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Scent of Light Episode
by Ken Norton
Purpose
Broadcast on May 24, 2020, repeated on June14 and
June 28,2020.
Mp3 Player
The audio file above is the spoken word recording
without background music provided to Radio KOWS 92.5 FM broadcast of the
Scent of Light episode for insert into the Radio Spotlight Magazine
with host Andre Marc.
In this episode on the Scent of Light I will speak on
Purpose.
Most of us admit to having a purpose. The
psychologist Viktor Frankl credits having a purpose helped him to endure the
suffering of a Nazi concentration camp. He wrote in his book Man's Search
for Meaning:
In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering
at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice. 1
And in another passage he writes:
Ultimately, man should
not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it
is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can
only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only
respond by being responsible. 2
Part of my growing up as a kid included being given
chores by my parents. These were short-lived purposes for me to please my
parents, while fulfilling their purpose to raise a child that can be trusted
with a responsibility. I remember dressing up with my two younger sisters in
greatly oversized clothes and shoes when I was about five years old, with
the purpose of growing into those clothes and into the character of my
father.
Once I started kindergarten and grammar school the
socialization expanded from my nuclear family to an outside community of
teachers as authorities and with children other than my siblings with whom
to relate. I learned my purpose needed to include learning to access
knowledge through listening intently to the teacher, writing, reading and
taking tests that were graded to indicate our learning ability. I quickly
figured out that my parents and teachers liked my achievements, which helped
form a long standing purpose of excelling in my studies. Since I was close
to the smallest in my class I tended to avoid competition in sports for fear
of confrontation with taller boys. Likes and dislikes slowly helped me form
my purposes to guide my life as I matured.
Purposes range from those dealing with our own future
and those with groups to which we belong, like family, church, clubs,
community, political party, and nation.
At any one time one purpose will predominate but is
influenced by all our responsibilities to self and to the groups. Knowing
our highest purpose, the purpose true to our Essential Self, our Spiritual
Nucleus, takes reflection on our past and current life.
My mentor Dr. William Hermanns wrote in the last
manuscript that we worked on together in his 90th year called Vibrations of
Heaven and Hell:
I cannot veer away from my spiritual purpose, which
is to search for the truth and share my discoveries through my books. Truth
is revealed only through one's conscience and not through one's allegiance
to a group, an allegiance most often maintained with privileges or promises
of them in the vibrational field of I-am-better-than-you.
3
Einstein told my mentor Dr. William Hermanns in a
conversation at his home in Princeton in 1954, some months before Einstein's
death and published in his book Einstein and the Poet - In Search of the
Cosmic Man:
Create a community which develops the highest of
man's qualities based on conscience. You must warn people not to make their
intellect their god. The intellect knows methods but it seldom knows
values, and they come from feeling. If one doesn't play a part in the
creative whole, he is not worth being called human. He has betrayed his true
purpose. 4
Now I ask you, "Is your True Purpose evident to you?"
This is Ken Norton on the Scent Of Light. You can
contact me via Ken at KennethENorton.com and I would be glad to hear from
you. The Scent of Light episodes are archived on the web together with links
referenced here at kennethenorton.com that is k e n n e t h e n o r t o n
dot com. Thanks for listening.
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References:
1 and 2
. Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning. (English translation
published by Beacon Press in 1959; Originally published in German
under the title …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das
Konzentrationslager, Verlag für Jugend und Volk,1946, Vienna. Here is
link to Wikipedia's page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning
Ken Norton earned his master's degree in Materials Science from Stanford
University as the Vietnam War was ending. During that time Ken served as the
personal assistant to a poet/sociologist Dr. William Hermanns as he prepared
his writings for publication, exposing Ken to not only the sciences but also
the humanities and comparative religion for making conscious and
conscionable choices.
Ken is a regular contributor to Radio Spotlight Magazine with his episodes
on the Scent of Light.
Ken Norton in practice of Tai Chi Chuan
2018 Photo by Elaine B. Holtz
I co-produce Women's Spaces Show with my loving partner and its host
Elaine B. Holtz. Take a visit. All the shows are archived on the website.
----
I am the Trustee and Archivist. Visit the website I built in honor of my
mentor.
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Be still and know,
We're in the flow
Of Love to grow
From seeds we sow.*
Kenneth E. Norton
* stanza from his poem Intuition's Joy
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