This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Jianzhi Sengcan, Third Patriarch of Zen, Third Patriarch of Ch'an
The Perfect Way knows no difficulties, except that it refuses to make preferences. Only when freed from hate and love does it reveal itself fully and without disguise. A tenth of an inch’s difference, and heaven and earth are set apart. If you wish to see it before your own eyes have no fixed thoughts either for or against it. To set up what you like against what you dislike - this is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of the Way is not understood. Peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose... Pursue not the outer entanglements, dwell not in the inner void; be serene in the oneness of things, and dualism vanishes of itself... Transformations going on in the empty world that confronts us appear to be real because of Ignorance. Do not strive to seek after the True, only cease to cherish opinions... One in all, All in One - if only this is realized, no more worry about not being perfect. When the mind and each believing mind and Mind, this is where words fail, for it is not of the past, present or future.
Character | Disease | Disguise | Earth | Future | Hate | Heaven | Ignorance | Love | Meaning | Mind | Oneness | Past | Peace | Present | Purpose | Purpose | Words | World | Worry |
Rabbi Eliezer ben Isaac Papo, aka "ha-Kosesh" or "The Saint"
By analyzing your worries, you will become aware that all worry is useless. Worries fall into two categories: worrying about the past and worrying about the future. As regards to the past, worry will not change the situation. You are compounding your suffering or loss by your present worrying. If you are worrying about something that might happen in the future, do what you can to protect yourself and prevent a loss. If there is nothing you can do, all your worrying will make no difference. So why waste your present moments worrying?
Change | Character | Future | Nothing | Past | Present | Suffering | Waste | Will | Worry | Loss |
Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.
Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud
Innately, children seem to have little true realistic anxiety. They will run along the brink of water, climb on the window sill, play with sharp objects and with fire, in short, do everything that is bound to damage them and to worry those in charge of them, that is wholly the result of education; for they cannot be allowed to make the instructive experiences themselves.
Anxiety | Anxiety | Children | Education | Little | Play | Will | Wisdom | Worry |
Robert Hillyer, fully Robert Silliman Hillyer
Perfectionism is a dangerous state of mind in an imperfect world. The best way is to forget doubts and set about the task at hand... If you are doing your best, you will not have time to worry about failure.
There is a price tag on human liberty. That price is the willingness to assume the responsibilities of being free men. Payment of this price is a personal matter with each of us. It is not something we can get others to pay for us. To let others carry the responsibilities of freedom and the work and worry that accompany them - while we share only in the benefits - may be a very human impulse, but it is likely to be fatal.
Freedom | Impulse | Liberty | Men | Price | Wisdom | Work | Worry |
We are making the price of power much too high in this society. I worry that we are making the conditions of public life so tough that nobody except people really obsessed with power will be willing finally to pay that price. That would be tragic from the point of view of public well-being.
Life | Life | People | Power | Price | Public | Society | Will | Wisdom | Worry |
Bacteria and other microorganisms find it easier to infect people who worry and fret.
Joe D. Batten and Leonard C. Hudson
Shift your emphasis from problems to challenges. The relationship of this concept to tension is very close. When you have problems you worry about them. When you have challenges, you are working, applying and attacking this plan to get results. The shift in thinking from problems to challenges is important in making tension an asset. Don’t let unsolved problems pursue you, make your decisions and forget them, and then do your job as well as you can.
Important | Plan | Problems | Relationship | Thinking | Worry |
Your subconscious mind produces in your daily life evidence of the thoughts you send back to it. The constant repetition of fear, anxiety and worry thoughts will bring upon you the same thing multiplied many times over, but the constant practice of positive thinking, making affirmations hour by hour that God is now healing your fears and worries, will bring magnificent results... You have the ability for successful living. You have the tools. The power you use is faith and the tools are your thoughts and ideas.
Ability | Anxiety | Anxiety | Evidence | Faith | Fear | God | Ideas | Life | Life | Mind | Power | Practice | Thinking | Will | Worry | God |
Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
Why worry one’s head over a thing that is inevitable? Why die before one’s death?
Death | Inevitable | Worry |