Quotes About Disappointment

"Your greatest concern is that you will not accomplish what you came here to do … not fulfilling your destiny here leads to disappointment and requires your return."

"People who are trying to get everything from life may get what they want, but they will not be satisfied. Then their only means for freedom is disappointment, profound disappointment."

"Why is there disappointment in life? Because there is so much here that is not important."

Directives

"Do not value pride. Uncover it. Let disappointment and even disgrace help you come to terms with your true nature in life."

Sources of Disappointment

"The only way that people can live in the world is to have some kind of god. If you do not experience God, you make up a god. Everyone has a god here in the world. To live without God, life has no meaning. It is over. So, if you do not experience God, you make up a god and then try to experience the god you made. But the god you made up is not totally satisfying, and so there is disappointment upon disappointment."

"The disappointment and confusion that people have about the Divine is based on the projection that the Divine is thinking about life and about them the way that they are thinking about life and about themselves."

"Consider how many times you were disappointed by things that you had hoped would be wonderful and magnificent. Why the disappointment? Because the investment was great and the reward was small."

"You can resist Knowledge and be drawn towards things that are of no value, but this happens at the surface of your mind. Your deeper feelings and deeper experiences will always orient you in a true direction ... You will feel greater pleasure as you move in this direction and greater confusion, anger and disappointment as you move away from it."

"When love denies you something you want but which is not good for you, you experience it as a great disappointment. You are angry and frustrated, but love is at work here."

Advantages of Disappointment

"We find disappointment to be a very great opportunity. Because it is a natural fact of life that you will encounter disappointment, it must then be seen as an advantage, not always something you can appreciate at the outset, but an advantage nonetheless. There is very great effort by many people to avoid disappointment at all costs, but we want to encourage you not to avoid disappointment. Bring it on! Let it happen! There are lessons you must learn in life, and disappointment will illustrate many of them. We do not encourage people to repeat their mistakes, of course, but certain lessons are waiting for you. Taking advantage of them means that they can unburden you so that you may walk lightly through this world. The burden of avoiding disappointment is a far greater burden."

"Disappointment is an important part of learning, but it cannot be the only part of learning."

"Many of your pursuits are unnecessary for your happiness and for your true calling in life. Because it is very difficult to give up a pursuit that is cherished and is still seen as a positive factor, disappointment then begins to have real meaning. This is what reduces you down to your essential Self. You are at the surface of life no longer."

"Your frame of reference is far too limited to comprehend the meaning of your life and to experience and enjoy the mystery of your life. Disappointment is tremendously valuable in making you alert by shaking you out of a fixed mental reference and framework."

"True spiritual training is very disappointing. Why? Because you find that your philosophy, your idealism and your hopes must be left at the entrance to the temple. Only those who argue philosophy remain outside on the steps. In the sanctuary, this has no meaning."

"Women carry their disappointment about men like a great yoke, while in reality it is a means for their freedom."

Strategies of Disappointment

"When you are experiencing disappointment, the first key is acceptance. Do not fight it. There always is a relief in this. The second key point is alertness, becoming alert to what is happening. The third key point is leaving the explanation open. The fourth key point is mourning for the loss and the last key point is committing yourself to action."

"Each disappointment opens a new door—perhaps something you had never thought of or perhaps something you had thought of at the very beginning of your life and now it is there awaiting you, as a new opportunity."

"To armor yourself against disappointment is to cast yourself in chains. Now your preparation requires more time and is more difficult to bring about."

"When you are disappointed, let the emotions come forth. Be a witness to them. You are greater than any emotional state."

"If you are not afraid of disappointment, even in your current state of mind, you will be able to embrace life. Here you have already set down half of your burden. If you are very willful and are demanding that your life be a certain way and yet are open to whatever may happen, you are partially liberated already. Therefore, if you seek that which is true, prepare yourself for a little disappointment. And remember always that your disappointment will be momentary and slight compared to the relief and happiness that you will find."

"When you realize how much you have betrayed your Knowledge for personal convenience or advantage, you will feel angry. Be present to this. In order to keep you from making grave mistakes over and over, you must taste the disappointment and the result of these errors and feel them deeply. You are loving yourself when you do that. You are not beating yourself up."

"Therefore, there must be a stronger motivation because there will be these disappointments. Rather than trying to have what you want from life, you are able to follow what you know and to give something of greater meaning. This will give you greater meaning, and you will see greater meaning in others. Here compassion is necessary. You will need it in your approach to yourself because you will go through periods of tremendous confusion and at some points disappointment."

"If you take this active student approach to life, you are able then to proceed in a way that is very conscientious, and you are able to engender the necessary responsibility for your learning. If you are honest in this approach, you will realize that you will make mistakes and that some mistakes are necessary. You will realize that many things will have to be accomplished through trial and error, that you will have to expose yourself to the different viewpoints of other people and that you will have to try things out and test them. This is a very different approach from trying to prove yourself or validate your ideas or defend your position, which is a very common approach and does not engender real learning. A real student approaches disappointment and confusion in a very different way, seeing it all as a necessary part of learning and preparation."

See Also

Happiness

Relationships

Suffering

Emotions

Healing

Further Study

Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume One, Chapter 27: Disappointment

The Turning Point

The Gift of a New Life

Honesty