Shaji Joseph

Someone encountering everything in life with wonder and never taking anything in life for granted... Humble, spiritual, contemplative; yet unconventional and freethinking... Preferring to be vegetarian on ethical grounds.

Email: [email protected]

Here are some quotes which speak for me or which being a reflection of my own thinking I can identify myself with:

"A person spends years coming into his own, developing his talent, his unique gifts, perfecting his discriminations about the world, broadening and sharpening his appetite, learning to bear the disappointments of life, becoming mature, seasoned—finally a unique creature in nature, standing with some dignity and nobility and transcending the animal condition; no longer driven, no longer a complete reflex, not stamped out of any mold and then the real tragedy... it takes sixty years of incredible suffer­ing and effort to make such an individual, and then he is good only for dying.... feeling unique and mortal at the sametime... the dilemma of existence of the mortal animal who at the same time is conscious of his mortality" -Schopenheaur

"Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat... All those who try to unveil the mysteries always have tragic lives. At the end they are always punished.” -Anais Nin

"To live fully is to live with an awareness of the rumble of terror that underlies everything... to have emerged from nothing, to have a name,consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life and self-expression and with all these yet to die.” -Ernest Becker

“Maybe you're right, boss. It all depends on the way you look at it. Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. 'What, grandad' I exclaimed. 'Planting an almond tree' and he, bent as he was, turned round and said, 'My son, I carry on as if I should never die.' I replied, 'And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.' Which of us was right, boss” -Nikos Kazantzakis