Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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Problems

Instead of bemoaning our fates, complaining about our problems, and feeling bad about the difficulties we face; with a quick double take, we can look a little deeper and appreciate difficulties as creative challenges, see problems as opportunities. One of the most vivid examples of this is the ancient "Taoist Farmer story"—

A poor farmer loses his only horse and his neighbor’s say, “Oh, how terrible” but the farmer only says, “We’ll see.”
The horse brings back 7 wild horses and the neighbor’s say, “Oh, how wonderful” but the farmer only says, “We’ll see.”
The farmer’s son breaks his leg trying to train the horse and the neighbors and the farmer say the same things.
As they do the next day after soldiers come and take all the young men but not the son because of his broken leg. This story repeats itself in different ways many times every day for the farmer, for the neighbors, and for all of us.

Greatness in a person arises from the struggle with great problems. Some do this out of necessity after finding themselves in an extremely difficult internal or external situation. Others—like great spiritual teachers and philosophers—after recognizing that we’re all in extremely difficult situations

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Quotes (116)

“Most problems, if you give them enough time and space, will eventually wear themselves out.”

Buddha गौतम बुद्ध 563 – 483 BCE
(Siddhartha Shakyamuni Gautama)
Awakened Truth

Themes: Problems

57. Wu Wei

“When Homer said that he wished war might disappear from the lives of gods and men, he forgot that without opposition all things would cease to exist.”

Heraclitus Ἡράκλειτος 535 – 475 BCE
(of Ephesus, the "Weeping Philosopher")
A Greek Buddha

Themes: War Problems

“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

Aeschylus Αἰσχύλος 525 – 455 BCE via Robert F. Kennedy
The Father of Tragedy

“To face calamity with an unclouded mind and quickly respond—in both a government and an individual—represents real strength.”

Pericles 495 – 429 BCE via Thucydides, Shan Dao
Disprover that all power corrupts

“No society can prosper if it aims at making things easier. Instead, it should aim at making people stronger.”

Chandragupta Maurya 340 – 297 BCE
Ashoka’s grandfather, founder of the Maurya Empire

“Those who know, value deeds not words. A team of horses can’t overtake the tongue. More talk means more problems.”

Heshang Gong 河上公 202 – 157 BCE
(Ho-shang Kung or "Riverside Sage”)

56. One with the Dust

“Every misfortune can be subdued by patience.”

Virgil 70 – 19 BCE
(Publius Vergilius Maro)
from Aeneid

Themes: Patience Problems

“Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses.”

Ovid oʊvɪd 43 BCE – 18 CE
(Publius Ovidius Naso)
Great poet and major influence on the Renaissance, Humanism, and world literature

“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”

Seneca ˈsɛnɪkə 4 BCE – 65 CE
(Lucius Annaeus)

“Adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.”

Plutarch 46 – 120 CE
(Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus)

35. The Power of Goodness

“Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.”

Epictetus Ἐπίκτητος 55 – 135 CE via Sharon Lebell
from Discourses of Epictetus, Ἐπικτήτου διατριβαί

Themes: Problems

“If the problem has a solution, worrying is pointless, in the end the problem will be solved. If the problem has no solution, there is no reason to worry, because it can't be solved.”

Jianzhi Sengcan 鑑智僧璨 529 – 606 CE
(Jiànzhì Sēngcàn)

Themes: Problems

63. Easy as Hard

“If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?”

Shantideva ཞི་བ་ལྷ།།། 685 – 763 CE
(Bhusuku, Śāntideva)
from Bodhisattva Way of Life, Bodhicaryavatara

16. Returning to the Root, Meditation

“The problem is not enjoyment; the problem is attachment.”

Tilopa 988 – 1069 CE

Themes: Problems

81. Journey Without Goal

“Do not permit the events of your daily life to bind you, but never withdraw yourself from them.”

Mumon Ekai 無門慧開 1183 – 1260 CE
(Wumen Huikai)
Pioneering pathfinder to the Gateless Gate

from The Gateless Gate, 無門関, 無門關

Themes: Problems

16. Returning to the Root, Meditation

“A wound is a place where the light enters you.”

Rumi مولانا جلال‌الدین محمد بلخی 1207 – 1283 CE
(Rumi Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī)

Themes: Problems

“The path to paradise begins in hell.”

Dante 1265 – 1321 CE
(Durante degli Alighieri)
from Divine Comedy

“But O ye lovers, bathed in bliss always, recall the griefs gone by of other days… forgetting not that ye have felt yourselves Love’s power to displease, lest ye might win Love’s prize with too great ease.”

Geoffrey Chaucer 1343 – 1400 CE via George Philip Krapp
“Father of English literature”
from Troilus and Cressida

“Melancholy is my joy
And discomfort is my rest.”

Michelangelo 1475 – 1564 CE

Themes: Problems Paradox

“The higher he ascends, the darker is the wood; it is the shadowy cloud that clarified the night, and so the one who understood remains always unknowing,”

John of the Cross 1542 – 1591 CE

“Adversity best brings about virtue.”

Francis Bacon 1561 – 1626 CE via James Spedding, Shan Dao
from Essays, Civil and Moral 1625

“Foolish friends get you into trouble, wise ones keep you out of it.”

Balthasar Gracian 1601 – 1658 CE via Joseph Jacobs, chapter #156
from Art of Worldly Wisdom

“He who hasn't tasted bitter things hasn't earned sweet things.”

Leibniz 1646 – 1716 CE
(Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz)

“I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 – 1778 CE

“These are the times that try men's souls... Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”

Thomas Paine 1737 – 1809 CE
from The American Crisis, 1776

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; 'Tis dearness only that gives everything its value.”

Thomas Paine 1737 – 1809 CE

“To an active mind, indolence is more painful than labor.”

Edward Gibbon 1737 – 1794 CE

Themes: Problems

“Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.”

Abigail Adams 1744 – 1818 CE
One of the most exceptional women in American history

Themes: Problems Wisdom

“One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.”

Madame de Staël 1766 – 1817 CE
(Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein)
"The greatest woman of her time"

“Yet, Freedom! yet the banner, torn but flying,
Streams like the thunderstorm against the wind!”

Lord Byron 1788 – 1824 CE
(George Gordon Byron)
The first rock-star style celebrity
from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1808-1817)

Themes: Freedom Problems

“We rest—A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise—One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh, or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 – 1822 CE
from Mutability

Themes: Health Problems

“Difficulty, abnegation, martyrdom, death, are the allurements that act on the heart of man. Kindle the inner genial life of him, you have a flame that burns up all lower considerations. No pressure, no diamonds.”

Thomas Carlyle 1795 – 1881 CE
"Great Man” theory of history creator

Themes: Problems

“Misfortune is a stepping stone for genius, the baptismal font of Christians, treasure for the skillful man, an abyss for the feeble.”

Balzac 1799 – 1850 CE
(Honoré de Balzac)

“Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.”

Victor Hugo 1802 – 1885 CE
Literary pioneer, poet, and social justice provocateur

Themes: Problems Wealth

“Blessed be nothing. The worse things are, the better they are.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 – 1882 CE
Champion of individualism

“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 – 1882 CE
Champion of individualism

“Every new truth which has ever been propounded has, for a time caused mischief, produced discomfort, and often unhappiness; sometimes disturbing social and religious arrangements... the face of society is disturbed, or perhaps convulsed.”

Henry Thomas Buckle 1821 – 1862 CE
from History of Civilization

Themes: Truth Problems

“Do not be afraid of your difficulties. Do not wish you could be in other circumstances than you are. For when you have made the best of an adversity, it becomes the stepping stone to a splendid opportunity”

Blavatsky, Helena Еле́на Петро́вна Блава́тская 1831 – 1891 CE
Co-founder of Theosophy

“All troubles come to an end when the ego dies”

Ramakrishna 1836 – 1886 CE

“Oh, don't the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong,
And isn't your life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at!”

W. S. Gilbert 1836 – 1911 CE
Innovative, influential, inspiring dramatist

“Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.”

Friedrich Nietzsche 1844 – 1900 CE
from Twilight of the Idols

18. The Sick Society

“Restlessness is discontent—and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.”

Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931 CE
America's greatest inventor

Themes: Progress Problems

“I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want.”

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 – 1894 CE

33. Know Yourself

“The claims our civilization makes that life is too hard for the grater part of humanity furthers aversion to reality and becomes the origin of neurosis.”

Sigmund Freud 1856 – 1939 CE via Shan Dao
from New Introductory Lectures in Psychoanalysis (1933)

“A problem well-defined is a problem half solved.”

John Dewey 1859 – 1952 CE
The "Second Confucius"

Themes: Problems

“Sanity is a madness put to good uses.”

Santayana, George 1863 – 1952 CE
(Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás)
Powerfully influential, true-to-himself philosopher/poet

“In a day when you don't come across any problems - you can be sure that you are traveling in a wrong path”

Swami Vivekananda ʃami bibekanɔnd̪o 1863 – 1902 CE
"The maker of modern India"

“I would rather have this life of combat than moral calm and mournful stupor. God give me struggle, enemies, howling crowds, all the combat of which I am capable.”

Romain Rolland 1866 – 1944 CE
“The moral consciousness of Europe”
from Reflections, 1915-1940

“The fullness of life is in the hazards of life.”

Edith Hamilton 1867 – 1963 CE

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”

Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948 CE

Themes: Problems

“Infirmity alone makes us take notice and learn, and enables us to analyze processes which we would otherwise know nothing about.”

Marcel Proust 1871 – 1922 CE
Apostle of Ordinary Mind
from In Search of Lost Time

Themes: Problems

“The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so... It is amazing how much both happiness and efficiency can be increased b the cultivation of an orderly mind which thinks about a mater adequately at the right time rather than inadequately at all times.”

Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970 CE
“20th century Voltaire”
from The Conquest of Happiness

Themes: Problems

“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.”

Willa Cather 1873 – 1948 CE
Modern day Lao Tzu

Themes: Problems

18. The Sick Society

“It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem.”

G. K. Chesterton 1874 – 1936 CE

Themes: Problems

36. The Small, Dark Light

“The serious problems of life are never fully solved. The meaning and design of a problem does not lie in its solution but in our incessant working on it. This alone preserves us from stultification and petrifaction.”

Carl Jung 1875 – 1961 CE via Routledge, Shan Dao
Insightful shamanistic scientist
from Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Themes: Problems

“The one so loved that a single lyre raised more lament than lamenting women ever did; and that from the lament a world arose in which everything was there again”

Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 – 1926 CE
Profound singer of universal music

Themes: Problems

“Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.”

Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 – 1926 CE
Profound singer of universal music

Themes: Magic Problems

“when no answer comes from within to the problems and complexities of life, they ultimately mean very little. Outward circumstances are no substitute for inner experience.”

Carl Jung 1875 – 1961 CE
Insightful shamanistic scientist
from Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Themes: Problems

“I stand between two worlds, am at home in neither, and in consequence have rather a hard time of it.”

Thomas Mann 1875 – 1955 CE
Deep, psychologically insightful author
from An Appeal to Reason (1930)

Themes: Problems
“Ask yourself the question 'Who am I?'… Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Ramana Maharshi 1879 – 1950 CE

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955 CE

59. The Gardening of Spirit

“It is not the nature of man, as I see it, ever to be quite satisfied with what he has in life.... Contentment tends to breed laxity, but a healthy discontent keeps us alert to the changing needs of our time.”

Frances Perkins 1880 – 1965 CE
One of the most influential champions for worker's rights

Themes: Problems

“Most of man's problems upon this planet, in the long history of the race, have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage.”

Frances Perkins 1880 – 1965 CE
One of the most influential champions for worker's rights

Themes: Problems

“For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.”

Henry Louis Mencken 1880 – 1956 CE
alt.right founding father

“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That's the problem.”

A.A. Milne 1882 – 1956 CE
(Alan Alexander Milne)
from Winnie the Pooh

Themes: Problems

14. Finding and Following the Formless Form

“This secret is concerned not with supramundane problems but with everyday ones in all their fervent detail, with the incessantly renewed problems of man's life here upon this earth.”

Nikos Kazantzakis 1883 – 1957 CE via P. A. Bien
from Report to Greco

“it does not matter very much what problem, whether big or small, is tormenting us; the only thing that matters is that we be tormented, that we find a ground for being tormented. In other words, that we exercise our minds in order to keep certainty from turning us into idiots... problems keep the soul from rotting.”

Nikos Kazantzakis 1883 – 1957 CE
from Report to Greco

Themes: Problems

“Man achieves civilization, not as a result of superior biological endowment or geographical environment, but as a response to a challenge in a situation of special difficulty which rouses him to make a hitherto unprecedented effort.”

Arnold Toynbee 1889 – 1975 CE
from A Study of History

In this age, which believes that there is a short-cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way, in the long run, is the easiest.”

Henry Miller 1891 – 1980 CE
from Books in My Life (1952)

Themes: Paradox Problems

“'All right then,' said the savage defiantly, 'I'm claiming the right to be unhappy… the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat… the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind. I claim them all.'”

Aldous Huxley 1894 – 1963 CE
from Brave New World

Themes: Problems

“In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete.”

Buckminster Fuller 1895 – 1983 CE

29. Not Doing

The problem goes much deeper than religion or politics, it starts in our minds, in our habits, in the constant conditioning that has gone on and on for centuries. Judging, prejudice, likes and dislike are all part of this same problem.”

Krishnamurti 1895 – 1986 CE via Satish Kumar, Shan Dao
(Jiddu Krishnamurti)

“However unpalatable certain aspects of reality may be, they have to be faced as facts and met at their own level. Problems cannot be solved by disapproval but only by facing them.”

Anagarika​ (Lama) Govinda 1898 – 1985 CE
(Ernst Hoffmann)
Pioneer of Tibetan Buddhism to the West

from Way of the White Clouds (1966)

“If I could live again my life, in the next I’ll try to make more mistakes...I’ll have more real problems – and less imaginary ones,”

Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986 CE
Literary Explorer of Labyrinthian Dreams, Mirrors, and Mythologies

Themes: Mistakes Problems

“the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life... human beings don't only want comfort, safety, short working hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice”

George Orwell 1903 – 1950 CE
English, poet, humanist, apostle of doubt, and powerful political influence
from Review of Mein Kampf (1940)

Themes: Problems Pleasure

“The demon that you swallow gives you its power. The greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply… the more challenging or threatening the situation, the greater the stature of the person who can achieve it.”

Joseph Campbell 1904 – 1987 CE
Great translator of ancient myth into modern symbols
from Power of Myth

“The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.”

Gregory Bateson 1904 – 1980 CE

“Because you lose yourself, your problem will be a problem for you. If you do not lose yourself, then even though you have difficulty, there is actually no problem whatsoever.”

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi 1904 – 1971 CE via Trudy Dixon
from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Themes: Problems

“There is no problem. When you say ‘I am a human being,’ that is just another name for buddha – human being-buddha.”

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi 1904 – 1971 CE

Themes: Problems

64. Ordinary Mind

“Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”

Viktor Frankl 1905 – 1997 CE
Brave and insightful concentration camp survivor

from Man's Search for Meaning

Themes: Problems

“Light does not come from light, but from darkness.”

Mircea Eliade 1907 – 1986 CE

Themes: Problems

“Because they drive us to swim against the current, ignorance and self-love are the cause of most of our troubles.”

John Blofeld 1913 – 1987 CE
from Talk (1978)

“A problem cannot be solved by people who are concerned with only one or another of its parts.”

Masanobu Fukuoka 福岡 正信 1913 – 2008 CE
from One Straw Revolution

“The point is not that the problem has no solution, but that it is so meaningless that it need not be felt as a problem.”

Alan Watts 1915 – 1973 CE
from Psychotherapy East and West

“In a world of tension and breakdown, it is necessary for there to be those who seek to integrate their inner lives not by avoiding anguish and running away from problems, but by facing them in their naked reality and in their ordinariness.”

Thomas Merton 1915 – 1968 CE

“LIfe is not a problem so why are you asking for a solution? The real problem is believing that the question makes sense.”

Alan Watts 1915 – 1973 CE via Shan Dao
from Psychotherapy East and West

Themes: Problems

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

John Kennedy 1917 – 1963 CE
Modern America's most popular president

“all our problems are versions of 'My self is disturbed by what other selves are doing.' And there aren't any other selves.”

Charlotte Joko Beck 1917 – 2011 CE
Authentic, pioneering Western Zen master

from Ordinary Wonder

“all our problems are versions of 'My self is disturbed by what other selves are doing.' And there aren't any other selves.”

Charlotte Joko Beck 1917 – 2011 CE
Authentic, pioneering Western Zen master

from Ordinary Wonder

“There is nothing better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve the next time.”

Malcolm X الحاجّ مالك الشباز‎‎ 1925 – 1965 CE

Themes: Problems

“Leaders learn by leading, and they learn best by leading in the face of obstacles. As weather shapes mountains, problems shape leaders.”

Warren Bennis 1925 – 2014 CE
Authentic Leadership pioneering thought leader

Themes: Problems

“No thinking, no mind. No mind, no problem.”

Seungsahn 숭산행원대선사 1927 – 2004 CE
(Soen Sa Nim)

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”

Maya Angelou 1928 – 2014 CE

“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.”

Bill Mollison 1928 – 2016 CE
Permaculture's Founder-Father

“Thomas Jefferson would have liked the first stanza… wise souls neither indulge nor repress the troubled spirits that may haunt them.”

Ursula Le Guin 1929 – 2018 CE

Themes: Problems

60. Less is More

“Every time I have had a problem, I have confronted it with the ax of art.”

Yayoi Kusama 草間 彌生 1929 CE –

Themes: Art Problems

“Problems must be solved in work and in place...by people who suffer the consequences of their mistakes.”

Wendell Berry 1934 CE –

Themes: Problems

“‘No … big … deal’… don’t make too big a deal because that leads to arrogance and pride, or a sense of specialness. On the other hand, making too big a deal about your difficulties takes you in the other direction; it takes you into poverty, self-denigration, and a low opinion of yourself.”

Pema Chödrön 1936 CE –
(Deirdre Blomfield-Brown)
First American Vajrayana nun

48. Unlearning

“Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which in indestructible be found in us.”

Pema Chödrön 1936 CE –
(Deirdre Blomfield-Brown)
First American Vajrayana nun
from When Things Fall Apart

Themes: Problems

“In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem.”

George Carlin 1937 – 2008 CE
One of the most influential social commentators of his time

“No problems, no path.”

Chögyam Trungpa 1939 – 1987 CE via Shanyen

“If you want to solve the world’s problems, you have to put your own household, your own individual life, in order first… the first step in learning how to rule is learning to rule your household, your immediate world.”

Chögyam Trungpa 1939 – 1987 CE
from Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

Themes: Family Problems

17. True Leaders

“We cannot find an answer, because answers always run out. That is the problem and the promise.”

Chögyam Trungpa 1939 – 1987 CE
from Journey Without Goal

Themes: Problems

67. Three Treasures

“People who take holidays, vacations, instead of finding luxury where they are, face spiritual problems. The physical world is the spiritual world and all the problems of the world are therefore spiritual problems.”

Chögyam Trungpa 1939 – 1987 CE via The Six Chakras and the Four Karmas
from Secret Beyond Thought, Boston, 1971

Themes: Problems Travel

“The whole point is to have a vision of the totality. Then there’s no problem. If you don’t have a vision of the totality, obviously you will have problems.”

Chögyam Trungpa 1939 – 1987 CE

Themes: Problems

“There are no problems, only solutions.”

John Lennon 1940 – 1980 CE

Themes: Problems

“Worrying about the world is a dead end. When nuclear proliferation is solved, global warming pops up. When global warming is solved, overpopulation starts looming. then there’s always the burning out of the sun and the infinite expansion or contraction of the universe…”

Stephen Mitchell 1943 CE –
from Second Book of Tao

Themes: Problems

63. Easy as Hard

“Too many problem-solving sessions become battlegrounds where decisions are made based on power rather than intelligence.”

Meg Wheatley 1944 CE –
Bringing ancient wisdom into the modern world.

Themes: Problems Power

“Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.”

Brian Tracy 1944 CE –

“D.C. is not about solving problems. If we solved problems, there would be nothing else left to do and we would all have to go out and do something honest—like fry hamburgers.”

Neal Stephenson 1959 CE –
(Stephen Bury)
Speculative futurist and cultural social commentator

from The Cobweb

“If you dream that you are flying and continue to believe that you can fly even after you wake up, that becomes a problem.”

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche རྫོང་གསར་ འཇམ་དབྱངས་ མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ རིན་པོ་ཆེ། 1961 CE –
(Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche)
"Activity" incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
from What Makes You Not a Buddhist

Themes: Dream Problems

18. The Sick Society

“Every scar that you have is a reminder not just that you got hurt, but that you survived”

Michelle Obama 1964 CE –

Themes: Problems

“Problems tangle up like clothes in a tumble dryer.”

David Mitchell 1969 CE –
from Utopia Avenue

Themes: Problems

“It is the struggle it takes to make it work that helps give that thing its value... we have warmer feelings for the projects we worked on where everything seemed to go wrong.”

Simon Sinek 1973 CE –
from Leaders Eat Last

Themes: Problems

“Instead of rejecting the problems and emotions, or surrendering to them, we can befriend them, working through them to reach an enduring, authentic experience of our inherent wisdom, confidence, clarity, and joy.”

Mingyur Rinpoche 1975 CE –
Modern-day Mahasiddha

“Essentially the same problem arises whether it is in our relationships to other human beings, to animals, or to the planet—and the solution is also the same: cultivating a much broader awareness of the chains of causality that link us to other, and cultivating the feelings of closeness that can inspire us to act.”

Karmapa XVII ཨོ་རྒྱན་འཕྲིན་ལས་རྡོ་རྗ 1985 CE –
(Orgyen Thrinlay Dorje)
from Interconnected (2017)

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