And her family took her aside and put their arms around her
They said:
Mary, won't you please come back to us now
There is still time to repent for all your sins
And Mary started to cry when she realized
That she'd never come home again in her life.
My self-definition is understood as an answer to the question Who I am. And this question finds its original sense in the interchange of speakers. I define who I am by defining where I speak from, in the family tree, in the social space, in the geography of social statuses and functions, in my intimate relations to the ones I love, and also crucially in the space of moral and spiritual orientation within which my most important defining relations are lived out.How has my way of relating demonstrated where I stand, where I'm coming from?
Charles Taylor. Sources of The Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. (pg 35)
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| Creative Commons, lecates (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lecates) |
No tomorrow.How do the different deaths we experience compare with each other?
No tomorrow.
I find it kind of funny,
I find it kind of sad,
The dreams in which I'm dying
are the best I've ever had.
AS these beginners feel themselves to be very fervent and diligent in spiritual things and devout exercises, from this prosperity (although it is true that holy things of their own nature cause humility) there often comes to them, through their imperfections, a certain kind of secret pride, whence they come to have some degree of satisfaction with their works and with themselves. And hence there comes to them likewise a certain desire, which is somewhat vain, and at times very vain, to speak of spiritual things in the presence of others, and sometimes even to teach such things rather than to learn them. They condemn others in their heart when they see that they have not the kind of devotion which they themselves desire; and sometimes they even say this in words, herein resembling the Pharisee, who boasted of himself, praising God for his own good works and despising the publican.Whenever I have a successful, or seemingly successful experience of teaching in church, the danger of this becomes clearly apparent. How do we get past practicing a pretense of humility?
St. John of the Cross. Dark Night of the Soul - Enhanced (Illustrated) (Kindle Locations 376-382). Kindle Edition.
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| The Pharisee and the Publican James Tissot [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
One should every day think over and make an effort to implant in his mind the saying, “At that time is right now.” It is said that it is strange indeed that anyone is able to pass through life by one means or another in negligence. Thus, the Way of the Samurai is, morning after morning, the practice of death, considering whether it will be here or be there, imagining the most sightly way of dying, and putting one’s mind firmly in death. Although this may be a most difficult thing, if one will do it, it can be done. There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done.Different deaths have different emotional content. Can the Samurai's resolute acceptance be consistent with giving up out of anger?
The Matheson Trust; Yamamoto, Tsunetomo, Hagakure: In the Shade of the Leaves, Section 118 (p. 32) http://themathesontrust.org/library/hagakure-book-of-the-samurai
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| A Buddhist monk commits suicide by burning at the Central Market in Saigon, October 5, 1963 |
We steal from God when we serve objects of our own creation instead. How am I like the priests hiding under the floor?"O Uniter of Attributes who came forth from the Cavern, I have not made extollings.O Uniter of Good who came forth from the Cavern, I have not harmed the bread-ration of the Gods.O Upraised of Head who came forth from the shrine, I have not stolen the Khenef-cakes from the BlessedO He-who-Brings-his-Portion who came forth from the Hall of the Two Truths, I have not stolen Hefnu-cakes of a youth, nor have I fettered the god of my town.O He-who-Brightens-the-Land who came forth from Faiyum, I have not slain sacred cattle."
Faulkner, Raymond. The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day (Chronicle Books) (Plate 31 - Chapter 125) San Francisco.
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| Destruction of the Statue of Bel Cornelis Cort [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
Dreams are truthful manifestations. When I occasionally have dreams of dying in battle or committing seppuku, if I brace myself with courage, my frame of mind within the dream gradually changes. This concerns the dream I had on the night of the twenty-seventh day of the fifth month.I used to dream about being killed quite frequently; it was always the irrational rage of a close family member brought on when I confronted the person's delusion. How would "bracing myself" in such dreams have changed my "frame of mind"?
The Matheson Trust; Yamamoto, Tsunetomo, Hagakure: In the Shade of the Leaves, Section 113 (p. 31) http://themathesontrust.org/library/hagakure-book-of-the-samurai
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| Medea Da Pompei, Casa dei Dioscuri https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medea_-_Casa_dei_Dioscuri.JPG |
