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THE GURU
a pathway to enrichment
by
Adam Darius
Excerpts
On personal evolvement
It is no sin to miss the mark of one's supreme efforts. The sin, if any, is in never having made the effort. For it is better, in one's maturity, to be able to look back and know that life's marathon has been run at full exertion, however often one has fallen by the wayside. Pity the person who has never attempted the course and then wonders what would have happened - if.
On religious excess
Theology should be a guide to God, not a torture chamber of forced indoctrination.
On animal welfare
Abattoirs are the Auschwitzes of the animal world.
No person with a modicum of sensitivity would eat flesh if he or she had to do the skull smashing, strangling, skinning, throat cutting and disembowelling entailed in the slaughter of defenceless animals.
Who among us could bear to smell the stench of their massacre or listen to the wailing of their unheard howls?
As for vivisectionists, the dog, for one, greatly surpasses man in his capacity for friendship, yet his body is torn up to reveal nerve endings no less responsive to pain than his society-sanctioned murderer.
On human nature
The nomad is ever grateful for any warmth and assistance, for his familiar vistas are at far remove. Be kind to him, for who knows when you, yourself, might have to roam the trackless desert?
On the artist in society
At the base of art's Everest remain those craftsmen who divert, distract and amuse with their efforts. Theirs is no small accomplishment since such results fulfil the needs of many. But ascending the mountain's loftiest peak is the moral artist whose work provokes the retreating consciousness of mankind.
It is his explorations which illuminate the life experience, elevating it from the human to the humane.
On crime and punishment
Only the wayfarer who has never been attacked will deny the sweet fruit of retribution.
On love and passion
What does the word intermarriage signify? For all relationships are inter be they between beings of different religions, different races, the same gender or even human and devoted animal. There should be de-emphasis on who or what one loves.
More meaningfully, it is the emotion of love that has ramifications far wider than its object.
On time
Upon encountering a stranger, charm is evident at once, intellect an hour later, but as for loyalty, that trait is not discernible until some thousand moons have pierced the heavens.
On death
Man's presumptious claim to superiority convinces him that what he cannot perceive with his limited five senses, does not exist. This attitude is myopic in the extreme.
For just as the stars shine invisibly during the day, another dimension exists unrecognized by desensitized human beings.
In UK: £7.95
In Finland: 16 euros
Hardback, 115 pages, 10 illustrations
ISBN 0 9502707 41, published 1991
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