Ian Zen

“The truth is that an enlightened person has made a practice of releasing all resistance from his or her being. It’s not that they never experience conflict or pain. It’s that they are willing to be open to experiencing conflict and pain.”
― Teal Swan, The Completion Process: The Practice of Putting Yourself Back Together Again

“The human smile derives from the nervous grin found in other primates. We employ it when there is a potential for conflict, something we are always worried about even under the friendliest circumstances. We bring flowers or a bottle of wine when we are invading other people’s home territory, and we greet each other by waving an open hand, a gesture thought to originate from showing that we carry no weapons. But the smile remains our main tool to improve the mood. Copying another’s smile makes everyone happier, or as Louis Armstrong sang: “When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.”
― Frans de Waal, Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves

“When looting becomes a way of life for a group in society, over time it creates a legal system that legalizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. Claude-Frédéric Bastiat,
Economist and Politician”
― Titus Gebel, Free Private Cities: Making Governments Compete For You

“I think balance is for people who don't know why they're here.”
― Blake Crouch, Recursion