Been re-reading my old battered copy of Colin Wilson's "The Outsider." Last time I read it was in the late 1960's. It's battered because I have been carrying it around with me all these years. Survived fires, divorces, deaths, births, economic ebb and flow, various habitations.
I've lived outside society all my life but like I told one black friend I know how to pass for white. I know how to play the game without selling my soul. That is why I had no job longer than five years until I came to Flagstaff where I lasted 12 years (they hired me one year at a time -- which suited my tastes).
Outsider. One who does not define himself/herself in usual ways (money, possessions, security, societal expectations).
This morning (it's 2:29 a.m.) I awoke to this: "Only when a man can relate his inner center to God as the first and foremost and only reality, only then does his self take on meaning." [That is not Colin Wilson (though his irreligious writing is in agreement), that is Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in his book "The Thirteen Petalled Rose."] My soul went "Yippee! Well said."
That is why I am researching and writing on Cosmic Interflow. Inner center stuff. Not only are we chunks of meat walking around, posing and posturing, eating, pooping, and sleeping, we are Earth walking, we are Star stuff, we are the Cosmos cosmosing, we are God godding. With social security numbers and library cards.
We are the ones who define ourselves. We generally define ourselves as way too small.
When open, we are a conduit through which cosmic energy and cosmic intelligence flow. When closed, we are just another animal snorting and snuffling, going through the garbage bins of shrivelization.
I've lived outside society all my life but like I told one black friend I know how to pass for white. I know how to play the game without selling my soul. That is why I had no job longer than five years until I came to Flagstaff where I lasted 12 years (they hired me one year at a time -- which suited my tastes).
Outsider. One who does not define himself/herself in usual ways (money, possessions, security, societal expectations).
This morning (it's 2:29 a.m.) I awoke to this: "Only when a man can relate his inner center to God as the first and foremost and only reality, only then does his self take on meaning." [That is not Colin Wilson (though his irreligious writing is in agreement), that is Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in his book "The Thirteen Petalled Rose."] My soul went "Yippee! Well said."
That is why I am researching and writing on Cosmic Interflow. Inner center stuff. Not only are we chunks of meat walking around, posing and posturing, eating, pooping, and sleeping, we are Earth walking, we are Star stuff, we are the Cosmos cosmosing, we are God godding. With social security numbers and library cards.
We are the ones who define ourselves. We generally define ourselves as way too small.
When open, we are a conduit through which cosmic energy and cosmic intelligence flow. When closed, we are just another animal snorting and snuffling, going through the garbage bins of shrivelization.
Looking forward to the Cosmic Interflow as it comes together.Hopefully you will write it "online" like several of the other books..thanks G for this. It is interesting in that my Tai Chi mentor in S.E. Asia recommended this book "Outsider" several years ago. I had seen it in the past over the years on different bookshelves but had not dug in until the last couple years.. and even more "Cosmic" to me is that it was you who I first learned Tai Chi from back in 71 ?? (help me out) at USD when you rolled into town for your first year there..We met at the Old Armory building for your classes.. Cool how things come around and etc...or "N Such" as we would say back in Vermin..!!! HB
ReplyDeleteYour memory is excellent, Harlan.
DeleteCorrection: Wilson's "Religion and the Rebel" is the book that was recommended to me and I picked up "The Outsider" at the same time..HB
ReplyDeleteYes, I have "Religion and the Rebel" as well, thoroughly marked.
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