Fw: [NDS] walt whitman

[Guest guest]

Passing along this outstanding post.

 

- John Metzger

NondualitySalon

Saturday, May 19, 2001 7:18 AM

[NDS] walt whitman

G'marnin' listers, from the Bluegrass state, where 'nondual' refers to

any pick-up truck that is not a 'dually'. Have a good one. John

 

P.S. Just for today, try not to show-off too much like that dumb ol' Mother Theresa, O.K.?

 

excerpt from Varieties of Religious Experience, William James :The

supreme contemporary example of such an inability to feel evil is of

course Walt Whitman. "His favorite occupation," writes his disciple,

Dr. Bucke*, seemed to be strolling or sauntering about outdoors by

himself, looking at the grass, the trees, the flowers, the vistas of

light, the varying aspects of the sky, and listening to the birds,

the crickets, the tree frogs, and all the hundreds of natural sounds.

It was evident that these things gave him a pleasure far beyond what

they give to ordinary people. Until I knew the man," continues Dr.

Bucke, "it had not occurred to me that any one could derive so much

absolute happiness from these things as be did. He was very fond of

flowers, either wild or cultivated; liked all sorts. I think he

admired lilacs and sunflowers just as much as roses. Perhaps, indeed,

no man who ever lived liked so many things! and disliked so few as

Walt Whitman. All natural objects seemed to have a charm for him. All

sights and sounds seemed to please him. He appeared to like (and I

believe he did like) all the men, women, and children he saw (though

I never knew him to say that he liked any one), but each who knew him

felt that he liked him or her, and that he liked others also. I never

knew him to argue or dispute, and he never spoke about money. He

always justified, sometimes playfully, sometimes quite seriously,

those who spoke harshly of himself or his writings, and I often

thought he even took pleasure in the opposition of enemies. When I

first knew [him], I used to think that he watched himself, and would

not allow his tongue to give expression to fretfulness, antipathy,

complaint, and remonstrance. It did not occur to me as possible that

these mental states could be absent in him. After long observation,

however, I satisfied myself that such ! absence or unconsciousness

was entirely real. He never spoke deprecatingly of any nationality or

class of men, or time in the world's history, or against any trades or

occupations- not even against any animals, insects, or inanimate

things, nor any of the laws of nature, nor any of the results of

those laws, such as illness, deformity, and death. He never

complained or grumbled either at the weather, pain, illness, or

anything else. He never swore. He could not very well, since he never

spoke in anger and apparently never was angry. He never exhibited

fear, and I do not believe he ever felt it." * * R.M. BUCKE: Cosmic

Consciousness, pp. 182-186, abridged.