Everywhere we have the pressure of the mysterious desire to do what we please; and “what we please” usually means to conform to the opinions of those around us as we fall victim to fashion and style. To do “what we please” usually means to align ourselves with powerful majorities and escape wherever possible any tendency to personal discomfiture. All of this makes our material life most complicated and our spiritual living most confused. In nearly every level of human interpretation, criticism has dominated; and while criticism is regarded as high intellectual virtue, for the most part, it has caused much trouble, giving little support to value. Most criticism is largely the effort of an individual to find difference, and to emphasize it to the advantage of his own point of view. Communication is like a mysterious little ship carrying a rich cargo of treasure across the sea of space: words are vessels; words are some kind of seed, which falling onto fertile ground will take root, and falling into the barrens will not. Man communicates best by the mere expression of himself as a being. The final artistry, the final creativity, the final expression of divine inspiration in humanity, is what the individual does with himself. Excerpted from Lecture #151 BABEL AND THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES - Solutions to the Dilemma of Spiritual Communication © 1971 Philosophical Research Society
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 19:38:55 +0000
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