“As in my other works of fiction: All persons living and dead are purely coincidental, and should not be construed. No names have been changed in order to protect the innocent. Angels protect the innocent as a matter of Heavenly routine.”

— Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box

“Why must one talk? Often one shouldn’t talk, but live in silence. The more one talks, the less the words mean.”

— Jean-Luc Godard

(via givemelyricismorgivemedeath)

whocaresaboutarchitecture: “The real question is whether all your pondering and analyses will convince you that life is worth living. That’s what it all comes down to.” Brian Greene (1963 - ) Maurizio Strippoli - Untitled, Inside Series

whocaresaboutarchitecture:

“The real question is whether all your pondering and analyses will convince you that life is worth living. That’s what it all comes down to.”

Brian Greene (1963 - )

Maurizio Strippoli - Untitled, Inside Series

“Plans made in advance all violate against the Buddha Way. Consider his well.”

— Dōgen, Shōbōgenzō

“It is not the doing that is difficult, but rather the doing it well that is hard. The practice of leaving the world and gaining the Way attracts many people, but there are few who do it well. Birth and death are vital matters; the changes of transiency are swift. Don’t relax in your determination.”

— Dōgen, Shōbōgenzō

“Even by the standards of ordinary society, lack of propriety—such as changing your clothing improperly, even when you are where people cannot see you or are in a darkened room or sitting or lying indecently so that parts that should be hidden are exposed—is an insult to heaven and to ghosts. Hide what should be hidden, and be ashamed of what is shameful, just as if you were always in the presence of others. This reflects the intent of the precepts. Those versed in the Way must not make distinctions about whether they are inside a room or outside it, or whether it is light or dark, and do bad things just because they are out of sight of people who know the Buddhist regulations.”

— Dōgen, Shōbōgenzō

“To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do.”

— Hermann Hesse

(via cargohoo)

whocaresaboutarchitecture: “The primary condition for being sincere is the same as for being humble: not to boast of it, and probably not even to be aware of it.” Henri Peyre (1901 – 1988) Bryan Schutmaat - Grays the Mountain Sends Series

whocaresaboutarchitecture:

“The primary condition for being sincere is the same as for being humble: not to boast of it, and probably not even to be aware of it.”

Henri Peyre (1901 – 1988)

Bryan Schutmaat - Grays the Mountain Sends Series

“You do not deserve the respect of others unless you have true virtue within yourself. Because the people of Japan respect others for their outward appearance, without knowing the true inner virtues, students without the mind that seeks the Way fall into evil paths and become followers of demons. It is easy to be respected by others. One need merely give the impression of having forsaken the body and of being separated from the world by the external appearance one adopts. The true seeker of the Way harmonizes his mind and yet lives humbly like any other ordinary person in the world.

Therefore, an ancient sage has said “Inwardly empty yourself, and outwardly follow the world.” This means that you must rid yourself of inner attachments yet outwardly conform to the ways of the world. If you forget entirely your body and mind, enter into Buddhism, and practice according to the Buddhist teachings, you become good inwardly and outwardly both now and in the future.

Although Buddhism says to discard the body and abandon the world, it is wrong t cast aside things that should not be cast aside. In this country, among those who try to pass themselves off as Buddhists and seekers of the Way are some who say that, since they have forsaken their bodies, it does not matter what others think; and they act with unreasonable rudeness. Or else, saying that they are no longer attached to the world, they walk about heedlessly in the rain and get soaking wet. These actions serve no purpose either inwardly or outwardly, yet ordinary people have the impression that this type of person should be respected, because he seems to be detached from the world.”

— Dōgen, Shōbōgenzō

“No permanence is ours, we are a wave that flows to fit whatever form it finds.”

— Hermann Hesse

(via adeana)

“I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

(via deathbyleche)

“When I think about dying, the thing that surprises me is how much of the future I regard as history, and how I don’t want to miss it. I want to know how it all comes out. I haven’t a lot of money riding on my vision of things, but I would like to know how the universe came to be, what’s up with extraterrestrials, where biotech is going, where the Internet is going, about robot/man space-flight to the outer planets. Because the next century will be it. We are on the brink of a post-human existence, or we are into the early phase of the post-human existence. So what’s it gonna look like? What’s it gonna feel like?”

— Terence McKenna

“My technique is don’t believe anything. If you believe in something, you are automatically precluded from believing its opposite.”

— Terence McKenna

“You have to take seriously the notion that understanding the universe is your responsibility, because the only understanding of the universe that will be useful to you is your own understanding.”

— Terence McKenna

“To learn these things and to maintain the regulations mean to cast aside attachments to the Self and to conform to the teaching of the Zen Masters. The essential requisite is to abandon avarice. To do this, you must first free yourselves from egoism. To be free from egoism is to have a deep understanding of transiency. This is the primary consideration.”

— Dōgen, Shōbōgenzō