Archive for the ‘Quotes’ Category

Seven Days

Thursday, November 3rd, 2005

From Rob Brezsny’s Free Will Astrology:

LIBRA (Sept.23-Oct.22): In one of his books, the Dalai Lama challenges readers to go just 10 minutes without having a negative thought about another person. When I told this to my acquaintance Arthur, he said, “What a simplistic, overrated fraud that Dalai Lama dude is. It;s totally easy to go 10 minutes without dissing someone.” Your assignment, Libra, is to submit to a marathon version of the challenge. See if you can go seven whole days without having a negative thought about anyone. His Holiness implies there’s a good selfish reason for doing so: it helps you cultivate a state of mind in which peaceful contentment is a natural condition. (bold mine)

I read this in the Independant as I walked to work this morning. I had for some unknown chearful reason said hello rather loudly to two different men at this point. I think they appreciated me saying hello.

Last night I was in a rather bad mood. I’d said some rather harsh words to someone I didn’t know. I went to bed worn out. I wonder what I dreamed last night? This morning was different. Thank you for sharing His Holiness advice Mr. Brezsny.

On Objectivity by Howard Zinn

Monday, January 3rd, 2005

“From the start of my teaching and writing, I had no illusions about “objectivity,” if that meant avoiding a point of view. I knew that a historian (or a journalist, or any one telling a story) was forced to choose, from an infinite number of facts, what to present, what to omit. And that decision inevitably would reflect, whether consciously or not, the interests of the historian.”
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