On Self-Knowledge (by Kahlil Gibran) Lecturer: Lúcia Helena Galvão Good evening everyone, welcome. Just to be aware, is there anyone coming for the first time? .
. . learning about our work.
Great, welcome. I always ask that, because this is a series that we have made. .
. and there's no problem if you are coming for the first time, every lecture is totally autonomous. But there's always a little introduction that we have to explain, the reason why we read this book "The Prophet".
Today we will be talking about a chapter from "The Prophet" that is about self-knowledge. I always says that the idea was to go deeper in Gibran's thinking. Gibran is complex, beautiful, but complex.
We take a sentence from him, and in three or four words he means a lot of things between the lines. And as we are a society of people in a hurry, we don't stop to analyze three or four words, and we lose a lot of things between the lines of Gibran. He's not only a poet, he's a philosopher, and as a philosopher, he has a very deep content.
And sometimes we just stay on the surface, which is beauty. I always tell you that a good poet must have something about philosophy, because otherwise there's nothing to talk about. Although it has a beautiful form, it doesn't have the content.
So, we have commented a little, always very quickly, because it isn't the goal. Maybe even in the end we will give a specific class about Gibran's life, because we always talk about him "in passing", and his biography is quite a bit curious and interesting to know. Possibly at the end of the book, which we will finish soon we talk specifically about him.
He was born in 1883 in Lebanon and died in 1931 in New York. He arrived in the United States when he was a teenager without speaking English, and he is helped by a North American teacher, who supports him throughout his life, and he builds his masterpiece in these circumstances, with remarkable success still alive. Above all, if we also consider.
. . Gibran was not just a writer, he was also a painter, he has a relative success in everything he does, but above all, this book "The Profet" spread at a speed no one expected.
The editor who made this book thought that would end in failure. He made only one thousand copies in the first print run. And today is a book translated into more than 40 languages, and it's a rarity to have one of these thousand copies of the first edition, because it became something historical.
It is really historical in terms of poetry, few things should be so well known as The Prophet, by Gibran. Very little works. In fact, if we get Shakespeare's work, maybe.
Shakespeare's Sonnets maybe they are better known. But it's among the most poetry books known in the world, poetic prose, best known in the world. However it still happens to us talk to people - "Do you know Gibran?
" and hear a sonorous "No, I don't". Because even if you see a large amount of translations, we are 7 billion human beings, and a lot of people just don't read poetry . .
. specially poetry. It hardly sells nowadays.
So, I think it's a pity live a lifetime without knowing a book like that. As I usually recommend. .
. a bedside book. Because it is amazing.
You open randomly to any chapter and it has something deep to tell you. Right? So, we also usually talk about the overall context before we get into the specific subject: remember that the Prophet from the title was a man named Al Mustafah, who lived on an island and proposes to go to a city, Orfalese, that was located on the coast, to teach something to those people.
He spends 12 years in this city. And for 12 years nobody listens to him, they don't give a damn about him. And when he decides to leave, when he sees a boatman coming from the horizon, he decides to leave.
People realize then. . .
. they'd missed their opportunity to learn from a wise man. It is important to mention that: consciousness is born in contrast.
We value things when we are about to lose them. We understand the meaning of life when in the face of death. From a sensory point of view, we notice a color when there's a contrast.
When it ends the orange begins transparent, I notice. . .
the orange 'cause of that. If whole universe were this color I wouldn't notice it. The same way we have "sound" vs "silence".
This is the theory of impact, The consciousness is born in the contrast. So, those people realized the value he had when he's about to go away. Then they say: "you will teach us something before leaving".
So they gathered the whole city around Al Mustafah. Al Mustafah - this name means 'the elect', 'the chosen', 'the illuminated'. They gather around him and begin to ask questions.
Each question is a chapter of the book, Each question is about a subject. Imagine that the subjects are about love, friendship, children, marriage, education, laws, are the most important things of human life. And he sums it up sometimes on two pages, two and a half pages.
This about self-knowledge, strangely enough it is one of the shortest chapters of the book. It has one page and one paragraph about self-knowledge. Just imagine.
. . to speak of such deep thing on such a small surface, it has to be very dense, it has to be very deep since there's no extension.
This is typical from classical authors. They have a lot of depth. In shortly extension they say a lot.
And we are the opposite of that. we talk a lot and we don't mean almost anything, superficial conversations in general. So this kind of reading is hard, because you have to keep your attention and chew each word.
And the intention here is to do it together. This is about a myth too, and this information seems to mean nothing to us today, but it is fundamental! Because of a myth stages outside something that is happening inside of the human being.
All myths, I repeat - some of you already know this by heart. all myths have a single central character, which is the man. The secondaries are psychological aspects of him projected to the outside, for him to see them.
Jung talks about this, that our dreams are the same thing. All the characters of your dreams, curiously, it's yourself. It's your consciousness seeing yourself out, since you can't see yourself inside.
A myth is a projection, so that man can make a process of self-knowledge. So he's talking to himself after 12 years. Those 12 years represents a whole life, an incarnation Like he was closing a life experience talking to himself and concluding what things he learned from life As if he had summed all learning of a lifetime.
So it's very interesting because he's proposing an internal dialogue a moment of inner life. Yesterday I was talking about The Prophet, about another chapter at the South Lake school, about the dwellings, and it's interesting because in this other chapter, we will still learn it here, he compares a house to your body in a moment of intimacy, for you to dialogue with yourself. Because for a thinker, it's the most important thing in life, and we hardly spend time on it.
We're moving into a new cycle of nature, tomorrow is. . .
the fall equinox, isn't it? A cycle in which nature collects energies to give to the men the opportunity to go inside, and then go out to the world, in spring-summer, having something to share. Because of an empty man has nothing to share.
So, inner life, inner dialogue. . .
"The Prophet" talks about it. Well, let's go. .
. talk about today's chapter. About self-knowledge.
A little, but a big chapter. The most common thing in ancient literature is that it is recommended that the men focus their lives in two things: to know oneself, to master oneself. And that will allow you to reach your goal, which are values, virtues and wisdom, the human ideal.
Know yourself, master yourself. The famous portico of Delphi in Greece - "know thyself", so spoken but little practiced, it was the basis of Greek philosophy. A Greek poet named Pindar, said: "Be who you are, knowing it".
Can you understand this? "Be who you are, knowing it". How are you going to be yourself.
. . if you don't know who you are?
I'll put a practical example, to make it clear to you: if you feel hungry, and you are at a grocery, you have money in your pocket, but you don't know that is that money worth anything to you? You keep starving. Ah, but I have money!
But if you aren't aware of it, it isn't worth to you get food. Isn't that right? It's like we're hungry before life with resources in the pocket, with values in the pocket.
Maybe not in the pocket, but in the heart. . .
in our essence. We have the resources to live better, but it doesn't help because we don't know it. "Be who you are, knowing it" Evolution is nothing more than evolution of consciousness.
What do you think evolves in us? Light over darkness, awareness of what we are. This is the true evolution.
There's no use in being ourselves if we don't know what we are. The human question is "being" and "existing" in a coherent way. And existing requires that you have awareness of what you are.
Otherwise, you exist superficially, only survive, or exist as what you aren't, as if you were a pet. So this element of self-knowledge, it is not by chance one of the Prophet's well known chapters a lot of people recite it. It's beautiful.
As all from him is very poetic, and it is a key point. It's important for the whole philosophy. "And one man said, - Tell us about self-knowledge and he answered by saying" I know you're always a bit curious wondering if I will comment something after reading only this.
Remind that I put the full poem here, and it's important for us go little by little It's very interesting, maybe have known a very famous book from few years ago called Sophie's World, by Joisten Gaarder, at the very beginning of the book he puts a example very interesting, he says the following: Imagine that you make a little clay doll and you give him a breath of life and he walks around freely. What would you think if this little doll walked out and asked: Where am I going to live? What am I going to wear?
Where am I going to work? How much will I earn per month? He asks all the inrrelevant questions of Universe and never this little doll stops, holds the step and asks "who am I, uh?
" "Why did they build me? " Turns to me and asks "what do you expect from me? " "What did you make me for?
" Can you imagine such a thing? What would you think of this little doll? Manufacturing defect.
Let me make another one. Isn't it? He got crazy, poor wretch.
Why all the irrelevances of the world, but not the essential? Come on, that is weird. Never ask 'who we are?
' and 'what we came here for? ' It's like this example, the same situation. And every question, every curiosity, every search for knowledge should start by it.
This is the basis of philosophy. Who are we? To find out how we complete ouselves, what is our ideal, and what tools allow us to walk on this road.
And he will answer then: "Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights. But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge. So you'll say "my heart knows nothing, the heart is nothing more than a muscle, it has nothing to do with that".
"Heart" is the symbolism of the center, like this maze there, the center. In fact, our true heart, this is just a symbol, our true heart is a center, an essence. All traditions say that the man has it.
The man has an immortal essence and a temporary appearance. And this center around which life gravitates, this is the true heart. It's not the romantic Valentine's heart, not even this muscle we have inside the chest.
It's your center. And from this center, this identity. .
. . .
. radiates a certain intuition and you know it. You know about it.
When you face one of the most disturbing things in life, the death. The death of a person, sometimes a loved one Is there anything more paradoxical than death? As much as you read about it, however much.
. . you know about the subject, no matter how many beliefs you have Isn't it too strange that all this life that vibrates within a human being suddenly.
. . where is it?
It's a doll, inert, cold. Where's the imagination, will, love, intelligence, all the life that was in that body? It's not madness that the human being, from one moment to another, isn´t being anymore?
How? Isn't it? These things must have a solution of continuity, They cannot disappear.
This is a paradox, This is nonsense. Where goes what we call human being? Is there something inside of us that revolts and says no, that is not real.
It is your heart saying: "Death is not a reality". At this point the mind comes, rational, concrete, practical: "Ah, bullshit! Never mind.
. . " and destroy our deep perception.
But you realize that it echoes throughout history of mankind. An intimate protest against what they tell us that is real, and that can't be. Because it's a paradox.
It's a big thing to suddenly becomes nothing. Within a logical equation a big thing. .
. can't become nothing suddenly. No rabbits come out of a hat or disappear into it.
Where does human love go? Human intelligence? Imagination?
Are they a rabbit that comes into a hat and disappears? It doesn't make sense. We know things are not like that, there is no logic.
And that echo of misunderstanding and revolt against this paradox echoes as old as the human being exists. So we intuit that there is something more, that man has an immortal essence, something that vibrates behind the look. But our pure reason doesn't know that.
Sometimes even the thought knows: "Ah, Plato says we have a Immortal essence" That's nice to say, right? It is a nice status. Everyone will think: "See, she reads Plato" "She is an intellectual".
Sometimes we understand the idea, but a pure reason that guides our life and action compatible with that, we don't have it. So, these two worlds ended up disconnected, needing each other. Our heart needing to be realized in the world, and our life in the world needing a deeper meaning.
And the mith of the romantic love in old stories, after all. . .
that´s it. It´s the man seeking for his soul, a deeper essence. If you see Fernando Pessoa's poem "Eros and Psyche": It is the prince seeking his sleeping soul, both needing each other.
The essence needs the appearance and vice versa. So he says: your ears wish to hear what your heart knows. Your eyes yearn to see.
At some point, you need communication between these two worlds, otherwise you die without having lived. You become an eternally stranger to yourself. And this is very weird.
What have we come to do in our life if not knowing ourselves? What have we done throughout our lives? There was no time for that?
What did you do with your time? What was more important than that? Isn't it strange?
It's like you go out to buy a newspaper and come back without one, "There was no time" How come? Didn't you go out for that? What have we come to the world for?
But to know ourselves, to master ourselves and to walk. There was no time. It should be kind of paradoxical, right?
What did you do with your time? Do you remember the biblical parable of the talents? "I did nothing".
. . Well, it is a wasted life.
We're so attached to life, and we throw it away. Carl Jung talks about it: The man of the 20th century, who speaks so much about economy, it's a wasteful one. Squander the most precious thing: the spirit.
So, following. . .
he will say: "You wish to know in words what you always knew in thought. You wish to touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams. And it is good that you desire it" Be this bunch of ideas, this bunch of traditions, that say there is an essence inside of you waiting to be discovered.
. . Well, I wanna see it, I want it comes into the world and makes the difference in my life.
I want, in a practical action, realize that I am no longer so scared, because I feel like a being that will last beyond death. I want in a practical action realize that I am a human being, that this is more than merely an instinctive being. There are values, there are virtues within me, I want to see myself, I want to recognize myself.
I was talking in other lecture that, it seems curious to me that, it´s an irrelevant detail but. . .
One of these days I went through a bookstore and I don't know why I started to leaf through a book that had just been released, which was Marilyn Monroe's diary. I found it very curious, maybe because none of them interested me I took any, and I went through Guys. .
. I found really interesting at a specific point in time, she stops and says the following. .
. - it's her diary, a personal stuff that was published as a book - . .
. she says: "Look, people don't really like me. They like an image that was created by the cinema.
They can't like me, they don't even know me. And actually, do you know what? I don't know myself either so neither do I like myself.
Who am I? " I found that very interesting because you realize a person with a stereotype created by society of superficial stereotype and had a philosophical spirit and a thirst for herself, like any human being. That's to say, this seed that characterizes the human being.
Seriously, would you give a philosophy course brochure for Marilyn Monroe? And she was thirsty for knowledge. It is interesting.
So we all want to move away from this material shadow and find out what pulses inside our heart. Who really are we? What are our dreams?
What really accomplishes us? What really makes us happy? What gives us peace?
I think this is interesting because we are sometimes so mechanized by the habits of society, that even for fun we do what is standard. So: vacation here, work there, rest there. And a beautiful day you stop, once someone made me this proposal: close your eyes and remember the moment of your day.
. . .
. . you were most happy.
Then when I closed my eyes, I was very young at this time, I remembered that I had gone to a party, and I had worked. All that there seemed to me an obligation, a protocol, And a happiness moment I remembered it was when I was playing with the earth. I said: I don't even know what is my happiness, I never stopped to ask that.
When I have fun or when I work, I clock-in the same way. Because every person has to do, because everyone has to go, it's something weird. We are strangers to our selves.
For how long? I hope not for a lifetime. So we all yearn to combine these two worlds, touch with our fingers our true identity, our Real face.
By the way, there is a wonderful text from Gibran that's called "The Crazy". Does anyone know? In what he talks about it: the day they stole your seven veils and the sun touched his face for the first time.
And he felt delighted, for the first time he felt his own face, the day they stole his seven veils. It's a wonderful text, worth knowing. "The secret source of your soul need to sprout and run murmuring to the sea.
And the treasure of your limitless depths it must reveal itself to your eyes. " One of the oldest things in existence within philosophy It is the idea, the theory of the prisoner soul. That essence needs to express itself.
It came into the world for this purpose. It's like you imagine a glove that you put in your hand to be able to garden, for example. Your hand needs to express itself.
This glove can't have all fingers stuck together in such a way it isn't possible to move the hand inside. It has to be malleable to the domain of the hand. It's like suddenly the glove is a prison of your hand, and it doesn't move inside, and then your hand become eager to touch the earth, for acting in the world, but can't express itself.
The prisoner soul. Plato said that actually educating is to open the bars of this prisoner's soul cell, to let air in, to not suffocate your soul. To educate is to break the barriers that prevent you from having inner life, to know yourself.
Educating was much deeper than wide. "To educate" is to bring out what you have for real. The intelligence also comes from this: "interlegeres" = choose from various.
Among all that you aren´t. . .
Who are you? For example. Finding your true identity is the greatest act of intelligence.
So, your soul, anxious within you, wants to express itself in the world. And you, what are you doing if not speaking on behalf of your soul? What did you come here for?
What message do you have to give the world? One very interesting thing that I like to say, when Beethoven, after completely deaf, writes a letter, the "Heilingenstadt Testament", where it says the following: that he didn't end his life at that moment because he had a message to give to the world, God had asked him to tell men, that was his music. And he wasn't done yet.
He couldn't exempt himself from this mission until it was completed. Okay, we aren't Beethoven! But, don't you think we have a message to give?
Who is sending this message? We don't hear it. We don't know what we came here for.
We cannot fall without giving our message. We cannot fail to fulfill our mission. The soul needs to express itself and we need that, so that our life has a meaning, to make a difference.
The treasure of your depths unlimited needs to reveal to your eyes. "But don't use scales to weigh your unknown treasures. And don't seek to explore the depths of your knowledge with a stick or a probe.
" Gibran is very, let's say, symbolic! and sometimes leaves things very between the lines. Tell me.
. . what would we understand from this phrase if we didn't have philosophy?
What would that mean, tell me? There are some things that are absolutely cryptic, If we didn't have the philosophy to help us. .
. What does he mean by that? Do you realize that one of the most complicated things when you consider, at least as a possibility, I'm not telling you to take this for absolute truth, because philosophy doesn't put absolute truths, but take as a possibility that the man has an Existence and an Essence, something immortal behind that look.
Imagine that this exists. Do you realize we want proof of both in the same way? So I have the body: how tall is it?
5' 4''. What is the weight? I won't tell you 'cause I'm a bit overweight.
What is the hair color? What is . .
. You want to measure, you want to quantify. .
. you want to put a stick, see the length. Do I have a soul?
What size is it? What model? These are things we don't understand, they are two worlds that communicate, and each world has its own laws.
You can't measure it that way, even because, there is a point here, this our soul, that's the most complicate thing to understand. . .
soon he'll start talking about it, our soul is as if was a cell, of a great soul, "anima mundi" = the soul of the world, which is only one. The tradition that so many times I've been telling you from India that says we are like a pearl necklace where a thread passes through. And this thread goes through all the things of the universe.
When you want to see your essence, you see a piece of thread. But you will realize that this little piece of thread is just a part of a whole thread, that goes through everything in the universe. In other words, your essence is a cell of the whole essence of the universe, which is one.
Your essence is a drop of a wide ocean. That´s a hard idea, because as your essence belongs to the world of unit and your body belongs to the world of multiplicity, They're two things you can't get to know with the same tools. I'm telling you that because nowadays we live a historical moment where that seems so obvious, but it is not understood.
There is a group of "pseudo-scientists", because I think a real scientist won't do such a thing, They will do science, and not get into things of this nature. But today there is a group of pseudo-scientists who write books, for example, to say that God does not exist. You know that, right?
One that became well known, called "The God delusion". It's the most aberrant thing that you can imagine. Imagine that our mind, concrete, practice, it works to know things by a very simple criterion, by adjective.
There is no way for you to know the things except through adjectives: This is small, this is a cylinder, this has an orange lid relatively small, also cylindrical. It gives you adjectives, and do you realize that every adjective is a limitation? When I say it's a cylinder - it's not a cone, It is not a cube, it is not a sphere.
So, there are a lot of things it isn't. There are lots of things out of it. When I say, it has an orange cap.
It has no blue cap, no red cap, It does not have a white cap. There are a lot of things it ain't. Imagine that I try to explain an object to you and I say: it is cylindrical, but it's also spherical but it's also a cone but also.
. . a cobbles; it's orange, but it's also white, but it's also blue.
. . "Stop!
! " For God's sake, tell me what it is not! How can I imagine such a thing?
The mind needs to divide to understand. And when you are talking about unity, because of our essence belongs to a unity. If you split it, it's no longer: it turns two, or three, or four parts.
If you say: "my essence is a cylinder" You will say: "It's not a cone" and because of that, it has lost unity. Your essence is now split. If it is orange!
It is neither black nor white, so there are three: orange, black and white. Lost unity! Any adjective you give to the spirit world, which is one by nature, it is no longer because the adjectives limit it.
Have you ever seen the mind work like that? The mind throw in the towel and says, "Look, I don't play like that" You have to tell me what is not. There is no "what is not" for our mind.
Because the characteristic of the spirit world is to be one at the same time. Think of a being like that. .
. I can't think! Ah, so there are other tools for knowledge.
. . There's that intuition, that comes from the center, from our heart, who perceives unity, and we have a practical reason, as Kant said, who perceives the multiplicity.
They are two different tools to know two worlds. You can't get a tape measure to measure your soul. It won't work!
Ah, what I don't evaluate with my tape measure does not exist. Okay. .
. . .
. it's a pretty reductive criteria, yours. Because there're so many things that the current science proves that exist and you can't measure with your tape measure, right?
So it's a very materialistic and reductive criteria. Those are pseudo-scientists who mean God does not exist because their limited mathematical equations do not encompass God. My dear, use your math equations to measure matter.
Be glad about your field, because no serious biologist will engage into discussions about physics. Work in your field. This is unusual, this is bizarre, and not serious, at all.
So you can't know our essence with a stick, with a tape measure, whatever it is. "Because the Self is a sea without limits and without measures. " In other words, this image, very beautiful, shows a fact: what we don't know about us it's much bigger than what we know about us.
And what we don't know about us? (in the picture) Ice; What is ice? Water, momentarily differentiated from what is around you.
. . which is water!
So it's like if you were a time when water became condensed and became deceptively . . .
one thing in particular. But it's still water. I like to give you that example, from professor Jorge Ángel Livraga, who is a philosopher, our founder; he says: you swipe your finger over the sand and make a furrow.
do it again and make another furrow. Then you say: there are two furrows. What is the first?
Sand. The second? Sand.
What is the gap between them? Sand. So, what do you have?
Sand, momentarily differentiated. So this idea of separateness, that for us is an addiction hard to imagine, - and that is the basis of selfishness - it's hard to imagine living without it, it is a barrier for us to know our essence. That's why it is said the more selfless is a man, probably he has more self-knowledge.
The man is the size of his generosity. Have you heard about that? The man is the size of his generosity.
You see, great men in history they weren't the ones who had much, they were the ones who gave a lot. They gave a lot of themselves. They changed history for how much they gave.
The man is the size of your delivery. "Do not say, 'I have found the truth. ' Say instead: 'I found one truth.
' " This is logical - Socrates spoke of it in a very curious way. One day Socrates was asked: "Master, I found a man who said who found the truth. " Socrates said, "look, or he really found it and he is a complete wise man, I don't even know what he's doing here.
Or, he doesn't even know what's true, and he's completely ignorant, and petulant. In neither case this person who you found serves as a philosopher. Or he is already too far or he is far behind.
Because the philosopher knows that doesn't have 'the truth'. There's a moment where he looks at life and says: "This can't just look like that. " There is something behind, something at the backstage, something beyond.
He sees a moment of beauty and realized that is something that goes through the world and back to your world but it is eternal. He doesn't believe that beauty ceases. He doesn't believe that goodness, justice will cease.
He realizes that they reflect and return to where they came from. but that it is eternal or does not exist. Because something so deep, so striking, leave such big footprints in the world, it can't be unreal, This cannot be illusory.
This moment, where you have this insight, you had a moment of inner life, You had a truth. You have glimpsed the truth. But the Great Truth?
No, one moment, a flash, an angle of the prism. Once again, our friend Jung, he used to say that these situations that happen to all of us fortunately and which are the most sacred moments of our life - we should keep them in a jewelry box, because they are our true jewels. Yesterday, when I was talking about the chapter "Houses" he said "you lock up your houses so much: do you have spirituality in there?
No - so what are you protecting? Do you have peace inside? What do you have?
That you are so afraid of being robbed. So, it's interesting: these are the moments that we should put in a jewelry box, because they are our true jewels. But you realize that it is still us, as existence, glimpsing moments of the essence.
And sometimes, Jung said, this generates such a vanity - that men think they saw the whole truth. He calls it ego inflation, which can generate a kind of delirium. He glimpsed, on merit, he tore a little the veils of illusion and glanced at the light.
But he still down here, he still has a lot to walk to see a little more light. So, we found one truth, on merit, sometimes we tear the veils of Maya as the Indian usually say and we see a little of the truth. "Do not say, 'I have found the way of the soul.
' Prefer to say, 'I have found the soul walking in my way '. I suddenly had a feeling that no one can take what I am, I don't need to be so insecure. I don't need to be so hurt by what people do to me, because what they reach it's not really me.
what I am deeply, no one can touch, no one can hurt, no one can injure Then you feel a state of security and freedom, as if it were this dancing soul I glimpsed! Look! There is someone behind the scenes.
There is an actor behind this mask. You will see that this exists in every corner. There is a passage that I think is beautiful in Egypt, which is written on the walls of a temple, like anything in Egypt, which is the Book of Powerful Chants, which says: Your name is stronger than the name of the gods.
Your name written on your shield, the name of the god sitting in the center of your boat. Oh, boatman, hold your oar, turn around and look into the eyes of him who lives in center of your boat. It's something like this.
. . Egypt, you know, that was a civilization highly complex with mysteries but what are they saying exactly?
There is something divine in the center of our boat, and we are rowing, alienated. At some point - stop it, look back, See who you are. See who owns the boat, who is the passenger?
And then you respect it more, don't put this boat in any corner, in any bog, because there is a divine being within. Do you realize that this vision is "respicere"(Latin)? It´s to know how to see it?
And then you come to respect yourself. I can not take my boat for any bog, there is a divine passenger inside. I respect myself.
Why? I know who I am. Even if you glimpse it only once in a while I know there is something and it deserves respect.
And then I can start respecting the others because if I know there is something inside of me, I start to have the possibility of believing it in others. Otherwise we are mere barks, why respect barks? We fall into this form of relationship we have in our days.
All of us. So painful and so shallow. "Because the soul walks all the ways.
. . " In other words, if it is a drop of water in the middle of the ocean, where does the ocean not go?
If it is a cell of the great soul of the universe, what space does the great soul of the universe does not penetrate? So you didn't find the way of your soul, you glimpsed a moment of your soul, but it is much bigger than you think. We want this separativity that we have down here be up there too.
And upstairs we are an episode of something that is eternal, with no limits in time and space. So you didn't see everything because if you did, you couldn't even face it. I remind you there is a passage from Greek mythology where one of Zeus's countless girlfriends, Sêmele, asks him: "show me to the fullest.
" Do you know this story? And Zeus had promised her that any anything she asked he would answer, and he see himself in trouble, right? What does he going to do?
And she: "I want to see you to the fullest. " And he shows himself, as a whole, and she is so horrified that she dies fulminated. We can't see the whole of our soul, we see an episode, Just a moment.
We are gathering little pieces. So that one day, we finally come to wisdom, what is the vision of the Whole. But such a flash It is the most beautiful moment of our life.
A moment in what you look like that wrinkled old lady we have just seen, hunched over, a young, eternal soul, that isn´t submitted to time, or space, waiting for you to release her, That you let her dance in your life. One moment - and it's a lot, because the soul walks through all ways. And we saw a moment of a way.
"The soul neither marches in a straight line nor grows like a reed. The soul blooms like a thousand-petalled lotus. " It's interesting if you see this particularity of the soul it is very similar to the description that Gibran gives to love.
Love, for example, if you want to have in love something sacred or divine, don't think this love will climb like a reed. Just in that little channel. For you to love the divine you have to go spreading its petals in all directions, you have to love all of humanity.
Because there is no way you can see God if you don't see him in all things. If you don't see God at all things, you will not see him in anything. he not only verticalizes but also gains space.
It covers the entire manifested universe, with its multiple petals. A thousand petals is like the symbol of the universe. Indian tradition when it means that a thing is infinite, they say: a thousand.
A thousand faces, a thousand moments, a thousand petals. it means: our soul expands and joins to the soul of all beings And only then does it rise. It is said that fraternity is the noblest feelings of the human being.
Because fraternity - as I said to you: fraternity, generosity is a symptom of self knowledge. The true fraternity, true generosity, without interests, without ulterior motives, but as a thirst for soul, as a need for fulfillment it is self-awareness symptom. The man who knows you deeply own, he knows a little of him is in all beings around him.
When a man falls into an abyss he knows is a part of him that went down there, and that will have to be rescued, and he feels responsible for it. When a human being rises, he knows something of him has risen, and he feels some of that fullness. He knows that humanity is only one.
Actually, we and the universe. In essence, it's said that's just it. So self-knowledge is not vertically isolated, This is an illusion we have, that intellectualism has generated in us.
If I'm an intellectual, I have diplomas, I have titles, It's just mine, it's nobody else's. No one benefits from the fact that I am post. .
. post. .
. postgraduate, PhDs and more PhDs. It is a thing limited to my own personal interests.
But not the wisdom, the wisdom expands and demonstrates itself creating bonds between people and all mankind. the wisdom demonstrates itself - You will know them by their fruits - it recognizes itself for the ability to create bonds to take humanity as your problem, as part of yourself. And just like that, you can rise, not alone.
So, this is the soul, like a thousand-petaled lotus And to know yourself, it is recognized yourself in all others. Never say, as the bible says again, "I will not drink from this water", and always say "I'll take more care of this defect in me" so other people don't fall through it. Who knows if I lead by example?
He recognizes that the entire universe is also inside of him, a microcosm. Well, that's it. As I told you, this is a small chapter but very deep and very beautiful, very poetic.
and line by line interspersed with philosophy, with ancient philosophy mentions, western and eastern. It talks about these possibilities of the human beings find themselves as the most sacred element of life. We came here for it, That is our purpose.
And finally, before we open to questions, I remind you that everything we do in the lectures it´s just a sample of our philosophy course, and those not yet know, come to know it without obligation, attend a class, look what it is about. Philosophy was born with the human being, It is love for wisdom. I think if there's one thing you don't may have doubts: the human being, his evolutionary trajectory is to get out of ignorance and come to wisdom.
Philosophy is love for wisdom. How will you walk to wisdom if you don't love it? After all, you always walk to the things you love.
We are all like that. So philosophy is to work consciously this love for wisdom This way that wisdom can manifest itself in our lives. And the valid movement in life it´s the movement toward wisdom.
It is where life really begins to be human So, I invite everyone to March 23rd . . .
Answers to some questions . . .
I was just talking about our autumn equinox, which is starting soon, if the seed does not plunge into the earth, lonely, and germinates down there, it will not have fruit to give to anyone, never. you can realize that we often want to give something to the people around us and we are empty-handed. We want to give an answer, a scape for the anguish of this person and we do not have it.
We lack this moment of seed, that plunges into itself, And then it germinates, to one day gives fruit. The expected fruits from a human being. Where will men get answers if not from this inner dialogue with their own soul?
And what people need most from us but answers? Do you think they need us? What do people need first and foremost?
Food? Material things? The lack of these things is a consequence of not having an answer for life.
Many times I have said that, the hunger is not a lack of food, is lack of fraternity. Misery is not lack of materials goods is a lack of solidarity, honesty. Isn't it?
I mean, the lack is up there, and generates all the consequences that we see down here. And it's no use to attend only the primary needs, It's important, but it is not enough. So, the fruit expected of the men to share, it is the fruit from the soul.
Plato said - the best you can do for the people you love is to grow, as a human being. Only like that, you can prove to them that this is possible, and that the destiny of human beings are to grow. Grow up and become a better human being, It is an act of love.
And he says: 'the greatest love act'. Isn't that interesting? Because if you don't get inside and germinate, you don't bear fruit.
It is exactly the cycle of nature: it's a moment for us to enter - Nature prepares the whole cradle for us to come in. And then, at a certain moment, leave with arms full of fruits. Because otherwise, we want to help but we are empty-handed.
Where do we get answers to anguish and suffering? If not from the inner life? If not from deep reflection?
So it's perfectly consistent, Gibran really talks about it. This chapter from yesterday about the dwellings, it's all the time talking about it. It is the keynote of this chapter: the inner life is a necessary and healthy, loneliness.
. . .
It's true, it has to be that way. Because if you go out and feel bad, you didn't have solitude, you had isolation. Of course, the two moments: the moment of fruiting as root, the moment of bear fruit, already with the mature tree, are wonderful Because if you get inside and at the time to leave you're feeling bad, this is not solitude, this is isolation.
This is a kind of denial of the human being. This is a kind of selfishness. It is not healthy.
It is healthy when both moments are wonderful. Do you remember of the "I want a countryside home where I can receive my friends"? (song fragment) in other words: at a certain point, you are in your countryside home, and another you are open to receive your friends.
Both are wonderful. Nobody can be with someone else, if they're not with themselves It is superficial in both situations, it's neither good for you nor to the other people, there's nothing to give, and he himself feels this thirst, this emptiness. I usually say, for example, related to loneliness, takes a small city and São Paulo: where do you think people suffer more loneliness?
In São Paulo, in the big cities. Loneliness is not lack of the other, it is lack of itself. So you have to be with yourself first, and then you can be with the others in depth, and both things are very important.
. . .
for sure, when you walk, you will see if you balance or not otherwise it is theory, it is fantasy. "I am a balanced person". Come on, walk, I want to see it.
"Talk so I can see you," - Socrates said. Walk on, I want to see it. Okay, you reflected it, but now bring that to the world and see if it works.
Do you understand? So, neither fruits can exist without a root nor a root makes sense unless it bears fruit. Both of them are necessary.
One exists for the other: being and existing.
