In today’s episode, Emerson is struggling to find inspiration — a problem common to spiritual seekers and creators alike.
Writers prime their pump with the words of others found in beloved books. The same is true for religious seekers.
The Father of Transcendentalism reminds us not to lean too heavily on books, however — not even the Bible, Koran, or Sutras — because the Divine is speaking to us every moment of every day.
To rely on a book is to settle for second-hand knowledge — it’s like scrolling through your phone while the Universe is talking.
Here’s the text we’ll be using in this episode; I put in breaks to make it easier to scan.
Yesterday I went to the Athenaeum and looked through journals and books — for wit, for excitement, to wake in me the muse.
In vain, and in vain.
And am I yet to learn that the God dwells within ? That books are but crutches, the resorts of the feeble and lame….
I return home. Nature still solicits me. Overhead the sanctities of the stars shine forevermore…. A man is but a bug, the earth but a boat, a cockle,
drifting under their old light.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal
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