Some Interesting Quote Collections as well as an Introduction to Jung with some Jung Quotes

I have been collecting quotations for a
long time. Aphoristic quotations are sometimes the most efficient
and entertaining expression of universal truths. For this reason
one can often find quotes from very divergent sources and times that
say almost the same thing in almost the same words. Sometimes they
may have influenced each other, but often they have been
independently influenced by universal truth. Everyone’s’ ego tends
to create narrow tunnel views of things, especially things that
frustrate us and arouse fear and desire. The right quotations at
the right time can be like diamond bullets that blast holes in those
tunnels and make us aware of much larger vistas.

Introduction. © Jonathan Zap 2004

Someone once described stories as “equipment for living.” Quality fiction does fit that definition and, of [...]

The following quote collection has been culled from the Casteneda books and represents a distillation of Don Juan’s philosophy of the warrior. Regardless of what you may think of the literal veracity of these books(they have been pretty successfully debunked as truthful encounters), they were for many in our culture, including me, the first encounter with the philosophy of the warrior. Don Juan’s teachings about the Warrior stance have the perfection of a Samurai sword or arrows shot by a master Zen archer. Their concise, penetrating power is unequaled, and they pierce ego illusions like diamond bullets. Taken together they amount to a Toltec Warrior Manifesto. Someone once defined stories as “equipment for living.” Don Juan’s warrior teachings are also equipment for living, something never to leave behind, like a blade of impervious metal, a powerful ally to accompany you into any sort of wilderness.

I am presently in a phase of reading some of the classics of American self motivational literature. Although I continue to be highly critical of this material if used or presented as a comprehensive psychology, I am also gaining a new appreciation of its value and American character.

The following quotes come from Back to Beginnings, Reflections on the Tao by Huanchu Daoren, translated by Thomas Cleary. They [...]

© 2008, Jonathan Zap

An Encounter with Jung

As a child my psyche was magnetized by emergent archetypal visions from the collective [...]

My friend Rob Brezsny asked me to pick out some quotations from my writings that he could feature in his newsletter. I did, but most of the ones he came up with were ones he found himself. Here’s an excerpt from his newsletter, followed by the quotes that I came up with.