APPOINTMENTS NEEDED!

MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH YOURSELF
by Louis Finkelstein
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A STUDENT in a class conducted by Dr Harry Emerson Fosdick, minister emeritus of New York's Riverside Church, once made a shrewd comment on the celebrated incident of Isaac Newton and the apple. Too much emphasis, the student said, had been placed on the apple; the important fact was that Newton was alone in the garden, in a position to be receptive, when the apple fell.

As one writer has put it, contemplation is to knowledge what digestion is to food- the way to get life out of it. Reading gives us information and suggests ideas, but it is in meditation that we form our judgments.

All of us acknowledge that we ought regularly to withdraw from the round of routine and renew ourselves. Yet we do not set aside the time for this renewal, this examination of the self that we can meet only in contemplation. It is for this reason that a firm and specific date with one's inner self seems to me the best, if not the only, way to establish the practice of daily meditation.

One must choose the time and the place, and keep the date with the same fidelity as one would a date with a friend- remembering that the self is one's best friend and ought to be treated as such. I stress the importance of routine because I know my own nature, and I suspect that I should not have maintained daily periods of private thought and study if I had not been brought up in a tradition which made it obligatory, and finally easy. Yet the benefits have been enormous, and the pleasures so great that I would not exchange these sessions for any number of idle hours.

At the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where I was chancellor, we have a rule that anyone who is in meditative study must not be disturbed. The telephone operator or the secretary explains. The explanation makes a curious impression, I am told, on some of our friends in the business world, but I have often wondered if such an inviolable time might not be adopted with profit in some businesses. It is odd how likely we are to respect the privacy of people talking, but not of one who is thinking.

Dr. Fosdick had an absolute rule that he was not to be disturbed during his contemplative hours, save by his wife in an emergency. There were only two interruptions in 18 years. The remrkable clarity and force of Dr. Fosdick's preaching and writing were unquestionably due in no small measure to the fact that he regarded thinking as vital, and the time set aside for it as sacred.

How to find the place and set aside the time for a daily appointment with oneself is the crucial question. Especially is this true if one is not in a profession where what we call thinking is indulged, if not honored. In our culture, some are paid to think and some are paid to do. But we all need to think, to get the benefits and satisfactions that come from meditation.

How feasible is it for a housewife or businessman or college student to have a regular appointment with his soul? It requires a lot of thought, but the very difficulties involved make all the more important a plan of inaction. It is well to have a private stage for the act of meditation. If living arrangements are such that you can't shut yourself off, fix your schedule so that you will have solitary moments by being up while others are down.

Once the place and hour are fixed, there is still the danger of letting the mind wander aimlessly. Most of us in the Western world are by nature and training activists, accustomed to coming to grips with tangibles. We find unassisted straight meditation hard. As one woman puts it, "I can't keep my mind on my mind that long." Not a few may be tempted to give up.

For this reason we should consider taking a profound but companionable book as an aid to meditation. A great book gives us even more of a sense of an appointment because we can look forward to the presence of another mind without the distraction of another personality. My whole working day is quickened by the awareness that next morning will be devoted to the discovery and exploration of ideas offered in a book of substance and brilliance.

If you meditate with a book, choose your book thoughtfully and stay with it until it has become a part of you, and you have become a part of it. You may select Scripture, Plato, Montaigne, Whitehead, or a modern such as Tillich or Buber. The criterion should be depth-the depth of interest to be plumbed by you and the stirring that takes place as you read and think about what you read. The aim is to understand how the great men approached life, and to discover what advice they may have to offer us in the perplexities and confusions of today.

The book I use is the Talmud. This is, in effect, a vast commentary on the Bible, explaining verse after verse and preserving the discussions carried on over thousands of years about passages of Scripture. The works that make up the Talmud were at first handed down orally from teacher to pupil, being memorized before they were reduced to writing. Part of their wisdom is formulated in maxims-distillates of reflection. Some of these one memorizes as a child, but the full light of their meaning reaches one only gradually. In this way, one's whole life becomes a commentary on the Bible and the Talmud, as they are commentaries on life itself.

Through thinking on the Talmud, I have a real and profitable acquaintance-to take but one instance-with Simon the Righteous, who lived more than 2000 years ago. He was one of a group of Jewish sages who believed that what the world needs is less action and more contemplation. "Do something" may be good advice under certain circumstances, one learns, but quite frequently better advice is, "When in doubt, do nothing;try to discover what is best to do."

Such a maxim lends sanction to meditation. It does not counsel us to lie supine. It allows latitude for the labor of further thought and study, brings to mind a line of poet Marianne Moore:"But patience, that is action." What's more, the counsel and the questions that arise out of such exploration and discovery show how one idea touches off another. A thought that may be insubstantial at the outset will linger to enrich our later days.

In sum, thought prompted by great literature brings rewards that we cannot anticipate but can always appreciate. They may be tangible, and help a person, if only through increased clarity of mind. But even if fruitful inspirations do not come about from the daily appointment, there is still much for which we can give thanks, including repose. It was one of the wisest men of the Bible, Isaiah, who heard the Holy One of Israel say, "In returning and rest shall ye be saved;in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength."(#)