As an angst-ridden teenager, the words of writer Kafka above resonated, deeply. Some might find this depressing, but the way I see it, Awakening sometimes requires shocks to our system.
Or, as another powerful writer, Rilke, put it in the startling closing of his poem Archaic Torso of Apollo
"...for here there is no place/ that does not see you. You must change your life."
While I still seek out books that might awaken me or lead me to remember the Indestructible I, now, also recognize the higher value of joy and lightheartedness 😊
Mercifully, I'm softening somewhat with age, but still susceptible to Kafka’s extremity... I I imagine that these transformative books he is speaks of vary from person to person, as well as from stage to stage.
Here's a handful of books on my shelf that have quietly been altering my inner landscape, lately.
As someone who write aphorisms, I do also admire standalone lines that encapsulate a philosophy and are written poetically.
Kafka was a pretty good aphorist, as these powerful excerpts illustrate:
“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will writhe in ecstasy at your feet.
The true way goes over a rope which is not stretched at any great height but just above the ground. It seems more designed to make people stumble than to be walked upon.
In the struggle between yourself and the world, side with the world.
The tremendous world I have in my head! But how can I release it and release myself without tearing myself apart? And it is a thousand times better to tear myself apart than to keep it in check or buried in me. That is what I am here for, of that I am quite clear.
Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we are driven out of Paradise; because of impatience we cannot return.
No people sing with such pure voices as those that live in deepest hell; what we take for the song of angels is their song.
If there is a transmigration of souls... I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.
Believing means liberating the indestructible element in oneself...
Never again psychology! ...all these so-called illnesses, sad as they may appear, are facts of faith, efforts of people in distress to find moorings in maternal soil of some kind.
Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached.”
