Against the Pollution of the I: On the Gifts of Blindness, the Power of Poetry and the Urgency of Awareness

(Paperback, 2nd ed.)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Despite being blinded as a child, Jacques Lusseyran went on to help form a key unit of the French Resistance -- and survive the Nazis' Buchenwald concentration camp. He wrote about these experiences in his inspiring memoir, And There Was Light. In this remarkable collection of essays, Lusseyran writes of how blindness enabled him to discover aspects of the world that he would not otherwise have known. In "Poetry in Buchenwald," he describes the unexpected nourishment he and his fellow prisoners found in poetry. In "What One Sees Without Eyes" he describes a divine inner light available to all. Just as Lusseyran transcended his most difficult experiences, his writings give triumphant voice to the human ability to see beyond sight and act with unexpected heroism.

Reviews

"In this luminous book, Lusseyran demonstrates once again his place among the illustrious sightless sages. . . . Clear and insightful prose inspires the reader to look beyond the limitations of the senses, as Lusseyran speaks of an inner seeing, reminiscent of the finer works of Martin Buber and Viktor Frankl....The clarity of the writing, and the force of both grim and exalted experience behind the words, carry an extraordinary authority and wisdom."
-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Exalts the soul in ways that are universal, breathtaking, and marvelous."
-- Spirituality and Health

"[Lusseyran's] writing has a mythical power capable of transforming those who contact it. This is gritty, spiritual writing at its best."
-- Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Words

"These posthumously collected essays remind us anew that eyes are merely a concentration of the human talent to see with the body and that each of us contains all beings, as the old teachers said."
-- Roshi Robert Aitken, author of Taking the Path of Zen

Author Bio

Jacques Lusseyran (1924-1971) was blinded at age seven, formed a French Resistance group at age seventeen, and endured fifteen months at Buchenwald. He went on to teach at Case Western University in the United States and died in a car accident during a visit to France.