They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Boris PasternakRead
A conscious attempt to fall asleep is sure to produce insomnia, to try to be conscious of one's own digestion is a sure way to upset the stomach. Consciousness is a poison when we apply it to ourselves. Consciousness is a light directed outward. it's like the headlights on a locomotive—turn them inward and you'd have a crash.
Interpretation
Trying to overthink personal processes can lead to negative outcomes.
Boris Pasternak’s quote emphasizes the dangers of excessive self-awareness and introspection. He suggests that when we become overly conscious of our own processes—like falling asleep or digesting food—we can inadvertently disrupt them, much like directing the light of a locomotive's headlights inward would cause a crash. The quote serves as a reminder that sometimes, it is better to allow things to happen naturally rather than forcefully trying to control them.
In practice
During a mindfulness workshop discussing the importance of letting thoughts pass without judgment.
They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men -- it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later.
Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life.
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!
It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?
I like to question cultural biases wherever I go, and I question Islamophobia as much as I question anti-western sentiment because I think all extremist ideologies are very similar.
Catastrophes come when some dominant institution, swollen like a soap-bubble and still standing without foundations, suddenly crumbles at the touch of what may seem a word or idea, but is really some stronger material source.
You exist without the feeling of existence.
To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.
Your primary purpose is to be here fully, and to be total in whatever you do so that the preciousness of the present moment does not become reduced to a means to an end. And there you have your life purpose. That's the very foundation of your life.
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