pt.4: ON PHILOSOPHY (TRAINING FOR DEATH)

THE PLAYERS AND THEIR ARGUMENTS

And so, Sophocles said: He who seeks truth shall find

how dreadful knowledge of the truth is, when he

who seek’d truth sees that there is no help or solace in it

For the keenest sorrow is to recognize that we ourselves

are the sole cause of all our adversities – in life, and in death.

Thus, it is in not knowing anything

that is the sweetest life.

Oh sweet, bittersweet death.

But there remains the melancholic kiss of hope,

for one word frees us of all the weight and pain

of this dreaded life: that word is love.

No matter how foolish your deeds, those who love you

will love you still. I speak now of true things

for old age and the passage of time teach all things

as no lie ever reaches old age – and I now, life beyond my years

it is in my nature to join in love, not descend into hate.

I used to believe wisdom to be the supreme part of happiness,

yet not even old age knows how to love death.

Yet death is not the worst,

but when one wants to die and is not able to even have that.

So, I find solace in reason: God’s crowning gift to man

reason says that there is no success without hardship

that wisdom outweighs all other wealth

and that fail with honour than succeed by fraud

and so, I remain a slave

here within my grave.

This is the truth and wisdom of all my years.

And so, Plato said: For a man to conquer himself

is the first and noblest of all victories for

Reality is created by the mind, and so we can change reality

by changing our mind. And at the first touch of love

everyone becomes a poet. But not everyone does

for no one is more hated than he who speaks truth

as false words are not only evil in themselves

but they infect the soul with evil. Thus, wise men speak

because they have something truthful to say:

fools because they have to say something. 

Just as knowledge which is acquired under compulsion

obtains no hold on the mind. Wonder is the feeling

of the philosopher and philosophy begins in wonder,

opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

and thinking – the talking of the soul with itself.

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself

to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile

for knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning

rather than wisdom and cunning is but the low mimic of wisdom.

How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping

and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake,

and talking to one another in the waking state?

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

for no one knows whether death, which people fear

to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good

for no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death

of fate, the blame is his who chooses: God is blameless. E’en so, always recall that we are twice armed if we fight with faith.

And so, Aristotle said: Happiness depends upon ourselves

for happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life,

the whole aim and end of human existence

the ultimate value of life depends upon awareness

and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel,

but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so

for all virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil and

men are swayed more by fear than by reverence

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him

who conquers his enemies for the hardest victory is over self.

Whether if soul did not exist time would exist or not,

is a question that may fairly be asked;

for if there cannot be someone to count

there cannot be anything that can be counted,

so that evidently there cannot be number;

for number is either what has been, or what can be, counted.

It is during these darkest moments that we must focus

to see the light: that the Gods too are fond of a joke.

It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets

the art of telling lies skilfully for the poet

being an imitator like a painter or any other artist,

must of necessity imitate one of three objects –

 things as they were or are,

things as they are said or thought to be,

or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.