“Living it up” has become the leitmotif of modern man—a compulsive hyperactivity without any downtimes, no gap of unscheduled time, lest we end up alone with ourselves. The meaning doesn’t matter, so long as it’s intense. We feel that without constant activity, life would be fatally insipid. Friends of mine who lead cultural tours in Asia have told me how their clients can’t bear the least gap in their itinerary. “Is there really nothing scheduled between five and seven?” they ask anxiously. We are, it seems, afraid to turn our gaze in in upon ourselves. We are fully focused on the exterior world, as experienced through our five senses. It seems naive to believe that such a feverish search for intense experience can lead to a lasting enriched quality of life.
If we do take the time to explore our inner world, it’s in the form of daydreaming and imagination, dwelling on the past of fantasizing endlessly about the future. A genuine sense of fulfillment, associated with inner freedom, can also offer intensity to every living moment, but of an altogether different sort. It is a sparkling experience of inner well-being, in which the beauty of each thing shines through. It is knowing how to enjoy the present moment, the willingness to nurture altruism and serenity and bring the best part of ourselves to mature—transforming oneself to better transform the world.
—Matthieu Ricard in Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
Characteristically, it is when a man is at the end of his strength and endurance, but nevertheless holds on, that the transforming symbol floats into consciousness.
—P.W. Martin
Love's greatest gift is its ability to make everything it touches sacred.
—Barbara de Angelis
Some people think that a place can save them. Like if they could just be somewhere else, their lives would be totally different. They could finally be the people they always wanted to be. But to me, a place is just a place. If you really want things to change, you can make them change no matter where you are.
—Hannah Harrington in Saving June
If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic.
—Hazel Henderson
The Qabalists believed that the universe was created from sound. Thus by reciting sacred sounds, changes or transformations of matter could take place. Healing could simply consist of reinvoking those sacred sounds in the body. . . . Perhaps this is what the shamans do when they chant.
—Fred Alan Wolf
This work is about transformation — from the person we are to the person we really are. In the end, we can't be anyone else.
—Marion Rosen
I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.
—Cary Grant
Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.
—Bell Hooks
There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, which demanded that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.
—Norman Mailer
…you are meant to grow into a true human being. Right now you are to a human being what an acorn is to an oak tree. A good start, that's all. You've got a long way to go, baby, and you're not going to grow into your full potential sitting in front of the laptop, bag of Cool Ranch Doritos in one hand, dick in the other, anime porn boring a hole in your corneas and consciousness. Just a thought.
—Shozan Jack Haubner in Zen Confidential: Confessions of a Wayward Monk
I am no longer afraid of anger. I find it to be a creative, transforming force; anger is a stage I must go though if I am ever to get to what lies beyond.
—Mary Kaye Medinger
They say that there are moments that open up your life like a walnut cracked, that change your point of view so that you never look at things the same way again.
—Jodi Picoult in Keeping Faith