The other day I ran into my old and good friend Bobby Burns. I first met Bobby about 20 years ago when we were both attending a Cemetery memorial service for local homeless folks who had died here in Tucson. As we talked, he told me about a manuscript he was writing and his hope that he would not become one of the folks commemorated in this way. He went on to tell me about his recent experience of having, through a strange set of circumstances, become a homeless person himself.
He had come to the Cemetery to honor those who had died anonymously. He said he now felt a special connection to such people and wondered if this would be his own fate. He was calm and focused as we talked about the possibility of having such an ending. We also wondered if we had met or even perhaps known one or more of those being remembered there that day. It was a cold December morning and there were not many folks gathered to honor these “fallen soldiers.”
I mentioned to him that I had recently published a book with University of Arizona Press and would be happy to speak to my editor about his book because it sounded very worthwhile. He agreed to this plan and I did pass his manuscript on to my editor. Happily, the Press not only agreed to publish Bobby’s book Shelter: One Man’s Journey from Homelessness to Hope, but they also agreed to help him promote it. Indeed, they agreed to finance Bobby on a 45-day 10 city bus trip around the country promoting his book. In addition to travelling by bus Bobby slept in homeless shelters all around the country and eventually wrote even more about the experience of being homeless.
Bobby told me he had been in the Navy as a cook for six years and had done tours of service all around both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Since being discharged he earned a degree at Arizona State University, but was not able to land the sort of job he had hoped. Things did not go well from there on and he ended up homeless. Eventually Bobby got a fringe job with Pima Community College where he found a friendly home.
Since those days Bobby has worked for Pima Community College in various capacities, mostly as an Academic Advisor and Student Success Counselor. After having earned a Master’s degree at NAU he began working as a motivational speaker throughout Arizona. I asked him to visit several of my classes over the years in order to expose my students to someone who has brought himself up from a very difficult beginning in life to a place of value and inspiration to his young brothers and sisters who have had difficulties, both in the beginning and along the way.
Bobby was very entertaining and motivating in his presentations and my students really took his message and life to heart. Over the years Bobby has continued to grow as a writer, publishing many articles and short books about his life and the lessons he learned along the way. Bobby has been married now for several years and he and his wife have a young teenaged son. He remains an avid sports fan and is always searching for new things to read and from which to learn.
Over the ensuing years Bobby has continued his calling as a writer and a poet, publishing numerous essays and articles in various newspapers and magazines around the country. He has a real knack for focusing and describing what might be considered off-beat topics and people in a clear and stimulating style. I enjoy seeing and talking with Bobby whenever we happen to meet. He is always full of life and not in any way full of himself. He is still writing and publishing his work. Indeed, Bobby was very interested to learn about my blogging experience and now even plans to develop a site of his own.
After visiting with Bobby Burns, I always find myself wondering how many other young folks there are out there who could use a boost of some sort to get them over a temporary snag in their journey. Bobby has always been a real inspiration to many, including myself, to keep on pushing and searching for that one break, that one contact, which might leverage them up the ladder to hope and a more meaningful life.

My life has been strongly impacted by the lives and teachings of three Master Teachers: Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), Socrates, and Jesus. One could argue that these three are the most influential teachers of all time. Although none of the three ever yielded political power, traveled far from his homeland, or wrote any books, they each played a major role in the development of the beliefs and practices of literally millions of people. Also, each separated himself from formal religion.
I have always been fascinated by the methods by means of which these three teachers managed to inspire so many people and guide entire cultures. Although there are similarities in their respective teaching methods, each one stands on his own in unique ways. None of them ever taught at a university or stood in lecture halls. Basically, each followed a very personal and dialogical approach to the task of sharing their respective insights.
Siddhartha was raised in the teachings of Hinduism, but after exploring many of its various practices and teachings he decided that he would have to find his own way to intellectual and spiritual integrity. As the story goes, when his disillusionment reached its peak, he sat down under a Bo tree and vowed to stay put until he was “enlightened”. After finally “getting it”, he went around teaching informally throughout the countryside.
The essence of his teaching was that since all suffering is caused by undue striving, the key to enlightenment is to rid oneself of striving. We must learn to simply “accept” the world and our personal experience the way it comes to us.
This is done by developing a life of integrity in which one makes sure to have proper motives, thoughts, and actions. A simple, accepting posture toward life is the key to “happiness”, according to the Buddha.
Socrates did not develop a formal lesson in the way that Siddhartha did. Rather, he was committed to the value of asking questions about everything and of everybody. He is famous for the dictum: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He claimed that the oracle at Delphi had said he was the wisest man in the world, and Socrates knew that this only meant he was only one who admitted up front that he did not know the answers to life’s big questions.
Socrates’ disciple Plato wrote a lot of books using Socrates as the mouthpiece for his own theories. In Republic Socrates is asked if all his theories are true, he replies: “I do not know. I do know that if we keep asking questions, we shall be wiser and better people.” Eventually he was tried and put to death for teaching “false religion and corrupting young people.” As he predicted, “ignorance runs faster than death.”
Jesus, like both Siddhartha and Socrates, was a simple itinerant teacher. He founded no school, no religious sect, wrote nothing, was ostracized by the Jewish authorities, and finally crucified by the Romans. He taught people to “love their enemies”, trust only in God, and live simply. After reaching adulthood he spent about three years walking around in Palestine, teaching those who would listen and healing those who were sick.
The most authentic record we have of Jesus’ teachings is found in what is called the “Gospel of Q”. This source is named ‘Q” by New Testament scholars after the German term for “source”, Quella. Although no such document has been found, it can easily be reconstructed by assembling the passages where the Gospels of Luke and Matthew agree without containing any of the Gospel of Mark. It is believed that both Mark and Q were used by the authors of both Luke and Matthew.
Q has been reconstructed by Professor Marcus Borg in The Lost Gospel Q, and represents the closest thing we have to the authentic teachings of Jesus. The other universally recognized body of teachings of Jesus is what is called “The Sermon on the Mount” found in Matthew chapters five through seven. These are admitted by all to be very radical teachings that turn nearly all traditional values upside down. Love of God and other people, even “sinners” and “evil doers”, is seen to be Jesus’ main concern.
So, these three “Master Teachers”, perhaps the most influential teachers of all time, clearly seem to be working from the same page. Personal integrity, the search for truth, and the love of others were their basic values. Perhaps most of all, they each embodied a kind of humility rarely encountered in the world today.