Treasures, Our Abundance, Our Gift

While many of us have "stuff," collect stuff, keep stuff, we hang on to it-- even things we may no longer need or use. Sometimes we forget what stuff we have!
The more the stuff, the more the distractions taking us further from that really matters to us.  And while we are not all required to keep or give everything up, such as trading our day to day lives for that of a hermit, we might consider what we do have-- can we share?

While we may not feel an imperative to sacrifice, there are things we can do. First there is our treasure. Each one holds a treasure, stored up for just that moment. There is the tug then to share, because a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.

Your personal treasures are your wealth, your abundance, be it knowledge, your wisdom or experience, ability, faith or talent. Often treasure is the things we value the most, and paradoxically have the least control over.
Spiritually your treasure is you, unique. It need not be perfect nor inimitable, but it is something you have a lot of and can share. Treasure encompasses wonder.

Treasure for French philosopher, Descartes, is among the Passions of the Soul, first published in 1649. Describing what he calls generosity and wonder he writes that these particular passions are caused, strengthened and maintained by some movement of the Spirit. And he admits to his correspondent, Elisabeth, that it is difficult to 'disentangle these from the body and soul.' Further, he makes an attempt to classify the passions in this same writing. And he addresses both generosity and wonder, "generous people do good without self interest, they are courteous, gracious and obliging, living free from contempt, jealousy, envy, hatred, fear or anger for others."
Finally he contends that the imagination plays a significant part on the imaging of ones' treasures and what one may really hold.

Beautiful but Empty

"Men have forgotten this truth... The eyes are blind. One must look with the heart." --The Little Prince by Antoine de St.Exupery

The Little Prince, a story by the Frenchman, explorer, adventurer and nobleman, Antoine de St. Exupery recounts in an extraordinary way some of the most beautiful and deepest truths in the passage of a life. Writing the story of the Little Prince, St.Exupery writes about a person who lives alone on a tiny planet.

He has a flower, unlike any other flower in the galaxy. She is greatly beautiful to him. But pride ruins the serenity of his world, prompting him to travel afar, seeking solace.

His travel brings him to Earth where he makes the acquaintance of many; a fox finally tells him "the present of a secret" which enables the Little Prince to view his planet and his beloved flower through new eyes. The secret he learns, is what is really important in life.

Chapter 20-21:
Good morning said the roses. They all looked like his flower.
"Who are you?" he demanded. 
"We are roses," said one... He [the little prince] was overcome with sadness. His rose told him she was the only one of her kind... here were 5,000 of them all alike...
"She would be very much annoyed. I should be obliged to nurse her... to humble myself also, she would really allow herself... I thought I was rich with a flower that was unique in all the world; I had a common rose. That doesn't make me a very great prince." 
And he lay down in the grass and cried.

It was then the fox appeared. "Who are you? asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty to look at... "I cannot play with you. I am not tamed." "What does it mean--'tame'?"
 "It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. 'It means to establish ties.To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy, like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you... You have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me you will be unique in all the world..."

"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. 'There is a flower... I think she has tamed me..." "If you tame me," said the fox, "It shall be as if the sun came to shine in my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Yours will call to me, like music, drawing me out of my burrow.' The fox continues, 'Your hair is golden, like the color of the wheat fields... I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat... Please--tame me!" exclaimed the fox.

"I have much friends to discover, and many things to understand."
 "One only understands the things that one tames," replied the fox. "There is no shop where one can buy friendship, so men have no friends anymore."
"What must I do to tame you?" asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," said the fox. ' Words are the source of misunderstandings. One must observe the proper rites," said the fox.
"What is a rite?" asked the little prince. "Those are actions too often neglected," said the fox. 'They are what makes one day different from another."

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near-- "Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
"It is your own fault," said the little prince. 'I never wished you any sort of harm, but you wished me to tame you."
 "Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"Then it has done no good," said the prince.
"It has done me good because of the color of the wheat fields." 'Go--again and look at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back and I will make you the present of a secret..."

"You are not at all like my rose," said the little prince. ..No one has tamed you and you have tamed no one... "You are beautiful, but you are empty. One could not die for you." My rose may look like any other, but she is more important to me than any other in the world because it is she that I have watered, she that I have sheltered, she that I have listened to, boasted to, grumbled to, or sometimes said nothing. Because she is my rose.
Returning to the fox, he said goodbye. The fox replied, "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye..." It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important." "Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "You must not forget it."
 The eyes are blind. One must look with the heart...

The Present of a Secret, the Little Prince

"Men have forgotten this truth... The eyes are blind. One must look with the heart." --The Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exupery

The Little Prince, a story by the Frenchman, explorer, adventurer and nobleman, Antoine de St.Exupery recounts in an extraordinary way some of the most beautiful and deepest truths in the passage of a life. Writing the story of the Little Prince, St.Exupery writes about a person who lives alone on a tiny planet.

He has a flower, unlike any other flower in the galaxy. She is greatly beautiful to him. But pride ruins the serenity of his world, prompting him to travel afar, seeking solace.

His travel brings him to Earth where he makes the acquaintance of many; a fox finally tells him "the present of a secret" which enables the Little Prince to view his planet and his beloved flower through new eyes. The secret he learns, is what is really important in life.

Chapter 20-21:
Good morning said the roses. They all looked like his flower. "Who are you," he demanded.
"We are roses," said one... He [the little prince] was overcome with sadness. His rose told him she was the only one of her kind... here were 5,000 of them all alike..."She would be very much annoyed."
I should be obliged to nurse her... to humble myself also, she would really allow herself... "I thought I was rich with a flower that was unique in all the world; I had a common rose. That doesn't make me a very great prince." And he lay down in the grass and cried.

It was then the fox appeared. "Who are you," asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty to look at..."
"I cannot play with you. I am not tamed."
"What does it mean--'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties." "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy, like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you... You have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me you will be unique in all the world..."

"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower... I think she has tamed me..."
 "If you tame me," said the fox, "It shall be as if the sun came to shine in my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Yours will call to me, like music, drawing me out of my burrow." The fox continues, Your hair is golden, like the color of the wheat fields... I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat... Please--tame me!" exclaimed the fox.

I have much friends to discover, and many things to understand. "One only understands the things that one tames," replied the fox. "There is no shop where one can buy friendship, so men have no friends anymore."
 "What must I do to tame you?" asked the little prince.
 "You must be very patient," said the fox. Words are the source of misunderstandings. "One must observe the proper rites," said the fox.
 "What is a rite?" asked the little prince.
 "Those are actions too often neglected," said the fox. "They are what makes one day different from another."

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near-- "Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
 "It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm, but you wished me to tame you."
 "Yes, that is so," said the fox. "Then it has done no good," said the prince.
 "It has done me good because of the color of the wheat fields." "Go--again and look at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back and I will make you the present of a secret"...

"You are not at all like my rose," said the little prince... No one has tamed you and you have tamed no one... "You are beautiful, but you are empty. One could not die for you." My rose may look like any other, but she is more important to me than any other in the world because it is she that I have watered, she that I have sheltered, she that I have listened to, boasted to, grumbled to, or sometimes said nothing. Because she is my rose.
Returning to the fox, he said goodbye. The fox replied, "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye..." "It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important." "Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "You must not forget it." The eyes are blind. One must look with the heart...

The Basis of Oneness

"feel your lightness and let it merge with others..."
--Tao Te Ching
"Many poets are not poets... they never succeed in being themselves."
--Thomas Merton
"I am the will, the heart, the soul, the spirit, the self, the I..."
--Peter Kreeft


Ways of seeing, vispayana, are many and yet they are few: some spiritual traditions are unique, and yet they are universal:

"If you know what it is, don't talk it away:
If you don't then you don't understand.

Hush, keep it in, and your doorway shut--
Steer clear of sharpness and untangle the knots.

Feel your lightness and let it merge with others,
This we say is our basis of oneness.

The sage who does this doesn't have to worry
about people called 'friends' or 'enemies,'
with profit or loss, honor or disgrace--

He is a Master of Life, instead."
--Tao Te Ching, chapter 56, translated by Man-Ho Kwok

"I have three priceless treasures:
The first is compassion
the second, thrift
And the third is that I never want to be ahead of you.

If I have compassion, you will die for me. I know that.
If I waste nothing, I can give myself to you all--
And if I don't seem perfect, then you'll trust me to lead you.

These days people scorn compassion. They try to be tough.
They spend all they have, and yet want to be generous
They despise humility, and want to be the best.

I tell you that way is Death's.

If you have loved your people, you will know it
they will fight tooth and nail for you in attack or defense.

This is the protection of Heaven, and your harvest.
--Tao Te Ching, chapter 67, translated by Man-Ho Kwok


Thomas Merton, Integrity

"Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves. They never get around to being the particular poet or particular saint they are intended to be by [gifts of] God... They wear out their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavor to have somebody elses' experiences, or write somebody else's poems, or possess somebody else's spirituality... There can be an intense egoism in following everybody else. People are in a hurry to magnify themselves by imitating what is popular-- and too lazy to think of anything better... Hurry ruins saints as well as artists... In great saints you find that perfect humility and perfect integrity coincide. The two turn out to be practically the same thing. The saint is unlike everybody else precisely because he is humble... since no two people are alike, if you have the humility to be yourself, you will not be like anyone else in the whole universe... Individuality is something deep in the soul... humility brings with it a deep refinement of spirit, a peacefulness, a tact and common sense, without which there is no sane morality...How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city?

--Thomas Merton, Trappist monk from his book, The New Seeds of Contemplation

Peter Kreeft, The Most Important Thing

"Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man." Matthew 15:11

"This is true not only of the mouth or the body, but also the soul. What comes into my soul is not necessarily what I will, but what comes out of my soul is precisely what I will. The Greek philosophers did not clearly recognize this personal center. They were intellectualists; they thought the deepest thing in us was the mind. Thus Plato taught that whenever we really know the good, we do it... Aristotle defined man as a rational animal." When asked about his teachings, Jesus replied, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If any man's will is to do this [the Father's] will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God." John 7, verses 16,17

"The will leads us to wisdom... Know thyself, was the first and greatest command for the Greeks. It was inscribed upon every Temple of Apollo... To answer that fundamental question: What is the self? What am I? What is the human person? The key of love unlocks the deepest answer...

--Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You
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