My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.
David MametRead
They say you can't study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.
Interpretation
Experience is essential for understanding deep subjects like Kabbalah.
David Mamet's quote reflects the idea that wisdom and understanding often come from experience. He suggests that one must live through a generation's worth of mistakes to truly grasp the complexities of topics like Kabbalah, indicating that personal and generational experiences shape our understanding of profound subjects.
In practice
A speaker at a spiritual retreat discussing the importance of life experiences in understanding religious texts.
My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.
You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'
It's hard for a Jew of my generation, an American Jew, who is philo-Zionistic, not to romanticize Israel.
You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history.
Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.
The subject of drama is The Lie. At the end of the drama THE TRUTH -- which has been overlooked, disregarded, scorned, and denied -- prevails. And that is how we know the Drama is done.
I think you get into trouble as an author and a journalist when, rather than owning the gaps, you try to elide them.
Repetition is not failure. Ask the waves, ask the leaves, ask the wind.
It is not the drinker, but the man who has just stopped drinking, who thinks the world is going to the dogs.
Focus not on doing less or doing more but on doing what you value.
Meditation is like a single log of wood. Insight and investigation are one end of the log; calm and concentration are the other end. If you lift up the whole log, both sides come up at once. Which is concentration and which is insight? Just this mind.
If a man is respectful he will not be treated with insolence. If he is tolerant he will win the multitude. If he is trustworthy in word his fellow men will entrust him with responsibility. If he is quick he will achieve results.
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