Hello Beautiful People,

Verse 7 - Modesty
The Great Integrity, having had no birth,
expresses its immortality
without pronouncements.

The wise are heard
through their silence,
always self-full through selflessness. (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)

Such wisdom in so few words. As Shakespeare got Queen Gertrude to pronounce to Hamlet ‘the lady doth protest too much, methinks’. Silence is often so much more profound than the most flowery of speeches. A silence can encompass everything, whilst words – of necessity – limit themselves. I am sure when reading this very verse for example, what we feel we understand by it goes so much deeper than we can ever begin to express. Silence can not only convey the meaning of the person who remains quiet, but forces the other person to look back at their own thoughts. They have to question what is making them behave in such a way. How many of us – and I certainly hold my hands up here – speak for the sake of filling a silence rather than deal with the discomfort that it can bring.

As a culture we rely so much on the media to do our thinking for us. We are never quiet for long enough to formulate our own opinions independently and therefore those who crave power manipulate our thoughts through the TV and the press, knowing that we will not take the time to be silent and contemplate the issue for ourselves. In some cases you may well arrive at the same opinion, but at least it would be your opinion and not that of someone else.

This verse really concentrates on our Ego. The part of us that needs to be seen to be doing; that needs to be appreciated and thanked and above all needs to be noticed. As I have said before when discussing previous verses it is very hard to do things for others on a purely disinterested basis. At the back of our minds we always calculate how it will benefit us. That sounds harsher than it is. I am sure all of us do what we can for others because we think we are being kind and it is always worthy and a lovely thing to help others, but even when we are doing the shopping for the old lady down the road is there really no part of us that wants to be seen as ‘the kind neighbour’, who wants to be told what a nice thing we are doing. I wish I could say that I often went out and helped people who I have never met before and am never likely to again for no reason at all and told no one about it. First of all that would be paradoxical in itself and secondly I just don’t do it. That’s not to say I don’t try to live my life like the majority of us do and undertake small acts of kindness and care for people as much as I can (and I certainly receive it in abundance), I just can’t say that it is totally disinterested. I am aware very much of cause and effect, or the adage ‘what goes around comes around’ and that for me is the key driving force behind every philanthropic act I may carry out. Possibly not consciously at the time, but sub-consciously that knowledge is always there. That does not denigrate from the worth of the act from the point of view of the person on the receiving end – it will have made a huge difference to the old lady that you have done her shopping – it’s just that I know that my very soul is, in the words of Jesus, ‘doing to others as I would be done by’.

I suppose I am trying to understand how we can ever bypass the ego. Will we ever be able to switch it off, or do we need to embrace it to a certain extent? Do we acknowledge that as physical beings we cannot totally slough off Cartesian Dualism or do we constantly strive to overcome the ego?

I long to return to the oneness of all consciousness and leave the constant demands of the ego and yet I wonder if this very desire is just my ego trying to highlight its existence. If anyone can clarify that for me I would be very grateful!

I will now stop wittering and allow you to contemplate this verse in silence.