Reverence for Life (UK)

PERCY: "I mean the concept of a culture and civilization based on ethical thought! As you have perfectly illustrated:  in the general usage of these two words, ethics has no part to play. But I have to say, that in my view this is not new for the East. Unfortunately, the East is hell-bent on copying the West! - not the other way round; - a further indication of civilization in decline - globally!"

KLAUS: "Yes, I wanted to say: what about Buddhism, - for a Buddhist this is surely quite familiar territory ?"

PERCY: "Absolutely! Anyway, for me Schweitzer has not evaluated the Indians quite correctly, although he studied them and wrote a lot about them. Perhaps he only had limited access to their written material and maybe he did not have anyone who knew the Indian religions thoroughly from personal experience. He could read Latin and Greek, I think, and maybe even Hebrew, but not Sanskrit and only very little English. You know that I have immersed myself pretty thoroughly in Indian thought and know that for them Schweitzer?s ?Reverence for Life? is something they take for granted, - certainly the Buddhists do, and the Hindus have a much stronger life-af?rmation than Schweitzer gave them credit for."

KLAUS: "Is that not also true for the indigenous inhabitants of America? Their reverence for Nature and natural forces and their love of Mother Earth is only now becoming accessible for us through recently published books and stories."

PERCY: "That is so true!"

We again fell silent, letting our gaze rest on the shining white mountain-range opposite, where delicately transparent plumes of mist were chasing like living veils over the ridges and peaks, glowing luminously in the afternoon sun. Klaus explained that this was the effect of the southerly winds coming up from Italy. Then I began again:

PERCY: "Yes, - globalization! Perhaps there are some good aspect to it after all!"

KLAUS: "How do you mean?"

PERCY: "That we now have access to so much from all corners of the earth."

KLAUS: "But whether that is a good thing is still questionable. Whether we will cope with all that wealth of information and know what to do with it? Is it not likely, that we will be  inhibited in our own creative action and our own independent thinking? Just as when your desk is piled high with papers and innumerable suggestive brochures, and you can?t decide where to start."

And Klaus added after a little pause, - with a deep sigh:

KLAUS: "You know, it is so wonderful to be able to sit up here together and have such a conversation!"

PERCY: "Yes truly!" I responded in a whisper.

KLAUS: "As you know, I am very happy with the tasks which occupy me now at the beginning of my retirement: the music with the choir, the planned trips to places of cultural interest like the one to Andalucia in March with a coach full of people, and of course my new role as grandfather. As ever, it is still my deep interest to open up opportunities for people to visit cultural centers and have experiences of our own and other cultures which they couldn?t otherwise have. But my desk is a bit, - well, as I said - piled high with stacks of papers, and the telephone and e-mails are constantly on the go with ?xing dates and venues and making all sorts of arrangements. In all this, to have a conversation like the one we are having, which opens up distant horizons for the mind and touches ideas and thoughts for which normally there never is time, is something very special. And that is something very refreshing up here in the silence. From now on I will always have to think of this moment when I am up here."

PERCY: "Yes, it is a great present, - and there is something of grace about it, - to be able to spend a few hours in the exchange of deeper thoughts without haste and the usual pressure of time. For me, moments of silence and the contemplation of fundamental ideas has become a vital necessity. There was a time when I nearly lost it altogether for lack of access to this world of quiet and deeper contemplation. That was soon after Vreni and I started our life together in London. She didn?t notice much of the state I was in at the time. She needed all her strength and concentration to forge a life for herself, and for us together, in a totally strange country with a language she could as yet not speak and where she did not know anybody. That took enormous courage and all her energy. But for me, - after my time with Schweitzer and the whole African experience, I found myself back in London with the task of starting and maintaining a family, - and I found life in the huge metropolis utterly senseless and mad and I was barely coping."

KLAUS:  "I can understand that, - but what did you do?"

PERCY: "A friend rescued me. You know him, James, - he came to stay with you once up here in Zweisimmen."

KLAUS: "Yes of course, I remember him."

PERCY: "We met, and got to talking, and he noticed that things were dif?cult for me. So he invited me to take part in a course, where he was in charge of a beginners class at that time. It was a course for the study of normal psychology. I took him up on the offer and started going there. Later your sister started there too. Eventually we were taught to meditate and my inner life found nourishment once more. I got started on a path, - albeit there was often only the immediate next step to be seen; - but a path on which not to go forward is now no longer imaginable for me in this life."

The wispy strands of mist falling over the distant ridges coalesced into clouds and rose into the sky. A dense haze began to draw across the sun and it became cold instantly. We two friends got up, hugged each other and skied down the mountain, gliding smoothly through the wonderful powder-snow on the way home.

(Written in German and translated into English by Percy Mark.)