MY OWN ALL IS LOST MOMENT I’ve had many. Here’s one from The War of Art: I dragged out my ancient Smith-Corona, dreading the experience as pointless, fruitless, meaningless, not to say the most painful exercise I could think of. For two hours I made myself sit there, torturing out some trash that I chucked immediately into the shitcan. That was enough. I put the machine away. I went back to the kitchen. In the sink sat ten days of dishes. For some reason I had enough excess energy that I decided to wash them. The warm water felt good. A pile of clean plates began rising in the drying rack. To my amazement I realized I was whistling. It hit me that I had turned a corner. Do you understand? I hadn’t written anything good. It might be years before I would, if I ever did at all. That didn’t matter. What counted was that I had, after years of running from it, actually sat down and done my work. The War of Art, p. 49-50 I’m cheating citing this passage because it includes an Epiphanal Moment. (The All Is Lost Moment ends before the Smith-Corona comes out.) But more about this in a few more pages.

The best and the most important object for every person is his inner self, his spiritual being.

A person who knows all sciences but does not know himself is a poor and ignorant person.

He who does not know anything except for his inner spiritual self is an enlightened person.

When you feel the desire for power, you should stay in solitude for some time.

—HENRY DAVID THOREAU

The way to fame goes through the palaces, the way to happiness goes through the markets, the way to virtue goes through the deserts.

—CHINESE PROVERB

A person always has a place to be safe from all of his misfortunes, and this place is his soul.

If you could only know who you are, all your troubles would seem utterly unnecessary and trivial.