A Conversation with Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau writes that "Shams and delusions are esteemed the soundest truths, while reality is fabulous."

Reality is fabulous. But most human beings are not awake enough to appreciate the miracle of Life.

"The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life."

"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep."

Thoreau adds that "Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep." That is, merely to conform to social norms is not true moral behavior.

When all we do is a direct expression of our true nature, then even if people criticize our behavior, we will not mind so much. "The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior."

Like Thoreau, I want to encourage you to find your true self:

I have read in a Hindoo book, that "there was a king's son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which he lived. One of his father's ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince.

"So soul," continues the Hindoo philosopher, "from the circumstances  in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme."