Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet.
BENJAMIN HOFFLife itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet.
BENJAMIN HOFFModern man’s difficulties, dangerous beliefs and feelings of loneliness, spiritual emptiness,and personal weakness are caused by his illusions about, and separation from, the natural world.
BENJAMIN HOFFTo Buddha, the second figure in the painting, life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering.
BENJAMIN HOFFDo you really want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you’ve got.
BENJAMIN HOFFThe play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don’t look clearly and objectively at situations, they don’t recognize or believe in their own abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk.
BENJAMIN HOFFPooh is able to accomplish what he does because he is simpleminded.
BENJAMIN HOFFWithout difficulties, life would be like a stream without rocks and curves – about as interesting as concrete. Without problems, there can be no personal growth, no group achievement, no progress of humanity. But what mattes about problems is what one does with them.
BENJAMIN HOFFWhen you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.
BENJAMIN HOFFLike silence after noise, or cool, clear water on a hot, stuffy day, Emptiness cleans out the messy mind and charges up the batteries of spiritual energy. Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness.
BENJAMIN HOFFThose who think that the rewarding things in life are somewhere over the rainbow ‘burn their toast a lot,’ said Pooh
BENJAMIN HOFFIf people were superior to animals, they’d take good care of them,” said Pooh.
BENJAMIN HOFFThe Eeyore Educational System sees childhood as a waste of time, a luxury that society cannot afford . . . Put children in school at the earliest age possible; load them down with homework; take away their time, their creativity, their play, their power; then plug them into machines.
BENJAMIN HOFFIn the Age of Perfect Virtue, men lived among the animals and birds as members of one large family. There were no distinctions between superior and inferior to separate one man or species from another. All retained their natural Virtue and lived in a state of pure simplicity.
BENJAMIN HOFFUnder Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time.
BENJAMIN HOFFCleverness, after all, has its limitations. Its mechanical judgments and clever remarks tend to prove inaccurate with passing time, because it doesn’t look very deeply into things to begin with.
BENJAMIN HOFFEnjoy the simple, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work.
BENJAMIN HOFF