December 27

Everything that we see and know, we see and know not as it really is, but as it appears to our cognitive faculties.

1

The heavens and the earth are great, but they have color, form and size. There is something within a human being that has no color, no form, no number, no size—and this something is rational.

If the universe was by itself inanimate, then it could only be animated by the human intellect. But the universe is infinite, and human intellect is finite, and therefore human intellect cannot be the intellect of the universe.

From this it is evident that the universe must be animated by an intellect, and this intellect must be infinite.

— Confucius

2

When heaven is spoken of as a place where the blessed are, then one naturally imagines it somewhere high above oneself in the boundless spaces of the universe. But in thinking so one forgets that our Earth, viewed from those spaces of the universe, also appears as one of the celestial stars, and that the inhabitants of those worlds would be just as right to point to Earth and say: “See that star—that is a place of eternal blessedness, a celestial haven prepared for us, which we will one day find ourselves in.” The thing is that, due to a strange error of our thinking, the flight of our faith is always linked to the notion of ascending upwards and, moreover, we do not think about the fact that however far we ascend, we will have to descend down again in order to get a firm footing on some other world.

— Kant

3

Instead of saying that the world is reflected within us, we should rather say that our reason is reflected in the world. We cannot be any other way: we must recognize order and rational organization in the world—this is the result of our rational faculties. But this does not at all mean that what is necessary for our process of thought is the same thing in reality, since we have absolutely no idea about the workings of the external world.

— Lichtenberg

4

Take a look at this frail, naked shadow, possessed by desires, there is no strength in it, it cannot defend itself, the body is exhausted, frail and weak, as if it is about to crumble to pieces, the life in it is already crossing over into death… A bare skull looks like a pumpkin, harvested in autumn… Is it possible to still be happy, to still feel joy?

This fortress was made for bones, wrapped in flesh and nourished with the juice of blood, and now—now old age and death, pride and arrogance dwell in it… The precious chariots of kings are crumbling, old age brings the body closer to decay; only the teachings of goodness do not age or perish.

— Buddhist wisdom

5

The moment a human being regards himself as a material being, he becomes an unsolvable puzzle, an inextricable contradiction.

To understand the true meaning of things, it is necessary to reduce everything visible to the invisible, everything material to the spiritual.