'Not only are we traveling through the universe, but the universe is traveling through us. It needs to feel us, what we are feeling, our marvels and infatuations and heartaches;... to know what that stuff is, how it came to be and find its instrument, the source of its music; to experience itself in us or through us. But most of all, and forever, the mystery and the wonder.... To record and memorialize that, why we are here at all.
'We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious - the people, events, and things of the day - to which we as sophisticated children, have long since become oblivious. What a hideout: Holiness lies spread and borne over the surface of time and stuff like color.'
'The mystery of life becomes ever deeper and more wondrous, the gift of life more precious and unaccountable. Remaining open to the unknown, we enter further into it. We grow in knowledge, yes, and in ignorance, but also in wonder and, finally, in trust.'
'It may be when we no longer know what to do,
'I'm just gonna go for broke on this one and say that we do it because life is so ridiculously gorgeous, strange, heartbreaking, horrific, etc., that we are compelled to describe it to ourselves, but we can't! We cannot do it! And so we make art.'
'One reason for fascination with Miyazaki may be his contradictions. The director whose films typically end with an uplifting affirmation of humanity suitable for children is the same director who told his Berkeley audience, "It would be wonderful if I could see the end of civilization during my lifetime." The man who is able to entrance children, and adults, with his animation is the same one who complains about children spending too much time with virtual reality instead of being outdoors in nature.
this weeks lecture and tute has been rather disheartening.... to learn that there is no soul really does not differ the human race from any other living creature... a plant, an insect or even an inanimate object like a chair... it really makes it seem like the materialists and idealists are the bad guys and the dualists the less wiser underdogs. but all is fair in love and war.... there is nothing sinister about reality just the way things are... however if our bodies are just carriers of a bunch of organs and a pulsating brain then what is the purpose of life? why do beings such as animals and plants reproduce? i kinda relate this to nietzche's will to power... is our existence then just to prove our mastery and then wither away or perhaps reproduce and have a genetic competition
'Playing in the lot behind the house one day when he was still a little boy, Neruda discovered a hole in a fence board. "I looked through the hole and saw a landscape like that behind our house, uncared for, and wild. I moved back a few steps, because I sensed vaguely that something was about to happen. All of a sudden a hand appeared - a tiny hand of a boy about my own age. By the time I came close again, the hand was gone, and it its place there was a marvellous white toy sheep.
'The important thing about despair is never to give up, never wrap up and put away a sterile life, but somehow keep it open. Because you never can know what's coming; never. That's the great thing about life, the crucial thing to remember. You may beat your fists on a stone wall for years and years, and every consideration of common sense will say it's hopeless, forget it, spare yourself; and then one day your bleeding hand will go through as if the wall were theatrical gauze; you'll be in another realm where birds are singing and love is possible, and you'd have missed it if you'd given up, because it might be only that one day the wall was not stone.'
'So you tell yourself
