See the hand that nursed the serpent. The fine hasped pipes of her fingerbones. The skin bewenned and speckled. The veins are milkblue and bulby. A thin gold ring set with diamonds. That raised the once child's heart of her to agonies of passion before I was. Here is the anguish of mortality. Hopes wrecked, love sundered. See the mother sorrowing. How everything that I was warned of's come to pass.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the deep pain and regret associated with life's experiences and relationships.
In this poignant reflection by Cormac McCarthy, the speaker acknowledges the complexity of life and the suffering that often accompanies it. The imagery of the mother sorrowing suggests a deeper connection to the pains of mortality, unfulfilled hopes, and fractured love, portraying how these elements shape our existence and resonate through our lives. The quote serves as a meditation on the inevitability of loss and the emotional scars that define our humanity.
In practice
In a discussion on grief and loss, one might use this quote to emphasize the emotional turmoil of life.
Yet it is the narrative that is the life of the dream while the events themselves are often interchangeable. The events of the waking world on the other hand are forced upon us and the narrative is the unguessed axis along which they must be strung.
What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return.
The judge placed his hands on the ground. He looked at his inquisitor. This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation.
Only now is the child finally divested of all that he has been. His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
He'd half meant to speak but those eyes had altered the world forever in the space of a heartbeat.
It took me whole decades to appreciate the depth and true value of yoga. Sacred texts supported my discoveries, but it was not they that signposted the way. What I learned through yoga, I found out through yoga.
You will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally received and practiced on.
The Buddha taught that we're not actually in control, which is a pretty scary idea. But when you let things be as they are, you will be a much happier, more balanced, compassionate person.
The cleverly expressed opposite of any generally accepted idea is worth a fortune to somebody.
Nothing outside you can ever give you what you're looking for.
The Difficulty lies, in finding out an exact Measure but eat for Necessity, not Pleasure, for Lust knows not where Necessity ends.
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