Quaker Reflecttions

If simplicity of living is a valid principle, there is one important precaution and condition of its application. I can explain it best by something which Mahatma Gandhi said to me. We were talking about simple living, and I said that it was easy for me to give up most things but that I had a greedy mind and wanted to keep my many books. He said, 'Then don't give them up. As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it. If you were to give it up in a mood of self-sacrifice or out of a stern sense of duty, you would continue to want it back, and that unsatisfied want would make trouble for you. Only give up a thing when you want some other condition so much that the thing no longer has any attraction for you, or when it seems to interfere with that which is more greatly desired.

Richard Gregg, 1936


Comments

  1. MudpuddleApril 24, 2017 at 4:02 PM

    language can be ambiguous... G's statement is wonderfully true, but only in the sense that a person should only really want a few things... and is clear about what those are. modern man is confronted with so many "things" that his wanter goes crazy, resulting in the desire-bound condition that G would not recommend... imo, anyway...

    ReplyDelete
  2. StevenApril 24, 2017 at 7:26 PM

    Hmmmm. I think Gandhi's wisdom goes deeper than that. There are so many who would say, "Give it up anyway." But Gandhi acknowledges that what is relinquished under duress, even self-imposed duress, is, in fact, never really given up. As such it eats away at one more than keeping the object originally would have done. But I think you're absolutely right about the direction in which Gandhi is pointing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MudpuddleApril 25, 2017 at 12:30 AM

      you're quite right about that... it didn't occur to me in that way at the time... tx....

      Delete
  3. FredApril 25, 2017 at 11:43 AM

    Perhaps what's been given up is significant. Is the item being given up merely the result of habit--if so, those can be given up with little long-term results. However, if it is a significant part of the person, then that will pose serious problems.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. StevenApril 25, 2017 at 11:53 AM

      Fred,

      Exactly--so as Gandhi notes--it should not be surrendered until such time as it "interferes with that which is more greatly desired." It seems to be about personal evolution toward surrending what Quakers would refer to as "cumber."

      Delete
    2. FredApril 25, 2017 at 7:22 PM

      Steven,

      "cumber" a great term--it suggests something bulky, heavy, clumsy, and awkward.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Another Queen of Night

I post this because whenever I recommend to anyone the Queen of Night, I always recommend it in the Lucia Popp rendition.  It's a matter of personal taste, but what I love about this is that it is somewhat slower than the other versions and as a result, it would seem to me somewhat more difficult to perform and sustain--those high notes in which the Queen's voice becomes the Magic Flute itself are rounded, full, and deep while remaining light and airy. I have read some rather severe criticism of this ritardando; and while it may or may not reflect Mozart's intent, it is certainly within the options for staging.  It creates a real vocal showpiece from what is already a magnificent example of same. It really is an amazing example of a virtuoso composition sung by a virtuoso voice.  All of which should not be taken to mean that I do not truly appreciate the version posted earlier by Diana Damrau, it's just nice to see what a difference tempo can make. I think we can take
Read more

Angel Time--Anne Rice

Review copy received 11/04/09 From the time of its announcement, I had been looking forward to this new book by Anne Rice.  As I say in every review, I am not a die-hard Anne Rice fan.  I found Interview with a Vampire interesting and intriguing, but in hindsight, must lay much of the responsibility of the current vampire as victim and love-object obsession at its feet.  After that, I had no patience with her writing until Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. In that book I observed a kind of control and authorial voice that I had not seen in any of the books I had sampled since Interview .  So too with Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. Perhaps because of the subject matter, perhaps for other reasons, these two books seemed to witness a level of control of language and story that the other books did not.  Gone were messy florid passages that lavished two, three, four paragraphs on the description of the lace and flounce of a jabot.  These new books were spare, polished, poetic. The
Read more