Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
He is one of those who has had the wilderness for a pillow, and called a star his brother. Alone. But loneliness can be a communion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the idea that solitude and loneliness can provide a deep connection to nature and inner self.
Dag Hammarskjold's quote speaks to the profound experience of solitude, illustrating that while being alone can often be viewed negatively, it can also foster a unique communion with the world around us. The imagery of using 'the wilderness for a pillow' suggests an intimate relationship with nature, while 'calling a star his brother' invokes a sense of connection that transcends solitude, demonstrating that loneliness can lead to deep reflections and relationships with the universe.
Themes
SolitudeLonelinessNatureConnectionReflection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a meditation retreat to highlight the value of solitude.
More from Dag Hammarskjold
All quotes βIt is not we who seek the Way, but the Way which seeks us. That is why you are faithful to it, even while you stand waiting, so long as you are prepared, and act the moment you are confronted by its demands.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
The world cannot live at peace without the United Nations. For this reason: it creates a reasonable guarantee that all this change in the world, these tremendous political and economic developments, can be channelized, kept orderly. The United Nations is a mold that keeps the hot metal from spilling over.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
In a dream I walked with God through the deep places of creation; past walls that receded and gates that opened through hall after hall of silence, darkness and refreshment--the dwelling place of souls acquainted with light and warmth--until, around me, was an infinity into which we all flowed together and lived anew, like the rings made by raindrops falling upon wide expanses of calm dark waters.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
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Like the practice of breath control, meditation on the forms of God, repetition of mantras, food restrictions, etc., are but aids for rendering the mind quiescent.
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I remembered some people who lived across the street from our home as we were being taken away. When I was a teenager, I had many after-dinner conversations with my father about our internment. He told me that after we were taken away, they came to our house and took everything. We were literally stripped clean.
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We know that there is an infinite, and we know not its nature. As we know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore true that there is a numerical infinity. But we know not of what kind; it is untrue that it is even, untrue that it is odd; for the addition of a unit does not change its nature; yet it is a number, and every number is odd or even (this certainly holds of every finite number). Thus we may quite well know that there is a God without knowing what He is.
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Make account that thou hast done nothing, and then thou hast done all. For if, being sinners, when we account ourselves to be what we are, we become righteous, as indeed the Publican did; how much more, when being righteous we account ourselves to be sinners.
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All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative as the giving of alms, intellect and morality, consistency and principles are miserably inadequate.
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. . . we should be men first, and subjects afterward.
Henry David ThoreauRead