Success is mediocrity

“Even when we do feel strongly, it’s generally about such petty things: about personal and family security, about the flag, about some religious or political leader. Our feeling is always for or against something; it isn’t like a fire that burns brightly, without smoke.”


For certain people there is a peculiar satisfaction in seeing others suffer
“There is such a thing as sadism. Do you know what that word means? An author called the Marquis de Sade once wrote a book about a man who enjoyed hurting people and seeing them suffer. From that comes the word sadism, which means deriving pleasure from the suffering of others. For certain people there is a peculiar satisfaction in seeing others suffer. Watch yourself and see if you have this feeling. It may not be obvious, but if it is there you will find that it expresses itself in the impulse to laugh when somebody falls. You want those who are high to be pulled down; you criticize, gossip thoughtlessly about others, all of which is an expression of insensitivity, a form of wanting to hurt people. One may injure another deliberately, with vengeance, or one may do it unconsciously with a word, with a gesture with a look; but in either case the urge is to hurt somebody, and there are very few who radically set aside this perverted form of pleasure.”
J. Krishnamurti, July 17, The Book of Life

Success is mediocrity
“My whole existence has been dull and empty, without much meaning. It would have been the same, had I lived in a palace, or in a village hut. How easy it is to slip into the current of mediocrity! Now, my question is, can I stem in myself this current of mediocrity? Is it possible to break away from my pettily enlarging past?” J. Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living, Third Series, 270

Are you aware that you are hurt?
“Are you aware that you are hurt, through parents, comparison, a gesture, etc? That hurt is the image about oneself. There are many qualities and varieties of images, and it is one of those images that gets hurt. Only when we are not hurt, entirely free of the image of oneself, can we have a friend.” J. Krishnamurti, 1982, ‘Crisis in Ourselves’

Decide what to put into your mind

“When in wild, unruly crowds
We move with care to shield our broken limbs,
Likewise when we live in evil company,
Our wounded minds we should not fail to guard.
For if I carefully protect my wounds
Because I fear the hurt of cuts and bruises,
Why should I not guard my wounded mind,
For fear of being crushed beneath the cliffs of hell?”
The Way of the Bodhisattva, Shantideva, 5.19-20

"The mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things"
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Foster a careful, actively benevolent love

“Every day and every hour, every minute, walk round yourself and watch yourself, and see that your image is a seemly one. You pass by a little child, you pass by with ugly and spiteful words, with wrathful heart; you may not have noticed the child, but he has seen you, and your image, revolting and godless, may remain in his defenseless heart. You don’t know it, but you may have sown an evil seed in him and it may grow, all because you were not careful before the child, because you did not foster in yourself a careful, actively benevolent love.”
Feodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Conversations with Father Zossima

Fight the strange lethargy

“This intense apathy in all of us is the first great mystery of life; it stands in the way of every perception, every virtue. There is no making ourselves feel enough astonishment at it.”

“I tell you truly that, as I strive more with this strange lethargy and trance in myself, and awake to the meaning and power of life, it seems daily more amazing to me that men such as these – fascists – should dare to lay with the most precious truths.”
John Ruskin


“For it’s as if by chance that I have gained
This state so hard to find, wherein to help myself.
And now, when freedom—power of choice—is mine,
If once again I’m led away to hell,
I am as if benumbed by sorcery,
My mind reduced to total impotence
With no perception of the madness overwhelming me.
O what is it that has me in its grip?”
Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva

Do not lie to yourself

“Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete bestiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and to himself.”
Feodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov


“I consider the heart of the problem of human existence is to fight against mendacity, against lying. I would like to use a word which may be too often used, but it’s still the most important word—and that is ‘honesty,’ or ‘sincerity,’ or ‘trust’....The tragedy of our time is, we don’t trust each other. The Golden Rule today is not ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’ but ‘Suspect thy neighbor as thyself.’ We suspect all politicians because we know in advance they don’t mean what they say and they don’t say what they mean....A politician is a synonym for a person who is not necessarily truthful.” Abraham Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity

“Falsehood...twists and distorts the basis of a man’s life, deceiving him into believing he lives in a reality that does not exist. A person living a lie and taking it to be the Truth moves in a world of self-delusion.” Abraham Heschel, A Passion for Truth

Passion must be disciplined and trained

“As the true knowledge is disciplined and tested knowledge, —not the first thought that comes, so the true passion is disciplined and tested passion, —not the first passion that comes. The first that come are the vain, the false, the treacherous; if you yield to them they will lead you wildly and far, in vain pursuit.”
"The truth of nature is not to be discerned by the uneducated senses."


“Men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters….Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within the more there must be without.”
Edmund Burke

“I have dealt at such length with the organism’s need for stimulation and excitation because it is one of the many factors generating destructiveness and cruelty. It is much easier to get excited by anger, rage, cruelty, or the passion to destroy than by love and productive and active interest; that first kind of excitation does not require the individual to make an effort – one does not need to have patience and discipline, to learn, to concentrate, to endure frustration, to practice critical thinking, to overcome one’s narcissism and greed. If the person has failed to grow, simple stimuli are always at hand or can be read about in the newspapers, heard about in the radio news reports, or watched on television and in movies.”
Erich Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

Smile with a true smile

If a child smiles, if an adult smiles, that is very important. If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.”
Peace is Every Step


“At the end of a retreat in California, a friend wrote this poem:
‘I have lost my smile,
but don’t worry.
The dandelion has it.’
If you have lost your smile and yet are still capable of seeing that a dandelion is keeping it for you, the situation is not too bad. You still have enough mindfulness to see that the smile is there. You only need to breathe consciously one or two times and you will recover your smile. The dandelion is one member of your community of friends. It is there, quite faithful, keeping your smile for you.”
Peace is Every Step

Twenty-four brand-new hours
“Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others. Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see….” 5
Peace is Every Step