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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-777.mp3
This is tape number ET21 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust-- two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side one entitled Psychology and Religion.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[BELLS RINGING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O'
Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer.
I'm reading from my book, Meditations of the Heart. The desire to be one's true self is very
persistent. Equally persistent is the tendency to locate the responsibility for failure to be one's
true self in events and persons and conditions, all of which are outside and beyond oneself.
Often, a person says, I would be the kind of person I desire to be, or I would do the thing that I
have always wanted to do, if-- the list is endless.
If I had been born a boy rather than a girl. If I'd been tall and strong rather than short and weak.
If I'd been given the diet proper for a growing child. If my parents had been understanding and
sympathetic rather than cold and impersonal thereby giving to me the feeling of being rejected.
If I had lived in a different kind of community or had grown up on the right side of the tracks. If
my parents had not separated when I was but a child and made me the victim of a broken home.
If I had not been taught the wrong things about sex, about religion, about myself. If I had been of
a different racial or national origin-- and on and on the words go.
The interesting fact is that in each "if," there is apt to be, for the person who uses it, a significant
element of truth. This element of truth is seized upon as the complete answer to the personal
problem as the single source of all the individuals maladjustments.
There is more to the story than is indicated. Often, not always, the person who feels most
completely defeated in fulfillment is the one who has been unable or unwilling to exploit
resources that were close at hand.
There is a curious inability to take personal responsibility for what one does or fails to do
without a sense of martyrdom or heroics. Religion is most helpful in developing in the individual
a sense of personal responsibility for one's action, and thus, aiding the process of self-fulfillment.
It is helpful in two ways, primarily. There is the insistence upon the individual's responsibility to
God for his own life. This means that he cannot escape the scrutiny of God. If he is responsible
to God, the basis of that responsibility has to be in himself. If it is there, then the area of alibis is
definitely circumscribed.
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
The assumption is that the individual is ever an immediate candidacy to get an assist from God-that he's not alone in his quest. Through prayer, meditation, and singleness of mind, the
individual's life may be invaded by strength, by insight, by courage sufficient for his needs.
Thus, he need not seek refuge and excuses, but can live his life with ever-increasing vigor, and
experience, and ever-deepening sense of fulfillment.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
One of the very significant contributions that the whole discipline of psychology has made to
modern life has been the light that it is thrown on man's ability to understand himself. It has
made it possible for the mind to establish what may be regarded as psychological distance
between the individual and the context of his life, between his present and his past.
And not only that, but to lift out of the past certain elements, the certain experiences, certain
facts, certain incidents, which conceivably may throw a great deal of light on the total meaning
of the behavior pattern in the present.
Now this is a very important contribution, and the contribution moves even in a more profound
level than this. For through this discipline, we are beginning to understand certain things about
the drives in human nature-- those deep, abysmal movements that are elemental in character, but
in which the individual consciousness is rooted and grounded, and to get some feeling of the
source of these elemental drives, and to see what these drives look like when they come up above
the surface and invade the awareness of mind or the consciousness of mind.
Now all of this is of tremendous significance for understanding life, for learning how to live life,
learning what life means. Now there's something else that may be regarded as perhaps a negative
aspect of this total contribution of the discipline under our reflection, and that is through our
study of psychology and our knowledge of the discipline, we have come to find a new ground far
alibi
I can say for instance that I'm behaving as I am behaving because I was an unsatisfied sibling, let
us say, or because my grandmother did not like me or my grandfather was always saying things
that tended to reveal me to myself as of no account.
Or I can say that because of the conditions under which I live, those things which shaped me, and
then which became, in a sense, the external, environmental, architectural insistence that molded
and shaped my life-- these other things that are responsible for what I'm doing, and therefore, I
am not responsible.
Now the essence of this is that through this aspect of our study of psychology, we tend to take
refuge in finding justification for the shirking of personal responsibility. But I think this is a short
reading of what even this aspect of the discipline says, for even though I may understand through
this knowledge how I was conditioned and what conditioned me, this does not alter at all the fact
that it is I who will be living the life. It is I who is doing the deed, and therefore, it is I, and I
alone, who must take the responsibility.
And this, I think, is the important contribution that religion makes here. For religion insists that
whatever may be the extenuating circumstances that may provide alibis for behavior, ultimately,
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
every human being, according to this insight of religion, lives his life under the scrutiny of God-that he is a responsible creature, and that he is not merely responsible to his life and for his life in
a tight circle of awareness, but he is responsible as a living thing responsible to the creator of life
for the behavior of his life, and therefore, at no point is he at liberty to say with reference to any
aspect of his life that it is commonplace. It is incidental. It is meaningless.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
I'm a victim of circumstances of which I am unable to exercise any control whatsoever. None of
these things ultimately alter the fact that it is my life, and I must live my life, and I must live my
life responsibly. And my responsibility is not merely to myself as crucial and as critical as this
responsibility is, but my responsibility is to the God of life who is also the creator of my
particular life. I must live responsibly.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O' Lord,
my rock, and my Redeemer.
This is tape number ET21 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two entitled Qualitative Living.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O'
Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
May I remind you that if you are interested in receiving transcriptions of the television talks on
Friday, if you will send your request with your name and address to me at Marsh Chapel, Boston
University, or in care of this station, your name will be put on the mailing list in order to receive
it.
When our minds are sick with frustration and division, when fear eats away the foundations of
our peace, be present, our Father, to heal, to bless, and to make whole. When our hearts are
heavy with sorrow and misery, when only a heaviness is our daily portion, be present to heal, to
bless, and relieve.
When our friends are difficult because of misunderstanding and loss, when the beauty of
comradeship has wasted like the noon day, be present, O' our Father, to restore, to bless, and to
renew. When the thread of our years unwinds near the end of the spool, when the failing powers
of mind and body accent the passing days, be present, our Father, to reassure, to make steady,
and confirm.
When our well-ordered plans fall apart in our hands, when hopes give up having run their course,
be present, our Father, to replenish, to create, and to redeem. When faith in our fellows wallows
in the mud, when through disappointment, through failure, through flattery, all seems lost, be
present, O' our Father, to revise, to renew, and to reassure.
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�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Many years ago, in a conversation with Dr. Cabot who, at that time, was on the faculty of the
School of Medicine at Harvard University, he told me a very interesting incident out of the rich
life which was his, and I want to use that incident as the basis for our time together this morning.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
He said that he had been invited to give an address before the National Conference of Social
Work. He decided that he would select a topic which seemed to him to be important not only for
busy social workers and busy doctors, but for human beings who themselves were concerned
about a deeper meaning and a deeper structuring to their lives.
The topic which he chose was this-- the limitation of intake. His thesis was very simple, but very
comprehensive. He said that if a man worked a thousand years, 24 hours a day, without taking
time out either to eat, sleep, or to rest, at the end of the 1,000 years, the work remaining to be
done would be infinite.
He said, if a man decided that he would devote all of his waking hours and all of the hours that
other people are sleeping to meeting human needs, at the end of thousand years, the human need
remaining would be infinite. If a man decided to read books all day and all night for 1,000 years,
at the end of the 1,000 years, the number of books remaining to be read would be infinite.
Therefore, he said, that it seems clear that a man cannot make a quantitative impression on
infinity. The number five, continued Dr. Cabot, bears the same relationship to infinity that the
number five million bears. So if a man be wise, then he tries to structure his life so that he will
increase the quality of what he does while the quantity will not be for him so significant.
This reminds me of an incident that is described in the Watchers of the Sky-- a very long and
interesting poem, which depicts the science of astronomy and its development over the years, but
it is done with poetic insight. There is a descriptive passage about the famous Danish
astronomer, Tycho Brahe.
It seemed that Tycho Brahe was the director of a famous observatory in Uraniborg. There was a
shift in Danish politics, and a commission was appointed to go out to see what this strange man
was doing with the money of the state.
Tycho was impressed with his visitors. He took them into one of the large rooms. And there, he
spread out before them maps of the stars which he had done. They looked at each other, winked
their eyes, and decided that it was true that this old man was wasting the state's money, so the
school was closed.
The last night of the school, Tycho Brahe called his students around him, and he said to them
something like this-- tomorrow, I go forth from what, for 25 years, has been my home while you
merely go forth from a place that you've used in a temporary sense as a home. When I came here
25 years ago, I had an idea, and a dream, and a plan to chart 1,000 stars before I died.
I have charted in these 25 years only 700, but, said he, these 700 stars will never have to be
charted again. This idea of bearing down on quality and relaxing on quantity is the essential
point.
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�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Now this means that in the daily living which is ours, we must find a way to give to our
activities, to our thinking, to our reading, to the things that we are about. A center of focus-some point around which all the rest of the functioning would move and would take on a
meaning that is qualitative and is significant.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The other night, in listening to a panel discussion on the radio, one of the men was talking about
life in New York City, and he said that one of his friends who lived in New York and then
moved somewhere else longed to be back in New York. And he said that because being in New
York, he has many, many things to do. There's always something going, something cooking, as it
were.
But he discovered that he had to fill all of his hours with these kinds of activities not because he
was busy, not because he was finding significant living, but he had to do these things because he
was bored. And it struck me as a very exciting notion that so often, we think of boredom as
something in which people are sitting down with nothing to do. They're wringing their hands, or
suffering from what the French call "ennui," but rather, this notion that very often, we spend all
of our energy moving from thing to thing to thing to thing because we are bored, not because we
are so full of zeal and energy.
Now how does one work at this problem? There are many kinds of advice that people give, of
course, but the suggestion that comes to me this morning is this-- that if we are able for limited
time intervals to select one thing and devote one's mind to it-- in the religious life, for instance,
or a person who is concerned about developing his spiritual experience in prayer, instead of
praying for all kinds of things all over the lot-- just having a catalog of recitals of prayer-- select
one thing, and put all of your thought and mind, your energy, on this thing.
Let your reading enrich your understanding of this thing. Find one thing. Put your mind to it, and
little by little, a very interesting thing will begin to happen. Your whole thought life, all of the
feeling tones by which your spirit may be invaded, will begin to take on the character, the quality
of the one thing on which you're concentrating. And this is true in the living of our lives from
day to day.
Find something which to you is important, and see if you cannot move that thing to the center of
your concern and put at its disposal your energy, your thoughts, your reading, even your
conversation. This is one important way by which you can put a crucial limitation on your intake.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O' Lord,
my rock and my Redeemer.
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
An account of the resource
<em>We Believe</em> was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on one recording.<br /><br />"These meditations are no longer than 15 minutes, but highly representative of his style, influence, and search for common ground." - <a href="http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman">the Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman Collections at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.</a><br /><br />
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>We Believe</em> program listing in the TV Guide, March 29, 1958</p>
<img src="http://pittsviva.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/webelieve-whdh-boston.png" style="float: right;" alt="webelieve-whdh-boston.png" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-777.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Psychology and Religion; Qualitative Living (ET-21; GC 11-20-71), 1971 Nov 20
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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394-777
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Psychology and Religion (1963-10-25); Qualitative Living (1960-10-07)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1963-10-25
1960-10-07
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Thurman reads from his text, "Meditations of the Heart," discerning the implications psychology has on the religious identity. He emphasizes that there is great danger in wishing one's life away. He emphasizes that it is in the responsibility that one finds in a religious identity that finds what it means to honor their own existence.
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Thurman reflects upon the way in which American culture makes sense of love. He notes that typically, the "flow of love is chocked beneath the deep recesses of the heart." This is the product of quantitative love rather than qualitative love. He reminds the listener, that qualitative love is more significant than any price tag or number of accoutrements one acquires. Qualitative love speaks to the depths of the human experience.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dustin Mailman
bears
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meditations of the heart
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Tycho Brahe