Spiritual Progress

[Harbhajan]

SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

We learn from the past how to live today for a better tomorrow. Our habits, our attitudes, our character traits form our minds. Each of us, in every nation and in every station, contains both good and evil at this same moment. It remains for us to choose for ourself our course each day again.

Consider the words of Omar Khayyam, Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer, living from 1050-1132, writing in The Rubaiyat, his collection of rational quatrains:

"I sent my soul through the Invisible, Some letter of that Afterlife to spell: And by and by my Soul returned to me, And answered "I myself am Heav'n and Hell:"

Or consider the words of William Shakespeare, English player, playwright and poet, living from 1564-1616, writing in Hamlet, his deepest psychological study:

"So, oft chances it in particular men, That for some vicious mole of nature in them, As, in their birth, - - wherein they are not guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin, - - By the o'ergrowth of some complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens The form of plausive manners, that these men, -- Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature's livery, or fortune's star, -- Their virtues else -- be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo -- Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault:"

Finally, consider the words of Arnold J. Toynbee, World historian, living from 1889-1975, writing in his final book "Surviving the Future":

"I am convinced, myself, that man's fundamental problem is his human egocentricity."

These writers understood the importance of habits, attitudes and character traits. We need to follow their lead, to deepen their insight, and to find new solutions. This search must not be limited, and we will need to learn from the entire planet, into the future. Curiosity, scholarship, conversations, research, imagination and perseverance, will be needed by people everywhere. Computers and matrix cognition. Parallel thinking. These too can assist in our search. Our humanity, our humaneness, even a touch of our own holiness, can be ours today.

source: spiritualprogress.org