Quote

Nothing is more natural than grief, no emotion more common to our daily experience. It's an innate response to loss in a world where everything is impermanent.

Stephen Levine

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Stephen Levine
Age: 78 †
Born: 1937
Born: July 17
Died: 2016
Died: January 17
Poet
Screenwriter
the United States of America
Stephan Levine
Nothing
Response
World
Loss
Emotion
Common
Spiritual
Impermanent
Natural
Innate
Experience
Daily
Everything
Grief

More quotes by Stephen Levine

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In Chinese, the word for heart and mind is the same -- Hsin. For when the heart is open and the mind is clear they are of one substance, of one essence.
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Gratitude is the state of mind of thankfulness. As it is cultivated, we experience an increase in our sympathetic joy, our happiness at another's happiness. Just as in the cultivation of compassion, we may feel the pain of others, so we may begin to feel their joy as well. And it doesn't stop there.
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When the heart acknowledges how much pain there is in the mind, it turns like a mother toward a frightened child.
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Healing is bringing mercy and Awareness into that which we have held in judgment and fear.
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Our suffering is caused by holding on to how things might have been, should have been, could have been.
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Understanding is the ultimate seduction of the mind. Go to the truth beyond the mind.
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Hell is not fire and brimstone, not a place where you are punished for lying or cheating or stealing. Hell is wanting to be something and somewhere different from where you are.
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It doesn't matter how long you forget, only how soon you remember!
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That which is impermanent attracts compassion. That which is not provides wisdom. (116)
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You can call it wisdom, or sanity, or health, or enlightenment. I use the word God as a short-cut. I am comfortable with the word God because I don't have the foggiest idea of what it means.
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The demons aren't the noise. They are our aversion to the noise...when you can accept discomfort, doing so allows a balance of mind. That surrender, that letting go of wanting anything to be other than it is right in the moment, is what frees us from hell.
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Safety is the most unsafe spiritual path you can take. Safety keeps you numb and dead. People are caught by surprise when it is time to die. They have allowed themselves to live so little.
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I have never lived a life so much larger than death. (93)
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Forgiveness is mental floss! Build the capacity to forgive slowly - start with little unkind acts, otherwise you'll sabotage yourself. When we forgive, we forgive the actor, not the action.
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Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. There is nothing to do but be.
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Grief can have a quality of profound healing because we are forced to a depth of feeling that is usually below the threshold of awareness.
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Buddha left a road map, Jesus left a road map, Krishna left a road map, Rand McNally left a road map. But you still have to travel the road yourself
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We've all been should upon enough.
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If you can find the God inside yourself, you can find the God inside everybody.
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Whatever prepares you for death enhances life.
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