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.
Transcript
In this episode of the Scent of Light I will speak on
Mercy.Mercy is one of the Ten Words to the Creative Spirit, in which my mentor
Dr. William Hermanns’ wrote:
Give me Mercy so my free will chooses mercy.
Have mercy on me as I remind you that my mentor was a
poet and a scholar who had at his command many words, and that he selected
these 10 words for a special mission in aligning his soul to the creative
spirit. As used here, I am calling up Mercy in you to temper your judgment
from quick assumptions.
These last couple of weeks I have been putting my
attention to this word mercy. Our ability to set up experiences by
focusing on a desire was set in motion for me and, mercy, mercy,
did I have experiences that highlighted the role of mercy in my life.
Our civilized and educated intellect is highly prized
for its wondrous abilities to create perfect plans and solutions first in in
our imagination per desire, and then expressed as a blueprint or mission,
and then further materialized into construction or production based on the
plan. We are able to fancy with our intellect the perfect mate, the perfect
house, the perfect body, the perfect hair, the perfect self, the perfect
family, the perfect nation, the perfect opinion, and the perfect diet. This
fancy is enlivened with a whole gamut of emotions and feelings to charge our
precious perfect image.
We know from history and biographies that this
perfectionism is rife with folly. In the process nature still has its say,
and this is where mercy plays a vital role. Mercy is a realization that our
intellect is not all-knowing in this or any of our plans. Mercy is the only
one of the 10 words to the creative spirit that my mentor used twice. Mercy
on our self is needed to relax and readjust the plan to the new revelations
of nature’s laws. And we need this Mercy for those others whose plans fail
to meet the expectations. That sand castle built on the shore, as beautiful
and perfectly constructed as it is, will dissolve with the rising tide not
factored into its plans.
This mercy is so vital to us to hold simple
conversation, in allowing another to speak when we have a perfect idea so
pressing to share. This mercy can reveal the opportune time through
a word or gesture when to interject our idea, so it will make more sense to
the listeners and has been developed further through intuition sensed in
that pause. The listeners, in turn, have mercy on us to speak. Through
mercy we for a moment of conversation are as one organism achieving
more understanding.
On the advice of a friend, I started taking classes
in Tai Chi Chuan to improve my balance that was impaired by my reactions to
aches in my body. I am glad that my friend had mercy on me to share
this news and overcome his ideas that I would not be receptive, for since
starting the practice I have learned to take the time to make correct moves
and not over reach, like I was prone to do in obeying the dictates of my
will, that was used to imagining itself as the eternal youth. I am learning
to have more mercy on myself and my body, and that is creating an empathy in
me towards others requiring my mercy.
Mercy, Mercy.
As my mentor wrote,
Give me Mercy so my free will chooses mercy.
This is Ken Norton on the Scent Of Light. You can
contact me via Ken at KennethENorton.com. The Scent of Light episodes are
archived on the web at kennethenorton.com. Thanks for listening.
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 lives in Santa Rosa with his life partner Elaine
and their little dog Rosey.
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