The voice in the head has a life of its own. Most people are at the mercy of that voice; they are possessed by thought, by the mind. And since the mind is conditioned by the past, you are then forced to reenact the past again and again.
하루 종일 끊이지 않는 머릿속 생각은 기실 잡생각인 경우가 대부분이다. 끊임없이 과거에서 연상되는 것들. 그걸 생각이라고 말할 수 있을까?
Most people are alienated from who they are. Alienation means you don’t feel at ease in any situation, any place, or with any person, not even with yourself.
Their contribution is to show us a reflection of the human predicament so that we can see it more clearly. To see one’s predicament clearly is a first step toward going beyond it.
훌륭한 문학작품을 읽는 것이 어떤 철학서보다 나은 혜안을 선사하는 이유다.
Emotion is the body’s reaction to your mind.
You don’t run your body. The intelligence does. It also is in charge of the organism’s responses to its environment.
우리 몸은 그렇게 똑똑하다.
An instinctive response is the body’s direct response to some external situation. An emotion, on the other hand, is the body’s response to a thought.
몸의 즉각적인 반응이 늘 신뢰할 만한 건 아니다. 감정은 생각의 결과, 생각에 대한 즉각적인 반응인 경우가 많으므로.
Thought that trigger emotional responses in the body may sometimes come so fast that before the mind has had time to voice them, the body has already responded with an emotion, and the emotion has turned into a reaction.
Those thoughts exist at a preverbal stage and could be called unspoken, unconscious assumption. They have their origin in a person’s past conditioning, usually from early childhood.
Unconscious assumptions create emotions in the body which in turn generate mind activity and/or instant reactions. In this way, they create your personal reality.
무의식이 우리 안에 자리잡게 된 기원을 살펴보는 것은 그래서 의미롭다. 무의식이 결국 우리가 경험하는 실제 세계를 형성하므로.
An emotion that does harm to the body also infects the people you come into contact with and indirectly, through a process of chain reaction, countless others you never meet.
보이지 않는 감정은 우리를 둘러싼 세계에 영향을 미친다.
We need to differentiate between positive emotions that are ego-generated and deeper emotions that emanate from your natural state of connectedness with Being.
건강에 좋다고 억지로 웃는 것과 마음에서 우러나 웃는 것은 다르다.
Positive emotions generated by the ego already contain within themselves their opposite into which they can quickly turn. What the ego calls love is possessiveness and addictive clinging that can turn into hate within a second.
아무리 감언이설로 이야기해도 자신의 에고에서 출발한 이야기들은 상대방을 감동시킬 수 없다. 우리는 안다. 그가 사랑하는 것이 자신인지 아니면 상대방인지.
In The Power of Now, I mentioned my observation that after two ducks get into a fight, which never lasts long, they will separate and float off in opposite directions. Then each duck will flap its wings vigorously a few times; thus releasing the surplus energy that built up during the fight. After they flap their wings, they float on peacefully, as if nothing had ever happened. Our duck’s lesson is this: Flap your wings - which translates as “let go of the story” - and return to the only place of power: the present moment.
동물들이 과거에 매어있지 않아서 행복한 거구나….
The past lives in you as memories, but memories in themselves are not a problem. In fact, it is through memory that we learn from the past and from past mistakes. It is only when memories, that is to say, thoughts about the past, take you over completely that they turn into a burden, turn problematic, and become part of your sense of self.
Your personality, which is conditioned by the past, then becomes your prison. Your memories are invested with a sense of self, and your story becomes who you perceive yourself to be. This “little me” is an illusion that obscures your true identity as timeless and formless Presence.
과거 자체가 아니라 과거에 대한 나의 생각이 지금의 현재에 머물지 못하게 만드는 원인.
Most people carry a large amount of unnecessary baggage, but mental and emotional, throughout their lives.
나에겐 아직도 용서(?)하지 못한 사람들이 있고, 화해하지 못한 사람들을 여럿 떠나보냈다. 그들을 떠올릴 때마다 불편한 감정이 들고, 오랜 시간이 흐른 후에는 과연 잘잘못을 따지는 것이 무슨 의미가 있을까 싶기도 하다. 하지만 스스로 구원하지 못한 이들을 내가 무슨 수로 구원할 수 있을까 하는 마음에 그냥 한 발짝 뒤로 물러서는 것으로 상황을 모면하고자 할 뿐이다. 다시 만나게 된다면? 글쎄. 내가 얼마나 마음의 평정심을 가지고 그들을 대할 수 있을지 확신할 수 없다. 그들은 자신이 만든 마음의 감옥에서 나보다 더 큰 형벌로 고통 받은 듯한데 그렇다고 내가 그들을 긍휼히 여기는 것 또한 오만이 아닌가 하여.
평생 누군가를 탓하고, 마음의 짐을 벗지 못한 채 생을 다한 누군가를 떠올리면 나는 과연 어떨까 돌아보게 된다. 오리가 한바탕 싸우고 난 뒤 날개를 퍼드득 거리는 것만으로 감정을 털어내는 것처럼, 강아지가 몸을 푸드득 터는 것으로 다시 현재로 오는 것처럼, 나도 그렇게 훌훌 털어버리고 가벼워질 수 있을까?
나뭇잎처럼.
Due to a complete lack of self-awareness, they cannot tell the difference between an event and their reaction to the event.
실제 일어난 사건과 그것에 대한 반응을 구분하는 것!
Women are more in touch with the inner body and the intelligence of the organism where the intuitive faculties originate. The female form is less rigidly encapsulated than the male, has greater openness and sensitivity toward other life-forms, and is more attuned to the natural world.
여성의 pain-body 덕분에 더 깊은 수용성을 지니게 되었다는 것. 고통을 느낀 사람이 다른 사람의 고통에 대해서 더 이해도가 높은 것은 사실이다.
If the balance between male and female energies had not been destroyed on our planet, the ego’s growth would have been greatly curtailed. We would not have declared war on nature, and we would not be so completely alienated from our Being.
우리가 여성성을 잃어버리면서 겪게 된 것들. 작가가 매우 잘 포착하고 있다.
What is it that suddenly made men feel threatened by the female? The evolving ego in them. It knew it could gain full control of our planet only through the male form, and to do so, it had to render the female powerless.
이런 데서 <제2의 성>과 만난다. 초기 기독교, 수메르, 이집트, 켈틱에서는 여성성을 존중하고 두려워하지 않았다는 것까지.
But things are changing rapidly now. With many people becoming more conscious, the ego is losing its hold on the human mind. Because the ego was never as deeply rooted in woman, it is losing its hold on women more quickly than on men.
FOR WHAT YOU DO TO OTHERS, YOU DO TO YOURSELF.
뉴욕에 갔을 때, 사람들에게서 느껴지는 agony, pain-body의 정체가 궁금했다. 혹독한 노동환경, 능력위주의 사회문화, 누군가를 착취하면서 얻어낸 문명, 그리고 남에게 그렇게 했기 때문에 자신에게도 그렇게 대할 수밖에 없는 운명. 다른 사람에게 그렇게 대하면 결국 자신을 그렇게 대하는 일이 된다.
Even if blame seems more than justified, as long as you blame others, you keep feeding the pain-body with your thoughts and remain trapped in your ego. With forgiveness, your victim identity dissolves, and your true power emerges - the power of Presence. Instead of blaming the darkness, you bring in the light.
남탓을 하는 한 우리가 고통으로부터 벗어날 일은 없다.
