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Showing posts with label Schwietzer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Schwietzer. Show all posts

6.01.2019

Schweitzer. James too. Rarely so in companionship has James felt as in reading these words yesterday.


This a quote from the epilogue of schweitzer's final book, out of my life and thought, and autobiography.

Yesterday's voyage was spent listening to portions of multiple Schweitzer books that had recently been downloaded from archive.org. the first several were schweitzer's scholarship on the man Jesus and I was horrified. Dogma upon Dogma upon Dogma. Bulshit upon bulshit. Psychotic.
Whether he ever spoke differently about the man Jesus I don't know. But his life speaks a very very very different understanding than his scholarly works.
More from the epilogue of this autobiography.

 "Only at quite rare moments have I felt really glad to be alive. I could not but feel with a sympathy full of regret all the pain that I saw around me, not only that of men but that of the whole creation. From this community of suffering I have never tried to withdraw myself. It seemed to me a matter of course that we should all take our share of the burden of pain which lies upon the world. Even while I was a boy at school it was clear to me that no explanation of the evil in the world could ever satisfy me; all explanations, I felt, ended in sophistries, and at bottom had no other object than to make it possible for men to share in the misery around them, with less keen feelings..... "


1.03.2018

The most important quotation I know, example is not the major thing in influencing people, it is the only thing. Albert Schweitzer  Words, stories, religions, have their place, 5% or less of the solution. 95% is being......

The most important quotation I know, example is not the major thing in influencing people, it is the only thing. Albert Schweitzer  Words, stories, religions, have their place, 5% or less of the solution. 95% is being living examples. Everyone wants the revolution, everyone wants to do the revolution, everyone wants to talk about Revolution, no one wants to be the revolution. I am not preaching at you. I'm sharing what my studies show me clearly are major reasons why prior well-intended efforts have failed.
By the way, no Tolstoy, no Gandhi. And yes it was tolstoy's book, the kingdom of God is within you, that turned the direction of Gandhi's life. But it is also true and I don't know how Central, that were as Gandhi said that the greatest example of a human being throughout history was the man Jesus, that the greatest living example in his age was Tolstoy who was walking his walk. Example. Example. We are dying we are starving for living examples.

5.08.2016

On being vegan vs. Consuming animal products, part of an ongoing dialogue with a friend: This article just came up on my listening list........

On being vegan vs. Consuming animal products, part of an ongoing dialogue with a friend: This article just came up on my listening list and I went through it pretty thoroughly. Seems like something that you would have, might have, recommended so I share with you my comments. They are not my comments to you. They are my thoughts about the article. I share those thoughts with you.. http://primaleye.uk/ethical-meat-eaters-response-to-cowspiracy/. I've always appreciated, but just in the last year deeply appreciated how absolutely correct I think that Albert Schweitzer was in his assertion that the ultimate human value is, reverence for life. Various people I see on Facebook occasionally refer to the soul of a creature. I don't remember who has made these references, and they have done it in passing it appears to me. But it was useful to me that they did because it captures much how I feel. I relate to what seems to me to be the soul in a dog, a horse, the bat, the dolphin, a jellyfish, worm, and Ant.... I really revere such Souls, Spirits, life... yes, Revere. Hence, I like to see those Souls persist as opposed to being extinguished. I like them to be joyful as opposed to suffering. As I've said, if a mosquito is biting me, if a bed bug is going to bite me I may well kill it. I'm comfortable with boundaries. Not that I should be, but I am. If it turns out that for me to be highly functional I need to eat some level of animal products causing the pain and or death of those animals, I will do it so that I can serve what I think is a larger good. I think that my attitude is similar not only to Scweitzer, but Einstein, Gandhi, and many, most, people that I Revere throughout history. People that I respect prefer that other Souls don't need to suffer. My point in all this is that in my attempt to make every second count I am very conscious of whether a potential Source or an actual source that I am considering has a bias or is simply trying to get at absolute truth. This is especially important in an area that is complex because I look for sources that effectively can save me a whole lot of homework but to do that they need to be very intentionally objective and unbiased. I suspect that there is much useful information in the article above. I also suspect that there is much bias, an author who prefers eating creatures, for the flavor I suspect, secondarily maybe for some health value, and is pretty interested in defending his position. That is his right but it makes him less helpful to me than otherwise. So basically I am unpersuaded by the article. It is my understanding that for an animal to create protein from plants requires a relatively huge amount of resource, land, water, intake of plant material, and that if a human being intelligently consumes plant material they can create their own protein at a relatively small fraction of those resources. On that basis I find the article overall extremely unconvincing. Yes, I absolutely have a biase. I have a bias against making other creatures suffer or die. Except to the degree necessary for basic survival. So I leave the article pretty much where I started, I sense that little or no animal protein is necessary to the healthy human functioning except in rare instances. I am not sure that that is correct. I remain interested to learn otherwise should I be wrong.

9.23.2015

***** If I know anything of value, if I have anything of value to share, it all boils down to this.....

***** If I know anything of value, if I have anything of value to share, it all boils down to this:

1. We are virtually all born in what I will refer to as the Holy Spirit, the spirit of universal, unconditional Loving, what I think Schweitzer referred to as the reverence for life. I understand this as nothing more or less than one of the psychological states that is available to us.

2. Further, I perceive that six thousand years or so ago we moved out of the tiny tribes we were designed to be in, where all the stimulation was of the notion of universal family, and have since  developed huge cultures that strip away from us virtually all of the natural stimulation of the Holy Spirit, that sense of universal Loving, reverence for life.

3.  As a consequence, now, in 2015, in the United States and the Western world, within months or a few years we strip away from our children the Holy Spirit, unconditional Loving, reverence for life... and replace it with a religiously conditional Loving, a religious lusting for self, for me and mine.

4.  What miniscule hope there is now for life worth living depends upon the individual and collective return to every breath submission to that spirit of reverence for life that I believe we were all born into, and that we can still, if we so choose, if we devote the immense time and effort, that we can find within ourselves and return reign over ourselves individually, to. We must find it within ourselves and bring it back to the rule of ourselves individually, and thereby, only thereby, provide encouragement to others to do the same.

5.  My life is devoted, every breath, to this task, within myself and to foster it within others.

7.20.2014

:-) "Example is not the major thing in influencing people. It is the only thing." Albert Schweitzer. What we say, at best, is unimportant. What we DO is what matters. Almost always arguing, discussion, exchange... are a deadly and cowardly substitute for doing, Serving, from the Soul, in Solidarity... Loving.

:-) "Example is not the major thing in influencing people. It is the only thing."  Albert Schweitzer.  What we say, at best, is unimportant. What we DO is what matters.  Almost always arguing, discussion, exchange... are a deadly and cowardly substitute for doing, Serving, from the Soul, in Solidarity... Loving.

5.21.2013

***** 05.21.13 Status: ARGH. WHO IS JESUS? WE'LL NEVER KNOW WHO JESUS WAS, A RORSCHACH TEST. Day #3 of "Quest for the Historical Jesus," Albert Schweitzer. Wow, agonizing. It is

 A Christian is one who has the spirit of Christ. This is the only theology. (The Schweitzer Album, p. 37.)

05.21.13 Status: ARGH.  WE'LL NEVER KNOW WHO JESUS WAS, A RORSCHACH TEST.

From Wikipedia - ... there is no single portrait of the historical Jesus that satisfies most scholars.[14][15][16]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_the_historical_Jesus 

Day #3 of "Quest for the Historical Jesus," Albert Schweitzer.  Wow, agonizing.  It is agonizing, to realize, that in Truth, the man Jesus that has been so central to my Life, the only thing of which I can be Certain, in Truth, is that He is a product of my imagination, as would be my reaction to a Rorschach inkblot.

Schweitzer's book is a 200 year review of all the Biblical Scholars.  Arduous.  But I'm forcing myself through - firehose - but I owe it to you.

There is certainty beyond that, but extraordinary minds, and a few extraordinary spirits, like Schweitzer, have spent person-decades on the task in recent centuries and, again, From Wikipedia - ... there is no single portrait of the historical Jesus that satisfies most scholars.[14][15][16]

Quotes from Schwietzer:

The Quest of the Historical Jesus Quotes (showing 1-2 of 2)
“The demands of Jesus are difficult because they require us to do something extraordinary. At the same time He asks us to regard these [acts of goodness] as something usual, ordinary.”
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus
“He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside,
He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus
 
 The essential element in Christianity as it was preached by Jesus and as it is comprehended by thought, is this, that it is only through love that we can attain to communion with God. All living knowledge of God rests upon this foundation: that we experience Him in our lives as will-to-love. (Out of My Life and Thought, p. 277.)

Jesus as a concrete historical personality remains a stranger to our time, but His spirit, which lies hidden in His words, is known in its simplicity, and its influence is direct. (Quest of the Historical Jesus, p. 399.)

A Christian is one who has the spirit of Christ. This is the only theology. (The Schweitzer Album, p. 37.)

What would the Lord Jesus have answered when someone came to Him in pain? Quick, waste no time. Get him to the operating room. “Whatever you do unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.” [Gospel of Matthew 25:40] This is my image of the Kingdom of God -- not the Apocalypse -- only this is the right meaning. (The Schweitzer Album, p. 38)

He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake side, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word: “Follow thou me!” and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is. (Concluding paragraph, Quest of the Historical Jesus.)

How is Jesus alive for us? Do not attempt to prove his presence by formulations, even if they are sanctified by the ages. Of late I have very nearly lost my temper when some pious soul has come to me saying that no-one can believe in the living presence of Jesus if they do not believe in his physical resurrection and the eternal existence of his glorified body. Jesus lives for everyone whom he directs, in matters great and small, as if he were here among us. He tells them ''Do this or that.'' And they answer, quite simply, ''Yes!" and go about their job, humble and busy… The fact that the Lord still, in our days, gives his orders, proves to me - and for me it is the only proof - that he is neither a ghost nor dead, but that he lives. 

If you will let me explain in my way this living presence, I will say to you: ''The eternal body of Jesus is simply his words; for it was about them that he said 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away!’ ” (Sermon preached on November 19, 1905; cited in Albert Schweitzer: Essential Writings. )