As I pulled away from home recently, I was confronted by a myriad of images: neon signs, bustling people, pulsating traffic – overall, a general sense of movement: dynamic and ongoing change. It is hard to believe in “a constant,” a sense of permanency when we experience, what appears to be, the ephemeral nature of life. But one viewpoint holds that this is not true. Life in its very essence is not changeable: it is life. Of course, the body dies and goes back into the ground and changes into something else, but that substance – DNA or whatever it is — is immortal. Life is always life. The absence of life – death – is always death. The two concepts are mutually exclusive. (1)
Rabbi Friedman (b. 1946) affords us an interesting opinion. (2) This is one set of beliefs that solves the great conundrum that all thinking beings face. Today I am alive, or appear to be, and around me others disappear. The logically conclusion being that one day I too will die and be expunged. But is this important? I think not. At the very least, my genes are immortal. They transcend time and space. Why then do I need to worry about death when I am given immortality just by the gift of life itself? What I should be concerned about is my life, my mission (3) and how I am going to spend my years of consciousness? This is a much harder task that not being.
As a society, we focus far too much on the future when the present, my task at hand, is real. Therefore, the only reality I can possibly know is right now, this very moment. When you think of this, it is a very liberating thought. The past itself has spun away; the future is indeterminate to say the least, and you are left with the present to do with what you may – be happy, be sad, full fulfilled or feel empty. This great concept of melancholia that has permeated so much of Western thinking is thus pointless. (4)
The Epicureans, for one, believed in living a good life: “Epicurus (341-270 BC) believed that the greatest good was to seek modest, sustainable pleasure in the form of a state of ataraxia (tranquility and freedom from fear – especially fear of death) and aponia (the absence of bodily pain) through knowledge of the workings of the world and limiting desires. … Epicurus argued that pleasure was the chief good in life. Hence, he advocated living in such a way as to derive the greatest amount of pleasure possible during one’s lifetime, yet doing so moderately in order to avoid the suffering incurred by overindulgence in such pleasure: emphasis was placed on pleasures of the mind rather than on physical pleasures. Unnecessary and, especially, artificially produced desires were to be suppressed.” (4) Certainly, somewhat Utopian in outlook, but an interesting approach to a modern society seemingly filled with an overabundance of social malaise and negative information. Given that I can take seize the movement of today, I can decide how my present time will be. I am free to be me, given the uncertainty that consciousness, by definition, presents.
Professor Frédéric Gros (b. 1965) leaves us with a thought on walking to achieve a state of happiness: None of your knowledge, your reading, your connections will be of any use here: two legs suffice, and big eyes to see with. Walk alone, across mountains or through forests. You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery. You are no longer a role, or a status, not even an individual, but a body, a body that feels sharp stones on the paths, the caress of long grass and the freshness of the wind. When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings. Always the same thing to do all day: walk. But the walker who marvels while walking (the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of olive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills) has no past, no plans, no experience. He has within him the eternal child. While walking I am but a simple gaze. (5)
A closing thought: Whenever I think of life, I am confronted by change. A flower buds, matures, blooms and declines, but much like the platonic concept of the forms, (6) I can identify it as a flower in a garden. Similarly, we are all a part of the human family, but each of us is unique and special – immortal by the very fact of physically existing for a period of time. It is not difficult to accept that in some small way my thoughts and ideas survive my corporeal being. So, go forth and be at peace. Do good and help your fellow man. Your actions will, ultimately, benefit the Common Good from which all life emanates.
To sum up: This week, we spoke about change and how we must look for the source behind the chaos to make any sense of life itself.
To be noted: From Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) — Life is a journey, not a destination.
Just for fun: Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2
For reflection: Thomas Aquinas
This week on your reflective walk, please capture the silence of the moment.
Every day look for something magical and beautiful
Quote: Movement is transient, but ideas are eternal.
Footnotes:
3) MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING BY VIKTOR FRANKL
4) Epicureanism
5) A Philosophy of Walking by Frédéric Gros (978-1781-68-270-8)