Sunday, July 16, 2006

Sunday Food For Thought

I've chosen some quotes by Viktor Frankl an Austrian psychiatrist, concentration camp survivor, and author of the must-read book, Man's Search for Meaning, for my readers to ponder.

I first read that book when I was quite young and it affected me deeply. As I grew older and began to study Buddhism, I found the views espoused by Frankl reflected what I was learning from that philosophy as well.

What Frankl reminds all of us, regardless of our beliefs, is that we only have this moment and we too often forget that when we are not forced to realize it. We have a responsibility to live this life and are provided with the challenge to do so in a meaningful way with every breath we take.

Imagine a world in which that was standard practice.

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.

I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.

What is to give light must endure burning.

You can read an interview with Frankl at age 90 here.

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