Source: The Artist's Way
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 9
New Delhi India 1st Public Talk (14 November 1948)
1940s
Context: So, a man who is really earnest must begin with himself, he must be passively aware of all his thoughts, feelings and actions. Again, this is not a matter of time. There is no end to self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is only from moment to moment, and therefore there is a creative happiness from moment to moment.
“Actual creativeness is a matter of moments.”
Entry (1956)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Context: Actual creativeness is a matter of moments. One has to piece together the minute grains to make a lump. And it is so easy to miss the momentary flashes, it is like sluicing in placer mining. He who lets the flakes float by has nothing to show for his trouble.
“Clear thinking at the wrong moment can stifle creativity.”
Yoga and Vipassana: An Integrated Lifestyle (2012) https://books.google.co.in/books?id=sBsG9V1oVdMC,
“I had, at that moment, another soul – an almost divine soul, a creative and sacrificial soul.”
“Moment to moment, we can grow, if we can bring ourselves to meet the moment with our lives.”
Source: The Life of Poetry (1949), Chapter One : The Fear of Poetry
Context: Poetry is, above all, an approach to the truth of feeling, and what is the use of truth!
How do we use feeling?
How do we use truth! However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole.
If we use the resources we now have, we and the world itself may move in one fullness. Moment to moment, we can grow, if we can bring ourselves to meet the moment with our lives.
