Life is like the oil within a lamp.  

It can be measured, but the pace at which it burns depends on how the dial is turned day by day, how bright and fierce the flame. 

And there is no predicting whether the lamp might be knocked to the ground and shatter, when it could have blazed on a great while longer. 

Such is the unpredictability of life

  

There are times when wisdom cannot be found 

in the chambers of parliament 

or the halls of academia 

but at the unpretentious setting of the kitchen table

 The man who alters his way of thinking to suit others is a fool

 To pass through this brief life as nature demands. 

To give it up without complaint.

 Everyone is trying to impress everyone else. 

Trying to make themselves out to be smarter or more confident than they actually are.

 There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep growing until I die. 

 If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have more money in the bank today; 

I would not be richer.

 Truth is neither objectivity nor the balanced view; 

truth is a selfless subjectivity

To live is not to breathe but to act.

It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. 

The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years 

but he who has most felt life.

 

The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions.

 "Everything is permitted" does not mean that nothing is forbidden.

  

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, 

nor even to found a school,

but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates,

 a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust

 

It is quite true what Philosophy says: 

that Life must be understood backwards. 

But that makes one forget the other saying: 

that it must be lived—forwards. 

The more one ponders this, the more it comes to mean that life in the temporal existence never becomes quite intelligible, 

precisely because at no moment can I find complete quiet to take the backward- looking position.

 Electricity was a reality in the universe when Moses led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 

This is true of all natural laws; 

they have always existed 

but only when understood may they be used

 Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.

 We each owe a death - there are no exceptions

  

Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation.

 Sometimes the embers are better than the campfire.

 

when we say, 'I don't understand,' God replies, 'I don't care.' 

 

I believe there's another force as well, one every bit as real as the God ...,

 and that it works consciously to bring all our decent impulses to ruin. ...,

 but a kind of demon of discord, a prankish and stupid thing

 that laughs with glee when an old man sets himself on fire trying to light his pipe 

or when a much-loved baby puts its first Christmas toy in its mouth and chokes to death on it.

  

that's what people most always do with the stuff they can't make out 

just forget it.

Everything is hard in some way.

It’s hard to be in the wrong relationship.

 It’s hard to be in the right one.

 It’s hard to be broke and miserable,

 it’s hard to achieve your dreams.

 It’s hard to be stuck in the middle, not really feeling anything at all. 

Everything is hard, but you choose your hard. 

You choose what’s worth it. 

You don’t choose whether or not you’ll suffer, 

but you do choose what you want to suffer for

 All of us are creatures of a day;  the rememberer and the remembered alike.

 All is ephemeral—both memory and the object of memory. 

The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; 

and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. 

Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere.

people love a hypocrite

they recognize one of their own, 

and it always feels so good when someone gets caught with his pants down  

and it isn't you.

 The world turns, that's all.

 You can hold on and turn with it, 

or stand up to protest and be spun right off.

  

you can never wash anything completely away, 

not from this dark glass of a world

 There were a group of people before the Ascension known as the Astalsi. 

They claimed that each person was born with a certain finite amount of ill luck

 And so, when an unfortunate event happened, they thought themselves blessed

—thereafter, their lives could only get better.

 If I didn't try to assume responsibility for my own existence, 

it would seem utterly absurd to go on existing

Moon

 

Secretly,
by the light of the moon,
a worm bores into a chestnut.

This world?
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.

It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; 

and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon.

 

• Watching white moon face
• The stars never feel anger
• Blah, blah, blah, the end

We cannot see the moon
and yet the waves still rise

Since I'm left here alone,
I'll make friends with the moon.

The hood-wearer
in his self-created darkness
misses the harvest moon

As the moon flies west
the flowers' shadows
creep eastward.

By such pale moonlight
even the wisteria's fragrance
seems distant.

The moon still appears,
though far from home:
summer vagrant.

Thin from its journey
and not yet recovered:
late harvest moon.

Occasional clouds
bless tired eyes with rest
from moon-viewing.

The moon having set,
all that remains
are the four corners of his desk.

The moon so bright
a wandering monk carries it
lightly on his shoulder.

The moon departs;
frost paralyzes the morning glories.

Pear tree blossoms
whitened by moonlight

Outlined in the moonlight ...
who is that standing
among the pear trees?

By such pale moonlight
even the wisteria's fragrance
seems distant.

Leaves
like crows’ shadows
flirt with a lonely moon.

Friday the 13th

 

Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition.

 It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday, which happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year. 

2015 had a Friday the 13th in February, March, and November, 

 will happen again in 2026;

 2017 through 2020 had two Friday the 13ths;

 2016, 2021 and 2022 had just one Friday the 13th, 

as will 2025; 

2023 and 2024 have two Friday the 13ths.

A month has a Friday the 13th if and only if it begins on a Sunday.

Unluckiness of "13"

One source mentioned for the unlucky nature of the number "13" is a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party in Valhalla. 

The trickster god Loki, who was not invited, arrived as the 13th guest, and arranged for Höðr to shoot Balder with a mistletoe-tipped arrow.

 "Balder died, and the whole Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned. It was a bad, unlucky day."

 This major event in Norse mythology caused the number 13 to be considered unlucky.

The superstition seems to relate to various things, like the story of Jesus' last supper and crucifixion in which there were 13 individuals present in the Upper Room on the 13th of Nisan Maundy Thursday, the night before his death on Good Friday.

 

I'm more than ever of the opinion that a decent human existence is possible today only on the fringes of society, where one then runs the risk of starving or being stoned to death.

 In these circumstances, a sense of humor is a great help

 I love him whose soul is deep, 

even in being wounded, 

and who may perish through a minor matter:

 thus he goes willingly over the bridge. 

I love him whose soul is so overfull that he forgets himself,

 and all things are in him: 

thus all things become his going under. 

I love him who has a free spirit and a free heart:

 thus his head is only the guts of his heart;

 his heart, however, causes his going under. 

I love all who are like heavy drops falling one by one out of the cloud that lowers over man:

 they herald the coming of the lightning,

 and as heralds they perish.

 In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. 

In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.

 You know more than you think you know,

 just as you know less than you want to know.

 It's strange how pain marks our faces, 

and makes us look like family

 Atonement is powerful; 

it is the lock on the door you close against the past.

 It does not follow, because our ancestors made so many errors of fact and mixed them with their religion, that we should therefore leave off being religious at all. 

By being religious we establish ourselves in possession of ultimate reality at the only points at which reality is given us to guard. 

Our responsible concern is with our private destiny, after all

 In modern physics, there is no such thing as "nothing."

 Even in a perfect vacuum, pairs of virtual particles are constantly being created and destroyed. 

The existence of these particles is no mathematical fiction. 

Though they cannot be directly observed, the effects they create are quite real. 

The assumption that they exist leads to predictions that have been confirmed by experiment to a high degree of accuracy.

 "Nothing" does not exist 

  Imagine if we had no secrets, no respite from the truth. 

What if everything was laid bare the moment we introduced ourselves

 A lot of people experience the world with the same incredulity as when a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat.…

We know that the world is not all sleight of hand and deception because we are in it, we are part of it.

 Actually we are the white rabbit being pulled out of the hat. 

The only difference between us and the white rabbit is that the rabbit does not realize it is taking part in a magic trick.

 This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists.

 This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists.

 There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction

 evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; 

that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices

 Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possiblities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom.

Thus, while diminishing our feeling of certainty as to what things are, it greatly increases our knowledge as to what the may be; 

it removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never travelled into the region of liberating doubt, 

and it keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familar things in an unfamilar aspect

 

The question has often been asked; 

Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy? 

It does not matter what you call it. 

Buddhism remains what it is whatever label you may put on it. The label is immaterial. 

Even the label 'Buddhism' which we give to the teachings of the Buddha is of little importance. 

The name one gives is inessential.... 

In the same way Truth needs no label: it is neither Buddhist, Christian, Hindu nor Moslem. It is not the monopoly of anybody. 

Sectarian labels are a hindrance to the independent understanding of Truth, and they produce harmful prejudices in men's minds

 Attaining consciousness is connected with the gradual liberation from mechanicalness, for man is fully and completely under mechanical laws

 . The gods either have power or they have not.

 If they have not, why pray to them?

 If they have, then instead of praying to be granted or spared such-and-such a thing, why not rather pray to be delivered from dreading it, or lusting for it, or grieving over it? 

Clearly, if they can help a man at all, they can help him in this way.

 You will say, perhaps, ‘But all that is something they have put in my own power.’ 

Then surely it were better to use your power and be a free man, than to hanker like a slave and a beggar for something that is not in your power. 

Besides, who told you the gods never lend their aid even towards things that do lie in our own power? 

Begin praying in this way, and you will see. 

Where another man prays ‘Grant that I may possess this woman,’ let your own prayer be, ‘Grant that I may not lust to possess her.’ W

here he prays, ‘Grant me to be rid of such-and-such a one,’ you pray, ‘Take from me my desire to be rid of him.’

 Where he begs, ‘Spare me the loss of my precious child,’ beg rather to be delivered from the terror of losing him.

 In short, give your petitions a turn in this direction, and see what comes.

 faith is like opening the faucet. 

We can open it a lot, a little, or not at all

 Every existing thing is born without reason,

 prolongs itself out of weakness,

 and dies by chance

 Fate isn’t one straight road…

there are forks in it, 

many different routes to different ends. 

We have the free will to choose the path

 

Few among men are they who cross to the further shore. 

The others merely run up and down the bank on this side.

 

What you don’t know won’t hurt you. 

A dubious maxim: 

sometimes what you don’t know can hurt you very much.

 

Healthy introspection, without undermining oneself; 

it is a rare gift to venture into the unexplored depths of the self, without delusions or fictions, but with an uncorrupted gaze.

 A person whose desires and impulses are his own—are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture—is said to have a character. 

One whose desires and impulses are not his own, has no character, no more than a steam-engine has character

 Research suggests that we start to recognize our mother's voice from the womb around 31 weeks. 

As soon as we're born, our language skills begin to develop. From birth to six months, we mostly coo, cry, and murmur as the vocal cords mature. Then we advance to babbling, until words start around 18 months. 

Eventually, words lead to sentences and soon, we forget the time when we couldn't speak at all.

 Children are less afraid to say what they're feeling than adults. It's only as we get older that we learn to censor ourselves. 

Maybe we do it because we're simply afraid to rock the boat. Or maybe we're terrified that by saying what we feel, or asking for what we need, we will cause more trouble than there is to begin with. 

So we choose over and over again to tamp down our voices, to stuff it so far down it can make us sick, until we can't anymore and we have to let it out. 

Even if it's the hardest thing in the world.

 The human brain contains roughly one hundred billion neurons. 

Alone, these neurons would only allow us to retain about as much information as a flash drive.

 Fortunately for us, our neurons connect and combine, creating a web that exponentially increases the brain storage capacity. In fact, this process creates so much space that we can store the equivalent of three million hours of video content. 

So why can't we remember everything we try to commit to memory? 

Our brains are constantly adapting to the present moment. Our brains can override information we no longer use with newer, more relevant ideas. Our brains make these decisions for us, whether we like it or not. 

They help us hold on to the things that matter and make space for whatever the future may hold.

 Genetics, diet, exercise. 

All of these factors have shown to be the key determinants of longevity. 

But researchers discovered another way to predict our live spans: our zip codes. 

In some cities, a few blocks could increase the likelihood of dying 30 years earlier. 

Where we live determines how we live. 

And how we live matters more than you might imagine. 

No matter where we live, we all wish for long, healthy lives for our family, for our loved ones, for our children. 

But even if the odds are in your favor, predictions are only part of the picture. 

We live in a world where everything can change in the blink of an eye. You could be on top of the world one minute but you never know when the rug might be pulled out from under you. 

When that happens, which it inevitably will, all you can do is hold on. 

And hope it won't end you.

 When an infection destroys a cell, the surrounding cells signal each other to wall it off. 

They isolate the infected cell to prevent it from spreading and harming other parts of your body.

 The isolation is temporary but important. It gives your body time to trigger your immune system and stop the infection from spreading. Until isolation is no longer needed. 

Much like the cells in our body, humans often isolate to avoid harm. 

The truth is, no single part of the body can thrive on its own. Your organs work together as a system. They'll compensate for each other when one gets weak. 

People can do the same for each other, stepping up when someone else is down.

 Isolating ourselves often makes us feel more alone.

 We're usually better together, 

even when we're struggling.

 Years ago, a New York physician discovered a gene mutation that causes congenital insensitivity to pain, or CIP. 

It's an extremely rare condition that blocks people from feeling pain. 

Sounds good in theory, but pain is important. It tells the body when it's in danger and helps keep it alive. 

Put your hand in fire, get burned and you learn not to do it again. 

Or, put another way, living hurts. As long as you're hurting, you're living. We know this. 

Pain is an excellent teacher. And life is full of sayings that remind us of its upsides: "Growing pains. Labor pains. Happy tears. So good it hurts." 

Pain warns us. It protects us. 

And most of all, pain makes us appreciate life's pleasures. 

Cherish good company, good health, savor the moments after the hurting, when you're all better, pain free. 

At least for a while.

 In 1963, Dr. Thomas Starzl performed the first five liver transplants. 

One patient bled to death on the operating table. 

The other four died within days. 

As a result, the operation was considered too dangerous to be performed on humans and liver transplantation was suspended worldwide for the next four years. 

It wasn't exactly an auspicious start for a surgery that has saved countless lives. 

Progress doesn't happen overnight and setbacks are all but inevitable. 

Sometimes, it can make you feel like Sisiphus, endlessly pushing the same boulder on the same hill. 

But where we would be if doctor Starzl hadn't persevered to perfect the liver transplant, if he had let the setbacks win? 

As tempting as it can be to throw in the towel, sometimes you have to take the obstacles as they come

 and find a new path forward.

 At the height of the Great Depression, Harvard scientists started tracking students in hopes of discovering the key to a long and happy life. 

They looked at participants' mental and physical health over 75 years. It is the longest study of happiness to date. 

75 years and all they did was confirm what we've known since the beginning of time. 

The most powerful predictor of health and happiness is the quality if our relationships. Strong relationships protect us. 

Loneliness, on the other hand, can be deadly. 

Over the course of our lives, our relationships ebb and flow. We get together, break up, move away, or fall out of touch. 

It's prolonged periods of loneliness and toxicity that wreak havoc on our health, our brain function, and our longevity. 

Sometimes, being alone can be so terrifying that we trap ourselves in harmful relationships.

 But in order to really thrive, you've got to be ready to cut and run. 

Your life just might depend on it.