Insight Wisely

     There’s another mode of offbeat spirituality that differs both from occultism and the New Age. I’m thinking of visionaries like Swedenborg, Rudolf Steiner, and, in a way, Jacob Boehme too. These people possessed a distinctive spiritual talent: they could actually see spiritual realities. They were spiritual savants, so to speak.
     I’ve agreed to write a foreword to a forthcoming book, A Thoughtful Soul, that is said to be the best exposition of Swedenborg’s position that has ever been written. I agreed to do that, not because I know Swedenborg well but because I don’t and welcome the chance to learn more about him. For some reason I don’t feel the same inclination to explore Rosicrucianism or Freemasonry, even though their underlying concepts are very close to those of the primordial tradition.
— Huston Smith, Way Things Are, pp. 154-155.

Cousineau: Finally, you are fond of the phrase “winnowing the wisdom of the world.” What is the wisest wisdom you have winnowed? I asked our old friend Joseph Campbell if he had a favorite line or quotation or nugget of wisdom that he had picked up from his readings in mythology and religion that had given him some heart’s consolation. And he said immediately that there was a line by the Buddha that had given him a great deal of solace over the years. The Buddha said that the most important task in life is to “participate with joy in the sorrows of the world.” Do you have an equivalent nugget of wisdom that has given you comfort over the years, given you joy?
Smith: That’s wonderful! Well, I can’t top Joe’s favorite, but what comes to mind is the answer my roshi gave me at the close of my farewell with him when I asked him what Zen came down to for him. He said, “Infinite gratitude to all things past. Infinite service to all things present. Infinite responsibility to all things future.” And with that he bowed with his palms together in gassho, a bow signifying deep respect.
— Huston Smith, Ibid., pp. 276-277.

NINETEEN SEVENTY-TWO

SO, AT LAST YOUR PERSONALITY

HAS BECOME A COPROLITE!

((Fossilized shit!))

How

PAINFUL IT WAS

To grow up in the fifties!

WE LEARNED:

MATERIALISM,

MACHO-COMPETITION,

GREED.

But still I can hardly believe

THAT YOU SIT THERE TELLING ME:

ABOUT THE GIRLS YOU FUCK,

HOW MUCH MONEY YOU MAKE,

AND OF YOUR FAME.

As if

The last twenty years

Never happened.

You

Seem pathetically

Foolish.

But there is viciousness

In

Our generation.

YOU

ARE

REALLY

SET

(like a robot)

ON OVERKILL.

And you believe

In social appearances.

_______________________

You want to be like

The Big Boys.

Whoever they are!

— Michael McClure, September Blackberries, pp. 119-120.