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"So long as we are trying to achieve a psychological result, so long as we want inward security,
there must be contradiction in life. I do not think that most of us are aware of this contradiction;
or, if we are, we do not see its real significance. On the contrary, contradiction gives us an
impetus to live; the very element of friction makes us feel alive. The effort, the struggle of
contradiction, gives us a sense of vitality...
...where there is contradiction, there cannot be a quiet mind. Quietness of mind is essential to understand the whole significance of life..." The First and Last Freedom, p.74 |
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"Why do we contradict? Why is there contradiction in ourselves? Is there not an attempt to live
up to a standard, up to a pattern - a constant effort to be something, either in the eyes of
another or in our own eyes? There is a desire, is there not?, to conform to a pattern; when one
is not living up to that pattern, there is contradiction.
Now why do we have a pattern, a standard, an approximation, an idea which we are trying to live up to? Why? Obviously to be secure, to be safe, to be popular, to have a good opinion of ourselves and so on. There is the seed of contradiction. As long as we are approximating ourselves to something, trying to be something, there must be contradiction... In the very desire to be something, there is a contradiction - not to be something else." The First and Last Freedom, p.260 |
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"When one is aware of the full significance of contradiction in oneself, it brings an extraordinary
change: you are yourself, then, not something you are trying to be. You are no longer following
an ideal, seeking happiness. You are what you are and from there you can proceed. Then there is no
possibility of contradiction."
The First and Last Freedom, p.262 |
