Happy Egyptian New Year: Gateway to September

Dear Members, Alumni, & Friends of the JSMT:

Today is the ancient Egyptian New Year’s Day! J In honor of the occasion, I have included a poem about ancient Egypt in this fortnight’s bundle of poetic wit and wisdom, along with some poems about September that I remember from my elementary school days.

Hermes Trismegistus (pictured above) was a legendary Egyptian sage from hoary antiquity. The celestial globe and the caduceus signify his mastery of astronomy and medicine. Learn more about the ancient Egyptian worldview in Brian Brown’s The Wisdom of the Egyptians (1923), archived @ http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/woe/index.htm. (Image Credit: Public Domain)

“Egypt” (1882)

By Gerald Massey (1828-1907)

Egypt!  How I have dwelt with you in dreams,

So long, so intimately, that it seems

As if you had borne me; though I could not know

It was so many thousand years ago!

And in my gropings darkly underground

The long-lost memory at last is found

Of motherhood – you mother of us all!

And to my fellowmen I must recall

The memory too; that common motherhood

May help to make the common brotherhood.

Egypt!  It lies there in the far-off past,

Opening with depths profound and growths as vast

As the great valley of Yosemite;

The birthplace out of darkness into day;

The shaping matrix of the human mind;

The cradle and the nursery of our kind.

This was the land created from the flood,

The land of Atum, made of the red mud,

Where Num sat in his Teba throned on high,

And saw the deluge once a year go by,

Each brimming with the blessing that it brought,

And by that waterway, in Egypt’s thought,

The gods descended; but they never hurled

The deluge that should desolate the world.

There the vast hewers of the early time

Built, as if that way they would surely climb

The heavens, and left their labors without name –

Colossal as their carelessness of fame –

Sole likeness of themselves – that heavenward

Forever look with statuesque regard,

As if some vision of the eternal grown

Petrific, was forever fixed in stone!

They watched the moon re-orb, the stars go round,

And drew the circle; thought’s primordial bound.

The heavens looked into them with living eyes

To kindle starry thoughts in other skies,

For us reflected in the image-scroll,

That night by night the stars for aye unroll.

The royal heads of language bow them down

To lay in Egypt’s lap each borrowed crown.

The glory of Greece was but the afterglow

Of her forgotten greatness lying low;

Her hieroglyphics buried dark as night,

Or coal deposits filled with future light,

Are mines of meaning; by their light we see

Through many an overshadowing mystery.

The nursing Nile is living Egypt still,

And as her lowlands with its freshness fill,

And heave with double-breasted bounteousness,

So doth the old hidden source of mind yet bless

The nations; secretly she brought to birth,

And Egypt still enriches all the earth.

“A Calendar of Sonnets: September” by Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

O golden month! How high thy gold is heaped!
The yellow birch-leaves shine like bright coins strung
On wands; the chestnut’s yellow pennons tongue
To every wind its harvest challenge. Steeped
In yellow, still lie fields where wheat was reaped;
And yellow still the corn sheaves, stacked among
The yellow gourds, which from the earth have wrung
Her utmost gold. To highest boughs have leaped
The purple grape, -- last thing to ripen, late
By very reason of its precious cost.
O Heart, remember, vintages are lost
If grapes do not for freezing night-dews wait.
Think, while thou sunnest thyself in Joy’s estate,
Mayhap thou canst not ripen without frost!

“September” by Helen Hunt Jackson

The golden-rod is yellow;

The corn is turning brown;

The trees in apple orchards

With fruit are bending down.

The gentian’s bluest fringes

Are curling in the sun;

In dusty pods the milkweed

Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,

In every meadow nook;

And asters by the brook-side

Make asters in the brook.

From dewy lanes at morning

The grapes’ sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer’s best of weather,

And autumn’s best of cheer.

But none of all this beauty

Which floods the earth and air

Is unto me the secret

Which makes September fair.

‘Tis a thing which I remember;

To name it thrills me yet:

One day of one September

I never can forget.

Happy Labor Day weekend! J

Rob

Reflections on Hope in the Midst of Chaos

Dear Members, Alumni, and Friends of the JSMT:

A great deal of unsettling news has been reaching us through the news media over the last few weeks. From the American Midwest to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, scenes of chaos and despair haunt our TV screens on a nightly basis. Dealing with these global realities of life in the 21^st century isn’t an easy task, but it is a task that can be accomplished with the aid of historical perspective, mixed with a generous helping of hope and wisdom. This fortnight’s quotations, drawn from various sources, have provided comfort, inspiration, and a greater sense of perspective to me, and now I am sharing them with you.

“Hope” by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune -- without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Some Poetical Wisdom from Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

From “Ulysses”:

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

From “Locksley Hall”:

For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;
Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunder-storm;
Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled
In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World.
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly Earth shall slumber, lapped in universal law.

From “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After”:

Earth at last a warless world, a single race, a single tongue,

I have seen her far away -- for is not Earth as yet so young? --

Every tiger madness muzzled, every serpent passion killed,

Every grim ravine a garden, every blazing desert tilled,

Robed in universal harvest up to either pole she smiles,

Universal ocean softly washing all her warless Isles.

Only That which made us, meant us to be mightier by and by,

Set the sphere of all the boundless Heavens within the human eye,

Sent the shadow of Himself, the boundless, thro' the human soul;

Boundless inward, in the atom, boundless outward, in the Whole.

Follow you the Star that lights a desert pathway, yours or mine.

Forward, till you see the highest Human Nature is divine.

Follow Light, and do the Right -- for Man can half-control his doom --

Till you find the deathless Angel seated in the vacant tomb.

Forward, let the stormy moment fly and mingle with the Past.

I that loathed, have come to love him. Love will conquer at the last.

Until next time,

Rob :)

August 2014 Leadership Reflection

Leadership Reflection for August 2014:

Asoka the Great, Emperor of India

        During the month of August, people of Indic heritage throughout the world celebrate India’s Independence Day. On August 15, 1947, India became an independent republic under the leadership of Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi. To commemorate India’s 67^th birthday, here is a brief description of the reign of Asoka the Great (304-232 BCE), the exemplary Emperor of India (reigned 268-232 BCE), along with some quotations from his many edifying edicts, which are found throughout the country inscribed on rocks and pillars. Like every truly great leader in human history, King Asoka led by example and governed by persuasion, which are still the most effective tools for leaders to use as they strive to exert a positive influence on the world around them. By “practicing what he preached,” Asoka was able to promote wholesome social reforms, provide health care for humans and animals, and encourage interfaith understanding throughout his empire.

The Indian flag appeared on the first postage stamp of independent India in 1947. At the center of the flag is the Ashoka Chakra (“King Asoka’s Wheel [of the Dharma]”), which contains 24 spokes, one for each hour of the day. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Summary of King Asoka’s Life and Legacy

Condensed (and Slightly Revised by RHC) from H. G. Wells’ Outline of History (1920) and A Short History of the World (1922) – Public Domain

        Asoka (268 to 232 BCE), one of the great monarchs of history, whose dominions extended from Afghanistan to Madras, is the only military monarch on record who abandoned warfare after victory. He had invaded Kalinga (260 BCE), a country along the east coast of Madras, perhaps with some intention of completing the conquest of the tip of the Indian peninsula. The expedition was successful, but he was disgusted by what he saw of the cruelties and horrors of war. He declared, in certain inscriptions that still exist, that he would no longer seek conquest by war, but by religion, and the rest of his life was devoted to the spreading of Buddhism throughout the world. He seems to have ruled his vast empire in peace and with great ability. He was no mere religious fanatic.

        His reign for eight-and-twenty years was one of the brightest interludes in the troubled history of mankind. He organized a great digging of wells in India and the planting of trees for shade. He founded hospitals and public gardens and gardens for the growing of medicinal herbs. He created a ministry for the care of the aborigines and subject races of India. He made provision for the education of women. He made vast benefactions to the Buddhist teaching orders, and tried to stimulate them to a better and more energetic criticism of their own accumulated literature. Missionaries went from Asoka to Kashmir, to Persia, to Ceylon and Alexandria.

        Such was Asoka, greatest of kings. He was far in advance of his age. Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Asoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star. From the Volga to Japan his name is still honored. China, Tibet, and even India, though it has left his doctrine, preserve the tradition of his greatness. More living men cherish his memory today than have ever heard the names of Constantine or Charlemagne.

Passages from King Asoka’s Edicts (Excerpts)

Source: http://en.wikiquote.org

·        Dharma is good, but what constitutes Dharma? It includes little evil, much good, kindness, generosity, truthfulness, and purity.

·        Progress among the people through Dharma has been done by two means, by Dharma regulations and by persuasion. Of these, Dharma regulation is of little effect, while persuasion has much more effect.

·        [Asoka], Beloved-of-the-Gods, thinks that even those who do wrong should be forgiven where forgiveness is possible.

·    [Asoka], Beloved-of-the-Gods, speaks thus: Father and mother should be respected and so should elders, kindness to living beings should be made strong, and the truth should be spoken. In these ways, the Dharma should be promoted. Likewise, a teacher should be honored by his pupil and proper manners should be shown towards relations. This is an ancient rule that conduces to long life. Thus should one act.

·        Everywhere has Beloved-of-the-Gods, King [Asoka], made provision for two types of medical treatment: medical treatment for humans and medical treatment for animals. Wherever medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever medical roots or fruits are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Along roads I have had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals.

· Beloved-of-the-Gods, King [Asoka], honors both ascetics and the householders of all religions, and he honors them with gifts and honors of various kinds. But Beloved-of-the-Gods, King [Asoka], does not value gifts and honors as much as he values this — that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. Growth in essentials can be done in different ways, but all of them have as their root restraint in speech, that is, not praising one’s own religion, or condemning the religion of others without good cause. And if there is cause for criticism, it should be done in a mild way. But it is better to honor other religions for this reason: By so doing, one’s own religion benefits, and so do other religions, while doing otherwise harms one’s own religion and the religions of others. Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought, “Let me glorify my own religion,” only harms his own religion. Therefore contact between religions is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. Beloved-of-the-Gods, King [Asoka], desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions.