From the Thesis

More from the thesis. This, on Inwardness.
The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself. – Nature[1]

Emerson argues that spirituality finds its initial direction in the path toward inwardness. He suggests inwardness to be “an awareness of and reverence for the unique processes of thought, perception, intuition, and emotional response that define our experience.”[2] In this first principle, Emerson teaches that each individual finds him/herself as a part of God through complete surrender of the ego. Perfection is found in the complete acceptance one's true nature: “These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.”[3] He teaches that what the mind blots, the heart knows, but that hearing the heart—the genius—is only possible through this first step of inwardness. Emerson teaches that you find your power in experiencing inwardness in the present moment. “Life only avails, not the having lived. Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an aim.”[4] The outspread purpose of inwardness is to cultivate self-awareness and self-confidence; both are shaped by an underlying humility.


[1] Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature.” The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Writings, ed. David M. Robinson (Boston: Beacon Press, 2003), 60.
[2] Robinson, David M. The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Writings (Beacon Press, 2003), 2.
[3] Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Self-Reliance.” The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Writings, ed. David M. Robinson (Boston: Beacon Press, 2003), 97.
[4] Ibid., pg. 98.