Buber In Ten Minutes"I am Thou"
This is fascinating,
20th Century..
https://youtu.be/16Cr82mLhkw https://youtu.be/16Cr82mLhkw
..
Russian Transcendentalism..
‘The highest wisdom and truth is like the purest dew, which we try to hold
within us,’ said he. ‘Can I hold in an impure vessel that pure dew and judge of
its purity? Only by the inner purification of myself can I bring that dew
contained within me to some degree of purity. The highest wisdom is founded
not on reason only, not on those wordly sciences, of physics, history,
chemistry, etc., into which knowledge of the intellect is divided. The highest
wisdom is one. The highest wisdom knows but one science; the science of the
whole, the science that explains the whole creation and the place of man in it.
To instill this science into one’s soul, it is needful to purify and renew
one’s inner man, and so, before one can know, one must believe and be made
perfect. And for the attainment of these aims there has been put into our souls
the light of God, called the conscience.’
‘Look with the spiritual eye into thy inner man, and ask of they self whether
thou art content with thyself. What hast thou attained with the guidance of the
intellect alone? What art thou? You are young, you are wealthy, you are
cultured, sir. What have you made of all the blessings vouchsafed you? Are you
satisfied with yourself and your life?’
‘Thou hatest it; then change it, purify thyself, and as thou are purified thou
wilt come to know wisdom. Look at your life, sir. How have you been spending
it? In riotous orgies and debauchery, taking everything from society and
giving nothing in return. You have received wealth. How have you used it? What
have you done for your neighbour?’
-Tolstoy, War and Peace
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote :
Of Free Thinkers and Orthodoxy,
An essay, About our Church Building in Fairfield, Iowa:
Here's the history about our church which is technically called the "Church of
the Holy Spirit Charitable Trust." We use the name Fellowship of the Holy
Spirit because there are too many churches named "Church of the Holy Spirit."
The building was built in 1913, and first served as a bridal and tack shop for
horses and buggies. Like every building on the square, it is long and narrow.
This allows more stores to have a storefront. The owners lived upstairs and
the backspace was for inventory and workshops. Very sensible. I don't know all
the stores or businesses that have used the building. My memory goes back to
Simone's - a clothing store owned by Julia Marchand and Bill DeKramer. Simone
was Julia's daughter. At some point Julan White, Bonnie's daughter, bought the
building. (Yes, Bonnie is the unforgettable owner of 2nd Street Coffee).
Julan loved the building and was remodeling it when unfortunately it burned.
John Minor, a local contractor who had once gone to seminary school, bought the
burned out building to keep it from being razed. He figured we didn't need
another parking lot on the square like the empty space next to India Cafe -
empty from another fire. I bought it from John to restore as a church building.
I paid $50K for the building, and then watched in amazement when I put in
another $250K at least to restore it. I've never regretted spending the money,
even though the building is not at all worth $300K. For me it has become a
gift to the community, giving me great satisfaction to see how so many people
and groups are using it for the spiritual upliftment of our community and world.
Our church history:
I was the original "Ru" minister of the Unity Church in Fairfield for 12
years. We had a Unity-ordained minister for 2 or 3 years before that, but one
day from the pulpit she said: "The Holy Spirit has told me I have to leave,
and that you (pointing at me) are the next minister." I pulled in 3 other
people to be ministers with me - including my decades' long friend Connie
Huebner.
After 12 years, the main Unity organization realized we had become a real
church with a church building and money in the bank. They sent someone up and
said we couldn't do this - we needed a real Unity minister. They sent a Unity
minister up from Quincy who was a fine person but didn't have the depth of
experience to inspire and teach a church full of sidhas. So we split off, and
Unity church faded away. Connie started the Divine Mother church, and I started
the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Joy Hirshberg became the president of the
local synagogue (a good Shiksha president!) and Eleanor Fleming moved out of
town.
We struggled with finding a good location, so I eventually bought our current
building. It had been burned out by a construction fire - one of Julan's
construction workers was sneak-sleeping in the building and fell asleep with a
cigaret. I was going to do a cheap Walmart's remodel, but I fell in love with
the building and my business
