Kitabı oku: «The sages’ art of living», sayfa 2

1.2. The Mastery of Living

The term “mastery” indicates that which is normal for the master, which means way of doing things, by means of a utility or function in a superior or better way than others. Therefore, “mastery” is defined as an attitude carried out with a continuous capability superior to that which others possess. For example, the craft of carpenter or blacksmith is a term applied to those who are able to work with wood or iron and produce better results due to their skill and ability.

Mastery of Living means a way or style of life that is superior to the current norms of the social context. He who masters living is the best in the class, with “class” meaning community. A master of living knows how to do things better than anybody else. He has learnt about the different instruments of living and knows how to use and make them conform exclusively to his own advantage, with the aim of being the best. Everything is relative to his purpose.

He is the one who, instead of being the sheep, wants to be the shepherd. From the biological and social point of view, he wants to gain the intelligence for personal power. He is a leader and his psychology or basic rules of behavior are described in The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.

He who knows the mastery of living can, without doubt, consider himself to be superior to many people, and his satisfaction consists of two aspects: superior historic realization (economy, leadership, and affectivity), and consciousness of his own identity and power.

Practically all of these subjects can be identified in those people who are in fact (with or without notoriety) leaders; that is, people of the highest level.

The thing that makes them different from the first way of living is that which will now be described. While the first way of living covers the model (or models) of being absolute and totalitarian in life, the second uses the models simply as a means to an end and observes in them measures that deserve credibility on the part of the others. The first are therefore what they believe, the second use what the others believe.

Those who are identifiable in the mastery of living (though very few) develop their healthy egoism towards a progressive mental gain and a personality cemented in economic means and qualified (the most productive for their purpose) relationships – take for granted that each law may be good, but not definite and absolute.

1.3. The Art of Living

“Art” really means, that which gives form to the underlying force; therefore, that which gives a place to the form of the force. It comes from the basic form of the Latin verb ardere (to burn); a rough image could be the outline of the flames rising in a hearth.

The art of living is the capacity to exert influence on life by means of models of action, which determine a newness of being in the existence. Instead of repeating the cycle of existence, the individual invents ways of behaving of such high power that they allow him to objectify existence as being a natural background to his own personality’s game. In the art of living, the subject uses the existence of life without believing in it; not because he despises or undervalues it. On the contrary, he comprehends it and values it more than others do, but he discovers the ultimate goal, and he lives the rest as theatre.

In the dimensions of the art of living, one can comprehend the continuous danger of things and relationships, exercising daily living with extreme precision. Each relationship or thing has its own measure of time, place, substance, and circumstance. If one mistakenly misses any of these criteria, he will find existence against him and will lose the opportunity of using life as a personal object. The art of living belongs to those rare people who can master life as an act of their own spirit, and they can be defined as sages. “Sage” comes from the Latin “sapiens” that means “wise”. The root is the verb “sapere” (to know) which means to have or to give knowledge. The sage is he who knows and acts with pleasure. Sapience is the technique of taking pleasure from existence.

These differences having been distinguished, it is now clear that I will not stop on the hidden ravines of those who expiate their lives in disease, or who survive in a state of congenital inertness according to the tolerance of the chemical and physiological compounds of their bodies. This kind of life is neurosis. The culture of the system is sufficient for this type of life. For the mastery of living one must discover that which is common in other cultures or in absolute extremist opinions.

Thus, I will now explain some indications and experiences pertaining to the art of living.

Chapter Two
Metaphysics of adolescence

2.1

In many young people, there is an acute tension to be perfect in their own destiny. This thirst to discover a far-off place, where the subject can at last find his own real identity for which he is recognized and loved as unique, can show itself at any age before twenty-four. It creates a general dissatisfaction and hurts in a profound way that is beyond any other instinct or satisfaction. This pain manifests as the fiery tears that seep – invisible – down cheeks. A frustration is experienced that cannot be attributed to any external reason, but is nevertheless so total that doubt remains, whether it is due to an external mistake or to an unconscious personal guilt.

This atrocious dissatisfaction cannot be communicated, because when one tries to express it, it is immediately questioned as a result of incomplete common duties, or as a demand of the family or cultural system, or in some cases as an alibi for precise responsibilities. Such dissatisfaction within the conscience of the young may also be the result of an excessive delay in taking some pleasures or rights, which are immediately attributed to adult people. At times one has a penetrating suspicion of having come from an aristocratic birth or upper class family, which has now been lost, or of having been hopelessly separated from one’s real land of origin. In many cases, one accuses those around him or her of a lack of love and respect that comes with appreciation, and this seems to be caused by the fault or ignorance of those who are around us, who are blame for not understanding the value and importance of “…who I am!”.

In the meantime, the fantasizing adolescent desperately seeks travel, escapes, stories and curiosities of adventure, which must substantially compensate for the huge emptiness of an incomplete and misunderstood desperation.

Sometimes this bitter tension of an unfathomable longing seems to find quiet in esoteric cultures, in metaphysical re-incarnation, or in religious vocations with missions of exceptional social exemplarity. The young person acquires the absolute urgency inside himself, like a reply to a divine call, or a mission of social justice which others, however, declare to be ideological extremism.

If by chance this total unexplainable urgency is more intense in subjects of circumstances too reduced to be manifested in compensation, it then translates into a generation of schizophrenic anxiety: the subject constructs his own inspired image, leaving his total identity in the holocaust of the new unforeseen inhabitation. Almost always death from an incurable disease or unconscious suicide concludes the misunderstood spasm.