Sebastian Kim

“Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your self image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passerby. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. And to know what you are not, you must watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not necessarily go with the basic fact: “I am.” Our usual attitude is of “I am this.” Consistently and perseveringly separate the “I am” from “this” or “that” and try to feel what it means to be, without being “this” or “that.” All our habits go against it and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes, but clear understanding helps significantly. The more clearly you understand that on the level of the mind you can be described in negative terms only, the more quickly you will come to the end of your search and realize your limitless being.”
― Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“I request permission to issue visas to hundreds of Jewish people who have come to the consulate here in Kaunas seeking transit visas. They are suffering extremely. As a fellow human being, I cannot refuse their requests. Please permit me to issue visas to them. This request is a humanitarian plea. The refugees’ request for visas should not be denied.”
― Alison Leslie Gold, A Special Fate: Chiune Sugihara: Hero of the Holocaust

“Japanese children were taught a code in school. It had three laws: (a) Do not be a burden to others; (b) Take care of others; (c) Do not expect rewards for your goodness.”
― Alison Leslie Gold, A Special Fate: Chiune Sugihara: Hero of the Holocaust

“By acting against his own government, he would most likely lose all chance of advancement, ruin his career, and be disgraced. He might endanger all their lives. He added that although he might have to disobey his government, if he didn’t act, he would be disobeying God.”
― Alison Leslie Gold, A Special Fate: Chiune Sugihara: Hero of the Holocaust