I never had anyone I could call “Master”. No Christ died for me. No Buddha showed me the right path. In the depths of my dreams no Apollo or Athena appeared to me to enlighten my soul
Interpretation
The quote expresses a sense of independence in one's search for meaning and enlightenment, lacking reliance on external figures.
Fernando Pessoa reflects on the absence of traditional spiritual guides or masters in his life, highlighting a profound sense of individualism in the quest for knowledge and enlightenment. He suggests that rather than seeking answers from established religious or mythological figures like Christ, Buddha, or the Greek gods, he feels drawn to navigate his own path and seek truth from within, emphasizing the importance of personal experience and introspection in the journey of life.
In practice
This quote can be used to inspire individuals at a personal development workshop.
I have at this moment so many fundamental thoughts, so many truly metaphysical things to say, that I suddenly get tired and decide not to write any more, not to think any more, but to allow the fever of speaking to make me sleepy, and with my eyes closed, like a cat, I play with everything I could have said.
It's been months since I last wrote. I've lived in a state of mental slumber, leading the life of someone else. I've felt, very often, a vicarious happiness. I haven't existed. I've been someone else. I've lived without thinking.
We all have two lives: The true, the one we dreamed of in childhood And go on dreaming of as adults in a substratum of mist; the false, the one we love when we live with others, the practical, the useful, the one we end up by being put in a coffin.
I'm a man for whom the outside world is an inner Reality.
My dreams are a stupid refuge, like an umbrella against a thunderbolt.
The chill of what I won't feel gnaws at my present heart.
for we are inquiring not in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, since otherwise our inquiry would have been of no use
...majority Patriotism is the customary Patriotism.
In the Buddhist approach, life and death are seen as one whole, where death is the beginning of another chapter of life. Death is the mirror in which the entire meaning of life is reflected.
People know things and have a remarkable capacity to act in their individual immediate interests all the time.
All around me darkness gathers, Fading is the sun that shone, We must speak of other matters, You can be me when I'm gone Flowers gathered in the morning, Afternoon they blossom on, Still are withered in the evening, You can be me when I'm gone.
The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.
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