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Topics · Life & Self

Wisdom about shadow work.

What people have learned about shadow work the hard way, and what the classics said about it first.

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From the library

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.
Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself is difficult to perceive.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Vanity working on a weak head produces every sort of mischief.
Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
And when (one with the highest excellence) does not wrangle (about his low position), no one finds fault with him.
How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
The Tao is hidden, and has no name; but it is the Tao which is skilful at imparting (to all things what they need) and making them complete.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.
Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
There is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition; no calamity greater than to be discontented with one's lot; no fault greater than the wish to be getting. Therefore the sufficiency of contentment is an enduring and unchanging sufficiency.
Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.
In a little state with a small population, I would so order it, that, though there were individuals with the abilities of ten or a hundred men, there should be no employment of them; I would make the people, while looking on death as a grievous thing, yet not remove elsewhere (to avoid it).
The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
But I have heard that he who is skilful in managing the life entrusted to him for a time travels on the land without having to shun rhinoceros or tiger, and enters a host without having to avoid buff coat or sharp weapon. The rhinoceros finds no place in him into which to thrust its horn, nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws, nor the weapon a place to admit its point. And for what…
The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
The skilful traveller leaves no traces of his wheels or footsteps; the skilful speaker says nothing that can be found fault with or blamed; the skilful reckoner uses no tallies; the skilful closer needs no bolts or bars, while to open what he has shut will be impossible; the skilful binder uses no strings or knots, while to unloose what he has bound will be impossible. In the same way the sage…
Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.
A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.
Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.
But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.
When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden.
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.