Daily Meditation: Friday, November 22, 1996

When a scientist explains his work he uses diagrams and …

11/22/1996

When a scientist explains his work he uses diagrams and graphs so that his students or his audience may closely follow his reasoning without getting lost. Unfortunately these graphs and diagrams will not prevent this erudite scientist, whose arguments are so ordered and clear, from losing his head in other situations. Although intellectuals show great discipline, method, and objectivity in relation to their work, once they come away from work they find it normal to live disorganised, passion-riddled, subjective lives. If you look at the statistics you will even find the highest incidence of mental imbalance and mental illness in the intellectual professions. This is because the intellect does not protect against imbalance; in fact, it is quite the contrary. Life does not merely consist of making observations, measurements, and calculations. People, after all, are not machines. There is only one way to deal with the problems and shocks life brings, to ensure you do not let yourself be swept along and destroyed by passion, to discover the true reality of things, and that is to develop your spiritual faculties.