Havel - the experience of meaning as a mystical relationship

Havel was no simple theist.  His spiritual experiences have a strong personal tinge to them though -

"man, whose quest is always - whether he admits it or not - an aspiration toward the 'absolute meaning of Being,' is suddenly confronted with a set of phenomena that reveal themselves as expressions of an integral Being and with Being that reveals itself to have meaning.  And thus, in fact, an encounter takes place: the existential longing for meaning encounters a powerful 'metaphysical-physical' signal of meaning and its 'obvious' manifestation.  And just as a human being who longs for meaning is open to the world, ready to hear its promptings, decode its signals, draw from it its deepest connections and its references to the order of Being - and thus infuse it with meaning - suddenly, the world too is, as it were, ready to infuse that existence with meaning: it intensifies its signals, it behaves in an 'obvious' manner.  We are then overcome by a feeling of joyous meaningfulness because we suddenly feel that the thing we have been constantly reaching out for is almost physically within our grasp, because it is not just we who are greedily open to it; our counterpart, too, has opened itself to us.  It is not just we who long for contact with the meaning of Being, but the meaning of Being itself, if it can be put that way, reaches out to us.  I feel like saying that a kind of mystic cooperation occurs; our need to discover our own meaning by touching 'absolute meaning' entices this meaning out of what surrounds us, and what surrounds us, on the contrary, entices from the deepest regions of our being our own veiled certitude that meaning exists, which is, the certitude of life itself."

Vaclav Havel
Letters to Olga

One danger of aging

"Many People give advice, but those who receive it gratefully are few.  Still rarer are those who follow such advice.  Once a man passes the age of thirty, there is no one to advise him.  When advice ceases to reach him, he becomes willful and selfish.  For the rest of his life he adds impropriety to foolishness until he is beyond redemption."

JochoYamamoto
Hagakure

quoted in
Yukio Mishima
The Way of the Samurai

Unto the least...

Perhaps you think Me stooping
I'm not ashamed of that
Christ - stooped until he touched the Grave -
Do those at Sacrament

Commemorate Dishonor
Or love annealed of love
Until it bend as low as Death
Redignified, above?

Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 273



Wikipedia:
"Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat treatment that alters the physical and sometimes chemical properties of a material to increase its ductility and reduce its hardness, making it more workable."

Like the peal of a great bell, the theological echoes of this poem reverberate for a long time.

Procrastination

I held a Jewel in my fingers -
And went to sleep -
The day was warm, and winds were prosy -
I said "Twill keep" -

I woke - and chid my honest fingers,
The Gem was gone -
And now, an Amethyst remembrance
Is all I own.

Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 261



I too have learned to my sorrow that creatively it is best to strike while the iron is hot.

Zanshin

Bennett's examination of Bushido is very pragmatic.  His Philosophical explanations center on real life experiences in martial arts dojo's in Japan.  The first section of the book focuses on the concept of Zanshin, a term that connotes awareness and focus, with a dash of never letting your guard down and more than hint of compassion, respect and empathy, even for, perhaps, especially for, your opponent.

In an interesting section called "Zanshin Outside the Dojo," Bennett examines taking the attitude out of combat (or ritual combat).  Taking care of one's health, avoiding careless mistakes, treating others with courtesy and respect, carefully getting all of one's belongings out of a taxi and carefully saving the receipt are examples of Zanshin in action.  Losing keys or a wallet, forgetting to flush a toilet, and getting irresponsibly drunk (drunk enough to lose self control) are examples of lack of Zanshin.

"No Zanshin in the context of daily life is born of a failure to create a little buffer of space, stepping back and taking a minute to refocus, pay attention and get back in the moment."

Theologically, the constant Book of Mormon exhortation to "remember" serves as a kind of spiritual Zanshin in daily life.

I for one could use a lot more of both types of Zanshin.

reinhabitation

The Robin's my Criterion for Tune -
Because I grew - where Robins do -
But, were I cuckoo born -
I'd swear by him -
The ode familiar - rules the Noon -
The Buttercup's, my whim for Bloom -
Because, we're Orchard sprung -
But, were I Britain born,
I'd Daises spurn -

None but the Nut - October fit -
Because - through dropping it,
The seasons flit - I'm taught -
Without the Snow's Tableau
Winter were lie - to me -
Because I see - New Englandly -
The Queen, discerns like me -
Provincially -


The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 256

Public Relations

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise - you know!

How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell one's name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!


The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin). 260