The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis

1874 Edition of the
Imitation of Christ
from France

This morning have been reading from my favorite book The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.  I think this is the greatest religious book ever.  It's had great influence on my life.  I quote below then comment.

Why desirest If thou wilt know and learn anything with profit love to be thyself unknown and to be counted for nothing.  That is the highest and most profitable lesson, when a man truly knowth and judgeth lowly of himself.  To account nothing of one's self, and to think always kindly and highly of others, this is great and perfect wisdom.  Even shouldest thou see thy neighbor sin openly or grievously, yet thou oughtest not to reckon thyself better than he, for thou knowest not how long thou shalt keep think integrity.  All of us are weak and frail; hold thou no man more frail than thyself.

I've found that in life that people who think they know everything can't learn anything new.  They have closed minds.  You can't learn unless you can admit that you don't know.  Vanity is what causes people to be unable to admit that they don't know something.  Many people I still meet can't reveal that they don't know something already and try to cover it up if something comes up that they don't know anything about.  As though that is some kind of embarrassment.  You can always tell what people know and don't know and if they are covering.  Covering one's weaknesses is vanity.  Vanity exists in proportion of how much ego one still has.  People who have a large amount of vanity have large egos and lack spirituality.  The ego must be outgrown and that is the purpose of religion.

The Fire

Frank in the Falcon

On January 13th, a big red house where 25 people lived, on the opposite corner from where I live at Castleton and Park Ave. in Port Richmond, Staten Island, burned.  I heard the fire engine sirens as I was waking up at about 7:00 a.m.  Being a shutterbug, I took my camera and went outside.  No one was hurt, but a lot of poor families became homeless.

The funny part of this story, at least for me, is how much attention I'm getting out of this event because of my photos.  Later I saw a reporter from Channel 1 News at the scene and I showed him my photographs that I had printed out on my computer.  He interviewed me and I was included on the news in the fire story.  I thought this house fire was a significant story because of the architectural significance of the house.   When I saw the story on the news, it surprised me to learn that all the interest being shown to the fire was because the house was turned into a rooming and apartment house illegally. No one has yet mentioned anything about the architectural significance.

After the fire, a fire marshall from Brooklyn, who was investigating the fire, heard about my photos and came to my building.  My building security guard gave him a photo that I had given her.   She wouldn't give him my apartment number, but he left his card.  I then sent him some of my photos, which he called to thank me for.  Then today two more fireman who were fighting the fire heard about my photos and came to see me.  I gave them pictures that they said are going to be in a magazine.  They are going to send me a copy of the magazine.   This is a video I made that I put on flickr.  Staten Island lost about 230 firemen on 9/11.  It's been nice getting to know some of the fire fighters a little better.




Some of my photos:

The House Before the Fire

Update: 2/2/2012 The next day after the fire a tall wood fence was built around the half-burned house. This wall projected out into the street. Cars coming from the street in front couldn't see the oncoming traffice because of the wood fence causing several accidents. Then one night I heard a great "Boom." The wall in the Street fell down in the street. Fortunately there wasn't any cars passing at the time. The fire department arrived within 5 minutes. My photo below shows the firemen holding up the fence while it's being repaired.

The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Ávila

I've been reading more of The Way of Perfection by St. Theresa.  The most famous chapter in this book is chapter 38, which is considered one of the greatest examples of spiritual writing ever, and I agree.  It's changing my opinions on many subjects.  One of which is that I never liked the idea of removing oneself from society in order to become more spiritual, like nuns and monks do.  That seemed the easy way out to me.  I thought people should apply their spiritual values to improving the society they live in.  One reason for this view is the way that the Catholic Church behaved during WWII and especially in Germany, when they ignored Nazism and I believe even consorted with the Nazis just for the sake of expediency.  If you remove yourself from society, you tend to accept and try to live with whatever that society is advocating at the moment, because you feel that you are not really a part of it anyway and it doesn't really affect you.  That seems to me a rather selfish way to live.  The Catholic Church always seems to agree with the status quo.  That is one reason I am not a Catholic.

However, Chapter 38 of this book is so great, I'm beginning to change my mind.  I think St. Teresa is making me start to think like a nun.  Perhaps the only way that one can lead a truly spiritual life is by turning one's back on society and separating oneself from it.  It's hard to change your values from those of your society and to follow God completely when you have to deal with the society that you live in every day and play by its rules.  Maybe it is better to live with people who share the same values and want to live by the same goals that you do.  That being becoming as close to God as possible.  If you have to concentrate on earning a living that is hard to do.  Chapter 38 in this great book is about that amongst other things.  The other great thing are her thoughts on meditation.  I've been close enough in my life while meditating to understand the state that she is describing and to believe it is a goal that is attainable.  I feel that believing in God and using God as the object of meditation is far more effective than how the Buddhists do it.

The other day , while I was taking the bus into the City, I was reading chapter 38 on my Kindle.  It put me in such a wonderful state of mind that I never wanted to arrive in the city and have to get off the bus.  I was transported to another world.

A few quotes from chapter 38, which is mostly about humility, that I could identify with.  All religions teach the importance of humility, and yet it is very hard to find a person who actually has it.  People who set themselves up as an example for others to follow certainly don't:

...we are in the habit of saying that we want nothing and care nothing about anything: but as soon as the chance comes of our being given something, even though we do not in the least need it, all our poverty of spirit disappears....

...for the person who is truly humble is always doubtful about his own virtues; very often they seem more genuine and of greater worth when he sees them in his neighbours....

...Well, we make our vow of poverty, and then one of us, believing herself all the time to be keeping it, says:  "I do not want anything, but I am having this because I cannot do without it: after all, if I am to serve God, I must live, and He wants us to keep these bodies to ours alive."  So the devil, in his angelic disguise, suggests to her that there are a thousand different things which she needs and that they are all good for her.  And all the time he is persuading her to believe that she is still being true to her vow and possesses the virtue of poverty and that what she has done is no more than her duty....