Comments on: Few people ever ‘possess their souls’ before they die

By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:56:31 +0000

If you really want to know what Wilde thought the man looked like who truly possessed his own soul, go back and read the rest of “De Profundis”: he’s already told you. That man is Jesus. “Christ is the most supreme of individualists,” he writes. I think it is this, primarily, that drew him to Christ. At that point in his life, what he wanted most was to develop his individualism. And I think, especially in his unique and spiritually mature view on the lessons on prison, that he succeeded to a degree. Are we influenced by others? Yes. But it is possible to be something other than simply and only some Other? Yes.

By: cullen

cullen — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:54:08 +0000

T s eliot wrote a poem entitled “the love song of j alfred purfcock” {purfcock is misspelled)

a line of the poem goes like “the women come and go speaking of micheal anglelo”

even then, before television and the mass media transfixed the populace, we as humans are so suceptible to wanting to be like someone we are not….it’s sad

I think Oscar made a profound observation and one that is even more applicable today.

By: Something64

Something64 — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 05:18:44 +0000

I agree with this article very much so, but there is something to take into consideration. I believe that even though we are a product of our environment, we also all come from different environments. What I mean to say is that people have differences between each other, for example; different experiences, goals, limitations, cultural backgrounds, etc. And I think that because there are unlimited factors in our environment that make us up, there are unlimited combinations of those factors.

All of that to say, even though we are a product of our environment and no one’s thoughts, opinions, and otherwise are their own, there still can be individualism. Now is that agreeing with Wilde or the writer? I dunno, its just a thought.

By: Shem

Shem — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 07:47:46 +0000

It’s true that we are the product of our environment, in that we expand through the channels already existing, but changes happen, at some level, this must be the individual pushing against with such force as to attract others to him, as to seem a collective. Original thought, in the face of the collective, might seem impossible, but I assure you, it happens every day…

Good post and quote… thank you! You have a regular reader on your hands.

By: Helena

Helena — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:45:29 +0000

You’re quite right. Humans are not individual but colective creations.
And if you take the Buddha’s teachings this is not just a human thing but rather nothing is separate from nothing…