Friday, October 14, 2011

The Awakening

The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece.

Scott Peck
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Hello Ken
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One of the sins of my youth, and I suspect almost everyone's, was wanting to know things too fast and therefore too superficially. My problem was that the things I wanted to know tended to be more of an esoteric nature. I wanted to know what the philosophers, mystics, theologians, historians, avant garde artists and experimental scientists did. I tripped a light foxtrot around the idea that everyone really wanted to read poetry and philosophy if they only admitted it to themselves. Years of living dissuaded me from that idea to my own jocularity. That's okay. To each his own.

I became so energized about learning things that I read constantly and when I couldn't understand something I figured it must be explained on the next page, so my reading was rushed, superficial and through incomprehensible paragraphs.

"Awake, awake: Shake thyself from the dust." (Isaiah 52:1) After many years of blowing the dust around I began to see, not what I was looking for, but only the title of what I was looking for: Enlightenment. I learned that some persons had actually achieved a higher level of consciousness, a mental place where the simplest truths became the most revealing and the most complicated ideas became basic building blocks, pieces of a simple temple of thought.

From the day I made that discovery my life gradually changed. Education was no longer a game, or rather it became a holy game. It is still a matter of sifting through the weeds to find the blossoms, but each discovery teaches me more about what I'm looking for and what is looking for me.

I'm just a beggar, sleeping in the dust on the temple steps. But now, at last, I know that and will wake up one day.

DB - A Wayfaring Man
Never Give Up
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AUTUMN QUESTION

What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?

Only 4 answers so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

I await your answers.
DB
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2 comments:

Geo. said...

Scott Peck quote ("The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece.") and the theme of your excellent post explain in combination why I'm having such a tough time with your Autumn Question.

Ken Riches said...

Hello DB.

Enlightenment and education are wonderful endeavors.