| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: these caves in the heated rocks, as the craftsman blows out
glass."
"I understand," said Bastin. "Just like one blows out a bubble
on a pipe, only on a larger scale. Well, it is very interesting,
but I have seen enough of it. Also I am afraid of being blown
away."
"I fear that you must see more," answered Yva with a smile,
"since we are about to descend this pit."
"Do you mean that we are to go down that hole, and if so, how?
I don't see any lift, or moving staircase, or anything of that
sort."
When the World Shook |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: evildoers, and a sustaining sense of coming unalloyed happiness to
the good. Through and through its teachings runs the feeling of the
fullness of life, that desire which will not die, that wish of the
soul which beats its wings against its earthly casement in its
longing for expansion beyond the narrow confines of threescore years
and ten.
Buddhism, on the contrary, is the cri du coeur of pessimism.
This life, it says, is but a chain of sorrows. To multiply days is
only to multiply evil. These desires that urge us on are really
cause of all our woe. We think they are ourselves. We are
mistaken. They are all illusion, and we are victims of a mirage.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: "Ah--ha! How do you remember them?"
"I wanted to believe what he believed, though he didn't
wish me to; and I managed to coax him to tell me a few
of his thoughts. I can't say I quite understand that
one; but I know it is right."
"H'm. Fancy your being able to teach me what you don't
know yourself!"
He fell into thought. "And so I threw in my spiritual
lot with his," she resumed. "I didn't wish it to be
different. What's good enough for him is good enough
for me."
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
