"Pity them my children, they are far from home and no one knows them. Let those in quest of God be careful lest appearances deceive them in these people who are peculiar and hard to place; no one rightly knows them but those in whom the same light shines" Meister Eckhart

Hello All

I have a great admiration for true religious individuality. This does not include charlatens or people lost in imagination. As Meister Eckhart suggests, they are hard for us to understand. Where many find it comforting to talk of the unity of humanity in idealistic terms and shining platitudes, I admire those that have experienced the human condition for what it is in themselves as well as society and personally grown as a result in the direction of the true human spirit.

Simone Weil was, I believe, such a person. She was such an individual that she really is impossible to classify. She is one of those few that can only be called an "event.".

It almost seems absurd that a woman born in 1909 and dies in 1943, living a brief 34 years, should now become for me not only one of the most profound female thinkers I've read but one of the most dedicated to be brutally honest with her beliefs in relation to herself. I've read some of her writings and will gradually read more but I am in awe that such depth, courage, and sincerity could exist in someone so young.

Needless to say, attempting to deal with what was obvious an inner calling annoyed many. She was very "odd." and probably even frightened some. It was part of a growing process in a world alien to her "being."

Talk about individuality. She was born a French Jew in a fairly well to do home and her parents were fond of Marx and Freud. When very young she was a brilliant anarchist, Atheist, and Marxist.. But not just a talker, she lived her principles and voluntarily entered factory work to experience the human condition.

Her life was so odd but completely genuine that Albert Camus said of her in a letter to Weil's mother in 1951:


This is quite different from what was spoken of her when she graduated. Her honesty and dedication to truth was not appreciated. The Director of Career Placement, Ecole Normale Supérieure wrote:


According to Francine du Plessix Gray in a recent biography of Weil, Pope Paul VI claimed her as one of the three—with Pascal and Bernanos—most important influences on his intellectual development. Yet Boris Souvarine, who had been head at one time of the French communist party, but later broke with Stalin, and who was the first to write an authoritative biography of the still living dictator, admired Simone immensely: "She's the most intelligent woman I've met since Rosa Luxemburg," he said.

Who else has been both admired by a Pope and Communists?

It was her incredible talent and her uncompromising desire to be real that allowed I believe a genuine transition in human psychological growth where she could understand the natural connection between the attractions of Christianity and Atheism. Now who but a true individual could grasp and reconcile such an apparent contradiction?

She experienced, I believe, something similar to what St. Paul did when she writes "Christ himself came down and took possession of me." It is notable that she writes: " God in his mercy had prevented me from reading the mystics, so that it should be evident to me that I had not invented this absolutely unexpected contact." It minimizes the role of imagination. Since she wrote this to a friend knowing she was near death, I don't suspect the usual urge to try and create appearance.

So how does she unite Atheism and Christianity? She does so with a realistic appreciation of the divided state of human nature without any condemnation. She had experienced both with pure intent so her connection was natural. Consider these two quotations:



How can such a young person see what so many have missed? Religion isn't for consolation but awakening which the Atheist in their own way invites us to do. They rightly see the mockery that has become of religion but remain locked in denial of anything more. Both Atheists and the Religious will dig their heels in and snarl at one another while she only relates her experience of reconciliation. At one time in her life, as an Atheist, her concern was purely for the societal good . But her courage and desire for the truth itself required her to be open and not just close off in defense of an agenda. In this way she could experience what I believe to be the natural transition into higher understanding that our egotistic self justifications close us off to. Her individualism demanded being open to reality at the expense of her preconceptions.

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Great Posts Nick_A! And thank you for sharing these beautiful insights : )

We can say on the same note:
Religion was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself without observation.

In order to observe anything, one has to first be separated from it = Humanism

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May your awareness be perfection

Superlative post!!
It's easily seen why one could be so fascinated by this seer. Others of that time, and some who preceded her, with similar insight were equally shunned by contemporaries fixated on material matters.

Her physical age had no relation to her spiritual awareness and the place she was on her path. Too often we assume one who passed has done so "before their time" (at too early an age). By the same token, we say someone with such vision were born "before their time".

From an esoteric view, we can see clearly that each re-birth happens at precicely the right "time" to deliver the lesson, message, connection, prescribed to that particular incarnation and that once that "work" was done, and the need of that incarnation had been fulfilled, the incarnated spirit passes over again. This is so whether the physical age becomes 90 years or 90 seconds! The lesson has been delivered, "times up"!

In every case, the lesson(s) never die and are relearned ad infinitum.

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Only Love Prevails,
Don

Thanks to you both for your kind words.

You may appreciate reading this reply sent to Father Perrin not long before she died. His letters from her have been published over the years. One can get a distinct impression that there is a special person here. Unfortunately she suffered from migrain headaches and sinus problems all her life. But it is often this way with these special people. For some reason there is often a specific affliction like this, Paul seems to have had something similar.

I must admit to being surprised when I learned that she felt inferior at 14 to her older brother Andre. then I read who Andre was and learned that at 12 she discussed philosophy with him in the ancient Greek language. It became obvious that "inferiority" was very misleading. Anyhow Andre became:

http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac....ians/Weil.html

But back to Simone, the way she describes her mystical experience is a classic.

http://www.rivertext.com/weil3a.html

It's interesting that she died at about he same age Jesus did. It make you wonder if that bright of alight flickers out early.

What stands out to me was that she was focused on being herself no matter what anyone else thought. She also spoke of purity of heart, which reminds me of "blessed are the pure in heart" for they shall see God. One of my favorite treasures is a clear heart shaped stone that has been pollished.

It would have been interesting to see where she would have been if she had lived longer. We need to take up where she left off.

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InterfaithForums.com-Where your ideas and beliefs count.

She may have died, but she lives on in the great forums of the world....

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I, folks. I'm just visiting. The prayer stick is coming along, but like everything, it is far more complicated than when I started. I'll be supporting 5 different languages, 6 different religions, in addition to several audio routines.

LK


The trouble is that even though I believe that there is a hunger for what Simone sought, we don't know how to go after it. She strove towards the individuality that would allow her to live outside Plato's Cave, the domain of the world of forms and pure truths. Individuality in this day and age is often a bad word since it suggests an ideal other than being a cog in the grand collective or sinking back into God. Simone in contrast suggests an essential purpose in individuality.

We are both afraid of people like her and in awe of them at the same time. If you consider that she only had a small selective reputation as a social activist when she died with only seven outsiders at her funeral, because of the need for what she brings, she is now greatly appreciated by millions.

A person doesn't make money off of Simone as one would selling porno or superficial self help books. All these difficult efforts to translate her notebooks and letters etc. were and still are a labor of love. They are done because people feel that this influence is necessary for themselves and in the world.

To continue where she left off is to need truth and be willing to be real at the expense of imagination and its chief expressions of false pride and vanity in order to experience truth. The question is how to allow ourselves to do it.

We can admire it but cannot do it. How many can truly become beyond classification? Simone is Simone. She is not part of a group or can be classified as an exponent of any particular philosophy. She is an event. How often does a real event come along? I believe true individuality could be encouraged but would require a complete rethinking of what is called education. As far as religion goes, the one man who I'm sure understands the need for such individuality is Jacob Needleman. That is why I posted the preface to his book "Lost Christianity."

I see a documentary on Simone is soon to be released. There is no money in it. There would be more profit in a porno flick. Yet the people making it believe that this relatively new influence of around 60 years is worth becoming more a part of public life.

http://www.linestreet.net/

Simone doesn't answer the questions but instead teaches us the value of questioning not for debate but for the sake of nurturing our own being that has the potential IMO for an individuality we cannot comprehend. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of bringing her into the world even if only through web sites. Apparently Erich Fromm appreciates what Simone attempted to do as she strove to access the world of forms.