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A student came before the master Bankei and asked to be helped in getting rid of his violent temper. “Show me this temper,” said Bankei. “It sounds very fascinating.” “I haven’t got it right now, so I can’t show it to you,” said the student. “Well then,” said Bankei,”bring it to me when you have it.” “But I can’t bring it just when I happen to have it,” protested the student. “I’d surely lose it again before I got it to you.” “In such a case,” said Bankei, “it seems to me that this temper is not part of your true nature. If it is not part of you, it must come into you from outside. I suggest that whenever it gets into you, you beat yourself with a stick until the temper can’t stand it, and runs away.”
Guinevere: They want me to ask you if any one of them could win your heart.
Lancelot: I’m a fighting man. I’m sworn to the Quest.
Guinevere: But surely there must be some lady somewhere in the world who inspires you?
Lancelot: There is one.
Guinevere: Who is she? Oh, go on, tell me.
Lancelot: You.
Guinevere: You’re teasing me.
Lancelot: I will love you always. I will love you as my queen and as the wife of my best friend. And while you live, I will love no other.
Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace. – The dhammapada
If you abandon one thing just to cling to another you’ll never free yourself.
You’re like a monkey letting go of one branch, grasping another. - Sutta nipata
If ascetics or other folk annoy you, don’t answer back.
Good people don’t retaliate. - Sutta nipata
Grief and anger shrink my world, and I resent this. They seem to paralyze my memory of happier times, of friends, places, things, options. Squeezed by the grip of intense, unsettling emotion, I grow smaller in my single-mindedness. I supposed it is partly because I have discarded a range of choices, impairing in some measure my freedom of will. I don’t like this, but after a point, I have small control over it. It makes me feel that I have surrendered to a kind of determinism, which irritates me even more. Then, vicious cycle, this feeds back into the emotion that drives me and intensifies it. The simple way of ending this situation is the headlong rush to remove its object. The difficult way is more philosophical, a drawing back, the reestablishment of control. As usual, the difficult way is preferable. A headlong rush may also result in a broken neck.
Merle Corey
I am all powerfull Time which destroys all things and I have come here to slay these men. Even if thou dost not fight, all the warriors facing thee shall die.
“I put it to the enlightened rationalist: has his rational reduction led to the beneficial control of matter and spirit? He will point proudly to the advances in physics and medicine, to the freeing of the mind from medieval stupidity and – as a well meaning Christian – to our deliverance from the fear of demons. But we continue to ask: what have all our other cultural achievements led to? The fearful answer is there before our eyes: man has been delivered from no fear, a hideous nightmare lies upon the world. So far reason has failed lamentably, and the very thing that everybody wanted to avoid rolls on in ghastly progression. Man has achieved a wealth of useful gadgets, but, to offset that, he has torn open the abyss and what will become of him now – where can he make a halt? After the last World War, we hoped for reason: we go on hoping. But already we are fascinated by the possibilities of atomic fission and promising ourselves a Golden Age – the surest guarantee that the abomination of desolation will grow to limitless dimensions. And who or what is it that causes all this? It is none other than that harmless (!), ingenious, inventive, and sweetly reasonable human spirit who unfortunately is abysmally unconscious of the demonism that still clings to him. Worse, this spirit does everything to avoid looking himself in the face, and we all help him like mad. Only, heaven preserve us from psychology – that depravity might lead to self-knowledge! Rather let us have wars, for which somebody else is always to blame, nobody seeing that all the world is driven to do just what all the world flees from in terror.”
Carl Gustav Jung – The phenomenology of the spirit in fairy tales
I am death, the mighty destroyer of the world. I have come here to destroy all these people. Even without your participation in the war, all the warriors standing arrayed in the opposing armies shall cease to exist.Therefore, you get up and attain glory. Conquer your enemies, and enjoy a prosperous kingdom. I have already destroyed all these warriors. You are only an instrument, O Arjuna.
Kill all these great warriors who are already killed by Me. Do not fear. You will certainly conquer the enemies in the battle; therefore, fight!
Om ! May He protect us both together (by illumining the nature of knowledge).
May He sustain us both (by ensuring the fruits of knowledge).
May we attain the vigour (of knowledge) together.
Let what we learn enlighten us.
Let us not hate each other.
Om ! Peace ! Peace ! Peace !
- I must not fear.
- Fear is the mind-killer.
- Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
- I will face my fear.
- I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
- And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
- Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
- Only I will remain.
- –Dune
