Re-reading, ‘The Way of Man’
Excerpts from Chapter V. Not to Be Preoccupied with Oneself
‘He who has done ill and talks about it and thinks about it all the time does not cast the base thing he did out of his thoughts, and whatever one thinks, therein one is, ones soul is wholly and utterly in what one thinks, and so he dwells in baseness. He will certainly not be able to turn, for his spirit will grow coarse and his heart stubborn, and in addition to this he may be overcome be gloom. What would you? Rake the mud this away, rake the mud that way – it will always be muck. Have I sinned, or have I not sinned – what does Heaven get out of it? In the time I am brooding over it I could be stringing pearls for the delight of Heaven. This is why it is written: “Depart from evil, do not dwell upon it, and do good” – turn wholly away from evil, do not dwell upon it, and do good. You have done wrong? Then counteract it by doing right.’ – Rabbi of Ger
Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk once said to his congregation, ‘what, after all, do I demand of you? Only three things: not to look furtively outside yourselves, not to look furtively upon others, and do not aim at yourselves’ That is to say: firstly, everyone should preserve and hallow his own soul in its own particularity and in its own place, and do not envy the particularity and place of others; secondly, everyone should respect the secret in the soul of his fellow-man, and not, with brazen curiosity, intrude upon it and take advantage of it; and thirdly, everyone, in his relationship to the world, should be careful not to set himself as his aim. – Martin Buber
