Fragrances of human flowering: dancing and serving all life that is in need of help

In Part 15 of Shanti’s series: Friedrich Nietzsche, Rabindranath Tagore, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Ruth St. Denis, Dalai Lama

Ruth St. Denis

dancer and choreographer

“I see myself standing on a hill behind our old farm house in New Yersey, lifting my arms in an unconscious gesture of oneness towards the round silvery glory of the moon. At the same time I’m listening to the whisper of a faint breeze, as it gently sways the tips of the tall pines. I begin to move. It is my first dance urge to relate myself to the cosmic rhythm. With a motion of complete joy, as a free being in a world of infinite depth and beauty, I surrender myself to the unseen pulsation of the universe.”

“To dance is to be in tune with the universe…”

“The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word.”

“The dancer reveals everything that is within him, with no more false modesty than the tree when it blossoms or than the star when it shines.”

“I don’t want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance.”

“I have realized that one does not make a dance; one is made into a dance.”

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

philosopher and writer

“Those who are seen dancing are thought to be insane by those who cannot hear the music.”

Rabindranath Tagore

poet

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.”

Albert Schweitzer

theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher and physician

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

“Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.”

“A man is ethical only when life as such is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.”

(Describing, in his autobiography, both his and his patient’s reactions after an operation):

“Scarcely has he recovered consciousness when he stares about him and ejaculates again and again: ‘I have no more pain! I have no more pain!’ His hand feels for mine and will not let it go… The African sun is shining through the coffee bushes into the dark shed, but we, black and white, sit side by side and feel that we know by experience the meaning of the words: ‘And all ye are brethern’.”