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cc >> We're going to start tonight with Emerson, and there he is. His dates. Emerson was the preeminent American intellectual in the 19th century. There was no one who was equal to him in terms of his influence, his importance, in terms of the wideness of the discussion of Emerson and his ideas. Basically, Emerson made his living by giving talks, giving lectures, and he came out to Wisconsin several times, Milwaukee. By train, of course, in those days. He went everywhere he could, even to California, as part of his expression of his beliefs. So when we talk about how then should we live, no one's ideas in 19th century America was more discussed than were my ideas, as Emerson. So how then should you and I live? That's the most important question in life as far as I'm concerned. That's the question I spent my time on, in terms of thinking, in terms of talking, in terms of writing. An endless journey. Life is a journey. I was on a journey, and I want people to understand they are too an endless search to find the best way to live. Now at one level the question of how then should we live, the answer is easy. The answer is you should be yourself. There's nothing more to it. The challenge, of course, is how to be yourself. But when I say be yourself, what I mean, of course you understand, is your natural self. Your real self. Your inner self. Your divine self. It's there. It's in every one of you as it is in me. And so it's a matter of discovering and often uncovering your natural and divine self. How should you live? Be yourself. Now, the question is, well, how do you do this? What are some of the ways to help you be yourself? And, of course, what are some of the paths you must not follow? The paths that, I'm sorry to say, the masses follow. But I'm basically a very, very positive and upbeat person, and I'm known as such. Indeed some of my critics, I don't know what's wrong with these people, but some of my critics think I'm a little too happy, a little too positive, but that's not possible in my view. So how to discover and then honor your true self, okay? Well, I'm just going to suggest a few. If you know anything about me, you know that of course when one is looking for one's true nature, it's tremendously important to go into nature. Nature is a wonderful source, a wonderful setting for discovery of yourself. Nature, I said, is my beautiful mother. Yes, nature is my beautiful mother. And I have a child's love for it. The image of truth in children in nature. This is an image of children somehow expressing the fundamental simplicity of truth that is present, of course, in some other traditions and some other thinkers. Let me read to you from one of my poems. Beneath my feet The ground pine curled its pretty wreath, Running over the club moss burs; I inhaled the violet's breath; Around me stood the oaks and firs; Pine cones and acorns lay on the ground; Over me soared the eternal sky, Full of light and of deity; Again I saw, again I heard, The rolling river, the morning bird; Beauty through my senses stole; I yielded myself to the perfect whole. Yeah. I connected. I bonded. I yielded. Because to find yourself, you're going to have to yield. So, getting out in nature, yes, of course, that's absolutely crucial, but for me it's appreciating nature wherever it is. I thought of that as I walked by the Pyle Center. Some flowers, incredible as it may seem, are desperately trying to come up there, and I thought a bit of beauty, it's a wonderful thing. And I felt my inner self responding, connecting, being discovered. So how to discover and then honor thy self? Well, nature is so important, but we need to properly understand what nature is. Nature isn't just trees or pine cones. Nature, of course, is the expression of God, of the divine. Nature is divine. And you and I, we are divine too because we're of God. We're not gods, but we are part of this whole that is nature, and that whole partakes of the spiritual, of the divine. Now another way we can proceed, of course, is if you want a slightly more philosophical approach, we discover ourselves, we discover truth by intuition. By the teachings of our heart. We need to look into our hearts, divine they are, and find ourselves. So we need to listen to our hearts. They, more than anything else, will give us the way. It's intuitive. It's a matter, ultimately, of feeling. Just as we come by feeling to understand nature. So, individually, we come by feeling to understand our hearts, and in our heart is the repository more than anywhere else of ourselves. So we must discover and honor our hearts, our intuitions. As I said, I will not live out of me. I will not see with others' eyes. My good is good. I will go down my own road. and I will be as lighthearted as a bird and live with God, and I find him in my heart. And I listen to his voice, the voice of truth, in my heart. Well, how else can we go? How else can we proceed? Because it's one thing to say, well, you have to listen to yourself, you have to be true to yourself. There are ways and I have some insight into those ways, intuition to those ways, and I try to live by those ways. Nature and the heart. But you do understand that you have to go alone. You have to go alone. Now, as you'll see, I don't mean by that you have to live alone. That's not the same thing. And that's not me at all. But ultimately you have to go alone. Only you can truly search out your heart. Only you can find your, so I say to you let me admonish you. Go alone. This is a journey, if one is serious about discovering oneself, that one has to undertake oneself. Not in isolation, but it's an inner journey that you have to go alone. And as you do, it's absolutely essential that you respect yourself. You are very, very, very special. You even partake of the divine. I mean the real you is very, very special. The you that you will be searching for, that I'm searching for. And so you need to respect yourself and honor yourself. Yes, you are just part of an incredibly complex natural world, but you are an essential part and you must respect yourself. If you do not respect yourself, and even more if you do not trust yourself, trust yourself that you can do this, that you can explore your heart, that you're strong enough to do this without someone telling you who you are, then you're going to get there or get much closer there. You see, every one of you has genius. You might say, well, that's a little exaggerated. No, it's not exaggerated. Do you understand? You have a genius. You do. Now, I'm not saying you have some spectacular skill, you understand, that sets you out. I mean as the person you are, really, you have genius. You are great. And you have to trust that you are. I don't want anything to do with people who say, well, no, I can't, I won't. No. You're genius. You have genius. You honor that, you believe that, and you will progress toward finding yourself. That's for sure. And just one last point about how to do it. You understand that behind all of this lies the belief that you must be free. And yes, my friends, freedom is in part an external, and we'll be talking about that this evening. But you do understand that the ultimate freedom, the freedom that matters more than anything else, in my view, is your inner freedom. And you have to be free. You have to have the spirit of freedom inside to make the journey. And, of course, you're not free if someone else is directing you on your journey. If you're not going alone. If you don't trust yourself. If you don't recognize and appreciate your genius. Let me just mention a few things that I think on your way, on our way toward the discovery of your real self that need to be avoided, and then let me move on to some of the broader implications. Of course, you know that whosoever would be a man must be a non-conformist. I mean, that's mandatory. If you plan to live your life as a life of conformity, it's over. You're hollow. You're empty. You're not listening to yourself. Please don't misunderstand. And I will develop this a bit later on. Conformists are conformists of the heart. Do you understand? They're conformists of the mind. They're not people who wear odd clothes. What we're looking for then is, I don't care about external appearance. Do you understand what I'm saying? So if somebody wants to be a non-conformist, I want to say, in their dress or whatever, fine. Whatever. It doesn't tell me a thing about whether you are non-conformist and what matters in your heart. Understand? That's the test. And so, see me? See anything weird? Well, not for my time. I'm very conventionally dressed. Of course. But I was no conformist. And, frankly, a lot of times, in my view, those externals and trying to make a statement with them can get in the way of your search internally. So of course you have to be a non-conformist. And all that means is you're not going to do what they do just because they do it. If in your heart, some of their beliefs and their actions accord with what your heart teaches you, fine, but you have decided. Understand? You did not do it out of conformity. And, I'm sorry to say, but the implication of this should be clear to you. I really am not an enthusiast about the average person. It's not a case of lack of capacity. Everyone has genius. You understand? Everyone is of the divine. It's incredible. It's wonderful. It's beautiful. But they don't live that way, and let's not pretend they do. So often they're dead internally, and they're dull. It's sad but it's true. And any serious searcher knows it's true. Even though it was a part of my lectures that in democratic America of my time was not particularly well received. Though very frequently I suspected my listeners nod and said yes, it's absolutely true, of course it's not true of me or any of the people I know. If so, wonderful. But you can't run after them. It just doesn't work. Well, I imagine we have a lot of very good thinkers out there. Lots of people who know how to use their reason very well, and I'm a practical sort myself. After all, somebody has to get the train schedule and meet the trains and show up on time for the lectures and so on. But the answer is not some kind of higher reason. And it never failed when I gave lectures that somebody would either during the lecture of afterward come up and say, oh, well, you made a contradiction. You said one thing and then you said the other thing. So what? Right? That's some kind of logic chopping. You can chop logic all day, but it won't ever get to your heart. It won't get you to your true self. And that's why I said, foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. I mean, they're important, consistency, sure. But I'm sorry, I would not recommend, there's nothing wrong with taking classes in logic. Go right ahead. But please don't be under the idea this is somehow going to help you discover your real self. It's not. Not at all. In fact, well, it's harmless. Go ahead. But don't think that it's going to be the answer. Well, my friends, having a firm that you and I are of the divine and nature is of the divine, and that in a certain sense the search for our true self is a search to find the divine in us, you can see how intensely spiritual I am, but I must tell you that one of the paths you cannot follow that will not lead you there is the path of a formal religion. Formal religion will not help you. And, as may you know, I was ordained as a minister. But I had to resign because churches and doctrines, they're exterior. And time and time again they interfere with the individual's search for themselves in nature. They are a expression, and, sure, I was not somebody running around saying I hate these things. Not at all. But you do understand that they are just another expression of the external. And my view was, well, I respect churches and I respect ministers and it's all very nice, but too often, and in my case always, it does not lead to one's heart. It leads to rules, fashions, conformity, doctrines. So do I believe in the divine? Well, of course. I believe the divine is everywhere. But we must discover the divine. And creeds and pews and ministers, no. They become, too often, a substitute. Now, am I saying no one could ever belong to a church or religion? No. Of course I'm not saying that. But I'm saying for me and I fear for you all too, one must be very, very much on guard. They are, after all, more often than not likely to be another expression of, sadly, the conformity. Now, that leads us to the question that goes beyond how might we discover our true self and what do we want to avoid. And it leads us to the topic of what kind of, how should we act? How should we act? But before I turn to that, let me ask, are there any questions or any problems you have with what I've had to say so far? Don't look into your logic mind, but look into your hearts. Do you see anything? Any problem? Well, then, I will go on. How then should we act? Because, for me, when we say live, we not only are in the search for truth that's in us, and isn't it beautiful? It's in all of us. You see, you can understand why later analysts said of me not only, of course, is he the famous individualist of 19th century America, but, of course, I am a radical egalitarian. You understand that? Because at base, we're all equal and we're all special and we're all wonderful. So how are we going to act? Very, very important. As I've mentioned, I'm a very positive man. I believe in living positively, enthusiastically, joyfully. Joy is a tremendously important word for me. Affirmatively. If we don't live this way or try to live this way, we will interfere with our journey of self-discovery, that's for sure. But it is an incredible thing to have this gift of life and to have the potential to really discover the divine within one. It's incredible. There's a tremendous basis for enthusiasm and joy. Now, please understand I'm not saying that there's not suffering in life or that I didn't suffer. I did. My first wife died. Heartbreak. A beloved son died. Heartbreak. This is part of nature, we understand. Death is part of nature, but I choose to focus on renewal in nature. So of course I had my moments of despair, but mostly I lived, my belief in enthusiastic, a positive life. And it won't surprise you that as a kind of, not unfamiliar, optimistic, and positive 19th century American, indeed I was the very symbol of it, I really wasn't interested in people who liked to dwell on the past. The historic past or their own past. It drags you down. It's not that there's not plenty of reasons to be disparaging in the past. Exactly right, and that's why we don't want to spend a lot of time on it because we want to go forward. We want to believe in joy. We want to put on a smile. Let me say that a different way, a better way. We want the smile to come from within, the joy to come from within. And if we're going to act, this is our attitude, but we're certainly going to vigorously enter into life. I'm all for urging people to participate in the incredible divine world around them. Of course. It's going to be on our terms. It's going to be on my terms not their terms. I'll decide when, how, and in what ways I will participate. But my heart tells me that I am and you are and we are part of a whole. And being part of that whole, being an active part of that whole is crucial. Absolutely. So, could we turn to, you see him? Now, this guy was, as you know, my closest friend. He often lived with me and my sisters and so on. As you know, he was not, shall we say, always self-supporting. And I'm sorry to say, when he died I was called upon to give the final words. Why not? He was so close to me in so many, many ways. And in my famous oration at his funeral, accolade after accolade after accolade piles up. But there's just one little sentence, one little sentence that slips in. And my listeners, of course, heard it. They knew too what this was. You see, I said, and I don't know, should I have really said this at somebody's funeral? But I said, you know, Thoreau could have been a captain of men. In other words, he could have been an active, vigorous participant in life, and instead, I said, he chose to become the captain of the Huckleberry party far away. No. Thoreau was not the answer. It is not true, in my experience, that the search for your true self, the search the divine self leads you away. It lead him away. Maybe that was his true self. But I think there was more there, and that's why I say he could have been a captain of men. And so there's a certain disappointment even with my dear friend Thoreau. So we can go back to Emerson here. So you've got to get into life on your own terms, and you can do it of course. Did I? Well, sure I did. I was a husband. I was a father. I was very much involved in my local community of Concord, Massachusetts. I was on the local school board. And, of course, unlike my dear friend, I had a job. If you will, a career. So yes, I was very much involved. Well, of course another way in which I became known for my involvement in life, my embrace of life, was as a reformer. Now, you all understand that all I've said so far about how to live is a reform agenda. You understand? The individual, I'm urging, needs to follow. So I'm a reformer all the way. But in terms of broader social involvement, I was also a reformer because for me the individual journey cannot be separated from the larger community. Just as the individual in nature is not somehow not part of the larger nature. For example, I was very active in opposing the, from my perspective, notorious evil removal of the Cherokee Indians from Florida and Georgia to Oklahoma in the 1840s. A terrible, terrible event. But my most famous activities, of course, were my fight against slavery before and during the civil war. External slavery. Terrible denial of human freedom. But from my perspective, doubly bad, do you understand, because the enslaved, I felt, find it very difficult to achieve the inner freedom which is ultimately the most important. So by the 1840s, I was involved in the anti-slavery effort without any apology. My whole philosophy can be described as an attempt to free people. So it made sense. And you know how we proceeded, don't you? We despised abolitionists. Our view was we really can't get rid of it in the south. We have no means. The federal government is controlled too much by southern slave hold interests. So we were advocates of separation. People often talk about how the confederate states seceded. Well, we were the first advocates of secession, we abolitionists, because we couldn't get rid of it but we didn't want to touch it and its owners. It was touching evil. So maybe the answer was to secede and get away. Of course, fate brought the Civil War. But you may or may not know, I was one of the people who went to see President Lincoln to say, now, wait a minute, you're doing all this talk about Union saving. I don't care about the Union. Not a bit. But I care tremendously about ending slavery. When's that going to happen? Well, you know your Lincoln, I'm sure. You know our delegation received some very nice, very folksy stories which were not relevant, and we were sent on our way. But our time came. And it did become clearly about ending slavery, external slavery. In all my activities, in all my involvements as a reformer or elsewhere, in all my active participation, and I hope you understand I'm not participating because I'm a good American citizen. I'm participating because I'm trying to live the truth that my journey has uncovered inside of me. And so I must live life according to principle and involvement according to principle. And I feel I did. Does anyone have any thoughts or concerns about my model of involvement and participation? Do you understand what I'm suggesting? As Emerson, I'm really a very pleasant person. You don't need to be afraid that I am going to get mad at you. That wouldn't be pleasant. Okay. Then let me go on. Ah, all right. Yes, sir? >> Wouldn't it have been unsatisfactory if the country had divided as you originally wanted and slavery still existed in the south, you wouldn't have abolished slavery, you would have just separated yourself from it? >> Very, very unsatisfactory. Agreed. But I had no alternative. I can't mobilize the military because the government is controlled by southern interests, so I can't do anything else. Of course I lectured against slavery, you understand, and so on. But sure, of course it would be, very much so. And you're a practical soul. I understand. But all I can do is what I can and what I think is right, and I'm not going to let the fact that it's terribly unsatisfactory get me down because then I won't keep at it. You see, can we bring up Thoreau again? Thoreau didn't like, Thoreau got mad when several things took place. The Mexican-American War, he didn't like that. He got mad about the treatment of the slave freer John Brown. And he'd make these statements, and then off to the hills. Off to the huckleberry patch. So to me, he's not being very practical either. He's speaking from his heart, I'm for it, but, my dear friend, we need a bit more participation, granted, it's limitations. So, what about social institutions more broadly? And what about governments and such? Well, I want you to be very clear that the only kind of rule I believe in, the only kind of rule that's acceptable, the only kind of rule that speaks to the divinity within each of us is self-rule. And that's why I became famous for saying society is everywhere. Conspiracy gets the manhood of every one of its members. The conspiracy is conformity. The conspiracy is not listening to the heart, not listening to the divine. But I'm not saying, okay, get rid of governments, get rid of the family, get rid of every institution you can think of. Just as I'm saying, don't get rid of ordinary conventional dress. They have their place. Modest. And always, always, always with a skeptical eye toward the leadership or the electorate or both. I don't want to abolish schools. I was on the school board. They have their uses too. But, but. Yeah, even the most horrible of organized social activities, war, has its place. I'm no pacifist. I fully supported the Civil War. Absolutely. Because sometimes the truth has to take the most drastic of actions toward its realization. I make no apology for that. And, again, I'm not against community expressed in ordinary institutions and otherwise. That's part of life. It's natural. As long as it does not rule because there must be self-rule in these institutions. We turn to my friend Thoreau again. He wants to get rid of these institutions. Horrible. But you know, in a certain kind of way, such a stance is denying human genius, is denying the community of very special people in nature, and I'm not for it. So these institutions are fine as long as, well, I have to tell you honestly though that my least favorite institution was government. But remember, if necessary, I can support a government involved in a horrible, horrible war. But generally I recommend to you

what I've experienced myself

the less government the better. Man must not obey the laws too well. Say to me, well, John, Abigail, whatever, boy they're wonderful law abiding citizens. I'm not impressed. They're just announcing that they're good little conformists, and that's not a good sign. I obey laws on the basis of whether they accord with the truth as I understand it. You may say, well, wait a minute, Emerson, did you go through every little law and think, well, does it accord? Of course not. Again, look at my dress. We routinely go along. But we don't believe in law. There's a huge difference. We routinely go along with what were in my time the very low demands of government, but we don't believe in government. There's a huge difference, right? We believe in self-rule. In fact, if a law is immoral, it's our duty to break it. Absolutely. Like the laws supporting slavery. Or the laws leading to the terrible treatment of the Cherokee. You see, what's our goal? Our goal is this self-discovery. Our goal is living true to ourselves, the self that's in there. Our fantastic self. The divine self. The special self. The genius self. And that means our goal is to become wise. And if we are wise, if we have discovered ourselves, if we are wise and we have discovered ourselves, then we are self-governing. The wise need no government. They may have some institutions floating around, but the wise person, the person who truly knows themselves doesn't need it. But you see another reason, my friends, for why we have to have a little bit of government is, I'm sorry to say, most people are external, and so, yes, there will be some need for some restraints. But we must be so afraid of them whether they are cultural, social, or governmental. They can get us, they can get us. And so, in your individual journey, the way I put it is this way, with the appearance of the wise man in your life, and by the way, man for me was a generic term, man and woman, with the appearance of the wise man, the state expires. The state expires. It isn't needed. You don't need it. You're free. The real free. Not just the external free but the real free that is inside of us. Any questions or thoughts about my attitude on institutions and government? Yeah? >> What about the vote for women? >> What about the vote for women? Fine with me. But how important do you think that is? >> Very.

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what I've experienced myself

>> I'm not against you at all on that issue. Not at all. But if you think that's number one in your life or in anybody else's life, I don't agree with you. But of course we should have that. I'm an egalitarian all the way. But I've got to ask always about reformers as I would ask of anyone else, in their beliefs and in their actions, are they self-governing? And if they are, they have my support. But if they're part of a movement in which others are governing them, then I begin to worry. So I'd have to take a look at every person and every individual. But, you understand, I won't be doing that in judgment because I'm not here for that purpose. I simply urge others to ask themselves. So if someone were to say in their heart I feel that this is a form of, the absence of women's votes is a form of denial of the fundamental divine reality of people, I want to do something about it, beautiful. However, were you to join up because your neighbor says, hey, let's do it, we have good parties, no. Okay? But I'll tell you this, if you're going to do it, if you're going to enter reform, if your heart tells you this way, you've got to do it. I don't want you talking it. Do you know what I mean? Because talking it isn't serious. I only want serious reformers. And most people, whether they are for this or for that, are just like the rest of the people. They're not really listening to their hearts. They're not really serious, I'm sorry to say. And I experience that all the time over the slavery issue. All sorts of people said, well, of course I'm against slavery, not let's get on. Well, they're not serious. So I'll take it you're serious for this cause and that's fine. That's good. I welcome it. All right, where are we then? The last point is that I don't want you to ever forget that what we're talking about ultimately is an interior, interior journey. Inside of us is ultimately the real world, the real self, the real truth. So what I'm talking about is a journey of the soul. The discovery of one's genius. The living of a divine life. That's the end.

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