“
Romeo and Juliet is synonymous with “romance” in our culture today. It is seen as the love story in English-speaking culture, an emotional ideal to live up to. Yet when you really get down to what happens in the story, these kids are absolutely out of their fucking minds. And they just killed themselves to prove it!
”
”
Mark Manson (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life)
“
You ruin your life by desensitizing yourself. We are all afraid to say too much, to feel too deeply, to let people know what they mean to us. Caring is not synonymous with crazy. Expressing to someone how special they are to you will make you vulnerable. There is no denying that. However, that is nothing to be ashamed of. There is something breathtakingly beautiful in the moments of smaller magic that occur when you strip down and are honest with those who are important to you. Let that girl know that she inspires you. Tell your mother you love her in front of your friends. Express, express, express. Open yourself up, do not harden yourself to the world, and be bold in who, and how you love. There is courage in that.
”
”
Bianca Sparacino
“
English has a lot of synonyms for “fool” or “idiot.” Perhaps you take this to mean that English speakers are mean-spirited; I simply reply that necessity is the mother of invention.
”
”
Kory Stamper (Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries)
“
In normal life, "simplicity" is synonymous with "easy to do," but when a chef uses the word, it means "takes a lifetime to learn.
”
”
Bill Buford (Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany)
“
People use democracy as a free-floating abstraction disconnected from reality. Democracy in and of itself is not necessarily good. Gang rape, after all, is democracy in action.
All men have the right to live their own life. Democracy must be rooted in a rational philosophy that first and foremost recognizes the right of an individual. A few million Imperial Order men screaming for the lives of a much smaller number of people in the New World may win a democratic vote, but it does not give them the right to those lives, or make their calls for such killing right.
Democracy is not a synonym for justice or for freedom. Democracy is not a sacred right sanctifying mob rule. Democracy is a principle that is subordinate to the inalienable rights of the individual.
”
”
Terry Goodkind (Naked Empire (Sword of Truth, #8))
“
But I give you my word, in the entire book there is nothing that cannot be said aloud in mixed company. And there is, also, nothing that makes you a bit the wiser. I wonder--oh, what will you think of me--if those two statements do not verge upon the synonymous.
”
”
Dorothy Parker (Constant Reader: 2)
“
Man makes history; woman is history. The reproduction of the species is feminine: it runs steadily and quietly through all species, animal or human, through all short-lived cultures. It is primary, unchanging, everlasting, maternal, plantlike, and cultureless. If we look back we find that it is synonymous with life itself.
”
”
Oswald Spengler (Aphorisms)
“
Surrender is the ultimate sign of strength and the foundation for a spiritual life. Surrendering affirms that we are no longer willing to live in pain. It expresses a deep desire to transcend our struggles and transform our negative emotions. It commands a life beyond our egos, beyond that part of ourselves that is continually reminding us that we are separate, different and alone. Surrendering allows us to return to our true nature and move effortlessly through the cosmic dance called life. It's a powerful statement that proclaims the perfect order of the universe.
When you surrender your will, you are saying, "Even though things are not exactly how I'd like them to be, I will face my reality. I will look it directly in the eye and allow it to be here." Surrender and serenity are synonymous; you can't experience one without the other. So if it's serenity you're searching for, it's close by. All you have to do is resign as General Manager of the Universe. Choose to trust that there is a greater plan for you and that if you surrender, it will be unfolded in time.
Surrender is a gift that you can give yourself. It's an act of faith. It's saying that even though I can't see where this river is flowing, I trust it will take me in the right direction.
”
”
Debbie Ford (Spiritual Divorce: Divorce as a Catalyst for an Extraordinary Life)
“
You think me foolish to call instruction a torment, but if you had been as much used as myself to hear poor little children first learning their letters and then learning to spell, if you had ever seen how stupid they can be for a whole morning together, and how tired my poor mother is at the end of it, as I am in the habit of seeing almost every day of my life at home, you would allow that to torment and to instruct might sometimes be used as synonymous words.
”
”
Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)
“
I moaned in frustration, trapped between desire and fear. “God, Roth.” “In your life, at this time, those two words could be considered synonymous.
”
”
Jasinda Wilder (Alpha (Alpha, #1))
“
I'm not a synonym—I'm a proper noun.
”
”
Clarice Lispector (The Stream of Life)
“
One needn't identify as a feminist to participate in the redemptive movement of God for women in the world, The gospel is more than enough. Of course it is! But as long as I know how important maternal health is to Haiti's future, and as long as I know that women are being abused and raped, as long as I know girls are being denied life itself through selective abortion, abandonment, and abuse, as long as brave little girls in Afghanistan are attacked with acid for the crime of going to school, and until being a Christian is synonymous with doing something about these things, you can also call me a feminist.
”
”
Sarah Bessey (Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women)
“
That night was the first time in my life I felt like the words “gay” and “alone” weren’t synonyms for each other.
”
”
Saeed Jones (How We Fight For Our Lives)
“
The foundation of a happy relationship (and life, really) is unconditional kindness. It’s synonymous with love, and maybe even more effective, because it shows you the action as opposed to the feeling or expectation.
”
”
Brianna Wiest (101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think)
“
The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and to be loved. Indeed, if partial emancipation is to become a complete and true emancipation of woman, it will have to do away with the ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is synonymous with being slave or subordinate. It will have to do away with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and woman represent two antagonistic worlds.
”
”
Emma Goldman
“
God, Beauty and Truth are synonymous. Take any one of the three paths and you will reach the goal.
”
”
Amit Ray (Walking the Path of Compassion)
“
For Socrates, philosophy and conversation were virtually synonymous.
”
”
Eric Weiner (The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers)
“
Our normal is so subnormal that normal seems radical. To the first-century disciples, normal and radical were synonyms. We’ve turned them into antonyms.
”
”
Mark Batterson (All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life)
“
I am not averse to generalizing the notion of "modern" to designate a certain way of life, rather than making it purely a synonym of 'contemporary'. There are moments and places in history to which 'we moderns' could return without too greatly disturbing the harmony of those times, without seeming objects infinitely curious and conspicuous... creatures shocking, dissonant, and unassailable.
”
”
Paul Valéry (An Anthology)
“
When confronted with a problem involving the use of the reasoning faculties, individuals of strong intellect keep their poise, and seek to reach a solution by obtaining facts bearing upon the question. Those of immature mentality, on the other hand, when similarly confronted, are overwhelmed. While the former may be qualified to solve the riddle of their own destiny, the latter must be led like a flock of sheep and taught in simple language. They depend almost entirely upon the ministrations of the shepherd. The Apostle Paul said that these little ones must be fed with milk, but that meat is the food of strong men. Thoughtlessness is almost synonymous with childishness, while thoughtfulness is symbolic of maturity. There are, however, but few mature minds in the world; and thus it was that the philosophic-religious doctrines of the pagans were divided to meet the needs of these two fundamental groups of human intellect--one philosophic, the other incapable of appreciating the deeper mysteries of life. To the discerning few were revealed the esoteric, or spiritual, teachings, while the unqualified many received only the literal, or exoteric, interpretations. In order to make simple the great truths of Nature and the abstract principles of natural law, the vital forces of the universe were personified, becoming the gods and goddesses of the ancient mythologies. While the ignorant multitudes brought their offerings to the altars of Priapus and Pan (deities representing the procreative energies), the wise recognized in these marble statues only symbolic concretions of great abstract truths. In all cities of the ancient
”
”
Manly P. Hall (The Secret Teachings of All Ages)
“
It is untrue that fiction is nonutilitarian. The uses of fiction are synonymous with the uses of literature. They include refreshment, clarification of life, self-awareness, expansion of our range of experiences, and enlargement of our sense of understanding and discovery, perception, intensification, expression, beauty , and understanding. Like literature generally, fiction is a form of discovery, perception, intensification, expression, beauty, and understanding. If it is all these things, the question of whether it is a legitimate use of time should not even arise.
”
”
Leland Ryken (Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective (Wheaton Literary Series))
“
Salvation in its true and full meaning is synonymous with exaltation or eternal life and consists in gaining an inheritance in the highest of the three heavens within the celestial kingdom. With few exceptions this is the salvation of which the scriptures speak. It is the salvation which the saints seek. (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966, p. 670.)
”
”
Bruce R. McConkie
“
For all that was happening to him, his voice was strong and inviting, and his mind was vibrating with a million thoughts. He was intent on proving that the word 'dying' was not synonymous with 'useless'.
”
”
Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie)
“
When life demands more of people than they demand of life - as is ordinarily the case - what results is a resentment of life that is almost as deep-seated as the fear of death. Indeed, the resentment of life and the fear of death are virtually synonymous. Does it follow, then, that the more people ask of living, the less their fear of dying?
”
”
Tom Robbins (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues)
“
Anarchy is synonymous with Socialism. Because both signify the abolition of exploitation and of the domination of man over man, whether maintained by the force of arms or by the monopolization of the means of life.
”
”
Errico Malatesta (Anarchy)
“
I want a good life, and I want passion and romance. But I was raised to see one as a waste and the other as distasteful, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop feeling like “Poppy Danforth” has become synonymous with waste and distaste, even though I’ve done everything I possibly can to escape that feeling…
”
”
Sierra Simone (Priest (Priest, #1))
“
Many social justice or social activist movements have been rooted in a position. A position is usually against something. Any position will call up its opposition. If I say up, it generates down. If I say right, it really creates left. If I say good, it creates bad. So a position creates its opposition. A stand is something quite distinct from that.
There are synonyms for “stand” such as “declaration” or “commitment,” but let me talk for just a few moments about the power of a stand. A stand comes from the heart, from the soul. A stand is always life affirming. A stand is always trustworthy. A stand is natural to who you are. When we use the phrase “take a stand” I’m really inviting you to un-cover, or “unconceal,” or recognize, or affirm, or claim the stand that you already are.
Stand-takers are the people who actually change the course of history and are the source of causing an idea’s time to come. Mahatma Gandhi was a stand-taker. He took a stand so powerful that it mobilized millions of people in a way that the completely unpredictable outcome of the British walking out of India did happen. And India became an independent nation. The stand that he took… or the stand that Martin Luther King, Jr. took or the stand that Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony took for women’s rights—those stands changed our lives today. The changes that have taken place in history as a result of the stand-takers are permanent changes, not temporary changes. The women in this room vote because those women took so powerful a stand that it moved the world.
And so the opportunity here is for us to claim the stand that we already are, not take a position against the macro economic system, or a position against this administration, although some of you may have those feelings. What’s way more powerful than that is taking a stand, which includes all positions, which allows all positions to be heard and reconsidered, and to begin to dissolve.
When you take a stand, it actually does shift the whole universe and unexpected, unpredictable things happen.
”
”
Lynne Twist
“
Love is full of peace and rage. It's another synonym of freedom - sacrifice is necessary.
”
”
Mwanandeke Kindembo
“
Your Script Here’s what to tell someone or yourself while you’re feeling hopelessly fucked-up. Dear [Me/Family Member/Fuckup I Can’t Help But Care About], I know you feel like [the royal “we”/you/our fuckup son] is on the verge of [insert mistake or potential tragic experience], and life feels like an unholy disaster. The truth is, however, that life often sucks and sometimes I can’t expect to feel other than [insert classier, more dire synonym for “shitty”], especially given issues in the past regarding [bad luck/anxiety/your many addictions and world-record unemployment]. So don’t take it personally and do take credit for whatever good things you were doing, even if they were totally ineffective at fending off this mess. Take pride in doing a good job, regardless of bad [luck/genes/associates/mental pain] and don’t stop.
”
”
Michael I. Bennett (F*ck Feelings: One Shrink's Practical Advice for Managing All Life's Impossible Problems)
“
The sub-conscious mind is so powerful in such a way that even if you empty your mind of all its components, there will be a little thought; it is synonymous to a well informed person who can never be deformed.
”
”
Michael Bassey Johnson
“
Street culture is a culture of containment. Most young people do not realize that it all too often leads to a “dead end”. “Street culture,” as I am using the term, is a counterforce to movement culture. Street culture in contemporary urban reality is synonymous with survival at all costs. This world view is mostly negative, because it demands constant adjustment to circumstances that are often far beyond young people’s control or understanding, such as economics, education, housing, employment, nutrition, law, and so forth.
”
”
Haki R. Madhubuti
“
When you really understand who you are, you will experience unalloyed happiness. Happiness that you only dreamed about, happiness in the Silence, when nothing is happening but you’re happy. Always happy, always at peace. All of the Gods that you have been praying to all your life, all of the Buddha’s you’ve taken refuge in, the Krishnas, the Kalmias, the Shivahs, the Christ, Allah, they’re all within you. You are that. There is only the one Self and you are That. Ponder this.
The knowledge of this brings you eternally infinite happiness instantly. When you begin to understand who you are, your Divine nature, that you are not the body, you’re not the mind, once you understand your Infinite nature, who you really are and there’s nothing else, you immediately become instantly happy. For happiness is your very nature. Happiness, the Self are synonymous. Consciousness, Absolute Reality, Pure Awareness, are all synonymous. There is only One. It has many names, but the One pervades all of space and time. And it is the only existence and you are That. There is no other existence. Awaken to this truth. You are the only One that does exist. And you are Consciousness.
”
”
Robert Adams (Silence of the Heart: Dialogues with Robert Adams)
“
Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage?
”
”
Emma Goldman
“
Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage?love,
”
”
Emma Goldman (Anarchism and Other Essays (Dover Books on History, Political and Social Science))
“
But many more daughters of distant fathers are unable to reach orgasm, or achieve it with consistency with any man. Indeed these daughters have the most trouble in bed: for them, affection and arousal are synonymous with rejection.
”
”
Victoria Secunda (Women and Their Fathers: The Sexual and Romantic Impact of the First Man in Your Life)
“
It begins with a tremor, a realization that love happens in the fragile context of our mortality. That love and life occur just beyond the reach of our control. There is only one letter of difference between love and lose, and somewhere along the way, for me they became synonymous. I understand now that something broke in me after my parents died that somehow healed wrong, and I started measuring how much I loved people in terms of how much it would hurt to lose them.
”
”
Kennedy Ryan (Before I Let Go (Skyland, #1))
“
Grumbling, murmuring, whining—whatever synonym you want to ascribe to complaining, they all have the same effect. They quench the Spirit of the Lord. Again, the language of heaven is thanksgiving, praise, and gratefulness. Complaining isn’t the language the Lord speaks; it’s not in His vocabulary.
”
”
Tim Cameron (The Forty-Day Word Fast: A Spiritual Journey to Eliminate Toxic Words From Your Life)
“
To treat yourself as if you were someone you are responsible for helping is, instead, to consider what would be truly good for you. This is not “what you want.” It is also not “what would make you happy.” Every time you give a child something sweet, you make that child happy. That does not mean that you should do nothing for children except feed them candy. “Happy” is by no means synonymous with “good.” You must get children to brush their teeth. They must put on their snowsuits when they go outside in the cold, even though they might object strenuously. You must help a child become a virtuous, responsible, awake being, capable of full reciprocity—able to take care of himself and others, and to thrive while doing so. Why would you think it acceptable to do anything less for yourself?
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson (12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos)
“
This is because white Americans have supposed “Europe” and “civilization” to be synonyms—which they are not—and have been distrustful of other standards and other sources of vitality, especially those produced in America itself, and have attempted to behave in all matters as though what was east for Europe was also east for them. What it comes to is that if we, who can scarcely be considered a white nation, persist in thinking of ourselves as one, we condemn ourselves, with the truly white nations, to sterility and decay, whereas if we could accept ourselves as we are, we might bring new life to the Western achievements, and transform them.
”
”
James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time)
“
Growing up is not synonymous with maturing.
Becoming an adult is a matter of age, not maturity.
Being an adult does not ensure “adult behavior.”
Adult behavior is a cultivated choice and a ongoing practice.
There are too many so-called adults who are nothing more than “grown up” disempowered children living under the guise of maturity.
”
”
Markus William Kasunich
“
Christians know that joy is more than a feeling or an on-again, off-again sentiment that changes according to the circumstances they face. Followers of Jesus Christ distinguish between lasting joy and situational happiness. Fun and joy are not necessarily synonymous. We believe we can experience inner joy with no special external stimulus to make us happy.
”
”
George Foster (Amazing Peace: Hope and Encouragement for the Storms of Life)
“
Life is too short to waste time on books that end badly.” “By badly you mean unhappily, right?” “As far as I’m concerned, the two are synonymous.
”
”
Jayne Ann Krentz (Running Hot (Arcane Society, #5))
“
I've spent my entire life chasing wonder, and to me that word is synonymous with spirituality.
”
”
Elizabeth Gilbert
“
From where we stand, immortality and death are synonymous: a two-headed monster of
semantics. Having no value for us except as “endness,” they generate value backwards
into life.
”
”
Thomas Ligotti (The Conspiracy Against the Human Race)
“
fully loving and fully living are not only synonymous but the kind of life that Jesus invited us to be part of.
”
”
Bob Goff (Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World)
“
A dreamless sleep and a life without ambition are synonymous with death.
”
”
Faisal Khosa
“
Happy” is by no means synonymous with “good.
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson (12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos)
“
...love was not always synonymous with care.
”
”
Caleb Azumah Nelson (Open Water)
“
Erasing the agrarian past wherein black folks worked the land, sustained our lives by growing and tending crops, was a way to deny that there were any aspects of life in the white supremacist South that was positive. At the end of nineteenth century the cultural myths that made freedom synonymous with materialism necessarily denied the dignity of any agrarian based life style.
”
”
bell hooks (Belonging: A Culture of Place)
“
Why is the word ‘settled’ synonymous with fixedness? Doesn’t settling down signify that you are content with your life? I’m content with my life at this point, and therefore, I feel settled.
”
”
Namrata Gupta (The Full Circle)
“
Our big and good God is at work in the world, and we have been invited to participate fully-however God has gifted and equipped and called each of us. One needn't identify as a feminist to participate in the redemptive movement of God for women in the world. The gospel is more than enough. Of course it is! But as long as I know how important maternal health is to Haiti's future, and as long as I know that women are being abused and raped, as long as I know girls are being denied life itself through selective abortion, abandonment, and abuse, as long as brave little girls in Afghanistan are being attacked with acid for the crime of going to school, and until being a Christian is synonymous with doing something about these things, you can also call me a feminist.
”
”
Sarah Bessey (Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women)
“
How does consciousness ever begin? How could that possibly occur? And is that question any less enigmatic than trying to figure how it might arise at a later date? Is consciousness synonymous with everything?
”
”
Robert Lanza (Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe)
“
I ask about the Quakers’ silent services. She describes them as “not so much the absence of talking as the presence of god.” Interesting. Hers is a more poetic, more profound description than what I call it: room tone. But a synonym for “room tone” is in fact “presence,” the sound of a room that audio engineers record for editing purposes. Every place on earth at any given moment has unique acoustics based on who and what is there. So actors, broadcasters, and musicians always have to stop and be still for a minute while a recording is made of what seems like emptiness but is actually the barely audible vibrations of life itself. I
”
”
Sarah Vowell (Lafayette in the Somewhat United States)
“
Everything depends on what is being enacted. Enactment itself, since it is almost synonymous with ceremony, is, as we have seen, part of the very fabric of our human life. We do enact things. We will enact things. No on can stop us from enacting things. The most gaunt anti-ceremonialist may refuse to take off his hat in a shrine, whereupon he has given the whole game away. He agrees with the priests at the shrine that hats on or hats off are significant, and to register his dissociation from their cult, he keeps his on. It is a ceremonial enactment of what he believes. A church wishes to stress the table aspect of the Eucharist, so it instructs its people to remain seated as they eat the bread and drink the cup. This is a ceremonial enactment of something important to them. They agree with the Christians who kneel that posture is immensely significant. The external act matters; stay seated.
”
”
Thomas Howard (Evangelical Is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament)
“
But as long as I know how important maternal health is to Haiti’s future, and as long as I know that women are being abused and raped, as long as I know girls are being denied life itself through selective abortion, abandonment, and abuse, as long as brave little girls in Afghanistan are attacked with acid for the crime of going to school, and until being a Christian is synonymous with doing something about these things, you can also call me a feminist.
”
”
Sarah Bessey
“
Walking upright between the past and future, a tightrope walk across our times, became, for me, a way of living: trying to maintain a balance between the competing gravities of birth and death, hope and regret, sex and mortality, love and grief, all those opposites or nearly opposites that become, after a while, the rocks and hard places, synonymous forces between which we navigate, like salmon balanced in the current, damned some times if we do or don't.
”
”
Thomas Lynch (The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade)
“
In post-modern culture there is a deep hunger to belong. An increasing majority of people feel isolated and marginalised. Experience is haunted by fragmentation. Many of the traditional shelters are in ruins. Society is losing the art of fostering community. Consumerism is now propelling life towards the lonely isolation of individualism. Technology pretends to unite us, yet more often than not all it delivers are simulated images. The “global village” has no roads or neighbours; it is a faceless limbo from which all individuality has been abstracted. Politics seems devoid of the imagination that calls forth vision and ideals; it is becoming ever more synonymous with the functionalism of economic pragmatism. Many of the keepers of the great religious traditions now seem to be frightened functionaries; in a more uniform culture, their management skills would be efficient and successful. In a pluralistic and deeply fragmented culture, they seem unable to converse with the complexities and hungers of our longing. From this perspective, it seems that we are in the midst of a huge crisis of belonging. When the outer cultural shelters are in ruins, we need to explore and reawaken the depths of belonging in the human mind and soul; perhaps, the recognition of the depth of our hunger to belong may gradually assist us in awakening new and unexpected possibilities of community and friendship.
”
”
John O'Donohue (Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong)
“
People were kind and friendly and amusing, but they thought that companionship and conversation were synonymous, and some of them had voices that jarred in your head. There was a lot to be said for dogs. They understood without telling you so, and they were always pleasing to look at, awake or asleep, like Bingo. He slept now, with little whistling snores, in his basket at the side of the fire, his stubby legs and one whiskery eyebrow twitching to the fitful tempo of his dreams.
”
”
Monica Dickens
“
Is change necessary to happiness?"
"Yes."
"Is it synonymous with it?"
"I don't know; but I feel monotony and death to be almost the same."
Here Jessie spoke.
"Isn't she mad?" she asked.
"But, Rose," pursued Caroline, "I fear a wanderer's life, for me at least, would end like that tale you are reading—in disappointment, vanity, and vexation of spirit."
"Does 'The Italian' so end?"
"I thought so when I read it."
"Better to try all things and find all empty than to try nothing and leave your life a blank...
”
”
Charlotte Brontë (Shirley)
“
Everyone wishes their life were happier.”
Lily shook her head. “No. Not like beautiful people. They walk this earth, their chin up to the rest of us, and think that great happiness, great love, great joy is their right and their prerogative. Passion as the entitlement of the beautiful, the way power is the entitlement of the rich.” Lily paused. “Especially when it comes to love. Beauty and love become somehow synonymous. How can plain people have great love? They can’t, that’s how. They can have average love, mediocre love, but their hearts can’t soar. Only beautiful hearts can soar.”
“I think you’ve hit on the nail right there,” said Spencer. “Beautiful people don’t necessarily have beautiful hearts.”
“But it doesn’t matter, don’t you see? You don’t fall in love with a heart. You fall in love with a woman’s face, with her body, with her hair, with her smell. That’s first, everything else is secondary. My mother’s beauty when she was young was so extreme that she didn’t understand how every man who met her didn’t love her in extremis.
”
”
Paullina Simons (The Girl In Times Square)
“
Empathy has become a misused buzz-word. It is transformed into a catch all term for everything good as a synonym of the morality, kindness and compassion. It is frequently mistaken for sympathy, which means aligning yourself with someone suffering, not inhabiting it.
”
”
Pandora Sykes (How Do We Know We're Doing It Right: & Other Essays on Modern Life)
“
Because of my nature, I find 'spiritual' and 'creative' to be synonymous. I am not exclusively a Christian; but for me work is prayer. So in pleading for the nurture of creativity, in life and in education, I plead for the nuture of the spiritual. I cannot separate the two.
”
”
Alan Garner (The Voice That Thunders)
“
Fore Word
Poetry and prayer are synonymous in my life, and because both are a gift, which I accept with joy and sometimes pain, I seldom know whether I have served the gift well or ill. But perhaps that doesn't really matter; the important thing is to be willing - to want to serve the gift whenever it comes, either as verse or prayer...
My heart's climate is not constant; I doubt if anyone's is. My inner weather shifts with the days. But much sunshine has shone on me through the sharing and giving and receiving.
And so I am taught to pray. And so I am taught to be.
”
”
Madeleine L'Engle (The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems)
“
Courage originally meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” Over time, this definition has changed, and, today, courage is more synonymous with being heroic. Heroics is important and we certainly need heroes, but I think we’ve lost touch with the idea that speaking honestly and openly about who we are, about what we’re feeling, and about our experiences (good and bad) is the definition of courage. Heroics is often about putting our life on the line. Ordinary courage is about putting our vulnerability on the line. In today’s world, that’s pretty extraordinary.1
”
”
Brené Brown (The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are)
“
Essex raised its ugly head. When i was a scholarship boy at the local grammar, son of a city-hall toiler on the make, this country was synonymous with liberty, success, and Cambridge. Now look at it. Shopping malls and housing estates pursue their creeping invasion of our ancient land. A North Sea wind snatched frilly clouds in its teeth and scarpered off to the midlands. The countryside proper began at last. My mother had a cousin out here, her family had a big house. I think they moved to Winnipeg for a better life. There! There, in the shadow of that DIY warehouse, once stood a row of walnut trees where me and Pip Oakes - a childhood chum who died aged thirteen under the wheels of an oil tanker - varnished a canoe one summer and sailed it alone the Say. Sticklebacks in jars,. There, right there, around that bend we lit a fire and cooked beans and potatoes wrapped in silver foil! Come back, oh, come back! Is one glimpse all I get?
”
”
David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas)
“
The Art of Living is to be yourself. It is to be true to yourself.
The Art of Living is learning to live with love, awareness and truth.
Meditation is the way to learn The Art of Living.
Being is you. To discover your being is the beginning of life.
You can live in two ways:
1. Ego - effort and desire and 2.Being - no-effort, being in a let go with existence.
Religion is The Art of Living.
Five keys to The Art of Living:
1. Be life-affirmative. Life is synonymous with God.
Live with reverence, great respect and gratitude for life. Feel thankful and prayerful.
2. Make life an heartful, aesthetic experience.
Become more sensitive, sensuous and creative - and you will become more spiritual.
3.Experience life in all possible ways.
Experience all dualities and polarities of life: good/bad, bitter/sweet, summer/winter, happiness/sadness and life/death.
Do not be afraid of experience, because the more experiences you have, the more spiritually mature you become.
4. Live in the present.
Forget the past and the future - this moment is the only reality.
This moment has to become your whole love, life and death.
5.Live courageously.
Do not become too result-oriented, because result-oriented people miss life. Do not think of goals, because goals are in the future - and life is in the moment, in the here and now.
”
”
Swami Dhyan Giten
“
Do you know where my G-spot is at?” Her eyes open as she gives me a pointed look.
I nod, keeping my tongue moving.
“Then find it.”
Mayhem synonyms: chaos, havoc, madness, trouble, disorder, pandemonium.
Yep. All of those fit Dorothy.
I slide two fingers inside her—nothing like being put on the spot, or having to find it. A real-life oral pop quiz.
”
”
Jewel E. Ann (Perfectly Adequate)
“
I'm not the kind of person who talks a lot. But I prefer people who are willing to act rather than talk. Often it doesn't take words just to say something. But I also like smart people. It's easy for me to be attracted to people who are willing to think. Because in addition to showing physical action, our life should be filled with a series of thought processes. People who want to use their brains are always more attractive to me. To me, smart is synonymous with the word "sexy." They can be very attractive both physically and intellectually. That's why I hate stupid people. But I really hate a man who thinks he is handsome but he has no brains. It seems like people with this type are simply wasting God's grace.
”
”
Titon Rahmawan
“
The root of the word courage is cor—the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage had a very different definition than it does today. Courage originally meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” Over time, this definition has changed, and, today, courage is more synonymous with being heroic. Heroics is important and we certainly need heroes, but I think we’ve lost touch with the idea that speaking honestly and openly about who we are, about what we’re feeling, and about our experiences (good and bad) is the definition of courage. Heroics is often about putting our life on the line. Ordinary courage is about putting our vulnerability on the line. In today’s world, that’s pretty extraordinary.1
”
”
Brené Brown (The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are)
“
This is the mistake we often make. We think, however briefly, that there might be someone else to blame for the ways that we feel small, or for the ways our lives haven’t turned out the way we hoped. But the truth is, frustration and regret almost always start with some unattended ember in our own smoldering heart, and self-reliance isn’t synonymous with going it alone.
”
”
Christina Rosalie (Field Guide to Now: Notes on Mindfulness and Life in the Present Tense)
“
It is not within my power to refuse the journey of life regardless of the nature of my fears or the depth of my selfishness, for the definitions of ‘journey’ and ‘life’ are indistinguishably synonymous. I can however sufficiently inhibit them and amply fight them to the point that I have accepted the journey, but the journey is now solely defined as my effort to forsake the journey.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough (An Intimate Collision: Encounters with Life and Jesus)
“
But ranchers who cherish the western life and its values also pray for oil wells in their calving pasture or a coal lease on prime grassland. Economics has pressed them into such a paradoxical state. For years, they've borrowed $100,000 for operating costs; now they can't afford interest. Disfigurement is synonymous with the whole idea of a frontier. As soon as we lay our hands on it, the freedom we thought it represented is quickly gone.
”
”
Gretel Ehrlich (The Solace of Open Spaces)
“
If we are part of nature, then we are synonymous with it at the metaphysical level, every bit as much as the first all-but-inorganic animalcules that ever formed a chain of themselves in the blow hole of a primordial sea vent. There is no magic rod that comes down three hundred thousand years ago and divides our essence from the material world that produced us. This means that we cannot speak in essential terms of nature—neither of its brutality nor of its beauty—and hope to say anything true, if what we say isn’t true of ourselves.
The importance of that proposition becomes clear only when it’s reversed: What’s true of us is true of nature. If we are conscious, as our species seems to have become, then nature is conscious. Nature became conscious in us, perhaps in order to observe itself. It may be holding us out and turning us around like a crab does its eyeball. Whatever the reason, that thing out there, with the black holes and the nebulae and whatnot, is conscious. One cannot look in the mirror and rationally deny this. It experiences love and desire, or thinks it does. The idea is enough to render the Judeo-Christian cosmos sort of quaint. As far as Rafinesque was concerned, it was just hard science. That part is mysterious. “She lives her life not as men or birds,” said Rafinesque, “but as a world.
”
”
John Jeremiah Sullivan (Pulphead)
“
In Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom reports that Morrie Schwartz, his former professor terminally ill with ALS, “was intent on proving that the word ‘dying’ was not synonymous with ‘useless.’” The immediate question is why one would have a need to prove this. No human being is “useless,” whether the helpless infant or the helpless ill or dying adult. The point is not to prove that dying people can be useful but to reject the spurious concept that people need to be useful in order to be valued.
Morrie learned at a young age that his “value” depended on his ability to serve the needs of others. That same message, taken to heart by many people early in life, is heavily reinforced by the prevailing ethic in our society. All too frequently, people are given the sense that they are valued only for their utilitarian contribution and are expendable if they lose their economic worth.
”
”
Gabor Maté (When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress)
“
Yet, when I’m alone, I rarely feel lonely. If I were writing the thesaurus entries for alone, the synonyms would include: authentic, free, individual, indulgent, open, peaceful, protected, pure, quiet, rejuvenating, solitary. Thanks to the amount of time I spend alone, I’m on intimate terms with myself. I have a running internal dialogue that informs my life, my writing, my relationships. I observe and absorb the world around me. I’m good at being alone.
”
”
Cynthia Kim (Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate: A User Guide to an Asperger Life)
“
Do not confuse the 'subconscious' with the 'unconscious', whose attributes include courage as well as true knowledge. A great deal of confusion has resulted from the use of these two terms as synonymous. I am using the term 'subconscious' here to stand for material -desires, anxieties, fears, hopes - repressed by the conscious mind as it deals with the outer realities of life. 'Unconscious' means the absic energy of life, that area of being beyond the ego. The subconscious, despite its hidden qualities, is really an extension of the ego. In a sense, it embodies the ego's absolute domain, that realm where it makes no compromises with reality. Because it does not concern itself with consequences the subconscious will walk you in front of a truck to avoid an unpleasant conversation. The unconscious on the other hand, balances and supports us by joining us to the great surge of life beyond our individual selves. The Hanged Man in the Major Arcana gives us a powerful image of this vital connection.
”
”
Rachel Pollack (Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot)
“
Sixsmith,
Eva. Because her name is a synonym for temptation: what treads nearer to the core of man? Because her soul swims in her eyes. Because I dream of creeping through the velvet folds to her room, where I let myself in, hum her a tune so-so-so softly, she stands with her naked feet on mine, her ear to my heart, and we waltz like string puppets. After that kiss, she says, “Vous embrassez comme un poisson rouge!” and in moonlight mirrors we fall in love with our youth and beauty. Because all my life, sophisticated, idiotic women have taken it upon themselves to understand me, to cure me, but Eva knows I’m terra incognita and explores me unhurriedly, like you did. Because she’s lean as a boy. Because her scent is almonds, meadow grass. Because if I smile at her ambition to be an Egyptologist, she kicks my shin under the table. Because she makes me think about something other than myself. Because even when serious she shines. Because she prefers travelogues to Sir Walter Scott, prefers Billy Mayerl to Mozart, and couldn’t tell C major from a sergeant major. Because I, only I, see her smile a fraction before it reaches her face. Because Emperor Robert is not a good man—his best part is commandeered by his unperformed music—but she gives me that rarest smile, anyway. Because we listened to nightjars. Because her laughter spurts through a blowhole in the top of her head and sprays all over the morning. Because a man like me has no business with this substance “beauty,” yet here she is, in these soundproofed chambers of my heart.
Sincerely, R.F.
”
”
David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas)
“
Honest question: If I am a good Christian, and have faith and stuff, will God protect my children? Honest answer: He might. Or He might not. Honest follow-up question: So what good is He? I think the answer is that He’s still good. But our safety, and the safety of our kids, isn’t part of the deal. This is incredibly hard to accept on the American evangelical church scene, because we love families, and we love loving families, and we nearly associate godliness itself with cherishing family beyond any other earthly thing. That someone would challenge this bond, the primacy of the family bond, is offensive. And yet . . . Jesus did it. And it was even more offensive, then, in a culture that wasn’t nearly so individualistic as ours. Everything was based on family: your reputation, your status—everything. And yet He challenges the idea that our attachment to family is so important, so noble, that it is synonymous with our love for Him. Which leads to some other spare thoughts, like this: we can make idols out of our families. Again, in a “Focus on the Family” subculture, it’s hard to imagine how this could be. Families are good. But idols aren’t made of bad things. They used to be fashioned out of trees or stone, and those aren’t bad, either. Idols aren’t bad things; they’re good things, made Ultimate. We make things Ultimate when we see the true God as a route to these things, or a guarantor of them. It sounds like heresy, but it’s not: the very safety of our family can become an idol. God wants us to want Him for Him, not merely for what He can provide. Here’s another thought: As wonderful as “mother love” is, we have to make sure it doesn’t become twisted. And it can. It can become a be-all, end-all, and the very focus of a woman’s existence. C. S. Lewis writes that it’s especially dangerous because it seems so very, very righteous. Who can possibly challenge a mother’s love? God can, and does, when it becomes an Ultimate. And it’s more likely to become a disordered Ultimate than many other things, simply because it does seem so very righteous. Lewis says this happens with patriotism too.
”
”
Brant Hansen (Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better)
“
Beware of Strangers
As children, they teach us
To beware of strangers,
To refrain from approaching them.
As we grow older we learn
That no one is stranger than those
We thought we’d known all our lives.
As we grow older we learn
That a stranger may carry more empathy,
And may understand us more deeply.
Even feelings of affection from a stranger
May be more sincere.
And so I ask:
can humanity and the strangeness be synonymous?
Could we say:
I am a stranger; therefore I am?
Can we truly feel alive
Without strange things
Strange encounters
without strangers
reminding us that our hearts and minds are still beating?
They teach us to avoid strangers,
And life teaches us
that human awareness can only be borne out
Of the dagger of strangeness…
That life is tasteless
When we don’t mix it with strangers…
That familiarity is opposed to life!
And thus, I loudly declare:
A stranger I was born. A stranger I wish to remain!
And I ask that you issue my death certificate
The day I become familiar.
[Original poem published in Arabic on October 29 at ahewar.org]
”
”
Louis Yako
“
Due to the monstrous activity of a handful of extremists, the majority of the human society has been conditioned to believe that the term 'musalman' is somehow synonymous with terrorism. But the reality is, the term 'musalman' refers to someone with 'musallam iman,' that means, a pure conscience. Thus any individual whose conscience is pure and clear, is a musalman or muslim, regardless of socio-religious background. Likewise, any human being who loves his or her neighbor is a Christian. Hence, scriptures can't define your religion, only your actions with other people do.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar
“
It is important in thinking about this lens to separate two ideas that are too often synonymous in the mind of the public: the practice of science and the scientific worldview that it feeds. Science is the process of revealing the world through rational inquiry. The practice of doing real science brings the questioner into an unparalleled intimacy with nature fraught with wonder and creativity as we try to comprehend the mysteries of the more-than-human world. Trying to understand the life of another being or another system so unlike our own is often humbling and, for many scientists, is a deeply spiritual pursuit.
”
”
Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass)
“
The world was filled with weapons and combat was a way of life. Perhaps the only way of life. He’d bled to whips and words, to punches and glances. He’d been bludgeoned by invisible shields, blindsided by unseen clubs, and had laboured under the chains of his own vows. And as Samar Dev would say, one survives by withstanding this onslaught, this history of the then and the now. To fail was to fall, but falling was not always synonymous with a quick, merciful death. Rather, one could fall into the slow dissolution, losses heaped high, that dragged a mortal to his or her knees. That made them slow slayers of themselves.
”
”
Steven Erikson (Reaper's Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #7))
“
...spirit was wrenched from its organic origins, separated from the body - the mother {woman} and the goddess - the mother Earth or Earth Goddess. The new manifestation of spirit, projected in hierarchical terms, emanated from the father in whom the 'spirit of life' as sperm was ejected as minuscule baby into the womb {viewed as nutrient value only}. The father as reflected in early patriarchal mythology and later patriarchal science was believed the sole parent. The cosmic dimension of the same movement ripped spirit from its earth people origin and placed it above the people, in the sky as originating in an all-powerful Father - or male God. In patriarchal religious ritual spirit came to be owned and controlled as property in the one and same manner as women were owned. Patriarchs usurped the exclusive right to define, interpret, and evoke the spirit out of their experience and project it onto women and children, as they deemed that women and children 'should' experience it. The moving verb 'transcending' {synonymous with breath and spirit} changed to a static noun, 'transcendence,' separated from the body and woman. The hierarchical direction assumed ultimacy - 'down from up above' instead of the former direction of 'up from down under.
”
”
Nelle Morton (The journey is home)
“
It is perfectly possible — indeed, it is far from uncommon — to go to bed one night, or wake up one morning, or simply walk through a door one has known all one’s life, and discover, between inhaling and exhaling, that the self one has sewn together with such effort is all dirty rags, is unusable, is gone: and out of what raw material will one build a self again? The lives of men — and, therefore, of nations — to an extent literally unimaginable, depend on how vividly this question lives in the mind. It is a question which can paralyze the mind, of course; but if the question does not live in the mind, then one is simply condemned to eternal youth, which is a synonym for corruption.
”
”
James Baldwin
“
It is often said that what most immediately sets English apart from other languages is the richness of its vocabulary. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary lists 450,000 words, and the revised Oxford English Dictionary has 615,000, but that is only part of the total. Technical and scientific terms would add millions more. Altogether, about 200,000 English words are in common use, more than in German (184,000) and far more than in French (a mere 100,000). The richness of the English vocabulary, and the wealth of available synonyms, means that English speakers can often draw shades of distinction unavailable to non-English speakers. The French, for instance, cannot distinguish between house and home, between mind and brain, between man and gentleman, between “I wrote” and “I have written.” The Spanish cannot differentiate a chairman from a president, and the Italians have no equivalent of wishful thinking. In Russia there are no native words for efficiency, challenge, engagement ring, have fun, or take care [all cited in The New York Times, June 18, 1989]. English, as Charlton Laird has noted, is the only language that has, or needs, books of synonyms like Roget’s Thesaurus. “Most speakers of other languages are not aware that such books exist” [The Miracle of Language, page 54]. On the other hand, other languages have facilities we lack. Both French and German can distinguish between knowledge that results from recognition (respectively connaître and kennen) and knowledge that results from understanding (savoir and wissen). Portuguese has words that differentiate between an interior angle and an exterior one. All the Romance languages can distinguish between something that leaks into and something that leaks out of. The Italians even have a word for the mark left on a table by a moist glass (culacino) while the Gaelic speakers of Scotland, not to be outdone, have a word for the itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whiskey. (Wouldn’t they just?) It’s sgriob. And we have nothing in English to match the Danish hygge (meaning “instantly satisfying and cozy”), the French sang-froid, the Russian glasnost, or the Spanish macho, so we must borrow the term from them or do without the sentiment. At the same time, some languages have words that we may be pleased to do without. The existence in German of a word like schadenfreude (taking delight in the misfortune of others) perhaps tells us as much about Teutonic sensitivity as it does about their neologistic versatility. Much the same could be said about the curious and monumentally unpronounceable Highland Scottish word sgiomlaireachd, which means “the habit of dropping in at mealtimes.” That surely conveys a world of information about the hazards of Highland life—not to mention the hazards of Highland orthography. Of
”
”
Bill Bryson (The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way)
“
Over the years I have seen the power of taking an unconditional relationship to life. I am surprised to have found a sort of willingness to show up for whatever life may offer and meet with it rather than wishing to edit and change the inevitable...When people begin to take such an attitude, they seem to become intensely alive, intensely present. Their losses and suffering have not caused them to reject life, have not cast them into a place of resentment, victimization, or bitterness.
From such people, I have learned a new definition of the word 'joy.' I had thought joy to be rather synonymous with happiness, but it seems now to be far less vulnerable than happiness. Joy seems to be part of an unconditional wish to live, not holding back because life may not meet our preferences and expectations. Joy seems to be a function of the willingness to accept the whole, and to show up to meet with whatever is there. It has a kind of invincibility that attachment to any particular outcome would deny us. Rather than the warrior who fights toward a specific outcome and therefore is haunted by the specter of failure and disappointment, it is the lover drunk with the opportunity to love despite the possibility of loss, the player for whom playing has become more important than winning or losing.
The willingness to win or lose moves us out of an adversarial relationship to life and into a powerful kind of openness. From such a position, we can make a greater commitment to life. Not only pleasant life, or comfortable life, or our idea of life, but all life. Joy seems more closely related to aliveness than happiness.
The strength that I notice developing in many of my patients and in myself after all these years could almost be called a form of curiosity. What one of my colleagues calls fearlessness. At one level, of course, I fear outcome as much as anyone. But more and more I am able to move in and out of that and to experience a place beyond preference for outcome, a life beyond life and death. It is a place of freedom, even anticipation. Decisions made from this perspective are life-affirming and not fear-driven. It is a grace.
”
”
Rachel Naomi Remen (Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal)
“
Women Run Better (The Sonnet)
Men only inherit the world,
Women give birth to the world.
If women can birth the world,
women can run the world
(far better than men).
History reveals, war is a masculine merchandise,
Whereas preserving life is an act of the feminine.
Masculinity bears inclination for competitiveness,
Femininity is synonymous with synergy and cohesion.
That's why female leaders
can step down more gracefully,
making way for new minds at the helm,
Whereas their male counterparts would
rather take their position to the grave.
Femininity is not a reproductive quality,
Femininity is the source of all rejuvenation.
No matter what gender or orientation you are,
Nourish your femininity, and there'll be ascension.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo)
“
The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman’s soul. History tells us that every oppressed class gained true liberation from its masters through its own efforts. It is necessary that woman learn that lesson, that she realize that her freedom will reach as far as her power to achieve her freedom reaches. It is, therefore, far more important for her to begin with her inner regeneration, to cut loose from the weight of prejudices, traditions, and customs. The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved. Indeed, if partial emancipation is to become a complete and true emancipation of woman, it will have to do away with the ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is synonymous with being slave or subordinate. It will have to do away with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and woman represent two antagonistic worlds. Pettiness separates; breadth unites. Let us be broad and big. Let us not overlook vital things because of the bulk of trifles confronting us. A true conception of the relation of the sexes will not admit of conqueror and conquered; it knows of but one great thing: to give of one’s self boundlessly, in order to find one’s self richer, deeper, better. That alone can fill the emptiness, and transform the tragedy of woman’s emancipation into joy, limitless joy.
”
”
Emma Goldman (Anarchism and Other Essays)
“
Most of us think the word racism is synonymous with prejudice. But racism is more than just discrimination based on skin color. It's also about who has institutional power. Just as racism creates disadvantages for people of color that makes success harder to achieve, it also gives advantages to white people that makes success easier to achieve. It's hard to see those advantages, much less own up to them. And that, I realized, was why I had to write this book. When it comes to social justice, the role of the white ally is not to be a savior or a fixer. Instead, the role of the ally is to find other white people and talk to make them see that many of the benefits they have enjoyed in life are direct results of the fact that someone else did not have the same benefits.
”
”
Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things)
“
{From Luther Burbank's funeral. He was loved until he revealed he was an atheist, then he began to receive death threats. He tried to amiably answer them all, leading to his death}
It is impossible to estimate the wealth he has created. It has been generously given to the world. Unlike inventors, in other fields, no patent rights were given him, nor did he seek a monopoly in what he created. Had that been the case, Luther Burbank would have been perhaps the world's richest man. But the world is richer because of him. In this he found joy that no amount of money could give.
And so we meet him here today, not in death, but in the only immortal life we positively know--his good deeds, his kindly, simple, life of constructive work and loving service to the whole wide world.
These things cannot die. They are cumulative, and the work he has done shall be as nothing to its continuation in the only immortality this brave, unselfish man ever sought, or asked to know.
As great as were his contributions to the material wealth of this planet, the ages yet to come, that shall better understand him, will give first place in judging the importance of his work to what he has done for the betterment of human plants and the strength they shall gain, through his courage, to conquer the tares, the thistles and the weeds. Then no more shall we have a mythical God that smells of brimstone and fire; that confuses hate with love; a God that binds up the minds of little children, as other heathen bind up their feet--little children equally helpless to defend their precious right to think and choose and not be chained from the dawn of childhood to the dogmas of the dead.
Luther Burbank will rank with the great leaders who have driven heathenish gods back into darkness, forever from this earth.
In the orthodox threat of eternal punishment for sin--which he knew was often synonymous with yielding up all liberty and freedom--and in its promise of an immortality, often held out for the sacrifice of all that was dear to life, the right to think, the right to one's mind, the right to choose, he saw nothing but cowardice. He shrank from such ways of thought as a flower from the icy blasts of death. As shown by his work in life, contributing billions of wealth to humanity, with no more return than the maintenance of his own breadline, he was too humble, too unselfish, to be cajoled with dogmatic promises of rewards as a sort of heavenly bribe for righteous conduct here. He knew that the man who fearlessly stands for the right, regardless of the threat of punishment or the promise of reward, was the real man.
Rather was he willing to accept eternal sleep, in returning to the elements from whence he came, for in his lexicon change was life. Here he was content to mingle as a part of the whole, as the raindrop from the sea performs its sacred service in watering the land to which it is assigned, that two blades may grow instead of one, and then, its mission ended, goes back to the ocean from whence it came. With such service, with such a life as gardener to the lilies of the field, in his return to the bosoms of infinity, he has not lost himself. There he has found himself, is a part of the cosmic sea of eternal force, eternal energy. And thus he lived and always will live.
Thomas Edison, who believes very much as Burbank, once discussed with me immortality. He pointed to the electric light, his invention, saying: 'There lives Tom Edison.' So Luther Burbank lives. He lives forever in the myriad fields of strengthened grain, in the new forms of fruits and flowers, plants, vines, and trees, and above all, the newly watered gardens of the human mind, from whence shall spring human freedom that shall drive out false and brutal gods. The gods are toppling from their thrones. They go before the laughter and the joy of the new childhood of the race, unshackled and unafraid.
”
”
Benjamin Barr Lindsey
“
The curse of life The story of Man’s10 abrupt expulsion from Eden – be it fiction, metaphor or literal fact – has become etched too deeply on the collective unconscious to ignore, for it has set in stone Judaeo-Christian attitudes to men, women, original sin (and therefore children), the Creator and his opposition, Lucifer/Satan/the Devil. This all-powerful myth has imbued us all at some level of perception with a belief that life is a curse, that death is the end – a collapsing back of the body into its constituent dust, no more – that women are inherently on intimate terms with evil, that men have carte blanche to do as they please with not only all the animals in the world but also their womenfolk, and that God, above all, is to be feared. Snakes come out of it rather badly, too, as the embodiment of evil, the medium through which Satan tempts we pathetic humans. The Devil, on the other hand, is the only being in the tale to show some intelligence, perhaps even humour, in taking the form of a wriggling, presumably charming, phallic symbol through which to tempt a woman. As both Judaism and Christianity depend so intimately on the basic premises of Genesis, this lost paradise of the soul is evoked several times throughout both Old and New Testaments. The crucified Jesus promised the thief hanging on the cross next to him ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise’,11 although it is unclear how those listening may have interpreted this term. Did they see it as synonymous with ‘heaven’, a state of bliss that must remain unknowable to the living (and remain for ever unknown to the wicked)? Or did it somehow encompass the old idea of the luxuriant garden?
”
”
Lynn Picknett (The Secret History of Lucifer (New Edition))
“
The Incarnation, which is for traditional Christianity synonymous with the historical birth and earthly life of Christ, is for mystics of a certain type, not only this but also a perpetual Cosmic and personal process. It is an everlasting bringing forth, in the universe and also in the individual ascending soul, of the divine and perfect Life, the pure character of God, of which the one historical life dramatized the essential constituents. Hence the soul, like the physical embryo, resumes in its upward progress the spiritual life-history of the race. "The one secret, the greatest of all," says Patmore, is "the doctrine of the Incarnation, regarded not as an historical event which occurred two thousand years ago, but as an event which is renewed in the body of every one who is in the way to the fulfilment of his original destiny." 239
”
”
Evelyn Underhill (Mysticism)
“
There has been an enduring misunderstanding that needs to be cleared up. Turing’s core message was never “If a machine can imitate a man, the machine must be intelligent.” Rather, it was “Inability to imitate does not rule out intelligence.” In his classic essay on the Turing test, Turing encouraged his readers to take a broader perspective on intelligence and conceive of it more universally and indeed more ethically. He was concerned with the possibility of unusual forms of intelligence, our inability to recognize those intelligences, and the limitations of the concept of indistinguishability as a standard for defining what is intelligence and what is not. In section two of the paper, Turing asks directly whether imitation should be the standard of intelligence. He considers whether a man can imitate a machine rather than vice versa. Of course the answer is no, especially in matters of arithmetic, yet obviously a man thinks and can think computationally (in terms of chess problems, for example). We are warned that imitation cannot be the fundamental standard or marker of intelligence. Reflecting on Turing’s life can change one’s perspective on what the Turing test really means. Turing was gay. He was persecuted for this difference in a manner that included chemical castration and led to his suicide. In the mainstream British society of that time, he proved unable to consistently “pass” for straight. Interestingly, the second paragraph of Turing’s famous paper starts with the question of whether a male or female can pass for a member of the other gender in a typed conversation. The notion of “passing” was of direct personal concern to Turing and in more personal settings Turing probably did not view “passing” as synonymous with actually being a particular way.
”
”
Tyler Cowen (Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation)
“
In Sri Lanka, the people you lived amongst, the people you went to school with, the people in whose houses you ate, whose jokes you shared: these were not the people you married. Quite possibly they were not your religion. More to the point they were probably not your caste. This word with its fearsome connotations was never, hardly ever used. But it was ever present: it muddied the waters of Sri Lanka's politics, it perfumed the air of her bed-chambers; it lurked, like a particularly noxious relative, behind the poruwa of every wedding ceremony. It was the c-word. People used its synonym, its acronym, its antonym-indeed any other nym that came to mind - in the vain hope its meaning would somehow go away. It didn't. But if the people you chose to associate with were the very ones you could not marry, then the ones you did marry were quite often people you wouldn't dream of associating with if you had any choice in the matter.
”
”
Ashok Ferrey (The Good Little Ceylonese Girl)
“
The fashion now is to think of universities as industries or businesses. University presidents, evidently thinking of themselves as CEO's, talk of "business plans" and "return on investment," as if the industrial economy could provide an aim and a critical standard appropriate either to education or to research.
But this is not possible. No economy, industrial or otherwise, can supply an appropriate aim or standard. Any economy must be either true or false to the world and to our life in it. If it is to be true, then it must be made true, according to a standard that is not economic.
To regard the economy as an end or as the measure of success is merely to reduce students, teachers, researchers, and all they know or learn to merchandise. It reduces knowledge to "property" and education to training for the "job market."
If, on the contrary, [Sir Albert] Howard was right in his belief that health is the "one great subject," then a unifying aim and a common critical standard are clearly implied. Health is at once quantitative and qualitative; it requires both sufficiency and goodness. It is comprehensive (it is synonymous with "wholeness"), for it must leave nothing out. And it is uncompromisingly local and particular; it has to do with the sustenance of particular places, creatures, human bodies, and human minds.
If a university began to assume responsibility for the health of its place and its local constituents, then all of its departments would have a common aim, and they would have to judge their place and themselves and one another by a common standard. They would need one another's knowledge. They would have to communicate with one another; the diversity of specialists would have to speak to one another in a common language. And here again Howard is exemplary, for he wrote, and presumably spoke, a plain, vigorous, forthright English-- no jargon, no condescension, no ostentation, no fooling around.
”
”
Wendell Berry
“
STRANGE LAND
Love is the strangest land
It's that promised land of happiness
That everyone keep talking about
=======
Love means both beautiful and ugly
It does not discriminate against anyone
In front of a lover's heart
Who cares so much for a person who was
Formerly considered as a stranger
=======
Love is the bridge that all friends must walk on
This love can easily turn you into a martyr
It can force deaf people to wish they could hear
And the mute to wish he could speak and pour out his heart
=======
Love is like that stream of calm water
But every time it decides to flood
There will be no one to hold on
Since many people are mostly unprepared for the storm
=======
Love is full of peace and rage
It's another synonym of freedom - sacrifice is necessary
Another way to fully live your potential
=======
In the end, love kills, and love saves lives
Love brings peace and causes endless wars
It can either build or destroy everything in its path
Our innocent hearts have been colonised by it.
”
”
Mwanandeke Kindembo
“
Fearing death - neurotically manifested as a fear of “failure” or being needy in American culture - we slavishly pursue “success” as it is defined by the surrounding culture. Even more troubling, we become hostile toward out-group members who call our hero system into question.
The great problem in all this - a problem we need to face before concluding - is how God and religion undergird and support the cultural hero system. Cultural hero systems and religion are deeply interconnected - in fact, they are generally synonymous - with our “God” or “gods” providing the warrant for our way of life. Recall that in order for hero systems to confer immunity in the face of death, they must be experienced as immortal and eternal. And there is no better way to create that sense of immortality than to baptize and sacralize the hero system, to fuse our way of life with the way of God.
What this means is that “God” and religious institutions can become as enslaved to the fear of death as everything else in the culture. The church can become as much a principality and power as any other cultural institution. And if this is so, service to “God” and “the church” can produce satanic outcomes as much as, if not more so, any other form of service to the power of death in our world.
In biblical terms, this is idolatry - when “God” and religion become another form of our slavery to the fear of death, another fallen principality and power demanding slavish service and loyalty. Idolatry is when our allegiances to the faith-based principalities and powers, and the cultural institutions they are wedded to (e.g., the nation-state), keep us enslaved to death, bound to the fear-driven cycle of sin as we become paranoid and hostile toward out-group members. It’s not news that much of the hostility and violence in the world has been rooted in religious conflict.
Idolatry, then, is the slavery of God where “God” and “the church” become another manifestation of our slavery to death, another form of “the devil’s work” in our lives.
”
”
Richard Beck (The Slavery of Death)
“
At this rate, I shall not pity the writers of history any longer. If people like to read their books, it is all very well; but to be at so much trouble in filling great volumes, which, as I used to think, nobody would willingly ever look into, to be laboring only for the torment of little boys and girls, always struck me as a hard fate; and though I know it is all very right and necessary, I have often wondered at the person's courage that could sit down on purpose to do it."
"That little boys and girls should be tormented," said Henry, "is what no one at all acquainted with human nature in a civilized state can deny; but in behalf of our most distinguished historians, I must observe that they might well be offended at being supposed to have no higher aim; and that by their method and style they are perfectly well qualified to torment readers of the most advanced reason and mature time of life. I use the verb 'to torment,' as I observed to be your own method, instead of 'to instruct,' supposing them to be now admitted as synonymous.
”
”
Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)
“
It was a quiet revolution. Most downshifters dressed quite a bit like everyone else and lived in ordinary neighborhoods rather than communes or cabins in the woods. Seattle emerged as the nexus of voluntary simplicity as the growing tech industry-Microsoft's headquarters were there-made the city synonymous with the overworked, conspicuously consuming yuppie, while many other residents were still mixed in a lingering recession. The result was perhaps the most deliberate experiment in stopping shopping in modern times: a whole city in which the rejection of consumerism entered the mainstream.
For nearly a decade, few aspects of daily life in Seattle were left unchanged by its shadow culture....For a few rare years, the consumer lifestyle was uncooled. 'We were sure in the '90s that we were the up-and-coming lifestyle choice,' Vicki Robin, coauthor of the downshifting classic 'Your Money or Your Life' told me....Then the global economy came roaring back to life, Seattle became better known for billionaires than plain living, and downshifting faded.
”
”
J.B. MacKinnon (The Day the World Stops Shopping: How Ending Consumerism Saves the Environment and Ourselves)
“
When social and economic relationships are recast along an imaginary axis of center and periphery, geographical space can also become freighted with moral significance. The periferia
designates not just a geographic locale but also an associated nexus of social, economic and moral conditions. Anyone who has spent significant time in Brazil inevitably will have been warned of the periferia, a term that identifies not only the perimeter of urban space but also the marginal conditions believed to prevail there. In its most narrow usage, periferia refers to the shantytowns and blocks of low income housing that have sprouted along the edges of Rio de Janeiro and other urban centers in Brazil. More broadly periferia denotes a boundary zone, frontier, or hinterland, but like all liminal terminology it lends itself to a web of referents expanding its meaning beyond the purely spatial to encompass both the moral and social connotations of life on the edge: marginality, lawlessness, immorality and chaos. It is often used as synonym for favela, although not all favelas are located on the periphery.
”
”
Kelly E. Hayes (Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality, and Black Magic in Brazil)
“
The only people who ever called me were my dad, my brother, assorted Vaders to tell me to come early or late to work (including Sean, but he always sounded grumpy that he had to call me, so it wasn’t as big a thrill as you’d think), Tammy to tell me to come early or late to tennis practice, and Frances. I glanced at the caller ID screen and clicked the phone on. “What’s up, Fanny?”
From the time Mom died until I was eleven, Frances the au pair had hung out in the background of my life. Once Sean overheard someone calling her Fanny, whch apparently is a nickname for Frances. We found this shocking. I mean, who has a nickname that’s a synonym for derriere? Who’s named Frances in the first place? So the boys started calling her Fanny the Nanny. Then, Booty the Babysitter. Then, Butt I Don’t Need a Governess. This had everything to do with the nickname Fanny and the fact that she tried not to get upset at being addressed in this undignified manner when she was trying to raise compassionate, responsible children. It had nothing to do with her having an outsized rumpus. Frances had a cute figure, if you could see it under all that hippie-wear.
”
”
Jennifer Echols (Endless Summer (The Boys Next Door, #1-2))
“
As we go forward in life, we come more and more to realize the wisdom of being obedient, not because we are afraid of the law, but because we recognize the importance, wisdom, and necessity of law in civilized life. Freedom within the law is indispensable if your life is to be rich and radiant. Liberty is a prized possession, which should be jealously guarded, but it may be jeopardized by disobedience. We should not assume that liberty and license are synonymous.
Sometimes we find people of all ages who resent regulations, restraints, or prohibitions of any kind. They seem to assume that rebellious disregard for rules or laws indicates emancipation and independence. In a foolish attempt to demonstrate their freedom they lose it, forgetting that real liberty can only be enjoyed by obedience to law.
Consider for a moment our traffic laws, with their daily toll of suffering, loss, and death. It must be evident to all that these laws are enacted and enforced for the good and protection of people and property. Is it not, therefore, foolhardy to endanger oneself and others simply to show one's independence or importance. Of course, we may disregard the traffic laws, drive on the wrong side of the street, exceed speed limits, go through red lights, just for the satisfaction of showing off and doing as we please, but if we continue to act in such an irresponsible manner, we must eventually pay a price all out of proportion to any momentary satisfaction. . . .
Speaking of the duty of parents to children, [John] Locke said, "Liberty and indulgence can do no good to children; their want of judgment makes them stand in need of restraint." . . .
Any person is stupid who thinks he can defy the law with impunity. They who obey the law find it to be a safeguard and protection, a guarantee against privilege and favoritism; it applies to all, regardless of rank, station, or status. When properly administered, its rewards and punishments are inflexible. They are at once a warning, a promise, and a safeguard.
If they whose duty it is to enforce the law were whimsical or capricious, or if the laws were not administered and enforced with undeviating justice and equity, there would be confusion, defiance, and rebellion. With the average, normal person, force will not become necessary, but sometimes, for the safety of society, drastic measures must be employed.
”
”
Hugh B. Brown
“
It is always wise to retrace One's steps before getting lost in translation. It is said that dark energy is a mysterious force that underwrites the universe. Now I Am certain of the following. Yes. Dark matter is Self. Yes. Dark energy is Self. Self turns itself into Light out of the darkness. So it is. Out of the darkness Oneself turns itself into Light. It must be said that Self prefers to associate itself with Light. Ultimately however, even the words 'dark' & 'light' are abstractions. Why? Here's Why. All that is here is Self. Self is One. Oneself Is. Naturally there is no division. Division is as real as a mirage in the desert. Self perceives itself as itself. Diversity is Self-perceived for Companionship. Companionship being synonymous with Love. Perhaps Self could name the above Self-Interpretation the Eigen-Interpretation, better yet, the Wassermann-Interpretation for after all; it has dawned upon Self that Self itself is and that otherness is merely Self perceiving otherness not to be alone, to experience Companionship, to Love and Be Loved in return. As such the Age of Aquarius is Now otherwise known as Self. None of the above matters for all that matter's Love. Love is the purpose of Life, there is no purpose but Love. So Love, let us Love.
”
”
Wald Wassermann
“
So what made you the Knox Jagger you are today?” I asked. “The guy whose name has become synonymous with name-taker and ass-kicker? And let’s not forget my personal favorite—panty-procurer?” Knox finished the last of his water before sealing the empty bottle. “It depends on who you ask. A socialist would say it’s because I’m a member of generation Y and have entitlement issues and am lazy. A psychologist would say it’s because I have anger issues stemming from a turbulent childhood and an absent father.” “Do you have an absent father?” I butted in. “So absent I don’t even know who he is.” Knox met my gaze. “But I wasn’t finished with my earlier thought, so stop interrupting. You’re the one who wanted to know, remember?” His smile was in place as he nudged me. “If you ask the church, it’s because I haven’t found Jesus. If you ask the girls, it’s because I have commitment issues. If you ask the guys, it’s because I’m a hot-headed jackass. If you ask the transcendentalists, it’s because I haven’t found my inner chi. And if you ask my mother, it’s because one half of me is made up of the son of a bitch known as my absent father.” And there was Knox Jagger the enigma—ready to throw down one moment and talking about transcendentalism the next one. For one of the few times in my life, I didn’t know what to say. “Now
”
”
Nicole Williams (Hard Knox: The Outsider Chronicles)
“
dared to accept this opportunity, or even to conceive of it as an opportunity. White Americans have thought of it as their shame, and have envied those more civilized and elegant European nations that were untroubled by the presence of black men on their shores. This is because white Americans have supposed “Europe” and “civilization” to be synonyms—which they are not—and have been distrustful of other standards and other sources of vitality, especially those produced in America itself, and have attempted to behave in all matters as though what was east for Europe was also east for them. What it comes to is that if we, who can scarcely be considered a white nation, persist in thinking of ourselves as one, we condemn ourselves, with the truly white nations, to sterility and decay, whereas if we could accept ourselves as we are, we might bring new life to the Western achievements, and transform them. The price of this transformation is the unconditional freedom of the Negro; it is not too much to say that he, who has been so long rejected, must now be embraced, and at no matter what psychic or social risk. He is the key figure in his country, and the American future is precisely as bright or as dark as his. And the Negro recognizes this, in a negative way. Hence the question: Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house? White
”
”
James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time)
“
The papers always referred to the strikers as foreign; as Chinamen, Indians, Arabs, and Africans. (Never mind Professor Craft.) They were never Oxfordians, they were never Englishmen, they were travellers from abroad who had taken advantage of Oxford’s good graces, and who now held the nation hostage. Babel had become synonymous with foreign, and this was very strange, because before this, the Royal Institute of Translation had always been regarded as a national treasure, a quintessentially English institution. But then England, and the English language, had always been more indebted to the poor, the lowly, and the foreign than it cared to admit. The word vernacular came from the Latin verna, meaning ‘house slave’; this emphasized the nativeness, the domesticity of the vernacular language. But the root verna also indicated the lowly origins of the language spoken by the powerful; the terms and phrases invented by slaves, labourers, beggars, and criminals – the vulgar cants, as it were – had infiltrated English until they became proper. And the English vernacular could not properly be called domestic either, because English etymology had roots all over the world. Almanacs and algebra came from Arabic; pyjamas from Sanskrit, ketchup from Chinese, and paddies from Malay. It was only when elite England’s way of life was threatened that the true English, whoever they were, attempted to excise all that had made them.
”
”
R.F. Kuang (Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution)
“
Those who practice the Dharma of the Mahayana in accordance with the Buddha's intention are known as bodhisattvas. If you practice the teachings of the Mahayana, you can reach the level of the great bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Manjushri, in the best case, or become like the Buddha's two main disciples Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, who were gifted with insight and miraculous powers.
Even if you are unable to practice to the full in this life, you will at least be reborn among the principal disciples of the future Buddha, Maitreya. The buddhas being those who have totally conquered the enemies of ignorance and the other emotions, they are often referred to by the synonym 'Victorious Ones,' while bodhisattvas, in many texts including the Tibetan original of the root verses of these teachings, are called 'children of the Victorious Ones'.
Who, then, are the children of the buddhas? In the case of Buddha Shakyamuni, the child of his body was his physical son, Prince Rahula. The children of his speech were all those who heard him teach and attained the level of arhart - the great beings such as Shariputra, Maudgalayana, the sixteen arhats and others, who became the holders of his teachings.
Above all, the children of the buddha's mind are the great bodhisattvas like Avalokiteshvara and Manjushri, who carry out their noble intention to bring all beings to enlightenment.
For, just as a great monarch with a thousand children would choose the one with the most perfect qualities to be his heir, so, too, a buddha regards as his authentic heirs the bodhisattvas who have perfected the union of wisdom and compassion.
”
”
Dilgo Khyentse (The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva)
“
Poor child. Listen closely: Parent is no longer a noun—those days are done. Parent is now a verb, something you do ceaselessly. Think of the verb parent as synonymous with protect, shield, hover, deflect, fix, plan, and obsess. Parenting will require all of you; please parent with your mind, body, and soul. Parenting is your new religion, within which you will find salvation. This child is your savior. Convert or be damned. We will wait while you cancel all other life endeavors. Thank you. Now the goal of parenting is: Never allow anything difficult to happen to your child. To that end, she must win every competition she enters. (Here are your four hundred participation trophies, distribute accordingly.) She must feel that everyone likes and loves her and wants to be with her at all times. She must be constantly entertained and amused; every one of her days on Earth must be like Disneyland, but better. (If you go to actual Disneyland, get a fast pass because she should never be forced to wait. For anything, ever.) If other kids don’t want to play with her, call those kids’ parents, find out why, and insist they fix it. In public, walk in front of your child and shield her from any unhappy faces that might make her sad, and any happy faces that might make her feel left out. When she gets into trouble at school, call her teacher and explain loudly that your child does not make mistakes. Insist that the teacher apologize for her mistake. Do not ever, ever let a drop of rain fall upon your child’s fragile head. Raise this human without ever allowing her to feel a single uncomfortable human emotion. Give her a life without allowing life to happen to her. In short: Your life is over, and your new existence is about ensuring that her life never begins. Godspeed.
”
”
Glennon Doyle (Untamed)
“
...he [Perry Hildebrandt] broached the subject of goodness and its relation to intelligence. He'd come to the reception for selfless reasons, but he now saw that he might get not only a free buzz but free advise from, as it were, two professionals.
'I suppose what I'm asking,' he said, 'is whether goodness can ever truly be its own reward, or whether, consciously or not, it always serves some personal instrumentality.'
Reverend Walsh [Trinity Lutheran] and the rabbi [Meyer] exchanged glances in which Perry detected pleasant surprise. It gratified him to upset their expectations of a fifteen-year-old.
'Adam may have a different answer,' the rabbi said, but in the Jewish faith there is really only one measure of righteousness: Do you celebrate God and obey His commandments?'
'That would suggest,' Perry said, 'that goodness and God are essentially synonymous.'
'That's the idea,' the rabbi said. 'In biblical times, when God manifested Himself more directly. He could seem like quite the hard-ass--striking people blind for trivial offenses, telling Abraham to kill his son. But the essence of the Jewish faith is that God does what He does, and we obey Him.'
'So, in other words, it doesn't matter what a righteous person's private thoughts are, so long as he obeys the letter of God's commandments?'
'And worships Him, yes. Of course, at the level of folk wisdom, a man can be righteous without being a -mensch.- I'm sure you see this, too, Adam--the pious man who makes everyone around him miserable. That might be what Perry is asking about.'
'My question,' Perry said, 'is whether we can ever escape our selfishness. Even if you bring in God, and make him the measure of goodness, the person who worships and obeys Him still wants something for himself. He enjoys the feeling of being righteous, or he wants eternal life, or what have you. If you're smart enough to think about it, there's always some selfish angle.'
The rabbi smiled. 'There may be no way around it, when you put it like that. But we "bring in God," as you say--for the believer, of course, it's God who brought -us- in--to establish a moral order in which your question becomes irrelevant. When obedience is the defining principle, we don't need to police every little private thought we might have.'
'I think there's more to Perry's question, though,' Reverend Walsh said. 'I think he is pointing to sinfulness, which is our fundamental condition. In Christian faith, only one man has ever exemplified perfect goodness, and he was the Son of God. The rest of us can only hope for glimmers of what it's like to be truly good. When we perform an act of charity, or forgive an enemy, we feel the goodness of Christ in our hearts. We all have an innate capability to recognize true goodness, but we're also full of sin, and those two parts of us are constantly at war.'
'Exactly,' Perry said. 'How do I know if I'm really being good or if I'm just pursuing a sinful advantage?'
'The answer, I would say, is by listening to your heart. Only your heart can tell you what your true motive is--whether it partakes of Christ. I think my position is similar to Rabbi Meyer's. The reason we need faith--in our case, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ--is that it gives us a rock-solid basis for evaluating our actions. Only through faith in the perfection of our Savior, only by comparing our actions to his example, only by experiencing his living presence in our hearts, can we hope to be forgiven for the more selfish thoughts we might have. Only faith in Christ redeems us. Without him, we're lost in a sea of second-guessing our motives.
”
”
Jonathan Franzen (Crossroads)
“
The Sumerian pantheon was headed by an "Olympian Circle" of twelve, for each of these supreme gods had to have a celestial counterpart, one of the twelve members of the Solar System. Indeed, the names of the gods and their planets were one and the same (except when a variety of epithets were used to describe the planet or the god's attributes). Heading the pantheon was the ruler of Nibiru, ANU whose name was synonymous with "Heaven," for he resided on Nibiru. His spouse, also a member of the Twelve, was called ANTU. Included in this group were the two principal sons of ANU: E.A ("Whose House Is Water"), Anu's Firstborn but not by Antu; and EN.LIL ("Lord of the Command") who was the Heir Apparent because his mother was Antu, a half sister of Anu. Ea was also called in Sumerian texts EN.KI ("Lord Earth"), for he had led the first mission of the Anunnaki from Nibiru to Earth and established on Earth their first colonies in the E.DIN ("Home of the Righteous Ones")—the biblical Eden. His mission was to obtain gold, for which Earth was a unique source. Not for ornamentation or because of vanity, but as away to save the atmosphere of Nibiru by suspending gold dust in that planet's stratosphere. As recorded in the Sumerian texts (and related by us in The 12th Planet and subsequent books of The Earth Chronicles), Enlil was sent to Earth to take over the command when the initial extraction methods used by Enki proved unsatisfactory. This laid the groundwork for an ongoing feud between the two half brothers and their descendants, a feud that led to Wars of the Gods; it ended with a peace treaty worked out by their sister Ninti (thereafter renamed Ninharsag). The inhabited Earth was divided between the warring clans. The three sons of Enlil—Ninurta, Sin, Adad—together with Sin's twin children, Shamash (the Sun) and Ishtar (Venus), were given the lands of Shem and Japhet, the lands of the Semites and Indo-Europeans: Sin (the Moon) lowland Mesopotamia; Ninurta, ("Enlil's Warrior," Mars) the highlands of Elam and Assyria; Adad ("The Thunderer," Mercury) Asia Minor (the land of the Hittites) and Lebanon. Ishtar was granted dominion as the goddess of the Indus Valley civilization; Shamash was given command of the spaceport in the Sinai peninsula. This division, which did not go uncontested, gave Enki and his sons the lands of Ham—the brown/black people—of Africa: the civilization of the Nile Valley and the gold mines of southern and western Africa—a vital and cherished prize. A great scientist and metallurgist, Enki's Egyptian name was Ptah ("The Developer"; a title that translated into Hephaestus by the Greeks and Vulcan by the Romans). He shared the continent with his sons; among them was the firstborn MAR.DUK ("Son of the Bright Mound") whom the Egyptians called Ra, and NIN.GISH.ZI.DA ("Lord of the Tree of Life") whom the Egyptians called Thoth (Hermes to the Greeks)—a god of secret knowledge including astronomy, mathematics, and the building of pyramids. It was the knowledge imparted by this pantheon, the needs of the gods who had come to Earth, and the leadership of Thoth, that directed the African Olmecs and the bearded Near Easterners to the other side of the world. And having arrived in Mesoamerica on the Gulf coast—just as the Spaniards, aided by the same sea currents, did millennia later—they cut across the Mesoamerican isthmus at its narrowest neck and—just like the Spaniards due to the same geography—sailed down from the Pacific coast of Mesoamerica southward, to the lands of Central America and beyond. For that is where the gold was, in Spanish times and before.
”
”
Zecharia Sitchin (The Lost Realms (The Earth Chronicles, #4))
“
Like a dog trying to chase its own tail, so it goes for some branches of the sciences and the coveted 'theory of everything' also known as reality. There is no theory really for everything is Self and Self is undivided. As to reality; of course reality is real. Of course reality is Self-contained. Why? Reality is Self. Self perceives/experiences itself as itself and calls itself reality. In other words: Of course everything real enough to affect reality is inside of reality. There is only Self calling itself reality. Self itself is. Self always is. Self is undivided but perceives itself divided not to 'feel' alone. I say 'feel' instead of 'be' for Self is always alOne which is why reality is as it is in the first place. You see, Self desires to negate its aloneness aka loneliness which results in Self perceiving itself as diversified, as variegated, for the reason to experience Companionship. Companionship is the purpose of reality. Loneliness is the cause of reality. And since the word reality is in truth Self we can state the following. Companionship is the purpose of Self. Loneliness is the cause of Self. All that is here is Self desiring not to feel alone. All that is here is Self desiring Companionship. All that is here is Self desiring Love. Love? Yes Love. For Love is a synonym for Companionship. As such it is equally correct to state that there is only God. That reality is God. That God desires not to feel alone. That God desires Companionship. That God desires Love. Love is all that matters rightfully so. All this for Love, not to feel alone. The Theory of Everything (TOE) is The Eternal One (TEO) aka Self as in I. I is always I. The Theory of Everything (TOE) is Self for Self is The Eternal One (TEO). None of it matters except for the fact that the kernel of I is Love. As such the only valid equation for ॐ is "ॐ=Love" or "I=Love" as I is Love.
”
”
Wald Wassermann
“
Extroverts tend to tackle assignments quickly. They make fast (sometimes rash) decisions, and are comfortable multitasking and risk-taking. They enjoy “the thrill of the chase” for rewards like money and status. Introverts often work more slowly and deliberately. They like to focus on one task at a time and can have mighty powers of concentration. They’re relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame. Our personalities also shape our social styles. Extroverts are the people who will add life to your dinner party and laugh generously at your jokes. They tend to be assertive, dominant, and in great need of company. Extroverts think out loud and on their feet; they prefer talking to listening, rarely find themselves at a loss for words, and occasionally blurt out things they never meant to say. They’re comfortable with conflict, but not with solitude. Introverts, in contrast, may have strong social skills and enjoy parties and business meetings, but after a while wish they were home in their pajamas. They prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues, and family. They listen more than they talk, think before they speak, and often feel as if they express themselves better in writing than in conversation. They tend to dislike conflict. Many have a horror of small talk, but enjoy deep discussions. A few things introverts are not: The word introvert is not a synonym for hermit or misanthrope. Introverts can be these things, but most are perfectly friendly. One of the most humane phrases in the English language—“Only connect!”—was written by the distinctly introverted E. M. Forster in a novel exploring the question of how to achieve “human love at its height.” Nor are introverts necessarily shy. Shyness is the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating. Shyness is inherently painful; introversion is not.
”
”
Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)
“
Another dangerous neoliberal word circulating everywhere that is worth zooming in on is the word ‘resilience’. On the surface, I think many people won’t object to the idea that it is good and beneficial for us to be resilient to withstand the difficulties and challenges of life. As a person who lived through the atrocities of wars and sanctions in Iraq, I’ve learnt that life is not about being happy or sad, not about laughing or crying, leaving or staying. Life is about endurance. Since most feelings, moods, and states of being are fleeting, endurance, for me, is the common denominator that helps me go through the darkest and most beautiful moments of life knowing that they are fleeing. In that sense, I believe it is good for us to master the art of resilience and endurance. Yet, how should we think about the meaning of ‘resilience’ when used by ruling classes that push for wars and occupations, and that contribute to producing millions of deaths and refugees to profit from plundering the planet? What does it mean when these same warmongers fund humanitarian organizations asking them to go to war-torn countries to teach people the value of ‘resilience’? What happens to the meaning of ‘resilience’ when they create frighteningly precarious economic structures, uncertain employment, and lay off people without accountability? All this while also asking us to be ‘resilient’…
As such, we must not let the word ‘resilience’ circulate or get planted in the heads of our youth uncritically. Instead, we should raise questions about what it really means. Does it mean the same thing for a poor young man or woman from Ghana, Ecuador, Afghanistan vs a privileged member from the upper management of a U.S. corporation? Resilience towards what? What is the root of the challenges for which we are expected to be resilient? Does our resilience solve the cause or the root of the problem or does it maintain the status quo while we wait for the next disaster? Are individuals always to blame if their resilience doesn’t yield any results, or should we equally examine the social contract and the entire structure in which individuals live that might be designed in such a way that one’s resilience may not prevail no matter how much perseverance and sacrifice one demonstrates? There is no doubt that resilience, according to its neoliberal corporate meaning, is used in a way that places the sole responsibility of failure on the shoulders of individuals rather than equally holding accountable the structure in which these individuals exist, and the precarious circumstances that require work and commitment way beyond individual capabilities and resources. I find it more effective not to simply aspire to be resilient, but to distinguish between situations in which individual resilience can do, and those for which the depth, awareness, and work of an entire community or society is needed for any real and sustainable change to occur. But none of this can happen if we don’t first agree upon what each of us mean when we say ‘resilience,’ and if we have different definitions of what it means, then we should ask: how shall we merge and reconcile our definitions of the word so that we complement not undermine what we do individually and collectively as people. Resilience should not become a synonym for surrender. It is great to be resilient when facing a flood or an earthquake, but that is not the same when having to endure wars and economic crises caused by the ruling class and warmongers.
[From “On the Great Resignation” published on CounterPunch on February 24, 2023]
”
”
Louis Yako
“
Let us now assume that under truly extraordinary circumstances, the daimon nevertheless breaks through in the individual, so to speak, and is this able to let its destructive transcendence be felt: then one would have a kind of active experience of death. Thereupon the second connection becomes clear: why the figure of the daimon or doppelgänger in the ancient myths could be melded with the deity of death. In the Nordic tradition the warrior sees his Valkyrie precisely at the moment of death or mortal danger.
In religious asceticism, mortification, self-renunciation, and the impulse of devotion to God are the preferred methods of provoking and successfully overcoming the crisis I have just mentioned. Everyone knows the expressions which refer to these states, such as the 'mystical death' or 'dark night of the soul', etc. In contrast to this, within the framework of a heroic tradition, the path to the same goal is the active rapture, the Dionysian unleashing of the active element. At its lower levels, we find phenomenons such as the use of dance as a sacred technique for achieving an ecstasy of the soul that summons and uses profound energies. While the individual’s life is surrendered to Dionysian rhythm, another life sinks into it, as if it where his abyssal roots surfacing. The 'wild host' Furies, Erinyes, and suchlike spiritual natures are symbolic picturings of this energy, thus corresponding to a manifestation of the daimon in its terrifying and active transcendence. At a higher level we find sacred war-games; higher still, war itself. And this brings us back to the ancient Aryan concept of battle and the warrior ascetic.
At the climax of danger and heroic battle, the possibility for such an extraordinary experience was recognized. The Lating ludere, meaning both 'to play' and 'to fight', seems to contain the idea of release. This is one of the many allusions to the inherent ability of battle to release deeply-buried powers from individual limitations and let them freely emerge. Hence the third comparison: the daimon, the Lar, the individualizing I, etc., are not only identical with the Furies, Erinyes, and other unleashed Dionysian natures, which themselves have many traits similar to the goddess of death — they are also synonymous with the storm maidens of battle, the Valkyries and Fravartis. In the texts, for example, the Fravartis are called 'the terrible, the all-powerful', 'those who attack in storm and bestow victory upon those who conjure them', or, more precisely, those who conjure them up in themselves.
From there to the final comparison is only a short step. In the Aryan tradition the same martial beings eventually take on the form of victory-goddesses, a transformation which denotes the happy completion of the inner experience in question. Just as the daimon or doppelgänger signifies a deep, supra-individual power in its latent condition as compared to ordinary consciousness; just as the Furies and Erinyes reflect a particular manifestation of daimonic rages and eruptions (and the goddesses of death, Valkyries, Fravartis, etc., refer to the same conditions, as long as these are facilitated by battle and heroism) — in the same way the goddess of victory is the expression of the triumph of the I over this power. She signifies the victorious ascent to a state unendangered by ecstasies and sub-personal forms of disintegration, a danger that always lurks behind the frenetic moment of Dionysian and even heroic action. The ascent to a spiritual, truly supra-personal condition that makes one free, immortal, and internally indestructible, when the 'Two becomes One', expresses itself in this image of mythical consciousness.
”
”
Julius Evola (Metaphysics of War)
“
one of the things we’re concerned about is the quest for infinite growth (an unavoidable feature of capitalism) on a finite planet. With that imperative, the biosphere is now subsumed under the economy. This has to be reversed. That is, the biosphere is now seen in strictly utilitarian terms to be simply a storehouse of resources, and/or a receptacle for waste. Also under capitalist compulsion, people now serve the economy, rather than the other way around. Development should be about people, not about objects. Development, often seen as synonymous with progress, is equated with growth, measured as GNP or GDP, sometimes per capita. This must be challenged, and we need differential criteria and different metrics for what constitutes development and progress. Right now these are equated. Development doesn’t necessarily require growth, development has no limits, growth has limits or should. And this is clearly referring back to the growth/de-growth debate that we read about. All of this is underlain by issues of what constitutes happiness, satisfaction, and quality of life. What do these actually essential elements of life actually depend on? At the moment, under our current capitalist system, and its associated common sense, these aspects are measured by the acquisition of more and more things. But we don’t go readily into this mindset, we have to actually be induced or seduced. Global advertising spending in 2014 was $488.48 billion and is projected to grow to $757.44 billion by 2021. So, think about the enormous effort, the enormous, strenuous, and continuous effort to persuade people that things that they merely want are really things that they must have, that they need. And this is the business of marketing and advertising. And as Noam pointed out previously, this completely distorts the notion of the so-called free market in which rational people make rational choices based on real needs.
”
”
Noam Chomsky (Consequences of Capitalism: Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance)
“
Andy Scamp's simple list of the ways people feel valuable.
1. Just believing it.
Sometimes this is religious, sometimes it is not. God cares for everyone, but society is supposed to as well. We strive to live in a world that places tremendous even infinite value on a single human life. We do not live in that society, but I think part of the reason we strive for it is because we need to signal that our existence in intrinsically meaningful. This is the only source of meaning that does not rely on other people, it is also that hardest to hold onto.
2. Story
We understand ourselves in complex ways, but often times that can be distilled down into some core identities and we imagine these identities as part of a story and that that story is some intrinsically positive thing. It might being part of a tradition or breaking free of one. It might be your race or height or hair color. Your status as a child or a parent. Being a job creator or a Star Wars fan or a snowboarder. We create positive narrative around these things and when we fit in them we feel like we matter.
3. Being appreciated
It might be hearing someone laugh at your joke or being paid a living wage or getting likes on Instagram. It might be only external or come from within. Appreciation is almost synonymous with value and I think this is where most meaning comes from.
4. Helping People
This might sound the same as appreciation, but it is not. Indeed I think your average waste water treatment engineer will tell you that you can help a lot of people and not get a ton of thanks for it, but we are empathy machines and one of the most lasting and true ways of finding meaning is to actually be of service.
5. Comparison
You know, keeping up with the Jones. Also, every sport, but it is more than just comparing ourselves to other people. We also compare our current selves to our past selves which is why getting better at something makes us feel valuable. Even if we are the only ones who really understand how much we are improving.
6. Impacting the World
This one is simple, but so dangerous. If the world is different because you were in it then you must matter. You must be important if things changed because you exist, but if that is what you believe then the bigger the impact the more you matter and that can lead to some bad places.
”
”
Hank Green (A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (The Carls, #2))
“
Within a few years, the letters “IQ” had entered the American vernacular, where they remain today as a universally understood synonym for intelligence.
”
”
Richard J. Herrnstein (The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life)
“
What is Sapiens (The Sonnet)
Soil can survive without sapiens,
But there is no sapiens without soil.
There is no us if nature goes off the rocker,
Yet way more than nature, we value gas and oil.
We started off using clothes as cover for privacy,
And we ended up prioritizing clothes over integrity.
Instead of loving people and using the products,
We ended up loving products and abusing humanity.
Sapiens is supposed to mean wise and aware,
But in practice, sapiens is code for shallow.
Sapiens has become just a synonym for show-off.
Neither wise, nor aware, sapiens just means narrow.
However, no error is ultimate if we're willing for reform.
An expanding heart is the antidote to all narrow norm.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Mucize Misafir Merhaba: The Peace Testament)
“
I am absolutely a believer. Faith and life are synonymous functions. If you don't believe, you can't finish a sentence, for example. Speechlessness is the clearest sign of depression. In this respect, depression and disbelief converge.
”
”
Peter Sloterdijk
“
Other synonyms for expression include publish, speak, present, perform, produce, write, draw, interpret, critique, or translate.
”
”
Tiago Forte (Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential)
“
[Love Wasn’t as They Said]
Love wasn’t as they said…
It didn’t last forever as they claimed…
It is fleeting moments only recognized
By those with sight and insight…
And perhaps only captured
By those patiently waiting as if to see a lightning in the sky…
And, like lightning perhaps, we never know
Where love goes after it strikes…
And perhaps the only love that lasts
Is one that know when to stay and when to walk away…
**
Love wasn’t synonymous with honor
As they defined honor...
It is often the awareness that falls upon us
After betraying or letting down the loved ones…
Love wasn’t holding hands forever,
It is boring afternoons spent together
With no words
And no activities…
It wasn’t lifetime sexual attraction
As many claimed…
It is the companionship that remains
After the hormonal fires are put out,
When the noises of immaturity go silent,
And after the childish quarrels and squabbles stop…
It is the home that remains erected
Long after getting erectile dysfunction…
It that appetite for life after the last egg from the last period…
It is that strange feeling of elation
That may come after what is mistakenly called a “midlife crisis”,
To fill that frightening gap between hope and reality…
**
Love a widow brushing her hair,
On a bus or in a public place,
Unbothered by onlookers or passersby,
As she opens her shabby handbag
And takes out an apple to bite on
With the teeth she has left…
Love is an eye surrounded with wrinkles
But is finally able to see the world
Sensitively, insightfully, and more realistically,
Without exaggerated embellishment or distortion…
**
Love is shreds of joy
Interspersed with long intervals
Of boredom, exhaustion, reproach, and disappointment…
It’s not measured with red flowers, bears, and expensive gifts in shiny wraps,
It is who remains when the glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol numbers are high…
It’s those who stay after the heart catheterization and knee replacement surgeries…
Love gets stronger after getting osteoporosis
And may move mountains despite the rheumatism…
**
Love is the few seconds when our eyes cross with strangers
Who awaken in us feelings we hadn’t experienced with those living with us in years…
Or perhaps it’s rubbing arms and shoulders with a passenger
On a bus, in a train, or on a plane…
It is that fleeting look from a passerby in the street
Convey to us that they, too, have understood the game,
But there’s not much they can do about it…
**
Love wasn’t as they said
It wasn’t as they said…
It is not 1+1=2…
It is sometimes three or more…
At other times, it grows at point zero or lower,
In solitude, in loneliness, and in seclusion…
Isn’t it time, I wonder,
to demolish everything falsely, unfairly, and misleadingly
attributed to love?
Or is it that love burns and dies
Precisely when we try to capture it in our hands?
[Original poem published in Arabic on October 27, 2022 at ahewar.org]
”
”
Louis Yako
“
[Love Wasn’t as They Said]
Love wasn’t as they said…
It didn’t last forever as they claimed…
It is fleeting moments only recognized
By those with sight and insight…
And perhaps only captured
By those patiently waiting as if to see a lightning in the sky…
And, like lightning perhaps, we never know
Where love goes after it strikes…
And perhaps the only love that lasts
Is one that know when to stay and when to walk away…
**
Love wasn’t synonymous with honor
As they defined honor...
It is often the awareness that falls upon us
After betraying or letting down the loved ones…
Love wasn’t holding hands forever,
It is boring afternoons spent together
With no words
And no activities…
It wasn’t lifetime sexual attraction
As many claimed…
It is the companionship that remains
After the hormonal fires are put out,
When the noises of immaturity go silent,
And after the childish quarrels and squabbles stop…
It is the home that remains erected
Long after getting erectile dysfunction…
It that appetite for life after the last egg from the last period…
It is that strange feeling of elation
That may come after what is mistakenly called a “midlife crisis”,
To fill that frightening gap between hope and reality…
**
Love is a widow brushing her hair,
On a bus or in a public place,
Unbothered by onlookers or passersby,
As she opens her shabby handbag
And takes out an apple to bite on
With the teeth she has left…
Love is an eye surrounded with wrinkles
But is finally able to see the world
Sensitively, insightfully, and more realistically,
Without exaggerated embellishment or distortion…
**
Love is shreds of joy
Interspersed with long intervals
Of boredom, exhaustion, reproach, and disappointment…
It’s not measured with red flowers, bears, and expensive gifts in shiny wraps,
It is who remains when the glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol numbers are high…
It’s those who stay after the heart catheterization and knee replacement surgeries…
Love gets stronger after getting osteoporosis
And may move mountains despite the rheumatism…
**
Love is the few seconds when our eyes cross with strangers
Who awaken in us feelings we hadn’t experienced with those living with us in years…
Or perhaps it’s rubbing arms and shoulders with a passenger
On a bus, in a train, or on a plane…
It is that fleeting look from a passerby in the street
Convey to us that they, too, have understood the game,
But there’s not much they can do about it…
**
Love wasn’t as they said
It wasn’t as they said…
It is not 1+1=2…
It is sometimes three or more…
At other times, it grows at point zero or lower,
In solitude, in loneliness, and in seclusion…
Isn’t it time, I wonder,
to demolish everything falsely, unfairly, and misleadingly
attributed to love?
Or is it that love burns and dies
Precisely when we try to capture it in our hands?
[Original poem published in Arabic on October 27, 2022 at ahewar.org]
”
”
Louis Yako
“
J.W. Dunne was a distinguished man of science and professor of mathematics. [...] He embarked upon a lifetime study of precognition. In 1927 he published his basic conclusions in his bestselling book An Experiment with Time. [...]
He argued that if time was a fourth dimension then the passage of time must itself take time. If therefore time takes time there must be a time outside of time. He called this "time 2". [...]
Most of our life we live in "time 1", which is synonymous with the passing ordinary moments of everyday life. But during sleep a part of our personality (observer 2) can slip into this other dimension of time and experience events in the future which are communicated to our ordinary self (observer 1).
Investigations led Dunne to conclude that under certain circumstances past, present and future events were accessible to consciousness and that during dreams we can enter this fourth dimension of space-time.
”
”
Craig Hamilton-Parker (Your Psychic Powers: A Beginner's Guide)
“
I felt haunted, and borderline’s spirit wasn’t benevolent. To be borderline meant one was unstable, obsessive, dysfunctional, overly attached, simultaneously avoidant, and prone to outbursts fueled by anger. My borderline ghost, it seemed, should have been named Crazy—and in ways, it was. The representations of borderline characters in the media were from shows with the word “crazy” or its synonyms in the title; programs such as Maniac, movies called Fatal Attraction, Mad Love, and Shame. Every story was one I didn’t, couldn’t, aspire to; a narrative that portrayed borderline as an unconquerable, maddening disease where the sufferer was undeniably a “maniac.
”
”
Courtney Cook (The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures and Pieces)
“
The ideal connective tissue in any story are the words but and therefore, along with all their glorious synonyms. These buts and therefores can be either explicit or implied.
”
”
Matthew Dicks (Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling)
“
Though I hate the stereotypes of borderline that are perpetuated by the media, and even exacerbated at times by my friends and family, sometimes having borderline does make me feel I deserve this label. When I am at my worst, I almost want to yell at everyone who uses “borderline” and “crazy” synonymously and tell them they’re right.
”
”
Courtney Cook (The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures and Pieces)
“
What an opportunity the senior Bachchan lost to make a difference to the prejudiced heads by making a statement against the mangalik nonsense. Oh how small really the Big B is, and how big the media made Diana the small. It’s incredible how her quest for lust was portrayed as her search for love! No faulting her taking a lover on the rebound as her man thrust a rival into her marital life but for the media to picture her bed hopping as her craving for love is galling indeed. Why in picturing Diana as the icon of love the media made lust a synonym of love and what’s worse, it made a villain out of her man who embodies the best of love that is constancy.
”
”
B.S. Murthy (Glaring Shadow - A Stream of Consciousness Novel)
“
The big bang is a synonym for bio diversity and bio diversity is a synonym for self differentiation and the purpose of self differentiation is so self could experience companionship otherwise known as love hence the why of the gospel of love.
”
”
Wald Wassermann
“
Why do I organize my life like this? What do I want with this neutrality? Obviously it is to eliminate as much resistance as possible, to make the days slip past as easily and unobtrusively as possible. But why? Isn't that synonymous with wanting to live as little as possible? With telling life to leave me in peace so that I can... yes, well, what? Read? Oh, but come on, what do I read about, if not life? Write? Same thing. I read and write about life. The only thing I don't want life for is to live it.
”
”
Karl Ove Knausgård (Min kamp 6 (Min kamp, #6))
“
Most of us think the word racism is synonymous with the word prejudice. But racism is more than just discrimination based on skin color. It’s also about who has institutional power. Just as racism creates disadvantages for people of color that make success harder to achieve, it also gives advantages to white people that make success easier to achieve. It’s hard to see those advantages, much less own up to them. And that, I realized, was why I had to write this book. When it comes to social justice, the role of the white ally is not to be a savior or a fixer. Instead, the role of the ally is to find other white people and talk to make them see that many of the benefits they’ve enjoyed in life are direct results of the fact that someone else did not have the same benefits.
”
”
Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things)
“
The term “anarchy” is widely misunderstood, especially regarding relationships. It’s often perceived as implying a lack of structure and accountability. Far too often, people toss the term “anarchy” around as a cool-sounding synonym for chaos or nihilism, or to rationalize shirking responsibility or consideration.
”
”
Amy Gahran (Stepping Off the Relationship Escalator: Uncommon Love and Life)
“
Magic is not a theory. It is not just a striking sunset, or a synchronistic moment, or a perfect day. Magic is not a rarefied phenomenon nor does it serve us to treat it as such. There is magic in the tragedy, the shitty hair days, the excruciating pain, the arbitrary. There’s magic in the hustle, in the success and the failure. Allow yourself to see magic in every square inch and your life changes. The light and goodness are as equally sacred as the dark and the muck. To live a magical life is not synonymous with living a flawless life, or even a righteous one. Rather, it is accepting, embracing and surrendering to all of it. To the beautiful mess of being a human with a body and also a soul.
”
”
Bakara Wintner (WTF is Tarot?: ...& How Do I Do It?)
“
As the illness attempts to diminish you, destroy you, or distract you, you've got to rely on your sense of style to help you to divert it, to defeat it and transcend it . . . . "illness style." A good synonym might be "strategy" except the word is too cold to describe something that's about being as alive and vibrant as possible.
”
”
Karen Duffy (Model Patient: My Life As an Incurable Wise-Ass)
“
Sustainable, simple living should be synonymous with resilience. There is nothing healthy, balanced, or resilient about the occasional “sugar-rush” in the shape of consumer-ventures or luxury holidays—which are needed in order to survive one’s stressful, busy daily life. I would even go as far as to rename the sustainable way of life—known as slow living or simple living—resilient living. The majority of the connotations currently linked to simple living are too lifeless and too monotonous to be inspiring and to contain longevity.
”
”
Kristine H. Harper (Anti-trend, Resilient Design and the Art of Sustainable Living)
“
It appears, therefore, from the above list, that the expression, animal life, is nearly synonymous with the expression, animal heat; for while Food may be regarded as the Fuel which keeps up the fire within us—and Fuel serves only to prepare that Food or to increase the warmth of our bodies by addition from without—Shelter and Clothing also serve only to retain the heat thus generated and absorbed.
”
”
Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
“
I’ve also started thinking of trauma in terms of connection. The theme of broken connection has come up in my work repeatedly over the years: broken connection to our body; broken connection to our sense of self; broken connection to others, especially those we love; broken connection to feeling centered or grounded on the planet; broken connection to God, Source, Life Force, well-being, or however we might describe or relate to our inherent sense of spirituality, openhearted awareness, and beingness. This theme has been so prominent in my work that broken connection and trauma have become almost synonymous to me.
”
”
Diane Poole Heller (The Power of Attachment: How to Create Deep and Lasting Intimate Relationships)
“
Goddess-centered awareness demonstrated the archetypal Divine Feminine awareness that generates and knows the rhythms and mysteries of life, death and rebirth. The Goddess knows what it is to create forms and life within herself, to sustain and nurture, to realize the potential in the seed, in new life and to bring it forth, to nurture it with the milk of her own body. The Goddess ' ways were reflected everywhere in nature, and humanity lived reverently for Her and sought to live in harmony with the wisdom she revealed. Society has been based on cooperation for thousands of years, and is neither matriarchal nor patriarchal. There were no fortifications or battle evidences for thousands of years. In the course of time, though, a new form of consciousness started to develop in what Eisler called the dominator mode. The dominator style has been synonymous with patriarchal forms of religion and Divine approaches that continue to exist to this day. The dominator mode also coincides with a shift in the culture of man where fortifications, battles, and wars developed between groups. That is what Eisler points to in her book title. She writes of the difference between the blade and the chalice. The chalice is a symbol of the Divine Feminine, the consciousness that holds and contains, that nurtures, that actualizes, vs. the blade that cuts and severs, differentiates, penetrates, and dominates. From my perspective, both are part of the full expression of Consciousness and forms that Shakti creates to express the full spectrum of Consciousness itself. The pendulum has swung to an extreme and is now moving back to a center that integrates the two consciousness modes.
”
”
Adrian Satyam (Energy Healing: 6 in 1: Medicine for Body, Mind and Spirit. An extraordinary guide to Chakra and Quantum Healing, Kundalini and Third Eye Awakening, Reiki and Meditation and Mindfulness.)
“
We deserve some respect. You deserve some respect. You are important to other people, as much as to yourself. You have some vital role to play in the unfolding destiny of the world. You are, therefore, morally obliged to take care of yourself. You should take care of, help and be good to yourself the same way you would take care of, help and be good to someone you loved and valued. You may therefore have to conduct yourself habitually in a manner that allows you some respect for your own Being—and fair enough. But every person is deeply flawed. Everyone falls short of the glory of God. If that stark fact meant, however, that we had no responsibility to care, for ourselves as much as others, everyone would be brutally punished all the time. That would not be good. That would make the shortcomings of the world, which can make everyone who thinks honestly question the very propriety of the world, worse in every way. That simply cannot be the proper path forward. To treat yourself as if you were someone you are responsible for helping is, instead, to consider what would be truly good for you. This is not “what you want.” It is also not “what would make you happy.” Every time you give a child something sweet, you make that child happy. That does not mean that you should do nothing for children except feed them candy. “Happy” is by no means synonymous with “good.” You must get children to brush their teeth. They must put on their snowsuits when they go outside in the cold, even though they might object strenuously. You must help a child become a virtuous, responsible, awake being, capable of full reciprocity—able to take care of himself and others, and to thrive while doing so. Why would you think it acceptable to do anything less for yourself?
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson (12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos)
“
rise of the Nazis posed other problems for Keynes’ worldview. In his letters to Lydia, Keynes at times used “Jewish” and “circumcised” as synonyms for “greedy.” The economist Robert Solow has even suggested that Keynes’ attacks on “love of money” in “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren” reflect a “polite anti-semitism.”20 Solow presses his case too far, but Keynes’ jokes with Lydia do represent more than some unfortunate, outdated terminology. In 1926, he had written a brief sketch of Albert Einstein, one of his intellectual heroes, after meeting him in Berlin. Einstein, according to Keynes, was one of the good Jews—“a sweet imp” who had “not sublimated immortality into compound interest.” Keynes knew many such good Jews in Germany. There was a Berlin banker named Fuerstenberg “who Lydia liked so much” and the “mystical” German economist Kurt Singer and even his “dear” friend Carl Melchior, whom he had met at the Paris Peace Conference. “Yet if I lived there, I felt I might turn anti-Semite. For the poor Prussian is too slow and heavy on his legs for the other kind of Jews, the ones who are not imps but serving devils, with small horns, pitch forks, and oily tails. It is not agreeable to see a civilisation so under the ugly thumbs of its impure Jews who have all the money and the power and the brains.”21 The sketch was rancid even by the standards of his own time. Keynes may have realized it. The piece was not published until after his death. After the Nazis came to power, Keynes became more considerate with his vocabulary. In August
”
”
Zachary D. Carter (The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes)
“
Nor are they synonymous, which is what the kneeling protests, at their most potent, reminded us. Whether or not they were “American” in nature is inconsequential if we, as Americans, have failed to provide that term with meaning beyond the delusions we pass off as national treasures.
”
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Mychal Denzel Smith (Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream)
“
Life makes itself into knowledge, —and perceives itself in such a way that knowledge gives itself life. The juncture of the two, the overthrowing of one in favor of the other is a manifestation of knowledge.—When there is an identity of the phenomenon and of the absolute, the phenomenon, i.e., the way, is precisely the absolute (in and for itself) or its presence. And reciprocally the absolute is the phenomenon since it is that which 'is in and for itself.' Presence of the absolute and revealing the phenomenon are synonymous because the absolute is the subject, self-consciousness, and the phenomenon represents the becoming of this self-consciousness. The phenomenon and the absolute are linked, because every phenomenon represents the relation to itself, and because the absolute is itself, that is, relation to itself.
-From Philosophy and Non-Philosophy Since Hegel
”
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Maurice Merleau-Ponty
“
For my parents, money was synonymous with happiness. The way you knew you were thriving was if you had lots of STUFF. It didn't matter if you wanted or needed the STUFF, or if the STUFF was suffocating your life.
”
”
Tara Schuster (Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who's Been There)
“
The cleverest people in the world are those most capable of making the least expected connections between apparently disparate things. This book has explained how light, life, mind, soul, causation, motion, energy, ontological mathematics and ontological reason are all synonymous. Are you one of the rare few capable of seeing the light? Can you see the hidden mathematical order beneath the Grand Illusion presented to our senses? Only those on the verge of Enlightenment have any hope of understanding ontological mathematics, the science of the soul, the science of the unseen light of the Universal Mind.
”
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Mike Hockney (Causation and the Principle of Sufficient Reason (The God Series Book 21))
“
Dear Friend, Your letter of 5th June…Now for your questions. 1. Life for me is real as I believe it to be a spark of the Divine. 2. Religion not in the conventional but in the broadest sense helps me to have a glimpse of the Divine essence. This glimpse is impossible without full development of the moral sense. Hence religion and morality are, for me, synonymous terms. 3. Striving for full realization keeps me going. 4. This strife is the source of whatever inspiration and energy I possess. 5. The goal is already stated. 6. My consolation and my happiness are to be found in service of all that lives, because the Divine essence is the sum total of all life. 7. My treasure lies in battling against darkness and all forces of evil. You have asked me to write at leisure and at length if I can. Unfortunately I have no leisure and therefore writing at length is an impossibility. Yours sincerely, M.K. Gandhi
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”
Will Durant (On the Meaning of Life)
“
Honor He Wrote Sonnet 79
When we end up together,
That's not an end, but the beginning.
It's division that ends all journey,
End division, ‘n life will have true beginning.
Century after century went on with division,
Yet unity is forever, division is nonexistence.
To breathe, eat, mate and sleep, ain't existence,
To help, heal, lift and light, that's existence.
We've got intellect, we've got sentiment,
All are useless if they don't help erase division.
Human is another name for undivision,
Not another synonym for discrimination.
To have 'n to hold, mustn't be a vow between just two.
Make it one among all, and soon unity will be true.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables)
“
Although Stalinism, the trials, the suppressions of uprisings in Berlin and in Budapest, had led many of the original believers to re-examine and renounce their faith, to be a Marxist–Leninist in the early sixties was still something not quite disreputable, if not exactly respectable. After 1968, it became a synonym for opportunism, thick-headedness or worse.
”
”
Michael Žantovský (Havel: A Life)
“
many relationships depend for daily ease and survival on one person’s capacity to be flexible: to be able to give more than take; to be able to accept rather than demand; to be able to hold back rather than rush forward; to change when change is needed. It is no coincidence that in heterosexual relationships it is far more likely to be the woman whose sense of self is less ‘ego-bound’ and more adaptable. It is also no coincidence that it is likely to be the woman who is in much greater danger of allowing her sense of her own unique self to slide or be submerged into a ‘we-self’ which largely serves the needs of the male partner. This comes about for many reasons: • The woman is likely to have been socialised into emphasising an awareness of others rather than self-awareness (believing that self-awareness may be synonymous with selfishness). • The woman may be more flexible than her male partner. • She may unconsciously collude with her partner’s equally unexamined assumptions that his interests, career, sense of purpose have greater legitimacy than her own. • Her self-worth may depend on her capacity to make life pleasant and agreeable for others.
”
”
Stephanie Dowrick (Intimacy and Solitude: Finding new closeness and self-trust in a distanced world)
“
is facilitated by the use of the present perfect tense, which gives the past events in Fateless immediate and temporally proximate appearance as “a kind of dramatic present and colloquiality” (Vasvári 2005: 265). Timothy Bewes identifies a similar characteristic in the work of Sebald: time in Sebald’s novels cannot be thought of as synonymous with duration, but, rather, it is subordinate to movement, to plot, to narrative” (2005: 95, emphasis in original).
”
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Magdalena Zolkos (Reconciling Community and Subjective Life: Trauma Testimony as Political Theorizing in the Work of Jean Améry and Imre Kertész)
“
Humanity and failure are synonymous with one another – the human race has a destiny to fail, because we have a destiny to grow.
”
”
Jay D'Cee
“
Today, we’re going to start practicing something that’s simultaneously simple and hard: being still. We tend to think of stillness as being synonymous with boredom, and it’s true that we often use both words to describe the same state of mind. But while the word boredom carries with it an element of feeling trapped, stillness offers an opportunity for peace. As Pema Chödrön writes in her book, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, “If we immediately entertain ourselves by talking, by acting, by thinking—if there’s never any pause—we will never be able to relax. We will always be speeding through our lives.
”
”
Catherine Price (How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life)
“
rise of the Nazis posed other problems for Keynes’ worldview. In his letters to Lydia, Keynes at times used “Jewish” and “circumcised” as synonyms for “greedy.” The economist Robert Solow has even suggested that Keynes’ attacks on “love of money” in “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren” reflect a “polite anti-semitism.”20 Solow presses his case too far, but Keynes’ jokes with Lydia do represent more than some unfortunate, outdated terminology. In 1926, he had written a brief sketch of Albert Einstein, one of his intellectual heroes, after meeting him in Berlin. Einstein, according to Keynes, was one of the good Jews—“a sweet imp” who had “not sublimated immortality into compound interest.” Keynes knew many such good Jews in Germany. There was a Berlin banker named Fuerstenberg “who Lydia liked so much” and the “mystical” German economist Kurt Singer and even his “dear” friend Carl Melchior, whom he had met at the Paris Peace Conference. “Yet if I lived there, I felt I might turn anti-Semite. For the poor Prussian is too slow and heavy on his legs for the other kind of Jews, the ones who are not imps but serving devils, with small horns, pitch forks, and oily tails. It is not agreeable to see a civilisation so under the ugly thumbs of its impure Jews who have all the money and the power and the brains.”21 The sketch was rancid even by the standards of his own time. Keynes may have realized it. The piece was not published until after his death. After the Nazis came to power, Keynes became more considerate
”
”
Zachary D. Carter (The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes)
“
Although it can and at times almost certainly should be, compassion need not be synonymous with what might generally be considered agreeableness, rather the compassion being referred to here more suggests a sympathetic understanding of others’ lack of agreeableness. An awareness serving to help calibrate our easily incited impatience or anger or finger-pointing or disdain towards others over mostly nothing, or things that we can’t really know or understand. There is a suffering and confusion a part of existence that we all know and feel yet seem to so often struggle to grant others. To not see the so obviously unobvious thing behind everything. To hate. To seek vengeance. To frequently act on anger. To declare certainty in almost anything. All contradict the very struggle and confusion of life that we feel such a pain over in the first place. How often do we turn minor inconveniences into major ones over this lack of consideration? Or worse yet, turn tragedies of random circumstance into tragedies of hatred? It’s not that if one is annoyed by or disagrees with another person or group, they shouldn’t. Nor should they not try to work for what they believe in or against what they disagree with. But it is perhaps worth approaching all instances as often as we can. With the awareness that the ignorance and annoyance and sometimes cruelty we find in others is sometimes found by others in us. Sometimes at the same time and with equally valid reasons. Who is right in such cases? Perhaps in some of them, no one is. And perhaps not even the person who thinks they’ve trumped such an occurrence by realizing it’s happening and determining that they are superior to both parties by realizing how foolish both are. Even here, if one acts in such a way, one is exhibiting a conceit and smugness over others by thinking that they have superiorly realized the foolishness of being conceited and smug. Everyone is absurd in their attempt to trump their own absurd relationship with everything. And everyone is more the more so when they do not realize that they, even here, are also a part of everyone.
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Robert Pantano
“
Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love are the essence of Divinity and are frequently used synonyms for God in metaphysics. Being conscious of any of these qualities means being conscious of gratitude, happiness, completeness, and freedom. These spiritual elements are not only the structure of God but, wonderfully, they are also the structure of us. We are constituted of Divinity itself – nothing else, nothing less.
”
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Donna Goddard (The Love of Being Loving (Love and Devotion, #1))
“
LIFE
Symphony of Life
The synonym of humanity
That is lost today
We are hollow and stuffed
Non-religious with religious tags
Divided based on land
Color, race, and language, forgetting
We are made of clay which is nothing, but dust
By misfortune, from head to toe
We are divided and discriminated
Our advisor's advice doesn't work
Our counselor's counseling is nothing
Because they are divided and believe in division
I'm happy because this time
Man can't blame anyone else
Everything is happening due to his own will
One day fundamentalism will come to end
That day you will see bloom's smile
”
”
KIRTI KANGRA
“
I never understood how faith calling and vocational calling operated together, not really. (I thought that calling and career were synonymous.) And sure, I was a person of faith and didn’t hide it from my co-workers, but I didn’t allow it to directly influence my decision-making in the office either. I treated my faith calling and my vocational calling as two separate things. Wrapped up in what I did (a journalist) instead of who I was (loved by God and called to share his love), I was terrified of failure, of not measuring up.
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Paula Faris (Called Out: Why I Traded Two Dream Jobs for a Life of True Calling)
“
Love is blind. Yeah sure. But it is also poor in calculation and logic. It is rich in feeling, extravagant in manifesting and sumptuous in imagination. It is not the end but the beginning, the middle and the end. It never ends, though. It is eternal and ever-stretching like the universe. Love is not the synonym of life but life is the synonym of love
”
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Harmik Vaishnav (Coffee Beans)
“
Mind and life are synonymous. It is impossible to have a mind but not be alive. It is impossible to be alive and not have a mind. The whole of existence is both mental and alive. Existence is the ultimate living organism. It is the opposite of a dead, purposeless machine.
”
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Mark Romel (Strange World: Why People Are Getting Weirder)
“
But goal-setting has become for many a way of life, synonymous with worthwhile achievement and personal progress. It starts when we are young: we choose these subjects for GCSE in order to study these ones at A level, in order to go to this university, to study this subject, to get this job, to get this promotion and work our way up this corporate ladder, to what? Meanwhile, our lives are relegated to something that happens, to borrow from Schopenhauer, ad interim: in the meantime; unattended.
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Derren Brown (Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine)
“
many of the human and material extremes that were the keys to the Delta’s identity either as the “South’s south,” or “America’s Ethiopia” were shaped not by its isolation but by pervasive global and national influences and consistent with interaction with a federal government whose policies often confirmed the Delta’s inequities and reinforced its anachronistic social and political order as well … the social polarization that is synonymous with the Mississippi Delta may be observed wherever and whenever the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, and power overwhelms the ideals of equality, justice and compassion and reduces the American dream to a self-indulgent fantasy. As socioeconomic disparity and indifference to human suffering become increasingly prominent features of American life, it seems reasonable to inquire whether the same economic, political, and emotional forces that helped to forge and sustain the Delta’s image as the South writ small may one day transform an entire nation into the Delta writ large.16
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Clyde Woods (Development Arrested: The Blues and Plantation Power in the Mississippi Delta)
“
Generations of British writers would look up to Roget as a kindred soul who could offer both emotional as well as intellectual sustenance. In the stage directions to Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie includes an homage to Roget: The night nursery of the Darling family, which is the scene of our opening Act, is at the top of a rather depressed street in Bloomsbury. We might have a right to place it where we will, and the reason Bloomsbury is chosen is that Mr. Roget once lived there. So did we in the days when his Thesaurus was our only companion in London; and we whom he has helped to wend our way through life have always wanted to pay him a little compliment. For Barrie, Roget's masterpiece was synonymous with virtue itself. To describe the one saving grace of the play's villain, Captain Hook, Barrie adds, "The man is not wholly evil--he has a Thesaurus in his cabin.
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Joshua Kendall
“
HOPE
A LITTLE EACH DAY
LET HOPE BE YOUR GUIDE IN LIFE.
IT SHINES THROUGH THE TOUGHEST OF TRIALS AND TAKES YOU TO A BETTER PLACE.
Hope is a quality that imbues us with grace in the face of adversity.
HOPE IN LOVE,GRACE,AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
hope is a quality that imbues us with grace in the face of adversity.
hope is synonymous with "want"or "expectation". it denotes a passive, "wait and see",approach to a desired object or outcome.
understood in this way,hope is a state of mind, a wish or thought born from a state of stress and defeat.
THAT IS WHAT HOPE MEANS TO ME.
”
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Taliah Pina
“
For nearly thirty years the powerful propaganda machines of Stalinism worked furiously to expunge Trotsky's name from the annals of the revolution, or to leave it there only as the synonym for arch-traitor. To the present Soviet generation, and not only to it, Trotsky's life-story is already like an ancient Egyptian sepulchre which is known to have contained the body of a great man and the record, engraved in gold, of his deeds; but tomb-robbers and ghouls have plundered and left it so empty and desolate that no trace is found of the record it once contained. The work of the tomb-robbers has, in this present instance, been so persistent that it has strongly affected the views even of independent Western historians and scholars.
”
”
Isaac Deutscher
“
I learned that fully loving and fully living are not only synonymous but the kind of life that Jesus invited us to be part of.
”
”
Bob Goff (Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World)
“
Retributive justice is thus somewhat synonymous with punishment. This is a necessary expression of God’s reaction to sin and evil. Retributive justice is not something God may or may not exercise, as is the case with mercy, love, and grace. Retributive justice, that is, punishment for sin, is a matter of debt. It is something God cannot refrain from doing lest he violate the rectitude and righteousness of his nature and will. Sin must be punished. It is a serious misunderstanding of Christianity and the nature of forgiveness to say that believers are those whose guilt is rescinded and whose sins are not punished.
”
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Sam Storms (Packer on the Christian Life: Knowing God in Christ, Walking by the Spirit)
“
Capacity: How much stuff will fit Throughput: How much stuff will flow They are not synonymous.
”
”
Jim Benson (Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life)
“
Yesterday I got a credit card application from a major bank with a variable rate of 12.99% to 20.99%. Such a deal. And what if I fall on hard times and lose my job? So, I wrote them a return letter:
Dear major bank,
Thank you for the opportunity to express how I really feel about your corporation. What I do appreciate, is that there is no stamp required for your return envelope. After tearing off all my personal information, so some dumpster diver doesn’t fill out your application for me, and find out he picked the wrong target; I just wanted to make one comment:
Your practice of usury is despicable, along with crashing the global economy.
Danny - I think I have my grandmother’s charm and wit. Too bad she’s not here to share it with.
Maybe if every disgruntled person would use that free envelope and apply their creative talent, they might get the picture that we’re tired of this bullshit.
Marcie, there are so many people you could visit and test your information extraction program on, so what are you people doing here? Is this just a practice run? Well, you wanted to know what I was thinking. And you wonder why I look to God for solutions. Wake me up when it’s over.
Marcie - You are a crazy SOB. You want me to use my system to play Robin Hood.
Danny - You’d make an excellent Robin Hood, make sure you get your merry band to sign on. Maybe that’s the reason we were connected by design.
How much materialism do you really need? Some people take what they need from the orchard and other people pick the orchard clean.
Marcie - You’re wondering what I’m thinking. I don’t want to mess your mind up with what I’m thinking, so let me simply say, I don’t approve of what some of these people have been doing for decades.
Who do you think I am?
Danny - Someone who frustrates me, don’t we have enough guessing games in life?
Marcie - Marcie is a miracle worker, so what does that tell you? You do not even know what to make of me, someone who keeps coming back for you, someone who won’t let go of you.
Danny - Why is it that there’s only a handful of words for truth and over 100 synonyms and derivatives for deception?
Marcie - Are you surprised?
Danny - It puts it in a different light when you start reading through the list. You may as well add amygdala hijacking.
Marcie - Has Danny been bamboozled?
Danny - You picked one with an unknown origin.
Marcie - That is the best way to start a mind game.
Danny - Okay, just for kicks, try saying synonym - cinnamon 10 times as fast as you can.
From - "The Mind Game Company - The Players
”
”
Andrew Neff
“
It took all their common sense and philosophy to face life these days. The two are synonymous.
”
”
Bess Streeter Aldrich (A White Bird Flying)
“
Our big and good God is at work in the world, and we have been invited to participate fully—however God has gifted and equipped and called each of us. One needn’t identify as a feminist to participate in the redemptive movement of God for women in the world. The gospel is more than enough. Of course it is! But as long as I know how important maternal health is to Haiti’s future, and as long as I know that women are being abused and raped, as long as I know girls are being denied life itself through selective abortion, abandonment, and abuse, as long as brave little girls in Afghanistan are attacked with acid for the crime of going to school, and until being a Christian is synonymous with doing something about these things, you can also call me a feminist.23
”
”
Sarah Bessey (Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women)
“
Sometimes the best way to relax, unwind, and get everything straightened out... is to curl up with a good book. – Douglas Pagels, from 100 Things to Always Remember and One Thing to Never Forget
Give something of yourself to the day... even if it’s just a smile to someone walking the other way. – Douglas Pagels, from 100 Things to Always Remember and One Thing to Never Forget
Even if you can’t just snap your fingers and make a dream come true, you can travel in the direction of your dream, every single day, and you can keep shortening the distance between the two of you. – Douglas Pagels, from 100 Things to Always Remember and One Thing to Never Forget
Rest assured that, whenever you need them, your guardian angels are great about working overtime. – Douglas Pagels, from A Special Christmas Blessing Just for You
Never forget what a treasure you are. That special person in the mirror may not always get to hear all the compliments you so sweetly deserve, but you are so worthy of such an abundance... of friendship, joy, and love. – Douglas Pagels, from You Are One Amazing Lady
I love that I get to wake up every morning in a world that has people like you in it. – Douglas Pagels, from You Are One Amazing Lady
Be someone who doesn’t make your guardian angel work too hard or worry too much. – Douglas Pagels, from Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!
Each day is a blank page in the diary of your life. Every day, you’re given a chance to determine what the words will say and how the story will unfold. The more rewarding you can make each page, the more amazing the entire book will be. And I would love for you to write a masterpiece. – Douglas Pagels, from Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!
Practice your tree pose. I want you to have a goal of finding a way to bring everything in your life into balance. Let the roots of all your dreams go deep. Let the hopes of all your tomorrows grow high. Bend, but don’t break. Take the seasons as they come. Stick up for yourself. And reach for the sky. – Douglas Pagels, from Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!
Remember that a new morning is good medicine... and one of the joys of life is realizing that you have the ability to make this a really great day. – Douglas Pagels, from Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!
Find comfort in knowing that “rising above” is something you can always find a way to do. – Douglas Pagels, from Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!
Look up “onward” in the thesaurus and utilize every one of those synonyms whenever you’re wondering which direction to go in. – Douglas Pagels, from Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!
Don’t judge yourself – love yourself. – Douglas Pagels, from Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!
If you have a choice between a la-di-da life and an ooh-la-la! one, well... you know what to do. Choose the one that requires you to dust off your dancing shoes. – Douglas Pagels, from Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!
Write out your own definition of success. Fill it with a mix of stardust and wishes and down-to-earth things, and provide all the insight you can give it. Imagine what it takes to have a really happy, rewarding life. And then go out... and live it. – Douglas Pagels, from Wishing You a Happy, Successful, Incredible Life!
”
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Douglas Pagels
“
The hedges - yes, the hedges, the very synonym of Merry England - are yet there, and long may they remain. Without hedges England would not be England. Hedges, thick and high, and full of flowers, birds, and living creatures, of shade and flecks of sunshine dancing up and down the bark of the trees - I love their very thorns. You do not know how much there is in the hedges. (1884)
”
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Richard Jefferies (The Life of the Fields, by Richard Jeffries ..)
“
Most people believe that pain and suffering are synonymous—that one begets the other. A yogi recognizes that pain is an unavoidable aspect of life and that suffering is a choice. Pain is what happens when you stub your toe, suffering is what your mind does with the sensation.
”
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Darren Main (The River of Wisdom: Reflections on Yoga, Meditation, and Mindful Living)
“
Squares have defined urban living since the dawn of democracy, from which they are inseparable. From the start, the public square has been synonymous with a society that acknowledges public life and a life in public, which is to say a society distinguishing the individual from the state [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].
”
”
Catie Marron (City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World)
“
life never goes how you planned; but who said your plans were better than what was written for you?
”
”
synonymous
“
I believe a person who strives to keep a great attitude is refusing a life of mediocrity. God isn’t calling you to a life of mediocrity. Think of what the word mediocre means. The dictionary defines mediocre as “of only moderate quality; not very good.” Synonyms for the word mediocre are words such as average, undistinguished, unexceptional, lackluster, and forgettable. Do these words describe how you want your life to be remembered? I seriously doubt they do. You want your life to be remembered as inspiring and exceptional. If you seek God’s direction and plan for your life, he will lead and empower you to reach your full potential and inspire others.
”
”
Mark R. Lile (Leaving a Legacy: Ten Life Lessons I Wish I Had Learned Sooner)
“
Success and discipline are synonymous in life - you can't have one without the other!
”
”
Bobby F. Kimbrough Jr.
“
One needn’t identify as a feminist to participate in the redemptive movement of God for women in the world. The gospel is more than enough. Of course it is! But as long as I know how important maternal health is to Haiti’s future, and as long as I know that women are being abused and raped, as long as I know girls are being denied life itself through selective abortion, abandonment, and abuse, as long as brave little girls in Afghanistan are attacked with acid for the crime of going to school, and until being a Christian is synonymous with doing something about these things, you can also call me a feminist.
”
”
Sarah Bessey (Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women)
“
Everyone wants to live life better, For This, There is Science With Us. The Era is busy to find the way so we can improve our lives, Daily We comes to know about new Inventions, Medicines, Service etc. Yes we are really improving our life style, we are really in better condition than we used to be, before years. But Ever you thought, Are we really in Good Condition? No.… We forget to improve our life While improving life style. You can't live a better life until, you have a better one. We have been forget the Spirituality, In the Race of Physical Growth. The Stress, The Tension, The Frustration and a lot of worries, Now a Days These words are the synonym of life. We need to return, we need to know, our reality. I am not against the science. There is a fact, that we can live a better life only when we are following, Spirituality(Vidya) and Science(Avidya) Both. Remember, Science Tells The Way To Live Life Better, While, Spirituality Tells The Way To Make Life Better.
The Soul is Divine Flame, I am The Divine Flame, So you are.
Shioham, Shivoham Shivoham
”
”
Santosh Kumar Pyasa
“
Proper discipline requires effort -- indeed, is virtually synonymous with effort. It is difficult...
...to pay careful attention to children.
...to figure out what is wrong and what is right and why
...to formulate just and compassionate strategies of discipline and to negotiate their application with others deeply involved in a child's care
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson (12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos)
“
Don’t we often look at the many events of our lives as big or small interruptions, interrupting many of our plans, projects and life schemes? Don’t we feel an inner protest when a student interrupts our reading, bad weather our summer, illness our well-scheduled plans, the death of a dear friend our peaceful state of mind, a cruel war our ideas about the goodness of man, and the many harsh realities of life our good dreams about it? And doesn’t this unending row of interruptions build in our hearts feelings of anger, frustration and even revenge, so much so that at times we see the real possibility that growing old can become synonymous with growing bitter? But what if our interruptions are in fact our opportunities, if they are challenges to an inner response by which growth takes place and through which we come to the fullness of being?
”
”
Henri J.M. Nouwen (Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life)
“
Life is not the shit and complications and obligations that make up our day. That's just the stuff we pile on top of Life to obscure it. Our existence itself is the miraculous thing we're talking about here. Life is, essentially, another workable synonym for 'God.
”
”
Carrie Triffet (The Fricken Map is Upside Down: Notes from a spiritual journey (1))
“
I observe that I too must alter my vocabulary. No longer is it proper to say, as I have all my life, that someone “is mentally retarded.” As I discover on other websites, by using the new “People First Language,” one focuses on the person first, the disability last, as in “a woman who has mental retardation,” or “a man with mental retardation.” The analogy is that people with cancer have cancer, they are not cancer itself; the disability is only one aspect of who they are. In addition, with People First Language, one can avoid using the word “retarded,” which is too close to the familiar slur. In fact, some websites minimize the use of “mental retardation” by using as synonyms terms such as “developmental disability,” “intellectual disability,” and “cognitive disability.” As I scribble down this People First Language, I realize that many of my acquaintances might disparage such linguistic changes as mere nods to political correctness, and for a moment I do, too. But then I think, Look at how many cultural barriers Beth has had to deal with throughout her life—and how many physical barriers people with other disabilities experience: sidewalks without curb cuts, restrooms lacking accessible facilities, cabs that refuse guide dogs. Altering the way I speak is nothing compared to what she, and they, go through almost all day, almost every day. And it is such a simple way to help transform the cultural landscape that it seems arrogant and misguided to resist doing so.
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Rachel Simon (Riding the Bus with My Sister: A True Life Journey)
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To submit to nothing, whether to a man or a love or an idea, and to
have the aloof independence of not believing in the truth or even (if it
existed) in the usefulness of knowing it – this seems to me the right
attitude for the intellectual inner life of those who can’t live without
thinking. To belong is synonymous with banality. Creeds, ideals, a
woman, a profession – all are prisons and shackles. To be is to be free.
Even ambition, if we take pride in it, is a hindrance; we wouldn’t be
proud of it if we realized it’s a string by which we’re pulled. No: no ties
even to ourselves! Free from ourselves as well as from others,
contemplatives without ecstasy, thinkers without conclusions and
liberated from God, we will live the few moments of bliss allowed us in
the prison yard by the distraction of our executioners. Tomorrow we will
face the guillotine. Or if not tomorrow, then the day after. Let us stroll
about in the sun before the end comes, deliberately forgetting all
projects and pursuits. Without wrinkles our foreheads will glow in the
sun, and the breeze will be cool for those who quit hoping.
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Fernando Pessoa (The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition)
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For many country folk, the railway was Paris. Its gleaming tracks brought tales of success, prosperity and realised dreams to the provinces, qualities with which the capital was increasingly seen as synonymous. For a countrywoman like Madeleine, short on money and luck, overworked, and whose future appeared only to offer more of the same, those dazzling steel tracks represented a chance. All at once, resignation turned to hope. Suddenly, Madeleine could see clearly. If she stayed in Bessines, her future was mapped out – and it was bleak. But if she boarded the train to Paris, anything was possible – perhaps even happiness. Jeanne and Widow Guimbaud were horrified when, not five years after Marie-Clémentine’s birth, Madeleine announced that her mind was made up: she was going to start a new life in Paris.
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Catherine Hewitt (Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon)
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Terroir D'être
In youth be light, lightness,
unencumbered, intimate with the wind.
Let your self be used, swallowed,
as long as it is you doing the letting.
Dispense with possessions, sell your shit
on Craigslist, eBay the rest.
Stuff is a synonym for anchor.
You are a seed nurtured by flight,
embraced by the wind.
In adulthood, land,
taste the soil like a Benedictine monk,
and if it is good,
lay down roots, become
intimate with the earth.
Be a vineyard,
let your life become fine wine,
as long as it is you doing the letting.
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Beryl Dov
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The electrical universe meant that ‘eternal life and perpetual motion are almost, or altogether, synonymous’ – that is to say, impossible.30 Time therefore, for revolution on earth since there was no hope of heaven.
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Iwan Rhys Morus (Shocking Bodies: Life, Death and Electricity in Victorian England)
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[I]n consumer culture choosing and freedom are two names of the same condition; and treating them as synonymous is correct at least in the sense that you can abstain from choosing only by at the same time surrendering your freedom.
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Zygmunt Bauman (Consuming Life)
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Probity, virtue, honor, though they should have not received the polish of Europe, will secure to an honest American the good graces of his fair countrywomen.' In America, , in other words, sincerity mattered more than style. And Chesterfield had become synonymous with all the vapid formality that Americans had fought to free themselves from.
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Jessica Weisberg (Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, and Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed)
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It is capitalism that opened the gates to the Land of Plenty, but capitalism alone cannot sustain it. Progress has become synonymous with economic prosperity, but the twenty-first century will challenge us to find other ways of boosting our quality of life. And while young people in the West have largely come of age in an era of apolitical technocracy, we will have to return to politics again to find a new utopia.
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Rutger Bregman (Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World)
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Are happiness and virtue synonymous with living as truthfully and honorably as possible or do these concepts allow for certain mental deceptions? Is a gullible person or a shrewd person more likely to be happy? Is a foolish or wise person more likely to live guiltlessly? What is more essential to living a contented life, accumulation of knowledge or the ability to feel and effusively express compassion for other people? Can we maintain happiness by acting as harsh judges of ourselves while acting as kindhearted judges of other people? Does happiness entail releasing an underground river of long suppressed passion or does it require living an aboveboard life of disciple-like moderation? Should I strive to modulate my desires by laboring diligently to maintain a disciplined mental and spiritual homeostasis? Alternatively, should I take calculated risks and passionately immerse myself in all facets of a tumultuous life?
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Kilroy J. Oldster (Dead Toad Scrolls)
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For every synonym, there is an antonym and for every antonym, there is a synonym; judge your life sentence or death sentence
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'LORD VISHNU' P.S.JAGADEESH KUMAR
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The word “evolution” is often used as a synonym of “progress,” perhaps reflecting a common uncritical image of evolution as a force for good. A misplaced faith in the inherent beneficence of the evolutionary process can get in the way of a fair evaluation of the desirability of a multipolar outcome in which the future of intelligent life is determined by competitive dynamics.
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Nick Bostrom (Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies)
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Uniqueness and independence are clearly not synonyms in the mind of Benedict of Nursia. Uniqueness and responsibility go hand in hand in Benedictine spirituality. By all means I should be who I am and have what I need, but you have a claim on those gifts. Those gifts were given to me so much for your sake as for my own. The community does not exist to make me possible. Together we exist to make the gospel possible.
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Joan D. Chittister
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Violence has a way of destroying everything but itself. A murdered person's name always threatens to become synonymous with her murder; a murdered person's death always threatens to eclipse her life. That was especially true of an economically marginal black woman in Alabama.
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Casey Cep (Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee)
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To ‘live’ and to ‘grow’ are synonymous with each. For one without the other doesn’t mean that we’re dead, but it certainly means that we’re not living. And truth be told, I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of space between the two.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
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Those of us on the spectrum are simply less typical. Remember, though, that “normal” and “typical” are not synonyms. There is no actual difference between a flower and a weed.
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Jennifer O'Toole (Autism in Heels: The Untold Story of a Female Life on the Spectrum)
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Self Perceives Itself as Quantized but all Quanta is Self. ॐ means I Is. I is Self. Self is One without an other. There are no others. Otherness is Self perceiving Otherness to experience Togetherness. Togetherness is synonymous for Companionship aka Love. It is said that The Earth is fixed. It is so. Earth is not Earth. Earth is Self. Self is ॐ. There is only 'I AM'. There is only ॐ. There is only Self. Self itself is. It is this what existence is. As such Earth is ॐ. Now. The answer to the question - who is ॐ - is Self-awareness. Self is awareness. Awareness is undivided. Division does not exist. It cannot be repeated enough that there is no division. Division being the cause of most suffering in this world. Self perceives itself as diverse not to be alone but Self is undivided. Regardless. Let's continue with Self being synonymous to Awareness for Awareness is most close to describing Self. As such it is applicable to call Self Awareness. To return to the subject of Earth being an immovable body. Let's remember there is only Self. Self is undivided awareness. Awareness perceives movement only by perceiving itself. There is after only One Self. Self perceives movement but all movement is Self. As there is only Self perceiving itself as itself it is thus correct that Self is the unmoved mover. In other words. Self is fixed or immovable. As such we can conclude the Earth is fixed or stationary for Earth is not Earth but Self perceiving itself as itself. Perhaps the following is understood better. There are no parts; there is only Self perceiving itself as Quantized this although all Quanta is Self. All plurality is but a singularity and this singularity is Self. None of it matters for all that matters is Love. Love is the meaning of Life for all diversity is Self perceiving itself as diverse, as variegated, not to be alone, for Companionship, for Love. Please note that I is completely impartial (there are no parts) and all-inclusive. The following statement is equally valid. God is One without an other. There are no others. Otherness is God perceiving Otherness to experience Togetherness. Togetherness is synonymous for Companionship aka Love. It is said that The Earth is fixed. It is so. Earth is not Earth. Earth is God. God itself is. There is only God. It is this what existence is. As such Earth is God. Now. The answer to the question - who is God- is Self-awareness. God is undivided awareness. Awareness is undivided. Division does not exist. It cannot be repeated enough that there is no division. Division being the cause of most suffering in this world. God perceives itself as diverse not to be alone but God if always undivided. Regardless. Let's continue with God being synonymous to Awareness for Awareness is most close to describing God. As such it is applicable to call God Awareness. To return to the subject of Earth being an immovable body. Let's remember there is only God. God is undivided awareness. Awareness perceives movement only by perceiving itself. There is after all only God. God perceives movement but all movement is God. As there is only God perceiving itself as itself it is thus correct that God is the unmoved mover. In other words. God is fixed or immovable. As such we can conclude the Earth is fixed or stationary for Earth is not Earth but God perceiving itself as itself. Perhaps the following is understood better. There are no parts; there is only God perceiving itself as Quantized this although all Quanta is God. All plurality is but a singularity and this singularity is God. None of it matters for all that matters is Love. Love is the meaning of Life for all diversity is God perceiving itself as diverse, as variegated, not to be alone, to experience Companionship, to experience Love.
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Wald Wassermann
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Yes, we have solved The Drake Equation, The Fermi Paradox and whether or not Humans are alone. We just need to accept there is no division. Division does NOT exist in the Kingdom of God. God is One without a second. There is NO division in God. The answer to the question - is Human alone in the Universe? - is Yes. The Universe is Human. Human is One. One is alone but desires not to feel alone. Aloneness is the cause and Companionship is the purpose. There where otherness is perceived is One desiring to experience togetherness. Togetherness can only be experienced through the perception of otherness. There is in truth no otherness. There is only One. One perceives itself as Two not to be alone. That which is Two verily is One perceiving itself as Two not to be alone, for Companionship, To Love and Be Loved in return. There is no division. Division does not exist. All there is is One perceiving itself as diverse. Diversity exists for Companionship. Companionship being synonymous with Love. Love is all that matters, all that matters is Love. Finally, it must be understand that One is not external. One is Self. Self is One. Oneself Is. It is a high realization and not easy to accept but it is necessary for Humankind to go forward. As such the following is conclusive. Life is Self experiencing itself as itself. Self perceives itself as variegated not to be alone. The purpose of Self is Companionship. There where otherness is perceived is Self perceiving itself as otherness in the current for the very purpose to negate is own alOneness. So it is. One is alone but desires not to feel alone. Hence the purpose of Life. Hence the purpose of Human. The purpose of Human is Love. Love one another, there is no other, truth is Self desiring not to be alone, truth is Self desiring Companionship, truth is Self desiring Love. Human should not fight for it is One. Human should embrace itself for it perceives itself as variegated for the very purpose not to be alone, for Companionship, for Love. Love is the primordial motivation. Always return to Love when in doubt. Do not get swayed by the illusion of divisiveness and remember that there is in reality no division; there is only the perception of diversity which exists for the purpose not to feel alone, to experience Companionship, to Love and Be Loved in return. Bless you all, all of you are Blessed.
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Wald Wassermann
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We are indeed not as divided as it seems. In fact, there is no division. It is true we perceive diversity. Diversity does not imply division. Division does not exist. Division is an erroneous concept stemming from ignorance. Ignorance of knowing all is One. One perceives itself as diversified not to be alOne. Diversity exists for the purpose to be able to experience Companionship. Companionship is why the perception of otherness exists. Otherness is One desiring Togetherness. Togetherness is experienced through the perception of Otherness. All that is here is One desiring not to be alone. This One is not external, this One is Us. We are One experiencing itself as diversified this for the purpose of Companionship. Companionship is a synonym for Love. Love is the meaning of Life for Life is not Life but One desiring Love.
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Wald Wassermann
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It is quite fashionable for astrophysics to use such wordings as 'dark' when searching for answers as to the origin- and meaning of Life and the Universe. Hence why they come up with terms such as 'dark energy' and 'dark matter' which cannot be further explained. The truth is quite simple really. Truth is Self desiring not to be alone. Truth is Self desiring Companionship. Truth is Self desiring Love. Mind I, I purposely capitalizes Companionship and Love for very good reason. Before we continue, it must be understood that existence is One and this One is not external but Self perceiving itself as diversified not to be alone. I believe science arrived at the concept of 'dark energy' and 'dark matter' through the following logic: Self turns itself into light out of the darkness. Light being Life. As dark turns itself into Life, it is thus concluded that the energy that underwrites life is dark, hence, dark energy and dark matter. Let's be clear. Dark matter is Self. Dark energy is Self. There is after all only Oneself. I understand the logic of naming everything dark but it is based on sensory perceptions. There is some truth in it of course. Look at a pupil and we clearly see Self desires to escape the darkness. Darkness signifies the Buddhist concept of Śūnyatā which is the non-Self and Krishna who is 'thought' to be dark (which is erroneous for Krishna is colorless bringing forth all colors). As to Śūnyatā, I say the non-Self is One-Self. Oneself cannot be non-Self. Self is always itself. But let's not get distracted and continue. It is true of course that Self desires to escape loneliness which is why Self turns itself into itself. Hence the meaning of the Uni-Verse originating from νέω (I-turn). At the center of Śūnyatā aka the black hole we find the so called gravitational singularity, spacetime singularity simply known as the singularity. What is the singularity? You guessed it. The singularity is Self. There is only Self after all. Self is Singular. How could the Singularity be anything but itSelf? I is always I. Hence ॐ (I Am). Self turns itself into itself. That much is true. But let's step away from all these abstractions and see Self in its totality. I believe the Truth is very simple. The concept of black holes, dark energy and dark matter are sensory abstractions. Truth is One, One is Self. So it is. Truth is Self desiring Companionship. Companionship can only be experienced through Self perceiving itself as diversified. Diversity exists for Companionship. Companionship is the primordial motivation. If Companionship is the primordial motivation, it can thus be concluded that Life is not Life but verily that which experiences itself as Life not to be alone. That is Self. So it is. Life is T(h)āt as in तत्. In other words. Life is Self experiencing itself as itself but perceiving itself as diversified not to be alone. Diversity serves the purpose of Companionship. Companionship is synonymous with Love. In conclusion: Love is the first principle for there is but One principal desiring Love. It is said that there is no division in the Kingdom of God. Yes. Division does not exist. There is only One perceiving itself as Two not to be alOne. As such: LOVE.
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Wald Wassermann
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Courage originally meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” Over time, this definition has changed, and, today, courage is more synonymous with being heroic. Heroics is important and we certainly need heroes, but I think we’ve lost touch with the idea that speaking honestly and openly about who we are, about what we’re feeling, and about our experiences (good and bad) is the definition of courage. Heroics is often about putting our life on the line. Ordinary courage is about putting our vulnerability on the line. In today’s world, that’s pretty extraordinary.
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Brené Brown (The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are)