Who will be the first to drive a stake through the dark heart of ambition? Young man! Ambition leads to competition. Competition leads to conflict. Conflict leads to death all over the place. See how swiftly ambition conjures conclusions. And how the mind shuts with a clanging sound and the ability to learn dies at the doorstep.
Sufis tell us to die before we die, to live like we’re already dead.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were somewhere we could go to learn how to live? But there isn’t.
It’s not a mistake to make a mistake—unless, of course, it’s repeated. Our experiences don’t bring us to the mat; repetition does.
We think we are doing things. Ego says, “I’ve done this!” But we are not doing things. Things are being done through us. Like leaves in autumn, we are being blown across the sky.
No one can teach us to yield. In the region of the heart, we’re autodidacts.
Discipline has nothing to do with subjugation, suppression or standing at attention. It does not mean replacing one pattern of behaviour with another. It means “to learn.”
We must be completely free in order to learn. Freedom begins with the realization of how trapped we are.
The least free are the most conventional.
Men's Work 