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The person who, being really on the Way, falls upon hard times in the world, will not, as a consequence, turn to that friend who offers him refuge and comfort and encourages their old self to survive. Rather, he will seek out someone who will faithfully and inexorably help him to risk himself, so that he may endure the difficulty and pass courageously through it. Only to the extent that a person exposes himself over and over again to annihilation, can that which is indestructible be found within them. In this daring lies dignity and the spirit of true awakening.
-- Karlfried von Durkheim
Wilfred Lawson, an English character actor with an enthusiasm for strong drink, sat in a West End pub one evening and overheard two young American actors speaking passionately about their craft. Lawson, his speech a little imprecise, approached them and asked them if they'd like to see, at that very moment, some acting that would surprise, and perhaps even jolt, them ... acting of a sort that they had never seen before.
The younger actors agreed, and Lawson led them across the street to the alley entrance of a theater, and up the stairs to the balcony. There they watched a few minutes of a play in progress. The acting was fine. But suddenly, the mood on the stage changed. The actors varied their rhythms in unusual ways, and held their bodies in arresting poses. There was an air of tension and expectation on the stage and in the audience.
One of the American actors leaned over to Lawson and said, "This is amazing." After a few more moments of observing, he leaned over again and asked, "What are they doing?"
Lawson said, "They're waiting for my entrance."
-- Charlie Hauck, Artistic Differences
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