Ancient Sumerian Tale of Gilgamesh

The stubborn, hard king Gilgamesh sought to ask the Immortal One the secret of life. He was told that there would be stones on his path to guide him.

But in his urgency and and pride, Gilgamesh was annoyed to find his path blocked, and so smashed the very stones that would have helped him. In his blindness of heart, he broke everything he needed to discover his way.

We too, in the same confusion, break what we need, push away those we love, and isolate ourselves when we need to be held most.

Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have
Mark Nepo

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Mark Nepo
born 1951

. Mark Nepo website
. Wikipedia

Mark Nepo is a poet and spiritual adviser who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for over 35 years. He is a cancer survivor. In his 30s he was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma, a struggle which helped to form his philosophy of experiencing life fully while staying in relationship to an unknowable future.

Nepo has a doctorate in English. He taught for 18 years at the State University of New York in Albany, New York.

Nepo is best known for his New York Times #1 bestseller, The Book of Awakening.

Books written by Mark Nepo include:

• Finding Inner Courage 
• More Together Than Alone: Discovering the Power and Spirit of Community in Our Lives and in the World
• The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have
• The Endless Practice: Becoming Who You Were Born to Be
• The One Life We’re Given: Finding the Wisdom That Waits in Your Heart
• The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting
• Things That Join the Sea and the Sky: Field Notes on Living

The Deepest Human Life is Everywhere 

Plato helps us realize that within each of us the very depths of being human are present – we see that each human life reflects something important about who we are.

The difference between regular folks and someone like Kant, pertains to our differing abilities to articulate the shape of a philosophical constellation – it has nothing to do with our inner substance. The pursuit of wisdom involves a confrontation with our ignorance, most famously embodied in the “I know I know nothing” of Socrates.

Regardless how challenging things may be, we take solace in the fact that even a profound confusion is a profound confusion. Whatever holiness can be found in Socrates and Confucius is within our reach.

Exploring Life Through Philosophy

Philosophy, as Plato shows, involves confronting the fact that our most stubborn attempts to think clearly come up short, but we nonetheless have to live as if we had answers to the stubborn mysteries. Philosophy is everything that humanly follows from a real confrontation with our strange predicament.

At it’s best it’s a way of life. The division between the wise and the foolish is not between those with all the answers and those who are confused. The great dividing line is between our usual folly and an enlightened folly, by which one understands life itself and has found a way of happily living in an impossible relationship.

Can Beliefs & Wisdom Coexist?

Thomas Aquinas, the master of the theologians, is said to have come down from his vision of God and declared his thousands of learned pages so much straw. Yet, as Socrates and other great ones teach us, we can’t do without beliefs. They’re a necessary part of being human.

Wisdom is compatible with any number of traditions, religious or otherwise. For wisdom is not so much the possession of right beliefs (though it involves dodging the worst of them) as finding a way to relate to our beliefs in such a way that the good parts of us are liberated. Wisdom isn’t a doctrine: it’s a style.

The Deepest Human Life: An Introduction to Philosophy for Everyone
Scott Samuelson

Background on Scott Samuelson

For T.H. Huxley, who coined the term in 1869, agnosticsm was as demanding as any moral, philosophical, or religious creed. Rather than a creed, though, he saw it was a method realized through “the rigorous application of a single principle.”

He expressed it positively as: “Follow your reason as far as it will take you,” and negatively as: “Do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable.”

This principle runs through the Western tradition: from Socrates, via the Reformation and Enlightenment, to the axioms of modern science. Huxley called it the “agnostic faith.”

Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
Stephen Batchelor

Background on Stephen Batchelor