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c736328 My Sikh-inspired spiritual strength is melting away and my brain is too fried to meditate. Sarah Macdonald
5753161 Loving one another is half of wisdom. Ali
56f761e Although the Major was so sympathetic to India, his piece sounds like a warning. He said that one has to be very determined to withstand--to stand up to--India. And the most vulnerable, he said, are always those who love her best. There are many ways of loving India, many things to love her for...but all, said the Major, are dangerous for the European who allows himself to love too much. India always, he said, finds out the weak spot and pr.. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
67dac53 When Indians sleep, they really do sleep. Neither adults nor children have a regular bed-time -- when they're tired they just drop, fully clothed, on to their beds, or the ground if they have no beds, and don't stir again until the next day begins. All one hears is occasionally someone crying out in their sleep, or a dog -- maybe a jackal -- baying at the moon. I lie awake for hours: with happiness, actually. I have never known such a sense.. sleep Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
57e3b62 The others, however, told their anecdotes with no moral comment whatsoever, even though they had to recount some hair-raising events. And not only did they keep completely cool, but they even had that little smile of tolerance, of affection, even enjoyment that Olivia was beginning to know well: like good parents, they all loved India whatever mischief she might be up to. colonialism india paternalism Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
c14a98e The girl was particularly indignant --not only about this watchman but about all the other people all over India. She said they were all dirty and dishonest. She had a very pretty, open, English face but when she said that it became mean and clenched, and I realised that the longer she stayed in India the more her face would become like that. india postcolonialism Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
4ab0fc2 It is strange how, once graves are broken and overgrown in this way, then the people in them are truly dead. The Indian Christian graves at the front of the cemetery, which are still kept up by relatives, seem by contrast strangely alive, contemporary graves maintenance Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
df1ff18 Olivia was by no means a snob but she aesthetic and the details Mrs. Saunders gave about her illness were not; also Mrs. Saunders' accent--how could one help noticing with her droning on and on?--was not that of a too highly educated person... classism Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
2c56df6 She explains that often the people who mean the most to us have to be left behind because they cannot follow us along our destined path. family friends india Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
4b41bf3 in my small pocket of my own isolated country, I felt like I understood my world and myself, but now, I'm actually embracing not knowing and I'm questioning much of what I thought I did know. I kind of like being confused, wrestling with contradictions, and not having to wrap up issues in a minute before a commercial break. Sarah Macdonald
ae56770 Judaism or Islam or Sikhism. I can be a believer in something bigger than what I can touch. I can make a leap of faith to a higher power in a way that's appropriate to my culture but not be imprisoned by it. Sarah Macdonald
a492e80 I realize I don't have to be a Christian who follows the church, or a Buddhist nun in robes, or a convert to Judaism Sarah Macdonald
af659d9 I've crashed into another bad wall of karma and in the process lost my lightness of being. Sarah Macdonald
3342918 I must find peace in the only place possible in India. Within. Sarah Macdonald
906c600 Mehmooda's faith and fatalism makes me realize how much I still cling to the belief that I have power over my destiny. Perhaps it's time to let that go. Back at the boat on the lake of lotuses I shiver with thoughts of surrender, for it seems such surrender requires sacrifices I could never make. I'm not sure I want that depth of faith and I can't imagine being capable of it. Sarah Macdonald
2cf3fd3 God is not a judgemental giant sitting up in heaven, it's a force within us all - we are light bulbs in the electrical system of the universe. Sarah Macdonald
bc02284 I can look to Hanuman for energy, Varuna (the God of water) if I want rain, Lakshmi (Vishnu's consort, the goddess of wealth) if I need money and Saraswathi (Brahma's consort, the goddess of knowledge) ifI have an exam coming up. Ganesh the elephant god and the child of Shiva and Parvati) can be called on when starting a new journey or venture and Vishnu, Ram or Krishna if I want purity of spirit. Sarah Macdonald
6a6e29f I figure that if I can find peace in death, then perhaps I can find peace and a sense of grace in life. Sarah Macdonald
8d8919e The Sikhs have shown me how to be strong, the Vipassana course taught me how to calm my mind, India's Muslims have shown me the meaning of surrender and sacrifice, and the Hindus have illustrated an infinite number of ways to the divine. But right now the Buddhist way of living attracts me the most. It complements my society's psychological approach to individual growth and development, my desire to take control and take responsibility for .. Sarah Macdonald
b892b54 Do you have deep feelings for nature or do you year detachment? Do you prefer sex or self-control? Sarah Macdonald
75396ad I am worried self analysis will lead to spiritual paralysis Sarah Macdonald
35c249b After nearly two years of traveling India's spiritual supermarket I'm still a self-occupied, selfish, pathetic, pessimistic bitch who's dropped any faith at first sign that things aren't going well. Sarah Macdonald
5d53f03 She said she could no longer live in New York, that she was being tormented day and night by some obsessive stalker. This caught me completely by surprise, as I had taken to hanging around Sarah's apartment, hiding in the bushes day and night, watching her come and go, and I had never seen any signs of a stalker. Norm Macdonald
cda341f Grief is half of old age. Ali
17ea347 Father thought that the first stage of human happiness was a 'fellowship with essence, Dan Simmons
c576db1 Bear sorrows and calamities patiently, otherwise you will never be happy. Ali
1f783f0 One who comes into power often oppresses. Ali
e06a450 Adversities often bring good qualities to the front. Ali
c543804 If a friend envies you, then he is not a true friend. Ali
408fed6 Avarice dulls the faculties of judgment and wisdom. Ali
5ad8669 Oppression and tyranny are the worse companions for the Hereafter. Ali
3f5a29d The best deed of a great man is to forgive and forget. Ali
a31d719 A greedy man will always find himself in the shackles of humility. Ali
0d12bad I often wonder who will be the last person to see me alive. If I had to bet, I'd bet on the delivery boy from the Chinese take-out. I order in four nights out of seven. Whenever he comes I make a big production of finding my wallet. He stands in the door holding a greasy bag while I wonder if this is the night I'll finish off my spring roll, climb into bed, and have a heart attack. krauss leo-gursky Nicole Krauss
92bb019 Cand te tii cu cineva de mana, de pilda, e un mod de a-ti aduce aminte cum e cand nu spuneti nimic impreuna. Si noaptea, cand e prea intuneric ca sa mai vedem ceva, simtim nevoia sa gesticulam cu ajutorul trupului celuilalt, pentru a ne face intelesi. Nicole Krauss
96c6406 Later - when things happened that they could never have imagined - she wrote him a letter that said: When will you learn that there isn't a word for everything? Nicole Krauss
6974490 Bend a people around the shape of what they lost, and let everything mirror its absent form Nicole Krauss
d041214 When I was young, I thought that I would live my life as freely as the writers and artists I took as my heroes. But in the end I wasn't brave enough to resist the current pulling me toward convention. Nicole Krauss
f46879b Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you. Nicole Krauss
0ae4d88 For Chanukah I asked for a sleeping bag. The one of my mother got me had pink hearts on it, was made of flannel, and would keep me alive for about five seconds in subzero temperatures before I died of hypothermia. Nicole Krauss
9ce54e5 When I awoke again it was in a homesickness that felt physical, as its symptoms had been physical for seventeenth-century-century mercenary soldiers who'd fallen ill from being so far from home, the first to be diagnosed with the disease of nostalgia. Though never so acute, the longing for something I felt divided from, which was neither a time nor a place was but something formless and unnamed, had been with me since I was a child. Though .. Nicole Krauss
097a29f When I woke again, it was into a homesickness that felt physical, as its symptoms had been physical for seventeenth-century mercenary soldiers who'd fallen ill from being so far from home, the first to be diagnosed with the disease of nostalgia. Though never so acute, the longing for something formless and unnamed, had been with me since I was a child. Though now I want to say that the division I felt was, in a sense, within me: the divisio.. Nicole Krauss
7486c66 Looking at his reflection in the dark window, Litvinoff believed something had been peeled away and a truth revealed to him: He was an average man. A man willing to accept things as they were, and, because of this, he lacked the potential to be in any way original. And though he was wrong in every way about this, after that night nothing could dissuade him. Nicole Krauss
50b4f88 I want to say somewhere: I've tried to be forgiving. And yet. There were times in my life, whole years, when anger got the better of me. Ugliness turned me inside out. There was a certain satisfaction in bitterness. I courted it. It was standing outside, and I invited it in. I scowled at the world. And the world scowled back. We were locked in a stare of mutual disgust. I used to let the door slam in people's faces. I farted where I wanted .. Nicole Krauss