More Heart For AI #11

I believe we can all be more creative and enlightened individually and may even have a profound “Ah Ha” moment like Thomas Merton did - see below.

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all of those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud . . . I have the immense joy of being "man," a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidity of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize that we all are one. And if only everybody could realize this! But there is no way of telling people they are all walking around shining like the sun.” Seven Storey Mountain

Thomas Merton went on to become a Trappist monk and, fortunately for us, a famous writer who is now renowned as a mystic. I sincerely hope that more and more people learn to open their hearts and allow themselves to truly believe that they can feel the transforming energy that comes with realizing that we all are walking around and shining in the same sun.

Oh, and we do not need to become monks or mystics. I had two very enlightening experiences that opened my mind and helped me realize that I can let go of many, if not all, of my fears. The first was the day, the hour, and the minute I walked across a parking lot with the woman I was working with. We were giving educational workshops. She was a nun, and I was a priest, and she stopped our walking, and I stopped with her. She then said in a tranquil way, “Don, I love you.” I felt like the sky had opened and God had spoken to me. This beautiful woman loves me very much. Wow, and a thousand ‘Wows.’ Two years later, we got married – and that was 53 years ago, and this heavenly gate opener still loves me!

The second experience was not so life-changing but even more enlightening. At a workshop, I experienced a profound feeling of oneness with the entire universe, especially with all other humans. I was in a blissful trance for over three hours in which I had no sense of time, place, or expectations. I was just simply in a state of ecstasy. And without drugs. I hope you have had the ecstasy of ‘falling in love’ and expanded it to encompass everyone somehow.

We need to realize that we can open our minds and hearts and connect with others and stop hiding behind our computers or continue believing that we are too weak or uneducated, whatever negative messages we carry from our earlier years.

We need to realize we are all living under the same sun. So now, take a deep breath and say to yourself, “Ah, I’m breathing the same air and shining under the same sun as everyone else.” I am sure that AI cannot replace nor even lose to imitating this. Now . . . 

Nurture your heart, and don’t eat the menu!