Sunday Offering

“I do not want the peace which passeth all understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace” – Helen Keller

I read about Helen Keller when I was very young. The thought of being unable to see and hear was intolerable to me. Her miraculous effort to communicate showed such determination and fortitude and I can distinctly remember the story of how she used her sense of touch to learn words – such as water; her first breakthrough into language. How she did it was phenomenal and shows the rest of the uncommunicative world just what obstacles can be overcome to share in this brilliant existence of ours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller

Not only did she learn to read and write but she developed a clear interest in politics and philosophy. Her objection to the war and her feminist stance in life led her to the Socialist Party of America. I suppose people excused her insanity and put it down to her inability to hear and see.

Of course, in true Zen style, Helen Keller could hear and see more in a day than most people do in a lifetime.

It fascinates me how people such as Keller become known and how they overcome such disabilities to have their voice heard. Everybody has a voice and so many people shy away from using it. If you have a voice and discovered that you have it, then I feel as though there is a certain obligation to get speaking, talking, writing, sending your messages loud and clear across the world. Blogging makes that so easy these days. People with something to say have to say it otherwise a mass of reality and truthfulness will sit there, lacking in multiplication, silent in oneness. Lone voices are fine but when the world suddenly realises that there are like-minded folk out there who are expressing views so similar to their own, you never know what might happen and what potential there is for change in this yes, brilliant but bewildering world of ours.

I remember pretending to be Helen Keller as a child. I closed my eyes and walked around the garden, feeling my way, trying to understand what it must be like not to see things. I also tried to block out the sounds too by placing my fingers in my ears, whilst simultaneously scrunching my eyes together so all that I could see was the orange, black and red dots of the blood pouring through my eyelids.

It was easy for me though. I already knew the pathway down the garden. I knew where the thorns were and which steps I could take to avoid any obstacles along my way.

Can you really imagine a world without sound and without sight? It would be bad enough to lose one of these senses but to have neither of them in your life seems to be utterly intolerable. No music, no sound of water crossing over sand and pebbles, no sunrise, no sunset, no eyes to look at, no sunflowers or trees, no wind whistling through, no beautiful people or faces, no sound of laughter.

But Helen could probably hear one hand clapping far better than most, far better than you or I.

We take so much in life for granted and we abuse the powers that have been given us. We waste our sight and we destroy our sounds. We hide from darkness and silence when their radiance increases with every opportunity to see and hear the lightness of the world. We rely on these senses often at the expense of others. We do not touch the world and we do not allow the world to touch us. We ignore the potential for peace by trying to intellectualise it rather than letting it be. We abuse our loved ones, our friends, our family by not speaking to them and by not hearing them when they are open and honest enough to want to speak. We defy the difficulties faced by Helen Keller to no avail. We have a voice and we have ears, if only we would be prepared to open both once in a while.

Helen Keller spoke without speaking. She listened without hearing. She touched without worrying. How many of us can say that we do any of those? How often have we really considered a life without sight and without sound? How can we begin to appreciate life more if we do not speak and do not share the vital parts of our lives with others?

How can someone so shut off from the world be such an inspiration?

She learned to communicate and was prepared to learn about the world. She never closed her eyes and she never cast away the opportunity to hear, even though the organs were not working.

Keller was an inspiration and her words or wisdom shone through. I wonder if she had ever looked at zen philosophy for even if she had never heard about it, she certainly appears to have lived her life according to its magnificence. Keller chose a path that was far more open and alive than many of us who have our sight and hearing in full working order. She demonstrated how to be silent whilst speaking volumes. She showed how to listen without ever hearing a single word. Isn’t that the Way?

“I do not want the peace which passeth all understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace”

What an incredibly insightful phrase. Without even realising it possibly, she is saying more about intellect than most people with a pocketful of mysterious internet browsers can do these days. Yesterday, I spent some time looking at the definition of “intelligence” and about 95% of the quotes that I found were about “intellect” and not “intelligence”.

Here, Keller demonstrates both.

She knows that understanding requires intellect, amongst other things, but also appreciates that no amount of understanding will suffice unless it is acted upon. There is no point in loudly declaring that peace is wanted without understanding what the peace actually entails. There is no peace if the quiet is not understood. There is no peace if we choose to disregard its reason. There is no peace if we have to stay silent and compromise to the point that the peace is false. All we do is accept the peace without plumbing the leak. All we are doing is passing over something, so that the underlying cause of destruction is never placated. There can be no peace without understanding.

I too want the understanding that brings peace for this world. How many treaties and agreements have been drawn up with warring factors that have not stood the test of time because there has been no understanding, no logic, no fairness in what has been agreed to resume congenial behaviour? How can the Israelis agree to a shared state with Palestine if they are never able to understand the reason behind it? How can they agree to peace when they have not understood and empathised with others? How can you resolve an argument with a member of your family if you just brush it aside without understanding of yourself and your sibling or mother or child? Peace cannot be unconditional, and neither can love.

Surely it is far better and far wiser to embrace an understanding that leads to peace rather than live in a peace which is oblivious to or deliberately ignorant of cause, effect and comprehension?

I like wise women. I like wise men too but there is still something that resonates with me when I hear the voice of a woman who has overcome so much to speak to the world. I too want to be a woman who speaks to the world because I have so much, possibly too much, to say.

The learning that I have been through is vital for me, and I feel as though it could be vital to others. My reason is my own but I feel so profoundly about its truth that I need and want to share with others. I do not expect everyone to automatically adopt my stance, my ideas, my philosophy but at least I can do my bit by speaking and saying what is my fundamental beliefs, knowing and delighting in the possibility that they are ever changing, with the ability to listen to others within my construct.

The world needs change. Change doesn’t have to be dramatic to find truth. Change can be tiny and almost incomprehensible but if I have an opportunity to speak of change, and listen to the views of others, then isn’t it my duty to do so, and isn’t this what Helen Keller was telling the world? If a woman like her can speak and listen then surely to goodness the likes of me has a duty to do the same.

To finish, I have chosen a few more Helen Keller quotes to demonstrate the intelligence of the woman.  She talks of peace and I have found some through her today, all thanks to Twitter. She talks of peace and I continue once more on my own unique pathway of understanding that will bring me some peace, and hopefully peace to those I care about too.

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Intelligence – oh why did I spend so much time yesterday searching for a definitive description of intelligence when so much of it was written years ago by a woman who thought, felt and imagined so much.

Have a look at the quotes below. The brilliance of them is that they encapsulate the whole notion of three dimensions of intelligence. It is not about one intelligence any longer, dear world. It is about how we use our intelligences together to make us see, to allow us to hear and to capture the very peacefulness that Keller was talking about in that first quote today.

  “Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.”

Intellect, spiritual, personal, social – she describes how her world of books has opened her world to new adventures, to intellectual stimulation, to an ability to share with her friends, whilst simultaneously explaining her very personal passion – that of reading and awakening to a world of possibilities.

“Many persons have the wrong idea about what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”

Are you listening, those who think that happiness can be taught? Happiness cannot be attained by ticking off a list of hopes as ‘completed’. Keller demonstrates once more that the intelligent thing to do is have purpose in life. With the fulfilment of purpose we find pleasure. Of course a little self-gratification can help along the way, especially if it is combined with or is a demonstration of the worthy purpose. Now that is intelligent!

“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an unchartered land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”

I want to discover the secret of the stars. I definitely want to sail in unchartered waters for I have already found my way to the shore. Spirituality comes from such words, such hope. Personal wellbeing is an added advantage to discovering the potential for humankind.

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”

She even manages to encapsulate the truth of instinct. How can you ignore the instinct when there is an impulse to rise? Good or bad, the instinct has to have its day, and say, and actions, even if it is short lived and reason returns once more.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.  They must be felt within the heart.”

And the mind and the soul, where the spirit dances with the surrounding and enveloping beauty.

 “We could never learn to be brave or patient, if there were only joy in the world.”

It is strange that I was saying such a similar thing the other day. Joy is as destructive as any other emotion. Like it or not, we need to be aware of and sometimes even feel destructive emotions in order to understand. Some of the hardest lessons in life are the most challenging as far as intelligence goes. Sometimes, even when we know how to be intelligent, we lose it all in an instance. But the intelligence remains, however hidden and we must learn from our experiences so that we can truly embrace and maintain joy, without trying too hard.

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”

My being, me, who I am requires tribulation. But only if it takes me forward. This is the same for all which is why much can be learned from the stresses and strains of a season.

“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therin to be content.”

Be content, be peaceful, be you.