Steven schwartz teacher3/28/2024 ![]() At times, he inspires a comparison with the great Indian philosopher Krishnamurti, who insisted that truth is a “pathless land” that cannot be approached through beliefs. Schwartz is more than just a good listener, a psychologically astute guy with a flair for the right phrase. The beauty of his language, the passion and lucidity of his message, continue to move me. Since then, I’ve spent many hours reading Schwartz’s writings and listening to his tapes. In the mirror I caught a glimpse of myself, tears streaming down my cheeks. There’s no disgrace in any experience we’ve ever had. We can’t keep measuring ourselves against some enlightened ideal, as if self-hatred could be a path to love. I resented my wife for leaving, but I resented myself even more for feeling left. My mind was a hanging judge who showed no mercy. There is dignity, not shame, in loneliness. His words like the sea, rocking me like a big wave, whacking me in the chest. Yet loneliness is a prayer, a deep longing to know and feel God’s presence. We take our longing for love and turn it into shame. What was Schwartz saying? Sadness isn’t wrong. I was sick of myself, the scratchy soundtrack of my days, the desperate longing. I was thinking about my wife, eager to see her but determined not to show it, embarrassed I’d been so sullen about her leaving, as if she weren’t coming back. I listened to it on my way to the airport. Schwartz doesn’t advertise and his books aren’t available in most stores you need to stumble onto his work. I was intrigued, too, that the booklet had been sent by one of Schwartz’s admirers. Here was a spiritual thinker who shunned spiritual dictums who suggested that the body doesn’t need to be transcended or the personality fixed who insisted that self-knowledge has more to do with feelings than philosophy - feelings, not psychological insights, not our thoughts and stories about our feelings. ![]() No, I didn’t want another teacher.īut when I finally picked up the booklet, I was intrigued. Read the words of the master, spend an evening with the master: there’s no telling whether you’ll get enlightened or herpes. ![]() Who has time for workshops? Life is so busy rearranging us already, and truth such a flirt. A booklet describing his workshops sat on my desk, unread, along with dozens of other brochures promising to unfurl my petals. I almost rushed past Stephen Schwartz, too. Yet how tempting to ignore sorrow, as if it were a beggar. You might say I was ready for a good cry. Then my wife went out of town I didn’t want her to go. I ’d been melancholy for weeks, dogged by feelings I couldn’t name. ![]()
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