/lit/ - Literature

>>23067170
The essential thing is to begin with oneself, and at this moment a man has nothing in the world to care about than this beginning.

"Seek peace in your own place." You cannot find peace anywhere save in your own sel£ In the psalm we read: "There is no peace in my bones because of my sin." When a man has made peace within himself, he will be able to make peace in the whole world.'

the crucial realization: Everything depends on myself, and the crucial decision: I will straighten myI self out.

But in order that a man may be capable of this great feat, he must find his way from the casual, accessory elements of his existence to his own self: he must find his own self, not the trivial ego of the egotistic individual, but the deeper self of the person living in a
relationship to the world. And that is also contrary to everything we are accustomed to.
I will close this chapter with an old jest as retold thusly:
There was once a man who was very stupid. When he got up in the morning it was so hard for him to find his clothes that at night he almost hesitated to go to bed for thinking of the trouble he would have on waking. One evening he finally made a great effort, took paper and pencil and as he undressed noted down exactly where he put everything he had on. The next morning, very well pleased with himself, he took the slip of paper in his hand and read: 'cap'- there it was, he set it on his head; 'pants'- there they lay, he got into them; and so it went until he was fully dressed. 'That's all very well, but now where am I myself?' he asked in great consternation. 'Where in the world am I?' He looked and looked, but it was a vain search; he could not find himself. And that is how it is with us