One of the original American sages, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in an essay called Experience, writes:

“[S]ouls never touch their objects. […] If tomorrow I should be informed of the bankruptcy of my principal debtors, the loss of my property would be a great would be a great inconvenience to me, perhaps, for many years; but it would leave me as it found me – neither better nor worse.

So is it with [any] calamity: it does not touch me; something which I fancied was a part of me, which could not be torn away without tearing me nor enlarged without enriching me, falls off from me and leaves no scar.

[…] I grieve that grief can teach me nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature.

The Indian who was laid under a curse that the wind should not blow on him, nor water flow to him, nor fire burn him, is a type of us all.  The dearest events are summer-rain, and we are the Para [rain-] coats that shed every drop.”

After I stumbled upon these lines I had four thoughts:

• Emerson’s “lotus effect” (of shedding and repelling suffering) was strong;
• his analogy of the soul (psyche/consciousness) to a rain-coat that sheds every drop was the same hydrophobic effect (water-fearing/water-repelling) that informs my own analogy of “lotus effect.”
• I wondered which Indian he had in mind – an Indian of the East or an Indian of the West (native American).

And then I had this fourth thought, a question, really, that Emerson kind of alluded to:

• Is this psychological (psychic, spiritual) imperturbability a curse or a blessing?

For me, the answer’s clear: it is a self-earned blessing bestowed upon one’s own self via rigorous psychological self-help.

What are your thoughts about this immunity of self-knowing essence that Emerson writes about?  And are your opinions founded on experience or speculation?

Try out the cloak of Vedic invulnerability to find out for yourself.  Experience that Indian in you.

Reference:

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Experience (Emerson: The Basic Writings of America’s Sage; edited by E. C. Lindeman, Mentor Books)

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    Last reviewed: 9 Jul 2011