🖼️ Monday Muse | The Art of Patience, Humility, and Creativity
Perennial Newsletter (July 10th, 2023)
Greetings, Readers!
Here is the latest Monday Muse with a morning meditation, perennial reminder, question, and recommendation(s) to consider.
Be wise and be well this week!
📿 Morning Meditation
This week’s morning meditation is courtesy of The Wisdom School podcast (Apple or Spotify). Today’s meditation is a short selected reading (delivered in a Lectio Divina style) inspired by the writings of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
📌 Perennial Reminder(s)
The essence of the spiritual quest is the assumption of responsibility for turning one’s life around and for pursuing the path of truth. In particular, is that the weight of transformation falls on the seeker—not the abbot, prioress or lama, for the disciple must be the one doing the hard work. It is of utmost importance to realize that you, alone, are responsible for seeking the Divine. This acceptance of responsibility propels us to search for answers, struggle toward holiness, ask for help, and find a reliable teacher.
Source: A New Silence by Beverly Lanzetta (Listen to the conversation)
💡 Perennial Question(s)
What does humility look like in daily life?
The word “humility” comes from the Latin word humus (earth), specifically humilitas, a noun related to the adjective humilis, which may be translated as “humble,” but also as “grounded,” “from the earth,” or “low.” To be of the earth is to know that one day we return to the dust of our ancestors. It is a realization that we exist in an interdependent circle of relations. We need each other. Humility is not false modesty, self-denying, or destructively ascetic. It is, instead, the consequence of experiencing grandeur—a sunset, starry night, rose petal. We are brought to our knees, our hearts overwhelmed with love, when Holy Wisdom speaks. When we encounter the words “humble” and “humility,” let us remember that they are in response to awe.
Source: A New Silence by Beverly Lanzetta
🔥 Recommendation(s)
This week’s recommendation is The Courage to Create by the American existential psychologist Rollo May (1909—1994). The title was suggested by Paul Tillich’s The Courage to Be (another great book), which May writes, “a debt I am glad to acknowledge. But one cannot be in a vacuum. We express our being by creating. Creativity is a necessary sequel to being.” If we do not express our own original ideas and listen to our own being, observed May, we will have betrayed ourselves. Also, we will have betrayed our community by failing to make our contribution to the whole.
🎧 Recent Podcast(s)
Thank you for reading/listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
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When I was a younger man, say, about 30 or so (I am now 73) I realized that the American Dream actually was not going to work that well for me, even though I was a very privileged, white, American, well-educated male. I even had a well paying job as a lawyer. But - I was miserable. I tried a few things to feel better - broke up my marriage - got a new girlfriend (we later broke up too), developed a wicked "drinking problem" - which grew into full blown alcoholism, etc. Finally, at the end of my rope, I figured I'd give "spirituality" a try. I stumbled into a Tibetan Buddhist group and for 5 years devoted myself to it. There were many troubles with the group, but my main problem was that I kept on looking for the Rinpoche and the senior teachers to give me the "key" that would unlock enlightenment and remove my pain. Never happened. So, I moved on. Christianity, Vedanta, Taoism - you name it and I have tried it. Again, I kept on waiting for that teacher to give me the keys to the Kingdom, until I finally realized that it was up to me and most likely, there was no key.