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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-783.mp3
This is tape number ET31 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 1, entitled Supportive Order Inherent in Life.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
As a continuation of our time together last week, I want to read, today, from The Inward
Journey. And this has to do with the unity of life. "In all the waking hours, the tentacles of time
give channel to each living thing-- the bird on wing, the mole moving in darkness underground,
the cricket chanting it's evening song, the primeval whale sporting in chilly seas or floating
noiselessly in turbulent waters, in mountain crevice or sprawling meadow, the delicate beauty of
color-stained flower or fragile leaf.
High above the timberline, the sprig of green dares wind and snow. In the barren parchness of
desert waste, the juiceless shrub and water logged cactus. High in the tree top, the green-pearled
fruit of olive mistletoe and the soft gray stillness of creeping moss. The infant, the growing child,
the stumbling adolescent, the young adult, the man full-blown or stooped with years-- the
tentacles of time give channel to each living thing.
And beyond all this, thoughts that move with grace of being, light thoughts that dance and sing
untouched by gloom or shadow or the dark. Weighty thoughts that press upon the road with
tracks that blossom into dreams or shape themselves in plan and scheme.
Thoughts that whisper, thoughts that shout, thoughts that wander without rest, seeking, seeking,
always seeking. Thoughts that challenge, thoughts that soothe. The tentacles of time give channel
to each living thing.
Out from the house of life, all things come. And into it, each returns again for rest. When I
awake, I am still with thee.
There is not only a built-in unity and harmony in the organism-- in yours, in mine. But there is a
unity that is inherent in the particular life. This unity is determined by many factors, some of
which we understand and some we do not understand.
Why does your foot grow and grow and then stop growing? Why does some other part of your
body develop? And then something gives the word. And it stops it. It makes an end of growing.
The thing that's in my mind is that there is, in the individual life, a kind of built in logic and order
that is inherently a part of the individual's life, so that everything in your life counts. It is a part
of the order that is inherent in the living stuff which is your own life.
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Now this does not mean as it seems, that I am making some left handed case for a kind of ranting
determinism that suggests that everything that concerns your life or my life is fixed and ordered.
No. I am saying, however, that because of the harmony that is within the movement of the
private life, every thing in that life belongs.
Pitts Theology Library
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And if I could understand the totality of a man's life, how he has responded from the day of his
conception to the present, to all of the forces that have played upon his life to which he has
responded, then the story of his life would make sense. For there is, within the life, an order and
a harmony.
And this is the basis upon which so much of the therapy that people are using now at the hands
of the disciplined minds-- the doctors who work with us when we have emotional upsets and
emotional disturbances, or we have some other things going on within us that are unmanageable
and that cause us to do things which are out of character. And how do these men work?
They assume that there is a logic here that somewhere in the development of your life or my life
or the individual's life that is seeking help, something happened. An event took place. And I
responded to that event in a certain way.
And as a result of the impact of this-- upon my life and my response to it, what I am
experiencing now is the order. This is how we study diseases. We say that the cure for a disease
is unknown. But we do not say, ever, that the cure is unknowable.
For the assumption is that there is an order that is inherent in the operation of the disease, that
there is a rational order in the mind. This rational order is always trying to penetrate, to make
contact, to touch, to sense, to become aware of, to understand.
The principle of order that may be at work and the behavior of this body of cells, so that when
the rational principle in the mind makes contact with the order that is in the disease, so that the
mind says that the logic in my mind and the logic here in this disease flow together, and give me
an insight, then men can talk in terms of curing the disease or of reducing it so that it will not,
any longer, threaten life.
What I'm saying is that we are surrounded by an order of which we are part and of which all of
life is a part. And that if there are those experiences in life that break the order, those experiences
that rupture the community, these things are regarded as being against life.
And the purpose of life from this point of view is to develop more and more order, more and
more synthesis, more and more wholeness, more and more creativity. And wherever there is that
which is divisive, wherever there is that which tears asunder, which [? rends ?] this must be
regarded as being against life.
And he who works for order, who works for harmony, who works for a total experience of
integration, life is on his side. And he who works against this, whatever may be the private
grounds for the judgment that monitors the enterprise, this is against life. And if it is against life,
it is against God."
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh, Lord,
my rock and my Redeemer.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The preceding program was pre-recorded.
This is tape number ET31, from the Library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side 2, entitled For Love's Sake.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Today I am reading, as the background for our thinking, a prose poem from the greatest of these.
"While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. While there
is a man in jail, I am not free. Thus spoke one whose very life and deeds these words fulfilled.
Contacts with one another abound in a world grown small. Because the mind of man has worked
unceasingly to banish barriers set by nature here and there, everywhere. But where there is no
will to love, to make an act of grace towards fellow man, contacts may degrade. Outrage nip the
tender shoots of simple trust.
Love abides when all else sickens and dies from sheer revulsion and disgust. The fruit it bears
sustains the nerve and makes the life a harbor of repose for the weak and tottering, a heavy
judgment for the cruel and hating, a precious bane for those who seek to know the way of God
among the sons of men.
With it, the deeds of men are measured by man's great destiny. It meets men where they are,
sometimes cruel, sometimes lustful, sometimes greedy, often callous, mean, of low design, and
treats them there as if they were full-grown and crowned with all that God would have them be.
For love's sake, and love's alone, men do with joyous hope and tender joy what no command of
heaven, hell, or life could force of them if love were not. To be God's child, to love with steady
mind and fervent heart, this is the law of love."
The apostle, Paul, in one of his letters, has left a very significant and pointed line which has
bearing on our thought for today. He says, "My prayer to God is that your love may grow more
and more rich in knowledge and in all manner of insight, that you may have a sense for what is
vital, that you may be transparent and of no harm to anyone."
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We are surrounded today by a climate of impersonality, I suppose, is the best way to put it. It is
very difficult for the individual in our society to keep from becoming anonymous in his
relationships and in his estimate of himself, so that any thought about the thickening of human
relations, the tidying of relationships-- so that when men move in the midst of each other, they
will have no sense of jeopardy, no sense of being threatened, is a most important consideration.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The basic statement that I would make, that I hope you will remember, with reference to this
whole idea is that in our kind of world today, there is but one refuge that any man has on this
planet. And that is in another man's heart. And when I close the door against any man, it means
that I undermine my own sense of emotional security as I seek to live my life on this planet.
Now there are many contexts which we have, contacts, for the most part, are contacts without
fellowship. Now contacts without fellowship tend to express themselves in a kind of
unsympathetic mood.
They are, essentially, unsympathetic. They are cold. They are detached. Sometimes they are
cruel. The contacts are there. But they are not warm. They are unsympathetic. They are hard-the sort of thing that you feel, sometimes, when you go into a man's office. And he looks at you
with a with a dead hard stare in his eyes. And you wonder whether the third button on your shirt
is open or closed. But you dare not feel to see.
It is something that strips you, that lays you bare, that exposes you. It's hard. It's devastating. It is
destructive. Now an unsympathetic attitude tends to express itself in the exercise of a will that is
distorted, a will that is ill, a will that is sick.
And there is a subtle contagion about a sick will. Many people who come into direct contact with
it or are exposed to it find that they are contaminated by this. And the same sort of disposition or
attitude which is theirs, which is to be found in the mind and the life of the person with the ill
will, becomes characteristic of those to whom it is exposed.
Now an ill will that is dramatized in the life of a man is what we mean by hate walking on the
earth. Now the reverse of this is true.
Contacts with fellowship are warm. And they make for an understanding that is sympathetic-the kind of understanding that we all seek, the sort of understanding that gives the individual a
sense of inner freedom, that gives the individual the feeling that he need not pretend.
He need not cover up. The vulnerable things in his life will be protected by someone who
understands him in a sense that is increasingly total. And this is what we seek, after all-understanding that is sympathetic, so that in its warm glow, the weaknesses and the strengths, the
good points and the bad points, are not held in any sense that is judgmental.
But they are gathered up in a healing mood of not only compassion but of understanding. This is
what we seek among ourselves. This is what our children seek. This is what adults seek.
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Now sympathetic understanding tends to express itself in the exercise of a will that is good. Now
a good will is the creative expression of one man's total attitude towards another man.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It is, laced, if I may use that word, in a kind of kindness. And here, something very important
must be said. No one ever quite deserves kindness. Men deserve respect as human beings. Men
deserve honor, sometimes, for the contribution which they have made to the redemption of the
common life or the contribution which they have made to some stark human need to which they
are exposed.
But no one ever quite deserves kindness. For when you are kind to a man, it means that you
place upon him something that he does not merit. It is like placing a crown over his head that, for
the rest of his life, he is trying to grow tall enough to wear, so that when you are the recipient of
the kind act, you know deep within yourself that you cannot ever repay this deed to the person
from whom the deed issued to you so that the only thing that you can do is to seek to confer that
kind of meaning upon someone else as your response to that kind of meaning that has been
conferred upon you.
Now a goodwill caught, dramatized, epitomized, for instanced in the life of a man is what we
mean by Love. And when we love, it means that we deal with each other at a point in each other
that is beyond all the good and beyond all the evil. There is but one refuge that one man has
anywhere on this planet. And that is in another man's heart.
Will you keep your door open that whoever knocks may enter?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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Dublin Core
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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/394-783.html" ></iframe>
Internal Notes
Notes for project team
Edited - GL 7/26
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Supporting Order Inherent in Life; For Love's Sake (ET-31; GC 11-24-71), 1971 Nov 24
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
1950s
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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394-783
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Supportive Order Inherent in Life (1963-05-17); For Love's Sake (1958-05-30)
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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1963-05-17
1958-05-30
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from his text, "The Inward Journey." Thurman's reading speaks to the intricate ways in which human life and experience is ordered in a synchronistic fashion. It is in one's understanding of creation's interrelatedness, Thurman suggests, that one can come to understand that the entirety of one's existence belongs.
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reflects upon a poem from Eugene V. Debs, speaking to notions of solidarity and love. He notes that notions of love and disease both have a contagious characteristic, and that there is great responsibility in one's choosing of love or disease. To share one's heart, thus one's love, is to invite fellowship and community. To share one's disease, is to invite isolation and individualism.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dustin Mailman
belonging
contagion
creation
creativity
ecology
Eugene V. Debs
experience
fellowship
harmony
healing
heart
interconnectivity
inward journey
love
order
organism
Paul
Philippians
poetry
relationship
security
society
synchronization
synthesis
tentacles of time
unity
vulnerability
wholeness
will
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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-779.mp3
This is tape number ET25 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman-- this is side one entitled, "supporting rhythms of life."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
Upon the night view of the world, a day view must follow. This is an ancient insight grounded in
the experience of the race in its long journey through all the years of man's becoming. Here is no
cold idea born out of the vigil of some solitary thinker in lonely retreat from the traffic of the
common ways. It is not the wisdom of the book put down in ordered words by the learned and
the schooled. It is insight woven into the pattern of all living things, reaching its grand apotheosis
and the reflection of man gazing deep into the heart of his own experience.
That the day view follows the night view is written large in nature. Indeed, it is one with nature
itself. The clouds gather heavy with unshed tears. At last, they burst, sending over the total
landscape waters gathered from the silent offering of sea and river. The next day dawns, and the
whole heavens are aflame with the glorious brilliance of the sun. This is the way the rhythm
moves.
The fall of the year comes, then winter with its trees stripped of leaf and bud-- cold winds-ruthless in bitterness and sting. One day there is sleet and ice. In the silence of the night time, the
snow falls the soundlessly. All this until at last the cold seems endless and all there is seems to be
shadowy and foreboding. The earth is weary and heavy, and then something stirs-- a strange new
vitality pulses through everything.
One can feel the pressure of some vast energy pushing-- always pushing through dead branches,
slumbering roots. Life surges everywhere within and without-- spring has come. The day usurps
the night view. Is there any wonder that deeper than idea and concept is the insistent conviction
that the night can never stay, that winter is ever moving toward the spring? Thus, when a man
sees the lights go out one by one-- when he sees the end of his day is marked by death-- his
death-- he senses, rather than knows, that even the night into which he is entering will be
followed by day.
It remains for religion to give this ancient wisdom praise and symbol. For millions of men and
women in many climbs, this phrase and this symbol are forever one with Jesus, the prophet from
Galilee. When the preacher says as a part of the last rites-- I am the Resurrection and the Life. He
is reminding us all of this ancient wisdom upon the night view of the world, a day view must
follow.
This is the time of year when we are reminded, as children of nature, that there is a fundamental
rhythmic movement in life. The coming of winter, the coming of spring, the coming of summer-this constant rhythmic movement gives to all of the children of nature the raw material for the
basis of their hope about the meaning of life.
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It is a rather extraordinary thing, to me, that even though men think that the ideas and the
thoughts and the insights which they have are created in some independent way in their own
minds-- that there is a gulf and, perhaps, a desert between the life which they live as creatures
and the life that is of the mind and of the spirit.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
But, a closer scrutiny reveals the fact that much of the permanent insights in the mind, and much
of the ground of meaning which men distill into ideas and concepts, are rooted in man's
experience as a creature-- man's experience as a child of nature. So, the insight with which we
have to do this morning is rooted in the total experience of man-- the notion of beginnings and
endings.
See, the sense that the contradictions of life are not final things-- that all of man's life is caught in
a movement, in a process, in a kind of supporting rhythm. Which, if he understands, becomes the
background for supporting the most searching ideas of his mind and the philosophy by which his
spirit may be guided. Thus, there is a sense of alternative, a sense of the other that is not being
experienced in the present-- a sense of the potential possibility that is wrapped up in the days that
are yet to come.
And always in this potential, in this possibility, there is a sense that something will emerge that
will alter what one is going through in the present. And this is really the ground of hope for the
human spirit. I think this is one of the elemental and, perhaps, gross reasons that always during
periods of violence, during periods of war when all of life seems to be mad and men are devoting
all of their waking hours and their dreams to violence and the destruction of each other-- always
in the midst of this kind of madness, some voice or voices rise to talk about another kind of life-another way of life.
And this is really what is meant by the growing edge of man's experience. It is this sense that the
day view follows the night view-- that keeps the individual going, that keeps him hard at his task,
that keeps him from despairing. We see this dramatized in a very simple way with the coming of
spring. There is a certain kind of oak tree, for instance, that holds the leaves. All during the
winter, you see them in the midst of the woods. Every tree is stripped, but these oak trees still
hold their leaves. The leaves are dead, they are brown, they are lifeless, but all the storms of
winter cannot tear them away. They hold despite all the violence.
And then one morning when you wake up, you look out and you see that all the leaves have
fallen-- that something within the tree itself that for all the weather has been dedicated to holding
the leaves in place is now relaxed because there is a movement deep in the heart of the tree that
pushes these dead leaves aside and new leaves come.
Now this is the way of life. This is the way of your life and my life. And it is important, then, to
remember that there is always the renewal, always the possibility of something more significant
that will emerge tomorrow than one has experienced today. This is the ground of hope. This is
the thing that is meant by the coming of spring.
And this really is, in essence, the meaning of the Christian doctrine about the significance of
Easter-- the night view will not stay. It is followed by the day view.
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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
This is tape number ET25 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two entitled, "Thank God for the Fall of the Year."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
For many of us, the fall of the year is a time of sadness. And the long memory all around us,
there are the evidences of fading, of withdrawal, of things coming to an end. What was alive and
growing only a few short days or weeks ago seems now to have fulfilled itself and fallen back
into the shadows. Vegetation withers, but there is no agony of departure. There seems to be only
death and stillness in the fall.
Those who have been ill all summer seem to get a deepening sense of foreboding in the fall
sometimes. It is the time of the changing of the guard. It is the season of the retreat of energy. It
is a time of letting go. It is the period of the first exhaustion. It is the period of the storms, as if
the wind itself becomes the avenging angel too impatient to wait for the coming of death and the
quiet fading of bird and flower and leaf.
The rain is not gentle in the fall, it is feverish, truculent, and vicious, often. All the fury of wind
and rain are undertoned by a vast lull in tempo, and the running down of all things. There is a
chill in the air in the fall. It is not cold, it is chilly, as if the temperature cannot quite make up its
mind. The chill is ominous-- the forerunner of the vital coldness of winter.
But the fall of the year is more than all this-- much, much more. It marks an important change in
the cycle of the year. This change means that summer is past. One season ends by blending into
another. Here is a change of pace accenting a rhythm in the passing of time-- how important this
is.
The particular mood inspires recollection and reflection. There is something very steadying and
secure in the awareness that there is an underlying dependability in life-- that change is a part of
the experience of living. It is a reminder of the meaning of the pause and the plateau. But fall
provides something even more. There is a harvest-- a time of in-gathering, of storing up in
nature.
There is the time when there must be a separation of that which has said its say and passes, that
which ripens and finds its meaning in sustaining life in other forms. Nothing is lost. Nothing
disappears. All things belong, each in its way, to a harmony and an order which envelops all,
which infuses all. Fall accentuates the goodness of life, and finds its truest meaning in the
strength of winter and the breath of spring. Thank God for the fall.
Beginning next Friday morning and until sometime in February, the regular Friday morning
broadcasts will be by videotape. In about 10 days, Mrs. Thurman and I will begin the second
phase of the two-year leave, which I have from Boston University as dean of the chapel, for the
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Transcription
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purpose of conducting what is called a wider ministry-- that is for the purpose of going to
different parts of the country and the world and sharing and learning as one creative process.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This is a kind of fulfillment or, at least, an added dimension of an emphasis, which has been a
part of our lives for three decades. It is the fundamental concept-- I suppose it is a concept, it's
more than a notion. It takes on the character of a belief and a conviction, that experiences of
unity-- meaningful experiences of unity between peoples are more compelling than all of the
ideas, concepts, notions, prejudices, beliefs that separate them, that divide them.
Now let me repeat this-- it is a conviction that experiences of unity-- meaningful experiences of
unity between peoples are more compelling and convincing than all of the things that separate
them, that divide them. And, if these experiences-- these meaningful experiences of unity-- can
be multiplied over a time interval of sufficient duration, then they can undermine any barrier of
any kind that separates one man from the other.
It is on the basis of this fundamental conviction by which our lives have been guided, that the
wider ministry functioned in different parts of the United States north and south and east and
west and in Canada-- having experiences of unity between all kinds of religious groups-- Jew
and Gentile-- between people of different ethnic backgrounds and cultures, different kinds of
schools, different kinds of institutions, and always the fundamental notion was at work. And
now, beginning in a few days, we shall go to another part of the world.
From about the 1st of October until the second week in December, I shall be lecturing at the
University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria doing special work in the philosophy of religion in the
department of religious studies in a university which is about 60% Muslim. In addition to the
public lectures that will be given, I shall be conducting special tutorials in the philosophy of
religion for advanced students. And, from there, we shall spend some time in the near east,
paying particular attention to conversations with certain hassidic rabbis-- this strain of mysticism
that is fundamental to certain aspects of Judaism.
And then from there, all the way around to Hawaii for preaching at the Church of the Crossroads
and for serving as Billings Lecturer on community at the University of Hawaii. Each year at the
beginning of the year, we invite you to send in your name and address by post of card or letter or
by telephone expressing your interest in receiving a transcription of the weekly broadcast. We try
to keep the list living and vital and current.
This year, through the courtesy of the station, some 325 or 50 persons have received the
transcription each week. And this will be continued if you let us know. You will receive, also, a
letter from my office enclosing a self-addressed postal card to assist you in this process. We hope
that during the winter, you will have a significant and fulfilling experience, and that life will be
even more gracious to you than you deserve. And this is saying a great deal.
If, for any reason, you wish to write to me as growing out of your reaction to any of the
subsequent broadcasts, just direct the letter to my office at 300 Base State Road or to the station.
And, in due course, these letters will be forwarded to me. And as far as my energies and
resources permit, I will be very glad to answer them.
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
I wish to express an appreciation for all of the very wonderful words through letters and
telephones and postcards which you have sent expressing your appreciation for the service. And
those of you who pray and who believe in prayer, I hope that you will remember us in your quiet
time.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
5
�
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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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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-779.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Supporting Rhythm of Life; Thank God for the Fall of the Year (ET-25; GC 11-23-71), 1971 Nov 23
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1970s
1960s
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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394-779
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Supporting Rhythm of Life (1962-04-13); Thank God for the Fall of the Year (1971-11-23)
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1962-04-13
1971-11-23
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Thurman reflects upon wisdom, and the ways in which wisdom is grounded upon "the reflection of a person gazing deep into the heart of their own experience." This personal experience, Thurman explains, can be understood in both theological and ecological terms; relating human experience to the movement of the seasons, and the life of Jesus of Galilee.
This recording within the We Believe Series marks a transitional point in Thurman's career as the Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University: a two-year leave to participate in what he calls his "wider ministry." He draws upon ecological themes of seasons in order to articulate the way in which life transitions without one's consent. He notes that the "Fall of the Year" provides an opportunity for "recollection and reflection," and uses this recording as an opportunity to do so.
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Dustin Mailman
becoming
Boston University
creativity
day view
Easter
ecology
energy
experience
fall
Galilee
George Cross
growing edge
harvest
holidays
Ibadan
Jesus
Muslim
New Year
Nigeria
night view
potentiality
rain
recollection
reflections
rhythm
seasons
spring
Sue Bailey Thurman
symbol
transition
unity
wider ministry
winter
wisdom
-
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3b8ba2e69078f15ab0fc42c1a80b7287
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-766.mp3
This is tape number ET4 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, Two
Meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 1, entitled Salute to the New Year.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[BELLS TOLLING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm beginning this first meditation for the new year by reading from Meditations of the Heart.
"There is always something impressive about a new start. Think how fortunate it would be if
time was not somehow divided into parts. Suppose there were no day, only night. Even in parts
of the world and near the North Pole, there is a six month day and a six month night.
Or suppose there were only winter or only summer or only spring. Suppose there were no
artificial things, like months, so that we could not be mindful of the passing of time. Suppose
there were no years, just the passing of hours with no signposts to mark them into units of
months and years. Then there would be no new year.
The beginning of another year means the end of a year that has fulfilled itself and passed on. It
means that some things are finished, rounded out, completed forever. It means that, for some of
us, sudden changes have taken place that are so profound in their nature that we can never be
what we were before.
There is something so final, so absolute, about a year that is gone. Something of it remains in us
that we take into the year that is next in line. But the new year means a fresh start, a second wind,
another chance, a kind of reprieve, a divine act of grace bestowed upon the children of men.
It is important to remember that whatever the fact may have been, it cannot be undone. It
remains a fact. If we have made serious blunders, they're made. All our tears cannot unmake
them. We may learn from them and carry our hard won lessons into the new year.
We can remember them not with pain, but with gratitude that, in our new wisdom, we can live
into the present year with deeper understanding and greater humanity. May whatever suffering
we brought on ourselves or other people teach us to understand life more completely and, in our
understanding of life, to love life more wisely, thus fulfilling God's faith in us by permitting us to
begin this new year."
It is always a fateful thing to stand at the beginning or even to have a sense of beginnings. It
means that there stretches out before us areas of living and thinking and experiencing that have
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
not been explored by us and with reference to which always there are the possibilities undreamed
of.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The sense of the future is very important in the living of life in the present, for it means that we
have been chosen, as it were, to have another chance, to improve our lives, to make fresh
mistakes, to make new friends, to gain wider and deeper experiences.
This sense of the future is very important in terms of man's total adventure-- one of the reasons
why, for instance, we shrink from death, one of the reasons why all of the religions of the world
know that they cannot address themselves, finally, to the deepest needs of the human spirit until,
somewhere in their theology or their dogma or their aspiration or their teaching, a recognition is
made of what physically death in and of itself implies.
For the thing that is dreadful, to use that word, about man's encounter with death is that it seems
to man that the future is cut off. And if there is no future, then the present and the past begin to
lose their meaning so that all of the religions of the world have something important and crucial
to say about the future. For, if it, they can address themselves to the place of the future in man's
total experience. Then they can deal totally with man.
Now there's something else that's very important. The sense of tomorrow is a part of the sense of
the future. Suppose you did not have tomorrow. Then, had you thought about what this would
mean to how you would interpret your past and how you would interpret your present?
For always and when, for instance, when you were young, very young-- say nine, 10 years old-you knew that whatever may be happening to you at that moment or whatever your past has
meant to you, the real possibility of your life remained to be explored.
So when you were nine years old, you said, the thing that I'm looking for really I can't get until
I'm in my teens. And then when you got into your teens, you said, no, I haven't had enough time
yet so that I can't experience it until I'm in my 20's. And then, when you were in your 20's, you
said, well, now, there's some things that can only come with a certain kind of maturity. So it'll
have to come in my 30's-- and on and on and on.
I said, when I get there, the struggle will be over. But when I got there, I found that the struggle
was not over, that the struggle will not be over, no, not even in death. This is the place of
tomorrow. It means that I can bring to bear upon the next day all that I have learned and gathered
or accumulated from all of the other days of the past.
So the poet says, I go to prove my soul. I see my way as birds, their trackless way. I shall arrive.
What time? What circuit first? I ask not. But unless God sent his hail, his sleet, or fireballs, I
shall arrive. He guides me and the bird in His good time.
Now this sense of tomorrow has something else to say about your life and about my life. It says
that it may be possible for me to select those aspects of my past which seem, to me, to be
excellent, to be worthful, but which I did not realize as being excellent or wistful when I was
going through them.
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�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
I can't select these now, in the present, and prepare myself to build upon them in the future so
that the meaning of my life then becomes identified not merely with what I have experienced,
not merely with what I am now experiencing. But the meaning of my life can be identified with
that which is yet to come.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It means that I have one more chance to do tomorrow in a manner that is more significant and
more expressive of my true intent, things that would improve upon all that I have known in the
past.
So as we move into the new year, let us move into it face forward, greeting the future with hope
and aspiration. Let us not back into the future, looking at the past, saying to ourselves that,
whatever the future may be, it cannot, in any sense, be as good as the past.
No. The golden age is not in the past, was not yesterday. The golden age is tomorrow. Let us
salute, then, the new year.
[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.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is tape number ET4 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, Two
Meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 2, entitled The Strength to Be Free.
[BELLS TOLLING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
During this month, many people in different parts of our country will be thinking about freedom
and its meaning because of the national holiday that falls within the month. As a background for
our thought about a certain aspect of freedom, I'm reading two paragraphs.
"Give me the strength to be free. The thought of being free comes upon us sometimes with such
power that, under its impact, we lose the meaning that the thought implies. Often, being free
means to be where we are not at the moment, to be relieved of a particular set of chores or
responsibilities that are bearing heavily upon our minds, to be surrounded by a careless rapture
with no reminders of costs of any kind, to be on the open road with nothing overhead but the
blue sky and the whole day in which to roam.
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
For many, being free means movement, change, reordering. To be free may not mean any of
these things. It may not involve a single change in a single circumstance. Or it may not extend
beyond one's own gate, beyond the four walls in the midst of which all of one's working hours
and endless nights are spent.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It may mean no [INAUDIBLE] from the old familiar routine and the perennial cares which have
become one's persistent lot. Quite possibly, your days mean the deepening of your rut, the
increasing of your monotony, and the enlargement of the areas of your dullness. All of this and
more may be true for you. Give me the strength to be free.
Often, to be free means the ability to deal with the realities of one's situation so as not to be
overcome by them. It is a manifestation of a quality of being and living that results not only from
understanding of one's own situation, but also from wisdom in dealing with it. It takes no
strength to give up, to accept shackles of circumstance so that they become shackles of soul, to
shrug of the shoulders in blind acquiescence. This is easy.
But do not congratulate yourself that you've solved anything. In simple language, you have sold
out, surrendered, given up. It takes strength to find the high prerogative of your spirit. And you
will find that, if you do, a host of invisible angels will wing to your defense. And the glory of the
living God will envelop your surroundings because, in you, He has come into His own."
Give me the strength to be free and to endure the burden of freedom and the loneliness of those
without change. There is the freedom of the innocent, those who have not yet entered into any
measure of responsibility, whose lives are free from cocking care, from any of the burdens that
are generated by the necessities of growth and maturity.
It is the freedom of the little child whose childhood has been guaranteed by adults. For if a little
child is not permitted to experience childhood-- not merely to be a child chronologically, but to
experience childhood-- then he is forced to deal with his environment as if he were an adult.
And if a child is forced to deal with his environment as if he were an adult, then certain very
important biological and psychological processes that should be going on within the organism of
the child are interrupted. And the nervous system of the child becomes warped and twisted and
sometimes even gnarled so that the child grows up now with this lack of the experience of
childhood and becomes antisocial.
He has what may be called an angry nervous system, where there is not guaranteed for the child
the be carefree freedom, if I may put it that way, of innocence. The society pays a terrible toll for
as long as this child lives.
There is another kind of freedom. It is the freedom that is the result of responsibility-- the
freedom to be responsible, first, for your own action. And this means growth in maturity, growth
in wisdom.
When I was a boy, I had two sisters. One was older and one was younger. And I found it a very
convenient arrangement. Because whenever I was reprimanded for doing something, I could
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�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
always say that I did it to help my younger sister out. Or I did it because of the influence of my
older sister, always dodging the kind of necessity that belongs to the responsible individual,
namely to take responsibility for one's own action.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Now there is another kind of responsibility with reference to action. And that is a responsibility
for one's reaction. It is true that I cannot determine the influences or the forces that will be
brought to bear upon my life.
There are events which catch me in their agonizing grapple with which I am unable to exercise
any kind of control. These events are not responsive to my will, however good and kind and
generous and holy or persistent my will may be.
Now, given my set of involvements, given the impersonal forces that are brought to bear upon
my life because of the very nature of my existence at the time and place that finds me, as a result
of all of these things, I cannot have any determinative influence.
But one responsibility that I do have and that is I am responsible for my reaction to the things
that happen to me. This is in my hands. And I can react with acquiescence. I can react as if I am
a poor, undernourished victim of circumstances. Or I may deal with the raw materials of my
experience with the creative integrity of a responsible mind and personality.
Now there is another kind of freedom still. And that is the freedom of option. Freedom
fundamentally, in its most crucial definition, means the sense of alternative, the sense of option.
Now I may not be able to act on the option. But if I maintain a sense of option, I am still free.
Now this is important. For where there is no sense of option, where the individual is stripped of
all choice, when all opportunities for alternatives are eliminated, then the individual is not free.
Therefore, any society that is dedicated to freedom as our society theoretically is dedicated to
freedom must, above all else, guarantee for the individual a persistent and consistent sense of
alternative so that he is under no necessity to conform without any option being available to him.
He must have a sense of option if he would be free. Give me the strength to be free and to endure
the burden of freedom and the loneliness of those without change.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
5
�
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" />
Contributor
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
AudioWithTranscription
Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript
Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-766.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Salute to the New Year; The Strength to be Free (ET-4; GC 11-16-71), 1971 Nov 16
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
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/.
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394-766
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Salute to the New Year (1962-01-05); The Strength to be Free (1960-07-01)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<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
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1962-01-05
1960-07-01
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Thurman draws from his work "Meditations of the Heart" to reflect upon the meaning of a new year. He suggests that each passing year is a "year that has fulfilled itself and passed on," and is filled with change, fresh starts, grace, and hard lessons. In the passing of the previous year, Thurman suggests, there is an "opportunity to love life more wisely," noting that both the past and the future are "Golden Ages."
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Thurman draws from his work "Meditations of the Heart," to reflect upon the content of freedom, as the July 4th holiday approaches him and the original audience. He waxes over the variety of expressions of freedom: freedom as release from a current moment, freedom as a wide-open road, freedom as responsibility which leads to growth in wisdom. While discerning these forms of freedom, Thurman returns to a mantra, "Give me the strength to be free and to endure the burden of freedom and loneliness of those without change."
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dustin Mailman
angels
beginnings
birds
change
child
completion
conformity
death
Fourth of July
freedom
friendship
future
God
gratitude
holiday
innocent
life
maturity
movement
new start
New Years Day
organism
re-ordering
responsibility
seasons
soul
strength
time
tomorrow
understanding
unity
wisdom
-
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20a8a8df8aea43a629ee7955590e672f
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-095_B.mp3
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
I'd like to begin today by reading something that summarizes and in the form of an allegory the
essence of what we've been talking about touching upon the ground of unity that sustains and
supports all external manifestations of life. Sometimes, I think it is given to the poet and to a
certain kind of literary dreamer to give expression to insights that defy the more rational analysis,
either the philosopher or the theologian. And this is written by a South African woman of
English background, and her name is Olive Schreiner. Her period is 1855 to 1921.
A man cried up to God, and God sent down an angel to help him. And the angel came back and
said to God, I cannot help that man, and God said, how is it with him? And the angel said, he
cries out continually that someone has injured him, and he would forgive him, and he cannot do
it. God said, what have you done for him?
The angel said, I've done everything. I took him by the hand, and I said, look, when other men
speak ill of that man, do you speak well of him? Secretly in ways he shall not know, serve him.
If you have anything you value, share it with him. So serving him, you'd at last come to feel
possession in him, and you will forgive him, and the man said, I'll do it.
Afterwards, as I passed by in the dark of night, I heard one crying out, I have done all. It helps
nothing. My speaking well of him helps me not at all. If I share my heart's blood with him, is the
burning within me less? I cannot forgive. I cannot forgive. Oh, God, I cannot forgive.
I said to him, look back on all your past. See from your childhood all smallness, all indirectness
that has been yours. Look well at it, and in it's light, do you not see every man your brother? He
looked, and he said, yes, you're right. I too have failed. I forgive my fellow.
Go, I am satisfied. I have forgiven, and he laid him down peacefully and folded his hands on his
breast, and I thought it was well with him. But scarcely had my wings rustled, and I turned to
come up here, when I heard one crying out on Earth again. I cannot forgive. I cannot forgive. Oh
God, God, I cannot forgive.
It is better to die than to hate. I cannot forgive. I can not do it. And I went and stood outside his
door in the dark, and I heard him cry, I have not sinned so, not so. If I've torn my fellow's flesh
ever so little, and I've kneeled down and kissed the wound with my mouth till it was healed. I
have not willed that any soul should be lost through hate of me.
If they have but fancied that I wrong them, I have lain down on the ground before them. That
they might tread on me and so seeing my humiliation forgive and not be lost to hating me. They
have not cared that my soul should be lost. They have not willed to save me. They have not tried
that I should forgive them.
I said to him, be thou content then. Do not forgive. Forget this soul and its injury. Go on your
way. In the next world, perhaps, he cried, go from me.
You understand nothing. What is the next world to me? I am lost now, today. I cannot see the
sunlight shine. The dust is in my throat. The sand is in my eyes. Go from me. You know nothing.
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Oh, once again, before I die to see that the world is beautiful. Oh, God, God, I cannot live and
not love. I cannot live and hate. Oh, God, God, God. So I left him crying, and I came back up
here.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And God said, this man's soul must be saved, and the angel said, how? And God said, you go
down and save it, and the angel said, what more shall I do? Then, God bent down and whispered
in the angel's ear, and the angel spread out its wings and went down to earth. The angel went
down and found the man with a bitter heart and took him by the hand and led him to a certain
spot-- and now follow this. Now, the man wist not where it was the angel would take him, nor
what he would show him there.
And when they came, the angel shaded the man's eyes with his wing, and when he moved it, the
man saw somewhat on the earth before them. For God had given it to that angel to unclothe a
human soul, to take from it all those outward attributes of form and color and age and sex.
Whereby one man is known from among his fellows and is marked off from the rest, and the soul
laid bare before them, bare as a man turning his eye inwards beholds himself.
They saw its past, its childhood, the tiny life with the dew upon it. They saw its youth when the
dew with melting, and the creature raised its mouth to drink from a cup too large for it, and they
saw how the water spilt. They saw its hopes that were never realized. They saw its hours of
intellectual blindness men call sin. They saw its hours of all-radiating insight, which men call
righteousness.
They saw its hour of strength, when it leaped to its feet crying, I am omnipotent. Its hour of
weakness, when it fell to the earth and grasped dust only. They saw what it might have been but
never would be. And the man bent forward, and the angel said, what is it? And he answered, it is
I. It is myself, and he went forward as if he would have lain as heart against it, but the angel held
him back and covered his eyes.
Now, God had given power to the angel further to unclothe that soul, to take from it all those
outward attributes of time and place and circumstance. Whereby the individual life is marked off
from the life of the whole. Again, the angel uncovered the man's eyes, and he looked.
He saw before him that which in its tiny drop reflects the whole universe. He saw that which
mocks within itself the step of the furthest star and tells how the crystal grows underground
where no eye has seen it. That which is where the germ in the egg stirs which moves the
outstretched fingers of the little newborn babe and keeps the leaves of the trees pointing upward.
Which moves where the jellyfish sail alone on the sunny seas and is where the lichens form on
the mountain drop. And the man looked, and the angel touched him, but the man bowed his head
and shuddered.
He whispered, it is God, and the angel re-covered the man's eyes. And when he uncovered them,
there was someone walking from them a little way off, for the angel had re-clothed the soul in its
outward form and vesture. And the man knew who it was, and the angel said, do you know him?
And the man said, oh yes, I know him, and he looked after the figure.
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Transcription
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And the angel said, have you forgiven him? But the man said, how beautiful my brother is, and
the angel looked into the man's eyes, and he shaded is own face with his wing from the light. He
laughed softly and went up to God. But the men were together on the earth.
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Now, before we start our discussion, the point at which we stopped yesterday, Do you have any
questions to raise about the creative encounter? Have you found it, or is it still lost in the
bookstore? All right. There's a saying that comes from some part of the Old Testament,
allegedly, but it is this. That if Israel is not saved, Jacob will not lose his reward. So there it is.
Now, I'd like to begin by giving you one reference, a book which, if you are interested in
pursuing our search, which obviously can hardly be done in three weeks. There is a book written
by a Catholic priest which represents, from my point of view, the best composite of the generic
interpretation of mysticism with authentic source quotations. It is called Varieties of Mystic
Religion by Father Elmer O'Brien, Varieties of Mystic Religion by Father Elmer O'Brien. It's a
Holt Rinehart publication published in 1964, and it sells for $7.50.
Now, at the close of our discussion, we were dealing with the fact that it is the mystic's insight
that what he experiences which gives to him a sense of encounter with that which is ultimate.
And if he be a certain kind of religious man, he will label that ultimate by calling it God. And I
was suggesting to you that this element of which is the mystic speaks is regarded by him and by
many other people who think deeply on the subject as that which is essentially the givenness of
God.
It is-- to use a figure-- it is an increment which is basic structural to his very life, his very
essence. It isn't something that he achieves initially, but it is something that is given. It is a
manifest of the creator in the creature. And all that he, the mystic, feels under necessity to do is
to establish primary contact with this given increment which is inherent in him.
In one sense then, he shares this as a part of creation. It is the signature of the creator that is
inherent in his conscious. He may realize it by becoming aware of it, or its awareness may be
forced upon him in some sudden moment of illumination. Or a man may live his entire life
without becoming other than vaguely aware of the fact that there are moments when he seems to
be so much more than what he is at any given time, the various names by which this is given.
Sometimes, there are those who feel that a man becomes aware of this at a moment of
inspiration, for instance which gives to whatever the problem of his mind may be an
illumination.
What the orthodox-- what originally the Quakers referred to following the leadership or the
guidance of George Fox. The inner light, the inner light which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world, picking up a phrase or an intimation from the fourth gospel, the Gospel of John.
That this light, this inner light, is a part of the givenness of God. And that it is not only present in
human life, but it is a part of the totality of the experience of all living things. And indeed, there
are some people who say, who not only include among living things things that have specific
consciousness, like cats, dog, snakes, mice, flies, but that every living thing, trees, flowers.
You may have read a year or two ago it was rather popularized in many magazines about the
man in New York whose name I don't remember, but he's the man who developed the polygraph
machine. And in his experiments, he discovered that if he attached the wires of the polygraph
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machine to the plants in his office, that the machine would register emotions in the plant that
were identical or their reaction to emotions that were in the man himself. And he received a great
deal of publicity about it, and an enterprising newspaper reporter came to check it out. So he
gave him a dry run.
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He said, my associate in the office can't stand these plants. Every time I go away for any length
of time, he refuses to water them. He forgets to water them, and there's a wall of hostility that is
generated in this office between him and the plants. He said, now, I'll test it out for you. So he
attached the wires to the plants, and then he buzzed and his associate came in the office. And as
soon as he appeared in the door, the indicator, ffft, went up like that.
I've experimented a little with this myself. When I lived in San Francisco before, I had about 20
roses in our backyard, and they were having a hard time to live. Because in the area of San
Francisco, where our home was located, there were only about two hours of sunshine on a day of
sunshine. And night did not ever quite come off, because the lights of the city, the fog would
reflect the lights. And we would stand in the backyard just as if it were a brightly-lighted,
moonlit evening.
So I developed the habit of going out before I retired in the evening. If I did not come in until
1:00 o'clock, 2:00 o'clock, whatever time it was before I went to bed, I went out to have a little
conversation with my roses. And I would say to them, now, I understand what a hard time you're
having, because you don't get enough sunlight. It's never dark, and living things must have
darkness as contrasted with light so that certain things that can happen to them. And growth can
only happen in the darkness and you don't that.
And there are rumors going around in the garden about your cousins in Portland, where the roses
are as large as saucers, and I don't want you to get an inferiority complex about this. So please
know that I believe in you, and I know you're doing the best you can. Just squeeze as much
energy out of the available sources as possible and do the best you can. And whenever I had a
blossom, I would very carefully give to them a little paean of praise for the fact that they'd finally
made it. It didn't look like much, but it represented the best that they could do.
And I know that of all the yards in our general neighborhood, I had the kind of rose blooming in
our garden that were not to be found in the rest of the neighborhood. Now, this may be, you see,
just a fiction in my mind. I don't know. I don't know where the reality is, but I do know that
before I started doing this, they were very-- I was full of compassion for them. But after I started
doing this, they stood on their own feet, and a rose is a rose, and it helped.
In other words, what I'm saying is that there are some who go even beyond the notion that this
givenness is a part of the basic residue, the ground, in all living things. Whether or not this is
true-- no, that's wrong. Whether or not it is a fact, it can be challenged, but perhaps the truth of it
remains untouched. Because the mystic affirms this sort of experience, that the ultimate is within
reach of every living thing. It is not merely in the reach of every living thing, but it is inherent in
every living thing.
This has exposed the mystic who affirms this to the accusation, or the judgment, that can best be
expressed by a term with which you're familiar named the Pantheism. Which seems to suggest as
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an inference from this that everything is God, and God is everything. This is the rather severe
judgment that is cast upon this point of view.
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Now, I do not think, in technical terms, that the accusation is valid, because it is the attitude, this
attitude towards all living thing, that suggests that everything that is living is in some very real
sense sacramental. That the presence of the givenness of the creator in his creation makes of the
object of creation the a sacrament. A sacrament, because it carries within itself the signature of
the ultimate, the signature of the creator, but the mystic doesn't stop there.
There's a second thing that follows, and that is that there is always the assumption, and more than
the assumption, they insistence, that it is possible to cultivate this givenness. That it can be the
sphere of its influence in the common life can be enlarged, that it can grow, not in quality but in
the area that it covers in the life. Back of this second assumption is the whole exercise that is
characteristic of the mystic endeavor that we call spiritual exercise, and what is the aim of the
spiritual exercise?
As you see, if we have time before we're through, the aim of the spiritual exercise is to widen the
sphere of influence-- how to say this-- to widen the area of awareness in the individual of this
presence. That even though it is a part of the givenness, the influence of it, the spread of it-- if I
may use that term-- the spread of it is related to the way in which the individual puts himself at
the disposal of it. That there is a way by which this consciousness can grow and become more
and more central and [INAUDIBLE] in the life of the individual.
The result of this feeling, notion, idea, experience is that almost always the mystic has for
himself a pattern of behavior that is constantly being refined, tested. The fulfillment of which, or
the exercise of which, gives to him a sense that this presence-- this mark, this sign, this
imprimatur, whatever word you want to use-- this givenness of the creator is in him. So that
when he begins to work at it, each man discovers what for him are the most effective disciplines.
And they call them, in the Roman Catholic tradition, for instance, they're called spiritual
exercises.
But a curious thing to bear in mind is that with the possible exception-- that the possible
exception of Meister Eckhart about whom we will spend our last times together-- no mystic
insists that there is a necessitous relationship between the spiritual exercise and the result. Now,
this is very important. This is crucial.
Let me say it again. That given the function of the significance of the exercises, the means by
which the individual seeks to widen, to enlarge, his awareness of the presence of God in him, the
exercises are very important, very critical, very crucial, and I think necessitous. But there is no
guarantee, inherent or implicit, in the exercises themselves which says that if I do this and this
and this, God will come or my awareness of God will increase.
For there is assumed that the movement of the creator, the movement of God in his creation, has
an element in it that is arbitrary and this bristles with difficulties. If I can follow the prescription
that has been tested by those who have gone this way, who've make this journey, than I ought to
therefore be able to receive what they receive. But if, by any activity on my part, I can bend the
will of the creator, then it puts the creator at the disposal not only of my needs but of my whims.
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And there's something very heady about that, if I know that I can follow a certain path, following
of which will guarantee that at a point along the way that which I seek will be available to me.
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There is no guarantee. This is important emphasis. But if I don't do it, then I may miss it. So the
problem always is am I following the right path, and by right, in this sense, am I following the
path that will lead me to the goal? Or is it possible for me to find out from within myself, from
the limited awareness that I have, can find out from that experience what I need to do in order to
enlarge the area of the sphere of his influence on my life?
Now, such questions as these are never quite resolved. One of the great formal steps along the
path is a word that you will encounter in your reading, if you do any, and that word is
detachment, detachment. And this is the point at which the whole concept of detachment
becomes relevant to the mystic's quest. For as paradoxical a contradictory as it sounds, as it
seems, if we start out saying, you see, that the whole world is resonant with God, with the
creator, then this includes all of my sense data, all of the reflective processes the mind. That I
may knock at any door of my senses and find, when the door opens, that I have this blessing, this
enlarged awareness, of the creator that's in me.
So the great systems have grown up around this. For instance, one of the great words in a man
like Eckhart is detachment, and he is a radical in this regard. He's he says that if I am able ever to
rid myself of creatureliness, then automatically, God fills me up. So that'd be his insistence is
that all the time I must disengage myself from all of the delusions of my senses. I must not
become so engrossed in the sense data which is mine that I lose the scent of the eternal.
This is inherent, for instance, in all of the notions which have to do with aestheticism, with the
laceration of the body, with the effort to rid one's self of stain of any sort. In Christianity, the
man perhaps who's had the greatest influence in this insistence is Saint Augustine. You may
recognize this at once. For coming as he did out of another system of thought, having the
experience that that's a thing that had tormented him all of his days, that had been responsible for
so much of his private and personal agony, was the battle which he had with his own body. That
the flesh, all of that sense experience, which for him not only a sense experiences but a sensual
experiences, that these were things which stood between him and actualizing the presence that
was in him.
And he felt that in so doing he was following the experience of Saint Paul, who in the seventh
chapter or Romans talks about the flesh and how wretched he was. And how the dichotomy
between the flesh and the spirit was so great that the flesh represented that which, in essence,
was a betrayal of the spirit. So this dualism, this conflict, turns up in particularly in Christianity
in the most extraordinary way.
But back of it, and the thing that I am insisting upon at this preliminary stage, is that detachment
becomes an important vehicle for ridding one's self of the things that divide, that separate, that
keep the individual from being constantly and fundamentally aware of the presence of God, or if
you want to say ground, in himself. And to betray that means that one turns his back on that
which is in him, the presence of the creator.
Now, how sound this is, is another question. I don't know what your reaction would be with it.
That the sense data, that the body, blocks the free-flowing.
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University of Redlands, Redlands, California
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1970s
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Thurman, Howard
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On Mysticism, Part 4 (University of Redlands Course), 1973
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
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1973-02
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This recording is the fourth lecture in our collection of ten that Howard Thurman gave at the University of Redlands in 1973 on the topic of mysticism. Thurman indicates that this lecture functions as a means to point the listener towards practical approaches to mysticism through lenses of psychology, philosophy, and religious experience. Drawing from Olive Schreiner, Elmer O'Brian, and his own encounters, Thurman reflects upon God's (or The Ultimate's) sovereign providence. Thurman communicates this idea via the designation of "God's giveness." He notes that it is in personal "spiritual exercises" that one has the potential to be opened to this innate nature of God.
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Description by Dustin Mailman
aestheticism
angel
creative encounter
ecology
Elmer O'Brian
failure
George Fox
giveness
Gospel of John
Holt Rinehart
inner light
interelatedness
Israel
Jacob
life
manifestations of life
Meister Eckhart
natural religion
Old Testament
Olive Schreiner
panentheism
pantheism
potential
presence
reading
roses
sacrament
Saint Paul
spiritual exercise
totality of experience
ultimate
unity
Varieties of Mystic Religion