AOM TV: Let's Get to Know - RALPH WALDO EMERSON

 Let's get to know...

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(One of my Heroes)

YouTube Direct Link: https://youtu.be/EOkdFMw0pmk

AOM TV: Ralph Waldo Emerson "What is Success?"

 “To know 

even one life 

has breathed easier 

because you have lived.. “

"An essayist, poet, and popular philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson achieved worldwide fame as a lecturer and the author of such essays as “Self-Reliance,” “History,” and “The American Scholar. Emerson influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who showed a profound admiration for Emerson’s writing."

One of my Heroes!

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What is Success?"

YouTube Direct Link: https://youtu.be/6roYCQ1S2aU

AOM Meditations: 061720

The Boxer by Konstantin Somov

Thanks to a Friend for sending us this beautiful art

~*~

EMERSON

One of my favorite wise men

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day in the year.

He is rich who owns the day, 

and no one owns the day

who allows it to be invaded 

with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.

Forget them as soon as you can, 

tomorrow is a new day;

begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,

with its hopes and invitations,

to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Collected Poems and Translations)

~*~

“What lies behind us and what lies before us 

are tiny matters 

compared to what lies within us.” 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~*~

“The glory of friendship 

is not the outstretched hand, 

not the kindly smile, 

nor the joy of companionship; 

it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one 

when you discover that someone else 

believes in you 

and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~*~

“Make your own Bible. 

Select and collect all the words and sentences 

that in all your readings have been to you 

like the blast of a trumpet.” 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Meditations: Quotes from Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson - A Friend of Walt Whitman

QUOTES from Emerson

“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.” 

~*~

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” 

~*~

“Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. 

All life is an experiment. 

The more experiments you make 

the better.” 

~*~

“Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.” 

All quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Meditations: Friendship

artwork by James R. Eads

~*~

“Let us be grateful 

to the people who make us happy; 

they are the charming gardeners 

who make our souls blossom.” 

~Marcel Proust

~*~

“Friendship is unnecessary, 

like philosophy, like art.... 

It has no survival value; 

rather it is one of those things 

which give value to survival.” 

~C.S. Lewis

~*~

“The glory of friendship 

is not the outstretched hand, 

not the kindly smile, 

nor the joy of companionship; 

it is the spiritual inspiration 

that comes to one when you discover 

that someone else believes in you 

and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~*~

“When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.” 

~Fred Rogers

POETRY: Emerson's "The Rhodora"

 Rhododendron canadense, the rhodora, 

is a deciduous flowering shrub that is native to northeastern North America.

~*~

The Rhodora: 

On being asked, whence is the flower

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,

I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, 

Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,

To please the desert and the sluggish brook. 

The purple petals fallen in the pool

Made the black water with their beauty gay; 

Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,

And court the flower that cheapens his array.

Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why

This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,

Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,

Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;

Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! 

I never thought to ask; I never knew;

But in my simple ignorance suppose

The self-same power that brought me there, brought you."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

AOM Meditations: 091318

Orpheus in the Underworld by Louis Jacquesson de la Chevreuse

Thanks to our Friend for sending us this beautiful art

~*~

Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of my favorite wise men

~*~

“Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day in the year.

He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day

who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.

Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;

begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,

with its hopes and invitations,

to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Collected Poems and Translations)

AOM Meditations: 080718

Fairy Dust by Dong-gun Yoon

~*~

"To laugh often and much; 

to win the respect of intelligent people 

and the affection of children; 

to earn the appreciation of honest critics 

and endure the betrayal of false friends; 

to appreciate beauty; 

to find the best in others; 

to leave the world a bit better, 

whether by a healthy child, 

a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; 

to know that even one life has breathed easier 

because you have lived. 

This is to have succeeded."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

AOM Meditations: 052518

The Rhodora Flower (Rhododendron canadense)

Thanks to a Friend of AOM for sending us his favorite poem

~*~

The Rhodora:  On being asked, whence is the flower

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,

I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, 

Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,

To please the desert and the sluggish brook. 

The purple petals fallen in the pool

Made the black water with their beauty gay; 

Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,

And court the flower that cheapens his array.

Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why

This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,

Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,

Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;

Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! 

I never thought to ask; I never knew;

But in my simple ignorance suppose

The self-same power that brought me there, brought you."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~*~

I added the following quote
To go with my discussion in the Music section.

"Your duty is to be and not to be this or that. ‘I am that I am’ sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in the words 'Be still’. What does stillness mean? It means destroy yourself. Because any form or shape is the cause for trouble. Give up the notion that 'I am so and so’. All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that?"

~Sri Ramana Maharshi

AOM Meditations: EMERSON (032018)

Thanks to a Friend of AOM for sharing his art with us

~*~

EMERSON

One of my favorite wise men

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day in the year.

He is rich who owns the day, 

and no one owns the day

who allows it to be invaded 

with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.

Forget them as soon as you can, 

tomorrow is a new day;

begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,

with its hopes and invitations,

to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Collected Poems and Translations)

~*~

“What lies behind us and what lies before us 

are tiny matters 

compared to what lies within us.” 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~*~

“The glory of friendship 

is not the outstretched hand, 

not the kindly smile, 

nor the joy of companionship; 

it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one 

when you discover that someone else 

believes in you 

and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~*~

“Make your own Bible. 

Select and collect all the words and sentences 

that in all your readings have been to you 

like the blast of a trumpet.” 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

AOM Meditations: 120617

by Anthony Boccaccio

~*~

I think watching this short video (1 minute 44 seconds) 

is a good introduction to today's quotes.

Emerson is one of my go to wise men.

I would love to go back in time to visit him.

~*~

In this video, Eckhart Tolle reads and comments on passages from a work of rare depth and truth that has been dear to him for many years - the collected essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The Emerson Quote Discussed in the Video:

"We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organ of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing by ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Eckhart Tolle on Emerson

YouTube Direct Link: https://youtu.be/3kuZgVCvSNg

~*~

"I believe in the power of us, you are a beautiful soul with much to offer, combining your light with other’s light will begin to alter our realities.

We are more beautiful and powerful than we truly realize, our thoughts, our feelings really do shape our worlds. How we approach the world is how the world approaches us. It is time to begin to open our eyes to the beauty we are, and the power that we have.

If you do only one thing for the world, you can begin to hold these fundamental beliefs in your heart, and apply them to your life. Begin to look at humanity in kind ways, and your life, friends, and family with love. Let us believe, let us hold hope and radiate it out to the vast world. The moments just before the Middle Ages ended, after poverty, darkness, plagues and 100 years war there were growing groups of scholars, scientists, and artists that began to diligently focus on all the beauties of our world, the beauty of a flower, of paint, of thought. Without these individuals and their excited enthusiasm and joyful focus on the beauty of the world we would have never experienced the New Renaissance.

Let us begin again to focus on the beauties of our world, and of each other, so we may begin to change it for the better."

~The Divinity Within

~*~

"Our deepest fear is not that we are weak. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world ... As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

~Marianne Williamson