“Often we ask ourselves
to make absolute sense
out of what just happens,
and in this way, what we are practicing
is suffering,
which everybody practices,
but strangely few of us
grow graceful in.”
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Tony Hoagland 3
American writer 1953–2018Related quotes

2000s, Thus Spake Stallman (2000)
Context: Religious people often say that religion offers absolute certainty about right and wrong; "god tells them" what it is. Even supposing that the aforementioned gods exist, and that the believers really know what the gods think, that still does not provide certainty, because any being no matter how powerful can still be wrong. Whether gods exist or not, there is no way to get absolute certainty about ethics. Without absolute certainty, what do we do? We do the best we can. Injustice is happening now; suffering is happening now. We have choices to make now. To insist on absolute certainty before starting to apply ethics to life decisions is a way of choosing to be amoral.

“In practice, the enemy has been making much more propaganda for us than we have ourselves.”
Instructions Given at the Conference (Fall 1950)
1950's

“the pain we suffer is a way to make us appreciate what comes next.”
Source: The First Phone Call from Heaven
Gregory Ripley (2016). Tao of Sustainability: Cultivate Yourself to Heal the Earth, Three Pines Press.
Source: Color, Format and Abstract Art' (1977), pp. 99 – 105