There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a total annihilation of all that you believed in and thought that you were.
Interpretation
Transformation often requires deep personal turmoil and a complete reassessment of one's identity and beliefs.
This quote by Vilayat Inayat Khan suggests that true rebirth or profound personal transformation comes only after experiencing significant suffering or existential crisis. The 'dark night of the soul' signifies the difficult process of dismantling one's previous self-conceptions and beliefs in order to emerge renewed and enlightened on the other side.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth and resilience.
Overcome any bitterness that may have come because you were not up to the magnitude of the pain entrusted to you. Like the mother of the world who carries the pain of the world in her heart, you are sharing in a certain measure of that cosmic pain, and are called upon to meet it in joy instead of self pity.
My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my invincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words, I know it by experience.
The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.
Our liberties do not come from charters; for these are only the declaration of pre-existing rights. They do not depend on parchments or seals; but come from the King of Kings and the Lord of all the earth.
Boundary, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of another.
Silence has many dimensions. It can be a regression and an escape, a loss of self, or it can be presence, awareness, unification, self-discovery. Negative silence blurs and confuses our identity, and we lapse into daydreams or diffuse anxieties. Positive silence pulls us together and makes us realize who we are, who we might be, and the distance between these two.
I hold that gentleman to be the best-dressed whose dress no one observes.
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