Drum Major Instinct
Posted on December 19, 2004 in wednesdays.
At the CharityFocus Meeting last weekend, I played a clip from MLK's Drum Major Instinct (14MB audio mp3). Really powerful stuff. So this week's thought is a quote from that talk:
"Oh, I see, you want to be first. You want to be great. You want to be important. You want to be significant. Well, you ought to be. If you're going to be my disciple, you must be." But he reordered priorities. And he said, "Yes, don't give up this instinct. It's a good instinct if you use it right. It's a good instinct if you don't distort it and pervert it. Don't give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. That is what I want you to do." [full quote]
Question of the week: what happens when you try to be "first in love"? Is that an oxymoron?
Loads of notes from last week's discussion on creativity are also online now!
Please feel free to post your comments below. Notes from the Wednesday discussion are posted shortly.
Rev. Heng Sure was our guest speaker and while his stories are best experienced in person, below are some of the key points we heard ...
- Christmas means lots of things to lots of people; to some it's about shopping, to some about consumerism, to some it's about vacation, to some it's about religion. But to us it's about giving. And to have you in our home to share that space of service is a privilege for us. Tonight's guest speaker is Rev. Heng Sure, who needs no introduction.
- Story about Spiritual Technology (from Rev. Heng Sure's blog)
- There's the receiver's happiness at getting "gifts". But the giver benefits even more.
- To be able to give is to practice the art of happiness.
- Giving is wonderful, getting is wonderful, but what happens after the joy of giving and receiving? Post-gratitude school? Empowering givers? I hope everyone can become post-gratitude graduate. :)
- Saraswati (any diety) is just as close as your next thought.
- Nipun's India trip will be empowering the "Dao Jones" ticker tape: one service story after another rolling in front of your eyes.
- The more your eyes and ears open, the more you see suffering. And after seeing so much false, people long to see something true, to experience first hand.
- In communication, words are often superflouus; the hearts are talking. And some people just get it.
- At a wedding, for example, everyone is really happy. But can you hold all that happiness? Some traditions say: if I feel really happy, there's something wrong with me.
- What we need is spiritual technology to deal with happiness. The answer is that you're on your own.
- We're not equipped to deal with joy -- we call it overjoyed, something out of the norm.
- Here's the technology we need: dedicating merit. The idea is that you don't have to hold the happiness. If your self is wanting to keep all that, no way; it's like trying to hold sound. Sounds doesn't stop; neither does happiness.
- Dedication of merit says: as happy as I am, may all in my situation, may all folks in all other situation, may they also feel this happiness that I'm feeling. Pass it on, with a boost.
- The more you give, the more you have to give it away. It's not from you, it's through you. you don't have to own it.
- Confuscius: keep joy anger sorrow and happiness in appropriate measure. Once you learn that, you reciprocate. Then it's in harmony.
- You can teach man to eat tofu, or so him to plant soy beans (vegetarian version of teaching someone to fish :)).
- If you can hear it, everything is speaking dharma.
- acccestoinsight.org
- Q: How do you find god? Listen to your mind. not only asking inside but truly listening inside.
- Science and dharma should be one and the same, if it's good sciene and sincere dharma.
- Dharma is the anchor that aligns all the gears of your human experience.
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