What this tells us is that there is a season for everything: a time to long, a time to belong, a time to be home, and time to leave; and all these are different faces of the one.
The journey to the self,
We lack heroes and have traded authentic, genuine love for artificial substitutes. We have an excess of idols, too many champions of conquest, adorable queens of attraction, plenty of glamour and glitter, and pseudo-romantic infatuations projected onto the screens of modern entertainment. do we "love" these stars or are we idolized parasites of our own inner potential? Disappointed with the routine of daily life, with neccessities and responsibilities, we begin to "love" the substitutions, the constant intoxication with illusions that gradually degrade our dedication to appreciate what and who is actually present, providing us with an opportunity to love Sustained devotion, responsible commitment, and an inspired imagination can guide us closer to the elusive mystery of love, but addiction to grandiose spectacles on screens impoverishes this capacity.
Life seems to cease sometimes,
turns dark, stands still, stays frozen.
We dread these difficult, dire days
when our zest for life becomes self-disgust
and grabs us by our despised throat,
spews spiteful charges against us and God.
<in 'The Miracle of Love'>
<My Misery>
My misery comes from my great talent
to wear too many masks too well.
I learned to deceive every one, myself included.
I became a master manipulator of my feelings.
No true song could reach my heart.
Behind each step I take lurks a shrewd scheme.
I know the source of all my suffering.
I have traced it to my innermost core:
Even my heartbeat is controlled and calculated.
I make sure no dream's deep, dark foreboding,
no imprisoned passion, no stirring sorrow
can break through this armor to my soul.
the growing group of "dreamers," to muster the courage to walk on our path with trust:
In the end all art and especially poetry has only a raison d'être (존재이유) if it offers more than entertainment, but has a direct effect on life, provides solace, clarification, counsel, aid and fortification in life's struggles and helps overcome what is difficult in life.
The despotism of pragmatism, the facism of efficiency, and the addiction to unlimited desires leave the body distraught, the heart frozen, the spirit denied, and the soul starving. (skip)
the bard's role as a guide toward insight, toward the conscious life beyond materialistic and hedonistic goals, to an appreciation of the sanctity and inherent diginity of all life (skip) The poet is not a court jester, not an aesthetic garnish on the loaded plate of greed and desire.
Poets and philosophers, if they do not sell out to please, but have the courage to be themselves, represent the most precious and dangerous models a culture can have. They don't supply a readymade set of duties and doctrines to be followed, but they show and teach the opposite: the path to individuality and personal conscience.
It is an old, uneven battle between criticism and creativity, between science and art, whereby the former is always right without serving anyone and the latter again and again sows the seeds of faith, love, solace and a sense of the eternal falling on a fertile soil. Because life is stronger than death and faith is stronger than doubt.
the fast, dazzling intoxication of the senses that results in quick-acting overstimulation and a quick-acting distraction called "fun." But, as Hesse warns us: "The excessive emphasis on the fast-paced instant way of life is undoubtedly the most dangerous enemy of joy. As much as possible, as fast as possible, its motto. It leads to more and more fun and less and less joy."
Between 1904 and 1912 he lived in a rural setting in Gaienhofen on Lake Constance, where he built his own house. Reading good books and a walk in the woods alternated and filled Hesse's daily schedule throughout his years.
It would be impossible for me to declare whether this cloudy sky, quietly moving by itself in these manyfold forms is producing a mirror in my soul or whether it is the other way around. I see this sky as an image of my inner movements.
<To a Leaf Wilting>
Every blossom wants to become fruit.
Every morning turns into evening without regret.
Nothing on earth is eternal
except change, except taking leave.
The most splendid summer
yearns fade into fall.
Oh, autumn leaf, be still and yielding
when the wind wants to seize you.
Do not resist, be a player in the game.
Surrender to the change in motion.
Let yourself be broken, seized,
and blown to the next home.
I believe in spite of all its obvios absurdities, life nevertheless has a meaning. I surrender to my inability to comprehend the ultimate meaning of life, but I am willing to sense it, even if it requires sacrificing myself. You cannot force this faith on anyone, not even yourself, but it can become experience. The absence of this felt faith is usually replaced by beliefs in a church or in science or in patriotism or socialism, some kind of refuge where conventional moralities, conformist programs and standardized membership cards to organized social structures guarantee a false comfort, the illusion of security, an illusionary ticket to salvation.
Only at the end of his solitary journey will he realize that he joined a great, new, but invisible community which encompasses all cultures and all religions. (skip)
Our brothers in this invisible community are always available and ready to advise us. They are accessible by reaching for a book or making a few clicks on the internet. Rilke, Rumi, Kabir, St. Francis, Yeats, Ramkrishna, and T.S. Eliot
<Confession>
The games of glamour and glitter
I have played with gusto
Let others have goals and ambitions,
for me, living is enough.
Whatever has moved me
has all become a symbol.
I always feel the power of this moment,
the presence of boundless oneness in my life.
To make may life inspired and abundant
I read in life's open book of symbols
because now I have that depth within me.
My eternal, changless essence is at peace.
he continued to appreciate the blessings and challenges each phase of life brings and takes away.
Old age can "lead to lethargy, senility, an ugly indifference, but it can also shine forth differently in a given situation as serenity, patience, humour, deep wisdon and Tao." (skip) the timeless present.
In order to experience happiness you must become independent of time and with it independent of fear and hope. We read this or that and struggle for a while through the world of perennial problems, each of which can never be solved but only experienced, and in the end life always throws us back in a situation where we once attempt the seemingly impossible, where we engage in a seemingly hopeless task with new desire and new zeal.
<Departure>
I hear the train whistling
down in the valley green.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I too will be gone.
I pick a last bouquet of flowers randomly,
and they wilt already before I leave.
Parting is a bitter herb,
it grows in every place I loved.
Wherever I built a house,
I never found the peace of home.
I must find shelter in myself.
All other shells crumble fast.
Whenever I truly felt at home,
home soon became strange.
But deep in my heart
I carry a seed
that grows daily in silence.
When it is ripe, I will be home
and my restless pulse will find its rest.
(Poems and Italic types by Hesse, Regular types by Fischer)
- 'Defender of Soul'이라고 불리우는 헤세의 시를 엮어놓은 얇은 책.
그의 소설과는 사뭇 다른 느낌이나 그의 생각이 더 압축되어 간결한 언어로 표현되어 있는 것은 읽는 이에게 소설을 읽었을 때와는 또다른 감동을 가져오는 듯하다. 시간에 대한 수긍, 자신에 대한 끊임없는 성찰, 삶이란 거대한 문제를 포괄하는 자아와의 합일 등에서 어제와 내일의 사사로운 사건과 감정의 물결에서 떠나 거대한 인생의 대양을 바라볼 수 있도록 도와준다.
시대의 지성들에게 느끼는 것은 그들의 환경에 대한 통찰력, 자연에 대한 경외심, 삶에 대한 꿰뚫어 보는 눈 등이다. 어쩌면 카뮈나, 니체나, 헤세의 생각들이 그토록 닮아있는지 경이롭기까지 하다.
자아에 관하여, 나이듬에 관하여, 삶이란 길에 관하여, 더 명석하고 깊은 사고를 할 수 있도록 우리를 보이지 않는 시대를 초월한 그룹으로 이끌어주는 책.
머리맡에 놓고 몇 번씩을 들여다보다.
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