A Manual For Living With Defeat

Lessons From Leonard Cohen – A Manual For Living With Defeat is a collection of Leonard Cohen’s observations that offer insight into living in this imperfect world. For information about how this series differs from other collections of so-called lessons from Leonard Cohen, see Lessons From Leonard Cohen – Introduction.

Lesson #3: “To keep our hearts open is probably the most urgent responsibility you have as you get older” – Growing Old & The Need For Deeper Love

The above quotation is from Leonard Cohen Interviewed by Anjelica Huston (Interview magazine: November, 1995). The thought is expanded in this excerpt from Leonard Cohen als Zen-Mönch, a video shot during one of the several visits Leonard Cohen and Roshi made to a Zen Center in Austria from 1990 to 1996:

My old teacher told me that the older you get and the lonelier you get, the deeper is your need for love. Like everyone else, I have looked for such deep love. And as you get older, you need this love to be grounded, until there is no difference between you and your love, or what you love or what you are. It’s just the one thing.

The Best Advice Leonard Cohen Ever Received

From Q Questionnaire – Leonard Cohen (Q Magazine, September 1994).

Credit Due Department: Photo by Kezban Özcan.

Lessons From Leonard Cohen

All published posts in this series can be found at

Lessons From Leonard Cohen
A Manual For Living With Defeat

I am republishing selected posts from my former Leonard Cohen site, Cohencentric, here on AllanShowalter.com (these posts can be found at Leonard Cohen). This entry was originally posted on November 22, 2017.