Sayings of Ramakrishna 48

The locomotive engine reaches the destination itself, and also draws and takes with it a long train of loaded wagons. 

So likewise act the Saviors. They carry multitudes of men, heavily laden with the cares and sorrows of the world, to the feet of the Almighty.

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 5.29

“What we should rightly call eternal is that which grasps and possesses wholly and simultaneously the fullness of unending life, which lacks nothing of the future, and has lost nothing of the fleeting past; and such an existence must be ever present in itself to control and aid itself, and also must keep present with itself the infinity of changing time. 

 
“Therefore, people who hear that Plato thought that this Universe had no beginning of time and will have no end, are not right in thinking that in this way the created world is co-eternal with its Creator. For to pass through unending life, the attribute which Plato ascribes to the Universe is one thing; but it is another thing to grasp simultaneously the whole of unending life in the present; this is plainly a peculiar property of the mind of God. 
 
“And further, God should not be regarded as older than His creations by any period of time, but rather by the peculiar property of His own single Nature. For the infinite changing of temporal things tries to imitate the ever simultaneously present immutability of His life: it cannot succeed in imitating or equaling this, but sinks from immutability into change, and falls from the single directness of the present into an infinite space of future and past. 
 
“And since this temporal state cannot possess its life completely and simultaneously, but it does in the same manner exist for ever without ceasing, it therefore seems to try in some degree to rival that which it cannot fulfill or represent, for it binds itself to some sort of present time out of this small and fleeting moment; but inasmuch as this temporal present bears a certain appearance of that abiding present, it somehow makes those, to whom it comes, seem to be in truth what they imitate. 
 
“But since this imitation could not be abiding, the unending march of time has swept it away, and thus we find that it has bound together, as it passes, a chain of life, which it could not by abiding embrace in its fullness. And thus, if we would apply proper epithets to those subjects, we can say, following Plato, that God is eternal, but the Universe is continual.”
 
—from Book 5, Prose 6
 
When I first read this passage many years ago, I was immediately taken by the image of the creatures, existing in the limits of time, striving to grow in perfection, and trying to emulate the completeness of the Creator, existing beyond the limits of time. 
 
Yes, it is partly the hopeless romantic in me, I’m sure, but I would like to think that it is also a hazy reflection of what actually goes on, each and every day, as people rise and fall, succeed and fail, learn to love and learn to let go. 
 
There is a reason why we fight tooth and nail to become richer in being, even if we don’t always understand what we are doing, or why we are doing it. Even when we confuse right and wrong, better and worse, that irresistible urge gets to the heart of the matter. I can deny God all I want, and yet everything I do is to become more like Him. The concept of God is only a hindrance when I am thinking too small. 
 
I must be careful here not to conceive of a Divine transcendence at the expense of a Divine immanence, as if what is beyond time is somehow far distant from me. 
 
I remember what Lady Philosophy told me earlier, that while the lower cannot exist in the same way as the higher, the higher always includes within itself the lower. Providence is closer to me than I am to myself, though I do not see it at the time. 
 
Perhaps my choice of saying that God is “beyond” time is not quite right; perhaps it would be better to say that I don’t quite live up to the eternity, that I am mere becoming instead of being. What I am is only one tiny aspect of All that is. 
 
Following St. Augustine, I once again also remember: 
 
And I viewed the other things below You, and perceived that they neither altogether are, nor altogether are they not. They are, indeed, because they are from You. But they are not, because they are not what You are. For that truly is which remains immutably.
 
There is no part without the whole, nothing relative without the absolute, no change without the changeless. 
 
Time may go on forever and ever, but creatures have their bounds. Accordingly, they undergo a process, where the end of one thing transforms into the beginning of another. I have a lovely image of one of my other heroes, Marcus Aurelius, nodding his head in approval. 
 
Will I end, at least in the form I am now? Yes, and that is right and good. Will God end? It’s a nonsense question, since what is eternal has no beginning or end, and that is what is best. 

Written in 2/2016

Seneca, Moral Letters 5.5

But I wish to share with you today's profit also. I find in the writings of our Hecato that the limiting of desires helps also to cure fears: "Cease to hope," he says, "and you will cease to fear."
 
"But how," you will reply, "can things so different go side by side?" In this way, my dear Lucilius: though they do seem at variance, yet they are really united. Just as the same chain fastens the prisoner and the soldier who guards him, so hope and fear, dissimilar as they are, keep step together; fear follows hope.
 
I am not surprised that they proceed in this way; each alike belongs to a mind that is in suspense, a mind that is fretted by looking forward to the future. But the chief cause of both these ills is that we do not adapt ourselves to the present, but send our thoughts a long way ahead. 
 
And so foresight, the noblest blessing of the human race, becomes perverted. Beasts avoid the dangers which they see, and when they have escaped them are free from care; but we men torment ourselves over that which is to come as well as over that which is past. 
 
Many of our blessings bring bane to us; for memory recalls the tortures of fear, while foresight anticipates them. The present alone can make no man wretched. Farewell.
 
Hope and fear would at first seem to be opposites, the comfort of the former as a remedy for the suffering of the latter. 
 
From a different perspective, however, they can be seen as being quite similar, both as expressions of expectation. In one case, I am eagerly awaiting what might happen, and in another case, I am absolutely terrified of what might happen. 
 
For the Stoic, both hope and fear can be twisted into equally dangerous things, because they may not rest upon who we can be now, by what is within our power, but may rely upon what may or may not come to us, by what is well beyond our power.
 
I shudder when I think of how often I have allowed my happiness to depend almost exclusively on the whims of fortune. I would gladly claim credit if it went as I hoped it could, and I would resentfully cast blame elsewhere if it went as I feared it could. In most every case, my error was in surrendering my life to a concurrence of circumstances. 
 
Fear can be my downfall, and hope can be my downfall just as well, if I am fearing or hoping about what isn’t mine to begin with. This leaves me only with a life of anxiety, a constant state of worry, chained to future events instead of finding peace of mind in the here and now. 

 
Many of us have dreams about a perfect professional career, for example, and we work on it for years and years. If it doesn’t come, we feel like we are failures, and if it somehow does come, it is never as satisfying as we wanted it to be. The older hope is then replaced with a newer one, promised even further down the line, and we continue dreaming about something that never quite arrives. 
 
Many of us have nightmares about being abandoned by the ones we love, for example, and we engage in valiant efforts to keep their affections. If they walk away, we are heartbroken, and if they stick with us for one more day, our nervousness will continue on the morning of the next day. The game of doubt, flattery, and second-guessing never ends. 
 
Maybe it is better for me to just be a decent man today, instead of planning on being a rich and powerful man in ten years. 
 
Maybe it is better for me to just love another person without conditions right now, with no terms attached, instead of asking for any further compensation in return. 
 
I have a guarantee that I can give of myself immediately, but no guarantee that I will ever receive anything at all, at any time whatsoever. 
 
The future, whether it be the future of my hopes or the future of my fears, will unfold on its own terms. The philosopher’s mean focuses on being myself, not wanting to be someone else. 

Written in 3/2012

 

Wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita 26

7. Beyond Me, O Dhananjaya, there is nothing. All this is strung in Me, as a row of jewels on a thread.

8. I am the sapidity in waters, O son of Kunti; I, the radiance in the moon and the sun; I am the Om in all the Vedas, sound in Akâsha (Aether), and manhood in men.

9. I am the sweet fragrance in earth, and the brilliance in fire am I; the life in all beings, and the austerity am I in ascetics.

10. Know Me, O son of Prithâ, as the eternal seed of all beings. I am the intellect of the intelligent, and the heroism of the heroic.

11. Of the strong, I am the strength devoid of desire and attachment. I am, O bull among the Bhâratas, desire in beings, unopposed to Dharma.

12. And whatever states pertaining to Sattva, and those pertaining to Rajas, and to Tamas, know them to proceed from Me alone; still I am not in them, but they are in Me.

13. Deluded by these states, the modifications of the three Gunas of Prakriti, all this world does not know Me, beyond them, and immutable.

14. Verily, this divine illusion of Mine, constituted of the Gunas, is difficult to cross over; those who devote themselves to Me alone, cross over this illusion. 

—Bhagavad Gita, 7:7-14

Seneca, Moral Letters 5.4

"Well then, shall we act like other men? Shall there be no distinction between ourselves and the world?"
 
Yes, a very great one; let men find that we are unlike the common herd, if they look closely. If they visit us at home, they should admire us, rather than our household appointments. 
 
He is a great man who uses earthenware dishes as if they were silver; but he is equally great who uses silver as if it were earthenware. It is the sign of an unstable mind not to be able to endure riches.
 
Sometimes I wish to be exactly the same as everyone else, and sometimes I wish to be completely different from everyone else, and my motives will not always be the best. 
 
What measure am I using? Am I seeking to conform to what is best in a shared humanity, or am I just seeking approval? Am I avoiding vice by standing apart, or am I merely trying to look special? 
 
Dramatic gestures will not be required, as they are usually a sign that I am stroking my own ego. Let me live in a common and unassuming way, without drawing attention to whatever I might think makes me special. 
 
If people decide to come to know me, they will hopefully learn that what makes me distinct from the usual crowd is that I struggle, first and foremost, to pursue what is right, to act with fairness and compassion. When I fail, as I often do, then I dust myself off and try again. My deeds should speak for me, not my position or my possessions. Wanting to appear must fall away in favor of wanting to be. 
 
If I don’t have anything fancy to my name, then let me be completely content with what little I do have. It can also be just as noble, however, to end up having many fancy things, and to not care one bit that they are fancy, and not to define my life by them. 
 
It can be difficult to find such people, precisely because they don’t choose to insist upon themselves. Their distinction is in not being distinct just for the sake of being distinct. 
 
If I admire someone for what he has, or I dislike him for what he has, I am headed in the wrong direction. If, however, I respect someone for who he is, or I am wary of him for who he is, I am on the better path. Character should be what binds us together, and its absence should be what separates us apart. 
 
The philosopher’s mean asks me neither to hate being rich nor to hate being poor, but to hate settling for a bitter, selfish, and cowardly soul. 

Written in 3/2012

Sayings of Ramakrishna 47

When a mighty raft of wood floats down a stream, it can carry a hundred men, and still it does not sink. A reed floating down may sink with the weight of even a crow. 

So when a Savior becomes incarnate, innumerable are the men who find salvation by taking refuge under Him. The Siddha only saves himself with much toil and trouble.

Stoic Snippets 42

Examine men's ruling principles, even those of the wise, what kind of things they avoid, and what kind they pursue. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.38

Wisdom from the Early Cynics, Antisthenes 2

To begin with, he became a pupil of Gorgias the rhetorician, and hence the rhetorical style that he introduces in his dialogues, and especially in his Truth and in his Exhortations. 

According to Hermippus he intended at the public gathering for the Isthmian games to discourse on the faults and merits of Athenians, Thebans and Lacedaemonians, but begged to be excused when he saw throngs arriving from those cities.

Later on, however, he came into touch with Socrates, and derived so much benefit from him that he used to advise his own disciples to become fellow-pupils with him of Socrates. 

He lived in the Peiraeus, and every day would tramp the five miles to Athens in order to hear Socrates. From Socrates he learned his hardihood, emulating his disregard of feeling, and thus he inaugurated the Cynic way of life. 

He demonstrated that pain is a good thing by instancing the great Heracles and Cyrus, drawing the one example from the Greek world and the other from the barbarians.

—Diogenes Laërtius, 6.2

Wisdom from the Early Stoics, Zeno of Citium 26

The Stoics apply the term sense or sensation (αἴσθησις) to three things:

 

(1) the current passing from the principal part of the soul to the senses, 

(2) apprehension by means of the senses, 

(3) the apparatus of the sense-organs, in which some persons are deficient. Moreover, the activity of the sense-organs is itself also called sensation. 

According to them it is by sense that we apprehend black and white, rough and smooth, whereas it is by reason that we apprehend the conclusions of demonstration, for instance the existence of gods and their providence. 

General notions, indeed, are gained in the following ways: some by direct contact, some by resemblance, some by analogy, some by transposition, some by composition, and some by contrariety.

—Diogenes Laërtius, 7.52

Sayings of Ramakrishna 46

When the flood comes, it overflows rivers and streams, and makes one watery surface of all adjacent lands. But the rain-water flows away through fixed channels. 

When the Savior becomes incarnate, all are saved through His grace. The Siddhas (perfect ones) only save themselves with much pain and penance. 

Seneca, Moral Letters 5.3

Our motto, as you know, is "Live according to Nature"; but it is quite contrary to Nature to torture the body, to hate unlabored elegance, to be dirty on purpose, to eat food that is not only plain, but disgusting and forbidding.

 

Just as it is a sign of luxury to seek out dainties, so it is madness to avoid that which is customary and can be purchased at no great price. 

 

Philosophy calls for plain living, but not for penance; and we may perfectly well be plain and neat at the same time. This is the mean of which I approve; our life should observe a happy medium between the ways of a sage and the ways of the world at large. All men should admire it, but they should understand it also.

 

The pursuit of gratification can never be an end in itself, but then also the pursuit of deprivation can never be an end in itself. One fool thinks he is better for having more, while another fool thinks he is better for having less, and both are fools because the having is being confused with the living. 

 

I may have all sorts of misapprehensions and confusions about what is rightly meant by “Nature”, some of them because of my particular preferences, others on account of my unwillingness to look to a shared identity behind the impressions. 

 

Rocket science or cryptic metaphysics are not required to participate in Nature. My body is informed and ruled by a mind and a will, and so what is natural for me is to live according to the exercise of those powers, with understanding and with love. If I play my small part within the whole, I am then in harmony with the whole. 

 

All the rest can, and will, come and go as it may. Finding the mean involves ordering all circumstances, whether this involves receiving more or less, toward that intrinsic end. 

 

Deliberately mangling or abusing my body will not make me any more virtuous, no more than deliberately pampering or spoiling my body will do so. 

 

Some people like to tell me I should hate the flesh, and other people like to tell me I should wallow in the flesh, and I can only remind myself that I am not just a piece of flesh, but rather, as Epictetus said, a little soul carrying around a corpse. The baggage is only useful in how it serves the traveler on his journey. 

 

There is no shame in a good meal, or a pretty view, or the comfort of an innocent pleasure, as long as I can properly place them in the order of things. Simplicity is never opposed to appreciation, and the everyday world is not in a state of war with wisdom. 

 

If being a sage is being fully human, I will hardly become a sage by rejecting anything that is meant to be human. I will not be at peace with myself if I refuse to live in the midst of others, and thereby fail in helping them to be at peace with themselves. 

 

Fix it instead of throwing it away. 

Written in 3/2012 

Fractals 6

Sayings of Ramakrishna 45

As a large and powerful steamer moves swiftly over the waters, towing rafts and barges in its wake, so when a Savior descends, He easily carries thousands across the ocean of Mâyâ (illusion).

Michael Leunig 14

 

Seneca, Moral Letters 5.2

Do not wear too fine, nor yet too frowzy, a toga. One needs no silver plate, encrusted and embossed in solid gold; but we should not believe the lack of silver and gold to be proof of the simple life. 
 
Let us try to maintain a higher standard of life than that of the multitude, but not a contrary standard; otherwise, we shall frighten away and repel the very persons whom we are trying to improve. 
 
We also bring it about that they are unwilling to imitate us in anything, because they are afraid lest they might be compelled to imitate us in everything.
 
The first thing which philosophy undertakes to give is fellow feeling with all men; in other words, sympathy and sociability. We part company with our promise if we are unlike other men. We must see to it that the means by which we wish to draw admiration be not absurd and odious. 
 
I am likely to completely overlook the unassuming mean, precisely because it cares little about being noticed, and I find myself drawn instead to the gregarious extremes, precisely because they are very keen on grand performances. It would all be quite silly, if it wasn’t all so mortally dangerous. 
 
Too much and too little are in a constant competition for our attentions, knowing full well that they can only sell themselves on their immediate appearances. If I were to look any deeper, I would recognize that moderation is content with simply being itself, and it has no need to consume or destroy anything else. 
 
Finding the balance will require the careful forming of a delicate habit. 
 
At one moment, I may wish to feel more important by wearing fancy clothes and playing with expensive toys. Sensing the vanity of it all, at the next moment I may then wish to feel more important by dressing in rags and throwing away all my worldly possessions. Now I am only left with a sense of waste. 
 
Neither will be necessary, since I do not need more or less of anything else in order to be important; Nature already gave me my own power of judgment, the only means for excellence that I need. 
 
A good life will never be defined by standing in opposition to anything, or by being in conflict with anyone, or by tearing that down to raise this up. Virtue for its own sake will stand on its own merits, and is directed toward a benefit for all, not just for some at the expense of others. 
 
I am hardly becoming a better man if I am turning away my neighbor in the process; there will be no helping where I am only building up divisions. Getting all caught up in the back-and-forth pettiness of the external accidentals, I am then abandoning the justice of the internal essentials. 
 
In the simplest of terms, I don’t have to make others look wrong in order for me to look right. That very obsession with the seeming, instead of the being, is the stuff of extremes, instead of the mean. 
 
Stoicism, like any philosophy in harmony with Nature, is grounded in understanding and compassion. Putting on a show of the differences means that I have no sense of the shared unity. 

Written in 3/2012

Sayings of Ramakrishna 44

Consciously or unconsciously, in whatever way one falls into the trough of nectar, one becomes immortal. 

Similarly, whosoever utters the name of the Deity, voluntarily or involuntarily finds immortality in the end.

Seneca, Moral Letters 5.1

Letter 5: On the philosopher’s mean

  
I commend you and rejoice in the fact that you are persistent in your studies, and that, putting all else aside, you make it each day your endeavor to become a better man. I do not merely exhort you to keep at it; I actually beg you to do so. 
 
I warn you, however, not to act after the fashion of those who desire to be conspicuous rather than to improve, by doing things which will rouse comment as regards your dress or general way of living.
 
Repellent attire, unkempt hair, slovenly beard, open scorn of silver dishes, a couch on the bare earth, and any other perverted forms of self-display, are to be avoided. 
 
The mere name of philosophy, however quietly pursued, is an object of sufficient scorn; and what would happen if we should begin to separate ourselves from the customs of our fellow men?
 
Inwardly, we ought to be different in all respects, but our exterior should conform to society.
 
There are those moments, both frightening and wonderful, when I know that I need to get down to the business of seriously working on my character. Sometimes they come out of a colossal personal failure, and sometimes they arise from a sudden moment of insight and clarity, but they are always well past due. 
 
I still run the serious danger, however, of getting caught up in the ideology instead of the action, and from there it is only a short step to becoming obsessed with keeping up the appearances over getting the job done right. The style then suddenly takes precedence over the substance, because the style is quite a bit easier, and it is far more likely to win me flattery and approval. 
 
It is the timeless problem of becoming a philosophical Hyacinth Bucket. Yes, I may still mean well, but I’ve got the priorities all mixed up. 
 
Usually, of course, those who wish to make a good impression on others, a sort of weak substitute to actually becoming a better person, will pursue various symbols of wealth and power. Hence, we see the suburban homes, the glamorous vacations, and the imported luxury cars. 
 
There is another variation, however, that of the posturing poor man, or the self-consciously scruffy intellectual. Hippies are prone to it when they refuse to bathe as a political statement, and hipsters adore it as an expression of cynical and ironic commentary. 
 
The type I was most familiar with was that of the conservative Catholic social martyrs, always reminding the world how much they were sacrificing in order to become holier than everyone else. I knew I was in trouble when my supposed friends not only started wearing tweed jackets, but were deliberately seeking out distressed tweed jackets. It was part of a crafted image of impoverished eccentricity. 
 
Seneca warns the young Lucilius about the Stoic version of this tendency. Sometimes we go to the extreme of showing off our luxuries, and sometimes we go to the extreme of showing off our sufferings, when neither is at all necessary to achieve a sense of worth. The mean is in the virtuous action, not in any form of wishing to stand out. 
 
The aspiring Stoic may observe that those who seek fame and fortune will display their winnings, and so, as a sort of counterpoint, he will make a point of advertising his simplicity and humility. 
 
But they aren’t really simplicity and humility if they need to be advertised, are they? They are just another piece of performance art, now swinging from the excess of looking rich and refined to the deficiency of looking disheveled and dirty. 
 
I will already make a strong enough impression, for good or for ill, by quietly living my life according to certain principles, and there is no point in shouting anything else from the rooftops. 
 
The change needs to be deep within my soul, not in the shallow trappings of my “lifestyle choices”.

Written in 3/2012

Sayings of Socrates 48

He had invited some rich men and, when Xanthippe said she felt ashamed of the dinner, "Never mind," said he, "for if they are reasonable they will put up with it, and if they are good for nothing, we shall not trouble ourselves about them." 

He would say that the rest of the world lived to eat, while he himself ate to live. 

Of the mass of men who do not count he said it was as if some one should object to a single tetradrachm as counterfeit and at the same time let a whole heap made up of just such pieces pass as genuine.

 Aeschines said to him, "I am a poor man and have nothing else to give, but I offer you myself," and Socrates answered, "Nay, do you not see that you are offering me the greatest gift of all?" 

To one who complained that he was overlooked when the Thirty rose to power, he said, "You are not sorry for that, are you?"

—Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 2.34

Tao Te Ching 73

He whose boldness appears in his daring to do wrong, in defiance of the laws, is put to death; he whose boldness appears in his not daring to do so lives on. Of these two cases the one appears to be advantageous, and the other to be injurious. But—

When Heaven's anger smites a man,

Who the cause shall truly scan?

On this account the sage feels a difficulty as to what to do in the former case.

It is the way of Heaven not to strive, and yet it skillfully overcomes; not to speak, and yet it is skillful in obtaining a reply; does not call, and yet men come to it of themselves.

Its demonstrations are quiet, and yet its plans are skillful and effective. The meshes of the net of Heaven are large; far apart, but letting nothing escape.

Stoic Snippets 41

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom yourself to consider that the Nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.36

Sayings of Ramakrishna 43

A king having committed the mortal crime of killing a Brâhmana, went to the hermitage of a sage to learn what penance he must perform in order to be purified. 

The sage was absent from home, but his son was there. The son hearing the case of the king, said, "Repeat the name of God (Râma) three times and your sin will be expiated." 

When the sage came back and heard the penance prescribed by his son, he said to him in great wrath, "Sins committed in myriads of births are purged at once by but once uttering the name of the Almighty; how weak must be your faith, O son, that you have ordered that name to be repeated thrice! For this offense of yours go and become a Kândâla, an outcast." 

And the son became the Guhaka Kândâla of the Râmâyana.

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 5.28

“Since then all that is known is apprehended, as we just now showed, not according to its nature but according to the nature of the knower, let us examine, so far as we lawfully may, the character of the Divine Nature, so that we may be able to learn what its knowledge is. 
 
“The common opinion, according to all men living, is that God is eternal. Let us therefore consider what is eternity. For eternity will, I think, make clear to us at the same time the Divine Nature and knowledge. 
 
“Eternity is the simultaneous and complete possession of infinite life. This will appear more clearly if we compare it with temporal things. 
 
“All that lives under the conditions of time moves through the present from the past to the future; there is nothing set in time which can at one moment grasp the whole space of its lifetime. It cannot yet comprehend tomorrow; yesterday it has already lost. 
 
“And in this life of today your life is no more than a changing, passing moment. 
 
“And as Aristotle said of the Universe, so it is of all that is subject to time; though it never began to be, nor will ever cease, and its life is co-extensive with the infinity of time, yet it is not such as can be held to be eternal. For though it apprehends and grasps a space of infinite lifetime, it does not embrace the whole simultaneously; it has not yet experienced the future.”
 
—from Book 5, Prose 6
 
The school of hard knocks has taught me to be very careful when someone promises an eternity, almost as much as when someone swears undying love. Combine the two terms together, and you may face the prospect of the gravest disappointment. 
 
This is not necessarily because we don’t mean well, but because we don’t always understand precisely what we are saying. Love isn’t just a current pleasure, and an eternity is something more than just the foreseeable future. 
 
If I am ever going to gain some insights on Divine knowledge, however indirectly and incompletely, I will have to grapple with what it means for such knowledge to be eternal.
 
Perhaps I am imagining eternity like some line with no beginning and with no ending, always continuing on and on in both directions. 
 
Perhaps it is like an infinite number, where something else can always still be added to it. 
 
Perhaps I am picturing the familiar symbols, that sideways eight, or a snake eating its own tail, where everything is always coming around again, right back to where it started. 
 
Lady Philosophy might say that I am then describing what goes on forever, or what is potentially infinite, but I am not quite describing what is eternal, or what is actually infinite. The distinction will be between what remains determined by time, and what is in and of itself timeless. 
 
My use of words like “continuing”, and “adding”, and “coming and going” are getting in my way. 
 
Both Aristotle and Einstein, working from very different perspectives and in very different circumstances, wondered if time had any absolute existence, or if it was relative. 
 
Both came to the conclusion that time is measured by motion and change, just as space is measure by extension, and that there is no such thing as “time” at all where there is no variation. 
 
Eternity is something far more profound than what is forever. While change might be infinite, as with the Universe Aristotle postulated, eternity is an infinity that is changeless. 
 
It is all as if it were like a constant now, the only analogy I can use to comprehend it. There is no past, because nothing has gone away. There is no future, because nothing will still come to be. 
 
My own life passes, while in the life of God nothing passes at all. It is, in all the beauty of its simplicity and perfection. Where there is only absolute Being, there is nothing lost or gained, because everything is completely present.. 

Written in 2/2016

The Wisdom of Solomon 7:24-30

[24] For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;

because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.
[25] For she is a breath of the power of God,
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
[26] For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness.
[27] Though she is but one, she can do all things,
and while remaining in herself, she renews all things;
in every generation she passes into holy souls
and makes them friends of God, and prophets;
[28] for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom.
[29] For she is more beautiful than the sun,
and excels every constellation of the stars.
Compared with the light she is found to be superior,
[30] for it is succeeded by the night,
but against wisdom evil does not prevail.

Sayings of Ramakrishna 42

 

A devil never enters the house wherein are always sung the praises of Hari.

Musonius Rufus, Fragments 23

What indictment can we make against tyrants when we ourselves are much worse than they? 

 
For we have the same impulses as theirs, but not the same opportunity to indulge them.
 
If I am feeling especially self-righteous on a certain day, I will paint the man who thinks and acts differently from me as an enemy, and I will insist that we have absolutely nothing in common. 
 
He is wrong, and I am right, and the delineation between us is absolutely clear. This puts me under the illusion that I can sleep the sleep of the just, while he must be forever tormented for his sins. 
 
Yet it isn’t always that simple, is it? Do I not also feel the pull of jealousy and resentment, much as he does? Am I to deny that I too am easily tempted to insult and injury? Is my mind as empty of deception, and my heart as clear of malice, as I might like to claim? 
 
Sometimes the only real difference between the oppressor and the oppressed, between the bully and the victim, is a presence or absence of the power to act out our wishes. 
 
Let me not be too quick to judge, saying that I would never choose to do what he does, when I really mean that I don’t have the means do what he does. 
 
To understand this does not require that I have to wallow in my own guilt, but rather that I should redirect my efforts to compassion instead of condemnation. 
 
We are more alike that we are willing to admit. That can be a chance to grow better together, instead of drawing imaginary lines in the sand. 
 
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
 
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

The Art of Peace 64

Spring forth from the Great Earth; 

Billow like Great Waves;

Stand like a tree, sit like a rock; 

Use One to strike All.

Learn and forget!