When we think that we are persons, we are immediately enmeshed in a ranking system. According to this system, the death of a queen is vastly more important than the death of an unbaptized orphan in a country with no weapon systems and a minor league GDP. The word ‘person’ comes from the Latin for actor’s mask. Clearly, there’s no benefit to be derived from reforming our systems. We just need clarity about who we are not.
The greatest error that a man can commit is to go against himself.
Our fascination with bodies effectively obscures True Self, which does not change, age, fall ill or die. I am the light of the world, I AM said, a solar system bar-coded as “Keith.”
The judgements of young boys, as Emerson noted, are swift, confident, and summary. Eventually, they become more equivocal, less certain. Their eyes flicker. They begin to speak from the calculator in the head.
The more we grow into the Self, the less special we are. “Become nothing,” wrote Rumi, “and He’ll turn you into everything.”
Men's Work 