Any philosophy worthy of its title should not be a mere intellectual exercise but should have practical application in enabling man to live an enlightened life.  A philosophy which makes no difference to the quality and style of our life is no philosophy, but an empty intellectual construction.

- Ramakrishna Puligandla , Fundamentals of Indian Philosophy

정토회 수행문

모든 괴로움과 얽매임은 잘 살펴보면 다 내 마음이 일으킨다.

그런 어리석은 사람들은 이 괴로움과 얽매임이 밖으로부터 오는 줄 착각하고 이 종교 저 종교, 이절 저절, 이 사람 저 사람을 찾아다니며 행복과 자유를 구하지만 끝내 얻지 못한다.

그것은 안심입명의 도는 밖으로 찾아서는 결코 얻을 수 없기 때문이다.

언제 어디에서 일어난 어떤 괴로움일지라도 안으로 살펴보면 그 모든 괴로움의 뿌리가 다 마음 가운데 있고 그 마음의 실체가 본래 공한 줄 알면 모든 괴로움은 저절로 사라진다.

그런데도 사람들은 자신이 일으킨 한 생각에 사로잡혀 옳다 그르다 모양짓고 그 모양에 집착해서 온갖 괴로움을 스스로 만든다.
한 생각 돌이켜서 이 사로잡힘에서 벗어나면 모든 괴로움과 얽매임은 즉시 사라진다.

The Height-Salary Study

Not long ago, researchers who analyzed the data from four large research studies that had followed thousands of people from birth to adulthood calculated that when corrected for such variables as age and gender and weight, an inch of height is worth $789 a year in salary.  That means that a person who is six feet tall but otherwise identical to someone who is five foot five will make on average $5,525 more per year.  As Timothy Judge, one of the authors of the height-salary study, points out: "If you take this over the course of a 30-year career and compound it, we're talking about a tall person enjoying literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of earnings advantage."  Have you ever wondered why so many mediocre people find their way into positions of authority in companies and organizations?  It's because when it comes to even the most important positions, our selection decisions are a good deal less rational than we think.  We see a tall person and we swoon.

- Malcolm Gladwell,

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.  It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.  The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

- C. S. Lewis

Dear Sugar. Column #64

Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direct relation to your naive pomposity.  Many people you believe to be rich are not rich.  Many people you think have it easy worked hard for what they got.  Many people who seem to be gliding right along have suffered and are suffering.  Many people who appear to you to be old and stupidly saddled down with kids and cars and houses were once every bit as hip and pompous as you.

When you meet a man in the doorway of a Mexican restaurant who later kisses you while explaining that this kiss doesn't 'mean anything' because, much as he likes you, he is not interested in having arelationship with you or anyone right now, just laugh and kiss him back.  Your daughter will have his sense of humor.  Your son will have his eyes.

The useless days will add up to something.  The shitty waitressing jobs.  The hours writing in your journal.  The long meandering walks.  The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people's diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not.  These things are your becoming.

One Christmas at the very beginning of your twenties when your mother gives you a warm coat that she saved for months to buy, don't look at her skeptically after she tells you she thought the coat was perfect for you.  Don't hold it up and say it's longer than you like your coats to be and too puffy and possibly even too warm.  Your mother will be dead by spring.  That coat will be the last gift she gave you.  You will regret the small thing you didn't say for the rest of your life.

Say thank you.