Top 15 John Diamond Quotes

Taking a photograph is, it seems to me, a momentary revelation of an instance of the universal unity. The subject and I are one.

Photography is not about seeing, but about Knowing. Going so deeply into the subject, whatever, whoever, that you find the spirit within. And then you memorialize it for others to also Know.

My deepest intention is that some day a sufferer, no matter how afflicted, will be able to look at a painting, at a photograph, and be instantly healed. That is my ultimate hope. Not to be realized in this life, maybe, but that is what I believe art can do.

The test of every act of creativity: Does it help you to enthusiastically, passionately, whole-heartedly and gratefully Embrace all your life? This, I believe, is the basic purpose of all the arts—and thus should be the basic Intention of every artist.

What matters is not what you paint but what your hand dances. The painting is only a notation of the dance of the hand, of the gesture of love.

I've tried to make my writing itself therapeutic—that by your act of reading it your Life Energy may be enhanced. One of the ways I have sought to achieve this is to make it singable, as best I can do. Not singable like song lyrics, rather more chantable. Encouraging you to sing along, moving with its flow, its pulse, its pulsations.

The healer must love the sufferer as his [surrogate] mother and be loved in return by the sufferer as his [surrogate] mother. For the ultimate healing is knowing the Love of one's own mother... However, only when the surrogate role is kept firmly in mind can the Love be true, be altruistic.

He [the chief psychiatrist] complimented me on how brilliant my diagnoses were: "You can smell a delusion, you can ferret out a hallucination, but"—and this has always stuck in my mind—"did you know that this woman grew prize camellias? Did you know that this man played the piano?" "No," I replied, a little bemused, "I wasn't trained to find the good things." But from then on I started to, and ever since I have looked for the good things. What the patient can do, not what he can't. His deficiencies and his weaknesses are so obvious, but his strengths, tragically, are deeply hidden: that is what makes him a patient, a sufferer. For it is his strength alone that will alleviate his suffering.

Now we must remember that there is no Orion's belt in the sky. There is only a collection of stars that appear to us, once they are pointed out, to resemble what we imagine Orion's belt to have been. But there is no more relationship between the stars comprising the belt than there is between all the stars in the universe. The only relationship is that which we have created in our own fantasy. A medical diagnosis is like Orion's belt. It doesn't really exist. It is just putting together a few easily observed findings that seem to have some special relationship. But when we do this, we ignore all the thousands of other findings that are really just as equally related and equally important in the whole universe of the patient.

Holistic does not mean doing all things, but bringing all of yourself to all of the sufferer, and him bringing all of himself to you.

We can accept any and all events in our existence if we believe our mothers love us. For, as I say, she was, and still is, all the world to us.

Through my mother's disease I came to know her as Spirit. The name of her disease hardly matters—no more than the name of the disease of your loved one. What matters is seeing through the disease to the sufferer's very essence, to their Soul.

Play with joy, with a smile. If you aren't enjoying it—stop. Never practice—that's just the brain. Always play, even if the audience is afar. That's the heart as well. Don't judge your playing—for then it is not play, but hard work. Just aim to refine your intention.

Why does the drum, of all instruments, have the greatest potential for life enhancement? I don't really know but here are some thoughts. First of all, there are no notes, therefore fewer judgments to be made by yourself and by others. There will be less right and wrong—especially if there is no counting. Is it the vibrating membrane? So alive! Is it because of its roundness? What I do know, is that everyone's association with the drum is with Life, with Heart—even more with the Mother.

For years I have encouraged my patients and students to play musical instruments. I believe that it is essential for their ultimate health to be able to express themselves musically. Inside each of us is the deep desire to open our hearts and sing out with love. I find that when they allow music-making to enter into their lives, there is a beautiful change. There is an opening of the heart.