Tag: philosophy

Having overcome the initial awe, imagining the states of ecstasy described by Nicolae Steinhardt when he was imprisoned is quite instructive. After we stop questioning the plausibility of the accounts, or rather, after we accept them, we realize that it is precisely in the most extreme deprivation, in the most acute suffering, that supreme relief can be found. When life is reduced to its rudiments, we see clearly what is most important, we see how much of this life is superfluous, what justifies it and what must be preserved. But the grace, above all, is to see that the most extreme and suffocating misery is neither absolute nor the last word.

A tree is known by its fruit, but a human act, not being a tree, is better known by its intention. It is well said that one does not pick grapes from a thorn bush, and that figs do not sprout from a weed; however, man, always subject to a greater or lesser extent to the uncontrollable, does not always produce what is expected of him or what he wants. That is why, in his case, sticking to the fruit is not enough and can often lead us astray.

Behind every decisive eureka, there is always the experience without which it cannot be grasped, justified or utilized. From this we can see that, almost always, the eureka is nothing more than the sudden perception of the finality of the preceding experience; that is to say: the meaning of what has been experienced is revealed to consciousness, and from that moment the act takes on confidence and resolution.

The modern mind, which mistakenly believes or at least behaves as if the natural purpose of human life were the pursuit of pleasure, cannot understand how a life oriented in this way leads to the opposite result. It cannot understand how, invariably, such a practice leads to little pleasure and a lot of emptiness; nor how, from the emptiness, comes a despairing frustration. As unpleasant as responsibility may seem, the life around it seems oriented to the modern mind. But responsibility, more lasting and productive, provides a sense of continuity, satisfaction and value that pleasure of any kind can never offer.