Emerson citations in Thanissaro's Buddhist romanticism essay

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fivebells
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Emerson citations in Thanissaro's Buddhist romanticism essay

Post by fivebells »

I was wondering whether anyone had tracked down the citations for these quotes from Thanissaro's essay The Roots of Buddhist Romanticism (which I think he is attributing to Emerson.)
Bring the past into the 1000-eyed present and live ever in a new day. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. The essence of genius, of virtue, and of life is what is called Spontaneity or Instinct. Every man knows that to his involuntary perceptions a perfect faith is due.
The reason why the world lacks unity is because man is disunited with himself... We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meanwhile, within man is the soul of the whole, the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal One. And this deep power in which we exist, and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one.
My efforts to google these quotes have so far only brought up references to Thanissaro's essay.
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Mkoll
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Re: Emerson citations in Thanissaro's Buddhist romanticism e

Post by Mkoll »

I don't know where they're from. But it does sound like Emerson or another Transcendentalist wrote it.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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fivebells
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Re: Emerson citations in Thanissaro's Buddhist romanticism e

Post by fivebells »

Ah, the first is pieced together from parts of Self-reliance. I couldn't find it because I was searching for the whole thing in quotes.
Qianxi
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Re: Emerson citations in Thanissaro's Buddhist romanticism e

Post by Qianxi »

The second is from an essay by Emerson called The Over-Soul.
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fivebells
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Re: Emerson citations in Thanissaro's Buddhist romanticism e

Post by fivebells »

Thanks, Qianxi. Everything but the first sentence is from "The Over-Soul". The first sentence appears to be pieced together from "Prospects," in the book Nature. Hmm.
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