Sages

A sage... in classical philosophy, is someone who has attained wisdom. The term has also been used interchangeably with a 'good person' ... and a 'virtuous . ... the sage is one who lives "according to an ideal which transcends the everyday."^- Wikipedia

I have many heroes.  I follow those who I might consider wise women and men. They are those I have never met, but have read, heard and researched.  What led me to them was finding, over and again, quotes, bits and pieces, videos, podcasts, and writings that spoke to my soul.  I think finding our wise humans is personal and jsut because I think one man or woman is wise does not mean that you should, could or would.  I want to share a few of my Sages that I go to when I need inspiration, comfort, calming and hope.  

Years ago, Thich Nhat Hanh words spoke to me, somewhere deep in the seat of my soul.  I loved his thought that we are 'Interbeings' interconnected with all things in creation.  Not only are we interconnected, but we are interdependent. Following is a quote from him on this:

"If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow: and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.
Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix "inter" with the verb "to be", we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.
If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger's father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist."

Then, along the way, a few years ago, I ran into Eckhart Tolle.  I took a four week class with Oprah and him and came out of the conferences with a whole new way to look at growth ;  soul growth.  His belief is that, in order to change the world, we must change ourselves.  To have more care, we must give more care, and those we give it to, then, can make a conscious effort to give more care and on and on until the world changes because the very ether changes in our compassion, love, nurturing.  In order to do this, we have to remain conscious every moment, every breath, every thought.  He teaches us to do so.

Then I happened on who I truly beleive is a wise woman, Pema Chodron.  She is a practicing Buddhist Monk.  She, too, lives the ideology that compassion and kindness must reign in order to deal with life today.  She believes that peace will never come until we make peace with self and others.  By being absolutely honest with Self is to be absolutely honest with others.  To be a peace with self is to be at peace with others.
Of course, we all know about the Dalai Lama, a Tibetan Buddhist and peace activist.  He speaks of no one tradition, religion, way is the right one, necessarily, but that we take the good from those things that fit our soul.  He says the basis of all things is compassion, kindness and love.   It is through that that we will find inner and outer peace.

Someone new to me is Jaggi Vasudev/Sadhguru.  He is an Indian Yogi and Mystic who speaks of Inner Change in logical ways that make sense to me.  His teachings are simple:

Learn to admit you do not know. Just when we think we DO know something, we will soon be taught we really do NOT know.  Keeping an open mind is vital.
He says that there are many people who say they know a great deal about things they have not had personal experience with.  We go from what we have heard, and this only leads to ill begotten knowledge of things we simply do not know. 
Facing reality is not accepting what we wish to be true.  Be a realist.  Deal with things the way they are at the moment.  

And this, this:   “The ropes that bind you and the walls that block you- these are one hundred percent of your making. And these are all you need to unknot and dismantle.” 

He says we must first fix ourselves and not worry about fixing anyone else.  We tend to want everyone else to change rather than change ourselves.  No one can change you.  You do not have the God-given right to change anyone.  They are, we are, I am.  That's it.  To change Self is all we have and we must pay the price for past decisions about who we are and who we have ended up being. 
Next, he speaks to doing things your own way because that is all you can do, just check how YOU do things.  If you have done things your way and it did not work, do it another, better way.  

He says we must act consciously, not compulsively.  I really needed to read his thoughts on this because sometimes, ok, most times, I jump rather than think first.  Being unconscious means that we miss life, we miss us.   “Do not live through memory: If you are wired to your memory, repetitions will happen and redundancy will come; but if you are paying attention, that changes your ability to look at things.” 

Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously.  We focus in our thoughts and that leads to more thoughts and if we keep it up long enough, we put too much weight on them.  What we have to realize is that thoughts are not facts.  You have to sift through fictions to find facts in thoughts.  Be logical instead of illogical.

Then...then, lately, I happened upon Brene' Brown.  She is a fabulous woman who carries much wisdom on vulnerability.  She rose out of the University of Houston.  She has studied vulnerability, courage, shame and authenticity.  She speaks to 'Wholeheartedness' and how we need to search through our fears, vulnerabilities and imperfections so we come to know our authentic worth...that is are truly enough as we are so that we can love ourselves enough to be truly able to love others.  She is worth a study and a read.  Your joyful soul is what she speaks to.

So, when I am in need of calm, of self-love, of understanding, I seek the words from these people who I feel speak to my soul.  Does it mean they have never been angry, never felt aggressive, never been intolerant or experienced negativity, have never been rude or have lust or have sworn like a trooper?  No!  They are human beings who have gotten further along in their search for wisdom about the things they are lacking.  they are human like the rest of us but have sought a refined path for themselves and then shared what they have learned.  What better teachers.

Who are Sages to you?  Tell us about them.  What have they taught you, what do they encourage us to do to be more spiritually-oriented?

As I worked on this painting, as always, in acrylic, I contemplated these things.  I did not do a step by step because this happened quickly. 

©Carol Desjarlais 2.8.20