shelves of words

Over the last few days I have been compiling a database of books that I have read. There are more than a thousand on my bookshelves and they cover more than twenty main topics. There is a mood associated with the project. It verges on the pleasant.

Memories are stirred of times past when I was excited by ideas that were new to me. They swept me off my geo-historical and happenstantial feet; they pointed to alternatives beyond xenophobic parochiality; they oozed vague promises of better ways to be human; they cracked norms and provoked a paradigm shift.

And all this was managed using words. Many remarkable people from a wide range of times and places have realised the impotence of words but presented some anyway. The paradigm shift results in pioneers climbing the spiritual mountain; and the lead climbers feel obliged to utter words to help others elevate themselves and experience the grander and more beatific world view.

The compilation and the climb continue!

Hammarskjold

When asked by a journalist the requirements of somebody who wished to contribute to the development of peace and reason, second secretary-general of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold responded, "He must push his awareness to the utmost limit without losing his inner quiet, he must be able to see with the eyes of others from within their personality without losing his own."

Marking the 51st anniversary of his death, in the current issue of Tricycle author Roger Lipsey commemorates Hammarskjöld, a disciple of Meister Eckhart and a great appreciator of Buddhism. Read the article.