Thursday, September 04, 2008

I have found myself spending time with Simone Weil's thought today. Here are a couple of quotations that illuminate and reflect meditative principles:
If we are suffering illness, poverty, or misfortune, we think we shall be satisfied on the day it ceases. But there too, we know it is false; so soon as one has got used to not suffering one wants something else.
...
In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity; the struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish.
I know it seems counterintuitive at times but acceptance really is the way to go. Not passivity! Please don't think that. Obviously, if there is some reasonable action we can take to change things for the better, it's a good idea to make that effort. Also, let us not confuse acceptance with approval. They are not the same thing at all. But when we really cannot do anything to make a difficult situation better, we will suffer so much less through acceptance than we will if we fight against what we're experiencing.

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