"Humans have a responsibility to their own time, not as if they could seem to stand outside it and donate various spiritual and material benefits to it from a position of compassionate distance.
Humans have a responsibility to find themselves where they are, in their own proper time and place, in history to which they belong and to which they must inevitably contribute either their response or their evasions, either truth and act, or mere slogan and gesture."
Thomas Merton
"We cannot change the way the world is, but by opening ourselves to the world as it is, we may find that gentleness, decency and bravery are available, not only to us but to all human beings."
Chogyam Trungpa
Buddhist Teacher
"We have to be conscious, we have to be aware of what is going on, and then we have to consciously choose who we want to be for this time (...) Encountering reality, not turning our heads from what is going on, being courageous enough to take in all this pain and suffering that surrounds us. It is by opening ourselves to the world, truthfully letting it in that we find the gentleness, decency and bravery are available, and not just for ourselves but to all human beings as well. If we want to be brave, gentle, decent people, to be compassionate and open heartedness... If we want these qualities, the path to find them it is to let the world in, and yet the world is so frightening and so bombarding us with things, often difficult to realize that if we can open our hearts then we can discover the very qualities we need to serve the world."
Margaret Wheatley
