“ When you were born, everyone was smiling but you were crying. Live such a life that when you depart, everyone is weeping but you are smiling. ” - Sa'di of Shiraz
“ The "real world" is a construct, and some peculiarities of scientific thought become more intelligible when this fact is recognized ... Einstein himself in 1926 told Heisenberg it was nonsense to found a theory on observable facts alone, saying "In reality the very opposite happens. It is theory which decides what we can observe." ” - D. O. Hebb
Yesterday was the ninth evening of this "Life skills" training. I wrote about the eighth session last week. The sequence of regular weekly classes now moves on to increasing gaps between sessions - so it's three weeks until the tenth, a further five weeks until the eleventh, and then an additional eleven weeks until the final twelfth session. My hope is that we will be able to arrange occasional follow-up meetings even after that.
“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is knowledge of our ignorance
” - Benjamin Franklin
“Life is an endless unfolding, and if we wish it to be, an endless process of self-discovery, an endless and unpredictable dialogue between our own potentialities and the life situations in which we find ourselves. By potentialities I mean not just intellectual gifts but the full range of one’s capacities for learning, sensing, wondering, understanding, loving and aspiring.
” - John Gardner
“ And now, let us believe in the new year that is given us - new, untouched, full of things that have never been. ” - Rainer Maria Rilke
Yesterday we had the sixth session of this twelve evening "Life skills" course. I wrote last week about the fifth session. A dozen slides covering material we explored are viewable/downloadable at slides 1-6, Powerpoint or slides 1-6, PDF and slides 7-12, Powerpoint or slides 7-12, PDF.
“From the place where we are right/Flowers will never grow/In the spring.
The place where we are right/Is hard and trampled/Like a yard.
But doubts and loves/Dig up the world/Like a mole, a plow/And a whisper will be heard in the place/Where the ruined/House once stood.
” - Yehuda Amichai
Yesterday evening was the fifth session of this 12 evening training course. I wrote about the fourth session last week. As usual, this evening, the material we were due to cover was described in a dozen Powerpoint slides which the participants received as a handout. See slides 1-6, Powerpoint or slides 1-6, PDF and slides 7-12, Powerpoint or slides 7-12, PDF.
“ God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. ” - Reinhold Niebhur (adapted)
So yesterday we had the fourth evening of this twelve session course. I posted on the third session last week. What we covered is illustrated on the Powerpoint handouts I gave out as two six-slides-to-a-page handouts. Click on slides 1-6, Powerpoint or slides 1-6, PDF and slides 7-12, Powerpoint or slides 7-12, PDF to see.
“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
” - Rumi
“If a pickpocket meets a saint, all he sees are his pockets
” - Traditional
So it was the second session of the group yesterday. I blogged about the first session last week. Sadly a couple of people couldn't get to this second meeting - due to a pre-planned holiday and to an unexpected crisis. It's quite common for participants to miss one or two evenings across a twelve session course like this, but I want to be careful when people miss such an early meeting. It's important that they don't lose their way and get left behind. They will get copies of the handouts and the Autogenic CD, but I also make a note to contact them myself.
