Where authority represses freedom, rebellion becomes the hard work of love, which is necessary because love, freedom, and spirit are inseparable. - Sam Keen

The standard Christian conscience does not permit the believer to look upon the self and find beauty, goodness, natural kindness, strength. Self-knowledge is tainted with self-hatred. The rules of the game of the Christian conscience are such that, when I look within, I must take the blame for all evil, all hardness of the heart that I find, but give God all the credit for any evidence of love. … It is not surprising that the practice of meditation … has remained under a cloud in the West, and that we have, consequently, created a culture of extroverts.

[...] quanto mais você se tornar um conhecedor da gratidão, menos você será vítima do ressentimento, da depressão e do desespero. A gratidão funcionará como um elixir que gradualmente dissolverá a concha dura de seu ego - sua necessidade de possuir e controlar - e transformará você num ser generoso. O senso de gratidão produz uma verdadeira alquimia espiritual, torna-nos magnânimos - de almas grandes.

Trust what moves you most deeply.