space to choose
February 19, 2011
Freedom means being able to choose how we respond to things. When wisdom is not well developed, it can be easily obscured by the provocations of others. In such cases we may as well be animals or robots. If there is no space between an insulting stimulus and its immediate conditioned response—anger—then we are in fact under the control of others.
– Andrew Olendzki
You Are IT 
February 19, 2011 at 10:40 pm
Interesting. I used robot as a metaphor for unconscious human only an hour or two ago.
March 11, 2012 at 12:11 am
It’s a good one. The more space we can put between the insulting stimulus and our reaction, the more freedom we have to be who we are without taking on the traits of the offending party. I go back to this quote often to help me remember this very critical practice.