Response to Graduands

offered by

Yosef Wosk

upon being presented with the degree of

Doctor of Letters
honoris causa

by

Simon Fraser University

Thursday, June 14, 2012


I dedicate these words to Milton Wong, one of the kindest men this world has ever known; to my father, Morris J. Wosk, who encouraged and supported me throughout my life; and to Jack Blaney, former president of this university and mentor extraordinaire.

"Who knows what I'm going to speak about today?

That was the question that Nasr'udin, the Sufi mullah, asked as he prepared to deliver a sermon in the packed village mosque.

Stunned, those assembled answered, "No, no, of course we don't!";
To which he replied, "Well, then, I refuse to waste my time on a bunch of ignoramuses like you,"; and he turned and left the pulpit.

The next day Nasr'udin was invited back.
Once again he asked: "Who knows what I'm going to speak about today?";
This time, afraid that he would leave, they called out: "I do; we do!";
To which he replied: "If you already know, then I don't need to waste my time repeating it."; And he left the building.

Even though the people were perplexed, they still wanted to hear the teacher's wisdom and so they invited him back a third time.

"Who knows what I'm going to speak about today?"; he asked.
This time they had a plan, so half answered, "Yes, I do, we do"; and the other half answered, "No, no we don't.";
To which he replied: "Good! Then let those who know tell those who don't."; And with that he left for the last time.

Madame Chancellor, President Petter, faculty, staff, family, friends, and especially graduates -
I am going to speak about what I have learned, presented as some hard-earned advice in the guise of five surprising blessings and a dare. I will give only headlines, speak in exaggerated terms, enthuse you to live your life with a kind of soulful brilliance, and trust that "a hint is sufficient for the wise";.

THE FIVE BLESSINGS

Today I advocate that you all become Beggars, Thieves, Fools, Arrogant and Masters of Destruction. I realize that these may be rather shocking offerings, but here they are.

1. BEGGARS

Beggars are not just the poor and downtrodden but also holy beggars, those who realize how inconsequential they really are compared to the fullness of the universe. They may be professional beggars who claim a corner, or itinerant beggars who wander the world. Constantly humbled, forever in exile, they experience the essential nature of life. But they, too, are continually giving. This is what I've learned from beggars: that we are each other in disguise; I've learned how to ask and how to receive; and how to beg for knowledge, love and life because there are so many things that we just cannot accomplish alone.

It is those humble ones that I refer to when I wish we could all become like them and share a meal at the Beggars Banquet to come.

2. THIEVES

I trust that this graduating class will be the most honest and ethical, and yet to truly succeed in your studies you must also learn from thieves who are always looking to profit from what is not yet theirs.

This applies, of course, only to learning. It is a category referred to as kinat sofrim "jealousy of the scholars";, for when you see someone of greater learning or accomplishment you may desire to be like them. Not everything can be transmitted from teacher to student: some things must be seized by the student alone. Listen how the Taoist teacher, Sat Hon, explains it.

I tell my students the best mode of learning is to pretend you are a thief. If you come with a sense of entitlement because you've paid for the lesson, you will be passive. You can wait for ten years and say, "How come you didn't show me that?"; and I can say, "I have been showing it to you but you haven't been skillful enough to steal it from me.";

3. FOOLS

I wish that you become not only domesticated and highly trained scholars but that you also embrace the Crazy Wisdom of those who live life large, those who are intoxicated with ideas and eager to see them realized.

To accomplish this, you sometimes need to play the fool, to stand on your head, to see things upside down and sideways, inside out and from a distance. If you are fortunate, you may slip into a state of mystical union where the knower, the knowledge and the known are one.

Being a fool is when you can devote yourself wholeheartedly to achieving a worthwhile goal. You are meshugah le'davar echad, "crazy for one thing";.

Yet the Fool does not just live a life defined by hard-edged results. His path is paved with poetry and filled with humor; her story is garbed in spontaneity, garlanded with bells, and electrified by an infinity of alternatives.

4. ARROGANT

The fourth blessing is that you proclaim your arrogance, not just your humility. Everyone has two pockets: one carries the egotistical attitude of me and mine, of bishvili invar ha'olam, "the world was created for me."; The other pocket balances the first. It carries the attitude of feeling insignificant, of "I am dust and ashes";.

There are times when the first pocket, that of arrogance, is called for. It is an intense experience - often accompanied by thanksgiving - that can strengthen your thoughts and transform your visions. It can also save your life as it did Buckminster Fuller's when he was a young man and depressed by a series of disappointments. A second before suicide he heard a voice urging him instead to embark on "an experiment to find what a single individual can contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity."

That humble man was saved by an outburst of arrogance and became one of the most original thinkers of the past hundred years. May confidence be your ally and a reminder that you are exceptional and a type of genius in your own right; that you have a gift, like no other, to benefit the world.

If you still insist on belittling yourself, hiding in the pocket of distorted humility, then pay attention to this ancient story of just how much the Life Force demands our growth:

Ul kol aisev ve'aisev, yaish lekhah malakh sheh'omaid alav
Over every blade of grass there is an angel that hovers above

u'makail b'yado
with a stick in its hand;

ve'hikaho
And it strikes the grass

ve'tso'aik alav
and calls out,

Gedal, gedal
"Grow! Grow!";

5. MASTERS OF DESTRUCTION

This last blessing is that you become iconoclasts, breakers of false beliefs and destroyers of delusions.

I'm not referring to violent destruction but rather to creative destruction that clears the way for renewal. I'm referring to personal beliefs and even to our dreams that can impose their unconscious tyranny over our lives. Our days may be passed in sleepwalking; in yearning but never doing. I have learned that to fulfill my dreams, I must wake up. All birth requires prior destruction: the waters that break, the pod that splits, the earth that parts, the shell that shatters.

Entire civilizations sometime need to be defied. My teacher, Ha'Rav Dovid Lifshitz, once stopped our class and challenged us: "You students,"; he said, "are too impressed with the idea of civilization. During the last war, who was the most civilized of all nations? The Nazis emerged from a culture of composers and philosophers, of authors and scientists, and yet what did they do with it? With one hand they played the piano and with the other they strangled children.";

That is why I encourage you to become great builders when you can but dauntless destroyers when necessary.

The most difficult subjects are our selves. The illusions are more complex for they insulate our sanity and yet, if we don't dispel them, we remain barricaded prisoners of our own minds.

Over the years, I've been fortunate to have teachers who urged me to fling open the Gates of Perception and not to wait for Kafka's doorkeeper to declare: "No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was meant only for you. I am now going to shut it."

Ten thousand barriers stand in our way; we will need ten thousand and one strategies to overcome them, to arrive at our destination transformed by our efforts as Masters of Creative Destruction.

THE UNYIELDING JOURNEY

Today you are what might be referred to as UAOs, "Unidentified Academic Objects";; tomorrow you will pursue your future and consolidate your reputations. It is like kindergarten déjà  vu where completing one level only puts you in kindergarten of the next.

The path is long and the journey unyielding. I spent most of my life being lost, climbing, searching, falling, finding and struggling to arise.

I discovered that brains can be awakened no matter our age, and hearts, however closed, can be reinvented; that arms, even if passive, can reach out; and that souls, even if wounded, can soar, unbound, once again.

CONCLUSION

Now you, along with Nasr'udin, know what I spoke about today.

I urged you to be brazen thieves and holy beggars, inverted fools and arrogant masters of destruction. May you be further incited to live your lives with the passion of lovers and the stamina of athletes to achieve your goals "with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might";.

And finally, the dare. I conclude with a compelling parable by Apollinaire in which we overhear a dramatic discussion between a teacher and students. Not just a teacher of facts and fictions, but a teacher of life. I have learned that there is no corner of the cosmos where wisdom does not dwell. Guides are everywhere - in the winds and waves, fires and fields. Listen and they will speak.

"Come to the edge,"; he said.
"We are afraid,"; they said.
"Come to the edge,"; he said.
They came.
He pushed them.
And they flew.


- -

See Douglas Todd's 700-word review of much of this speech, also available on this abcbookworld entry [below]. It appeared in the Vancouver Sun on June 16, 2012, and in a slightly different version in his online blog
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/06/17/rabbi-calls-on-sfu-grads-to-be-thieves-fools-arrogant/

NOTES:

The full text is hidden in my heart and in the recesses of my mind. These endnotes add another dimension to my intentions. They offer a short commentary to the main text. A chapter could be written about each theme: indeed, entire books have been researched, and specialized libraries assembled, on each of the subjects introduced above. It is a privilege to spend a few hours in a Temple of Knowledge, aka a library, or on the Internet, exploring these matters. Hopefully, it will be edifying and curiosity will be aroused. Perhaps you will be disturbed enough, as I was, to turn an hour into a day and a day into a life; perchance it will lead to action and we will meet-alone, yet together-on the path over There.
Translation of the ancient Aramaic term: Die le'hakima bi'rmiza. Variations of this aphorism are found in most cultures worldwide.
Literally translated as "jealousy of the scribes"; but to grasp its intention the full term kinat sofrim tarbeh hokhmah (Baba Batra 21b), is better translated as "competition among scholars increases wisdom."; The term kinah is found in Isaiah 11:13. In a second century rabbinic mishnah, its pernicious quality is reinforced: "Jealousy, lust and honor remove one from this world"; (Pirkei Avot 4:21). The positive use of potentially negative traits, however, is a well known, if somewhat dangerous, pedagogic technique.
This will stimulate your learning and help propel you to the next level. This kind of stealing knowledge-not academic plagiarism-is permitted by the great teachers of Eastern and Western esoteric traditions who understand that not everything can be transmitted from teacher to student. Some things are too subtle, immaterial and intangible: they must be seized-or suddenly realized-by the student alone. Classic Buddhist literature contains a number of examples of disciples who attain enlightenment in such ways.
Also cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_in_Buddhism, especially the section on "Sudden and gradual."; These sudden transformations may be facilitated by master teachers but can only be completed after great discipline and sustained practice-and even then, almost accidentally-by the student.
Nachmanides, or Ramban (1194-1270), however, cautions dilettante students from wrongly supposing that they have uncovered the mysteries. He writes: "Now behold I bring into a faithful covenant and give proper counsel to all who look into this book not to reason or entertain any thought concerning any of the mystic hints which I write regarding the hidden matters of the Torah, for I do hereby firmly make known to him [the reader] that my words will not be comprehended nor known at all by any reasoning or contemplation, excepting from the mouth of a wise Cabalist speaking into the ear of an understanding recipient."; This translation is from "Torah on the Web-Virtual Beit Midrash"; (http://vbm-torah.org/archive/ramban/introtothetorah-scan.htm) but also see Ramban (Nachmanides): Commentary on the Torah, especially his Introduction to the Torah, (Hebrew original first written in the mid-1200s and available in a number of editions; important five volume English annotated translation by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo Publishing House, New York, 1971-76).
"The Dark Illumination of Sat Hon,"; Parabola, Summer 2009, p. 48 - 55.
A fool, in its highest manifestation, is one who is given over completely to a spiritual belief or secular principle. We find examples among some of the prophets in ancient Israel, in Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, the North American First Nations and among shamanic traditions worldwide. In a modern secular or psychological sense, one could be a fool for an idea or a particular project. For some examples of "Fool Literature"; see The Feast of Fools: A Theological Essay on Festivity and Fantasy, Harvey Cox, Perennial Library, Harper & Row, New York (by arrangement with Harvard University Press), 1969; God's Fool: The Life and Times of Francis of Assisi, Julien Green, translated from French by Peter Heinegg, Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1985; and Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, Robert Linrothe, editor, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, and Serindia Publishers, Chicago, 2006.
June McDaniel, in her work on the divine madness of the medieval bhakti saints in Bengal, also mentions other similar traditions: "Divine madness is not unique to Bengal, or even to India. It has been explored in various traditions: in both Eastern Orthodox and Western Christianity, among the Hasids of Eastern Europe, among the Sufis, in possession and trance dancers around the world."; She then describes how Plato, in his dialogue Phaedrus, distinguished between pathological and divine manias and proceeded to list four types of divine madness: that which brings divination; that which opens one to possession trance; the third madness is the poetic; and the fourth, the erotic, which brings frenzied love. He then concluded: "In reality, our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness, which indeed is a divine gift."; June McDaniel, The madness of the saints: ecstatic religion in Bengal. University of Chicago Press, 1989, p. 7. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_wisdom.
Using Tarot as a metaphorical guide, Janet Ossebaard describes, Le Mat, The Fool, as a pilgrim on an open-ended journey that culminates as he is transformed into the inverted figure of the Hanged Man. She writes:
According to the Tarot, the Fool is the card of infinite possibilities, total renewal, number zero and thus a new beginning. It also represents important decisions and optimism. The Fool is both the first and the last card, alpha and omega. He reminds us of sacred things that we have either forgotten or suppressed. He recognises his own ignorance and thus becomes the wisest of all. Tarot expert, June Kaminski, describes the Fool as follows: "The Fool represents the Negative space above the Tree of Life, the source of all things. It is the Qabalistic Zero, the Equation of the Universe, the initial and final balance of the opposites, both the father and the mother-male and female, in an abstract sort of way. The Fool is intricately linked with all 21 cards of the Major Arcana-in fact, many theorists maintain that the other Major Arcana cards are parts of the Fool's whimsical journey of self-discovery, culminating with the Number 21 World Card, bringing successful completion, accomplishment, and fulfilment. Because the Fool is trusting and open to all experiences, he provides the perfect role model as we, too, embark on our life journey. The Fool coaxes us to walk our own path, not the path of the "herd";. To trust our own inner voice, our intuition and our inner knowing and to embark on our life course with faith and a stout heart. We need trust, faith in the goodness of life and people, and an undying belief that "all will work out exactly as it should";.
In his search for his spiritual Self, the Fool sits at the foot of a tree where he remains motionless for nine days. After nine days (there were nine days between the Fool and Transformation of Spirit into Matter) he rises and hangs upside down on one leg from a branch of the tree. He becomes the Tarot's Hanged Man. He completely surrenders and notices how his perception of the world starts to change. He floats between two worlds, the spiritual and the physical, and he can see both clearly. Suddenly, he sees all connections; mysteries unfold before him. The Fool is the last stage but one before the ultimate insight.
- Janet Ossebaard, September 1, 2006. http://www.circularsite.com/gedachten10-eng.htm
The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words,
I looked through their covers one day sideways.
What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through.
If you have not lived through something, it is not true.
(Kabir: Ecstatic Poems, English translation by Robert Bly, Beacon Press, Boston, [1976] 2007). Kabir (1440-1518), a mystic poet and saint of India, is uniquely revered by Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities. His writings have been discovered by Western spiritual seekers.
A dedicated fool can achieve much, perhaps even accomplish what others thought impossible, whereas the rest of us are relatively scattered and our powers are dissipated.
According to Rabbi Bunim of P'shiskha (1765-1827), everyone should have two pockets, each containing a slip of paper. On one should be written: "I am but dust and ashes,"; and on the other: "The world was created for me."; Occasionally you reach into one or the other pocket. The secret of living comes from knowing when to reach into which one [for many make the mistake of using them in their opposite applications].
The phrase ve'anokhi afar va'eifar, "I am but dust and ashes,"; was spoken by Abraham in conversation with God (Genesis 18:27). The concept of "the world was created for me";, originates in the mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 in a discussion regarding the sanctity of life, and in the subsequent talmudic discourse in Sanhedrin 37a-b.
Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was one of the most original thinkers of the 20th century and creator of the geodesic dome. I had the good fortune to hear him speak on three occasions. At one of the gatherings-in Philadelphia in about 1981-I was able to spend some personal time with him and asked his permission to recite a rare Hebrew blessing on his behalf. The blessing is recited upon encountering an individual of great wisdom in a secular discipline. He looked at me, gave permission, slightly bowed his head, and heard these words, first in Hebrew and then in English translation: "Blessed are You, Lord our God, Master of the Universe, who has given wisdom to flesh and blood."; And the great man responded, "Amen."; I recited that blessing only one other time, in 2007, when I was part of a delegation to Paris to meet the eminent Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009). Travelling with me were the anthropologist Guy Buchholtzer and Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) Chief William Cranmer. I represented the Canadian Academy of Independent Scholars and Lévi-Strauss, then almost 99 years old, had agreed to be our honorary patron along with John Ralston Saul. Deeply spiritual but not religious, he, too, consented, bowed his aged head filled with wisdom beyond measure, and received the ancient invocation.
He related that there was a time in his life when he was bankrupt and jobless, living in rundown housing and suffering terribly from the death of his young daughter. He blamed himself and this drove him to drink and to the verge of suicide. He told us how he stood on the docks overlooking Lake Michigan and, feeling worthless, was about to jump to an icy death.
Another favourite quote: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."; See the Internet for a cornucopia of pithy Fullerisms.
We often arrogate the term "genius"; to the exclusive realm of the intellect but it could just as legitimately refer to physical, emotional or spiritual attributes. Phenomena as diverse as time and place can have a genius (genius loci), as can an entire nation or biological species. Genius was traditionally used to describe an external tutelary deity, spirit or guardian of a person or place. Although sometimes still utilized as such, the common use of the term has now been internalized. In a secular sense, the deity/spirit is no longer an external phenomenon but rather an internal one. As the outer, previously mysterious, realms have been demystified-as aircraft and telescopes have invaded the abode of the gods-the individual has replaced the sacred distant heavens with secular outer space and theology with scientific observations. Genius-formerly appreciated as a guiding spirit that attends a person throughout their life-has now been transformed into a characteristic or quality of an individual person. Genius could be used to describe a person's highest or most outstanding qualities in any number of realms such as being very smart (intellect), beautiful, athletic or strong (physical), sensitive (emotions), or mystical (spiritual). According to these various usages, it could be argued that everyone-even every thing-is born or exists with a guiding genius (genie, djinn or jinn). Human consciousness, however, has the power to accentuate, cultivate and stimulate its native born genius into expressions of exceptional output.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) once quipped: "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."; Another of his relevant quotes: "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation"; (De Profundis). An equally witty example, probably borrowed from Wilde, emerges from one of Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strips (8-28) in which Lucy asks Snoopy: "I've always wondered how you decided to become a dog."; "That's a good question,"; Snoopy replies. "I remember going down the list . . .. Everything else was taken.";
This Hebrew text is from Midrash Rabba, Beraisheet 10:6.
There is a difference between "creative destruction"; that is purposeful and leads to improvement, versus a purely destructive act with no positive purpose. For a fuller discussion based upon rabbinical definitions of labour on the Sabbath, see http://www.ou.org/chagim/shabbat/concept.htm, "The Concept of Melachah."; Examples of creative destruction are editing, pruning, and recycling, or demolishing a building to make way for a new one. Acts of psychological editing can become painfully personal as when we confront the peculiar addictions each one of us secretly nurtures as an antidote to the burden of consciousness and the restrictive rules of any given civilization. Cf. Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (1930). At times, the choice of when and how to react, if at all, to untenable situations is unclear and the issues are often ill defined. In other instances, however, we may be called upon to speak out and act up, to defend the victim and champion justice.
Ones that have us worshipping such forces as power or money, objects of desire, charismatic individuals, institutions or governments.
Although an entire civilization may seem like a chaotic collection of individual phenomena, it could also be appreciated-like a galaxy of a trillion stars or the micromolecular structure of a common object-as a gestalt. It depends on the degree of perspective as one moves through macrocosmic and microcosmic modes of observation. The greatest macrocosm might be the universe itself [beyond even that-beyond all time and space, and even infinity that is dependent on physicality, beyond words, thought and description-another Transcendent Reality may "exist";]. The trajectory towards the smallest microcosm may travel in the opposite direction but its conclusion is the same [a concept that may suggest either a curvilinear or parallel transcendent universe]. Meanwhile, human beings-those temporary inhabitants of a bejewelled life-clinging planet-are endowed with self-reflective consciousness that can consider such thoughts. Thomas Berry expressed this attribute as the Earth awakening to consciousness of itself in its human mode of being, i.e. human beings are the Earth made conscious of its self (see a web search for numerous references and elucidations to this idea). The Book of Genesis refers to humans as not only encompassing the Earth-the Hebrew name "Adam"; is a derivative of "Adama"; (Gen. 2:7; 3:19), the Earth, and could be translated as Earthman; an English equivalent would be "George,"; derived from "geo";, the Earth-but also as reflecting the Heavens and even the Creator, i.e. as "being created in the image of God"; (Genesis 1:27; cf. Gen. 2:7). In the Hindu Upanishads, the Atman-the inner essence of the human being-is similarly identified with Brahman-the supreme Universal Spirit and origin of the universe. World religious literature and oral traditions are replete with such analogies.
On the other hand, we dare not arrogate consciousness, or soul, as the unique prerogative of humanity. All that exists has consciousness and swims within it. There may be millions of perceptions of consciousness: the rocks and minerals have their portion; vegetation absorbs and expresses its soulful share; as do the insects, birds, reptiles and mammals; fire, water, air and earth each relate to consciousness in their unique way. It, along with other cosmic forces, pervades the universe; we are merely a local iteration of both its generation and perception.
A single person is an entire world (Sanhedrin 4:8 [37a]). Our minds, like larger aggregates of human gatherings, contain multitudes of conflicting voices and creative-though often equally destructive-tendencies. At the other end of the spectrum, cultures and then civilizations are merely amplifications of individual psyches engaged in both intra- and interactive conversations. Civilization is the recapitulation of a single human being; each individual encapsulates a cosmos. For some further discussion see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recapitulation_theory.
A civilization, like an individual, is not an absolute cosmic construct but rather one of innumerable potential manifestations. Stephen Weil, a seminal thinker in the fields of arts, law and museums, and former Scholar Emeritus in the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Education and Museum Studies, exemplified this point: "Museums are our own human creation-neither based on any changeless ideal nor occurring as a fact of nature-and they are a creation that we are free to shape and reshape as may best suit our needs."; (Rethinking the museum and other meditations, Stephen E. Weil, see Chapter 2, "A Meditation on Small and Large Museums,"; Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London, 1990).
Cf. Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (and Heaven and Hell), Harper & Brothers, New York, (1954) 1956, and a number of other editions. Also see the excellent web essay at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_of_Perception.
There are times when we must disregard the guardian and look past the barrier as just another obstacle to overcome. Some, when they see a wall, simply turn back. Others will try to pass to the left or explore the right. Some will climb over and others dig beneath or batter their heads, like Aries, against it until they are filled with scars and broken horns (but at least they may have broken through to the other side). Some will transform the opaque barrier into a translucent glow or transparent window but a window, no matter how clear, still suggests a barrier [I Corinthians 13:12], something that may serve as necessary protection [Exodus 33:20]). Then there are those-searching for the path of least resistance or a mediated compromise-may abandon the path before them to examine alternate routes. Some great leaders, it is said, don't even see the wall. What is a barrier to some is an opportunity to others. These are the Masters of Creative Destruction.
Kafka expressed it the best in The Trial where the doorkeeper does not permit the traveler to enter, not even the first of many gates. After waiting for too many years, and now upon his deathbed, the pilgrim is informed by the guardian, "No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was meant only for you. I am now going to shut it."; (Franz Kafka, The Trial, Chapter Nine, "In the Cathedral."; The original German-language text was written in Prague in 1914 and is available in a number of editions and various translations, including The Trial: A New Translation Based on the Restored Text, translated by Breon Mitchell, Schocken Books, New York, 1998).
There are portals that no one else can enter, and keys that no one else can hold, for doors that others cannot even see. Most of us become attached to the limited identities that we call ourselves and to narrow definitions that we mistake for reality. In an attempt to dismantle those limitations, I learned to live in multiple realms simultaneously. With some issues, I have had temporary success; with many others, I stumble every day. Give yourselves permission. You have authority simply because you exist.
And yet, even if you find your path and dare to enter the gate that was meant only for you, it is still not enough. There are others to nurture, a community to grow, friends to cultivate and family-biologic or of choice-to recognize as home. You are called upon to not only be yourself but to also demonstrate greatness of soul by identifying with others, by serving a purpose greater than yourself, more profound than your encapsulated ego; a purpose that is at once boring and mundane and, at the same time, is aware of, and inspired by, transcendent realms and a profusion of possibilities. Cf. Hillel the Elder (c. 110 BCE-10 CE), who taught: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am [only] for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"; (Pirkei Avot 1:14).
But do not wait until you are dying to wish you had lived. We imagine that we are eternal (the mind can imagine eternity but the body cannot go along for the ride), and yet "life is like the shadow of a passing bird"; (Psalms 144:4; Bereisheet Rabbah 96). In a hundred and twenty years no one at this convocation will still be alive and yet we sit here fooled by the fantasy that we will live forever.
There are hundreds of examples of "the journey"; in pilgrimage literature. My favourite description of the few who persevere is from the 12th century Persian writer Attar. In his Conference of the Birds, the Sufi epic poem of the Quest, he describes how just thirty birds out of thousands who began the pilgrimage arrive at their sacred destination completely transformed-unrecognizable even to themselves-"without feathers and without wings."; Farid ud-Din Attar, The Conference of the Birds, translated by C. S. Nott, Shambhala Press, Berkeley, 1971.
I came across this amusing term in the following article: "Unidentified Academic Object"; by Asad Syrkett, Architectural Record, January 2012, Vol. 200, Issue 1, p. 36.
During your years of study here you experienced many moments of inspiration, you were guided by distinguished teachers and dedicated tutors, and made friends for life. But you also worked through lonely nights and doubtful days when you were ready to quit, to walk away. Some of you wrestled with addictions and disease; some were isolated, far from home, family and friends, while others always seemed to be popular and partying hard.
These examples represent the Four Archetypal Worlds suggested in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Comparisons are also found in other contemplative literatures. These four bear multiple metaphysical meanings only one of which is: Atzilut, the Realm of Spirit; Briyah, the Kingdom of Intellect; Yetzirah, the Heart of Emotions; and Asiyah, the Manifestation of Action.
Deuteronomy 6:5; and cf. Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:36-38
Often attributed to Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), it may actually have been penned by the English poet Christopher Logue (1926- ). For a discussion on this matter see
http://forum.quoteland.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=586192041&f=099191541&m=8771980186.
In a number of ancient teachings, including Babylonian, Greek, Hindu and Buddhist, we find the concept that all matter-and by extension, much more subtle spiritual energies-is composed of earth, water, fire, air, and ether. For a general overview of these concepts in various cultures see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element.