Posts Tagged ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’

Who Calls You to a Higher Life?

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some of the great men and women who have inspired me with their work and their lives. In their presence I felt the radiant energy that living in-Spirit brings. In 1978, I was invited to go to Vienna to participate in a presentation to a group of young presidents of companies. I was assigned to be on a panel with a man who had been a huge source of inspiration to me: Viktor Frankl. Frankl was a medical doctor who had been herded off to die in a Nazi concentration camp in WW II; while imprisoned, he kept notes that ultimately became a book called Man’s Search for Meaning. This work, which touched me deeply, illustrated not only how Dr. Frankl survived the horrors of Auschwitz, but also how he helped other camp mates do the same. He taught them to be with his spirit and infuse it in others who were giving up on life. He even practiced sending love and peace to his captors, and refused to feel hatred and vengeance because he knew that this was foreign to his spirit, which he wouldn’t forsake. Viktor Frankl stayed true to his spiritual origins in the face of horrors that destroyed so many. When I met him, he exuded joy, peace, kindness, and love, and he wasn’t bitter. Instead, he felt that his experience taught him lessons he’d never have known otherwise. I spent a good part of that afternoon in Vienna listening and being in awe. Viktor Frankl had been one of the truly inspirational figures in my life, and being on the same panel—under the pretext of being a colleague of this master teacher—was overwhelming to me. It was an afternoon I’ve never forgotten, full of pure exhilaration and inspiration.

 

Namaste,

Wayne