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2/03/2005
Humanize the Earth: The Inner Look I, II & III
At tonight's weekly meeting, we read and discussed the first three chapters from the Inner Look, the first book of Silo's Humanize the Earth, from which this blog gets its name. Humanize the Earth can be found in Collected Works vol I.

I. Meditation

  1. Here it tells how the non-meaning of life can be converted into meaning and fulfillment.
  2. Here are joy, love of the body, of nature, of humanity, and of the spirit.
  3. Here sacrifices, feelings of guilt, and threats from the beyond are rejected.
  4. Here the worldly is not opposed to the eternal.
  5. Here it tells of the inner revelation at which all arrive who carefully meditate in humble search.

II. Disposition to Comprehend

  1. I know how you feel because I can experience your state, but you do not know how to experience the things I am speaking of. Therefore, if I speak to you without self-interest of that which makes the human being happy and free, it is worth your while to try to comprehend.
  2. Do not think that you will arrive at understanding by arguing with me. You may argue if you believe that through opposition your understanding will become clearer, but it is not the appropriate path in this case.
  3. If you ask me what attitude is appropriate, I will tell you that it is to meditate profoundly and without haste on what is explained here.
  4. If you reply that you are busy with more urgent things, I will answer that since your wish is to sleep or to die, I will do nothing to oppose it.
  5. Nor should you argue that you dislike my way of presenting things, for you do not criticize the peel when you like the fruit.
  6. I state things in the way I consider appropriate, not as might be desired by those who aspire to things remote from inner truth.

III. Non-Meaning

After many days I discovered this great paradox: Those who bore failure in their hearts were able to illuminate the final victory, while those who felt triumphant were left by the wayside like vegetation whose life is muted and diffuse. After many days, coming from the darkest of darkness, I arrived at the light, guided not by teachings but by meditation.

Thus, I told myself on the first day:

  1. There is no meaning in life if everything ends with death.
  2. All justification for actions, whether these actions are despicable or admirable, is always a new dream that leaves only emptiness ahead.
  3. God is something uncertain.
  4. Faith is something as variable as reason and dreams.
  5. “What one should do” may be thoroughly discussed, but in the end there is nothing that definitively supports any position.
  6. The “responsibility” of those who commit themselves to something is no greater than the responsibility of those who do not.
  7. I move according to my interests, and this makes me neither a coward nor a hero.
  8. “My interests” neither justify nor discredit anything.
  9. “My reasons” are no better than the reasons of others, nor are they worse.
  10. Cruelty horrifies me, but neither because of this nor in itself is it better or worse than kindness.
  11. What I or others say today is of no value tomorrow.
  12. To die is not better than to live or never to have been born, but neither is it worse.
  13. I discovered, not through teachings but through experience and meditation, that there is no meaning in life if everything ends with death.
Next week we'll continue, moving out way through this work. Please join us, in person or here in the comments, or if you're interested, we can arrange to have you here using a voice-enabled internet connection.

categories: Humanist Movement personal work

Just noticed (10Feb05) that this didn't get published last week so publishing it now.