Boethius, The Consolation 3.34

“Come hither all who are the prey of passions,

 bound by their ruthless chains;

those deceiving passions which blunt the minds of men.

 Here shall you find rest from your labors;

here a haven lying in tranquil peace;

this shall be a resting-place

open to receive within itself all the miserable on earth.

Not all the wealth of Tagus's golden sands,

nor Hermus' gleaming strand,

nor Indus, nigh earth's hottest zone,

mingling its emeralds and pearls,

can bring light to the eyes of any soul,

but rather plunge the soul more blindly in their shade.

In her deepest caverns does earth rear

 all that pleases the eye and excites the mind.

The glory by which the heavens move and have their being,

has nothing to do with the darknesses that bring ruin to the soul.

Whosoever can look on this true light

will scarce allow the sun's rays to be clear.”

—from Book 3, Poem 10

To think of the Divine as an abstraction, as some wonderful concept somewhere up there in the sky, has sadly never been helpful for me. Perhaps the weakness is within myself, but I have failed to find comfort in anything “up there”, while I must still try to make sense of what is going on “down here”.

Maybe I should stop breaking things apart, dividing the theory and the practice, and finally discover a sense of unity.

In desiring happiness, I am seeking something complete, absolutely reliable, and lacking in nothing. I long for contentment, peace, and certainty. Now what could possibly fulfill this desperate need? I try vainly, as Pascal so wisely said, to fill an infinite hole with finite things.

And then I wonder why I am still so miserable, even as I must pretend to be quite satisfied. It would be embarrassing to admit I was wrong, and unseemly to lose face with my neighbors. Most of us are playing a clever game.

Yet I can begin right here and now with what I can see before me, the evidence of all creatures, and then I can also see with equal clarity what makes all these creatures what they are. Perfect Being is immediately present in all beings, not removed from them at all. It may well be transcendent, but it is also immanent.

“But I can’t see God!” Of course you can, just as you can see me through the medium of your eyes, or you can hear me through the medium of your ears. Most importantly, you can know it through the medium of your mind, the sharpest and mightiest of your powers.

Where there are changing effects, there is an unchanging cause. Where there are degrees, there is an absolute. Where there is the deepest desire, there is the perfect object of that desire. All the things that once appeared to be so great will suddenly no longer appear so great.

“I wish to be gratified!” How well, may I ask with all due respect, has that worked out for you? You honestly know that you are still missing something after you have eaten all you want, made as much money as you can imagine, and played all of your games of power and sex. When those things are done, you still want more, and more, and more.

So I choose to look to follow the best. Nothing lesser should distract me, and any attention should be directed to the light itself, not to the shadow.

“But how can I possibly find that?” Look through things, back to what underlies those things. The Absolute is not obscure, but quite apparent. Everything else will pale in comparison. The bits and pieces of the world begin to appear rather dull when compared to their brilliant source.

Written in 9/2015