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The enlightened possess understanding
So profound they can not be understood.
Because they cannot be understood
I can only describe their appearance:

Cautious as one crossing thin ice,
Undecided as one surrounded by danger,
Modest as one who is a guest,
Unbounded as melting ice,
Genuine as unshaped wood,
Broad as a valley,
Seamless as muddy water.

Who stills the water that the mud may settle,
Who seeks to stop that he may travel on,
Who desires less than may transpire,
Decays, but will not renew.

-LaoTze

Slow is the experience of all deep fountains: long have they to wait until they know what hath fallen into their depths.
Away from the market-place and from fame taketh place all that is great: away from the market-place and from fame have ever dwelt the devisers of new values.
Flee, my friend, into thy solitude: I see thee stung all over by the poisonous flies. Flee tither, where a rough, strong breeze bloweth!

-----

A scholar am I still to the children, and also to the thistles and red poppies.
But to the sheep I am no longer a scholar: so willeth my lot - blessings upon it!
For this is the truth: I have departed from the house of the scholars, and the door have I also slammed behind me.
Too long did my soul sit hungry at their table: not like them have I got the knack of investigating, as the knack of nut-cracking.
Freedom do I love, and the air over fresh soil; rather would I sleep on ox-skins than on their honors and dignities.
I am too hot and scorched with mine own thought: often is it ready to take away my breath. Then have I to go into the open air, and away from all dusty rooms.
But they sit cool in the cool shade: they want in everything to be merely spectators, and they avoid sitting where the sun burneth on the steps.
-Thus spake Zarathustra

#478 (The dawn of day)
Pass By. --Spare him! Leave him in his solitude! Are you, then, bent upon crushing him? He is flawed like a glass into which suddently some hot liquid was poured, -- and he was such a precious glass!

#479
Love and truthfulness. -- For love's sake we are dire offenders against truth and have become habitual concealers and thieves, who report more things as true than really appear to be true, -- wherefore the thinker has periodically to drive away the persons whom he loves (they will not always be those who love him), so that they may show their sting and wickedness and cease to tempt him. Consequently the kindness of the thinker will have its waning and waxing moon.

#485
Distant perspectives. --A: But why this solitude? -- B: I bear no grudge against anybody. But when I am alone I seem to see my friends in a clearer and rosier light than when I am in their company; and when I loved and understood music best, I lived far from it. It seems that I am in need of distant perspectives to think well of things.
Luogo
Montreal, Canada
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