The World Could Be Otherwise Quotes

“It turns out that it takes courage simply to be a normal person at ease in the world among others.”
― Norman Fischer, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path

“At the bottom of every important conflict is a sense of love having been betrayed”
― Norman Fischer, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path

“I understand why some religious people don’t like Darwin’s work on evolution. Early evolutionary theory seemed to suggest that the existence of God and, consequently, the God-mandated practice of ethical conduct are not fundamental to humankind. Evolution teaches that being human is being an animal, different from and yet fundamentally the same as other animals—not a uniquely privileged creature made by God in God’s own image. The will to survive is basic to all animals. The fittest survive.”
― Norman Fischer, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path

“For a word to be a word, it has to refer to something that is not a word.”
― Norman Fischer, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path

“Forgiveness Meditation. Settle into meditation. Recall someone whom you know you need to forgive. Just let the person’s image or the sense of who they are arise in your mind. Feel the feelings. Observe whatever happens without entanglement. Let the feelings come and go. Don’t try to forgive, just be present.”
― Norman Fischer, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path

“No one achieves wealth and power exclusively through his or her own efforts. You can pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but someone gave you the boots.”
― Norman Fischer, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path

“For bodhisattvas, it isn’t enough to get what you need and desire, to protect yourself and your family, to accumulate wealth, security, and reputation. It’s not that bodhisattvas are against any of that; they too recognize these goals and desires as natural. It’s just that bodhisattvas are committed to a much more ambitious goal, a greater obligation, a higher and wider calling. They want much more joy, much more love, much more justice and well-being, for themselves and for everyone. Personal well being is only a means to this end. (p. 58)”
― Norman Fischer, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path