Category Archives: Transcendentalism

FIVE WISE LINES [December 2025]

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William Blake painting of Urizen praying to the world he created, an illustration from "Song of Los."
William Blake:
Urizen prays to the world he created (1795)
Song of Los

I must create a system
or be enslaved by another man’s…

william blake; Jerusalem: The emanation of the great albion

Saying Yoga exists to make one more flexible
is like saying that it exists to wring farts out of one’s body,
both will happen — neither is the primary objective.

Me

He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her…

JESUS; John 8:7

The best government is that which governs least.

Henry david thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Gods always behave like the people who make them…

zora neale hurston; Tell my horse

FIVE WISE LINES [October 2025]

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Gwalior Fort on Gopachal Hill in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India

I had better never see a book
than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit,
and made a satellite instead of a system.

ralph waldo emerson; The american scholar

Free should the scholar be, — free and brave.

Ralph waldo emerson; The American Scholar

If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it is lethal.

Paulo coelho

What you’re supposed to do when you
don’t like a thing is change it.
If you can’t change it,
change the way you think about it.
Don’t complain.

Maya angelou

No man ever steps in the same river twice,
for it’s not the same river
and he’s not the same man.

Heraclitus

“His steady sails he never furls” by Henry David Thoreau [w/ Audio]

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His steady sails he never furls
   At any time o' year,
 And perching now on Winter's curls,
   He whistles in his ear

“Fable” by Ralph Waldo Emerson [w/ Audio]

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The mountain and the squirrel  
  Had a quarrel;  
 And the former called the latter ‘Little Prig.’
 Bun replied,  
 ‘You are doubtless very big;         
  But all sorts of things and weather  
  Must be taken in together,  
  To make up a year  
  And a sphere.  
 And I think it no disgrace  
  To occupy my place.  
 If I'm not so large as you,  
  You are not so small as I,  
  And not half so spry.  
 I'll not deny you make  
  A very pretty squirrel track;  
  Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;  
 If I cannot carry forests on my back,  
  Neither can you crack a nut.’

“Limits” by Ralph Waldo Emerson [w/ Audio]

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Who knows this or that?
 Hark in the wall to the rat:
 Since the world was, he has gnawed;
 Of his wisdom, of his fraud
 What dost thou know?
 In the wretched little beast
 Is life and heart,
 Child and parent,
 Not without relation
 To fruitful field and sun and moon.
 What art thou? His wicked eye
 Is cruel to thy cruelty.

“America” by Walt Whitman

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Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
 All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
 Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
 Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
 A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
 Chair’d in the adamant of Time.

PROMPT: Romantic

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Daily writing prompt
What’s your definition of romantic?
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With a big-R, it’s a philosophical and artistic movement that served as a counterweight to the Enlightenment by advocating for Idealism (versus Materialism) and spirituality (if not necessarily religiosity.)

With a small-R, it’s the skill or proclivity to advance conditions for amorousness.

That’s why capitalization matters.

PROMPT: Three Books

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List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Steven Kotler’s The Rise of Superman changed the way I looked at mind-body development.

Water Margin [a.k.a. Outlaws of the Marsh] convinced me a sprawling epic could be worth reading if it was done well, it kicked my love of Chinese Literature into high gear, and it started me on the path of learning Chinese.

Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson had a major influence on my early philosophical development — especially the titular essay.

Now, I’m thinking I should’ve pushed one of these out for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, but perhaps another time.

“Smoke” by Henry David Thoreau [w/ Audio]

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Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird,
 Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight,
 Lark without song, and messenger of dawn,
 Circling above the hamlets as thy nest;
 Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form
 Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts;
 By night star-veiling, and by day
 Darkening the light and blotting out the sun;
 Go thou my incense upward from this hearth,
 And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.

“The Bell” by Ralph Waldo Emerson [w/ Audio]

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I love thy music, mellow bell,
 I love thine iron chime,
 To life or death, to heaven or hell,
 Which calls the sons of Time.

Thy voice upon the deep
 The home-bound sea-boy hails,
 It charms his cares to sleep,
 It cheers him as he sails.

To house of God and heavenly joys
 Thy summons called our sires,
 And good men thought thy sacred voice
 Disarmed the thunder's fires.

And soon thy music, sad death-bell,
 Shall lift its notes once more,
 And mix my requiem with the wind
 That sweeps my native shore.