On Souls and Beings

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
Than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

- e. e. cummings

To learn the secret language of the universe is to walk deep into oneself; to discover the eternal soul that never stops singing, never stops reaching, never stops participating in the song of the universe. Here there is no darkness, no light; here there is no wrong, no right. It is all at once and not at all.

Russian literature embodies a great suffering soul. It becomes tiresome to read after a while because it is so heavy: the weight of the universe can be felt all at once by picking up a Russian classic. Not generally but occasionally, English literature offers a relief from the thick swampy soul in that of a light-footed and playful one. Here reading does not make one frown while poring through the words; here the words can dance and tickle and laugh. Here is the soul of a child.

What should one aspire to? Anything that he wishes to be, naturally. Being is the basic condition of a human orchestra - the soul never stops singing, the body never stops working, the heart never stops beating, the mind never stops creating.