In solitude, we find ourselves; we prepare ourselves to come to conversation with something to say that is authentic, ours.
I think that really what our training, what our culture, our religious institutions, our educational and cultural institutions should be about is preparing the heart for that journey outside of the cage of the ribs.
In the world of the dreamer there was solitude: all the exaltations and joys came in the moment of preparation for living. They took place in solitude.
I like to say that before we can create an external space in which to receive people, we have to create an internal space in which to receive them.
I'm slightly influenced by sport in that I like the idea of trying, like an athlete, to keep absolutely ready. That's an emotional thing, almost. I don't mean physically, although I play tennis. But you try to keep yourself ready.
God will speak to the hearts of those who prepare themselves to hear; and conversely, those who do not so prepare themselves will hear nothing even though the Word of God is falling upon their outer ears every Sunday.
We must not run after it, but we must fit ourselves for the vision and then wait tranquilly for it, as the eye waits on the rising of the Sun which in its own time appears above the horizon and gives itself to our sight.
The real preparation for education is a study of one's self. The training of the teacher...is something far more than a learning of ideas. It includes the training of character; it is a preparation of the spirit.
The devil will let a preacher prepare a sermon if it will keep him from preparing himself.
For God Himself works in our souls, in the deepest depths, taking increasing control as we are progressively willing to be prepared for His wonder.
Meditation is not to get out of society, to escape from society, but to prepare for a reentery into society.
I think everything that happens in life we're prepared for in ways we really don't really know.
Almighty God freely bestows the good things in this world in proportion to a person's mental readiness to receive.
Sometimes we have the dream but we are not ourselves ready for the dream. We have to grow to meet it.
I am not much of a trained actor. I have to get my brain and heart to go deep inside the situation, and then, probably, I can start acting. It takes me a little while to get out of it.
Every day I shall put my papers in order and every day I shall say farewell. And the real farewell, when it comes, will only be a small outward confirmation of what has been accomplished within me from day to day.
Your body must become familiar with its death - in all its possible forms and degrees - as a self-evident, imminent, and emotionally neutral step on the way towards the goal you have found worthy of your life.
Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime
