contemplatelit
@contemplatelit.bsky.social
words i see on pages | earthseed | ideas from contemplative traditions | fiction | mindfulness
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When we think we know—we stop being curious.
-Ruth King, “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
-Ruth King, “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
November 4, 2025 at 5:33 AM
When we think we know—we stop being curious.
-Ruth King, “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
-Ruth King, “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
I have a simple mantra for remembering these laws of nature: life is not personal, permanent, or perfect.
-Ruth King, “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
-Ruth King, “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
November 4, 2025 at 5:32 AM
I have a simple mantra for remembering these laws of nature: life is not personal, permanent, or perfect.
-Ruth King, “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
-Ruth King, “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
Knowing how to be #solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.
-bell hooks, quoted in Ruth King’s “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
-bell hooks, quoted in Ruth King’s “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
November 4, 2025 at 5:32 AM
Knowing how to be #solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.
-bell hooks, quoted in Ruth King’s “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
-bell hooks, quoted in Ruth King’s “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter” in Black and Buddhist
As #human beings who have not done the work of reintegrating the many different expressions of our human family or species—the different faces, races, and creeds—we are striding through this planet like the walking wounded.
-Lama Dawa Tarchin Phillips in “Belonging”
-Lama Dawa Tarchin Phillips in “Belonging”
November 4, 2025 at 5:28 AM
As #human beings who have not done the work of reintegrating the many different expressions of our human family or species—the different faces, races, and creeds—we are striding through this planet like the walking wounded.
-Lama Dawa Tarchin Phillips in “Belonging”
-Lama Dawa Tarchin Phillips in “Belonging”
when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
so it is better to #speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.
-Audre Lorde, “A Litany for Survival”
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
so it is better to #speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.
-Audre Lorde, “A Litany for Survival”
November 4, 2025 at 5:26 AM
when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
so it is better to #speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.
-Audre Lorde, “A Litany for Survival”
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
so it is better to #speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.
-Audre Lorde, “A Litany for Survival”
The meditated mind is less divided, experiences interconnection with phenomena, is not engaged in hardening ego constructions, experienced the impermanence of perspectives and frames of perception, and is not clinging to or craving anything.
-Yetunde & Giles, Black and Buddhist
-Yetunde & Giles, Black and Buddhist
November 4, 2025 at 5:26 AM
The meditated mind is less divided, experiences interconnection with phenomena, is not engaged in hardening ego constructions, experienced the impermanence of perspectives and frames of perception, and is not clinging to or craving anything.
-Yetunde & Giles, Black and Buddhist
-Yetunde & Giles, Black and Buddhist
#Buddhism is a path to de-caste or #decolonize one’s mind while simultaneously helping oneself build resilience against trauma.
-Pamela Ayo Yetunde & Cheryl A. Giles in “Black and Buddhist”
-Pamela Ayo Yetunde & Cheryl A. Giles in “Black and Buddhist”
November 4, 2025 at 5:25 AM
#Buddhism is a path to de-caste or #decolonize one’s mind while simultaneously helping oneself build resilience against trauma.
-Pamela Ayo Yetunde & Cheryl A. Giles in “Black and Buddhist”
-Pamela Ayo Yetunde & Cheryl A. Giles in “Black and Buddhist”
African Americans are at perpetual risk of psychological imbalance and trauma due to the social realities of racism in the United States.
-Pamela Ayo Yetunde & Cheryl A. Giles in “#Black and #Buddhist”
-Pamela Ayo Yetunde & Cheryl A. Giles in “#Black and #Buddhist”
November 4, 2025 at 5:24 AM
African Americans are at perpetual risk of psychological imbalance and trauma due to the social realities of racism in the United States.
-Pamela Ayo Yetunde & Cheryl A. Giles in “#Black and #Buddhist”
-Pamela Ayo Yetunde & Cheryl A. Giles in “#Black and #Buddhist”
The Walker’s last #freedom is more uncommon. It is a third stage, after the rediscovery of simple joys and the reconquest of the primitive animal: the freedom of #renunciation.
-Frédéric Gros in A Philosophy of #Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A Philosophy of #Walking
November 4, 2025 at 5:12 AM
The Walker’s last #freedom is more uncommon. It is a third stage, after the rediscovery of simple joys and the reconquest of the primitive animal: the freedom of #renunciation.
-Frédéric Gros in A Philosophy of #Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A Philosophy of #Walking
Think while #walking, walk while #thinking, and let #writing be but the light pause, and the body on a walk rests in #contemplation of wide open spaces.
-Frédéric Gros in A Philosophy of Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A Philosophy of Walking
August 28, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Think while #walking, walk while #thinking, and let #writing be but the light pause, and the body on a walk rests in #contemplation of wide open spaces.
-Frédéric Gros in A Philosophy of Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A Philosophy of Walking
The #freedom in walking lies in not being anyone; for the walking body has no #history, it is just an eddy in the stream of immemorial life.
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
July 21, 2025 at 5:27 PM
The #freedom in walking lies in not being anyone; for the walking body has no #history, it is just an eddy in the stream of immemorial life.
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
But isn’t being #someone also a #social obligation which trails in its wake—for one has to be faithful to the self portrait—a stupid and burdensome #fiction?
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
July 21, 2025 at 5:24 PM
But isn’t being #someone also a #social obligation which trails in its wake—for one has to be faithful to the self portrait—a stupid and burdensome #fiction?
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
What I mean is that by walking you are not going to meet yourself. By walking, you escape from the very idea of identity, the temptation to become someone, to have a name and a history.
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
July 21, 2025 at 4:17 PM
What I mean is that by walking you are not going to meet yourself. By walking, you escape from the very idea of identity, the temptation to become someone, to have a name and a history.
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
-Frédéric Gros in A #Philosophy of #Walking
“Let’s go, route! I’m a pedestrian, nothing more.”
-Arthur Rimbaud, quoted in Frédéric Gros’s A Philosophy of Walking
-Arthur Rimbaud, quoted in Frédéric Gros’s A Philosophy of Walking
July 21, 2025 at 1:01 AM
“Let’s go, route! I’m a pedestrian, nothing more.”
-Arthur Rimbaud, quoted in Frédéric Gros’s A Philosophy of Walking
-Arthur Rimbaud, quoted in Frédéric Gros’s A Philosophy of Walking
By fearing whom I trust, I find my way
To truth: by trusting wholly, I betray
The trust of wisdom; better far is doubt
Which brings the false into the light of day.
-Abdallah al-Ma’arri (973-1057), quoted in Jennifer Michael Hecht’s Doubt: A History
To truth: by trusting wholly, I betray
The trust of wisdom; better far is doubt
Which brings the false into the light of day.
-Abdallah al-Ma’arri (973-1057), quoted in Jennifer Michael Hecht’s Doubt: A History
June 23, 2025 at 8:33 PM
By fearing whom I trust, I find my way
To truth: by trusting wholly, I betray
The trust of wisdom; better far is doubt
Which brings the false into the light of day.
-Abdallah al-Ma’arri (973-1057), quoted in Jennifer Michael Hecht’s Doubt: A History
To truth: by trusting wholly, I betray
The trust of wisdom; better far is doubt
Which brings the false into the light of day.
-Abdallah al-Ma’arri (973-1057), quoted in Jennifer Michael Hecht’s Doubt: A History
When Al-Ghazzali was an adolescent, he explained, he noticed, “that #Christian youths always grew up to be Christians, #Jewish youths to be Jews, and #Muslim youths to be Muslims.”
-Jennifer Michael Hecht in Doubt: A History
-Jennifer Michael Hecht in Doubt: A History
June 23, 2025 at 8:33 PM
When Al-Ghazzali was an adolescent, he explained, he noticed, “that #Christian youths always grew up to be Christians, #Jewish youths to be Jews, and #Muslim youths to be Muslims.”
-Jennifer Michael Hecht in Doubt: A History
-Jennifer Michael Hecht in Doubt: A History
If at the end of our journey
There is no final
Resting place
Then we need not fear
Losing our Way.
-Zen Master Ikkyu, quoted in Jennifer Michael Hecht’s Doubt: A History
There is no final
Resting place
Then we need not fear
Losing our Way.
-Zen Master Ikkyu, quoted in Jennifer Michael Hecht’s Doubt: A History
June 23, 2025 at 8:30 PM
If at the end of our journey
There is no final
Resting place
Then we need not fear
Losing our Way.
-Zen Master Ikkyu, quoted in Jennifer Michael Hecht’s Doubt: A History
There is no final
Resting place
Then we need not fear
Losing our Way.
-Zen Master Ikkyu, quoted in Jennifer Michael Hecht’s Doubt: A History
Records On The Inquisition: “A woman from Montaillou was asked where she got her doubts about #hell and the #resurrection, and she said that she got them from no one: she thought of them for herself.”
-Jennifer Michael Hecht in Doubt: A History, footnote to Susan Reynolds
-Jennifer Michael Hecht in Doubt: A History, footnote to Susan Reynolds
June 23, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Records On The Inquisition: “A woman from Montaillou was asked where she got her doubts about #hell and the #resurrection, and she said that she got them from no one: she thought of them for herself.”
-Jennifer Michael Hecht in Doubt: A History, footnote to Susan Reynolds
-Jennifer Michael Hecht in Doubt: A History, footnote to Susan Reynolds
All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences.
-Jean Tarrou in Albert Camus’s The Plague #coronavirus #covid19
-Jean Tarrou in Albert Camus’s The Plague #coronavirus #covid19
June 23, 2025 at 8:29 PM
All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences.
-Jean Tarrou in Albert Camus’s The Plague #coronavirus #covid19
-Jean Tarrou in Albert Camus’s The Plague #coronavirus #covid19
It appears Thomas did not believe the resurrection and as they say would not believe without having ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither will I: and the reason is equally good for me and for every other person as for Thomas.
-Thomas Paine, qtd in Doubt: A History
-Thomas Paine, qtd in Doubt: A History
June 23, 2025 at 8:27 PM
It appears Thomas did not believe the resurrection and as they say would not believe without having ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither will I: and the reason is equally good for me and for every other person as for Thomas.
-Thomas Paine, qtd in Doubt: A History
-Thomas Paine, qtd in Doubt: A History
Reader! To whatever visible #church, #synagogue, or #mosque you belong! See if you do not find more true religion among the host of the #excommunicated than among the far greater host of those that excommunicated them.
-Moses Mendelssohn, qtd. in J.M. Hecht’s Doubt: A History
-Moses Mendelssohn, qtd. in J.M. Hecht’s Doubt: A History
June 23, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reader! To whatever visible #church, #synagogue, or #mosque you belong! See if you do not find more true religion among the host of the #excommunicated than among the far greater host of those that excommunicated them.
-Moses Mendelssohn, qtd. in J.M. Hecht’s Doubt: A History
-Moses Mendelssohn, qtd. in J.M. Hecht’s Doubt: A History
Feuerbach noticed that if we have sensed the divine all along, and it turns out there is no God, then what we called divine was coming from us in the first place. For Feuerbach, if God is our projection of ourselves onto the heavens, we are divine.
-J. Hecht in Doubt: A History
-J. Hecht in Doubt: A History
June 23, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Feuerbach noticed that if we have sensed the divine all along, and it turns out there is no God, then what we called divine was coming from us in the first place. For Feuerbach, if God is our projection of ourselves onto the heavens, we are divine.
-J. Hecht in Doubt: A History
-J. Hecht in Doubt: A History