone, by overcoming the old phase, succeeds in casting out fear and changing it into joy. > %% rw:550649841 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5443 > The devouring side of the uroboros is experienced as the tendency of the unconscious to destroy consciousness. > %% rw:550649840 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5422 > All unconscious contents have, as complexes, a specific tendency, a striving to assert themselves. > %% rw:550649839 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5409 > So long as the system of ego consciousness is functioning soundly, it remains an organ affiliated to the whole, combining in itself the executive and the directive functions. > %% rw:550649838 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5391 > Originally it was impossible for the ego to distinguish the source of these images, for at the stage of participation mystique an outside could not be perceived as distinct from an inside; the two sets of images overlapped, so that experience of the world coincided with inner experience. > %% rw:550649837 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5387 > in mythological cosmogony the origin of consciousness and the coming of light are one and the same. > %% rw:550649836 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5378 > Centroversion is already at work as the primary function of the psyche, causing unconscious contents to present themselves to consciousness in the form of images. > %% rw:550649835 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5375 > The subjective reaction to the object always takes precedence historically, while the objective qualities of the object remain in the background. > %% rw:550649834 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5373 > We contend, therefore, that the physical process of oxidation, fire, is experienced with the aid of images which derive from the interior world of the psyche and are projected upon the external world, rather than that experiences of the external world are superimposed on the inner. > %% rw:550649833 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5349 > only when hunger is centrally represented and is perceived by an ego center do we get the beginning of consciousness, not when instinct merely sets the body-whole in motion by reflex action. > %% rw:550649832 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5222 > instincts command a knowledge of reality infinitely superior to our conscious knowledge even today. > %% rw:550649831 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5171 > Logical contraries united in participation mystique—that is the law of this magical world where everything is full of holy workings. > %% rw:550649830 %% ### Friday, 16 June 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 5164 > So long as an apperceptive ego consciousness is lacking, there can be no history; for history requires a “reflecting” consciousness, which by reflecting constitutes it. > %% rw:548667441 %% ### Monday, 12 June 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 1129 > This world has a higher meaning that transcends its worries, or nothing is true but those worries. > %% rw:546824044 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 1110 > “A man is more a man through the things he keeps to himself than through those he says. > %% rw:546824043 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 1030 > Of all kinds of fame the least deceptive is the one that is lived. > %% rw:546824042 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 4498 > Nothing excites our interest more than a prohibition. It is the surest way of provoking disobedience. > %% rw:546824033 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 4960 > History teaches that in the beginning the individual did not exist as an independent entity, but that the group dominated and did not allow the emancipation of a separate ego. > %% rw:546823931 %% ### Sunday, 11 June 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Experience the Impossible]] · [[Bill Johnson]] · Loc. 771 > Yielding to the command to do the impossible is what connects us to the enabling grace of God. > %% rw:546824064 %% > [!quote] [[Experience the Impossible]] · [[Bill Johnson]] · Loc. 764 > Law requires, grace enables. > %% rw:546824063 %% > [!quote] [[Experience the Impossible]] · [[Bill Johnson]] · Loc. 762 > from God’s perspective the seed is as defiling as the fruit. > %% rw:546824062 %% > [!quote] [[The Awe of God]] · [[John Bevere]] · Loc. 797 > where the Lord is reverenced, His presence manifests. > %% rw:546824060 %% ### Tuesday, 6 June 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Awe of God]] · [[John Bevere]] · Loc. 744 > it was merely the son’s change of heart coupled with his corresponding action of coming home that drew an enthusiastic embrace and kiss from his father. > %% rw:544889707 %% ### Monday, 5 June 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 933 > melancholy people have two reasons for being so: they don’t know or they hope. > %% rw:542427197 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 905 > All systems of morality are based on the idea that an action has consequences that legitimize or cancel it. > %% rw:542427196 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 413 > we shall deem a verdict absurd when we contrast it with the verdict the facts apparently dictated. > %% rw:542427195 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 303 > To will is to stir up paradoxes. > %% rw:542427194 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 300 > you give me the choice between a description that is sure but that teaches me nothing and hypotheses that claim to teach me but that are not sure. > %% rw:542427193 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 221 > Tomorrow, he was longing for tomorrow, whereas everything in him ought to reject it. > %% rw:542427192 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 215 > Likewise and during every day of an unillustrious life, time carries us. But a moment always comes when we have to carry it. > %% rw:542427191 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 167 > is there a logic to the point of death? > %% rw:542427190 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 166 > Men who die by their own hand consequently follow to its conclusion their emotional inclination. > %% rw:542427189 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 163 > Does the Absurd dictate death? > %% rw:542427188 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 159 > One kills oneself because life is not worth living, that is certainly a truth—yet an unfruitful one because it is a truism. > %% rw:542427187 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 151 > The body’s judgment is as good as the mind’s, and the body shrinks from annihilation. > %% rw:542427186 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 125 > Dying voluntarily implies that you have recognized, even instinctively, the ridiculous character of that habit, the absence of any profound reason for living, the insane character of that daily agitation, and the uselessness of suffering. > %% rw:542427185 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 104 > (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). > %% rw:542427184 %% > [!quote] [[The Myth of Sisyphus]] · [[Albert Camus]] · Loc. 93 > THERE is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. > %% rw:542427183 %% --- ## May 2023 ### Saturday, 27 May 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Mere Christianity]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 210 > When a man who accepts the Christian doctrine lives unworthily of it, it is much clearer to say he is a bad Christian than to say he is not a Christian. > %% rw:542002675 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 13591 > The sarkikos (carnal man) remains eternally under the law; the pneumatikos (spiritual man) alone is capable of being reborn into freedom. This is quite in keeping with what seems such an insoluble paradox: the Church demanding absolute obedience and at the same time proclaiming freedom from the law. > %% rw:542002647 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 13449 > This type of woman has an oddly disarming effect on her husband, but only until he discovers that the person he has married and who shares his nuptial bed is his mother-in-law. > %% rw:542002646 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 4057 > He himself did not create the spirit, rather the spirit makes him creative, always spurring him on, giving him lucky ideas, staying power, “enthusiasm” and “inspiration.” > %% rw:542002645 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3600 > every mother contains her daughter in herself and every daughter her mother, and that every woman extends backwards into her mother and forwards into her daughter. > %% rw:542002644 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3433 > Wholeness, empirically speaking, is therefore of immeasurable extent, older and younger than consciousness and enfolding it in time and space. This is no speculation, but an immediate psychic experience. > %% rw:542002643 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3366 > Children are educated by what the grownup is and not by what he says. > %% rw:542002642 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3360 > The conscious mind, split off from its origins, incapable of page 175 →realizing the meaning of the new state, then relapses all too easily into a situation far worse than the one from which the innovation was intended to free it—exempla sunt odiosa! > %% rw:542002641 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3338 > The hermaphrodite means nothing less than a union of the strongest and most striking opposites. > %% rw:542002640 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3297 > Only because of this psychic “otherness” is consciousness possible at all. Identity does not make consciousness possible; it is only separation, detachment, and agonizing confrontation through opposition that produce consciousness and insight. > %% rw:542002639 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3249 > Everything that man should, and yet cannot, be or do—be it in a positive or negative sense—lives on as a mythological figure and anticipation alongside his consciousness, either as a religious projection or—what is still more dangerous—as unconscious contents which then project themselves spontaneously into incongruous objects, e.g., hygienic and other “salvationist” doctrines or practices. > %% rw:542002638 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3154 > Life is a flux, a flowing into the future, and not a stoppage or a backwash. It is therefore not surprising that so many of the mythological saviours are child gods. > %% rw:542002637 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3134 > Our differentiated consciousness is in continual danger of being uprooted; hence it needs compensation through the still existing state of childhood. > %% rw:542002636 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3132 > For ages man has dreamed of flying, and all we have got for it is saturation bombing! > %% rw:542002635 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3027 > With the loss of the past, now become “insignificant,” devalued, and incapable of revaluation, the saviour is lost too, for the saviour is either the insignificant thing itself or else arises out of it. Over and over again in the “metamorphosis of the gods” he rises up as the prophet or first-born of a new page 158 →generation and appears unexpectedly in the unlikeliest places (sprung from a stone, tree, furrow, water, etc.) and in ambiguous form (Tom Thumb, dwarf, child, animal, and so on). > %% rw:542002634 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 3015 > If such a content should speak of the sun and identify with it the lion, the king, the hoard of gold guarded by the dragon, or the power that makes for the life and health of man, it is neither the one thing nor the other, but the unknown third thing that finds more or less adequate expression in all these similes, yet—to the perpetual vexation of the intellect—remains unknown and not to be fitted into a formula. > %% rw:542002633 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2999 > Every interpretation necessarily remains an “as-if.” The ultimate core of meaning may be circumscribed, but not described. > %% rw:542002632 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2997 > Contents of an archetypal character are manifestations of processes in the collective unconscious. Hence they do not refer to anything that is or has been conscious, but to something essentially unconscious. > %% rw:542002631 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2969 > A tribe’s mythology is its living religion, whose loss is always and everywhere, even among the civilized, a moral catastrophe. > %% rw:542002630 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2964 > The primitive mentality does not invent myths, it experiences them. > %% rw:542002629 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2949 > the primitive does not think consciously, but that thoughts appear. The primitive cannot assert that he thinks; it is rather that “something thinks in him.” > %% rw:542002628 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2947 > Myths on this level are as a rule tribal history handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. > %% rw:542002627 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2915 > Even then there was sufficient empirical material available to permit far-reaching psychological conclusions, but the necessary premises were lacking. > %% rw:542002626 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2677 > Very often behaviour prescribed by rule is a substitute for spiritual transformation. > %% rw:542002625 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2582 > We are that pair of Dioscuri, one of whom is mortal and the other immortal, and who, though always together, can never be made completely one. > %% rw:542002624 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2575 > In this particular case there was a long-drawn-out process of page 131 →inner transformation and rebirth into another being. This “other being” is the other person in ourselves—that larger and greater personality maturing within us, whom we have already met as the inner friend of the soul. > %% rw:542002623 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2562 > they anticipated the result in the hope of making the process repeat itself which had led to that result. This is how it happened then and how it still happens today. > %% rw:542002622 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2523 > At first only Pharaoh participated in the transformation of the god, since he alone “had an Osiris”; but later the nobles of the Empire acquired an Osiris too, and finally this development culminated in the Christian idea that everyone has an immortal soul and shares directly in the Godhead. > %% rw:542002621 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2481 > In the crowd one feels no responsibility, but also no fear. > %% rw:542002620 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2474 > The psychology of a large crowd inevitably sinks to the level of mob psychology. > %% rw:542002619 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2429 > In any case the temptation to be what one seems to be is great, because the persona is usually rewarded in cash. > %% rw:542002618 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2427 > One could say, with a little exaggeration, that the persona is that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is. > %% rw:542002617 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2417 > Possession can be formulated as identity of the ego-personality with a complex. > %% rw:542002616 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2386 > He who is truly and hopelessly little will always drag the revelation of the greater down to the level of his littleness, and will never understand that the day of judgment for his littleness has dawned. But the man who is inwardly great will know that the long expected friend of his soul, the immortal one, has now really come, “to lead captivity captive”;8 that is, to seize hold of him by whom this immortal had always been confined and held prisoner, and to make his life flow into that greater life—a moment of deadliest peril! > %% rw:542002615 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2374 > What comes to us from outside, and, for that matter, everything that rises up from within, can only be made our own if we are capable of an inner amplitude equal to that of the incoming content. > %% rw:542002614 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2373 > Richness of mind consists in mental receptivity, not in the accumulation of possessions. > %% rw:542002613 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2372 > if some great idea takes hold of us from outside, we must understand that it takes hold of us only because something in us responds to it and goes out to meet it. > %% rw:542002612 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2290 > if we want to find out what rebirth really is, we must turn to history in order to ascertain what “rebirth” has been understood to mean. > %% rw:542002611 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2289 > The mere fact that people talk about rebirth, and that there is such a concept at all, means that a store of psychic experiences designated by that term must actually exist. > %% rw:542002610 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2199 > yang (the light, warm, dry, masculine principle) contains within it the seed of yin (the dark, cold, moist, feminine principle), and vice versa. Matter therefore would contain the seed of spirit and spirit the seed of matter. > %% rw:542002609 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2135 > Idealization is a hidden apotropaism; one idealizes whenever there is a secret fear to be exorcized. > %% rw:542002608 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2072 > As the distance between conscious and unconscious increases, the grandmother’s more exalted rank transforms her into a “Great Mother,” and it frequently happens that the opposites contained in this image split apart. > %% rw:542002607 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2050 > To him the world is a more or less fluid phenomenon within the stream of his own fantasy, where subject and object are undifferentiated and in a state of mutual interpenetration. “All that is outside, also is inside,” we could say with Goethe. > %% rw:542002606 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 2044 > How else could it have occurred to man to divide the cosmos, on the analogy of day and night, summer and winter, into a bright day-world and a dark night-world peopled with fabulous monsters, unless he had the prototype of such a division in himself, in the polarity between the conscious and the invisible and unknowable unconscious? > %% rw:542002605 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1924 > He ought never to forget that the world exists only because opposing forces are held in equilibrium. So, too, the rational is counterbalanced by the irrational, and what is planned and purposed by what is. > %% rw:542002604 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1915 > A view of the world or a social order that cuts him off from the primordial images of life not only is no culture at all but, in increasing degree, is a prison or a stable. > %% rw:542002603 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1912 > The more independent “reason” pretends to be, the more it turns into sheer intellectuality which puts doctrine in the place of reality and shows us man not as he is but how it wants him to be. > %% rw:542002602 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1905 > Even if all proofs of the existence of archetypes were lacking, and all the clever people in the world succeeded in convincing us that such a thing could not possibly exist, we would have to invent them forthwith in order to keep our highest and most important values from disappearing into the unconscious. > %% rw:542002601 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1904 > The archetype is really far less a scientific problem than an urgent question of psychic hygiene. > %% rw:542002600 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1864 > This kind of daughter knows what she does not want, but is usually completely at sea as to what she would choose as her own fate. > %% rw:542002599 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1853 > She is so much an appendage of her mother that she can only flutter confusedly when a man approaches. She just doesn’t know a thing. She is so inexperienced, so terribly in need of help, that even the gentlest swain becomes a daring abductor who brutally robs a loving mother of her daughter. > %% rw:542002598 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1410 > A man without a dominating représentation collective would be a thoroughly abnormal phenomenon. But such a person exists page 63 →only in the fantasies of isolated individuals who are deluded about themselves. > %% rw:542002597 %% ### Friday, 26 May 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 1528 > We must invite leadership into our lives and learn to trust them more than we trust ourselves. > %% rw:542002717 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 1443 > God is in charge of everything, but He has left us in control. > %% rw:542002716 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 1426 > courage is fear that has said its prayers! It’s been said that, “A coward dies a thousand deaths, but a brave person dies only once.” > %% rw:542002715 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 1365 > if we use what we have received, more will be given to us. If we do not use what we have, even what we have will be taken away from us. > %% rw:542002714 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 1175 > The fruit of the prophetic word must be that the person receiving it is brought closer to God and His people. > %% rw:542002713 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 1122 > In the New Testament Church, however, the Christian who receives the word has as much responsibility to judge the word as the one who gave it because both the giver and receiver have the same Holy Spirit living inside them. > %% rw:542002712 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 1117 > Now we can have a spiritual experience without the Holy Spirit’s participation because we are a spirit trying to have a temporary, human experience. > %% rw:542002711 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 691 > The difference between the deaf and the hearing is not how loudly God speaks, but how open we are to hear Him speak. > %% rw:542002710 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 658 > The value we place on the word will determine the power we will receive from it. > %% rw:542002709 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 606 > God does not hide things from us; He hides them for us. > %% rw:542002708 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 600 > Jesus made it plain that those who are born again have a tremendous advantage over anyone who lived under the Old Covenant because God’s Spirit now resides within us and is in constant communication with our spirit. > %% rw:542002707 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 577 > God’s voice is hidden from the arrogant and the proud. > %% rw:542002706 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 463 > the calling on our lives describes who we are. The anointing of God provides us with our purpose in life. The gifts that God has given to us become the abilities through which we accomplish His purposes. > %% rw:542002705 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 447 > The main function of a prophet is not primarily to prophesy, but instead to equip the saints to do the work of service (see Ephesians 4:12). > %% rw:542002704 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 396 > The fruit of the Spirit is a sign that we actually have a relationship with God. Again, > > **My note:** Fruits are contrasted with gifts. The receiving of gifts say nothing about the receiver but the bearer of fruit says something about the bearer. > %% rw:542002703 %% ### Sunday, 21 May 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 1535 > the question whether the disease generates the crime, or the crime somehow by its peculiar nature is always accompanied by something akin to disease, he did not yet feel able to resolve. > %% rw:533537495 %% > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 1531 > almost any criminal, experiences at the moment of the crime a sort of failure of will and reason, which, on the contrary, are replaced by a phenomenal, childish thoughtlessness, just at the moment when reason and prudence are most necessary. > %% rw:533537494 %% > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 1435 > Kill her and take her money, so that afterwards with its help you can devote yourself to the service of all mankind and the common cause: what do you think, wouldn’t thousands of good deeds make up for one tiny little crime? For one life, thousands of lives saved from decay and corruption. One death for hundreds of lives—it’s simple arithmetic! > %% rw:533537493 %% > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 1229 > In a morbid condition, dreams are often distinguished by their remarkably graphic, vivid, and extremely lifelike quality. > %% rw:533537492 %% > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 1060 > And me? What, indeed, do you take me for? I don’t want your sacrifice, Dunechka, I don’t want it, mama! It won’t happen as long as I live, it won’t, it won’t! I don’t accept it!” > %% rw:533537491 %% > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 913 > ‘words are not yet deeds,’ > %% rw:533537490 %% > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 894 > if one wants to know any man well, one must consider him gradually and carefully, so as not to fall into error and prejudice, which are very difficult to correct and smooth out later. > %% rw:533537489 %% > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 562 > Do you understand, do you understand, my dear sir, what it means when there is no longer anywhere to go? > %% rw:533537488 %% > [!quote] [[Crime and Punishment]] · [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] · Loc. 463 > We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken. > %% rw:533537487 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 274 > True humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. > %% rw:533537484 %% > [!quote] [[Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 257 > Like many people whose greatness has somehow gotten lost under low self-esteem and bad circumstances, Saul seems to be completely unaware of the nobility that lies in his heart. > %% rw:533537483 %% --- ## April 2023 ### Wednesday, 19 April 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Overcoming Onto-Theology]] · [[Merold Westphal]] > "We go to church in order to sing, and theology is secondary." One way to see how far we have overcome onto-theology is to ask how strongly we are inspired by our theology to sing songs of praise to the God who triumphed over political, economic, and cultural oppression when "Pharaoh's army got drownded." > %% rw:511494054 %% ### Wednesday, 12 April 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 320 > Language is alive because it can even die. > %% rw:507795588 %% > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 319 > the will to be a people cannot cling here to any dead means; this can be realized only by means of the people itself; the people is a people only through the people. > %% rw:507794968 %% --- ## March 2023 ### Saturday, 25 March 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 4933 > The world as the outside world of extrahuman events, the community as the sphere of interhuman relationships, the psyche as the world of interior human experience—these are the three basic factors which govern human life, and man’s creative encounter with each of them is decisive for the development of the individual. > %% rw:502299465 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 4578 > Every king was once Horus and becomes Osiris (illus. 30); every Osiris was once Horus. Horus and Osiris are one. > %% rw:502299464 %% ### Saturday, 18 March 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 249 > Moreover, the content is itself nothing other than that which establishes this form. One does not sing together in view of a specific content, but rather one seeks a common content in order to be able to sing together. If the genealogical sentence must be the content of a song performed together, it can only appear to establish such a harmony; the "he is good" must appear as a "for he is good." > %% rw:492730612 %% > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 246 > God had to create the world so that like a disenchanted creature it could keep close under the wings of his providence. God had to call man by his name so that he, an opened soul, might open his mouth. > %% rw:492726775 %% > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 245 > Such is the entanglement of all action: the freedom is tied to the object it has in view, the good would only be possible in a world that is already good, the individual could not be good if all things are not good-and yet, the Good can only reign in the world thanks to good people, to use the extraordinary words of the Queen of Prussia. It is indissoluble, for man and the world are indissolubly bound. The taking action detaches the act from man, but then binds > %% rw:492725728 %% > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 241 > Eternity is not a very long time, but a tomorrow that just as well could be today. Eternity is a future, which, without ceasing to be future, is nevertheless present. Eternity is a today that would be conscious of being more than today. And to say that the Kingdom is eternally coming means that its growth is no doubt necessary, but that the rhythm of this growth is not definite, or, more exactly: that the growth does not have any relationship to time. An existence that has once entered into the Kingdom cannot fall back outside again; it has entered under the sign of the once-andfor-all, it has become eternal. > %% rw:492719721 %% > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 230 > Love for the neighbor is that which at every moment surmounts and yet always presupposes that pure surrender. For without this presupposition, it could not be that which according to its essence it must be: necessary, despiteyes, despite!-its selfrenewing at every moment. It would be only "freedom"; for its origin would only reside in the will alone; but man can only externalize himself in the act of love, once the soul has been awakened by God. Only the love received from God makes the act of love on the soul's part more than a mere act, namely the fulfillment of a-commandment of love. > %% rw:492711796 %% > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 224 > The hero was a man, if only in the primordial world. But the mystic is not a man, he is scarcely half a man, he is only the vessel of the raptures he feels. He speaks, certainly, but what he says is only answer and not word, his life is only waiting and not walking forward. But only a man in whom the answer would give rise to the word, in whom the waiting for God would give rise to walking before God, only he would be a true man, fully a man. Only he could counterbalance the hero; for only he would be visible, only he would be as much a figure as the hero is. > %% rw:492704845 %% ### Tuesday, 7 March 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4608 > If the map you are using is missing part of the world, you are going to be utterly unprepared when that absent element makes itself manifest. How is it possible for us to retain the advantages of simplification, without falling prey to the accompanying blindness? The answer is to be found in the constant dialogue between genuinely different types of people. > %% rw:487767086 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4273 > “careful and unbiased pursuit of the truth will make the world a better place for all people, reducing suffering, extending life, and producing wealth.” > > **My note:** The story which the pursuit of Science is nested in > %% rw:487767085 %% ### Friday, 3 March 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] > we defined the world as that which becomes, in contrast to God who became before all beginning, and in contrast to the Self which became in the course of past time. By reason of "its becoming out of nothing," we set the world at the end of the world, as we had set God at the dawn of the world and the Self at the light of its noon > %% rw:485321874 %% ### Thursday, 2 March 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4181 > do not ever punish your partner for doing something you want them to continue doing. Particularly if it took some real courage—some real going above and beyond the call of duty—to manage. > %% rw:485136685 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4132 > Romance is play, and play does not take place easily when problems of any sort arise. Play requires peace, and peace requires negotiation. And you are lucky even then if you get to play. > %% rw:485136684 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3991 > “You will do, for now, and I presume you feel the same way about me. Otherwise we would just get married. But in the name of a common sense that neither of us possesses we are going to reserve the right to swap each other out for a better option at any point.” And if you do not think that is what living together means—as a fully articulated ethical statement—see if you can formulate something more plausible. > %% rw:485136683 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3976 > if you are married to someone, you often see them at their worst, because you have to share the genuine difficulties of life with them. > %% rw:485136682 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3871 > There are three fundamental states of social being: tyranny (you do what I want), slavery (I do what you want), or negotiation. > %% rw:485136681 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3844 > A marriage is a vow, and there is a reason for it. You announce jointly, publicly: “I am not going to leave you, in sickness or health, in poverty or wealth—and you are not going to leave me.” It is actually a threat: “We are not getting rid of each other, no matter what.” > %% rw:485136680 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3815 > what is the superordinate principle to which both marital partners must bow? It is not illumination as mere verbal abstraction. It is not that they are only supposed to think and speak the truth. It is that they are supposed to act it out. And that is the ancient idea that the Word should be made flesh. > %% rw:485136679 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3788 > In a relationship where romance remains intact, truth must be king. > %% rw:485136678 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3677 > To some great degree, we are our assumptions. They structure the world for us. When basic axioms of faith are challenged (“People are basically good”), the foundation shakes and the walls crumble. > %% rw:485136677 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3221 > It is a psychological truism that anything sufficiently threatening or harmful once encountered can never be forgotten if it has never been understood. > %% rw:485136676 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3024 > Art bears the same relationship to society that the dream bears to mental life. > %% rw:485136675 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3006 > Artists are the people who stand on the frontier of the transformation of the unknown into knowledge. They make their voluntary foray out into the unknown, and they take a piece of it and transform it into an image. > %% rw:485136674 %% --- ## February 2023 ### Friday, 17 February 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 90 > The silence of the tragic hero is silent in all art and in all art is understood without any words. The Self does not speak and yet is heard. The Self is seen. The pure, mute seeing effects in each spectator the turn inward into his own innerness. > %% rw:477291892 %% > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 75 > Free will is as free as the free divine action; but God does not have free will, man does not have free power; "to be good" means in God's case to do good, in man's to will good. > %% rw:477276440 %% ### Wednesday, 15 February 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion]] · [[Franz Rosenzweig]] · p. 56 > A particular that "knows" that the universal exists is no longer merely a particular, but a particular that, without ceasing to be essentially particular, has already reached the frontiers where the power of the universal is exercised. This is the "individual," the singular, which bears on its body the marks of the universal, not of the universal in general, which obviously does not have "marks"-but of its universal, of its genus, of its species, while remaining essentially a particular, except that now it is an "individual" particular. > %% rw:476218015 %% ### Tuesday, 14 February 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2807 > Christ therefore presents Himself as both the product of tradition, and the very thing that creates and transforms it. > %% rw:476071366 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2801 > Spirit is the creative force that gives rise to what becomes dogma, with time. Spirit is also that which constantly transcends such time-honored tradition, when possible. > %% rw:476071365 %% ### Thursday, 9 February 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2584 > That which is valuable is pure, properly aligned, and glitters with light—and this is true for the person just as it is for the gem. > %% rw:473548621 %% ### Tuesday, 7 February 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1378 > A man without a dominating représentation collective would be a thoroughly abnormal phenomenon. But such a person exists only in the fantasies of isolated individuals who are deluded about themselves. > %% rw:473548630 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1386 > When one is dogmatic oneself, it is notoriously easy to take other people for prophets and founders of religions. > %% rw:473548629 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 1027 > the personal unconscious consists for the most part of complexes, the content of the collective unconscious is made up essentially of archetypes. > %% rw:473548628 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 853 > Thought was essentially revelation, not invented but forced upon us or bringing conviction through its immediacy and actuality. > %% rw:473548627 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 820 > in all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order, in all caprice a fixed law, for everything that works is grounded on its opposite. > %% rw:473548626 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 815 > When you come to think about it, nothing has any meaning, for when there was nobody to think, there was nobody to interpret what happened. Interpretations are only for those who don’t understand; it is only the things we don’t understand that have any meaning. Man woke up in a world he did not understand, and that is why he tries to interpret it. > %% rw:473548625 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 741 > With the archetype of the anima we enter the realm of the gods, or rather, the realm that metaphysics has reserved for itself. Everything the anima touches becomes numinous—unconditional, dangerous, taboo, magical. > %% rw:473548624 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 671 > Whoever looks into the water sees his own image, but behind it living creatures soon loom up; > %% rw:473548623 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 658 > Heaven has become for us the cosmic space of the physicists, and the divine empyrean a fair memory of things that once were. But “the heart glows,” and a secret unrest gnaws at the roots of our being. > %% rw:473548622 %% ### Monday, 6 February 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > When it is a duty in loving to love the people we see, there is no limit to love; if the duty is to be fulfilled, love must be limitless, it is unchanged, no matter how the object becomes changed. > %% rw:471082710 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > No change, however, can take the neighbor from you, because it is not the neighbor who holds you fast, but it is your love that holds the neighbor fast. If your love for the neighbor remains unchanged, then the neighbor also remains unchanged by existing. > %% rw:471080181 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > Love your friend honestly and devotedly, but let love for the neighbor be what you learn from each other in your friendship's confidential relationship with God! > %% rw:471079664 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > You do not have the right to become insensitive to this feeling, because you shall love; but neither do you have the right to love despairingly, because you shall love; and just as little do you have the right to warp this feeling in you, because you shall love. You shall preserve love, and you shall preserve yourself and by and in preserving yourself preserve love. > %% rw:471079188 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > But just because it is the same love, for that very reason it is not in the eternal sense the true love, which remains, unchanged the same, whereas that spontaneous love, when it is changed, is still basically the same. > %% rw:471058254 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > By this shall love is also eternally secured against every change. The love that has only existence can be changed; it can be changed within itself and it can be changed from itself. > %% rw:471057145 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > Only when it is a duty to love, only then is love eternally secured. This security of eternity casts out all anxiety and makes love perfect, perfectly secured. > %% rw:471056300 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > "You shall love." Only when it is a duty to love, only then is love eternally secured against every change, eternally made free in blessed independence, eternally and happily secured against despair. > %% rw:471036337 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > To choose a beloved, to find a friend, yes, this is a complicated business, but one's neighbor is easy to recognize, easy to find if only one will personally acknowledge one's duty. > %% rw:471027399 %% > [!quote] [[Works of Love]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > The one to whom I have a duty is my neighbor, and when I fulfill my duty I show that I am a neighbor. Christ does not speak about knowing the neighbor but about becoming a neighbor oneself, about showing oneself to be a neighbor just as the Samaritan showed it by his mercy. > %% rw:471025584 %% ### Saturday, 4 February 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Kierkegaard's Writings, XV, Volume 15]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > Is not evil, just like evil people, at odds with itself, divided in itself? Take someone like that, separate him from society, lock him up in solitary confinement-is he not divided against himself there, just as the bad alliance of such similar minds is a divided union. > %% rw:468992999 %% > [!quote] [[Kierkegaard's Writings, XV, Volume 15]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > It is said that a singer can rupture his voice by outvoicing himself; similarly the nature of a person like that is ruptured by outvoicing itself and the voice of conscience. > %% rw:468989508 %% ### Thursday, 2 February 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Kierkegaard's Writings, XII, Volume I]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > Esthetically, the sacred resting place of the upbuilding is outside the individual; he seeks that place. In the ethical-religious sphere, the individual himself is the place, if the individual has annihilated himself > %% rw:467691046 %% > [!quote] [[Kierkegaard's Writings, XII, Volume I]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > Instead of presenting the good in the form of actuality, as is ordinarily done, that this person and that person have actually lived and have actually done this, and thus transforming the reader into an observer, an admirer, an appraiser, it should be presented in the form of possibility > %% rw:467678347 %% --- ## January 2023 ### Monday, 30 January 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Kierkegaard's Writings, XII, Volume I]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > Actual time separates the good and the reward for him so much, so eternally, that sagacity cannot join them again, and the eudaemonist declines with thanks. To will the good is indeed the most sagacious thingyet not as understood by sagacity but as understood by the good. The transition is clear enough as a break, indeed, as a suffering. > %% rw:465953858 %% > [!quote] [[Kierkegaard's Writings, XII, Volume I]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > If there is to be a distinction at all between thinking and acting, this can be maintained only by assigning possibility, disinterestedness, and objectivity to thinking, and action to subjectivity > %% rw:465946276 %% > [!quote] [[Kierkegaard's Writings, XII, Volume I]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > Socrates was a teacher of the ethical, but he was aware that there is no direct relation between the teacher and the learner, because inwardness is truth, and inwardness in the two is precisely the path away from each other. > %% rw:465933529 %% > [!quote] [[Kierkegaard's Writings, XII, Volume I]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > God has nothing remarkable, nothing at all remarkable, about him-indeed, he is so far from being remarkable that he is invisible, and thus one does not suspect that he is there [er til], although his invisibility is in turn his omnipresence. > %% rw:465932233 %% > [!quote] [[Kierkegaard's Writings, XII, Volume I]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > This contradiction is the absurd, which can only be believed. If a historical certainty is obtained, one obtains merely the certainty that what is certain is not what is the point in question. > %% rw:465931653 %% ### Sunday, 29 January 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2197 > The sovereign individual, awake and attending to his or her conscience, is the force that prevents the group, as the necessary structure guiding normative social relations, from becoming blind and deadly. > %% rw:465785079 %% ### Saturday, 28 January 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 508 > when spirit becomes heavy it turns to water, and with Luciferian presumption the intellect usurps the seat where once the spirit was enthroned. > %% rw:464696078 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 439 > when he starts thinking about them, he does so with the help of what he calls “reason”—which in point of fact is nothing more than the sum-total of all his prejudices and myopic views. > %% rw:464696077 %% > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 437 > The fact is that archetypal images are so packed with meaning in themselves that people never think of asking what they really do mean. > %% rw:464696076 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1905 > If you are going to take care of yourself, you are already burdened (or privileged) with a social responsibility. The you for whom you are caring is a community that exists across time. > %% rw:464696075 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1842 > To look upon evil with eyes unshielded is dangerous beyond belief, regardless of how necessary it is to look. > %% rw:464696074 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1830 > the archetypal Hero is born when things are at their worst. > %% rw:464696073 %% ### Monday, 23 January 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Concept of Anxiety]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1041 > That sin came into the world six thousand years ago is said in the same way that one would say about Nebuchadnezzar that it was four thousand years ago that he became an ox. > %% rw:464696082 %% > [!quote] [[The Concept of Anxiety]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 900 > This is the profound secret of innocence, that it is at the same time anxiety. > %% rw:464696081 %% > [!quote] [[The Concept of Anxiety]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 808 > Just as Adam lost innocence by guilt, so every man loses it in the same way. If it was not by guilt that he lost it, then it was not innocence that he lost; and if he was not innocent before becoming guilty, he never became guilty. > %% rw:464696080 %% ### Tuesday, 17 January 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Fear and Trembling]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > By faith Abraham did not renounce Isaac, but by faith Abraham received Isaac. > %% rw:457593168 %% ### Monday, 16 January 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Fear and Trembling]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > For he who loves God without faith reflects upon himself; he who loves God in faith reflects upon God. > %% rw:457520172 %% > [!quote] [[EitherOr A Fragment of Life|Either/Or: A Fragment of Life]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] > For he who loves God without faith reflects upon himself; he who loves God in faith reflects upon God. > %% rw:457517716 %% ### Sunday, 15 January 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9]] · [[C. G. Jung]] · Loc. 288 > The archetype is essentially an unconscious content that is altered by becoming conscious and by being perceived, and it takes its colour from the individual consciousness in which it happens to appear.9 > %% rw:457271204 %% > [!quote] [[The Gulag Archipelago Volume 1]] · [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] · Loc. 205 > That’s what arrest is: it’s a blinding flash and a blow which shifts the present instantly into the past and the impossible into omnipotent actuality. > %% rw:456319915 %% > [!quote] [[The Gulag Archipelago Volume 1]] · [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] · Loc. 159 > Don’t dig up the past! Dwell on the past and you’ll lose an eye.” But the proverb goes on to say: “Forget the past and you’ll lose both eyes.” > %% rw:456319914 %% ### Saturday, 14 January 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[EitherOr A Fragment of Life|Either/Or: A Fragment of Life]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · p. 76 > For the greatness is not to be this or that but to be oneself, and every human being can be this if he so wills it. > %% rw:455762296 %% ### Tuesday, 3 January 2023 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 3597 > According to the Old Testament, to “know” a name implies having control over the person. The mysterious or unknown nature of Christ’s name here points to his absolute sovereignty over the world. > %% rw:448757178 %% > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 2383 > even in this time of Satan’s wrath, his power is limited (20:2; Mk. 3:27), and the power of God’s kingdom, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Eph. 1:19-20) is available to his church. > %% rw:448584581 %% --- ## December 2022 ### Thursday, 29 December 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 525 > they overcome the attacks of the devil, even though they may appear to suffer defeat, as Christ did on the cross. > %% rw:445222816 %% > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 468 > The prophecy is not a set of predictions but, as in the Old Testament, a divine command from God calling for response. > %% rw:445222815 %% > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 319 > The purpose of the parables was to render the gospel message hard to understand for unbelievers, whose hearts were thus further hardened. But for those whose hearts were right, the parables served to drive them deeper into a desire for understanding. > %% rw:445222814 %% > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 104 > Revelation takes us back to the garden of Eden in order to demonstrate that God’s goal in that history is to restore the garden but in an even better form, one in which the very presence of evil is forever banished outside its confines. > %% rw:445222813 %% > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 99 > The story line of Revelation retraces that of the Exodus. Christians are portrayed as leaving the bondage of spiritual Egypt or Babylon, crossing the fearful sea where evil resides, and entering the place of God’s protection in the wilderness as they fix their eyes on the eventual goal of the eternal promised land. > %% rw:445222812 %% > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 94 > prophecy in the Bible deals far more with calling people to repentance and obedience in light of God’s purposes in history than about the simple prediction of future events. > %% rw:445222811 %% > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 87 > Revelation is full of the Old Testament. There are more allusions to the Old Testament in Revelation than in all other books of the New Testament combined. Most scholars estimate there are over 500 such allusions in Revelation’s 404 verses, compared with less than 200 in all of Paul’s letters. > %% rw:445222810 %% > [!quote] [[Mystery Explained - Campbell|Mystery Explained]] · [[David Campbell]] · Loc. 82 > Revelation is not a handbook to last-days events. It is a pastoral letter written to Christians of every age and generation on how to live lives faithful to God and Christ in the midst of all the challenges a hostile pagan world throws at them. > %% rw:445222809 %% ### Monday, 26 December 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1998 > Sin itself is severance from the good, but despair over sin is the second severance. > %% rw:445222820 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1761 > the lower nature’s power lies in stretching things out. > %% rw:445222819 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1632 > Admiration is happy self-surrender; envy is unhappy self-assertion. > %% rw:445222818 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1564 > sin is despair (for sin is not the turbulence of flesh and blood but is the spirit’s consent to it) and is: before God. > %% rw:445222817 %% ### Friday, 16 December 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1481 > Christianly understood, every poet-existence (esthetics notwithstanding) is sin, the sin of poetizing instead of being, of relating to the good and the true through the imagination instead of being that—that is, existentially striving to be that. > %% rw:435167556 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 891 > The believer has the ever infallible antidote for despair—possibility—because for God everything is possible at every moment. This is the good health of faith that resolves contradictions. The contradiction here is that, humanly speaking, downfall is certain, but that there is possibility nonetheless. > %% rw:435167555 %% ### Thursday, 1 December 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[A Treatise of Human Nature]] · [[David Hume]] · Loc. 4568 > A true sceptic will be diffident of his philosophical doubts, as well as of his philosophical conviction; and will never refuse any innocent satisfaction, which offers itself, upon account of either of them. > %% rw:424848018 %% > [!quote] [[A Treatise of Human Nature]] · [[David Hume]] · Loc. 4547 > Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous. > %% rw:424848017 %% > [!quote] [[A Treatise of Human Nature]] · [[David Hume]] · Loc. 4482 > the understanding, when it acts alone, and according to its most general principles, entirely subverts itself, and leaves not the lowest degree of evidence in any proposition, either in philosophy or common life. > > **My note:** Total skepticism > %% rw:424796663 %% > [!quote] [[A Treatise of Human Nature]] · [[David Hume]] · Loc. 4475 > Nothing is more dangerous to reason than the flights of the imagination, and nothing has been the occasion of more mistakes among philosophers. > %% rw:424796662 %% --- ## November 2022 ### Monday, 21 November 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1173 > Youth has the illusion of hope; the adult has the illusion of recollection, > %% rw:419321085 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1088 > This form of despair is: in despair not to will to be oneself. Or even lower: in despair not to will to be a self. Or lowest of all: in despair to will to be someone else, to wish for a new self. > %% rw:419321084 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1045 > a state in which there is no despair at all, is entirely correct, and this formula is also the formula for faith: in relating itself to itself and in willing to be itself, the self rests transparently in the power that established it > %% rw:419321083 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1045 > The opposite to being in despair is to have faith. > %% rw:419321082 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 1038 > The person who, with a realization that suicide is despair and to that extent with a true conception of the nature of despair, commits suicide is more intensively in despair than one who commits suicide without a clear idea that suicide is despair; conversely, the less true his conception of despair, the less intensive his despair. > %% rw:419321081 %% ### Sunday, 20 November 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 895 > To lack possibility means either that everything has become necessary for a person or that everything has become trivial. > %% rw:418960410 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 836 > When a self becomes lost in possibility in this way, it is not merely because of a lack of energy; at least it is not to be interpreted in the usual way. What is missing is essentially the power to obey, to submit to the necessity in one’s life, to what may be called one’s limitations. > %% rw:418960409 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 826 > To become is a movement away from that place, but to become oneself is a movement in that place. > %% rw:418960408 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 802 > If I have ventured wrongly, well, then life helps me by punishing me. > %% rw:418960407 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 799 > the person who knows what is genuinely appalling fears most of all any mistake, any sin that takes an inward turn and leaves no outward trace. > %% rw:418960406 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 785 > But whereas one kind of despair plunges wildly into the infinite and loses itself, another kind of despair seems to permit itself to be tricked out of its self by “the others.” Surrounded by hordes of men, absorbed in all sorts of secular matters, more and more shrewd about the ways of the world—such a person forgets himself, forgets his name divinely understood, does not dare to believe in himself, finds it too hazardous to be himself and far easier and safer to be like the others, to become a copy, a number, a mass man. > %% rw:418960405 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 769 > a self is the last thing the world cares about and the most dangerous thing of all for a person to show signs of having. > %% rw:418960404 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 750 > The law for the development of the self with respect to knowing, insofar as it is the case that the self becomes itself, is that the increase of knowledge corresponds to the increase of self-knowledge, that the more the self knows, the more it knows itself. > %% rw:418960403 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 734 > Infinitude’s despair, therefore, is the fantastic, the unlimited, for the self is healthy and free from despair only when, precisely by having despaired, it rests transparently in God. > %% rw:418960402 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 723 > if the self does not become itself, it is in despair, whether it knows that or not. Yet every moment that a self exists, it is in a process of becoming, > %% rw:418960401 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 720 > The self is the conscious synthesis of infinitude and finitude that relates itself to itself, whose task is to become itself, which can be done only through the relationship to God. > %% rw:418960400 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 709 > The self is composed of infinitude and finitude. However, this synthesis is a relation, and a relation that, even though it is derived, relates itself to itself, which is freedom.26 The self is freedom. > %% rw:418960399 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 680 > the person who without affectation says that he is in despair is still a little closer, is dialectically closer, to being cured than all those who are not regarded as such and who do not regard themselves as being in despair. > %% rw:418960398 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 452 > Such is the relation between the natural man and the Christian; it is like the relation between a child and an adult: what makes the child shudder and shrink, the adult regards as nothing. The child does not know what the horrifying is; the adult knows and shrinks from it. > %% rw:418960397 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 407 > The kind of scholarliness and scienticity that ultimately does not build up is precisely thereby unchristian. > %% rw:418960396 %% > [!quote] [[The Sickness Unto Death]] · [[Søren Kierkegaard]] · Loc. 115 > “If man did not have absolute need of God, he could not (1) know himself—self-knowledge, (2) be immortal.”17 > %% rw:418960395 %% ### Tuesday, 8 November 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 4328 > This reuniting of the head with the body, for the purpose of producing a whole figure and nullifying the dismemberment, is one of the main features of the Osiris cult. > %% rw:411182638 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 4288 > Trees, and particularly very big trees like the cedars of Lebanon, offer a powerful contrast to the fleeting life of vegetation, which in a treeless land like Egypt comes and goes with the season. They are the things that endure, so it is understandable that in early times the tree became the symbol of the djed, signifying duration: for the tree is a fully grown thing that nevertheless endures. To the primitive Egyptian, wood symbolized organic, living duration as opposed to the inorganic, dead duration of stone and the ephemeral life of vegetation.18 In the Canaanite sphere of culture centering upon Byblos, the tree trunk was sacred to the Great Mother, “Queen Astarte,” in the form of a post with hewn-off lateral branches;19 at all events it comes under the broad category of sacred trees and posts. > %% rw:411182637 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 4262 > The fundamental trend of centroversion–the conquest of death through everlastingness—finds its mythological and religious symbol in Osiris. Mummification, the preservation for all eternity of the body’s shape, as the outward and visible sign of its unity—this gives living expression to the anti-Set principle of Osiris. > %% rw:411182636 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 4252 > Dismemberment, whose symbols are the “knife of Set,” the Apopis serpent and the whole demonic horde of scorpions, snakes, monsters, and gorillas, is the danger that threatens the dead.13 It is the danger of psychophysical decay and extinction. The most vital parts of the Egyptian religion, and the whole of the Book of the Dead, are devoted to averting this danger. > > **My note:** The enemy in the Egyptian view was death, decay and extinction > %% rw:411182635 %% --- ## October 2022 ### Thursday, 6 October 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 4053 > His father a god and his mother the bride of a god, a personal father who hates him, then the killing of the transpersonal First Parents, and finally the liberation of the captive—these are the stages that mark the progress of the hero. But this path can only be trodden to its triumphal conclusion with the help of the divine father, whose agent here is Hermes, and with the help of Athene, whose spiritual character and hostility to the Great Mother we have already emphasized. > %% rw:404349378 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3984 > The inner object of the ritual is not the natural process, but the control of nature through the corresponding creative element in man. > %% rw:404349377 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3978 > Every culture-hero has achieved a synthesis between consciousness and the creative unconscious. > %% rw:404349376 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3969 > Man’s magico-religious behavior, which anthropocentrically includes his own actions as an essential part of the natural process, is the fountainhead of all culture. It is not true to say that he “reproduces” nature; rather, by means of an analogous set of symbols, he produces in his own soul the same creative process which he finds outside himself in nature. > %% rw:404349375 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3957 > The self-generating power of the soul is man’s true and final secret, by virtue of which he is made in the likeness of God the creator and distinguished from all other living things. > %% rw:404349374 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3936 > An effect that proceeds from an alteration in the subject is objective and real. > %% rw:404349373 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3819 > The freed captive is not merely a symbol of man’s erotic relations in the narrow sense. The task of the hero is to free, through her, the living relation to the “you,” to the world at large. > %% rw:404349372 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3726 > The background events in the soul are projected outwards and are experienced through the object, as a synthetic unity compounded of external reality and the psychic activation of this reality. > %% rw:404349371 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3713 > the myth must be interpreted on the objective level for the extravert and on the subjective level for the introvert,3 but both interpretations are necessary and meaningful. > %% rw:404349370 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3710 > There is one phenomenon which is of great importance in psychological interpretation, and this phenomenon we would call the typological dual focus of myth and symbol. > > **My note:** What does this mean? > %% rw:404349369 %% ### Monday, 3 October 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Lectures on the Philosophy of World History]] · [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] · Loc. 2183 > For the universal can only be realised by means of the particular. > %% rw:392130103 %% > [!quote] [[Lectures on the Philosophy of World History]] · [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] · Loc. 2173 > The human passions are satisfied in much the same way: they fulfil themselves and their ends in accordance with their specific nature, and thereby create the edifice of human society in which justice and order are given power over the passions themselves. > %% rw:392130102 %% > [!quote] [[Lectures on the Philosophy of World History]] · [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] · Loc. 2161 > The will of the individual is free if he can determine his volitions absolutely, abstractly, and in and for himself. > %% rw:392130101 %% > [!quote] [[Lectures on the Philosophy of World History]] · [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] · Loc. 2155 > The first principle of the Idea in this form, as already remarked, is the Idea itself as an abstract entity; and the second is that of human passion. > %% rw:392130100 %% > [!quote] [[Lectures on the Philosophy of World History]] · [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] · Loc. 2135 > This infinite right of the subject is the second essential moment of freedom, in that the subject must itself be satisfied by whatever activity or task it performs. > %% rw:391783555 %% --- ## September 2022 ### Friday, 30 September 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Trans]] · [[Helen Joyce]] · Loc. 270 > Ideas have consequences, and one of the consequences of the idea of gender self-identification is that children are being manipulated and damaged. > %% rw:404349397 %% > [!quote] [[Trans]] · [[Helen Joyce]] · Loc. 244 > These things are happening partly because of an admirable, but poorly thought-out, sense of compassion for trans people. > %% rw:404349396 %% > [!quote] [[Trans]] · [[Helen Joyce]] · Loc. 175 > Gender self-identification, however, is a demand for validation by others. The label is a misnomer. It is actually about requiring others to identify you as a member of the sex you proclaim. Since evolution has equipped humans with the ability to recognise other people’s sex, almost instantaneously and with exquisite accuracy, very few trans people ‘pass’ as their desired sex. And so to see them as that sex, everyone else must discount what their senses are telling them. > %% rw:404349395 %% > [!quote] [[Trans]] · [[Helen Joyce]] · Loc. 172 > A liberal, secular society can accommodate many subjective belief systems, even mutually contradictory ones. What it must never do is impose one group’s beliefs on everyone else. > %% rw:404349394 %% > [!quote] [[Trans]] · [[Helen Joyce]] · Loc. 158 > What is being demanded is no longer flexibility, but a redefinition of what it means for anyone to be a man or woman – a total rewrite of societal rules. > %% rw:404349393 %% > [!quote] [[Trans]] · [[Helen Joyce]] · Loc. 153 > In the simplistic version of the new creed that has hardened into social-justice orthodoxy, gender is no longer even something that is performed. It is innate and ineffable: something like a sexed soul. > %% rw:404349392 %% ### Friday, 23 September 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Crazy Faith]] · [[Michael Todd]] · Loc. 510 > For some of you, taking steps of baby faith means going back to the basics. Maybe it’s not your first time stepping out, but it can still be hard to start over and start small. > %% rw:387171627 %% > [!quote] [[Crazy Faith]] · [[Michael Todd]] · Loc. 509 > Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. (Zechariah 4:10) > %% rw:387171626 %% ### Sunday, 11 September 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 469 > To sum up, we may conclude that the burials confirm the belief in survival (already indicated by the use of red ocher) and furnish some additional details: burials oriented toward the East, showing an intention to connect the fate of the soul with the course of the sun, hence the hope of a rebirth, that is, of a postexistence in another world; belief in the continuation of a specific activity; certain funeral rites, indicated by offerings of objects of personal adornment and by the remains of meals. > %% rw:380655836 %% > [!quote] [[History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 442 > Belief in a survival after death seems to be demonstrated, from the earliest times, by the use of red ocher as a ritual substitute for blood, hence as a symbol of life. > %% rw:380655835 %% > [!quote] [[History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 393 > It is, above all, mastery over distance, gained by the projectile weapon, which gave rise to countless beliefs, myths, and legends. > %% rw:380655834 %% > [!quote] [[History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 388 > The first technological discoveries—the transformation of stone into instruments for attack and defense, the mastery over fire—not only insured the survival and development of the human species; they also produced a universe of mythico-religious values and inspired and fed the creative imagination. > %% rw:380655833 %% > [!quote] [[History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 371 > the experience of the sacred constitutes an element in the structure of consciousness. > %% rw:380655832 %% > [!quote] [[History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 365 > To kill the hunted beast or, later, the domestic animal is equivalent to a “sacrifice” in which the victims are interchangeable. > %% rw:380655831 %% > [!quote] [[History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 360 > Hunting determined the division of labor in accordance with sex, thus reinforcing “hominization”; for among the carnivora, and in the entire animal world, no such difference exists. > %% rw:380655830 %% > [!quote] [[History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 350 > The domestication of fire—that is, the possibility of producing, preserving, and transporting it—marks, we might say, the definitive separation of the Paleanthropians from their zoological predecessors. > %% rw:380655829 %% > [!quote] [[History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1]] · [[Mircea Eliade]] · Loc. 349 > “every innovation brought with it the danger of collective death” (André Varagnac). > %% rw:380655828 %% > [!quote] [[Crazy Faith]] · [[Michael Todd]] · Loc. 430 > The difference for believers is that our faith is not in ourselves and our own abilities but in the omnipotent God in whom we trust. > %% rw:380655827 %% > [!quote] [[Crazy Faith]] · [[Michael Todd]] · Loc. 357 > Crazy Faith is not where you start; it is where you find yourself after you’re diligent and dedicated to exercising baby faith. > %% rw:380655826 %% ### Saturday, 10 September 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Crazy Faith]] · [[Michael Todd]] · Loc. 264 > He’s looking for somebody to believe that if He says it, it will happen. > %% rw:380209694 %% > [!quote] [[Crazy Faith]] · [[Michael Todd]] · Loc. 258 > But maybe—just maybe—what seems crazy in one season will be counted as faith in another. > %% rw:380209693 %% > [!quote] [[Crazy Faith]] · [[Michael Todd]] · Loc. 175 > The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8) > %% rw:379962335 %% > [!quote] [[Crazy Faith]] · [[Michael Todd]] · Loc. 172 > The integrity of the foundation you build your life on determines the type of structure that can be built on it. I am convinced that the foundation you should build your life on is faith in God and belief in His Word. > %% rw:379962334 %% > [!quote] [[Crazy Faith]] · [[Michael Todd]] · Loc. 161 > What areas of my life have I built on a faulty foundation? Where do I need some major reconstruction? > %% rw:379962333 %% --- ## August 2022 ### Sunday, 28 August 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3167 > At this same lowest point of the year Christ is born as the shining Redeemer, as the light of the year and light of the world, and is worshiped with the Christmas tree at the winter solstice. > %% rw:373182391 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3166 > The hero is always a light-bringer and emissary of the light. > %% rw:373182390 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3160 > The hero’s fight is always concerned with the threat to the spiritual, masculine principle from the uroboric dragon, and with the danger of being swallowed by the maternal unconscious. > %% rw:373182389 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 3032 > The dragon fight has three main components: the hero, the dragon, and the treasure. By vanquishing the dragon the hero gains the treasure, which is the end product of the process symbolized by the fight. > %% rw:373182388 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 2938 > “god in the background”–a very early figure in the history of religion—that he is regarded not as a forefather, but more as the father who is the “author of all things.” He is a spiritual figure not primarily connected with nature; he belongs to the primordial age, to the dawn of history, and steps out of it to bring culture and salvation to mankind. > %% rw:373182387 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 2926 > The male collective is the source of all the taboos, laws, and institutions that are destined to break the dominance of the uroboros and Great Mother. Heaven, the father, and the spirit go hand in hand with masculinity and represent the victory of the patriarchate over the matriarchate. This is not to say that the matriarchate knows no law; but the law by which it is informed is the law of instinct, of unconscious, natural functioning, and this law subserves the propagation, preservation, and evolution of the species rather than the development of the single individual. > %% rw:373182386 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 2625 > The immortal soul of the divine king Osiris becomes the immortal soul of each and every Egyptian, even as Christ the Saviour becomes the Christ-soul of every Christian, the self within us. In the same way, the function of the chief, which is to will and to decide, becomes the model for all subsequent acts of free will in the ego of the individual; and the law-making function, originally attributed to God and later to the mana personality, has in modern man become his inner court of conscience. > %% rw:373182385 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 2315 > Not only man’s theology, religion, and ritual, but the legal and economic orders that later grew out of them, the formation of the state and the whole pattern of secular life, down to the notion of property and its symbolism, are derived from this act of discrimination and the setting of boundaries made possible by the coming of light. > %% rw:373182384 %% ### Friday, 26 August 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 627 > true repentance is to “change the way we think.” > %% rw:372650814 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 560 > Suspicion is the gift of discernment being used by the spirit of fear. It leads to bitterness, unforgiveness, and torment, and it results in our going into a spiritual prison where all guards work for the dark side. The spirits who guard the walls of this prison have names like sickness, depression, hatred, and murder. > %% rw:372650813 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 556 > Princes and princesses are commissioned to see the people they lead reach their full potential in God. This means that when the people we are leading become greater than us , we receive the greatest compliment we can ever get. If we believe that we are leading because we are the most qualified, then we will subconsciously work to undermine other people’s advancements. > %% rw:372650812 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 554 > He didn’t understand that God’s Kingdom is not a performance-based kingdom. We don’t lead because we are necessarily the most qualified; we lead because we are “called” to be the leader. > %% rw:372650811 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 541 > Failures we have repented of are no longer the standard that we must bow to. When we asked God and those we have hurt to forgive us, we were set back up to the high place God assigned to us. Otherwise the worst day of our lives becomes the highest place that we have the right to lead others to. The truth is that forgiveness restores the standard of holiness in us and through us. > %% rw:372650810 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 468 > When we dream with God, we become the masterpieces of His imagination. > %% rw:372650809 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 460 > We break out of this prison by responding to the call of God on our lives and meditating on His vision for us. > %% rw:372650808 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 448 > If we feed our imagination with thoughts of what we don’t want to become and drink from the well of regret, we reproduce that very thing in ourselves. It doesn’t matter what we want to reproduce. It’s only important what we imagine while we are thinking and drinking at the watering hole of our imagination. > %% rw:372650807 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 404 > Princes own things, but they never let things own them. The result is that they are able to experience the worry-free life Jesus promised and are free to seek first the kingdom, knowing that all they need will be added to them. > %% rw:372650806 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 391 > If we stop living by faith when we start receiving a regular income, then we reduce our provision down to our ability to perform instead of the Lord’s ability to provide. > %% rw:372650805 %% > [!quote] [[The Supernatural Ways of Royalty]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 373 > The revelation of our true identity will destroy the spirit of poverty in our lives. Until that revelation happens, we will keep thinking there are limits on what we get to have. As a result, we are jealous of anyone who receives something that we don’t have. This leaks into all aspects of our lives including work, friends, and positions within the church. > %% rw:372650804 %% ### Friday, 12 August 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Language of Creation - Pageau|The Language of Creation]] · [[Matthieu Pageau]] · Loc. 84762 > resting produces a natural but transitory reality, and working produces a permanent but artificial reality. > %% rw:362845629 %% ### Tuesday, 9 August 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Language of Creation - Pageau|The Language of Creation]] · [[Matthieu Pageau]] · Loc. 81702 > The shame of “nakedness” refers to the inability to cover the body with the spirit, and “dying” refers to the gradual estrangement of the spirit from the body. > %% rw:361655610 %% > [!quote] [[The Language of Creation - Pageau|The Language of Creation]] · [[Matthieu Pageau]] · Loc. 77333 > Ultimately, all the stories in the Bible are about the problem of transmuting the “evil of change” into a higher good that can properly host the Creator of all things.2 > %% rw:361655609 %% ### Monday, 8 August 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Language of Creation - Pageau|The Language of Creation]] · [[Matthieu Pageau]] · Loc. 70343 > the Sabbath is essentially a peace agreement between ‘space’ and ‘time.’ This covenant guards against the extreme powers of absurdity, confusion, and pointless change, and the extreme powers of reason, purity, and productive stability. > %% rw:361138989 %% ### Thursday, 4 August 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Language of Creation - Pageau|The Language of Creation]] · [[Matthieu Pageau]] · Loc. 65974 > cyclical influences are only “restful” when they occur in the safety of familiar space, and when they do not completely destroy it. > %% rw:358543029 %% --- ## July 2022 ### Wednesday, 27 July 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Language of Creation - Pageau|The Language of Creation]] · [[Matthieu Pageau]] · Loc. 49809 > in biblical cosmology, change is caused by the failed integration of alien facts which creates untenable inconsistencies. > %% rw:353555009 %% > [!quote] [[The Language of Creation - Pageau|The Language of Creation]] · [[Matthieu Pageau]] · Loc. 38012 > To understand the role of the Ark, it is important to recognize the difference between receiving a specific commandment from God and hosting the very presence of God. This is comparable to the difference between Adam giving names to the animals versus seed to his wife. In the first case, Adam merely provides a specific identity for the animal. In the second case, there is a transmission of Adam’s full identity from the male half to be reproduced within a female half. > %% rw:353555008 %% ### Saturday, 9 July 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Language of Creation - Pageau|The Language of Creation]] · [[Matthieu Pageau]] · Loc. 25342 > What is a seed but the promise of a future offspring? > %% rw:344007658 %% ### Friday, 8 July 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Language of Creation - Pageau|The Language of Creation]] · [[Matthieu Pageau]] · Loc. 21846 > humanity’s impetus in the universe can adequately be summed up as: “informing matter with meaning and expressing meaning with matter.” > %% rw:343480600 %% ### Saturday, 2 July 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 2237 > I don’t want average. I don’t want the easiest path. I want to know God intimately, deeply. And I want my life to defy human explanation. > %% rw:340422877 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 884 > THE HOLY ONE INVITED YOU HERE. BOOKED THE TABLE. PREPARED THE MEAL. SAT DOWN TO JOIN YOU. AND THIS RESERVATION COST HIM EVERYTHING. > %% rw:340422876 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 861 > humility is not thinking less of yourself; humility is thinking of yourself less. > %% rw:340422875 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 800 > Woven into the Devil’s pitch that it’s better at another table is the trickery of comparison. The Devil always tells you that there’s a better table somewhere else. > %% rw:340422874 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 767 > “In Jesus’ name, I won’t entertain your words, your thoughts, your influence.” > %% rw:340422873 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 640 > Even though I am surrounded by enemies, God has prepared a table for me, and I will sit down with Him. > %% rw:340422872 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 447 > Even though bad things happen, I will still praise the Lord. Even though bad things happen, I will not let my mind be lost to the Enemy. > %% rw:340422871 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 372 > The table He’s prepared for you is one of peace, clarity, and abundance. You don’t have to give the Enemy a seat at your table. > %% rw:340422870 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 337 > From 1 Peter 5:8, I knew that a major tactic of the Devil was to prowl around my life. So maybe I couldn’t stop the Devil from prowling around my table, but in Jesus’ name I definitely did have the choice whether I allowed the Enemy to sit down. > %% rw:340422869 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 336 > My destiny was set. I didn’t need to be afraid. The Shepherd was at the table, and He would see to it that I was going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. > %% rw:340422868 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 331 > My task was to concentrate on the Good Shepherd, the One who owned the table. > %% rw:340422867 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 321 > Don’t give the Enemy a seat. Don’t entertain his ideas. These thoughts are not from a good and trustworthy Shepherd. Move on. > %% rw:340422866 %% > [!quote] [[Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table]] · [[Louie Giglio]] · Loc. 314 > Don’t give the Enemy a seat at your table. > %% rw:340422865 %% > [!quote] [[The Screwtape Letters]] · [[C. S. Lewis]] · Loc. 50 > There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. > %% rw:340422864 %% --- ## June 2022 ### Tuesday, 28 June 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 1397 > you do not always have power over what happens to you, but you do have complete control over what happens in you. > %% rw:338846533 %% ### Monday, 27 June 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 773 > “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14). We often quote verses like this, but we forget that there is no victory without a battle, no testimony without a test and no miracle without an impossible circumstance. God leads us in triumph by leading us into battles, tests and impossibilities! > %% rw:338213969 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 735 > The goal of all enemy assaults is to scare us out of our divine destiny. > %% rw:338213968 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 687 > Fear dismembers and disfigures our perspective of God, making Him seem a powerless pawn controlled by our circumstances. But when we re-member the Lord and re-count His works, we begin to re-form our vision of His greatness in our hearts. As we meditate on His greatness, confidence begins to sprout in the soil of our faith, and soon fear’s fantasy is unmasked, flogged and sent fleeing. > %% rw:338213967 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 579 > Denial is the fruit of fear, not the root of faith. True faith can evaluate the circumstances without growing hopeless because it sees the world through God’s eyes. > %% rw:338213966 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 576 > anytime we cannot look at our challenges without getting discouraged, we are living in denial, not faith. > %% rw:338213965 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 530 > First, evil spirits have no power over Christians (even though it feels as if they do) unless we give it to them. We have power over them! Second, these battles come in waves, and they will not last forever. And third, we probably did nothing wrong to cause the battles. As a matter of fact, we are usually in a battle because we are doing something right. > %% rw:338213964 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 517 > One of the most important keys to winning these battles is simply to recognize that these thoughts are not our own and to reject all ownership of them. As Paul told the Philippians, when we refuse to be impressed, alarmed or concerned by these thoughts, it is a sign of destruction for our opponents and of victory for us (see Philippians 1:28). > %% rw:338213963 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 859 > “Any thought that does not inspire hope is rooted in a lie.” Let’s stop believing lies! Let’s embrace the truth and live in peace. > %% rw:338154301 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 837 > Trials are designed to help us determine who our master will be, whom we will trust, who our Lord will be and which kingdom we will put our faith in. > %% rw:338154300 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 832 > In the midst of battle, it can seem so complex, but when the dust settles and the smoke clears, the real war is always over the same question—whom will we believe? Whom will we listen to, God or the devil? > %% rw:338154299 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 810 > It is our responsibility to trust God. It is His responsibility to deliver, protect and save us. > %% rw:338154298 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 806 > the goal of the wilderness is to uncover God’s unfailing ability to deliver you. > %% rw:338154297 %% > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 790 > Temptation becomes a sin when you agree with the suggestion instead of resisting it. > %% rw:338154296 %% ### Sunday, 26 June 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Spirit Wars]] · [[Kris Vallotton]] · Loc. 417 > all you need to sin is a free will and the capacity to believe a lie. > %% rw:338102940 %% ### Sunday, 12 June 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 1987 > The violence taught by Muhammad, on the other hand, extends to all non-Muslims in Islamic lands unless they fulfill certain conditions. > %% rw:334941777 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 1985 > This is the violence we see in the Old Testament: judgment directed toward specific peoples on account of specific sins, and deferred for as long as possible. > %% rw:334941776 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 1154 > unlike the teachings of Jesus that focus on principles and heart transformation, the guidance in Islam comes in the form of particulars. Sharia reaches the Muslim people in the form of thousands of decisions made by jurists and scholars who are familiar with the traditions of Muhammad’s life. It all comes back to the exemplary life of the prophet. > %% rw:334941775 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 960 > Christian martyrdom did not mean dying with sword in hand, but laying down one’s life instead of one’s faith. > %% rw:334941774 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 858 > Because of tawhid, Allah depends on mankind in order to be Allah. Because of his triune nature, Yahweh is truly independent and self-sufficient. > %% rw:334941773 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 538 > The problem of mankind is deeper than what we do; it is embedded in who we are. > %% rw:334941772 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 533 > Islam diagnoses the world with ignorance and offers the remedy of sharia, a law to follow. Christianity diagnoses the world with brokenness and offers the remedy of God himself, a relationship with him that leads to heart transformation. > %% rw:334941771 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 510 > Christian obedience, devoid of threat and rooted in love, is what God truly wants. > %% rw:334941770 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 482 > Herein lies the genius and infinitude of the love of God: He does not draw the line. He offers mercy to everyone who has ever sinned while also demanding justice for every sin ever committed. He does this by offering to bear the consequence of our sins himself. The consequence of our sins is death, and God is willing to die on behalf of all his children. > %% rw:334941769 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 464 > according to Christian teaching, sin is not just doing something wrong. It is a rebellion against God, the Source of Life. Death is not a punishment for our actions as much as it is a consequence. God does not execute us for jaywalking; we get run over by a truck while jaywalking. > %% rw:334941768 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 363 > proclaiming the Islamic motto, the shahada: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger”; praying the five daily prayers; fasting during the month of Ramadan; giving alms; and undertaking a pilgrimage to Mecca. Together, these are called the Five Pillars of Islam. > %% rw:334941767 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 357 > Allah is not a Father, and Allah is not a Son (Quran 112). He is an absolute unity, a monad. The other basic components of aqeeda have already been mentioned above: belief in the prophets, belief in divinely inspired books, belief in angels and the unseen, belief in the day of judgment, and belief in Allah’s predestining sovereignty. Together, these are called the Six Articles of Faith. > %% rw:334941766 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 354 > Islam teaches that the fundamental problem of mankind is ignorance, that man needs to be guided in order to live good lives. Once people learn what to believe, aqeeda, and how to live, sharia, they will earn the pleasure of Allah. > %% rw:334941765 %% > [!quote] [[No God but One]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 324 > According to Islam, the way to paradise is sharia, a code of laws to follow that will please Allah and earn his favor. Sharia is literally translated “the way.” According to the Christian message, the gospel, the way to eternal life is Jesus. He said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). In Islam, sharia is the way, and in Christianity, Jesus is the way. > %% rw:334941764 %% ### Friday, 10 June 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 5429 > Jesus isn’t a character sent by the Creator to tell us to straighten up and fly right; Jesus is the Creator who walked among us in humility to experience our fragility and to rescue us from our hopeless human condition. > %% rw:334941794 %% > [!quote] [[Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 5191 > Easterners who embrace an authoritarian mindset need to be reminded that religious authorities are not all created equal; some are worth following, and some are not. > %% rw:334941793 %% > [!quote] [[Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 5185 > Westerners in the evidential mindset often need to be reminded to be lovers of truth (2 Thess. 2:10) who are willing to rigorously apply reason and the study of evidence, and then follow them wherever they lead. > %% rw:334941792 %% > [!quote] [[Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 3711 > Muslim apologists do not limit themselves to the Quran’s own defense of its inspiration. The four other arguments they most commonly appeal to are these: fulfilled prophecies, mathematical patterns, scientific truths, and textual preservation. > %% rw:334941791 %% > [!quote] [[Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 2111 > “The words do matter, but they matter because they constitute a message. The message is paramount. That’s why the Bible can be translated. If the inspiration were tied to words themselves as opposed to their message, then we could never translate the Bible, and if we could never translate it, how could it be a book for all people?” > %% rw:334941790 %% > [!quote] [[Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 1734 > Rational authority creates a society that determines right and wrong based on innocence and guilt. > %% rw:334941789 %% > [!quote] [[Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 1730 > positional authority yields a society that determines right and wrong based on honor and shame. > %% rw:334941788 %% > [!quote] [[Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus]] · [[Nabeel Qureshi]] · Loc. 1725 > When authority is derived from position rather than reason, the act of questioning leadership is dangerous because it has the potential to upset the system. Dissension is reprimanded, and obedience is rewarded. Correct and incorrect courses of action are assessed socially, not individually. A person’s virtue is thus determined by how well he meets social expectations, not by an individual determination of right and wrong. > %% rw:334941787 %% ### Tuesday, 7 June 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1614 > Every ideal is a judge, after all: the judge who says, “You are not manifesting your true potential.” No ideals? No judge. But the price paid for that is purposelessness. This is a high price. No purpose? Then, no positive emotion, as most of what drives us forward with hope intact is the experience of approaching something we deeply need and want. And worse, when we are without purpose: chronic, overwhelming anxiety, as focused purpose constrains what is otherwise likely to be the intolerable chaos of unexploited possibility and too much choice. > %% rw:330254313 %% ### Sunday, 5 June 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 4309 > Clean animals in OT thought symbolize Israel.2 The birds must represent the healed Israelite who is about to reenter the covenant community. > %% rw:329779093 %% ### Saturday, 4 June 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 4128 > It was little wonder that when a man was diagnosed as unclean he had to go into mourning. He experienced a living death; his life as a member of God’s people experiencing God’s blessing came to an end. > %% rw:329445984 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 3666 > If the distinction between clean and unclean was sometimes obscure to Israel, the reason for God’s election of Israel was too. It rested in God’s inscrutable will, not on national merit (Deut. 7:6–8). > %% rw:329445983 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 3555 > In limiting themselves to eating the normal members of the fish world, Israel was reminded that its life was to conform to the norms of God’s world in a moral and spiritual sense as well as physically, and that God had chosen them to be a holy nation. > %% rw:329445982 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 3196 > Amos says that while other nations deserve God’s punishment for their grave sins against humanity, Judah and Israel will be punished just because they have not kept the law (Amos 2–3). > %% rw:329445981 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 3127 > Tragedy and triumph go hand in hand in the Bible and in life. On the very first day of Aaron’s high-priestly ministry his two eldest sons died for infringing God’s law. In the life of our Lord his baptism by the Spirit was followed by temptation in the wilderness, his triumphal entry into Jerusalem by his crucifixion six days later. In the early Church the healing of the lame man was succeeded by the death of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 3–5). > %% rw:329445980 %% --- ## May 2022 ### Friday, 27 May 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 1210 > The relation of son-lover to Great Mother is an archetypal situation which is operative even today, and the overcoming of it is the precondition for any further development of ego consciousness. > %% rw:326400808 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 1160 > the woman first exists as a mother, and the man first exists as a son. > %% rw:326400807 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 1157 > From the son, we infer the father; the existence and nature of masculine power are evidenced only by the son. > %% rw:326400806 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 1132 > only when the ego experiences itself as something distinct and different from the unconscious is the embryonic stage overcome, and only then can a conscious system be formed that stands entirely on its own. > %% rw:326400805 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 892 > Detachment from the uroboros, entry into the world, and the encounter with the universal principle of opposites are the essential tasks of human and individual development. > %% rw:326400804 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 564 > The ascent toward consciousness is the “unnatural” thing in nature; it is specific of the species Man, who on that account has justly styled himself Homo sapiens. The struggle between the specifically human and the universally natural constitutes the history of man’s conscious development. > %% rw:326400803 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 529 > Anything big and embracing which contains, surrounds, enwraps, shelters, preserves, and nourishes anything small belongs to the primordial matriarchal realm. > %% rw:326400802 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 428 > Circle, sphere, and round are all aspects of the Self-contained, which is without beginning and end; in its preworldly perfection it is prior to any process, eternal, for in its roundness there is no before and no after, no time; and there is no above and no below, no space. > %% rw:326400801 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 421 > The psyche blends, as does the dream; it spins and weaves together, combining each with each. > %% rw:326400800 %% ### Friday, 20 May 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2514 > This Levitical law stands as a reminder that though complete forgiveness is available to us as Christians, we still need to claim it daily. > %% rw:326400812 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2472 > If the perpetual fire represents God’s eternal presence with his people, the Christian is reminded to keep the divine fire ever burning within him. In the words of Paul, “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:16ff.). > %% rw:326400811 %% ### Monday, 9 May 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 276 > The individualized conscious man of our era is a late man, whose structure is built on early, pre-individual human stages from which individual consciousness has only detached itself step by step. > %% rw:319885066 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 263 > The creativity of consciousness may be jeopardized by religious or political totalitarianism, for any authoritarian fixation of the canon leads to sterility of consciousness. > %% rw:319885065 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 259 > In stationary cultures, or in primitive societies where the original features of human culture are still preserved, the earliest stages of man’s psychology predominate to such a degree that individual and creative traits are not assimilated by the collective. Indeed, creative individuals possessed of a stronger consciousness are even branded by the collective as antisocial. > %% rw:319885064 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 249 > Creative evolution of ego consciousness means that, through a continuous process stretching over thousands of years, the conscious system has absorbed more and more unconscious contents and progressively extended its frontiers. > %% rw:319885063 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2282 > Our spiritual debts have been written off in the sacrifice of Christ. > %% rw:319885061 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2267 > The burnt offering uses a personal picture: of man the guilty sinner who deserves to die for his sin and of the animal dying in his place. God accepts the animal as a ransom for man. The sin offering uses a medical model: sin makes the world so dirty that God can no longer dwell there. The blood of the animal disinfects the sanctuary in order that God may continue to be present with his people. The reparation offering presents a commercial picture of sin. Sin is a debt which man incurs against God. The debt is paid through the offered animal. > %% rw:319885060 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2260 > The reparation offering draws attention to the fact that sin has both a social and a spiritual dimension. It not only affects our relation with our neighbor, it affects our creator. It influences our relationship vertically with God as well as horizontally with our fellow man. Just as we must put ourselves right with men by paying them back for the wrongs we have done them, so we must compensate our heavenly Father for the debts we run up against him. > %% rw:319885059 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2183 > The worshipper had to compensate the man he had offended by giving him back what he lost, and had to acknowledge his guilt before God by bringing the sacrificial ram. > %% rw:319885058 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2111 > For a Christian the animal offering is no longer necessary, since Christ’s death has brought purification, but confession is, if fellowship with God is to be reestablished. > %% rw:319885057 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2079 > Jesus Christ is the true high priest, whose actions Aaron and his sons were only imitating as best they could. > %% rw:319885056 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2076 > Whereas in the Levitical laws it was the place of worship that was purified, under the new dispensation it is the worshipper himself. > %% rw:319885055 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 2064 > the purification offering deals with only one aspect of the process of atonement. It purifies the tabernacle or temple, so that God may be present with the worshipper. The burnt offering may then be offered to bring reconciliation between man and God and give the worshipper an opportunity to rededicate himself to God’s service. > %% rw:319885054 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1989 > Bringing guilt on the people (v. 3). When the priest sinned he involved not only himself but the whole nation. Here we have the idea that one man’s action can affect the whole nation. > > **My note:** A man is responsible for what he does and what everybody else does > %% rw:319885053 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1953 > It is not God who is endangered by the pollution of sin, but man. > %% rw:319885052 %% ### Saturday, 7 May 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 209 > It is the task of this book to show that a series of archetypes is a main constituent of mythology, that they stand in an organic relation to one another, and that their stadial 3 succession determines the growth of consciousness. > > **My note:** Thesis of the book > %% rw:318909028 %% > [!quote] [[The Origins and History of Consciousness - Neumann|The Origins and History of Consciousness]] · [[Erich Neumann]] · Loc. 199 > The structural elements of the collective unconscious are named by Jung “archetypes” or “primordial images.” They are the pictorial forms of the instincts, for the unconscious reveals itself to the conscious mind in images which, as in dreams and fantasies, initiate the process of conscious reaction and assimilation. > %% rw:318909027 %% --- ## April 2022 ### Wednesday, 27 April 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1674 > The enjoyment of eating the meat was a physical reminder of all the other blessings that attended the faithful observance of the covenant (Lev. 26:3ff.; Deut. 28:1ff.). > %% rw:315491654 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1603 > Leviticus 7 mentions three different types of peace offering: confession offerings, vow offerings, and free-will offerings. Salvation (peace) is the common factor in the different situations in which these offerings were presented. > %% rw:315491653 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1547 > The peace offering was an optional sacrifice, which a man could bring when he felt like it. Lev. 7:12ff. gives three possible reasons for bringing it: as a confession offering, as a free-will offering, or to fulfil a vow. > %% rw:315491652 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1491 > The cereal offering symbolized the dedication of a man’s life and work to God. He brought his normal food to the priest, and he declared his willingness to keep the law. > %% rw:315491651 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1287 > Sacrifice without prayer is useless. All a man’s powers must be active in divine worship, heart and mouth as well as hands and feet. Mere ceremonial or church attendance is inadequate by itself. They must be accompanied by heartfelt prayer and praise. > %% rw:315491650 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1241 > When man is reminded of sin, whether by disease or childbirth or by his own obvious fault, he has to offer a burnt offering, the sacrifice that makes divine and human coexistence possible. > %% rw:315491649 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1229 > If affirmation of faith and obedience are underlying motives for bringing a burnt offering, it is very appropriate that it should be offered as a thanksgiving for deliverance, as a freewill offering, or when a vow is fulfilled (Num. 6:14; 15:3; Ps. 50; 66:13–15). The worshipper has proved God’s faithfulness in his life and wishes now to express his faith publicly. > %% rw:315491648 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1228 > In 1 Sam. 15:22 and Ps. 40:7 [Eng. 6] sacrifice and obedience are contrasted with the implication that sacrifice ought to express obedience; sacrifice without obedience is an empty ritual. > %% rw:315491647 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1180 > So that the Lord may accept him (v. 3); that it may be accepted on his behalf7 (v. 4). In these phrases the general aim of the sacrifice is indicated. It is that the offerer may be accepted (rātsāh) by God. Peace with God is the goal of sacrifice. > %% rw:315491646 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 1090 > Though God’s holiness is unchanging, its expression may vary from age to age. > %% rw:315491645 %% ### Tuesday, 26 April 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 680 > God’s call to Israel to be his holy people preceded the revelation of the law at Sinai, but only obedience could make holiness a living reality. > %% rw:315083002 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 634 > It also points out that correct performance of the atonement rituals by the priest is not enough by itself. God must grant forgiveness and cleansing. It makes one final point concerning the attitude of the worshipper. In the case of unintentional sin, remorse and sacrifice are sufficient for atonement. But where the sin was “high-handed,” i.e., deliberate, reparation and public confession were necessary prerequisites to sacrificial atonement9 (ch. 5 [Eng. 5:1–6:7]; cf. Num. 15:27–30). > %% rw:315059458 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 632 > There were at least three parties involved in every sacrifice: God, the priest, and the worshipper. > %% rw:315059457 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 520 > Leviticus stresses that there are two aspects to sanctification, a divine act and human actions. God sanctifies and man also sanctifies. Only those people whom God calls to be holy can become holy in reality. “The man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one” (Num. 16:7). > %% rw:314930426 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 511 > Anyone or anything given to God becomes holy. > %% rw:314930425 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 490 > The greater the deviation from the norm the greater is the degree of uncleanness and the difficulty in cleansing. > %% rw:314930424 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 474 > some holy objects make everything that touches them holy (Exod. 29:37; 30:29; Lev. 6:11 [Eng. 18], 20 [27]). > %% rw:314930423 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 468 > The unclean and the holy are two states which must never come in contact with each other. > %% rw:314930422 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 467 > Cleanness is the normal condition of most things and persons. Sanctification can elevate the clean into the holy, while pollution degrades the clean into the unclean. > %% rw:314930421 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 459 > Everything that is not holy is common. Common things divide into two groups, the clean and the unclean. Clean things become holy, when they are sanctified. But unclean objects cannot be sanctified. Clean things can be made unclean, if they are polluted. Finally, holy items may be defiled and become common, even polluted, and therefore unclean. > %% rw:314930420 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 451 > The priests were instructed “to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean” (10:10). > %% rw:314930419 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 448 > “Be holy, for I am holy” (11:44–45; 19:2; 20:26) could be termed the motto of Leviticus. > %% rw:314930418 %% > [!quote] [[The Book of Leviticus]] · [[Gordon J. Wenham]] · Loc. 419 > God is present not only in worship, but at all times, even in the mundane duties of life. > %% rw:314930417 %% ### Monday, 25 April 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[God Says YES to Over 3000 Promises]] · [[Clint M. Byars]] · Loc. 73 > Amen means to establish. You have a part to play in establishing God’s promises in your life, believing AND speaking. We could say it this way, God’s promises are established in our lives as we speak. > %% rw:314663680 %% > [!quote] [[God Says YES to Over 3000 Promises]] · [[Clint M. Byars]] · Loc. 69 > Do not let your mind jump to the what if’s and what about’s, as if you can figure out how to get the promises to work, just take a moment to believe God. Take a moment to take God at His word and be persuaded that He desires good things for you and is actively seeking to bring about his good plans to prosper you. > %% rw:314663679 %% > [!quote] [[God Says YES to Over 3000 Promises]] · [[Clint M. Byars]] · Loc. 59 > Why the promises? So you would be a partaker of God’s divine nature, right now, in this life, in this body! > %% rw:314663678 %% --- ## March 2022 ### Thursday, 31 March 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 3083 > I have always liked who I am in the Lord. If I don’t like myself, it would mean there is something about the Lord that I don’t like. The Lord made you and you have to come to peace with whom you are—His creation. If we never find our redemptive role in life, we stay miserable over an identity that we have never tapped into. If you are not careful, you will speak evil reports about yourself as a result of something created in the atmosphere. > %% rw:308216485 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 3082 > Accept your call and speak forth your destiny this month. A lot of people do not know how to speak out who they are and what they are destined to accomplish and that is why they fall into negativity. > %% rw:308216484 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 2654 > You can be an incredible manager and not be detailed in the way you function personally. The gift of administration is linked with ruler ship and the ability to oversee and direct others to execute responsibilities with excellence and effectiveness. > %% rw:308216483 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 2474 > In Hebrew Psalm 100:4 is even more impressive, using four different words for praise: “Enter His gates… with THANKSGIVING – TOWDAH and His courts with PRAISE – TEHILAH GIVE THANKS to Him – YADAH BLESS His name! – BARAK God is telling us that we need to come into His presence with an overflow of every kind of praise. > %% rw:308216482 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 2145 > God already has made a big promise over Abram, but He is not yet fully backing him. God can have a big promise over your life but not fully back you until He knows you have kept going one more step. > %% rw:308216481 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 2125 > God will always come down to visit at certain points in your building process. He knows when you’re building something that is greater than His plan for the future, and He will intervene in whatever manner is necessary. > %% rw:308216480 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 2079 > What you find is that in your spirit, you become the Ark. You carry the covenant that was always intended to be carried in the earth. > %% rw:308216479 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1992 > The Bible says spring is a time of war. That doesn’t mean you won’t war at other times, but spring is traditionally the opportune time for war. Summer is a time to tend your crops. Some crops are harvested in the summer, but primarily this is a time to work and wait, in expectation, for the harvest that’s to come. Fall is a season of harvest and fulfillment and a time for joy and thankful celebration. Then we move into winter, a time to enjoy the fruit of your labor and to prepare for planting again. > %% rw:308216478 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1912 > These three tribes formed the rear guard not because of their military skill but because they brought the glory of God! Their lack of military strength did not diminish their importance to the nation. > %% rw:308216477 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1762 > Just as Abraham did with Melchizedek, you have to find someone to give to that is more warranted than yourself. You cannot enter into blessings if you’re the top of your blessing chain. > %% rw:308216476 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1706 > You will either be like the serpent or else you will learn to keep your heel on the serpent. > %% rw:308216475 %% ### Wednesday, 23 March 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1470 > The tribes are just an extension of God’s intervention with one man in the earth realm. You have been grafted into that intervention. > %% rw:302058976 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1468 > God observes our reaction to the circumstances He sends into our lives. > %% rw:302058975 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1406 > In one “chosen” day God intervened in someone’s life to produce a tribe. Whether this person was Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, or Joseph with the daughter of the priest of On; God had to intervene. Don’t miss your "chosen” days. Otherwise, you will miss the movement of your tribe. > %% rw:302058974 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1325 > Satan comprehends time better than we do. He knows exactly how to destroy unity. He is a legalist. He has expert knowledge of law structures and knows how to use them against us. > %% rw:302058973 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1230 > When the fullness of blessing enters the earth realm, between heaven and earth, I am aligned under that flow of fullness. This is how time works, so you must learn how to stay in time. > %% rw:302058972 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 1225 > So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David until the captivity of Babylon are fourteen generations…(fourteen is the number of deliverance)…and from the captivity of Babylon until Christ are fourteen generations.” > %% rw:302058971 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 772 > The Feast of Tabernacles, held in the seventh month, is a cluster of three closely related events:  the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Succot). > %% rw:302058970 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 769 > The Feast of Pentecost (or Shavuot) held in the third month of the biblical calendar is a tri-fold celebration, thanking God for His provision. > %% rw:302058969 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 766 > The Feast of Passover begins the biblical calendar. Marking the first month in God’s cycle of redemption is a cluster of three closely related feasts:  Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits. > %% rw:302058968 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 715 > Spring is the time to plant, and in biblical times, spring was also the season for kings to go to war. (II Samuel 11:1) Summer is the time to tend and nurture the crops. In biblical times, summer was a time when the king was in the field; and the people had full access to speak with him face-to-face without all the protocol required at the palace. Fall is the time for harvest, and winter is the time to plan for increase in the next cycle. > %% rw:302058967 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 696 > We enter Dominion Rest through our work. We enter Sabbath Rest through His work. > %% rw:302058966 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 668 > You only experience Dominion Rest when your enemies have been defeated. Be aware that the enemy always tries to occupy your inheritance—just like the Canaanites occupied the Promised Land. But when you drive the enemy from your inheritance, you enter Dominion Rest. > %% rw:302058965 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 666 > To enter Dominion Rest, you must war and labor and, at times, struggle. > %% rw:302058964 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 646 > Dominion Rest is the rest that comes when you have taken dominion of your appointed inheritance. > %% rw:302058963 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 438 > Blessing is the anointing of God to release increase, prosperity, and the multiplication of all that is good and pleasant in life. > %% rw:302058962 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 372 > you think you are smart enough to get where you need to be, or that your intellect is strong enough to overcome any obstacle to bring you into your destiny, you have a Greek mindset. If you think you must figure out God and get every point of doctrine right, you are sadly deceived. That is a Greek mindset > %% rw:302058961 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 360 > Meditating on the Word fills your mind with the thoughts of God. The result is that your mind is transformed. > %% rw:302058960 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 311 > The Hebrew mindset operating principle is trust in God. When you understand that God has chosen you and is watching over you; you are led into a totally different way of thinking and living, which may seem foolish to the world. > %% rw:302058959 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 283 > A Hebrew mindset is the mind of one who has been transformed by the truth of God. > %% rw:302058958 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 279 > If you’re going to walk with God, you’re going to have to accept some things you don’t understand because God will confound the mind to test the heart. That means He will do things you do not understand just to see if you will love Him and trust Him anyway. > %% rw:302058957 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 258 > As long as you allow the enemy to intimidate you with fear, you will be under his control; but if you turn and resist the enemy, he will flee. > %% rw:302058956 %% > [!quote] [[A Time to Advance]] · [[Chuck Pierce]] · Loc. 215 > God simply wants you to submit your mind to the Holy Spirit and renew your mind so that you think the way He thinks. > %% rw:302058955 %% --- ## January 2022 ### Friday, 28 January 2022 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 3645 > When something is regarded as a norm, people cease to judge it harshly. They are not only inclined to believe that the norm is just “the way things are”; they are inclined to believe that something normative is “the way things should be.” They feel less agency and less motivation to change. > %% rw:278498627 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 3631 > As a scientist, I don’t arrive on the scene with the answers. I arrive with questions. And my goal is to engage practitioners and encourage them to get involved in the business of putting the puzzle pieces together. > %% rw:278498626 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 3630 > If we don’t know enough as scientists to shed light on a problem, sometimes it is because we simply aren’t close enough to it. > %% rw:278498625 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 3629 > Social scientists fret so much about the purity and precision of science that we rarely throw ourselves into the messy problems of the world. > %% rw:278498624 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 3628 > because the scientific enterprise is iterative, we never seem to get to the point where we think we know enough. > %% rw:278498623 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 2735 > The intimacy built into that basic exercise unleashed students’ potential in three ways: It affirmed their own self-image by reminding them of their identity outside the classroom. It allowed them to see school as a supportive place that cared about their beliefs and feelings. It helped teachers to look past stereotypes and understand these students better as individuals. > %% rw:278498622 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 1686 > “punishment should be pronounced over all criminals proportionate to their internal wickedness.” What becomes the external proxy for internal wickedness? My research has shown that the mere physical features of black defendants can tip the scale toward execution. > %% rw:278498621 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 1060 > “master status”: the primary way in which one is seen. It elevates that aspect of the self above all others. > %% rw:278498620 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 640 > Bias, even when we are not conscious of it, has consequences that we need to understand and mitigate. The stereotypic associations we carry in our heads can affect what we perceive, how we think, and the actions we take. > %% rw:278498619 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 526 > Just like categorization, the process of stereotyping is universal. We all tend to access and apply stereotypes to help us make sense of other people. > %% rw:278498618 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 496 > “confirmation bias.” People tend to seek out and attend to information that already confirms their beliefs. We find such information more trustworthy and are less critical of it, even when we are presented with credible, seemingly unassailable facts that suggest otherwise. Once we develop theories about how things operate, that framework is hard to dislodge. > %% rw:278498617 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 491 > Lippmann understood the role and influence of stereotypes. “For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see,” he wrote in his 1922 book, Public Opinion. > %% rw:278498616 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 476 > The process of making these connections is called bias. It can happen unintentionally. It can happen unconsciously. It can happen effortlessly. And it can happen in a matter of milliseconds. These associations can take hold of us no matter our values, no matter our conscious beliefs, no matter what kind of person we wish to be in the world. > %% rw:278498615 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 410 > To form categories is to be human, yet our unique cultures play a role in determining what categories we create in our minds, what we place in them, and how we label them. > %% rw:278498614 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 389 > Once we’ve decided on the category, our perceptual reality adjusts to suit the label we’ve settled on. > %% rw:278498613 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 376 > Categorization—grouping like things together—is not some abhorrent feature of the human brain, a process that some people engage in and others do not. Rather, it is a universal function of the brain that allows us to organize and manage the overload of stimuli that constantly bombard us. It’s a system that brings coherence to a chaotic world; > %% rw:278498612 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 307 > Individual expertise, as it turns out, has its own neurobiological signature. > %% rw:278498611 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 287 > The brain is not a hardwired machine. It’s a malleable organ that responds to the environments we are placed in and the challenges we face. > %% rw:278498610 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 278 > Our experiences in the world seep into our brain over time, and without our awareness they conspire to reshape the workings of our mind. > %% rw:278498609 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 267 > That cringe-worthy expression “They all look alike” has long been considered the province of the bigot. But it is actually a function of biology and exposure. Our brains are better at processing faces that evoke a sense of familiarity. > %% rw:278498608 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 259 > For nearly fifty years, scientists have been documenting the fact that people are much better at recognizing faces of their own race than faces of other races—a finding dubbed the “other-race effect.” > %% rw:278498607 %% --- ## December 2021 ### Wednesday, 29 December 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 194 > Our ideas about race are shaped by the stereotypes to which we are exposed on a daily basis. And one of the strongest stereotypes in American society associates blacks with criminality. > %% rw:263959075 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 192 > Implicit bias is a kind of distorting lens that’s a product of both the architecture of our brain and the disparities in our society. > %% rw:263959074 %% > [!quote] [[Biased]] · [[Jennifer L. Eberhardt]] · Loc. 123 > A journey is called that because you cannot know what you will . . . do with what you find, or what you find will do to you. —James Baldwin > %% rw:263959073 %% ### Tuesday, 28 December 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Thinking, Fast and Slow]] · [[Daniel Kahneman]] · Loc. 126 > People tend to assess the relative importance of issues by the ease with which they are retrieved from memory—and this is largely determined by the extent of coverage in the media. > %% rw:263462233 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 4436 > Very few times in a person’s life does one get asked what she or he really thinks. I know it sounds sappy to say that interviewing someone is a way of honoring them and their stories, but I think it’s true. > %% rw:263075501 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 4083 > No matter how much effort you’ve put into it, the interview is not about you. > %% rw:263075500 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 3984 > It is better to lose a story than to lose your credibility. > %% rw:263075499 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 2858 > As Mike Wallace used to say, there is a difference between asking a question that provides heat for heat’s sake and one that provides heat for light’s sake. > %% rw:263075498 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 2847 > You have to ask it directly—not through insinuation or hints. It’s unfair to raise questions about a person if you haven’t raised the questions to the actual person. > %% rw:263075497 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 2093 > Ira Glass once said in an interview that if he’s ever feeling stuck, he thinks of public radio journalist Noah Adams and remembers that there is one question that you can always, always count on: “How did you think it was going to work out before it happened? And then how did it really work out?” > %% rw:263075496 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1804 > The writer Ted Conover said that the only bad place to interview someone is a site that doesn’t feel natural, like a sterile office or a conference room.1 Writer Richard Ben Cramer didn’t like to interview people in their living rooms. > %% rw:263075495 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1800 > You can get some great quotes and insights from sources when it’s a little less formal, and there are the distractions of traffic or food. Running errands with a source can be a gold mine. When it’s just you and your source looking at each other, it can feel a little intimidating. If you’re going somewhere together, or there are other things to look at while you’re talking, you usually get a better level of discussion. The silences aren’t as awkward. > %% rw:263075494 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1798 > That’s what any interviewer is looking for—a place where truth can thrive. > %% rw:263075493 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1753 > good guides know how to prepare the riders; they know where the best place is to start, how to be confident during the unexpected developments, and how to guide the boat to a peaceful landing. You’re the guide. > %% rw:263075492 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1750 > INTERVIEWING ISN’T JUST ASKING A bunch of random questions to random people. It’s a guided conversation. > %% rw:263075491 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1721 > KNOWING WHAT KIND OF INTERVIEW you’re going to conduct (informal, informational, personality driven, thematic) will determine whether you write out your questions, have a general idea of where you’re headed and improvise, or just pull the trigger on the starter pistol to see where it goes. > %% rw:263075490 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1529 > No matter what, there are three easy questions that I use to guide me when I’m choosing the order for my questions: 1) What do I need to know? 2) What does my audience need to know? And 3) What’s the most effective way to get my source to answer numbers 1 and 2? > %% rw:263075489 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1526 > But how do you determine the right order? Well, that depends on the purpose of the interview. If you are interviewing someone to get his or her history, as in a “How did we get here?” interview, following chronological order makes sense. If you are looking for insight, depth, understanding—anything that isn’t concrete and quantifiable—then an order of easy, to more difficult, to even more difficult, might make the most sense. > %% rw:263075488 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1464 > The interview should have an interesting beginning, it should appear to head somewhere, there should be a culminating question or topic where the person being interviewed is forced to think seriously about the response, and then there should be a “cooldown” set of questions leading to a conclusion. > %% rw:263075487 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 1183 > Preparation will do at least two things during the interview: One, it can put the person you’re interviewing at ease, knowing he or she is in good hands, which makes the person relax. Two, it can put the person you’re interviewing on notice that you’ve done your homework, so he or she had better tell you the truth, since you probably know it anyway. > %% rw:263075486 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 910 > Reluctant sources might be more willing to talk to you if you tell them why they have a unique perspective, and why it matters to understanding the big picture. > %% rw:263075485 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 893 > When trying to get a layperson’s perspective, the best way to do it is to acknowledge their unique point of view. > %% rw:263075484 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 870 > One other point about getting famous people to talk to you: Make it easy for them to do this. With famous writers, I try to make it easy on them just by virtue of making their appearance an interview. > %% rw:263075483 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 763 > Good interviewers give others the opportunity to give voice to what they observe, experience, ponder, question. > %% rw:263075482 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 714 > As Ira Glass said, “It’s better if you just show up and you’re a human being standing in front of them who looks sort of normal.” > %% rw:263075481 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 430 > I can’t stress this enough: Your story is incomplete until you have talked to the people on whom your topic has the most impact. > %% rw:263075480 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 423 > Including details of human interest is what helps readers picture the events and care about them. Details make your stories believable. > %% rw:263075479 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 414 > As Bob Woodward said, the goal is to get “the best obtainable version of the truth at the time.” That “best obtainable version” usually means getting multiple perspectives, and the official perspective is one of them. > %% rw:263075478 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 342 > To portray the impact or consequence of an event. Who is affected? Who will benefit from this? Who will pay the biggest price? Who wins? Who loses? Often, the best way to answer that question is to think about the Three Es: Eyewitnesses, Experts, and Explainers. Eyewitnesses can give you the drama of what happened; Experts can give you the official version and authority; Explainers can give you background and put it in context. > %% rw:263075477 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 321 > “I look for characters who embody the paradoxical interaction between the public figure, who has very important public responsibilities, and the private person who is dealing with the mundane reality of American life,” he said. > %% rw:263075476 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 317 > For human interest, or “color.” Who can put the subject in human terms? Who can make it more interesting than just reciting facts? Who can provide details or expressions that take it out of the ordinary? > %% rw:263075475 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 289 > What I’m talking about here is trying to identify the stakeholders in every story. Who are the experts? Who are the people most affected? Who can provide insight? Who can educate me and then, by extension, my readers and viewers? > %% rw:263075474 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 278 > “I don’t care about issues,” he said. “I care about how people are affected by issues.” > %% rw:263075473 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 239 > Interviewing is at the root of inquiry, of knowing, of sharing information, of sharing experience. It is at the root of storytelling. > %% rw:263075472 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 208 > Good interviews reveal information, but great interviews reveal so much more. They reveal humanity, struggle, victory, joy, grief, and sometimes a glimpse of transcendence. > %% rw:263075471 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 158 > Good interviewers are simply themselves. They’re not acting. They’re curious. They know how to be quiet and listen. The authentic ones who ask good questions are the ones who extract profound answers instead of clichés, and who get past the surface and into something that rarely gets explored. > %% rw:263075470 %% > [!quote] [[Talk to Me]] · [[Dean Nelson]] · Loc. 84 > Asking good questions keeps us from living in our own echo chambers. > %% rw:263075469 %% ### Thursday, 16 December 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1530 > The former problem—willful blindness—occurs when you could come to know something but cease exploring so that you fail to discover something that might cause you substantial discomfort. Spin doctors call this self-imposed ignorance “plausible deniability,” which is a phrase that indicates intellectualized rationalization of the most pathological order. > %% rw:259566596 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1517 > Freud catalogued an extensive list of phenomena akin to repression—the active rejection of potentially conscious psychological material from awareness—which he termed “defense mechanisms.” These include denial (“the truth is not so bad”), reaction formation (“I really, really, really love my mother”), displacement (“the boss yells at me, I yell at my wife, my wife yells at the baby, the baby bites the cat”), identification (“I am bullied, so I am motivated to be a bully”), rationalization (a self-serving explanation for a low-quality action), intellectualization (a favorite of the early, funny, neurotic Woody Allen), sublimation (“I can always paint nude women”), and projection (“I am not touchy; you are just annoying”). > %% rw:259566595 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1466 > It is difficult to win an argument, or even begin one, if you have not carefully articulated what you want (or do not) and need (or do not). > %% rw:259566594 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1446 > Life is what repeats, and it is worth getting what repeats right. > %% rw:259566593 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1391 > The soul willing to transform, as deeply as necessary, is the most effective enemy of the demonic serpents of ideology and totalitarianism, in their personal and social forms. The healthy, dynamic, and above all else truthful personality will admit to error. It will voluntarily shed—let die—outdated perceptions, thoughts, and habits, as impediments to its further success and growth. This is the soul that will let its old beliefs burn away, often painfully, so that it can live again, and move forward, renewed. This is also the soul that will transmit what it has learned during that process of death and rebirth, so that others can be reborn along with it. > %% rw:259566592 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1383 > In consequence, the actor of a given story (and, therefore, someone deeply affiliated with the plot and the characterization) still must bow to the spirit of creative transformation that originally created and may need to destroy and re-create that story. It is for this reason that spirit eternally transcends dogma, truth transcends presupposition, Marduk transcends the elder gods, creativity updates society, and Christ transcends the law (as does Harry Potter, along with his courageous but continually rule-breaking friends). But it is important to remember, as we discussed in Rule I: Those who break the rules ethically are those who have mastered them first and disciplined themselves to understand the necessity of those rules, and break them in keeping with the spirit rather than the letter of the law. > %% rw:259566591 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1378 > Everyone requires a story to structure their perceptions and actions in what would otherwise be the overwhelming chaos of being. Every story requires a starting place that is not good enough and an ending place that is better. > %% rw:259566590 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1369 > If a great and memorable act is one undertaken by a particularly admirable individual, a local hero, then the greatest and most memorable acts possible would be those undertaken by the spirit (embodied in part by particular individuals) who exemplified what all local heroes everywhere have in common. That hero of heroes—that meta-hero—would have to exist, logically, in turn, in a place that was common across all places requiring heroism. > %% rw:259566589 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1352 > When they imitate, they use their bodies to represent the bodies of others. But this imitation is not mindless, automatized mimicry. It is instead the ability to identify regularities or patterns in the behavior of other people, and then to imitate those patterns. > > **My note:** We imitate by finding patterns and regularities > %% rw:259566588 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1349 > A voluntary death-and-rebirth transformation—the change necessary to adapt when terrible things emerge—is therefore a solution to the potentially fatal rigidity of erroneous certainty, excessive order, and stultification. > %% rw:259566587 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1322 > At some point in our evolutionary and cultural history, we began to understand that human evil could rightly be considered the greatest of all snakes. So, the symbolic progression might be (1) snake as evil predator, then (2) external human enemy as snake/evil/predator, then (3) subjective, personal, or psychological darkness/vengefulness/deceit as snake/evil/predator. > %% rw:259566586 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1314 > He must incorporate his monstrousness, so that he can supersede his naive harmlessness, before he is tough enough to face the terrors that confront him. > > **My note:** You have to have a dark side to perceive darkness. > %% rw:259566585 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1297 > After much searching, Harry gains entrance to this underworld labyrinth of pipes and tunnels, and finds the central chamber. He does this, significantly, through the sewer, acting out the ancient alchemical dictum, in sterquilinis invenitur: in filth it will be found.* What does this mean? That which you most need to find will be found where you least wish to look.* > %% rw:259566584 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1284 > Turned to stone: What could that possibly mean? It certainly means to be unable to move—but it also signifies something deeper. It means to be hunted; to become a rabbit confronted by a wolf; to become the horrified and awestruck object of the predatory gaze. > %% rw:259566583 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1271 > As humanity became more sophisticated in its capacity to abstract, we increasingly appreciated the fact that predatory monsters can come in many guises, only some of which are animal in their form. > %% rw:259566582 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1265 > All these heroes act out what was perhaps the greatest discovery ever made by man’s primordial ancestors: if you have the vision and the courage (and a good stout stick, when necessary), you can chase away the worst of snakes. > %% rw:259566581 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1249 > The cross, for its part, is the burden of life. It is a place of betrayal, torture, and death. It is therefore a fundamental symbol of mortal vulnerability. In the Christian drama, it is also the place where vulnerability is transcended, as a consequence of its acceptance. This voluntary acceptance is also equivalent to victory over the dragon, representation of chaos, death, and the unknown. By accepting life’s suffering, therefore, evil may be overcome. The alternative is hell, at least in its psychological form: rage, resentment, and the desire for revenge and destruction. > %% rw:259566580 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1240 > It is in this way that the spirit of Marduk still possesses each individual who engages courageously in the processes of encounter and confrontation that eternally create and renew society. > %% rw:259566579 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1237 > the hero is the embodied principle of action and perception that must rule over all the primordial psychological elements of lust, rage, hunger, thirst, terror, and joy. For chaos to remain effectively at bay (or, even better, tamed and therefore harnessed), this heroic principle must be regarded as the most important of all things that can organize and motivate mankind. > %% rw:259566578 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1220 > Most importantly, perhaps, it allows us to realize the immense importance of words in transforming potential into actuality, and helps us understand that the role we each play in that transformation is in some vital sense akin to the divine. > %% rw:259566577 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1203 > If and when the gods come to an agreement about their relative positions—more particularly, if they arrange themselves into a hierarchy—it means that peace has genuinely been established, because peace is the establishment of a shared hierarchy of divinity, of value. Thus, an eternal question emerges whenever people of different backgrounds are required to deal with one another on a relatively permanent basis: What do all gods share that makes them gods? What is God, in essence? > %% rw:259566576 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1185 > the careless demolition of tradition is the invitation to the (re)emergence of chaos. When ignorance destroys culture, monsters will emerge. > %% rw:259566575 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1164 > we directly and naturally perceive reality as personified, and then must work very diligently to strip that personification away, so that we can detect “objective reality.”* > %% rw:259566574 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1150 > Before the dawn of the scientific worldview, a mere six hundred years ago, reality was construed as all that which human beings experience. That which we experience can be distinguished, conceptually, from reality as objective world—pure physical being—by its more comprehensive contents, which include subjective experiences such as emotions, dreams, visions, and motivational states such as hunger, thirst, and pain. > %% rw:259566573 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1113 > You do not choose what interests you. It chooses you. Something manifests itself out of the darkness as compelling, as worth living for; following that, something moves us further down the road, to the next meaningful manifestation—and so it goes, as we continue to seek, develop, grow, and thrive. > %% rw:259566572 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1093 > Centuries ago, prior to the dawn of modern chemistry, the god Mercury represented what inspires or attracts interest involuntarily. He was the spirit who possessed a person when his or her attention was drawn irresistibly to some person, situation, or event. Imagine that there are very complex processes going on in your mind unconsciously, highlighting events of potential worth and distinguishing them from everything else constantly unfolding around you. > > **My note:** Mercury being the spirit of interest. The conceptualization of being interested in something as a personality with a life of its own. > %% rw:259566571 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1084 > In Rule I, we discussed the idea that the true winner of any game is the person who plays fair. This is because playing fair, despite the particularities of any given game, is a higher-order accomplishment than mere victory. Striving to play fair, in the ultimate sense—following the spirit of the rules, as well as the letter—is an indication of true personality development, predicated as it is on concern for true reciprocity. > > **My note:** Life is a game. The first game we play is the game bounded by the law. But we are also part of another game in the game. This game is where we ignore the rules of the previous game in pursuit of what’s most valuable. The aim of the first game is to win while lawful, the second is to win while ethical per say. > %% rw:259566570 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 989 > We all react judgmentally when a child or adult—or, indeed, a society—is acting improperly, unfairly, or badly. The error strikes us emotionally. We intuit that a pattern upon which individual and social adaptation depends has been disrupted and violated. We are annoyed, frustrated, hurt, or grief-stricken at the betrayal. This does not mean that each of us, reacting emotionally, has been successful at articulating a comprehensive philosophy of good and evil. We may never put our finger on what has gone wrong. However, like children unfamiliar with a new game but still able to play it, we know that the rules are being broken. > %% rw:259566569 %% ### Sunday, 5 December 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 914 > Every rule was once a creative act, breaking other rules. Every creative act, genuine in its creativity, is likely to transform itself, with time, into a useful rule. > %% rw:255923189 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 758 > What lurks, therefore, under the explicitly stated desire for complete freedom—as expressed, say, by the anarchist, or the nihilist—is not a positive desire, striving for enhanced creative expression, as in the romanticized caricature of the artist. It is instead a negative desire—a desire for the complete absence of responsibility, which is simply not commensurate with genuine freedom. This is the lie of objections to the rules. > %% rw:255923188 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 667 > Under normal conditions, it may be nonetheless said that the ability to conform unquestioningly trumps the inability to conform. However, the refusal to conform when the social surround has become pathological—incomplete, archaic, willfully blind, or corrupt—is something of even higher value, as is the capacity to offer creative, valid alternatives. > %% rw:255838627 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 633 > power may accompany authority, and perhaps it must. However, and more important, genuine authority constrains the arbitrary exercise of power. > %% rw:255838626 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 624 > good people are ambitious (and diligent, honest, and focused along with it) instead because they are possessed by the desire to solve genuine, serious problems. > %% rw:255838625 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 614 > A responsible person decides to make a problem his or her problem, and then works diligently—even ambitiously—for its solution, with other people, in the most efficient manner possible > %% rw:255838624 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 610 > If the problem is real, then the people who are best at solving the problem at hand should rise to the top. That is not power. It is the authority that properly accompanies ability. > %% rw:255838623 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 554 > To be surrounded by peers is to exist in a state of equality, and to manifest the give-and-take necessary to maintain that equality. It is therefore good to be in the middle of a hierarchy. > %% rw:255838621 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 498 > When you are tightly boxed in or cornered—all too often by your own stubborn and fixed adherence to some unconsciously worshipped assumptions—all there is to help you is what you have not yet learned. > %% rw:255838620 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 493 > It is useful to take your place at the bottom of a hierarchy. It can aid in the development of gratitude and humility. > %% rw:255838619 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 485 > The best player is therefore not the winner of any given game but, among many other things, he or she who is invited by the largest number of others to play the most extensive series of games. > %% rw:255838618 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 325 > Freud and Jung, with their intense focus on the autonomous individual psyche, placed too little focus on the role of the community in the maintenance of personal mental health. > %% rw:255838617 %% ### Wednesday, 1 December 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 450 > The internal hierarchy that translates facts into actions mirrors the external hierarchy of social organization. > %% rw:254711437 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 380 > the mere fact of naming something (and, of course, agreeing on the name) is an important part of the process whereby the infinitely complex world of phenomena and fact is reduced to the functional world of value. > %% rw:254711436 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 368 > If you are not communicating about anything that engages other people, then the value of your communication—even the value of your very presence—risks falling to zero. > %% rw:254711435 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 360 > We compete for attention, personally, socially, and economically. No currency has a value that exceeds it. Children, adults, and societies wither on the vine in its absence. To have others attend to what you find important or interesting is to validate, first, the importance of what you are attending to, but second, and more crucially, to validate you as a respected center of conscious experience and contributor to the collective world. > %% rw:254711434 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 350 > Compliance with those indications and reminders is, in large measure, sanity itself—and is something required from every one of us right from the early stages of our lives. Without the intermediation of the social world, it would be impossible for us to organize our minds, and we would simply be overwhelmed by the world. > %% rw:254711433 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 335 > People remain mentally healthy not merely because of the integrity of their own minds, but because they are constantly being reminded how to think, act, and speak by those around them. > %% rw:254711432 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 329 > Have they been educated to the level of their intellectual ability or ambition? Is their use of free time engaging, meaningful, and productive? Have they formulated solid and well-articulated plans for the future? Are they (and those they are close to) free of any serious physical health or economic problems? Do they have friends and a social life? A stable and satisfying intimate partnership? Close and functional familial relationships? A career—or, at least, a job—that is financially sufficient, stable and, if possible, a source of satisfaction and opportunity? > %% rw:254711431 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 324 > Why rely on our own limited resources to remember the road, or to orient ourselves in new territory, when we can rely on signs and guideposts placed there so effortfully by others? > %% rw:254711430 %% --- ## November 2021 ### Tuesday, 30 November 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 304 > We need to talk about the past, so we can distinguish the trivial, overblown concerns that otherwise plague our thoughts from the experiences that are truly important. We need to talk about the nature of the present and our plans for the future, so we know where we are, where we are going, and why we are going there. We must submit the strategies and tactics we formulate to the judgments of others, to ensure their efficiency and resilience. We need to listen to ourselves as we talk, as well, so that we may organize our otherwise inchoate bodily reactions, motivations, and emotions into something articulate and organized, and dispense with those concerns that are exaggerated and irrational. We need to talk—both to remember and to forget. > %% rw:254590250 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 303 > people depend on constant communication with others to keep their minds organized. We all need to think to keep things straight, but we mostly think by talking. > %% rw:254590249 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 246 > It is this instinct of meaning—something far deeper than mere thought—that orients us properly in life, so that we do not become overwhelmed by what is beyond us, or equally dangerously, stultified and stunted by dated, too narrow, or too pridefully paraded systems of value and belief. > %% rw:254590248 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 217 > Our knowledge of how to act in the world remains eternally incomplete—partly because of our profound ignorance of the vast unknown, partly because of our willful blindness, and partly because the world continues, in its entropic manner, to transform itself unexpectedly. > %% rw:254590247 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 197 > You have sources of strength upon which you can draw, and even though they may not work well, they may be enough. You have what you can learn if you can accept your error. > %% rw:254590246 %% > [!quote] [[Beyond Order]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 192 > When you are visited by chaos and swallowed up; when nature curses you or someone you love with illness; or when tyranny rends asunder something of value that you have built, it is salutary to know the rest of the story. All of that misfortune is only the bitter half of the tale of existence, without taking note of the heroic element of redemption or the nobility of the human spirit requiring a certain responsibility to shoulder. We ignore that addition to the story at our peril, because life is so difficult that losing sight of the heroic part of existence could cost us everything. > %% rw:254590245 %% --- ## July 2021 ### Monday, 12 July 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 6476 > What shall I do with my infant’s death? Hold my other loved ones and heal their pain. It is necessary to be strong in the face of death, because death is intrinsic to life. It is for this reason that I tell my students: aim to be the person at your father’s funeral that everyone, in their grief and misery, can rely on. There’s a worthy and noble ambition: strength in the face of adversity. That is very different from the wish for a life free of trouble. > %% rw:201706986 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 6449 > To give is to do what you can to make things better. The good in people will respond to that, and support it, and imitate it, and multiply it, and return it, and foster it, so that everything improves and moves forward. > %% rw:201706985 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 6418 > How shall I deal with the enlightened one? Replace him with the true seeker of enlightenment. There is no enlightened one. There is only the one who is seeking further enlightenment. Proper Being is process, not a state; a journey, not a destination. It’s the continual transformation of what you know, through encounter with what you don’t know, rather than the desperate clinging to the certainty that is eternally insufficient in any case. That accounts for the importance of Rule 4 (Compare yourself…). Always place your becoming above your current being. That means it is necessary to recognize and accept your insufficiency, so that it can be continually rectified. That’s painful, certainly—but it’s a good deal. > %% rw:201706984 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 6366 > Orient yourself properly. Then—and only then—concentrate on the day. Set your sights at the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, and then focus pointedly and carefully on the concerns of each moment. Aim continually at Heaven while you work diligently on Earth. Attend fully to the future, in that manner, while attending fully to the present. Then you have the best chance of perfecting both. > %% rw:201706983 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 6179 > Something supersedes thinking, despite its truly awesome power. When existence reveals itself as existentially intolerable, thinking collapses in on itself. In such situations—in the depths—it’s noticing, not thinking, that does the trick. > > **My note:** The greatest asset of being a human is not the ability to think, but the ability to notice. > %% rw:201706982 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 6143 > A superhero who can do anything turns out to be no hero at all. He’s nothing specific, so he’s nothing. He has nothing to strive against, so he can’t be admirable. Being of any reasonable sort appears to require limitation. > %% rw:201706981 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 6014 > The idea that life is suffering is a tenet, in one form or another, of every major religious doctrine, as we have already discussed. Buddhists state it directly. Christians illustrate it with the cross. Jews commemorate the suffering endured over centuries. Such reasoning universally characterizes the great creeds, because human beings are intrinsically fragile. We can be damaged, even broken, emotionally and physically, and we are all subject to the depredations of aging and loss. This is a dismal set of facts, and it is reasonable to wonder how we can expect to thrive and be happy (or even to want to exist, sometimes) under such conditions. > %% rw:201706980 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 6000 > A problem of this sort emerges, for example, because of the antipathy between cooperation and competition, both of which are socially and psychologically desirable. Cooperation is for safety, security and companionship. Competition is for personal growth and status. However, if a given group is too small, it has no power or prestige, and cannot fend off other groups. In consequence, being one of its members is not that useful. If the group is too large, however, the probability of climbing near or to the top declines. So, it becomes too hard to get ahead. Perhaps people identify with groups at the flip of a coin because they deeply want to organize themselves, protect themselves, and still have some reasonable probability of climbing the dominance hierarchy. Then they favour their own group, because favouring it helps it thrive—and climbing something that is failing is not a useful strategy. > %% rw:201706979 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5778 > The witch in the Hansel and Gretel tale is the Terrible Mother, the dark half of the symbolically feminine. > %% rw:201706978 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5777 > In a household like that, the choicest cut of child is the spirit, and it’s always consumed first. Too much protection devastates the developing soul. > %% rw:201706977 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5757 > It would be lovely if the opposite of a criminal was a saint—but it’s not the case. The opposite of a criminal is an Oedipal mother, which is its own type of criminal. > %% rw:201706976 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5749 > Agreeable, compassionate, empathic, conflict-averse people (all those traits group together) let people walk on them, and they get bitter. They sacrifice themselves for others, sometimes excessively, and cannot comprehend why that is not reciprocated. > %% rw:201706975 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5743 > You must also know clearly what you want out of the situation, and be prepared to clearly articulate your desire. It’s a good idea to tell the person you are confronting exactly what you would like them to do instead of what they have done or currently are doing. You might think, “if they loved me, they would know what to do.” That’s the voice of resentment. > %% rw:201706974 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5731 > I teach excessively agreeable people to note the emergence of such resentment, which is a very important, although very toxic, emotion. There are only two major reasons for resentment: being taken advantage of (or allowing yourself to be taken advantage of), or whiny refusal to adopt responsibility and grow up. > %% rw:201706973 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5673 > Here’s the fundamental problem: group identity can be fractionated right down to the level of the individual. That sentence should be written in capital letters. Every person is unique—and not just in a trivial manner: importantly, significantly, meaningfully unique. Group membership cannot capture that variability. Period. > %% rw:201706972 %% ### Saturday, 10 July 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5455 > We might instead note with gratitude that a complex, sophisticated culture allows for many games and many successful players, and that a well-structured culture allows the individuals that compose it to play and to win, in many different fashions. > %% rw:200123043 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5449 > Consider this, as well, in regard to oppression: any hierarchy creates winners and losers. The winners are, of course, more likely to justify the hierarchy and the losers to criticize it. But (1) the collective pursuit of any valued goal produces a hierarchy (as some will be better and some worse at that pursuit no matter what it is) and (2) it is the pursuit of goals that in large part lends life its sustaining meaning. We experience almost all the emotions that make life deep and engaging as a consequence of moving successfully towards something deeply desired and valued. The price we pay for that involvement is the inevitable creation of hierarchies of success, while the inevitable consequence is difference in outcome. > %% rw:200123042 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5444 > Every word we speak is a gift from our ancestors. Every thought we think was thought previously by someone smarter. > %% rw:200123041 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5440 > Of course, culture is an oppressive structure. It’s always been that way. It’s a fundamental, universal existential reality. > %% rw:200123040 %% ### Friday, 9 July 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5162 > Kids need playgrounds dangerous enough to remain challenging. People, including children (who are people too, after all), don’t seek to minimize risk. They seek to optimize it. They drive and walk and love and play so that they achieve what they desire, but they push themselves a bit at the same time, too, so they continue to develop. Thus, if things are made too safe, people (including children) start to figure out ways to make them dangerous again.165 > %% rw:199928702 %% ### Thursday, 8 July 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5069 > Precision specifies. When something terrible happens, it is precision that separates the unique terrible thing that has actually happened from all the other, equally terrible things that might have happened—but did not. > %% rw:199526427 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 5010 > Why refuse to specify? Because while you are failing to define success (and thereby rendering it impossible) you are also refusing to define failure, to yourself, so that if and when you fail you won’t notice, and it won’t hurt. But that won’t work! You cannot be fooled so easily—unless you have gone very far down the road! > %% rw:199526426 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4980 > Why avoid, when avoidance necessarily and inevitably poisons the future? Because the possibility of a monster lurks underneath all disagreements and errors. > %% rw:199526425 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4951 > Living things die, after all, without attention. > %% rw:199526424 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4926 > Furthermore, in the absence of agreed-upon tradition (and the constraints—often uncomfortable; often even unreasonable—that it imposes) there exist only three difficult options: slavery, tyranny or negotiation. > %% rw:199526423 %% ### Wednesday, 7 July 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4852 > The thin veneer of perceptual sufficiency cracks, however, when something fundamental goes wrong. The dreadful inadequacy of our senses reveals itself. > %% rw:199379190 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4827 > The limitations of all our perceptions of things and selves manifest themselves when something we can usually depend on in our simplified world breaks down. Then the more complex world that was always there, invisible and conveniently ignored, makes its presence known. It is then that the walled garden we archetypally inhabit reveals its hidden but ever-present snakes. > %% rw:199379189 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4820 > It is precisely then that we can understand, although we seldom deeply consider, the staggeringly low-resolution quality of our vision and the inadequacy of our corresponding understanding. In a crisis, when our thing no longer goes, we turn to those whose expertise far transcends ours to restore the match between our expectant desire and what actually happens. > %% rw:199379188 %% ### Tuesday, 6 July 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4769 > It is for this reason that we must be precise in our aim. Absent that, we drown in the complexity of the world. > %% rw:198812631 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4627 > A good lecturer speaks directly to and watches the response of single, identifiable people,*2 instead of doing something clichéd, such as “presenting a talk” to an audience. Everything about that phrase is wrong. You don’t present. You talk. There is no such thing as “a talk,” unless it’s canned, and it shouldn’t be. There is also no “audience.” There are individuals, who need to be included in the conversation. > %% rw:198618156 %% ### Monday, 5 July 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4547 > That’s the purpose of memory. You remember the past not so that it is “accurately recorded,” to say it again, but so that you are prepared for the future. > %% rw:198321600 %% ### Sunday, 4 July 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4450 > People think they think, but it’s not true. It’s mostly self-criticism that passes for thinking. True thinking is rare—just like true listening. Thinking is listening to yourself. It’s difficult. To think, you have to be at least two people at the same time. Then you have to let those people disagree. Thinking is an internal dialogue between two or more different views of the world. > %% rw:198104368 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4440 > When people think, they simulate the world, and plan how to act in it. If they do a good job of simulating, they can figure out what stupid things they shouldn’t do. Then they can not do them. Then they don’t have to suffer the consequences. That’s the purpose of thinking. > %% rw:198104367 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4411 > Memory is a tool. Memory is the past’s guide to the future. If you remember that something bad happened, and you can figure out why, then you can try to avoid that bad thing happening again. That’s the purpose of memory. It’s not “to remember the past.” It’s to stop the same damn thing from happening over and over. > %% rw:198104366 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4283 > “Being itself is susceptible to my manipulations. Thus, it deserves no respect.” > %% rw:198104365 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4265 > Things fall apart: this is one of the great discoveries of humanity. And we speed the natural deterioration of great things through blindness, inaction and deceit. Without attention, culture degenerates and dies, and evil prevails. > %% rw:198104364 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4232 > This is the “act of faith” whose necessity was insisted upon by the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard. You cannot know ahead of time. Even a good example is insufficient for proof, given the differences between individuals. The success of a good example can always be attributed to luck. Thus, you have to risk your particular, individual life to find out. It is this risk that the ancients described as the sacrifice of personal will to the will of God. It is not an act of submission (at least as submission is currently understood). It is an act of courage. It is faith that the wind will blow your ship to a new and better port. It is the faith that Being can be corrected by becoming. It is the spirit of exploration itself. > %% rw:198104363 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4218 > You accept the burden of your own mistakes. You become your own person. By rejecting your father’s vision, you develop your own. And then, as your parents age, you’ve become adult enough to be there for them, when they come to need you. They win, too. But both victories had to be purchased at the cost of the conflict engendered by your truth. As Matthew 10:34 has it, citing Christ—emphasizing the role of the spoken Truth: “Think not that I have come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” > %% rw:198104268 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4204 > All people serve their ambition. In that matter, there are no atheists. There are only people who know, and don’t know, what God they serve. > %% rw:198104267 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4190 > Set your ambitions, even if you are uncertain about what they should be. The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power. Status you can lose. You carry character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity. > %% rw:198104266 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4184 > Every bit of learning is a little death. Every bit of new information challenges a previous conception, forcing it to dissolve into chaos before it can be reborn as something better. Sometimes such deaths virtually destroy us. In such cases, we might never recover or, if we do, we change a lot. > %% rw:198104265 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4183 > The Word that produces order from chaos sacrifices everything, even itself, to God. That single sentence, wise beyond comprehension, sums up Christianity. > %% rw:198104264 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4177 > It was for this reason that Nietzsche said that a man’s worth was determined by how much truth he could tolerate. You are by no means only what you already know. You are also all that which you could know, if you only would. Thus, you should never sacrifice what you could be for what you are. You should never give up the better that resides within for the security you already have—and certainly not when you have already caught a glimpse, an undeniable glimpse, of something beyond. > %% rw:198104263 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4168 > First, that the encounter with malevolence and evil is of sufficient terror to damage even the vision of a god; second, that the attentive son can restore the vision of his father. > %% rw:198104262 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4151 > You must make friends, therefore, with what you don’t know, instead of what you know. > %% rw:198104261 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4148 > Some reliance on tradition can help us establish our aims. It is reasonable to do what other people have always done, unless we have a very good reason not to. > %% rw:198104260 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4144 > An aim provides a destination, a point of contrast against the present, and a framework, within which all things can be evaluated. An aim defines progress and makes such progress exciting. An aim reduces anxiety, because if you have no aim everything can mean anything or nothing, and neither of those two options makes for a tranquil spirit. > %% rw:198104259 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4132 > Those who have lied enough, in word and action, live there, in hell—now. Take a walk down any busy urban street. Keep your eyes open and pay attention. You will see people who are there, now. These are the people to whom you instinctively give a wide berth. These are the people who are immediately angered if you direct your gaze toward them, although sometimes they will instead turn away in shame. > > **My note:** Hell on earth. So exactly what is hell? Hell is the place of deceit. The refusal to change in the face of error. The refusal of redemption. The deceit of knowing everything. The reluctance to face the truth. That is hell. > %% rw:198104258 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4125 > The idea that hell exists in some metaphysical manner is not only ancient, and pervasive; it’s true. Hell is eternal. It has always existed. It exists now. It’s the most barren, hopeless and malevolent subdivision of the underworld of chaos, where disappointed and resentful people forever dwell. > %% rw:198104257 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4116 > Milton believed that stubborn refusal to change in the face of error not only meant ejection from heaven, and subsequent degeneration into an ever-deepening hell, but the rejection of redemption itself. Satan knows full well that even if he was willing to seek reconciliation, and God willing to grant it, he would only rebel again, because he will not change. Perhaps it is this prideful stubbornness that constitutes the mysterious unforgivable sin against the Holy Ghost: > %% rw:198104256 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4088 > Lucifer, in Milton’s eyes—the spirit of reason—was the most wondrous angel brought forth from the void by God. This can be read psychologically. Reason is something alive. It lives in all of us. It’s older than any of us. It’s best understood as a personality, not a faculty. It has its aims, and its temptations, and its weaknesses. It flies higher and sees farther than any other spirit. But reason falls in love with itself, and worse. It falls in love with its own productions. It elevates them, and worships them as absolutes. Lucifer is, therefore, the spirit of totalitarianism. He is flung from Heaven into Hell because such elevation, such rebellion against the Highest and Incomprehensible, inevitably produces Hell. > %% rw:198104255 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4074 > The capacity of the rational mind to deceive, manipulate, scheme, trick, falsify, minimize, mislead, betray, prevaricate, deny, omit, rationalize, bias, exaggerate and obscure is so endless, so remarkable, that centuries of pre-scientific thought, concentrating on clarifying the nature of moral endeavour, regarded it as positively demonic. This is not because of rationality itself, as a process. That process can produce clarity and progress. It is because rationality is subject to the single worst temptation—to raise what it knows now to the status of an absolute. > > **My note:** The rational mind becomes dangerous close to levels near demonic when we believe we know everything. The rational mind that could be used to venture into the unknown inquisitively to gain insight and understanding is also the rational mind that defends against all unknown in order to protect the already established world of what is known. > %% rw:198104254 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4042 > Viktor Frankl, the psychiatrist and Nazi concentration camp survivor who wrote the classic Man’s Search for Meaning, drew a similar social-psychological conclusion: deceitful, inauthentic individual existence is the precursor to social totalitarianism. Sigmund Freud, for his part, analogously believed that “repression” contributed in a non-trivial manner to the development of mental illness (and the difference between repression of truth and a lie is a matter of degree, not kind). Alfred Adler knew it was lies that bred sickness. C.G. Jung knew that moral problems plagued his patients, and that such problems were caused by untruth. All these thinkers, all centrally concerned with pathology both individual and cultural, came to the same conclusion: lies warp the structure of Being. Untruth corrupts the soul and the state alike, and one form of corruption feeds the other. > > **My note:** Repression of truth or lying (they are the same thing) is the cause of the corruption of the being, whether that leads to sickness, mental illness or social totalitarianism. So you either tuck up your mind, or your body, if you lie. > > > The truth sets you free, redeems your sins and heals you make sense. The emphasis on truth and untruth as the primary deciding factor of the well being of an individual > %% rw:198104253 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 4020 > “Did what I want happen? No. Then my aim or my methods were wrong. I still have something to learn.” That is the voice of authenticity. > %% rw:198104252 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3981 > If you will not reveal yourself to others, you cannot reveal yourself to yourself. > %% rw:198104251 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3970 > A sin of commission occurs when you do something you know to be wrong. A sin of omission occurs when you let something bad happen when you could do something to stop it. The former is regarded, classically, as more serious than the latter—than avoidance. I’m not so sure. > %% rw:198104250 %% ### Thursday, 1 July 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3770 > For Jung, whatever was at the top of an individual’s moral hierarchy was, for all intents and purposes, that person’s ultimate value, that person’s god. It was what the person acted out. It was what the person believed most deeply. > %% rw:196599956 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3763 > Consider then that the alleviation of unnecessary pain and suffering is a good. Make that an axiom: to the best of my ability I will act in a manner that leads to the alleviation of unnecessary pain and suffering. You have now placed at the pinnacle of your moral hierarchy a set of presuppositions and actions aimed at the betterment of Being. Why? Because we know the alternative. The alternative was the twentieth century. The alternative was so close to Hell that the difference is not worth discussing. And the opposite of Hell is Heaven. To place the alleviation of unnecessary pain and suffering at the pinnacle of your hierarchy of value is to work to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth. That’s a state, and a state of mind, at the same time. > %% rw:196599955 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3703 > Faith in the part of us that continues across those deaths is a prerequisite to thinking itself. > %% rw:196599954 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3671 > Nietzsche, for his part, posited that individual human beings would have to invent their own values in the aftermath of God’s death. But this is the element of his thinking that appears weakest, psychologically: we cannot invent our own values, because we cannot merely impose what we believe on our souls. > %% rw:196599953 %% --- ## June 2021 ### Wednesday, 30 June 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3656 > The individual must be constrained, moulded—even brought close to destruction—by a restrictive, coherent disciplinary structure, before he or she can act freely and competently. > %% rw:196159232 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3559 > Christianity made explicit the surprising claim that even the lowliest person had rights, genuine rights—and that sovereign and state were morally charged, at a fundamental level, to recognize those rights. Christianity put forward, explicitly, the even more incomprehensible idea that the act of human ownership degraded the slaver (previously viewed as admirable nobility) as much or even more than the slave. We fail to understand how difficult such an idea is to grasp. We forget that the opposite was self-evident throughout most of human history. We think that it is the desire to enslave and dominate that requires explanation. We have it backwards, yet again. > %% rw:196159231 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3493 > The deus ex machina—the emergence of a divine force that magically rescues the hero from his predicament—is the cheapest trick in the hack writer’s playbook. It makes a mockery of independence, and courage, and destiny, and free will, and responsibility. Furthermore, God is in no ways a safety net for the blind. He’s not someone to be commanded to perform magic tricks, or forced into Self-revelation—not even by His own Son. > %% rw:196159230 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3472 > Satan first tempts the starving Christ to quell His hunger by transforming the desert rocks into bread. Then he suggests that He throw Himself off a cliff, calling on God and the angels to break His fall. Christ responds to the first temptation by saying, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” What does this answer mean? It means that even under conditions of extreme privation, there are more important things than food. To put it another way: Bread is of little use to the man who has betrayed his soul, even if he is currently starving.*3 Christ could clearly use his near-infinite power, as Satan indicates, to gain bread, now—to break his fast—even, in the broader sense, to gain wealth, in the world (which would theoretically solve the problem of bread, more permanently). But at what cost? And to what gain? Gluttony, in the midst of moral desolation? That’s the poorest and most miserable of feasts. Christ aims, therefore, at something higher: at the description of a mode of Being that would finally and forever solve the problem of hunger. If we all chose instead of expedience to dine on the Word of God? That would require each and every person to live, and produce, and sacrifice, and speak, and share in a manner that would permanently render the privation of hunger a thing of the past. And that’s how the problem of hunger in the privations of the desert is most truly and finally addressed. > > **My note:** The answer to the first temptation. This draws relevance to a later verse in the Bible telling us to not worry about our food tomorrow - tomorrow takes care of itself > %% rw:196159229 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3468 > Satan embodies the refusal of sacrifice; he is arrogance, incarnate; spite, deceit, and cruel, conscious malevolence. He is pure hatred of Man, God and Being. He will not humble himself, even when he knows full well that he should. Furthermore, he knows exactly what he is doing, obsessed with the desire for destruction, and does it deliberately, thoughtfully and completely. It has to be him, therefore—the very archetype of Evil—who confronts and tempts Christ, the archetype of Good. It must be him who offers to the Savior of Mankind, under the most trying of conditions, what all men most ardently desire. > > **My note:** Satan and Christ the archetypes of good and bad > %% rw:196159228 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3449 > In the desert, Christ encounters Satan (see Luke 4:1–13 and Matthew 4:1–11). This story has a clear psychological meaning—a metaphorical meaning—in addition to whatever else material and metaphysical alike it might signify. It means that Christ is forever He who determines to take personal responsibility for the full depth of human depravity. It means that Christ is eternally He who is willing to confront and deeply consider and risk the temptations posed by the most malevolent elements of human nature. It means that Christ is always he who is willing to confront evil—consciously, fully and voluntarily—in the form that dwelt simultaneously within Him and in the world. This is nothing merely abstract (although it is abstract); nothing to be brushed over. It’s no merely intellectual matter. > > **My note:** The psychological meaning behind Christ's encounter with the devil in the dessert. > %% rw:196159227 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3441 > “No tree can grow to Heaven,” adds the ever-terrifying Carl Gustav Jung, psychoanalyst extraordinaire, “unless its roots reach down to Hell.”134 Such a statement should give everyone who encounters it pause. There was no possibility for movement upward, in that great psychiatrist’s deeply considered opinion, without a corresponding move down. > %% rw:196159226 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3429 > Forty days is a deeply symbolic period of time, echoing the forty years the Israelites spent wandering in the desert after escaping the tyranny of Pharaoh and Egypt. > %% rw:196159225 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3411 > Jesus was led into the wilderness, according to the story, “to be tempted by the Devil” (Matthew 4:1), prior to his crucifixion. This is the story of Cain, restated abstractly. > %% rw:196159224 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3407 > The problem of evil remained unsolved even by the divinely acceptable sacrifices of Abel. It took thousands of additional years for humanity to come up with anything else resembling a solution. The same issue emerges again, in its culminating form, in the story of Christ and his temptation by Satan. But this time it’s expressed more comprehensively—and the hero wins. > %% rw:196159223 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3393 > But the hard lot of life, magnified by the consequence of continually rejected sacrifices (however poorly conceptualized; however half-heartedly executed)? That will bend and twist people into the truly monstrous forms who then begin, consciously, to work evil; who then begin to generate for themselves and others little besides pain and suffering (and who do it for the sake of that pain and suffering). > > **My note:** The source of evil is in the continuous rejected sacrifices > %% rw:196159222 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3381 > It has been my experience, however, that human beings are strong enough to tolerate the implicit tragedies of Being without faltering—without breaking or, worse, breaking bad. I have seen evidence of this repeatedly in my private life, in my work as a professor, and in my role as a clinical practitioner. Earthquakes, floods, poverty, cancer—we’re tough enough to take on all of that. But human evil adds a whole new dimension of misery to the world. > > **My note:** Human evil adds a dimension of suffering to being at a cosmic magnitude. > %% rw:196159221 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3378 > Evil enters the world with self-consciousness. > %% rw:196159220 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3351 > It’s this: once you become consciously aware that you, yourself, are vulnerable, you understand the nature of human vulnerability, in general. You understand what it’s like to be fearful, and angry, and resentful, and bitter. You understand what pain means. And once you truly understand such feelings in yourself, and how they’re produced, you understand how to produce them in others. It is in this manner that the self-conscious beings that we are become voluntarily and exquisitely capable of tormenting others (and ourselves, of course—but it’s the others we are concerned about right now). We see the consequences of this new knowledge manifest themselves when we meet Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve. > > **My note:** This is Jordan's understanding of the consequence of the knowledge of good and evil. > %% rw:196143155 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3295 > Thus, the person who wishes to alleviate suffering—who wishes to rectify the flaws in Being; who wants to bring about the best of all possible futures; who wants to create Heaven on Earth—will make the greatest of sacrifices, of self and child, of everything that is loved, to live a life aimed at the Good. He will forego expediency. He will pursue the path of ultimate meaning. And he will in that manner bring salvation to the ever-desperate world. > %% rw:196143154 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3290 > In Christ’s case, however—as He sacrifices Himself—God, His Father, is simultaneously sacrificing His son. It is for this reason that the Christian sacrificial drama of Son and Self is archetypal. It’s a story at the limit, where nothing more extreme—nothing greater—can be imagined. That’s the very definition of “archetypal.” That’s the core of what constitutes “religious.” > %% rw:196143153 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3251 > The successful among us delay gratification. The successful among us bargain with the future. A great idea begins to emerge, taking ever-more-clearly-articulated form, in ever more-clearly-articulated stories: What’s the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful? The successful sacrifice. Things get better, as the successful practise their sacrifices. > %% rw:196125577 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3249 > Action came first (as it had to, as the animals we once were could act but could not think). Implicit, unrecognized value came first (as the actions that preceded thought embodied value, but did not make that value explicit). > %% rw:196125576 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3228 > To share does not mean to give away something you value, and get nothing back. That is instead only what every child who refuses to share fears it means. To share means, properly, to initiate the process of trade. A child who can’t share—who can’t trade—can’t have any friends, because having friends is a form of trade. > %% rw:196125575 %% ### Monday, 28 June 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3086 > Don’t blame capitalism, the radical left, or the iniquity of your enemies. Don’t reorganize the state until you have ordered your own experience. Have some humility. If you cannot bring peace to your household, how dare you try to rule a city? > %% rw:195364317 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3064 > A hurricane is an act of God. But failure to prepare, when the necessity for preparation is well known—that’s sin. That’s failure to hit the mark. And the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). The ancient Jews always blamed themselves when things fell apart. They acted as if God’s goodness—the goodness of reality—was axiomatic, and took responsibility for their own failure. That’s insanely responsible. But the alternative is to judge reality as insufficient, to criticize Being itself, and to sink into resentment and the desire for revenge. > %% rw:195364316 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3052 > When his wise words are not completely ignored, they are heeded too late. God smites his wayward people, dooming them to abject defeat in battle and generations of subjugation. The Hebrews repent, at length, blaming their misfortune on their own failure to adhere to God’s word. They insist to themselves that they could have done better. They rebuild their state, and the cycle begins again. This is life. > > **My note:** From covenant, to complacent, to downfall, to repentance and reconciliation and back to covenant again > %% rw:195364315 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3039 > One man’s decision to change his life, instead of cursing fate, shook the whole pathological system of communist tyranny to its core. It crumbled entirely, not so many years later, and Solzhenitsyn’s courage was not the least of the reasons why. He was not the only such person to perform such a miracle. Václav Havel, the persecuted writer who later, impossibly, became the president of Czechoslovakia, then of the new Czech Republic, comes to mind, as does Mahatma Gandhi. > %% rw:195364314 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 3033 > He took himself apart, piece by piece, let what was unnecessary and harmful die, and resurrected himself. Then he wrote The Gulag Archipelago, a history of the Soviet prison camp system. > %% rw:195364313 %% ### Saturday, 26 June 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2895 > IT DOES NOT SEEM REASONABLE to describe the young man who shot twenty children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 as a religious person. This is equally true for the Colorado theatre gunman and the Columbine High School killers. But these murderous individuals had a problem with reality that existed at a religious depth. As one of the members of the Columbine duo wrote:108 > %% rw:194563120 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2669 > the fundamental moral question is not how to shelter children completely from misadventure and failure, so they never experience any fear or pain, but how to maximize their learning so that useful knowledge may be gained with minimal cost. > %% rw:194543841 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2624 > Modern parents are terrified of two frequently juxtaposed words: discipline and punish. They evoke images of prisons, soldiers and jackboots. The distance between disciplinarian and tyrant or punishment and torture is, indeed, easily traversed. > %% rw:194543840 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2605 > Kids do this frequently. Scared parents think that a crying child is always sad or hurt. This is simply not true. Anger is one of the most common reasons for crying. Careful analysis of the musculature patterns of crying children has confirmed this. > %% rw:194543839 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2565 > Consistent correction of such action indicates the limits of acceptable aggression to the child. Its absence merely heightens curiosity—so the child will hit and bite and kick, if he is aggressive and dominant, until something indicates a limit. > %% rw:194543838 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2552 > Violence is the default. It’s easy. It’s peace that is difficult: learned, inculcated, earned. (People often get basic psychological questions backwards. Why do people take drugs? Not a mystery. It’s why they don’t take them all the time that’s the mystery. Why do people suffer from anxiety? That’s not a mystery. How is it that people can ever be calm? There’s the mystery. We’re breakable and mortal. A million things can go wrong, in a million ways. We should be terrified out of our skulls at every second. But we’re not. The same can be said for depression, laziness and criminality.) > %% rw:194543837 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2538 > They are also perfectly willing to provoke adults, while exploring the complex contours of the social environment, just like juvenile chimps harassing the adults in their troupes.98 Observing the consequences of teasing and taunting enables chimp and child alike to discover the limits of what might otherwise be a too-unstructured and terrifying freedom. Such limits, when discovered, provide security, even if their detection causes momentary disappointment or frustration. > %% rw:194543836 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2530 > We assume that rules will irremediably inhibit what would otherwise be the boundless and intrinsic creativity of our children, even though the scientific literature clearly indicates, first, that creativity beyond the trivial is shockingly rare96 and, second, that strict limitations facilitate rather than inhibit creative achievement. > %% rw:194543835 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2526 > It is difficult to figure out what is wrong and what is right and why. It is difficult to formulate just and compassionate strategies of discipline, and to negotiate their application with others deeply involved in a child’s care. Because of this combination of responsibility and difficulty, any suggestion that all constraints placed on children are damaging can be perversely welcome. > %% rw:194543834 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2499 > Children are damaged when their “mercifully” inattentive parents fail to make them sharp and observant and awake and leave them, instead, in an unconscious and undifferentiated state. Children are damaged when those charged with their care, afraid of any conflict or upset, no longer dare to correct them, and leave them without guidance. > %% rw:194543833 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2443 > The belief that children have an intrinsically unsullied spirit, damaged only by culture and society, is derived in no small part from the eighteenth-century Genevan French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. > %% rw:194543832 %% ### Thursday, 24 June 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2315 > Realization is dawning. Instead of playing the tyrant, therefore, you are paying attention. You are telling the truth, instead of manipulating the world. You are negotiating, instead of playing the martyr or the tyrant. You no longer have to be envious, because you no longer know that someone else truly has it better. You no longer have to be frustrated, because you have learned to aim low, and to be patient. You are discovering who you are, and what you want, and what you are willing to do. You are finding that the solutions to your particular problems have to be tailored to you, personally and precisely. You are less concerned with the actions of other people, because you have plenty to do yourself. Attend to the day, but aim at the highest good. Now, your trajectory is heavenward. That makes you hopeful. Even a man on a sinking ship can be happy when he clambers aboard a lifeboat! And who knows where he might go, in the future. To journey happily may well be better than to arrive successfully…. Ask, and ye shall receive. Knock, and the door will open. If you ask, as if you want, and knock, as if you want to enter, you may be offered the chance to improve your life, a little; a lot; completely—and with that improvement, some progress will be made in Being itself. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. > %% rw:193958234 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2288 > Don’t tell yourself, “I shouldn’t need to do that to motivate myself.” What do you know about yourself? You are, on the one hand, the most complex thing in the entire universe, and on the other, someone who can’t even set the clock on your microwave. Don’t over-estimate your self-knowledge. > %% rw:193958233 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2273 > You can find such somethings by asking yourself (as if you genuinely want to know) three questions: “What is it that is bothering me?” “Is that something I could fix?” and “Would I actually be willing to fix it?” If you find that the answer is “no,” to any or all of the questions, then look elsewhere. Aim lower. Search until you find something that bothers you, that you could fix, that you would fix, and then fix it. That might be enough for the day. > %% rw:193958232 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2193 > You can only find out what you actually believe (rather than what you think you believe) by watching how you act. You simply don’t know what you believe, before that. You are too complex to understand yourself. > %% rw:193958231 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2176 > He’s striving, instead, to be a “good person.” It may be the case that to him “good” means nothing but “obedient”—even blindly obedient. Hence the classic liberal Western enlightenment objection to religious belief: obedience is not enough. But it’s at least a start (and we have forgotten this): You cannot aim yourself at anything if you are completely undisciplined and untutored. > %% rw:193958230 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2169 > Our values, our morality—they are indicators of our sophistication. > %% rw:193958229 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2164 > We can’t just get the one particular thing we especially want just now, along with everything else we usually want, because our desires can produce conflict with our other desires, as well as with other people, and with the world. Thus, we must become conscious of our desires, and articulate them, and prioritize them, and arrange them into hierarchies. That makes them sophisticated. > %% rw:193958228 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2155 > This is not theology. It’s not mysticism. It’s empirical knowledge. There is nothing magical here—or nothing more than the already-present magic of consciousness. We only see what we aim at. The rest of the world (and that’s most of it) is hidden. If we start aiming at something different—something like “I want my life to be better”—our minds will start presenting us with new information, derived from the previously hidden world, to aid us in that pursuit. > > **My note:** You see what you aim. Your perceived reality start from your aim. Your aim decides what sort of information comes your way. > %% rw:193958227 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2133 > You won’t—can’t, in fact—just change yourself that easily. You have to dig deeper. You must change what you are after more profoundly. > %% rw:193958226 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2119 > You look at the world in your particular, idiosyncratic manner. You use a set of tools to screen most things out and let some things in. You have spent a lot of time building those tools. They’ve become habitual. They’re not mere abstract thoughts. They’re built right into you. They orient you in the world. They’re your deepest and often implicit and unconscious values. They’ve become part of your biological structure. They’re alive. > %% rw:193958225 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2110 > Your eyes are tools. They are there to help you get what you want. The price you pay for that utility, that specific, focused direction, is blindness to everything else. > %% rw:193958224 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2103 > That’s how you deal with the overwhelming complexity of the world: you ignore it, while you concentrate minutely on your private concerns. You see things that facilitate your movement forward, toward your desired goals. You detect obstacles, when they pop up in your path. You’re blind to everything else (and there’s a lot of everything else—so you’re very blind). And it has to be that way, because there is much more of the world than there is of you. You must shepherd your limited resources carefully. Seeing is very difficult, so you must choose what to see, and let the rest go. > %% rw:193958223 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2068 > What you aim at determines what you see. > %% rw:193958222 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2043 > Who wants to work for a tyrant like that? Not you. That’s why you don’t do what you want yourself to do. You’re a bad employee—but a worse boss. > %% rw:193958221 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2031 > But where you start might not be as important as the direction you are heading. Perhaps happiness is always to be found in the journey uphill, and not in the fleeting sense of satisfaction awaiting at the next peak. Much of happiness is hope, no matter how deep the underworld in which that hope was conceived. > %% rw:193958220 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 2013 > We live within a framework that defines the present as eternally lacking and the future as eternally better. If we did not see things this way, we would not act at all. > %% rw:193958219 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1983 > When you have something to say, silence is a lie—and tyranny feeds on lies. > %% rw:193924972 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1980 > But resentment always means one of two things. Either the resentful person is immature, in which case he or she should shut up, quit whining, and get on with it, or there is tyranny afoot—in which case the person subjugated has a moral obligation to speak up. > %% rw:193924971 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1979 > Consult your resentment. It’s a revelatory emotion, for all its pathology. It’s part of an evil triad: arrogance, deceit, and resentment. Nothing causes more harm than this underworld Trinity. > %% rw:193924970 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1966 > Do you ask yourself what you want? Do you negotiate fairly with yourself? Or are you a tyrant, with yourself as slave? > %% rw:193924969 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1962 > Before you can articulate your own standards of value, you must see yourself as a stranger—and then you must get to know yourself. > %% rw:193924968 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1960 > You have a nature. You can play the tyrant to it, but you will certainly rebel. > %% rw:193924967 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1918 > The idea of a value-free choice is a contradiction in terms. Value judgments are a precondition for action. > %% rw:193924966 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1912 > There will always be people better than you—that’s a cliché of nihilism, like the phrase, In a million years, who’s going to know the difference? The proper response to that statement is not, Well, then, everything is meaningless. It’s, Any idiot can choose a frame of time within which nothing matters. Talking yourself into irrelevance is not a profound critique of Being. It’s a cheap trick of the rational mind. > %% rw:193924965 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1910 > If the internal voice makes you doubt the value of your endeavours—or your life, or life itself—perhaps you should stop listening. If the critical voice within says the same denigrating things about everyone, no matter how successful, how reliable can it be? Maybe its comments are chatter, not wisdom. > %% rw:193924964 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1905 > It is for such reasons that a whole generation of social psychologists recommended “positive illusions” as the only reliable route to mental health.69 Their credo? Let a lie be your umbrella. A more dismal, wretched, pessimistic philosophy can hardly be imagined: things are so terrible that only delusion can save you. > %% rw:193924963 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1904 > Life is a zero-sum game. Worthlessness is the default condition. > %% rw:193924962 %% ### Wednesday, 23 June 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1855 > Here’s something to consider: If you have a friend whose friendship you wouldn’t recommend to your sister, or your father, or your son, why would you have such a friend for yourself? > %% rw:193577607 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1819 > It is far more likely that a given individual has just decided to reject the path upward, because of its difficulty. Perhaps that should even be your default assumption, when faced with such a situation. > %% rw:193577606 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1815 > Before you help someone, you should find out why that person is in trouble. You shouldn’t merely assume that he or she is a noble victim of unjust circumstances and exploitation. It’s the most unlikely explanation, not the most probable. > %% rw:193577605 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1747 > Someone might object, “It is only right to see the best in people. The highest virtue is the desire to help.” But not everyone who is failing is a victim, and not everyone at the bottom wishes to rise, although many do, and many manage it. > %% rw:193577604 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1739 > Freud called this a “repetition compulsion.” He thought of it as an unconscious drive to repeat the horrors of the past—sometimes, perhaps, to formulate those horrors more precisely, sometimes to attempt more active mastery and sometimes, perhaps, because no alternatives beckon. > %% rw:193577603 %% ### Tuesday, 22 June 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1416 > Unlike us, predators have no comprehension of their fundamental weakness, their fundamental vulnerability, their own subjugation to pain and death. But we know exactly how and where we can be hurt, and why. That is as good a definition as any of self-consciousness. > %% rw:193196328 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1394 > And so we return to our original query: Why would someone buy prescription medication for his dog, and then so carefully administer it, when he would not do the same for himself? Now you have the answer, derived from one of the foundational texts of mankind. Why should anyone take care of anything as naked, ugly, ashamed, frightened, worthless, cowardly, resentful, defensive and accusatory as a descendant of Adam? Even if that thing, that being, is himself? > > **My note:** The reason why we do not take care of ourselves and hate ourselves based on the Bible Genesis story. > %% rw:193196327 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1297 > It is far better to render Beings in your care competent than to protect them. > %% rw:193196326 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1288 > The worst of all possible snakes is the eternal human proclivity for evil. The worst of all possible snakes is psychological, spiritual, personal, internal. No walls, however tall, will keep that out. > %% rw:193196325 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1224 > The Taoist juxtaposition of yin and yang, for example, doesn’t simply portray chaos and order as the fundamental elements of Being—it also tells you how to act. The Way, the Taoist path of life, is represented by (or exists on) the border between the twin serpents. The Way is the path of proper Being. It’s the same Way as that referred to by Christ in John 14:6: I am the way, and the truth and the life. The same idea is expressed in Matthew 7:14: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. > > **My note:** The way of life shared by Taoist Yin Yang and the way of Christ, is to walk the narrow path between order and chaos > %% rw:193196324 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1211 > Elkhonon Goldberg, student of the great Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria, has proposed quite lucidly and directly that the very hemispheric structure of the cortex reflects the fundamental division between novelty (the unknown, or chaos) and routinization (the known, order).44 He doesn’t make reference to the symbols representing the structure of the world in reference to this theory, but that’s all the better: an idea is more credible when it emerges as a consequence of investigations in different realms.45 > > **My note:** Our brain is fundamentally divided into novelty and routinization. In other words, chaos and order. The unknown and the known. The feminine and the masculine. > %% rw:193196323 %% ### Monday, 21 June 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1199 > The most profound religious symbols rely for their power in large part on this underlying fundamentally bipartisan conceptual subdivision. > %% rw:192932828 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1169 > Our categories are far older than our species. Our most basic category—as old, in some sense, as the sexual act itself—appears to be that of sex, male and female. > %% rw:192932827 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1160 > Reality itself is whatever we contend with when we are striving to survive and reproduce. A lot of that is other beings, their opinions of us, and their communities. And that’s that. > %% rw:192932826 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1151 > They have been male or female, for example, for a billion years. That’s a long time. The division of life into its twin sexes occurred before the evolution of multi-cellular animals. It was in a still-respectable one-fifth of that time that mammals, who take extensive care of their young, emerged. Thus, the category of “parent” and/or “child” has been around for 200 million years. That’s longer than birds have existed. > %% rw:192932825 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1137 > Things or objects are part of the objective world. They’re inanimate; spiritless. They’re dead. This is not true of chaos and order. Those are perceived, experienced and understood (to the degree that they are understood at all) as personalities—and that is just as true of the perceptions, experiences and understanding of modern people as their ancient forebears. It’s just that moderners don’t notice. > %% rw:192932824 %% ### Sunday, 20 June 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1082 > the world of experience has primal constituents, as well. These are the necessary elements whose interactions define drama and fiction. One of these is chaos. Another is order. The third (as there are three) is the process that mediates between the two, which appears identical to what modern people call consciousness. It is our eternal subjugation to the first two that makes us doubt the validity of existence—that makes us throw up our hands in despair, and fail to care for ourselves properly. It is proper understanding of the third that allows us the only real way out. > %% rw:192614099 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1066 > Before the dawn of the scientific worldview, reality was construed differently. Being was understood as a place of action, not a place of things.31 > %% rw:192614098 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1064 > But those who existed during the distant time in which the foundational epics of our culture emerged were much more concerned with the actions that dictated survival (and with interpreting the world in a manner commensurate with that goal) than with anything approximating what we now understand as objective truth. > %% rw:192614097 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 1063 > Because we are so scientific now—and so determinedly materialistic—it is very difficult for us even to understand that other ways of seeing can and do exist. > %% rw:192614096 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 994 > So, attend carefully to your posture. Quit drooping and hunching around. Speak your mind. Put your desires forward, as if you had a right to them—at least the same right as others. Walk tall and gaze forthrightly ahead. Dare to be dangerous. Encourage the serotonin to flow plentifully through the neural pathways desperate for its calming influence. > %% rw:192606183 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 985 > To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open. It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitable order. It means adopting the burden of self-conscious vulnerability, and accepting the end of the unconscious paradise of childhood, where finitude and mortality are only dimly comprehended. It means willingly undertaking the sacrifices necessary to generate a productive and meaningful reality (it means acting to please God, in the ancient language). > %% rw:192606182 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 981 > Standing up means voluntarily accepting the burden of Being. Your nervous system responds in an entirely different manner when you face the demands of life voluntarily. > %% rw:192606181 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 970 > Emotion is partly bodily expression, and can be amplified (or dampened) by that expression. > %% rw:192606180 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 965 > Circumstances change, and so can you. Positive feedback loops, adding effect to effect, can spiral counterproductively in a negative direction, but can also work to get you ahead. That’s the other, far more optimistic lesson of Price’s law and the Pareto distribution: those who start to have will probably get more. > %% rw:192606179 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 954 > To say it again: There is very little difference between the capacity for mayhem and destruction, integrated, and strength of character. This is one of the most difficult lessons of life. > %% rw:192606178 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 830 > Anxiety and depression cannot be easily treated if the sufferer has unpredictable daily routines. The systems that mediate negative emotion are tightly tied to the properly cyclical circadian rhythms. > %% rw:192606177 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 825 > They must be turned into stable and reliable habits, so they lose their complexity and gain predictability and simplicity. > %% rw:192606176 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 823 > The body, with its various parts, needs to function like a well-rehearsed orchestra. Every system must play its role properly, and at exactly the right time, or noise and chaos ensue. > %% rw:192606175 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 821 > Erratic habits of sleeping and eating can interfere with its function. > %% rw:192606174 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 816 > Change might be opportunity, instead of disaster. > %% rw:192587303 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 812 > The physical demands of emergency preparedness will wear you down in every way. > %% rw:192587302 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 808 > The ancient counter will even shut down your immune system, expending the energy and resources required for future health now, during the crises of the present. > %% rw:192587301 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 798 > If you are judged by your peers as of little worth, the counter restricts serotonin availability. That makes you much more physically and psychologically reactive to any circumstance or event that might produce emotion, particularly if it is negative. You need that reactivity. Emergencies are common at the bottom, and you must be ready to survive. > > **My note:** Why people get easily offended. Why people have a natural tendency to react physically and emotionally when they are "offended" or question or attackeded > %% rw:192587300 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 777 > Higher spots in the dominance hierarchy, and the higher serotonin levels typical of those who inhabit them, are characterized by less illness, misery and death, even when factors such as absolute income—or number of decaying food scraps—are held constant. > %% rw:192587299 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 766 > The part of our brain that keeps track of our position in the dominance hierarchy is therefore exceptionally ancient and fundamental.17 It is a master control system, modulating our perceptions, values, emotions, thoughts and actions. > %% rw:192587298 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 759 > All that matters, from a Darwinian perspective, is permanence—and the dominance hierarchy, however social or cultural it might appear, has been around for some half a billion years. It’s permanent. It’s real. > %% rw:192587297 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 757 > This is because “nature” is “what selects,” and the longer a feature has existed the more time it has had to be selected—and to shape life. > %% rw:192587296 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 751 > Unfortunately, “the environment” is also elephantiasis and guinea worms (don’t ask), anopheles mosquitoes and malaria, starvation-level droughts, AIDS and the Black Plague. > %% rw:192587295 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 745 > The order that is most real is the order that is most unchanging—and that is not necessarily the order that is most easily seen. The leaf, when perceived, might blind the observer to the tree. The tree can blind him to the forest. And some things that are most real (such as the ever-present dominance hierarchy) cannot be “seen” at all. > %% rw:192587294 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 745 > It’s chaos, within order, within chaos, within higher order. > > **My note:** Brilliantly relating chaos to change and order to the unchanging, static. Leaves change quicker and trees and trees slower than nature. > %% rw:192587293 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 743 > Leaves change more quickly than trees, and trees more quickly than forests. Weather changes faster than climate. > %% rw:192587292 %% ### Saturday, 19 June 2021 #### 📖 Quotes > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 727 > Every revolution produces a new order. Every death is, simultaneously, a metamorphosis. > %% rw:192345175 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 720 > Mark Twain once said, “It’s not what we don’t know that gets us in trouble. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.” > %% rw:192345174 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 662 > This principle is sometimes known as Price’s law, after Derek J. de Solla Price,13 the researcher who discovered its application in science in 1963. It can be modelled using an approximately L-shaped graph, with number of people on the vertical axis, and productivity or resources on the horizontal. The basic principle had been discovered much earlier. Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923), an Italian polymath, noticed its applicability to wealth distribution in the early twentieth century, and it appears true for every society ever studied, regardless of governmental form. It also applies to the population of cities (a very small number have almost all the people), the mass of heavenly bodies (a very small number hoard all the matter), and the frequency of words in a language (90 percent of communication occurs using just 500 words), among many other things. Sometimes it is known as the Matthew Principle (Matthew 25:29), derived from what might be the harshest statement ever attributed to Christ: “to those who have everything, more will be given; from those who have nothing, everything will be taken.” > > **My note:** Principle of Unequal Distribution. > Drawing synonimities between Price Law, Pareto Law, and Matthew Law > %% rw:192345173 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 644 > Serotonin and octopamine also regulate the tail-flick reflex, which serves to propel a lobster rapidly backwards when it needs to escape. Less provocation is necessary to trigger that reflex in a defeated lobster. You can see an echo of that in the heightened startle reflex characteristic of the soldier or battered child with post-traumatic stress disorder. > > **My note:** This is the psychology of defeat, causes low confidence and it can be seen from the constantly dejected look and how the person resorts to escaping as soon as being provoked to avoid conflict or potential loss. > %% rw:192345172 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 627 > If a dominant lobster is badly defeated, its brain basically dissolves. Then it grows a new, subordinate’s brain—one more appropriate to its new, lowly position.8 Its original brain just isn’t sophisticated to manage the transformation from king to bottom dog without virtually complete dissolution and regrowth. Anyone who has experienced a painful transformation after a serious defeat in romance or career may feel some sense of kinship with the once successful crustacean. > %% rw:192345171 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 518 > Being (with a capital “B”) is what each of us experiences, subjectively, personally and individually, as well as what we each experience jointly with others. As such, it includes emotions, drives, dreams, visions and revelations, as well as our private thoughts and perceptions. > %% rw:192345170 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 508 > the soul of the individual eternally hungers for the heroism of genuine Being, and that the willingness to take on that responsibility is identical to the decision to live a meaningful life. > %% rw:192345169 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 459 > In the West, we have been withdrawing from our tradition-, religion- and even nation-centred cultures, partly to decrease the danger of group conflict. But we are increasingly falling prey to the desperation of meaninglessness, and that is no improvement at all. > %% rw:192345168 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 439 > They will fight to maintain the match between what they expect and how everyone is acting. > %% rw:192345167 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 436 > Shared beliefs simplify the world, as well, because people who know what to expect from one another can act together to tame the world. There is perhaps nothing more important than the maintenance of this organization—this simplification. If > %% rw:192345166 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 432 > I came to realize that shared belief systems made people intelligible to one another—and that the systems weren’t just about belief. > %% rw:192345165 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 402 > Order and chaos are the yang and yin of the famous Taoist symbol: two serpents, head to tail.*1 Order is the white, masculine serpent; Chaos, its black, feminine counterpart. The black dot in the white—and the white in the black—indicate the possibility of transformation: just when things seem secure, the unknown can loom, unexpectedly and large. Conversely, just when everything seems lost, new order can emerge from catastrophe and chaos. For the Taoists, meaning is to be found on the border between the ever-entwined pair. To walk that border is to stay on the path of life, the divine Way. > %% rw:192345164 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 333 > And perhaps because, as unfamiliar and strange as it sounds, in the deepest part of our psyche, we all want to be judged. > %% rw:192345163 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 331 > But if it’s uncertain that our ideals are attainable, why do we bother reaching in the first place? Because if you don’t reach for them, it is certain you will never feel that your life has meaning. > %% rw:192345162 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 267 > Cultivating judgment about the difference between virtue and vice is the beginning of wisdom, something that can never be out of date. > %% rw:192345161 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 264 > Aristotle defined the virtues simply as the ways of behaving that are most conducive to happiness in life. Vice was defined as the ways of behaving least conducive to happiness. > %% rw:192345160 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 243 > alongside our wish to be free of rules, we all search for structure. > %% rw:192345159 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 220 > It is because we are born human that we are guaranteed a good dose of suffering. > %% rw:192345158 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 216 > Above all, he alerted his students to topics rarely discussed in university, such as the simple fact that all the ancients, from Buddha to the biblical authors, knew what every slightly worn-out adult knows, that life is suffering. > %% rw:192345157 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 182 > Ideologies are substitutes for true knowledge, and ideologues are always dangerous when they come to power, because a simple-minded I-know-it-all approach is no match for the complexity of existence. > %% rw:192345156 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 178 > Ideologies are simple ideas, disguised as science or philosophy, that purport to explain the complexity of the world and offer remedies that will perfect it. Ideologues are people who pretend they know how to “make the world a better place” before they’ve taken care of their own chaos within. > %% rw:192345155 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 78 > he illustrates and explains why the best rules do not ultimately restrict us but instead facilitate our goals and make for fuller, freer lives. > > **My note:** Rules make us free. > %% rw:192345154 %% > [!quote] [[12 Rules for Life]] · [[Jordan Peterson]] · Loc. 71 > But the story of the golden calf also reminds us that without rules we quickly become slaves to our passions—and there’s nothing freeing about that. > %% rw:192345153 %%