Quotes About Longing

Dogen's teaching: We practice because we do not yet know who or what we are. But as a result of many causes, including the suffering we experience and the longing engendered by that suffering, we aspire to know. That aspiration leads many people to begin the practice of zazen. Dogen expressed this beautifully when he said, "Wisdom is seeking wisdom." Perhaps we might paraphrase and say that wholeness is seeking wholeness, self is seeking self.

Nobody is so miserable as he who longs to be somebody and something other than the person he is in body and mind.

You desire! You desire. You unmitigated ass.

All life long crying without avail, As the water all night long is crying to me.

The Music of Negro religion is that plaintive rhythmic melody, with its touching minor cadences, which, despite caricature and defilement, still remains the most original and beautiful expression of human life and longing yet born on American soil.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.

There is no pain on this earth like seeing the same woman look at another man the way she once looked at you.

Nothing remains but desire, and desire comes howling down Elysian Fields like a mistral.

this miserable trick the romantic plays upon himself: of setting just beyond his reach the very thing he prizes.

If no one is home, then someone is missing. So you grieve.

Mine is a story of craving. Each memory makes me a child again.

He sat down on one of the pilings looking sick and sad and I knew he was thinking about Ma and the baby. I wanted badly to cheer him up but singing commercials seemed the wrong thing to do.

Your children are not your children,'" he said. "'They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.'" "What's that supposed to mean?" I lit another Doral. "It's from The Prophet. Kahlil Gibran.

The other day I was looking for something in the bedroom closet and got an unexpected whiff of him from one of his sweaters . . ." His face crumpled up but he fought off crying. "The pain is almost physical, sometimes. I missed him so much that day that it gave me a bloody nose—just started bleeding for no reason. Hadn't

What solitary child hasn't wished for a twin, Mr. Birdsey? Hasn't imagined that a double exists somewhere in the world? It's a hungering for human connection— another way of sheltering oneself against the storm.

Your children are not your children,'" he said. "'They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

Is that what love is all about? Needing them to come back to you when they're away? To come home and keep you safe?

I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone, I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again / I am to see to it that I do not lose you

O past! O happy life! O songs of joy! In the air, in the woods, over fields, Loved! loved! loved! loved! loved! But my mate no more, no more with me! We two together no more. -from Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

Man or woman, I might tell you how I like you, but cannot, And might tell what it is in me and what it is in you, but cannot, And might tell that pining I have, that pulse of my nights and days. Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give, I give myself.

am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake at night alone; I am to wait--I do not doubt I am to meet you again; I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

Blind loving wrestling touch, sheath'd hooded sharp-tooth'd touch! Did it make you ache so, leaving me?

O You Whom I Often and Silently Come O you whom I often and silently come where you are that I may be with you, As I walk by your side or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.