Locomotive Insight.

We are on the train to Venice via Florence, and here seated sedately I am observing my thoughts flow undirected:

Sapphire’s cards:

I recall being taken through that card reading by Sapphire (see previous blog title ‘Sapphire’) back in Feb/March in Costa Rica, which I had requested out of curiosity and skepticism. I pulled out two cards with the captions: ‘Drink more water’ and ‘Purification.’ So it is intriguing that I find myself, 5 months later, in a meditation retreat, in the practice of purifying my mind and drinking lots of water (I made sure I drank a glass of water before each sitting. My days in the retreat were literally drinking, sitting, peeing, drinking, sitting, peeing)! I cannot help but wonder what my chances were from picking up those two particular cards from an entire stack, and admiration in the conviction Sapphire had displayed in her cards before the reading.

Redefining “success.”

My meandering thoughts also lead me to Schindler’s list - the movie we rented back in Rome intended as an educational precursor to our visit to Auschwitz later this month. Schindler ran a string of unsuccessful businesses before the outbreak of war. During the war he became a high rank German Munitions Officer, and got very rich using hundreds of captive Jews for production in his factory, supplying the German front lines with shells and ammunition. During this time though, he witnessed the cruelty being carried out around him for the purpose of racial annihilation (his interest lay solely in ‘getting rich’ and didn’t play any role in combat), which slowly affected him. Soon, he intended his factory a haven for his Jews, and even sabotaged his own munitions production to curb the bloodshed. After the war, he was pardoned was recognized as a ‘righteous person.’ He went back to run several more failed businesses and his marriage fell apart. So here’s a guy who failed, as we have come to see it, outside of war. He saved hundreds of Jews (6 million exterminated), spending his entire fortune doing so, and then went back into the world as a failing businessman and husband. I found this story to have profound relevance to my own journey of learning how ‘best to live,’ and I cannot say that Schindler lived an unsuccessful life. In fact, I am more inclined to think he lived a successful one! Clearly a highly thought provoking Steven Spielberg movie. Also by Steven: Freedom Writers starring Hilary Swank. I had watched the movie with Amber last year, and only just now read the book. A tremendously inspirational story about a white middle-class teacher who overcomes insurmountable obstacles while challenging a dysfunctional educational system and changes the live of her students who come from the notoriously rough neighborhoods of Long Beach, LA.

Marcus Aurelius: Meditations:

This book I’m currently reading is a series of personal (was never intended for publication) spiritual reflections and exercises by a Roman Emperor and his “struggle to make sense of him-self and the universe.” After reading the introduction and the first ‘book’ (12 in total), I was astounded to discover indistinguishable similarities between the Stoic philosophies and the essence of vipassana. The insights and truths discovered from individuals from such different cultures reinforce my stance that race differences and bad religion only serve as obstacles to individual fulfillment and liberation. This soul/spirit within each of us is non-sectarian, and although I increasingly recognize that the essence of all religion endorses this phenomenon, there is this defect: Religion is fundamentally sectarian (separate), but spirit or God is universal.

We have arrived in Florence (for the second time) in transit for our train to Venice in just over an hour. Venice! WOOHOO!

San Vincenzo, Livorno