Walt Whitman

[Guest guest]

I celebrate my self.............

 

Walt Whitman

[Guest guest]

Hi Jerry,

 

Thanks for this!. It's especially interesting because it comes from Dr.

Bucke, who was a psychologist. It was knowing Walt Whitman that led him to

look for other people with a different sort of consciousness and eventually

to write _Cosmic Consciousness_.

 

Love,

Dharma

> Passing along this outstanding post.

- John Metzger NondualitySalon

Saturday, May 19, 2001 7:18 AM [NDS] walt whitman

>snip<

>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

>snip<