gat

or received a single phone call and where the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County live
prosperous lives virtually free of crime, of divorce, or of children who go beyond the eighth grade
in school. Yet not a single one has a college degree, a tractor to plow with, a telephone in the
house, or is on welfare.
If I seem to have stepped away from original sin with these facts, it is not so. Until you
acknowledge that the factual contents of your mind upon which you base decisions have been
inserted there by others whose motives you cannot fully understand, you will never come to
appreciate the neglected genius of Western spirituality which teaches that you are the center of
the universe. And that the most important things worth knowing are innate in you already. They
cannot be learned through schooling. They are self-taught through the burdens of having to work,
having to sort out right from wrong, having to check your appetites, and having to age and die.
The effect of this formula on world history has been titanic. It brought every citizen in the West a
mandate to be sovereign, a concept which we still have not learned to use wisely, but which offers
the potential for such wisdom. Western spirituality granted every single individual a purpose for
being alive, a purpose independent of mass behavioral prescriptions, money, experts, schools, and
governments. It conferred significance on every aspect of relationship and community. It carried
inside its ideas the seeds of a self-activating curriculum which gives meaning to time, and imposes
the duty of compassion, even for enemies, on believers.
In Western spirituality, everyone counts. It offers a basic, matter-of-fact set of practical
guidelines, street lamps for the village of your life. Nobody has to wander aimlessly in the universe
of Western spirituality. What constitutes a meaningful life is clearly spelled out: self-knowledge,
duty, responsibility, acceptance of aging and loss, preparation for death. In this neglected genius
of the West, no teacher or guru does the work for you. You do it for yourself. It’s time to teach
these things to our children once again.
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