It is not well known that all the best angels wear their haloes jauntily, over one ear. - Alan Watts

For every individual is a unique
manifestation of the Whole, as every branch is a particular outreaching
of the tree. To manifest individuality, every branch must have a
sensitive connection with the tree, just as our independently moving and
differentiated fingers must have a sensitive connection with the whole
body. The point, which can hardly be repeated too often, is that
differentiation is not separation.

It was a basic Confucian principle that “it is man who makes
truth great, not truth which makes man great.” For this reason,
“humanness” or “human-heartedness” (jen a) was always felt to be
superior to “righteousness” (i b), since man himself is greater than
any idea which he may invent. There are times when men’s
passions are much more trustworthy than their principles. Since
opposed principles, or ideologies, are irreconcilable, wars fought
over principle will be wars of mutual annihilation. But wars fought for simple greed will be far less destructive, because the aggressor
will be careful not to destroy what he is fighting to capture.
Reasonable–that is, human–men will always be capable of
compromise, but men who have dehumanized themselves by
becoming the blind worshipers of an idea or an ideal are fanatics
whose devotion to abstractions makes them the enemies of life.

[T]he anxiety-laden problem of what will happen to me when I die is, after all, like asking what happens to my fist when I open my hand, or where my lap goes when I stand up.