Annotation by Mary Brown: A wholehearted worker in any chosen project, especially the Episcopal Church. Thoughtful and generous. In reading aloud to Allan for three summers in Highlands, she brought a serious, apperceptive mind and in turn was greatly stimulated by him, both spiritually and mentally.
As I have told you, I believe that a being-realization1 of the qualitative difference between time and eternity is basic to our understanding of reality. To show that this idea is not merely an idiosyncratic whim I enclose quotations from others who have recognized the distinction. Of course intellectual appreciation is worthless, and I am not in accord with those who speculate about time, whether eternity has its roots in time, why we are given our sense of flowing time, and so on. It is sufficient for me to feel that our time must be used to approach reality as far as possible, thus glorifying God in the real sense by attempting to fulfill his purpose.
Thank you for sending me The Image. I have just been able to read it. You and your rector may be delighted with the archbishop but I am rather sorry for him. He has to uphold orthodox ecclesiasticism but, as you say, he probably understands what Dr. Robinson is aiming at better than he does himself. This is really primitive Christianity.
Instead of those difficult books which you say you don't understand read the Philokalia and "inwardly digest it."
In Philippians the Apostle Paul says that Jesus emptied Himself and became a slave. We must follow that example and empty ourselves of all our mental conceptions and listen for the still small voice. This is the hardest thing in the world to do because we are entirely taken by what we have been taught, and have thought about, since childhood. A Buddhist will always be a Buddhist; a Mohammedan, a Mohammedan, and so forth. It is better to be a Buddhist and know reality than to be an orthodox Christian and know nothing but forms.
Knowing of my interest in Time, Ralph Sargent sent me the enclosed and I made a copy for you to keep with the other notations in hand. I still feel that there may be too much thinking about Time rather than living it.
Along with your Blake quotation which I like very much2 there was another thing he said which has always struck me very forcibly: "Of Time's ruins build mansions in Eternity."3
We are sorry to hear of the delay in your well being. Life always has adverse problems and it is as well that it does because these difficulties are opportunities for inner growth and I am delighted that you have used your present difficulties for that purpose.
You speak again of time's ruins. I am sending a little screed I wrote about thirty years ago on this subject. It doesn't add much to what you know but you may be interested to know how I was thinking and feeling so long ago.
We did enjoy M's visit. She is an unusual woman in that she does not merely think and feel but lets her thoughts and feelings blossom into acts.
As you know, I am a great admirer of Paul. I think that Caravaggio's picture of that incident on the road of Damascus is one of the great works of art in the world. Paul undoubtedly used his isolated time in the desert to marvellous productive purpose and yet at the end of a long life he could say "Not that I have achieved, but that I have pressed forward to the mark."
I think that your word "wholiness" for universalism is very good indeed. As you do not know much about the Quaker way of thinking I will look up something to send you.
I have never read Berenson4 but in my reading [of him] I find many things that are rather futile with only a few choice spots here and there to pick out.
Thank you for your quotation from Berenson. Memory is indeed tricky. Unless there is at least quasi-consciousness an incident is not retained in conscious memory. There are other features. I remember that Darwin said that when he found a fact not in accord with his theory he would write it down as he would
Your Persian fable was very good. I have many Mohammedan and Persian sayings which show a great understanding of "emptying." It is quite true, as you say, that many show great understanding of the ultimate end but do not show the procedure. This is because every man must find out his own method. I have come to think that control of the physical processes is nothing but the process of emptying. In other words, the slaying of the dragon is nothing in itself unless it is in itself the ultimate marriage. I think it is useless to try to formulate eternity, which in our human condition we do not know. I like the view of Edwyn Clement Hoskyns5 whose book you showed me. He takes the view not of formulating eternity but of discounting chronological time. In connection with your quote "Before Abraham was I am" he says: "Normally in the fourth gospel Jesus is represented as using the present tense, but it is a present completely unlimited by any past or any future: 'I am the resurrection, and the life' (John 11:25) is as fully a non-chronological present as is 'Before Abraham was I am' (John 8:58)."
Thank you for returning "Time's Ruins." It interests me [that] although the words of the aged Simeon are ecclesiastically taken in an emotional sense the Bible says "A sword shall pierce thy heart, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.."6 As to the real meaning of dialogue, the last word has been said by Martin Buber in I and Thou.
We were greatly distressed to read in the Highlander about the great blow in your family but I know you will take it in your stride. I don't know whether I sent you what Wm. Penn said about death but if you do not have it I will send it because I am sure you will find it much to the point.7
In connection with your Persian fable, I call your attention to Goethe's West-Easterly Divan in which he attempts to bring Persian understanding to his German (Easterly) audience. It contains the poem which includes the following lines:
A sense of strangeness overcomes you
When the silent candle shines
…
And as long as you do not possess this sense:
Die and be reborn!
You are only a troubled guest
On this dark earth.8
I enclose a quotation from Eiseley in which he uses the phrase "night and nothingness," in quite a different sense from Fr. Webbe. "We forget that nature herself is one vast miracle transcending the reality of night and nothingness. We forget that each one of us in his personal life repeats this miracle." —The Firmament of Time by Loren Eiseley.9
There are indeed many views of time. I enumerate four. Please add more. Practical: Time is money. Emotional: Time is the mercy of eternity. Intellectual: Time is space. The whole man: Time is the unique subjective phenomenon.
I am glad you are studying "The Uses of Guilt." Nietzsche quotes Cardanus as saying that one ought to seek out as much suffering as possible in order to intensify the joy springing from its conquest. But this is going too far from my experience. You will get much from Josiah Royce on the Problem of Evil.10 Give Thanks.
Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul we ever took.
—Christopher Fry11
I am sending you a new playlet, "Martin's Lie," which deals with the problem of evil from the standpoint of experience rather than intellectual conception.
I have been considerably involved with that article on "The Uses of Guilt" and now enclose a theological interpretation of the problem. Also some thoughts of my own; these are terrible because an ounce of wrestling is worth a ton of thought. Menotti did it much better. Also, here is another viewpoint. A hermit on Mt. Athos asked a visting official "What is Sin?" "Why, sin," replied the official, "is the breaking of the Ten Commandments." The hermit shook his head and said, "No, the Ten Commandments are the consequences of sin. Sin is the lack of love."
I think in our life as it is the real value of Christmas lies in its reestablishment of relations with other people usually quite separate from our own individual selves. This is really a first step in the ultimate spiritual uplift because as Martin Buber says it is impossible to have a dialogue with God (or any other name you want to give to the Infinite) unless you can first have a dialogue with your fellow man. We must realize that man is not an island in his own personality but that he is a part of the human race as a whole. When we have reached this stage we have begun to feel that our own personality is not the ultimate criterion and we can begin to lay ourselves open to receive the impact of the life of reality.
Memorandum…
I came across some poems of Emily Brontë which seem to me to indicate that she has the ultimate aim in view. In one, a poem without title, The Genius of Earth calls to the visionary soul:
Thy mind is ever moving
In regions dark to thee;
Recall its useless roving,
Come back, and dwell with me.
There is another poem, also untitled, containing the following lines:
With wide-embracing love
Thy spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.
Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou were left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.
There is no room for Death
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou—Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.
The reason that bishops and laymen may be at odds is that they are at different stages of consciousness and so cannot understand each others' aims. Jesus had the same trouble with his immediate disciples.
The difference between social conscience and real conscience is fundamental. Freud says that philanthropy is penance for past guilt. I think it is often a means of self-inflation or one of the various methods by which we try to escape our real inner responsibility.
I have never taken a negative attitude towards life. Unpleasant acts to be overcome must be brought to light, not ignored. I am glad you have gone back to the earlier days. Dag Hammerskjold says that the first necessary step in loving mankind as a whole is to be kindly to those with whom you come in contact.
You got to the heart of the matter in that sermon. In the episode of Mary and Martha in Luke, Jesus speaks of "the one thing needful." We must integrate ourselves, have one aim. Otherwise we drift without meaning. There are many difficulties but we must press on. In the prelude in heaven in Faust, God says that all his followers make mistakes but they will be saved if they keep on trying. The directed soul alone rules. Orpheus enters into death, not enticed but decided, with aim in mind. I am sending you a poem, "The Appointment," which shows us our worst enemies, our personal tendencies.12
As to an early beginning, I say the earlier the better. At home, when I was a boy, we had a picture of the child Jesus talking to the doctors. I quote Ecclesiastes 12 beginning, "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." In fact, I believe that we start with "that of God" and in the course of life simply cover it up.
I am so glad that R's tape of Rigoletto came out so well. I have always thought that the quartet was one of the best expressions of the multifariousness and ultimate meaningfulness of love.
That is what Descartes lacked. He had many good ideas but he never realized in himself that he was part of the whole. I always thought that he should have said "I am, therefore I think" rather than "I think, therefore I am." It is all in aim, in attitude. Very different from Victor Hugo's, as evidenced by the enclosed:
I represent a party which does not yet exist; the party of revolution, civilization. This party will make the twentieth century. There will issue from it first the United States of Europe, second the United States of the world.
I am so glad you are saving Life for us. We are greatly interested in primates. [So was Kafka.] There is a review of Wild Heritage13 in Saturday Review <dated> 3/20/65. It is hostile, but this does not deter me. The proper attitude toward plants and animals is beautifully expressed by Martin Buber in Daniel.14 <In case> you do not have this book I will copy out the passage for you:
Look at this stone pine. You may compare its properties with those of other stone pines, other trees, other plants, establish what it has in common and and what it does not have in common, explore what it is composed of and how it grew. That will be useful to you in the useful auxiliary world of names and classifications, of reports about how things arose and how they evolved. You experience nothing of the truth of this being. And now seek to draw near to this stone pine itself. Not with the power of the feeling glance alone—that can present you only with the fullness of an image: much, but not all. Rather, with all your directed power, receive the tree, surrender yourself to it. Until you feel its bark as your skin and the springing forth of a branch from the trunk like the striving in your muscles; until your feet cleave and grope like roots and your skull arches itself like a light-heavy crown; until you recognize your children in the soft blue cones; yes, truly until you are transformed. But also in the transformation your direction is with you, and through it you experience the tree so that you attain in it to the unity. For it draws you back into yourself; the transformation clears away like fog; and around your direction a being forms itself, the tree, so that you experience its unity, the unity. Already it is transplanted out of the earth of space into the earth of the soul, already it tells its secret to your heart, already you perceive the mystery of the real. Was it not just a tree among trees? But now it has become the tree of eternal life.
M's accident just goes to show that it is not what happens to you that counts but how you react to it. Good and evil are just two ends of the same stick.
I am glad you liked My Life with a Brahmin Family.15 The Brahmins have indeed a hard problem but essentially no worse than ours now. Read the poem "History" enclosed. Personally I think that the Hindus, generally speaking, have erred in not recognizing in practice that the material is part of the divine.
Evelyn Underhill wrote some wonderful poems. I remember one where she depicts Christ walking on one of the common London streets. High Street, I think.
"Earth Men" is amusing but it is more than that. It shows the futility of attempting to reach reality by reason. We must empty ourselves and let the Hound of Heaven come in.
The letters of Teilhard sound interesting and I hope when I get up to Highlands you will show them to me and discuss them with me.16 Teilhard and Eiseley have opened my eyes to a new world. Each, being human, has his own point of view, but neither has closed himself so as to make his "omega point" into a frozen idol. Eiseley is a mystic in the real sense, that is, he recognizes the reality beyond appearances. He is a real extrovert in that he is striving to be part of the whole, rather than for personal perfection. They both stress the importance of the past because the past IS part of the present.
That article on science and war is indeed unsettling. But I consider it optimistic. Winston Churchill said that we could not expect to change things in 5 or 6 days because even the Almighty took 7. It is only too true that the popular tendency is still selfish and materialistic. But a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Remember Sodom. We must do what we can by our attitude.
You have lamented the dumbness of politicians. I saw a headline that <President Lyndon> Johnson is trying to reflect the people's consensus. I think it is true generally that politicians try to act in accordance with popular opinion, however selfish their purpose. So it is UP TO US.
I greatly appreciate your careful study and remarks on that difficult Hysteria article. I shall bring it up with me and shall make no comments other than to say that the violence we are experiencing today is due to technological machines rather than the bomb and that that fear is within us. A complete change in our social organization is necessary, not mere palliatives as suggested by the Wall Street Journal. The dinosaur became extinct because it could not make the change demanded by growth.
It is very good that you have been rereading the Bible in the light of the present situation. It is remarkable how applicable it is, the fear of fear is indeed met by "Underneath are the everlasting arms."17 By the way, that was my mother's favorite verse. She understood it in rather a literal sense but that does not minimize its truth. We were both delighted with the Leakey for together we have studied his works very carefully. The title, "Battle of the Bones," made me think of Ezekiel, so I looked it up and sure enough, there it was: Ezekiel 37:5–6
Thus said the Lord unto these bones; behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: and I shall lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live.
When this is considered in the light of Leakey's beginning, it is truly amazing.
In connection with your editorial on holiness in men of power, I quote the following in an article in The Reporter:
From our president the nation has the right to expect the guidance we need for the defense of our interest and ideas. This guidance, so far, Lyndon Johnson has been giving with singular adroitness. But to the pledges he will live up to, he can well avoid trying to add the coming of the Kingdom of God on this earth.18
Here are 3 cartoons you might enjoy. 1. ["What do you mean, 'Our country right or wrong'? Just when has our country ever been wrong?"] This demonstrates the "terror of the situation" in that as a whole we have not adopted the forward look. 2. [Two explorer machines shaking hands on the moon.] This reminds me of "Life on Earth." 3. [Ordinary people climbing up stairs only to find at top a ladder descending.] This is very basic and important. The spiritual and the material cannot be separated. As Benoit puts it: The ordinary man sees the mountains; when he starts [work on himself] he sees them no more; when he attains satori he sees them again.19 Gurdjieff had the same idea.
I was just going to send you these cartoons when your postcard came about recurrence. I shall be glad to hear what Merton has to say. Don't feel 'un-ease', dear. I consider the idea a way station, a sign of growth. We will talk together about it at Highlands. The distinction is not between pagan and Christian but between dreaming and vision.
We are back safely <in Bradenton> and how I miss you. Your letter came today and I too am in the utmost confusion. But, tho cumbered, let us not forget the ultimate aim.
That Vedanta Dictionary is really more than a dictionary. I found it a mine of information and am sure it will be very useful to you in connection with the Eastern material I have for you. The study of comparative religions does not expand Christianity, but as you say expands the point of view, that is, helps to show what Christianity really means.
Just one thing about communication. I give you this so that you may look it up, if necessary, before you leave. In T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the woman says twice:
That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant at all."
As to "Democracy has never been tried," this reminds me of the saying "It is not true that Christianity has been tried and found wanting; it has never been tried."20
Committees only too often mean the death of activities; if they work usually one person does practically all the work.
I am now reading Jung's Memories, Dreams and Reflections21 which I consider the best book on the establishment of wholeness because it is founded on experience.
Even in marriage there may be no real communication.
M goes "whole hog" and so is a lesson to all of us.
You are of course familiar with the recent Supreme Court decision on prayer, but you might be interested in this comment. A constitutional amendment is suggested. But, as LBJ says, what's a constitution among friends?
I miss you so much, but you get to communicate. I feel that we inter-communicate all the time. The essence of communication is giving self. The essence of receiving communication is forgetting self and lying open.
Real communication is a matter of feeling rather than intellect.
As to M's activities, I quote Lord Acton on the French Revolution: "If we submit ourselves to the outcome, if we think more of the accomplished deed than of the suggested problem, we become servile accomplices of success and force."
This is in accord with Dag H<ammarskjöld>'s idea that if you keep your attention on the ultimate goal, your feet will find the way; otherwise you will make mistakes. As you say, the subject is too complicated for writing. I greatly admire M for her wholehearted concern, but I am somewhat concerned by the trend to the government. I saw a cartoon recently of a silver dollar with a picture of LBJ and the motto "In LBJ we trust?"
As to the Twelve Days of Christmas, someone remarked: "I fear your lover has been robbing a bird sanctuary."
I shall be glad to read the sermon Bill sent you. But I do not think that real mystical religion needs any apology.
We have started reading "The New Theologian" and are much interested. I have collected a number of articles showing the Episcopalian reaction. We will talk the whole thing over when you come. I am against the idea that there is an absolute reality over and above the reality we see but do not understand. William James used to say: "Damn the absolute."22
In view of [your involvement] with the hectic life, I am sending this little quotation which I took from Jung's Memories, Dreams and Reflections, the book which I am now reading with intense interest: "Omnia festinatio ex parte diaboli est," "All haste is of the devil," as the old masters used to say. I am interested in the clippings you sent with your letter of Dec. 9th. First: the glass slab.23 Sometime I may discuss with you the ancient history of glass works. In this connection I am sending you the review of a book, New Paths in Biology by Adolph Portman.24 The point to me is that the effect of so-called natural coloration can be achieved by coloring glass. Then there is that article which you sent called "Technology Is Called Peril to Man's Values." Technology is not the peril, but only those who misuse technology. Technology, if properly used, may be of immense value to humanity. Any activity is of value only when the ultimate aim is kept in view.
I can't help you much about politics. All I know is all politicians use weasel words, work for themselves, and are in favor of the status quo unless driven by popular demand. Advancement is up to us.
I feel that there was much unfinished business between us. But of course this is bound to be when we dwell in holy insecurity. Particularly there are two things I want to study with you. One: The new Theology. Two: Communication, especially in the light of your wonderful suggestion in the light of parables.
We must continue to press forward to the ultimate aim, not as intellect urges, but through inner being.
Thank you for sending The Anglican Digest.25 I like the little statement on morality which you have marked. I have a high regard for Spurgeon.26 I believe that morality is not merely a matter of sex. The problem pointed out is one fundamental with every clergyman and every man. Our growing insights cannot be bound by any creed or dogma, but there is no necessity to kick down the ladder by which one has climbed.
I am sending a little note on Wm. Petty27 which you many have seen. This goes to show that the engineer or technologist need not be non-understanding.
I am sure that Iago was bored because he used his undoubted faculties for his own advantage rather than for the ultimate end.
You were quite right in what you say about the Upanishads or the Bhagavad Gita, which to my mind contains the meat of the Upanishads. If they are just read they are meaningless and tiresome. They must be not only read but also digested, assimilated, made part of oneself. One suggestion is to read first as an ordinary book. Second, try to get the inner meaning. Third, read as if reading to others. They will put you to the test of understanding.28
I found the other passage you had marked in The Anglican Digest (Spring 1966) on the New Theology … I have come to the conclusion that there is not much difference between the new Theology and the old Theology. Each of them is framing a view of God, and in our human condition we cannot know God; but if we have God or the Ground of Being in our inner selves we know that He or It is unknowable and that we must simply accept. Your Digest confirms this. For instance on page 37 or 8 it speaks of churchmen who adhere to beliefs and customs for their own sake, even if the real meaning has been forgotten or obscured. And on page 40 it says that we should think of God as both "out there" and "deep inside" because each idea is true and each idea is false, and is just an image of God and not God Himself.
You speak of inadequacy, but you must remember that at best reality can never be expressed adequately in words. It is a matter of inner being actually experienced and can only be hinted at. That is you.
Your typing course makes me think of an old story. A man was exuberantly extolling the marvellous abilities of his secretary when a friend asked, "And can she type too?" Seriously, I think your plan is a very good one. I am Aristotelian and work from the ground up; we should develop the faculties we have before looking for extraordinary faculties.
What we call genius is often not a whole man but the union of two centers only.29 Thus we may have an intellectual who is blind to the underlying issues of life. I like to think that Petty was open.30 That is what we must try for.
I am sending you a cartoon on unconventionality which you may keep. It is full of meaning. A liberal can be quite as bound and dogmatic as a conservative.
I have come to the conclusion that the contest between the old and the new theology is meaningless intellectuality in the light of inner understasnding. Forms of expression change but to glimpse reality one must empty oneself, accept oneself, and dwell in holy insecurity. It is as dogmatic to say there is no God as to say there is a personal God.
Kepes has more than technical knowledge; he has understanding.31 The Greek middle-way is quite right. It is the problem of all of us. It is only by keeping our attention fixed on the ultimate aim that we can manage the tight-rope between the two sides of our nature. It is again fundamentally the positive, the negative and the reconciling. We can't go to one side with Hoyle32 or anyone, or anything (like the new Theology) else.
That <Anne> Freemantle story was very meaningful. Instead of studying herself, she undertook to criticize another. Jesus had both grace and truth, but most of us overemphasize one or the other. We may learn of a man even though he be lacking in grace, The Freemantle story tells us more about her than him.
Your black-bag article did not insult my intelligence; in fact, I liked it and shall keep it with my Zen papers. Many conditions have been prescribed as aiding inner meditation or being essential to it. People vary so much that I would not reject any of these means, even the rosary or the Buddhist prayer wheel. However, these bag people seem to be off the track and working not for the work's sake but for the fruits. But who am I to judge?
I followed Bishop Pike for many years. I am not at all opposed to his free thinking. In fact I favor it. But I have come to feel that his interest represents mental alertness rather than inner feeling.
You are right about the <Anne> Freemantle story. There are two sides to every question. Everything that anyone writes is bound to be colored by his personal inclinations. None of us is completely whole. I am also sending you an article showing that even human engineers can "lift the human spirit."
I liked Sir Edwyn Hoskins33 very much because it seems to me he has the right idea of the eternal now.
I knew you would receive that beaver thing with mixed emotions. We must remember that every stick has two ends.
You were quite right about that article "Quakerism and the World of the Future."34 I was quite interested in it because of his recognition that the problem is broader than the ascendency of any one sect. The suggestion that the capacity for language was potential in all animals all through eons is not fantastic. Animals communicate in many ways we know not of and our idea that the only means of communication is through words is fantastic. Luke 11:9 "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." This has a special meaning in the Greek, and remind me to talk to you about it when we meet, if I have not already told you.
I am sending you an article, "A Physicist Speaks of Religion."35 I believe that religion and science are working together, and if they do not, they are not complete entities.
<The philosopher George> Santayana's point is well taken in that we all give ourselves up to head thinking, but of course we should think with both head and heart, opening ourselves to let the reconciling force come in. I'm afraid Portmann36 is a little steep for me but since all things are one we should look for likenesses rather than differences. We've learned that together.
Thank you for the return of the article on "The Physicist Speaks on Religion." That word de-ontological simply refers to our failure to recognize that the past is part of our present structure. As to morality, I think I have told you about the Mt. Athos monk.37
As we are preparing to go I cannot take time to write much now. In fact I am sending you this letter because I want to send this little notice about Bishop Pike turning to teaching. Mary was particularly delighted with his picture which has a lack of that air of self-satisfaction. Perhaps something is starting. He could learn much from his pupils. <The essayist Sir Laurens> Van der Post says, "Must we always be too late?"
As to a catastrophe, I can only say that there is no catastrophe in the process of dynamic evolution although certain events do seem catastrophic to some persons. You will remember from reading The Life of Darwin that we have gone beyond the catastrophic age.
Before a man studies Zen, for him the mountains are mountains and the waters are waters; when, thanks to the teaching of a good master, he has achieved a certain inner vision of the truth of Zen, for him the mountains are no longer mountains and the waters are no longer waters; but later, when he has really arrived at the asylum of rest, once more the mountains are mountains and the waters are waters.
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