Most of the time we are ordained to be our own judge and executioner.
This is at once a difficult but potentially thrilling task, for it is like
shedding an old skin. In this procedure a cleansing and purifying
process goes on.
If one cannot purify oneself, one cannot be of much help in purifying
society.
No matter how well-developed the mind
or how intelligent it is,
it still needs to live
by symbols, impressions, images,
since it knows too little
of the mystery
of its own existence.
Thinking, acting, going
beyond our power
may be a form of self-displacement
in which we put ourselves at the mercy
of those things to which we over-commit ourselves,
and by which we literally hang ourselves.
In the sense of our spirit and creative mind,
there is very little if anything
beyond our power,
but it must be enlisted at any time
in the amount that it is possible to absorb.
Cut down a tree to keep warm.
Cut down a forest to make paper
for extraneous advertising
to sell extraneous gadgets.
The gadgets are a transformation
of something from a natural
to an unnatural state.
They cannot create new life.
They become images lost in time.
The people find this out.
They tire of them.
Far Beyond Words 