SR06 · Module
Obstacle Inversion and Alchemical Transformation
Converting impediments into the path forward (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations V.20), Seneca's gymnasium of adversity (On Providence), and the Jungian psychology of transmuting inner tension and hardship into higher order.
Cues
Showing 11 of 11 cues
“Excellence withers without an adversary. It is not what you endure that matters, but how you endure it.”
“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
“Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.”
“To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.”
“In short, the wise man looks to the purpose of all actions, not their consequences; beginnings are in our power but Fortune judges the outcome, and I do not grant her verdict upon me.”
“Why do I not rather seek some real good - one which I could feel, not one which I could display? These things that draw the eyes of men, before which they halt, which they show to one another in wonder, outwardly glitter, but are worthless within.”
“You regard it as a misfortune to die without seeing such sights. But when there is no need to travel at all, and where you are already, and Zeus is present in his works; will you not desire to contemplate these things and understand them? Will you never perceive either who you are, or for what you have been born, or the purpose for which this vision has been given to you?”
“Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths ... Dig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it.”
“Examine the lives of the best and most fruitful people ... and ask yourself whether a tree that is supposed to grow to a proud height can dispense with bad weather and storms; whether misfortune and eternal resistance ... do not belong among the favorable conditions without which any great growth even of virtue is scarcely possible.”
“It is circumstances which show men what they are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like the trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. “For what purpose?” you may say. Why, that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat.”
“What a caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”