The repetition is amusing because it shows that by announcing it, a problem is not solved. And it returns again and again in new forms, demanding new recognition. It is difficult, how it is difficult to maintain integrity in contact with the world! If this effort is what Goethe called character, the world can only be seen as a test. And without prayer, meditation and the daily affirmation of one’s vows, it is very easy to degrade oneself in the face of a victorious world. Prayer and meditation are superlative and indispensable practices. Distancing oneself from them, distancing oneself from constructive reading, and the spirit is lost as quickly as it is strengthened when it approaches them. Only fools can deny this.
Tag: philosophy
What Dignifies the Being Is the Active Work
By Lavelle:
Il n’y a qu’une attitude qui donne à la douleur son véritable sens, c’est celle qui consiste à l’accepter, à la faire nôtre, à lui demander les moyens d’enrichir et d’approfondir notre être intérieur, c’est-à-dire à la convertir en un principe de joie. L’origine de la moralité est la souffrance volontaire.
What dignifies the being is the active work he does on the circumstances at his disposal. Pain, therefore, like everything else, only acquires meaning when it is transmuted, when it is absorbed and used as fuel for some positive transformation. There is no merit or demerit in suffering it; man, however, only appears when he transfigures it, necessarily imprinting his individual mark.
The Repeated Experience of the Irreversible…
The repeated experience of the irreversible teaches more than any study. Only if man is imbued with the notion of inescapable finitude can he fill his life with meaning and understand the value of the moment. This persistent repetition, magnificently represented by Poe in The Raven, teaches humility, responsibility and urgency all at once, something that no book can convey with such intensity.
Although the First Few Years of an Intellectual Life…
Although the first few years of an intellectual life seem by far the most fruitful, in which each one of them seems to bring about a complete transformation in knowledge, after a certain time, although progress seems to lose momentum, the gain in direction is remarkable. In other words: at the beginning, when everything is new, we discover a lot, but knowledge expands simultaneously in many directions, and we can hardly see a direction, we can hardly see where the effort will lead. After a few years, we make far fewer mistakes, and although the difficulties increase, we move forward more consciously towards where we want to be.