Cover artwork by Anton Biletskyi-Volokh, from an unpublished reusable sketchbook in progress.
A thematic selection of translated notebook fragments.
Greed always goes hand in hand with boredom.
An enemy is a reservoir into which you can drain your own shadow side.
The simpler a person's consciousness, the less diversity it can withstand.
A row is a way of getting closer to the truth and clarifying how things really stand.
Romanticising means trying to cover the gaps, inconsistencies and failures of the real with a veil of the imaginary.
Our thinking consists of a thinker and a prover. Whatever the thinker thinks, the prover will find arguments for it.
Looking for an external enemy as a way of avoiding your own inner conflict. Projective mechanisms.
Love bombing and ignoring, as expressions of idealisation and de-idealisation, have the same target: to fill the other person, who is under attack, with your presence.
Perfectionism often leads to inaction rather than action: if it cannot be perfect straight away, there is no point even starting.
Half of what we think today is yesterday's thoughts. That is why our attitudes are so hard to change.
Behind the desire for the ideal is fear of the real. While I am fantasising about the ideal, I am protected from the desert of the real.
Thoughts are the matrix through which we construct our reality. Paying attention to your inner space is an essential part of mental hygiene.
It is good when someone does not want to discuss the rules, because it means that, with this person, there are no rules to the game.
Shame is the pain the real feels when the ideal attacks it.
On projection. The wary thought 'Nobody treats me right' disguises the way a person treats everybody else wrong.
Resentment will always find a gap between expectation and reality in which to flourish.
Some people are insinuating mirrors. In their company, you think they understand you so well, when they are actually mirroring you.
Judging your own strength can be difficult, because it means giving up the idea of being grand and all-powerful.
A wound is like a prism: you do not see the world itself, but assemble everything through the facets of the wound.
Strategy without tactics means lying in the direction of what you want and believing in the power of thought. Tactics without strategy means acting chaotically, in short dashes.