Words&Dirt

“Every study of the gods, of everyone’s gods, is a revelation of vengeance toward the innocent.”

––A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving, pg. 7

“To practice Living Zen is not easy. It is to make repeated selfless, skillful, adaptive, behavioral concessions to everyone else with whom you interact in an ongoing relationship.

This means developing inherent capacities to subordinate your pride and its own precious ‘needs.’ It involves considering the other legitimate interests and needs of family, friends, roommates, team members, partners, spouses, babies, children, teenagers, teachers, fellow employees, and employers, etc. In all such negotiations, you learn slowly, through trial and error, which are the optimum times, places, and ways to assert or submerge your previously overconditioned Self.”

––Meditating Selflessly: Practical Neural Zen, by James H. Austin, pg. 138-9