Just a few thoughts I would like to share this morning.

There are ideas, or phrases, or concepts from my readings in the past that still inform my life toward beauty. I find, at times, that when I go back and find the exact words that I read so long ago that my memory of them is not correct, and that I like my memory’s version more than the original words. This, I suppose, is the power of an oral tradition over a written one. The following two thoughts originate in the writings of Carlos Castaneda.

  • Humility, the sense that we are less than others, is as much a product of our ego as the sense of being superior. Rather than having humility as a goal, seek instead for humbleness. Bow your head to no one, and let no one bow their head to you.
  • When it really counts, when you really need it, words (and concepts and beliefs) will let you down.

One semester when I was teaching a class in the psychology department there was a student with whom I had a very difficult time communicating. It was as if we were from two different planets, it was obvious to me that I didn’t understand his questions and it appeared that he didn’t understand my answers. At one point he mentioned he was a philosophy major and I replied that I personally would never trust a philosophy that could be put into words. That was a defining moment for us.

Today, like everyday, I wake up lonely and afraid. Pass by the door to the study. Take down a musical instrument. Let what you love be what you do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the earth. (my paraphrase of a poem by Rumi)

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