Kitabı oku: «The sages’ art of living», sayfa 3

2.2

In reality this is a metaphysical nostalgia of being.

Metaphysical means a presence, that is real and concrete, beyond the means or facts through which it occurs. From the Greek μετα – beyond, and φιυσισ – concrete nature. For instance, when we read a letter sent by someone that we know and who has the right or title to interfere with our psychological or social reality, we have a signed paper in our hands. However, there is a meaning and an intention beyond the paper and that which is written on it. By only looking at what is written on the surface we cannot demonstrate either the sense or who has written it, but the receiver knows of the existence of the writer, and, although he is absent, he is in any case the metaphysical reality of the written sheet.

Nostalgia (the etymology must always be constructed from the Greek and Latin) is a past knowledge that pungently re-activates itself, almost to the extent of prevailing on the present data.

Being (in Italian Essere) is the basic and simplistic term, without which nothing can be thought of and nothing exists. Either as a verb, a language, or a reality, the word being serves to define – in either concrete or probable terms – the being or the non-being.

The being can be understood in two ways. First, the Being as a unique personalized reality of the regulating principle of any real or possible thing; second, the being as a universal and general way of existence of any thing or relationship.

It is obvious that in itself one is no different from the other, but if we want to indicate the horizon of participation of all things and relationships, and also the one in which we are intrinsic, it is better to intend the being as the universality which gives entity to our substance and essence, and in this case we can write it in small letters. It is the correct way to understand it, because only like this is it also our reality, the same as that of history and of life.

If anyone would like to endow his speech with the so-called Supreme Entity and therefore speak of “the Being” (i.e. Jave, Allah, God, etc.), then we must remember that the Being is and the non-Being is not. It means that it is an unfounded presumption which confirms that nothingness is empty like a vacuum in itself.

Therefore, it would be a good thing to start from our here and now, thus from the participation of being and proceed until the ultimate truth of being, in the sphere of our possibility, which is already infinite. Only from our here and now can we reach every summit.

The metaphysical nostalgia of being means the unfathomable attraction that provokes inexorable self-realisation, beyond that which we have already experienced. It is a vague inner need, but one which is clearly distinguished from basic instincts, and which requires the investment of our life in something excellent and absolute.

Even if at first it seems present in the identifiable objectives of adults that surround us, or in satisfactions such as sex, love, social supremacy, money, power, recognition, etc., in the end, after careful examination, it is a requirement that goes beyond the common good. Merciless and absolute, the metaphysical nostalgia of being goes beyond worldly things, even if it is based on the history in which each of us exists.

The tree must touch the sky and live with the winds and the sun, without ever detaching its roots from the earth that gives it its place and existence: to be the sky whilst still walking the earth.

2.3

Nearly all young people do not recognize this ontic call which rises from the nucleus of their existence, and quickly falls asleep under the magma of the daily grind. Lose the nostalgia of being and life is only a routine.

Once the metaphysical direction that determines the destination and the meaning of living as a person on this planet is lost, it is almost impossible to recover authentic pleasure. Even if one meets a sage, one does not recognize him, and is no longer capable of paying his price.

The sage is one of the rare people who has received in full the metaphysical call and has lived it as a historical mission in more ways than one. The art of living is the concrete verification of the voice which calls us almost from our mother’s womb, it is the way we are able to respond to this type of eternal vocation. Without the direction of this metaphysical call, life is only the material. The fundamental point of the sage’s art of living is to never lose an ear for this absent voice of the total mystery. Following that voice is a way of giving concreteness to the vast potential that produces that constant feeling of our necessity to grow.

Chapter Three
Presuppostions of the psychology of being

3.1

Ontopsychology refers to the psychology of the being within the human; that which is the way of adaptation and individualization of the being in the type of man’s existence.

From the Greek ων οντος = being; ψυχη = soul, mind; λογος = study, speech, thought.

Ontopsychology is a modern current that comes from the continual progress achieved by the psychology of the deep, called psychoanalysis.

Psychology is a form of knowledge that has always existed and has always been part of theoretical and moral philosophy. Since the time of Sigmund Freud, psychology has differed from philosophy in that it became a discipline within the medical model. As time has progressed, researchers have broadened the field’s horizons and abandoned orthodox psychoanalysis in order to create various research models.

Ontopsychology gathers the best that exists in other schools of thought and adds a criterion that is practically methodologically infallible in the hands of a true expert.

Ontopsychology started from clinical cases; then, after having understood and cured neurosis and schizophrenia, and resolved extreme psychosomatic manifestations, it found in the depths of each man an energetic nucleus, which had its own intelligence and from which any psychic and physical phenomenon of the subject emerged.

This nucleus – defined as ontic In-Self – articulates one’s existence; however, it is born beyond such an existence and presents itself in any daily situation, whilst remaining transcendent to any fact. It even remains unnoticed by the conscience of the subject’s Ego. The ontic In-Self seems to be the invisible soul of the subject, and thus a form of intelligence that is altogether everywhere in the psychosomatic reality of the individual. It is the intimate interior of all of our knowledge, actions, and imagination. It manifests itself in many ways: doubt, conscience, will, dissatisfaction, dreams, health, disease, sympathy, antipathy, mood, instincts, desires, etc. Unfortunately, in the present circumstances it is not possible to fully and exactly decipher the ontic In-Self; it is familiar only to the sage.

It is not possible for the many forms of education and culture to make contact with the ontic In-Self of the subject, because social determinism or legal statues prevail in many different pedagogies: the single person is good in the measure that he or she is useful to the system; thus, a sort of existential schizophrenia is generated.

Schizophrenia means divided mind. From the Greek σχiζω = divided, φρhν = mind, brain. A scission occurs between the ontic and social needs, and in the end the subject introjects and assimilates all social rules (e.g. those of school, family, traditions, ideologies, laws, customs) and superimposes them on the bearing of the ontic needs, which, despite being the only emphasis inner reality, have a very weak external voice. Because of this superimposition, the individual human is an executor for whom the numbers don’t add up. He behaves precisely according to the education received, but anxiety persists. Anxiety from the Latin angus = narrow corner, means to experience a reduction in being out of the game, to be out in the corner, or to be outside of the winning arena.