This week I would like to share and discuss some of the ancient mindsets that shaped eras long before many of the religious leaders we have come to know over time. These individuals were certainly on the edge of their times and yet timeless in retrospect. Today we start with Heraclitus.
Heraclitus (circa 535-475 BCE) is considered the most important pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He was born in the Greek city of Ephesus. Little is known of his life and we have only a few sentences of his work.
Quotations from Heraclitus:
“Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become.”
“Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.”
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”
This last quotation is his most famous. It sounds both the theme of impermanence and the idea that our identities are fluid and ever-changing, so we need not get attached to the mental state of the moment and think we will be that way from now on.
Peace and Love, Jim
