#existence

On this material plane, each living being is like a street lantern lamp with a dirty lampshade. The inside flame burns evenly and is of the same quality as all the rest—hence all of us are equal in the absolute sense, the essence, in the quality of our energy. However, some of the lamps are “turned down” and having less light in them, burn fainter, (the beings have a less defined individuality, are less in tune with the universal All which is the same as the Will)—hence all of us are unequal in a relative sense, some of us being more aware (human beings), and others being less aware (animal beings), with small wills and small flames. The lampshades of all are stained with the clutter of the material reality or the physical world. As a result, it is difficult for the light of each lamp to shine through to the outside and it is also difficult to see what is on the other side of the lampshade that represents the external world (a great thick muddy ocean of fog), and hence to “feel” a connection with the other lantern lamps (other beings). The lampshade is the physical body immersed in the ocean of the material world, and the limiting host of senses that it comes with. The dirt of the lampshade results from the cluttering bulk of life experience accumulated without a specific goal or purpose. The dirtier the lampshade, the less connection each soul has to the rest of the universe—and this includes its sense of connection to other beings, its sense of dual presence in the material world and the metaphysical world, and the thin connection line to the wick of fuel or the flow of electricity that resides beyond the material plane and is the universal energy. To remain “lit” each lantern lamp must tap into the universal Source of energy. If the link is weak, depression and-or illness sets in. If the link is strong, life persists. This metaphor to me best illustrates the universe. ↗

— Vera Nazarian

#existence #flame #lamp #lamp-shade #life

People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something. ↗

— Soren Kierkegaard

#birds #breeds #commonly #existence #fall

It's the same thing that drives people to want to experience sexual pleasure or have one too many drinks. We all want to experience the other, and to get out of our daily existence. ↗

— Adam Arkin

#drinks #drives #existence #experience #get

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence. ↗

— Honore de Balzac

#colors #existence #like #our #pursue

No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world. ↗

— Aristotle

#condition #existence #friendless #having #other

A nation devoid of art and artists cannot have a full existence. ↗

— Kemal Ataturk

#artists #cannot #devoid #existence #full

But the issue is not only life and death but our existence before God and our being judged by him. All of us were sinners before him and worthy of condemnation. ↗

— Hans Urs von Balthasar

#being #being judged #condemnation #death #existence

To place oneself in the position of God is painful: being God is equivalent to being tortured. For being God means that one is in harmony with all that is, including the worst. The existence of the worst evils is unimaginable unless God willed them. ↗

— Georges Bataille

#equivalent #evils #existence #god #harmony

What this country needs what every country needs occasionally is a good hard bloody war to revive the vice of patriotism on which its existence as a nation depends. ↗

— Ambrose Bierce

#country #depends #every #existence #good

As a child I first became aware that my existence had a purpose when I realized men lusted after me. And that's why I will lust forever after men. Before I even began to worry about homework or any of those school things, I began having secret liaisons with men. And it is men who give me the proof I need now to feel I'm alive. ↗

— Natsuo Kirino

#lust #men