376

Find gratitude in every failure to understand something.

If it is something that can be learned, be glad you have found an opportunity to grow.

If it is not something possible to be understood, be glad that you won't have to burden the soul or occupy the mind more than they already are.

375

There are so many things that we believe we can't be changed, but can be changed. And conversely, there are so many things that we strive to change that cannot be changed.

In each choice is a constant dance between gravely underestimating ourselves and being blinded by a futile idealism, and it's not up to us which one it will end up being.

374

Freedom is both an integral part of the human condition and part one of its greatest fallacies.

The sense of freedom is such an integral part of the human condition; in believing that we each determine our own fate, we can accomplish unimaginable things in this world. It is, after all, the magic of possibility, of what could be, that gives us an inexplicable sense of wonder and awe.

Yet the more that we believe we are each in control of our own lives, the more space for judgment and hatred we create in each of our interactions. To any reasonable being, what justification is there to bear resentment towards, to mock, or to ridicule them? If we are all a product of our circumstances, we need only to have compassion, patience, and justice with those of our kind. All we can hope for from this perspective is to create a better world for future generations, to be the change we seek to make—which then, of course, requires that we believe in our own free will.

373

There is no honor or courage in merely having an opinion; to desire and seek truth, however, is among the bravest things we can do.

372

Nothing new, and nothing unexpected.

But perhaps that's why it seems so unbearable.

371

If you are willing to lose everything, why are you so distressed if you lose one thing?

370

There is far too much suffering—far too much pain, loneliness, and death in this world to be complacent about it.

This doesn’t imply that you must saturate your life with suffering as well; it simply means that you don’t discourage or shame others trying to make a difference. It means you must be cognizant of the consequences of your actions. It means that you should seek truth and help others find it as well.

We’re all called to do different things in life, but one thing persists across personality and identity, across time and space—to make things better. Even for just a short while.

369

Personality is endlessly fascinating, but at the end of the day, the only thing that truly matters is character.

368

In every moment, we are dying.

In every moment, we are changing.

The corporeal body gradually dies to the inexorable current of time, and our identity—who we are in this strange mental construct of ours—is ever changing, ever dissipating into the whirlwind of our circumstances.

Who you are now becomes who you were by the second. It’s easy to realize these changes in the self, especially so if we are mindful enough to realize it without being pried from our complacency, but it is entirely a different challenge to see it in others. And so treat everyone that you know as if they were a stranger; approach your friends, your family, and your coworkers with humility, providing them with the benefit of the doubt— to come to every interaction without the crass assumption that they were the same person you’ve always assumed them to be, and instead with a hopeful vision, to merely desire to learn who someone is, at that very moment despite the fleeting nature of time, and not let every interaction be imbued by who they were.

367

“What would you still do, even if you knew you would fail?”