The PATH: On Humility, Walking, and Compassion

sent by J.W. Bertolotti | December 6, 2021

1. On Humility

The poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe raised this critical point: “All truly wise thoughts have been thought of already thousands of times, but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly until they take root in our personal experience.”

From Socrates to Confucius, sages throughout history have stressed the importance of humility. But what is humility in daily life?

The author of A New Silence, Beverly Lanzetta (a previous podcast guest), explained that humility refers to modesty and the absence of arrogance and pride. By discerning what is meaningful in our lives and what is not, humility gives us the strength to break through the wounds of the ego. Humility practiced daily strengthens your being and provides fortitude along the path.

The strange thing about knowledge is the more we learn on a particular topic, the more our humility grows. Goethe said, 

We know accurately only when we know little, doubt grows with knowledge.

“Humility contains in itself the answer to all the great problems of the soul,” according to Thomas Merton. “It is the only key to faith, with which the spiritual life begins: for faith and humility are inseparable.”

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2. On Walking

The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard expressed these thoughts on the importance of walking, 

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.

Similarly, Friedrich Nietzsche said, “All great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

Is this true for you? How do you feel at the end of a walk in nature?

In The Socrates Express, author Eric Weiner (a previous podcast guest) expressed: “walking, the slowest form of travel, is the quickest route to our more authentic selves. We walk to forget if only momentarily, a world that is ‘too much with us,’ as William Wordsworth, another fine walker, put it.”

The path to the good life and living with more wisdom might include more walking than we realize.     

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3. On Compassion

Where would you place compassion within the principles or values you want to follow? How would you rate your level of compassion today? Compassion and wisdom seem to be closely connected. If we explore the various wisdom traditions (spiritual, philosophical, and secular), compassion is central. 

For example, the scientist Albert Einstein wrote, 

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

“Compassion is the chief law of existence,” according to Fyodor Dostoevsky. The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer put it this way, “compassion is the basis of morality.”  

But, what is compassion? 

Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, enter in the places of pain, and share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish wrote the writer and theologian Henri Nouwen. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. “Compassion means complete immersion in the condition of being human.”   

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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful. If so, please consider sharing it with others.

Each week, we send a short reflection with three insights to help you live your highest good. If you are not a subscriber to The PATH you can sign up here to receive it right to your inbox.

Image credit: Thong Vo on Unsplash

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