People of religious distinction maintain that human beings exclusively possess souls, on the strength of which they may gain admittance to heaven. Only human beings lie, devise pogroms, murder for recreation, steal, libel, slander and perform crosswo...
But these words people threw around - humans, monsters, heroes, villains - to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying ...
Occasionally, events in one's life become clearer through the prism of experience, a phrase which simply means that things tend to be clearer as time goes on. For instance, when a person is just born, they usually have no idea what curtains are and s...
Not everyone is allotted the chance to become a personality; most remain types, and never experience the rigor of becoming an individual. But those who do so inevitably discover that these struggles bring them into conflict with the normal life of av...
Women have been driven mad, "gaslighted," for centuries by the refutation of our experience and our instincts in a culture which validates only male experience. The truth of our bodies and our minds has been mystified to us. We therefore have a prima...
Even though peak experiences might show us the truth and inform us about why we are training, they are essentially no big deal. If we can't integrate them into the ups and downs of our lives, if we cling to them, they will hinder us. We can trust our...
The scientific study of suffering inevitably raises questions of causation, and with these, issues of blame and responsibility. Historically, doctors have highlighted predisposing vulnerability factors for developing PTSD, at the expense of recognizi...
We can make room for more experiences of radiance, peace, and beauty; and when we do, they arrive. When we make an intention to experience peace, when we value it enough to make room for it and invite it into our busy lives, it arrives bearing gifts....
Why do so many today want to wander off to South Africa or Kenya or India or Russia or Honduras or Costa Rica or Peru to help with justice issues but not spend the same effort in their own neighborhood or community or state? Why do young suburbanites...
Human history has no unique pattern of intelligibility.
... scar tissue was the strongest tissue in the human body.
It takes two to have a fight.
Kant thought things, not because they were true, but because he was Kant.
Is it painful?" the groundskeeper asked. "I am asking for science.
That the other suffers has to be learned; and it can never be learned fully.
Diversity, not uniformity, is what works.
Empathy is what separates human beings from teenage boys.
Protect art. It is the antidote to the innate barbarism of the human race.
It is through love that the door to Heaven is opened on earth.
Of all the wastes of human ignorance perhaps the most extravagant and costly to human growth has been the waste of the distinctive powers of womanhood after the child-bearing age.
When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone. After all, human beings are like that.
