I sometimes also think of the many things in our earlier lives that
have helped us come to know what we are looking for. I suspect many
spiritual people were inwardly touched if they came across "The
Little Prince" when they were younger. A key idea in that book was
"only with the heart can one see rightly; what is essential is
invisible to the eye."
Another book that some were recently discussing outside a function
in Queens is "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." I was so suprised to
come across this transcendence message in a children's story at the
time. I wouldn't have called it that then, I just felt it was such
an expansive and hopeful story to be aware of other dimensions and
possibilities. It just gave me spontaneous joy for days. I was
reading to a group of young people at bedtime in camp, and at one
point I stopped reading out loud because it was so interesting to me
and I wanted to read faster...there was such feeling of recognition.
It now seems like they were little encouraging signposts along the
path.
On the subject of what people do when they stop making progress and
begin to focus on others' failings instead of working on their own
transformation... Hopefully they will soon realize this is just a
distraction and a delay to their own progress. One roommate used to
remind us that "wherever you go, that is where you are." So wherever
you travel or whoever else you might blame for a slow pace,
eventually you have to just go back to basics and get on with the
task at hand of transforming yourself. Stories like the "The Little
Prince," "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and the many plays and songs
of Sri Chinmoy, help make that work less lonely and more joyful.
Aww - well said Kedar.
I sometimes also think of the many things in our earlier lives that
have helped us come to know what we are looking for. I suspect many
spiritual people were inwardly touched if they came across "The
Little Prince" when they were younger. A key idea in that book was
"only with the heart can one see rightly; what is essential is
invisible to the eye."
Another book that some were recently discussing outside a function
in Queens is "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." I was so suprised to
come across this transcendence message in a children's story at the
time. I wouldn't have called it that then, I just felt it was such
an expansive and hopeful story to be aware of other dimensions and
possibilities. It just gave me spontaneous joy for days. I was
reading to a group of young people at bedtime in camp, and at one
point I stopped reading out loud because it was so interesting to me
and I wanted to read faster...there was such feeling of recognition.
It now seems like they were little encouraging signposts along the
path.
On the subject of what people do when they stop making progress and
begin to focus on others' failings instead of working on their own
transformation... Hopefully they will soon realize this is just a
distraction and a delay to their own progress. One roommate used to
remind us that "wherever you go, that is where you are." So wherever
you travel or whoever else you might blame for a slow pace,
eventually you have to just go back to basics and get on with the
task at hand of transforming yourself. Stories like the "The Little
Prince," "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and the many plays and songs
of Sri Chinmoy, help make that work less lonely and more joyful.
- Adhiratha