It is said in the Dhammapada: having no companies, it is better to walk alone. And the error of the superior man who disregards this recommendation will be grave. Not being able to surround himself with nobler spirits,—or at least similar ones,—he will have to choose solitude or self-destruction. If he risks an impossible conciliation, if he gives in to the gregarious instinct instead of annulling it, then he will see, over and over again, the infamous manifestations which characterize inferior spirits, culminating in a state where he can no longer distinguish himself from them. Consequently, he will have neutralized his potentialities and, if there is a shred of wisdom left, he will have to face his choices—when it is no longer possible to reverse them—with his mind filled with regret and frustration.
Tag: philosophy
The Demonic Man, According to the Bhagavad Gita
It is interesting to note the description of the demonic man contained in the Bhagavad Gita. Although there is the natural mention of the malicious and cruel model, the emphasis is on the greedy, materialistic one, whose insatiable desire guides him in the incessant search for wealth and power. Having this, having that; success, ambition; pleasure in feeling powerful; infinite vanity… From all this, a lustful and arrogant worldview is extracted, which throws the being into competition with others, giving rise to envy and stinginess. A being that acts and spares no means to achieve what he wants: he subjugates the world to his personal project. Never parsimony, never frugality, never sincere compassion. Needless to conclude…
By What He Does, One Man Can Be Distinguished From Another
Unfortunately, it is not wise to write only in the last stage of life, since it is not possible to define it previously… Sartre is right when he says that “l’homme est ce qu’il se fait,” and that therefore the act is responsible for materializing the genius, for realizing potentialities that, without action, would end up wasted. The act is the voluntary effort that transforms faculties into reality; by what it does, one man can be distinguished from another; Dante was and became Dante by composing verses, Shakespeare by doing plays; and so, although the conclusion may lead to unhappy results, there is no denying that the most important is the now.
Man and His Circumstance
It is prudent when Ortega y Gasset says that “yo soy yo y mi circunstancia, y si no la salvo a ella no me salvo yo,” and also the realization that, living for his time, man lives for all times. There is, however, a danger in this. Dostoevsky inserted a timeless theme into the setting of his time; Dante represented the morals of his time in sublime verses whose essence lay in an acronymic spiritual drama. It is impossible to abstract them from circumstance without deforming them, yet in both, circumstance does nothing but pigment—individualizing, of course—a universal expression common to men of all times. The author, if obsessed with his circumstance and devoid of a sense of timelessness, tends to lose himself in ephemeral futilities, becoming irrelevant to the future, or even outside his social circle. More than anything, it is necessary that he develops a sense of what passes and what remains, of the detail and the essential; otherwise he will be fatally forgotten.