From How Philosophers Saved Myths: Allegorical Interpretation and Classical Mythology, by Luc Brisson, trans. by Catherine Tihanyi:
Love, as any philosopher knew, is the principle that enables the cohesion of the elements with each other so as to form the universe.
That’s my favorite sentence in the whole book. Maybe my favorite sentence ever.
Today I called my school in Santa Barbara to pay tuition, and I had a lovely chat with David in the Student Accounts office:
David: I see you’re in Rochester.
JoJo: That’s right.
David: How’s the weather there?
JoJo: Oh, it’s gorgeous. This whole month has been beautiful.
David: Really? I thought you had that stuff, what do you call it… snow?
Wow. I think I’m about to cross some kind of inter-dimensional threshold. I think I’m about to like it.
From Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, by Heinrich Zimmer:
When the divine life substance is about to put forth the universe, the cosmic waters grow a thousand-petaled lotus of pure gold, radiant as the sun. This is the door or gate, the opening or mouth, of the womb of the universe.
Now there’s a creation image with a sense of aesthetics! And vitality! And friendliness toward the feminine! I feel refreshed.
From The Upanishads: The Wisdom of the Hindu Mystics, trans. Prabhavananda & Manchester:
This moon is honey for all beings, and all beings are honey for this moon. The intelligent, immortal being, the soul of this moon, and the intelligent, immortal being, the soul in the individual being–each is honey to the other.
Do you think my teachers will mind if all my papers are about how much I love every single thing we read? By the way, that honey moon will be full on Tuesday, August 20. You can get details at this handy-dandy US Naval Observatory page.
