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I think a place for you to get started might be to take a look at the Neiye. There is a thread here on TDB under Daoist Textual Studies. I think there are a lot of esoteric approaches to this subject but the Neiye seems to be foundational. From there you would have laid ground work for other studies. Good luck.

Requesting feedback on some new development in my practice. I feel a little embarrassed about the timeline, but after seven years or so of consistent practice I'm noticing a very consistent and distinct/intense feeling of bliss all the way to my hands and feet. Especially in my hands and feel but throughout the entire body also. I assume this is good =) Looking for any guidance or insights by those who've traveled further along the path. Is there a name for this? What further signposts might indicate advancement? Etc. Thanks.

My best guess is that you’ve encountered your Qi. It can happen when your meditative practice is based around either stillness or following the breath. If you follow your breath back to its source you’ll happen onto Qi. This isn’t the source yet - it’s a certain stage where you go past the manifestation of breath (physical breathing) to the underlying phenomenon of breath (the Qi) and then further to the source of breath. Where to go from here? Basically carry on I suggest not using an emotional/mental interpretation (so using sensory information - pressure, temperature, texture etc. - rather than thoughts/feelings like ‘bliss’ and ‘love’ etc ) - because that can lead you down the wrong track. If you’re interested in exploring the use of Qi for cultivation, then I’d suggest using Qigong as an added practice. But I’d suggest not focusing on these sensations during your sitting practice - as again you’re likely to go down the wrong track. And you’re clearly gaining some ground with your practice already

Its a good sign. See if you can discover the actual sensations - rather than the phenomenon... what I mean is something like ‘gentle expanding warmth’ is sensory, but ‘bliss’ might be the mental phenomenon that describes this sensation. A sensation is something that your skin might understand... a phenomenon is something only your mind would understand...

Xin Zhai (Heart-mind fasting) and Zuowang (sitting and forgetting) are the two fundamental ways of working with (stilling) the mind in the Daoist tradition. Unfortunately I don’t have any books to recommend on the subject. They’re both quite subtle and tricky practices to get right. someone else may have a recommended source for these practices. I personally feel that the Dao De Jing is a very good description of Xin Zhai... but it’s a little hard to really understand...

That was not my intention sorry. I was just saying that the hare Krishna mantra has no connection to Nichiren Buddhism. They are two separate traditions and have nothing in common.

That was an excellent video.

Going a little further with the self discovery idea - I'd love to share one of most wonderful passages I've ever read, from "Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism" by Yogi Ramacharaka, written in 1904: "The brute instincts are still with us, constantly forcing themselves into our field of thought. Occultists learn to curb and control these lower instincts, subordinating them to the higher mental ideals which unfold into the field of consciousness. Do not be discouraged if you still find that you have much of the animal within your nature - we all have - the only difference is that some of us have learned to control the brute, and to keep him in leash and subordinate and obedient to the higher parts of our nature, while others allow the beast to rule them, and they shiver and turn pale when he shows his teeth, not seeming to realize that a firm demeanor and a calm mind will cause the beast to retreat to his corner and allow himself to be kept behind bars. "If you find constant manifestations of the beast within you, struggling to be free and to assert his old power, do not be disturbed. This is no sign of weakness, but is really an indication that your spiritual growth has begun. For whereas you now recognize the brute, and feel ashamed, you formerly did not realize his presence -- were not aware of his existence, for you WERE the brute himself. It is only because you are trying to divorce yourself from him, that you feel ashamed of his presence. You cannot see him until you begin to be 'different' from him. "Learn to be a tamer of wild beasts, for you have a whole menagerie within you. The lion; the tiger; the hyena, the ape, the pig, the peacock, and all the rest are there, constantly showing forth some of their characteristics. Do not fear them - smile at them when they show themselves -- for you are stronger than they, and can bring them to subjection -- and their appearance is useful to you in the way of instructing you as to their existence. "They are an amusing lot, when you have reached the stage where you are able to practically stand aside and see them perform their tricks, and go through their antics. You then feel strongly that they are not YOU, but something apart from you -- something from which you are becoming rapidly divorced. Do not worry about the beasts -- for you are the master."

Talk about synchronicity ! This is a form of Buddhist cultivation which has intrigued me for years and something which recently started to be appearing in my life. I did some research and have found that if you keep away from the sectarianism in Nichiren Buddhism and practice independently of any organisation, it is very much a great path for people to pursue. I have a gohonzon which I printed from the internet. The Lotus Sutra should be your first point of inquiry. It's very much a life-affirming form of Buddhism as opposed to say Pure Land practices, which tend to focus on the 'next life'. In fact, lots of religious beliefs and practices seem to put far too much stock into the afterlife and the concept of guilt, fear, shame and disengagement from actual living in the world. There are many excellent free resources on the internet There is a PDF online entitled "The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin" which is very good.

Find the quiet in the wee hours of the morning. Meditation around 3:30 am Find music Find the flowers Dont imbibe in the bleakness Shower in the Light

I was searching this forum for anything on Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and was surprised to find nothing said about it. Does anyone have experience with this mantra? Lately I have found it to be pretty amazing. I'd be interested to hear anyone's experiences.

The answer is Nature and she can still wipe us out. But modern humans are now a force of nature. Our industry, our output is unprecedented. We can produce disaster scenarios all by ourselves. No natural disaster needed. We are the disaster. Thankfully a slow motion one and with intelligent policies and good science we can stave off the man made apocalii, given time, intelligence and effort maybe soften some of the Natural ones too. We, not mother nature have knocked out, made extinct dozens (100s, 1000s?) of species. We, not mother nature have caused this planets 6th mass extinction. We are the comet, the ice age.. we have brought global death beyond biblical destruction to countless eco-systems. I still like us, but if we're not smart, we will choke on our own poison, and before we do, it will be hell on earth for the last couple human generations. Things are good now, its a big earth, big atmosphere, but without intelligent management we will poison it. We need to move environmental science out of the political realm, and see what actions get us the best bang for the lowest buck. p.s anyone using apocalii from now on owes me 20 cents.

Thank you for sharing. Great experiments and many things to perceive. I wonder about the correlation between what's called "internal strength" (In my experience and in this reference, a increasingly powerful hydraulic like manifestation in the limbs) and sensations that you and freeform are talking about?

Here is a simple test... Once you feel your breathing is steady and slow and focused on a palm... lets say the left palm... and smiling to engage the heart (or not, if you don't feel it, that is ok)... then take your right hand index finger and very slowing move it around the left palm in a circle... focus now on the index finger projecting to the left palm as a singular connection... Do you feel the circular energy movement in the left palm based on the right hand index finger ? This is the Index finger (Large Intestine Meridian) reaching to the PC channel , 7 stages instead of all 12... but you passed through the heart at stage 3 for a boost ! remember to smile with the heart...

I think the question was in regards to practice techniques and current levels. Pre-heaven is sitting in meditation, calming thoughts, controlling breathing, relaxing. Post-heaven is when sensations and energies begin to manifest to work with.

I hate to get too technical so you can say where to dial it back... There are 12 meridian lines and each has special points; one can press them and sense pain in most cases instead of sensing energy. That is generally because there is energy blockages or need for better flow. While this is good therapy, to sense Qi it is better to do Qigong exercises. Taiji is the best established movements but can take a long time to feel anything. So I'll skip over my personal experience there. In Chinese energy, the heart is considered the General that directs and controls everything (in energy)... but one may not feel it. There are but two meridians through the heart (HT and PC), then why is the heart the General ? Because to get through any meridian, you must get through them ALL... so eventually, you do get through the heart on all [spoiler that I just semi shared a Taiji experience]. I once taught a lady on a flight how to feel energy in her hands and we played with energy sensations... so I'll just share an idea similar: Breath really slowly and deeply. like it takes about 8-10 seconds to inhale and exhale... it should feel stable... then focus on the palm of your hand. See the palm as a source of energy and outlet... and smile... after a minute, now smile at the palm from your heart for a minute? Your palm and heart are not two things, they are one thing joined... Does your heart energy arise in feeling? That is the middle idea.

Very cool !!! You are feeling the end-points or turn-around points in the meridian flow of energy (Qi); Six meridians run through the hands and six run through the feet... I might encourage you to start focusing on some lines of choice, and then find the middle points for energy sensation. Some acupressure might help to just sense certain areas but not that necessary. or maybe focus on the seven chakra energy sources and see if you feel them ? You have lots to explore and wishing you happy energy travels

When it comes to intelligence allow Winnie-the-Pooh to be your master.

Well, if it isn't against your principles or precepts, of course, I mean that you move it around and cultivate it (intensify it). When you discover a center, a persons awareness is at the location of that center to experience it. By remembering that feeling one can move awareness to a new location of the body and feel that feeling at the new location by remembering and recalling the feeling they felt at the original location. Inner-fire for example, starts as a tiny flicker of light in the middle dan tien, but by practicing it, the tiny flicker can become a fireball that encompasses the entire body. Tummo for example.

yea nigga i faceplnted whatever

On the genetics of the Americas, particularly South America watch from 56 mins. At about 1.02 hr he mentions a population change at about 9000 years ago (unexplained).

that was profoundly absurdist. thanks

try reading Tao and Longevity when the qi gets very strong - it's described as ants crawling all over the body - and also full body bliss that is - orgasmic or sensual. Serotonin lies at the intersection of pain and itch | Science News https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/scicurious/serotonin-lies-intersection-pain-and-itch Nov 11, 2014 - Serotonin may help relieve pain, but it also causes itch. ... elbows, the backs of the knees, and on the hands and face, accompanied by terrible itching. ... There are more than a dozen receptors for it, each performing different .. So the vagus nerve activation increases the serotonin levels https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Tao-Longevity-by-Huai-Chin-Nan.pdf he describes the full body orgasm that occurs - it rains down from the top center of the skull - as the body fills with qi.

You are speaking of such a small truth. It's not even that this universe isn't capable of remembering that truth. It's just that the truth is so much bigger than that. The universe cannot even attempt to become less than all that it has become. The reason you live a better life as an assassin, is because you release resistance, to the greater truth, by killing someone. The reason you release resistance, is because you naturally don't like killing someone. So when you do, you let go of resistance. And then you are free. That freedom does not require killing. It's just a conditional permission slip that you use. Now, if you realise, that you don't have to kill someone, in order to accept that life and death are insignificant to the greater truth of who you are, you no longer have to explore the temporary illusions. And come back home to your eternal realisation. That doesn't require you to change anything. Then you can do the thing you actually intended to do here in this life. You simply allow the change, that is always gonna happen anyway. Like, yeah, I'm always gonna be killing someone. So what? What has that got to do with anything? The people you kill are going to die anyway. I assure you, assassin is not actual terminology to describe a human being. When you realisethe eternal nature of the people you kill, then will you wake up to the fact that you cannot kill another human being. You actually never have killed anyone. You only think that you did, because your memory tells you that. But that doesn't make it the truth. It is only truth, when you focus upon it. And thereby insisting that it remains your truth. There's nothing wrong with that. We all do it. It is natural. But eventually, you will always want to learn the greater truth. Which is that the people you kill are only ever those that you love the most. It has always been this way. We simply do it because we can. That is what makes people rebell and outrage. So that they can find comfort again. That it's ok, even if you did kill someone. That doesn't make you any less innocent. Not even a little bit. You woulden't even feel inclined to kill, because there's nothing special at all about killing! Infact, every death is a suicide. If you haven't realised that by now, then you will one day. So you are actually giving everyone your power, not taking it away. That's just hilarious, especially if a soul withdraws it's consciousness from their physical body. They just come back, because it's so insignificant in the bigger scheme of things. Sex and violence truely is as normal as a handshake. Nothing more and nothing less. If you go running around feeling extatic shaking hands with everyone, well...? Eventually you'll grow up, and be like, ok let's explore life a bit further maybe shall we? Why not try and build a relationship with someone. Isn't that more scary and exciting?! Because, you have to realise, relationships are eternal. If you think a relationship, any relationship, is not special, then you haven't had a relationship yet. It will forever change who you are. And if you express your authentic self, completely naked, to another, it will forever change who they are. By allowing yourself to be who it is you truely are, you tell the universe, I am ready to remember again who I am. I am ready to know again who I am and who everyone is. Who I am not. You need the other in order to define who you are. And that vulnerability does not make you weak. It makes you infinitely and eternally powerfull. You need to allow your mind to dream, beyond death. Because death is such a meaningless concept, you will get confused in that idea. You have to understand there is only life and more life. So if you are atleast willing to begin with the life that is you, then you don't have to co-create with the idea of death, because your life will show and teach you and guide you to ALL THE MORE LIFE THAT IS ALL OF EXISTANCE AND YOU CONTAIN ALL OF IT ALREADY ALWAYS RIGHT HERE AND NOW! You never go anywhere when you die. This is all you. You're literally killing yourself for the point of exploring a different perspective of yourself. And if you want to remember all of it, then you might wanna stop dismembering all of it. Get my point? It's really an easy point to make isn't it? I suggest you take hostages once in a while. Just for fun, and if you don't like it, you can always resort back to killing them if you wish. But really just try it out, for once atleast. What have you got lose. Am I right? It's not like you're afraid of it, are you? Especially if you're an assassin. All the more reason to do it.

That's the reason I made Plato's Atlantis the central theme of this thread, which does not mean that there can't be any detours whatsoever, as long as we get back on topic. As for the war between Atlantis and prehistoric Athens, Settegast has extensively explored that topic from a historic perspective, and I hope to present some of her conclusions soon.

True enough ... and how can you learn your limits without practice in different ways.

I don't know if you'd actually get in trouble for something so widely known, and so short...but it's definitely good form to cite sources for any quotes.

... those Goddamn Ice Atlanteans !

Oh certainly ! That's all incredible, but in the end I think it boils down to humans with time on their hands. While Apech seems to be interested in the culture , the engineering and various technologies are what I find interesting. But not to diverge too far , that all doesn't look like space alien tech, fly to earth ,only to bang rocks on other rocks. So if there isn't anything else amazing techno-wise to Atlanteans, we are just looking a people who may have gotten around ( or had been found) and fit in with Plato's critique, in the 'Athens time frame' or a few hundred years earlier. It only took Columbus two and a half months to get to the new world in the big fat sailing ships he had , but if one really knew what they were setting out to find , it appears possible that sailing people had gone way way farther even , long before that. So my alternate Atlantis is the relic story , and the significant thing is the early voyages. It reverses the paradigm of the Atlanteans being the bringers of tech , but rather stone or bronze age folk coming out of Europe by sails rather than the overland progression of walking as their progenitors had done, were the bringers of tech. like big rock buildings. Its the 'Out of the Mediterranean' hypothesis. Following megalithic construction There is a loose trail leading from The Caucasus through Europe and out the Mediterranean. You can bang around with the dates and types of construction but If I were speculating , I would say that the advent of civilization did not begin in the Atlantic , it spread out from the Caucasus on this western end of Eurasia. Gobekli 12000ya Carnac France 6500ya Dolmens in Caucasus 6000ya Crete 6000ya Athens founded 5000 ya Stonehenge 5000ya Palenque 2200ya There were already people around , at least 60,000 ya in Australia. The out of Africa theory suggests this as the oldest expansion for modern people, and those folks went all the way from the Levant to Australia and beyond. And across that time frame were dating the local Densiovans ,Neanderthals and so forth. I think it might be ventured that the most recent significant human development would be the backcross with the Archaics. So from 60000 ya to 12000 years ago ... anything could have been going on and I dont know what that is. If were to hypothesize Ice Atlanteans , this would be their time period.

Perhaps you need a 2nd chance? (Or a third, fourth, or fifth...etc) If so, you´re certainly in good company. Lots of people like to make it appear that they´re more successful than they really are so I hope you won´t get fooled into feeling bad about yourself because of social comparisons. It´s also possible that First-Place Winner status wouldn´t make you as happy as you might think, even if you were suddenly to magically achieve it. People say to take things a day at a time, but that´s often too ambitious. Can you enoy the present moment? Better yet, can you be present for this present moment -- no matter how it feels? Be a winner at that. That might be the only winning that really counts anyway. LL

The internet is littered with self help advice. At the risk of adding more dreck to it, I'd say concentrate on one thing at a time. Sleep is important and sleep preparation starts in the evening. Stopping the news and internet. Doing something boring, maybe some sips of an night time herbal tea or pill like ZMA.. look into it, spend time, and get sleep right. Then healthy breakfast. Then a To-do list with 2 or 3 musts, relatively easy ones that you should accomplish. I'd also say, let go the past. Unless you've got a time machine, stop blaming and thinking about it. Every month, every day is a chance to begin fresh. Go forward. We all fall somewhere between best and worst. It doesn't matter. What matters is (cliche alert) doing your best (addon eh screw that, what matters is showing up and putting in honest effort). Start easy, measure, make progress.. continue.. get back up when you fall down..thats how we do better in life. Not a hard formula.

Wow...

I think SJ is already living a good life in the mountains.. Congrats on finishing the book and getting it out there @Starjumper

Ohhhh I'm so looking forward to the rains too - they'll help with melting all this. We got our first glimpse of Spring yesterday morning!! The seasons here are two months behind; heavy snows used to come in January...but all that's likely changed. Good thing no calendars on Peaceful Mountain. No clocks either lolol. We just go with what comes, when it does. (-:

Dunning-Kruger? I think you're on the right track, the way you express it though is somewhat confusing though. Smart people realize they don't know everything and can't handle everything. It's wise to admit being less capable so we can do something about it on concepts that really matter.

Come on guys, this is turning into the Nungali vs. Micheal thread. You come from different perspectives ... good! As long as we share opinions openly what's the problem? If I was investigating this subject I would take the minimalist approach, in other words what are the least key facts you would have to substantiate to advance the Atlantis idea. For me these would be: 1. a pre Ice Age culture/civilisation which was destroyed by advancing sea levels (cataclysmically). 2. a knowledge of at least advance stone working and megalith structures 3. some knowledge of astronomy (observations over long periods of time) 4. ability to plan and execute large scale architecture Problems: 1. 500,000 years of last ice ages had erratic climatic conditions - what kind of culture could survive this 2. no evidence of agriculture pre around 6000 BC (?) so what food source? 3. if Atlantis was destroyed around 10,000 BC then presumably they went to Anatolia and taught the Gobekli Tepe hunter gatherers to build ... but then what? 4. if you back date the GP to 10,000 BC then what did they do between then and the dynastic period? how do you explain pre-dynastic cultures (primitive) 5. Genetic science has mapped modern human genetic ancestry without any Atlantean involvement - how is this explained? 6. Nothing from archeology/fossil record suggest Atlantean involvement (as far as I know) Possible 1. the idea of Atlantis is actually a 'memory' of early neolithic (or even mesolithic) cultures which were far more sophisticated and complex than is generally understood - coastal dwelling hunter gatherer megalith builders.

seems a manic - depressive argument... the more depressed you can be, the more manic/crazy-happy you can be. It seems too much an appeal that duality requires a rebound to the other extreme... but one is along a spectrum in most cases and not bounding... or you mean an addiction to bad can mean an addiction to good? Then you are not really talking about the extreme positions but an addition ?

I can understand that, neither Mencius nor the Analects are written in a style that I like, but in Mencius there are these remarkable quotes that are largely about very mystical subjects, as I wrote about in my posts in a thread on Confucian Qi gong: Two quotes from Mencius in particular awakened my interest in Mencius. This first one is this: I have quoted the Chinese Text form Muller's site and a translation from D. C. Lau because Muller's rendering "All things are prepared within me", while a possible translation of 备 (bèi) is not as clear as one might wish. Comments from people whose Classical Chinese is good are welcome. All the ten thousand things are there in me: This is about as clear a statement of the Microcosm/Macrocosm relationship as one might wish. This primciple existed in the West as 'All is in All' from antiquity to the 'Scientific Revolution'. It has recently re-emerged as the self-similarity of fractal mathematics and and as the 'holographic principle' in modern physics. To find this so clearly stated in a Confucian text was very unexpected and was an important part of my revaluation of Confucianism as a profound source of fundamentally mystical doctrine. I am true to myself: Another important aspect of this text is the introduction of the concept 诚 (chéng), a word usually rendered as sincere or sincerity and above as true in the translation above. The Zhongyong has to principle teachings, one on 'zhong' which I have referred to here: And the other is on chéng which is one of the most fundamental and profound concepts in Classical Confucianism and the subject a large section of the Zhongyong with which I will deal in subsequent posts. To draw this to a close, I will post the other quote from Mencius, which was also a great surprise to me: To discover that Mencius viewed the end of Confucian self-cultivation as becoming a 'shen' or 'god' was quit a revelation, but this passage in Mencius is only part of the picture. How it relates to the teachings of the Zhongyong on chéng (诚) will be the subject of future posts. For now, I think I have given everyone plenty to think about. The rest of my posts in that thread are worth reading, so you or anyone else might wish to follow the links to the original and take a look at them. The place of Confucius as the "founder" of Confucianism is an interesting topic, and the relationship between Mencius and Xunzi is interesting too, while I believe that on certain fundamental points Mencius must be given precedence, there is a lot that is both interesting and valuable in Xunzi. If I have time I may return to examine these and other topics. ZYD

Its not the time. Its the man-hours available. There could not be enough man-hours in ancient egypt to both maintain the normal livelihood of the nation and to dedicate enough man-power to the project, during any reasonable duration of time.

dont drink then follow rice. chickens and shit ya know -theNERD

So apparently you didn't click on the link to the interviews I have with LIVING BREATHING master spiritual healers from the San Bushmen? I'll post each individual vid so that others who don't practice Self-Censorship might have a better go at it. And by the way - San Bushmen - is itself a term that is debated. It's not their real name. Khoisan is a linguistic term. That's why I didn't just call them the San like you did. I stated "San Bushmen" for a reason. Who said anything about white people as leading up to having chi gong and yoga left for them. haha. The fact is that Western culture never had qigong or yoga - and we can't just "assimilate" it as this website seems to think. Dr. Victor Grauer has a book called "Sounding the Depths" - he traces the San Bushmen culture as it spread around the world - through it's MUSIC - and this music can still be found (in some white cultures too!!).

The important bit is how are you going about it. Are you sitting or standing? Are you using the correct structural principles? Is your awareness focused or diffuse? Generally the best way to go about it is to learn to stand correctly (not in classical Zhang Zhuan though). The reason that structure is important is because we want all the tissues of the body to aid you in your practice. Using mental intention won’t do it. We must create the correct conditions in our physical structure for the Dantien to build and attract Qi automatically (not through intention). Once the structure is correct, you can begin to find your centre of mass. You do this by using your body as a fulcrum - if you’re standing tall and shift your weight back and forth, you’ll find that your centre of mass is up in the chest. When you sink down into your Kua and do the same, you’ll find your centre of mass in the abdominal area. Now all you need to do is find that perfect height through trial and error that lines up exactly with the level of your lower Dantien. Once you find the perfect height, you stay there and relax your mind so that it sinks through your body down to the abdominal cavity. There you just ‘listen’ with diffuse, passive awareness. The sensations that you will feel are largely irrelevant - there is no ‘correct feeling’ as such - there’s only the correct principles applied properly - the sensations will always change. Doing this over time will locate and build your Dantien and slowly fill it with Qi. Hope that helps

"Fear of death only comes through the brittleness of the ego." - Ram Das "Yes, I have an ego and it looks similar to the one I dropped to, as you say, achieve nirvana. But then I came back all enlightened and everything, and I needed something to wear. I looked around and there's my discarded ego lying in a pile on the floor, so I slipped into it and here I am." - Jed McKenna "Once you know that death happens to the body and not to you, you just watch your body falling off like a discarded garment. The real you is timeless and beyond birth and death. The body will survive as long as it is needed. It is not important that it should live long." - Maharaj

"Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and nights. But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge." Kahlil Gibran "When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice." White Elk "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." Chief Seattle

when the pupil is ready the master appears........... 'sri madhava, son of man' truth repeated is no longer truth; it becomes truth again only when it has been realized by the speaker as an immediate experience........... 'aldous huxley' we shall never be more in eternity than we are now 'christmas humphreys' there is only now.....'onlynow' foolish are they who turn their backs to the light and argue about the nature of the shadow in front .....'d t suzuki' the shortest path to enlightenment is to stop thinking...............'onlynow' there is no point in work unless it absorbs you like an absorbing game. if it doesn't absorb you if its never any fun, dont do it...............'d h lawrence' dont take your thoughts too seriously ........... 'eckhart tolle'

"the stupidity of moral indignation is the unfailing sign in a philosopher that his philosophical sense of humor has left him." -nietzsche "what appears to be the established order of present day civilization is actually only the inert but spectacular momentum of a high velocity vehicle whose engine has already stpped functioning." -arguelles

Here's one I've always loved:

Came across this the other day... "In those days men's ears heard sounds whose angelic purity cannot be conjured up again by any amount of science or magic." Herman Hesse The Glass Bead Game Just one more example of the universal stringless lute...

"Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely!" Lazarus Long "I conceal my amazement..." Wish I could remember "Brought to you by your Department of Redundancy Department, and the Natural Guard" Firesign Theater "It's never too late to have a happy childhood" button in my drawer "And the ship went out into the high sea, and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise. --- But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap. He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said." J R R Tolkien