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The Art of Solitude QUOTES

The Art of Solitude QUOTES

1 " The world is here to surprise us. My most lasting insights have occurred off the [meditation] cushion, not on it. "

― Stephen Batchelor , The Art of Solitude

2 " I cannot help but see the void in which I am standing as a metaphor for emptiness: the absence of compulsive reactivity, a precondition for the unimpeded space of paths that allow human flourishing. The unadorned simplicity of this rock-cut shrine evokes the Buddha’s dharma before it mutated into dogma. This is nirvana inscribed in stone. Until the idea of emptiness was hijacked by metaphysicians, it was just another way of talking about solitude. "

― Stephen Batchelor , The Art of Solitude

3 " Solitude is good for great minds but bad for small ones. It troubles brains that it does not illuminate.” Yet Hugo was unable to go as far as his older English contemporary William Wordsworth, for whom solitude was a “bliss” that filled the heart with joy. Largely avoiding its extremes of hell and bliss, here I will explore the middle ground of solitude, which I consider a site of autonomy, wonder, contemplation, imagination, inspiration, and care. "

― Stephen Batchelor , The Art of Solitude

4 " Mindfulness is a balanced, reflective stance in which one notices the meanness or sarcasm that rises up in the mind while neither identifying with it nor rejecting it. One observes with interest what is happening without succumbing to either the urge to act on it or the guilty desire to ignore or suppress it. This entails a radical acceptance of who and what you are, where nothing is unworthy of being the object of such attention. You say “yes” to your life as it manifests, warts and all, with an ironic, compassionate regard. Through sustaining this nonreactive stance over time, mindful awareness becomes the basis for one’s ethical life. "

― Stephen Batchelor , The Art of Solitude