Published by Beabuddha Press
2nd Edition November 2024
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Copyright 2024 Michael Lisagor
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publi-
cation Data
The Muse Within: Unlocking Spiritual
Growth through Creative Icons (2nd Edi-
tion)
1st edition published in 2021 by Arts &
Humanities Bainbridge as Personal
Growth in the Time of COVID
ISBN: 9798345771280
Nonfiction > Self-Help > Personal vem-
ber 2024
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword .............................................................. 5
Leo Tolstoy .......................................................... 7
Pema Chadron ............................................... 12
Bill Withers ........................................................ 17
Annie Leibovitz ............................................... 20
Herbie Hancock ............................................. 24
Lily Tomlin ......................................................... 29
Helen Keller ..................................................... 34
Ansel Adams ................................................... 38
Sir Isaac Newton ........................................... 42
Grandma Moses ............................................ 46
Keb’ Mo’ ............................................................. 51
Georgia O’Keefe ............................................ 55
Harry Manx ....................................................... 60
Most Beautiful One ...................................... 64
Leonardo da Vinci ......................................... 69
Gilda Radner ................................................... 74
Most Lucky One ............................................. 79
Davy Jones ...................................................... 84
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Eliud Kipchoge ............................................... 89
Louise Penny .................................................. 93
Prince Henry .................................................... 98
Julie Andrews ............................................... 101
Gandhi, King & Ikeda ............................... 106
Isaac Asimov ................................................ 111
Therapists ...................................................... 115
Barbara Kingsolver ................................... 119
Henrik Ibsen .................................................. 123
Bobby McFerrin ........................................... 128
A Remarkable Mender ............................ 133
Voltaire ............................................................ 138
Boddhisattva Never Disparaging ....... 143
Tagore ............................................................. 148
Byron Katie .................................................... 153
About the Author (Me!) ............................ 157
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Foreword
As a storyteller, I strongly believe in the power
of creative art to transform individuals, commu-
nities, nations, and the world. In her foreword to
the first edition of this book, Linda Semlitz, MD,
wrote, “Art transforms lives. Neuropsychiatrist
Daniel J Siegel, MD coined the term “mind-
sight,” the ability to see the internal workings of
our own minds and to “name and tame” the
emotions we are experiencing rather than be-
ing overwhelmed by them. Our ability to know
our own minds especially when combined with
empathy are essential human skills that allow
us to flourish.”
The Muse Within is based on 34 entertaining
life lessons from well-known artists, writ-
ers, philosophers, and musicians. In these es-
says, I’ve interweaved my own journey to man-
age my wife’s illness and my childhood trauma
through a life-long practice of Buddhism,
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psychotherapy, and marriage to “Most Beautiful
One.”
Most of the original chapters were written in
2020 during the intense period personal sola-
tion. In this 2nd edition, I’ve rewritten several of
them to fit current 2024 social and political real-
ities. But, where it fit the flow of my thoughts,
I’ve left the COVID references. It’s my sincere
hope that they in some small way give you hope
that you can make a difference in the world and
help alleviate some of your current stress lev-
els!
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Leo Tolstoy
My first exposure to Count Lev Nikolayevich
Tolstoy, one of the greatest writers of all time,
was in sixth grade in West Los Angeles. I re-
member the local librarian suggested I might
like “War and Peace” by Leo Toy Store. I mean
what precocious 12-year-old wouldn’t want to
read a book by someone from a toy store? Of
course, it turned out the book was significantly
different in style and content than what I had
anticipated. Still, once I began to figure out the
complex Russian names, I fell in love with the
exotic characters. I think it was my first real ex-
posure to the complexity of human nature.
Eventually, I wrote an essay about Tolstoy for
eighth-grade English. I got most of my infor-
mation from our well-worn 1963 edition of the
World Book Encyclopedia, the paper-based
Google of its time. I learned that Leo (by then, I
felt like we were on a first name basis) initially
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achieved success in the writing world during his
20s when he published a trilogy of novels —
“Childhood,” “Boyhood” and “Youth” — all
which I eventually read but don’t recall anything
about.
He is best known for “War and Peace,” which
I’ve plowed through at least five times over the
years, and “Anna Karenina,” which I never
quite learned how to pronounce. His experi-
ence watching so many die in the Crimean War
as well as his studies of Christian ethics led him
to become an ardent pacifist and spiritual anar-
chist. Both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
were profoundly impacted by Tolstoy’s writings.
Tolstoy said, “If you look for perfection, you'll
never be content.” This is from someone who
was not only fluent in English, French and Ger-
man, but could also read in Greek, Latin, Span-
ish, Italian, Ukrainian, Turkish and Bulgarian,
among other languages. His house library con-
sisted of 23,000 books in 39 languages. By
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stark contrast, I can read in English and some
HTML. My Kindle has 780 books on it. Still, I
would wager I’ve read many more detective
and science fiction series than Tolstoy. I’m
pretty content at this point in my life, having
concluded that perfection is highly overrated.
Many of Tolstoy’s words impacted me as a
young man. Reading “A man is like a fraction
whose numerator is what he is and whose de-
nominator is what he thinks of himself. The
larger the denominator the smaller the frac-
tion” caused me to seriously reflect on the im-
portance of having humility. And his quote, “I sit
on a man’s back, choking him and making him
carry me, and yet assure myself and others that
I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot
by all possible means - except by getting off his
back,” crystalized for me the danger of political
hypocrisy.
My wife, Most Beautiful One (MBO) (not
Trude’s real name) and I embraced Tolstoy’s
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sentiment that, “Wrong does not cease to be
wrong because the majority share in it.” We
participated in several protests against the Vi-
etnam War and civil rights. While marching in a
huge gathering to protest Richard Nixon, who
was standing on a balcony at the Century City
Hotel, we barely escaped injury as the crowds
and police turned violent. We were so con-
vinced that our efforts would contribute to a dra-
matically improved nation. Eventually, we real-
ized that real and lasting reform would take per-
sistent, one-on-one dialogue over a long period
of time. As Tolstoy said, “Just as one candle
lights another and can light thousands of other
candles, so one heart illuminates another heart
and can illuminate thousands of other hearts.”
In the final analysis, even as isolated as we
are today, I think we each need to reflect on
Tolstoy’s admonishment, “Everyone thinks of
changing the world, but no one thinks of