Spiritual Openness Over Academic Method

“For this, you have to let people and the world come close to you and see: Does it touch me? Do I reject it? What does it do to me? This requires spiritual openness. This is not an academic or scientific path. It is not about learning vocabulary or grammar or about acquiring techniques and methods, but about developing and training this spiritual openness. When you step out into the world, life throws a multitude of balls at you. It is only about catching the right ones. These are offers that fate presents to you, and it then takes presence of mind and evidence to say at the crucial moment: “Yes, now I’ll grab it!””

“That’s exactly what it’s about: One must make oneself aware—of the people and the world around oneself. It requires an interest in people and an interest in the world. And it requires warmth and light. First, one must develop interest in other people and in the world. One must be able to warm oneself to what comes one’s way. Then, to the warmth comes the light, by illuminating the world and people with one’s thinking—the light of the spirit, the light of thought.”