Like A Diamond In The Sky

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  “Under the stars,” she repeated. “I never noticed the stars before. I always thought of them as great big diamonds that belonged to someone. Now they frighten me. They make me feel that it was all a dream, all my youth.”  “It was a dream,” said John quietly.  “Everybody’s youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.”  “How pleasant then to be insane!” —“The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” A Short Story By F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)

The Glass Is Already Broken

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“You see this goblet?” asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master. “For me, this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’ When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious.”
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Epstein, Mark. 2013. Thoughts Without A Thinker: Psychotherapy From a Buddhist Perspective. Basic Books a Member of Perseus Books Group: New York.

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