Member-only story
Detachment is The Moat, but Wisdom is The Castle
The goal is not to bring people to Christianity, the goal is to bring people to love. If that’s through Christianity, fine. If it’s through another religion or no religion at all, fine. What the world needs is love, not more people professing right belief.
— Rev, Dr. Caleb J. Lines
*
The people who know God well -the mystics, the hermits, those who risk everything to find God -always meet a lover, not a dictator.
— Richard Rohr
*
“If a person gave away your body to some passerby, you’d be furious. Yet you hand over your mind to anyone who comes along, so they may abuse you, leaving it disturbed and troubled — have you no shame in that?”
— Epictetus
*
We can end abuse in our intimate relationships by leaving them, but we can also suffer from the cruelty and ignorance of the culture at large…
There is no point in pursuing wisdom if we surrender our sanity whenever someone else is foolish. Peace of mind requires the art of detaching from the words and deeds of people desperately trying not to absorb new truths. Instead of bitterness, we should feel compassion for anyone who has to send out such pathetic distractions to mask the emptiness…
