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# 33 Thoughts for 33 Years.
- URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/33-thoughts-for-33-years/
- Published: 2025-07-23T14:11:11.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-23T14:11:10.000Z
- Description: Maxims, ideas, and a couple banger quotes.
- Author: Eric Brown

## I turn 33 today... 

*Officially, some time around 10:20pm for you astrology nerds.* 😉

Writing this deep in the Mayan jungles of Mexico, tucked away at the holy grounds of Kumankaya. Who would've thought that I would be here on my birthday *(& my parents anniversary–same day!)*, in the early start of a multi-year apprenticeship? Not me.

Following a trend I started last year ([32 Reflections for 32 Years](https://www.zenmedicine.co/32-reflections-for-32-years/)), I'm sharing some reminders, quotes, and ideas that resonate. 

No rhyme nor reason to what made the list—they're just present in my experience.

It feels good to grow older. I feel my medicine building. I feel purpose. It’s only getting better. Here we go:

1. [F\*ck what you say.](https://www.zenmedicine.co/fck-what-you-say/)
2. *“If you feel far from God—who moved?”* – Afghan proverb.
3. *“Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”* — Alice, Alice in Wonderland.
4. The [opposite of suicide](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-opposite-of-suicide/) exists.
5. The heart knows the way.
6. *”There are only two mistakes along the way of self-mastery: not starting, and not going all the way.”* — Shi Heng Yi
7. [Long live the underground](https://www.zenmedicine.co/long-live-the-underground/).
8. [The sound of the rain needs no translation.](https://www.zenmedicine.co/sound-of-the-rain/)
9. All limitations are self-imposed.
10. *“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”* ― Thucydides
11. Courage is the first and final virtue. Act accordingly.
12. Move toward resistance.
13. Your life is not a test that you can fail.
14. [Free men don’t ask.](https://www.zenmedicine.co/free-men-dont-ask/)
15. [The righteous path is straight and narrow.](https://www.zenmedicine.co/87/)
16. Do not decorate your pain.
17. Do the best you can until you know better. Once you know better, do better.
18. Martyrdom is not a virtue.
19. Everything is energy management.
20. *“You may abandon your body, but you must always preserve your honour.”* — Miyamoto Musashi
21. How you do anything is how you do everything.
22. Do not sacrifice the meaningful for the expedient.
23. You do not have enough Bitcoin.
24. *“We, half dust, half deity.”* – Lord Byron
25. *“Solvitur Ambulando.”* It is solved by walking.
26. You didn’t come this far to only come this far.
27. *“Rituals are to time what home is to space: they render time habitable.”* — Byung-Chul Han
28. Real beauty is modest and real wealth is silent.
29. *“Historically, the most terrible things; war, genocide, and slavery, have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.”* — Howard Zinn
30. Until death, all defeat is psychological.
31. *“Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.”* ― Pericles
32. *“Tradition is not the past, but that which does not pass.”* – Dominique Venner
33. I love you. Thank you. Well done. Keep going.

Until next year,  
EB. 🍃