All Is Well in the Great Mess

Archive

159 posts, arranged by year.

2026

  1. A Cloud Never Dies
  2. Enlightenment of the Wave
  3. My hut lies in the middle of a dense forest; Every year the green ivy grows longer. No …
  4. Out of Control

2024

  1. Wild beasts flee from the dangers they see - and when they have fled they are calm. …
  2. Be ready for change always
  3. Remember: Matter. How tiny your share of it. Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment …
  4. Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you …
  5. The best way to learn is by teaching. – Unknown
  6. The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on the fighting the old, but on …

2023

  1. The Egg
  2. The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding …
  3. Leben wie ein Baum, einzeln und frei doch brüderlich wie ein Wald, das ist unsere …
  4. Einfache Lügen haben es schwerer als komplizierte Wahrheiten
  5. Umwege erhöhen die Ortskenntnisse. Manchmal muss man vom Weg abkommen um auf der Strecke …
  6. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our …
  7. The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And …
  8. Don't Quit

2022

  1. When your bow is broken
  2. The best revenge against your enemy is not to become like your enemy. – Marcus …
  3. Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone …
  4. I wonder what feelings inspire a man to complain of 'having nothing to do.' I am happiest …
  5. Leaves
  6. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the …
  7. Do not believe in anything
  8. A Cloud Never Dies
  9. Since I came to Cold Mountain how many thousand years have passed accepting my fate I …
  10. "Stop Chasing After So Many Things" - Ryokan and Wang Wei
  11. If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. – Wayne …
  12. Having no destination I am never lost. – Ikkyu 1394-1481
  13. kintsukuroi
  14. Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men’s desires, but by the removal of …
  15. Look closer
  16. You can’t save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or …
  17. You don't matter
  18. We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone …
  19. If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters — …
  20. The Old Man in The Park
  21. Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments
  22. Please Call Me by My True Names
  23. We have a tendency to think in terms of doing and not in terms of being. We think that …
  24. No coming, no going, No after, no before, I hold you close, I release you to be free; I …
  25. The Zen Awards
  26. Sometimes the scariest bridge to burn is the one between you and the person you thought …

2021

  1. It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. – Aristotle
  2. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. – Marcus …
  3. The Daily Stoic
  4. In a chaotic modern world seemingly designed to burn everyone out, slowing down is a …
  5. The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding …
  6. Ergib dich nicht der Stimmung dessen, der dich beleidigt, und folge nicht dem Weg, auf …
  7. Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons …
  8. “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are …
  9. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
  10. Invictus by William Ernest Henley
  11. The Source of All My Problems
  12. “No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to …
  13. “Do you want to improve the world? I don’t think it can be done. The world is …
  14. Huh!
  15. Where Do You Think We Are Headed?
  16. “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is …
  17. Everyone should sit in meditation for twenty minutes everyday - unless they are too busy; …
  18. Seneca - Das Leben ist kurz!
  19. If— by Rudyard Kipling
  20. Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
  21. Seneca - On the Shortness of Life
  22. “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to …
  23. “Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people—unless it …
  24. “Worry is a misuse of the imagination.” – Dan Zadra
  25. Ich muss meinem Tag keinen Plan mehr geben
  26. “The birds have vanished into the sky, and now the last cloud drains away. We sit …
  27. The Little Duck by Donald C. Babcock
  28. “Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect.” – Tenets of Wabi Sabi

2020

  1. “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anaïs Nin
  2. “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” …
  3. „Ziehe dich in dich selbst zurück, so viel du kannst; verkehre mit denen, die dich besser …
  4. “You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said …
  5. “If you aim at great things, you must not allow yourself inclination toward the …
  6. “Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should …
  7. “In the end what matters most is How well did you live How well did you love How …
  8. Canons of Conduct
  9. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, …
  10. “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and …
  11. “True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not …
  12. “My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes; most of which never …
  13. “A rock thrown in the air. It loses nothing by coming down, gained nothing by going …
  14. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” …
  15. “We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than …
  16. “We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, …
  17. “Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should …
  18. The cost of sanity in this society, is a certain level of alienation. – Terence …
  19. No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. – Aesop
  20. It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. – Seneca …
  21. Things are not as they seem, nor are they otherwise. – Zen proverb
  22. Bleiben will ich, wo ich nie gewesen bin
  23. Epictetus - The Enchiridion
  24. Excercises
  25. F.A.Q.
  26. Keeping a Stoic Journal
  27. Marcus Aurelius - Meditations - Book 3
  28. Marcus Aurelius - Meditations - Book 4
  29. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 01
  30. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 02 - Instructions 1
  31. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 03 - Instructions 2
  32. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 04 - Instructions 3
  33. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 05 - Instructions 4
  34. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 06 - Instructions 5
  35. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 07 - Instructions 6
  36. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 08 - Instructions 7
  37. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 09 - Division of Your Life into Epochs
  38. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 10 - Significant Experiences from this epoch
  39. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 11 - Analysis of Effects of Experiences
  40. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 12 - Ten Most Critical Life Experiences
  41. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 13 - Analysis
  42. Past Authoring / Autobiography - 14 - Conclusion
  43. Pinboard Browser Extension/Add-On
  44. Present Authoring: Faults - 01
  45. Present Authoring: Faults - 01 - Introductions 1
  46. Present Authoring: Faults - 02 - Introductions 2
  47. Present Authoring: Faults - 03 - Introductions 3
  48. Present Authoring: Faults - 04 - Introductions 4
  49. Present Authoring: Faults - 05 - Introductions 5
  50. Present Authoring: Faults - 06 - Introductions 6
  51. Present Authoring: Faults - 07 - Introductions 7
  52. Present Authoring: Faults - 08 - Introductions 8
  53. Present Authoring: Faults - 09 - Select Habits
  54. Present Authoring: Faults - 10 - Select Habits
  55. Present Authoring: Faults - 11 - Select Habits
  56. Present Authoring: Faults - 12 - Select Habits
  57. Present Authoring: Faults - 13 - Select Habits
  58. Someday Never Comes
  59. Stoicism in a time of pandemic: how Marcus Aurelius can help
  60. The Big Five Aspects Scale
  61. Zhuangzi
  62. Wer noch grün ist, kann wachsen. Wer sich bereits reif wähnt, beginnt schon zu faulen. …
  63. “The wise man is consistent in both his thoughts and actions.” – Donald …
  64. “Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control …
  65. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” …
  66. About Stoically Braving the Odds to Emerge Stronger
  67. Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I …
  68. In everything that you do, pause and ask yourself if death is a dreadful thing because it …
  69. “True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the …
  70. Stoics are speaking to locked-down readers
  71. Marcus Aurelius - Meditations - Book 2
  72. Marcus Aurelius - Meditations - Book 1
  73. Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self-Reliance
  74. “External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you …
  75. “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in …
  76. “Only time can heal what reason cannot.” – Seneca
  77. Marc Aurel: Selbstbetrachtungen (Reclam Hörbuch)
  78. Senecas unvergängliche Lebensweisheit
  79. “The life we are given isn’t short but we make it so; we’re not ill provided but we are …
  80. “Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in …
  81. “Without going out-of-doors, one may know all under heaven; Without peering through …
  82. “Remember that no one loses any other life than this which he is living, nor lives …
  83. “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.” – …
  84. “Loss is nothing but change, and change is nature’s delight.” – Marcus Aurelius
  85. “It’s impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows” – Epictetus
  86. “You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get …
  87. Welcome