283

In the moments you are least inspired to say anything, the more important it is that you find inspiration.

Stay vigilant, lest we succumb to complacency.

282

I don’t take life seriously in the sense that if my life, if all this—all this absurdity, all this beauty, all these things that I don’t understand and have yet to discover—ends tomorrow, I would still rest easy. I can detach at a moment’s notice from the chaos that pervades the world around me. But I take life seriously in the sense that I feel as though I’m called to do something—something important. I know that it is in my capacity to improve the lives of the people around me, to help them navigate this life, to help them see a certain truth.

Yes—there’s a chance that none of this may matter or make sense. There’s no guarantee that what I do in this life will make a difference. But I will absolutely fucking try.

If the choice is between the banal and the extraordinary, between delusion and truth, between misery and joy, between hatred and love, then the path is already clear.

I won’t apologize. I won’t hesitate. I won’t back down. And I will have no regrets if I fail.

281

In every moment—keep your mind open, and your heart heavy.

280

Blind hope seemed futile.

But were you not blind already?

279

Unless it helps you to become a better person tomorrow, no shame, no guilt, and no remorse.

The more time you waste dwelling on mistakes is a sign that you haven’t changed as much as you thought.

278

We don’t become attached to an outcome, lest we begin to see it unattainable, and give up. But if we become attached to a practice, whether something is attainable or unattainable is irrelevant.

We do this to be ready—to be in the best physical condition we can be in, to have honed our mind and our capacity to lucidly see the world around us, to have cultivated our heart and our ability to love all things and all people, to have fortified our soul for the harrowing troubles that await us.

Everything that we could want out of this life falls into place if we prepare ourselves for every opportunity, and every catastrophe alike.

277

What matters is not whether we are truly free or not.

What matters is merely that we feel that we are.

276

Impossible? We’ve barely explored the realm of possibility as it is. How, then, can we speak so confidently about what we are and are not capable of?

And that’s assuming our calculus of what’s possible was correct to begin with.

275

You were meant for amazing things.

Within your life story, the line between unique and banal is but a matter of perspective.

If you try to conjure up all the things that make you seem the same as everyone else, you will find them, and if you try to conjure up all the things that differentiate you, you will find them as well. The truth is that while every part of our lives rhymes in some way with our predecessors and with the human condition, the entropy of our universe does not allow for the same exact series of events to happen in the same exact way in the same exact place; every interaction in this world and within the course of humanity is ever so slightly different, often incomprehensibly.

But lest we let this become a distraction. In either scenario, we still have a choice to make—to decide who we will and will not be. If it has been called upon us to do what has not been done before, then nothing stops us from taking that path less trodden. And if it has been called upon us to do what always has been done, then let us walk with everyone else.

274

Dissatisfied with your circumstances? Change them.

Can’t change them? Change your mind.

Can’t change your mind? Then your misery is no mystery.