Does no one govern it? How can that be? A city or a household cannot endure even for a brief span of time without one to govern and take charge of it, and can this great and noble frame of things be administered in such good order by mere random chance?
There is, then, One who governs it. What is His nature and how does He govern? And we, what are we, His creations, and to what work are we born? Have we any connection and relation with Him or not?
Such are the thoughts which occur to these few, and so they devote their time to this and this alone, to investigate the assembly of life before they leave it.
What follows? They are laughed at by the multitude, just as in the other assembly those who look on are laughed at by those who buy and sell. Nay, the cattle themselves, if they shared our perception, would laugh at those who have made anything else but fodder the object of their wonder and regard!
There is, then, One who governs it. What is His nature and how does He govern? And we, what are we, His creations, and to what work are we born? Have we any connection and relation with Him or not?
Such are the thoughts which occur to these few, and so they devote their time to this and this alone, to investigate the assembly of life before they leave it.
What follows? They are laughed at by the multitude, just as in the other assembly those who look on are laughed at by those who buy and sell. Nay, the cattle themselves, if they shared our perception, would laugh at those who have made anything else but fodder the object of their wonder and regard!
—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.14
The positivists were quite right to begin with the empirical, but they were sadly misguided when they also ended with the empirical. There is a world of difference between saying that I experience it because it is real, and that it is real because I experience it—be wary of the man who rejects a God because he has not been able to contain the Divine inside a test tube.
Take what you can perceive, and then apply the power of reason to its workings. To deny a cause to the effect, or the necessary to what is contingent, or a purpose to an order is a rather illiberal and unscientific way to proceed, a skepticism that has more to do with obstinacy than it does with clarity. I am reminded of getting drunk with an esteemed physics professor, who finally admitted how he hated religion because his mother had dragged him out of bed on Sunday mornings.
Once I declare that the world is chaotic, I am just describing my inner frustrations, not anything regarding the arrangement of nature. I wasted too many years worried about life failing to make any sense, when the problem was always a turmoil in my thinking. I will not succumb to doubt and despair as long as I remain intensely curious.
If the idea of the Absolute continues to feel uncomfortable, I should realize it is because I am making too much of my own being at the expense of an openness to complete Being. The part will only find a function within the harmony of the whole. That I do not know everything about the grand design does not mean that I know nothing about my particular place.
What will become of me if I continue down this path? The buyers and the sellers in the marketplace will have no further use for me, since I am no longer trading in their currency. They will make clever jokes, and they will roll their eyes as I pass by, yet this will not trouble me as much as it once did. I can now appreciate something I used to ridicule, which makes me wonder if that old man, the one who would mumble about repentance at the bus stop, might have been onto something.
There comes a point when the question, “What do I want?” is replaced by the question, “What does He ask of me?” Instead of scheming over how to make a profit, I am questioning the very meaning of benefit and harm. I am more concerned with opening my mind than I am with stuffing my belly.
As a child, the words “laughing cow” brought to mind delicious little cheese wedges. Now they bring to mind this letter by Epictetus. You can’t go home again. There’s no going back after I’ve peeked under the curtain.
The positivists were quite right to begin with the empirical, but they were sadly misguided when they also ended with the empirical. There is a world of difference between saying that I experience it because it is real, and that it is real because I experience it—be wary of the man who rejects a God because he has not been able to contain the Divine inside a test tube.
Take what you can perceive, and then apply the power of reason to its workings. To deny a cause to the effect, or the necessary to what is contingent, or a purpose to an order is a rather illiberal and unscientific way to proceed, a skepticism that has more to do with obstinacy than it does with clarity. I am reminded of getting drunk with an esteemed physics professor, who finally admitted how he hated religion because his mother had dragged him out of bed on Sunday mornings.
Once I declare that the world is chaotic, I am just describing my inner frustrations, not anything regarding the arrangement of nature. I wasted too many years worried about life failing to make any sense, when the problem was always a turmoil in my thinking. I will not succumb to doubt and despair as long as I remain intensely curious.
If the idea of the Absolute continues to feel uncomfortable, I should realize it is because I am making too much of my own being at the expense of an openness to complete Being. The part will only find a function within the harmony of the whole. That I do not know everything about the grand design does not mean that I know nothing about my particular place.
What will become of me if I continue down this path? The buyers and the sellers in the marketplace will have no further use for me, since I am no longer trading in their currency. They will make clever jokes, and they will roll their eyes as I pass by, yet this will not trouble me as much as it once did. I can now appreciate something I used to ridicule, which makes me wonder if that old man, the one who would mumble about repentance at the bus stop, might have been onto something.
There comes a point when the question, “What do I want?” is replaced by the question, “What does He ask of me?” Instead of scheming over how to make a profit, I am questioning the very meaning of benefit and harm. I am more concerned with opening my mind than I am with stuffing my belly.
As a child, the words “laughing cow” brought to mind delicious little cheese wedges. Now they bring to mind this letter by Epictetus. You can’t go home again. There’s no going back after I’ve peeked under the curtain.
—Reflection written in 9/2001
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