"The great thing is not to be this or that but to be oneself."- Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or Vol. II
Entering the Kierkegaard phase. Finding who we are and living that truth is certainly not easy. In fact, in can be the challenge of a lifetime.
A classic tale expresses it this way- “Before his death, Rabbi Zusya said, ‘In the coming world, they will not ask me, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ They’ll ask me, ‘Why were you not Zusya?’” (Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim)
So 50 years after reading this quote, I ask- have I been myself? And the honest answer is- not totally. But I think that’s okay, as I am growing into a better version of myself.
Myself has many base instincts- to be selfish, to be unkind. I think that by aspiring to acting according to higher values, I have, in fact, changed the nature of who I am in a positive direction.
"I leave to thee no fortune, no title and dignities, but I know where there lies buried a treasure which suffices to make thee richer than the whole world, and this treasure belongs to thee, thou shalt not even express thanks to me for it lest thou take hurt to thine own soul by owing everything to another. This treasure is deposited in thine own inner self: there is an either/or which makes a man greater than the angels."- ibid.- Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or Vol. II
In simple terms, Kierkegaard reminds us that we form our character by the choices that we make each day. Angels, he suggests, do not have free will. Human beings are “greater than the angels” as we have the ability to choose to do good or to give in to our yetzer ha-ra, our evil inclination.
"One either has to live aesthetically or one has to live ethically."- ibid.(Either/Or Vol. II)
Kierkegaard identifies 4 stages of being in the world, 4 options for how we choose to live. They are ranked hierarchically- aesthetic, ethical, religiousness A, religiousness B.
As a Christian thinker, religiousness B., the highest level, is Christianity.
Here he discusses the first two options, and seems to say that they are mutually exclusive. If one chooses to live the life of a pure aesthete, one can’t be bothered to be impacted by ethical considerations. And if one is on the ethical path, that requires resisting decisions based on purely aesthetic considerations.
Hence the title of the book- 2 volumes worth!- Either/Or
"Duty is only one: to love truly with the inward movement of the heart; and duty is as protean in its forms as is love itself, and it pronounces everything good when it is of love, and it denounces everything, however beautiful and specious it may be, if it is not of love."- ibid. (Either/Or Vol. II.)
Wow- this is a lot of pressure on the quality of love. Love as the defining and over-riding lens through which everything we do is filtered?
Certainly acting from a loving perspective enhances our actions. I’m not sure I’m ready to say that it is our one and only duty.
"The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen, but, if one will, may be lived."- ibid. (Either/Or Vol. II)
All the words in the world don’t add up to how we behave in the world. Reading is great, I love it! Yet-comes a time when you have to close the book and step outside and experience life.
"You ought therefore to say: alone in one's boat, alone with one's care, alone with one's despair, which one prefers cowardly to retain rather than to suffer the pain of being healed."- ibid. (Either/Or Vol. II)
Why do we hang on to hurt and pain? I was deeply impacted by Frederic Luskin’s book Forgive For Good, in which he describes how we nurture our “grievance story” to the point of letting it define us.
As Kierkegaard notes, it is painful to let go, yet healing is much preferable to living in despair and loneliness.
Perhaps it is easier to sulk? Kierkegaard suggests that this is the cowardly choice.
"What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain understanding must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do, the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die."- The Journals of Kierkegaard, edited by Alexander Dru
It is easy to see how this journal entry of Kierkegaard’s would appeal to my undergraduate self. I knew that I wanted to be a rabbi at the tender age of 11 and never veered from that goal. So it was “clear in my mind what I (am) to do.” I imagine that I was hoping to feel God’s sense of approval on my choice.
I’m not sure that I am ready to die for this idea, but I have certainly lived for it for decades now, and definitely feel that it was the right decision, and, even, that I may have been of some use to some folks.
"As owl's eyes are at noonday, so is our mental vision blind to what in its own nature is the most evident of all."- Aristotle, Metaphysics
Per Aristotle in this quote, it is not so easy to be truly transparent within our own selves. “To thine own self be true,” is the way Shakespeare expressed it, yet we have to first really understand and admit to what is our own essential nature.
"If God does not exist, all things are permitted."- Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoevsky. Loved every single thing that he wrote. Here he inquires as to the source of our moral code. It is certainly helpful to anchor morality in a divine source that defines right and wrong.
Of course there are many wonderful and ethical individuals who do not hold any religious faith. And, conversely and sadly, plenty of jerks who claim to be religious.
And we have to admit that there are teachings in the Torah that we would not want to adhere to nor would we want them to serve as the letter of the law in our societies.
That said, if there is not some standard outside of ourselves by which we define what is right and what is wrong, it becomes all too easy to rationalize the desires of our heart which may lead us in the wrong direction.
"The finite persons and things which constitute the created world consists of divine sparks which have left their primordial source to wander about, only to be regathered at the end of time in the allnesss which is no-thing."- Richard Rubenstein, After Auschwitz
Rubenstein’s thought is parallel to Hesse in quote #10. Where do we come from and where are we going? In each case, the author imagines an all-encompassing divine source of life from which we are separated at birth and to which we are gathered when our lives end.
I resonate with that image in both instances.
About this series-
I love words. I love when a word exactly captures the moment, the feeling. How it precisely describes something that you experienced but didn’t know exactly how to express. It’s like a warm bath or a deeply satisfying meal.
And beyond that- a collection of words. A deeply insightful phrase, thought-provoking and uplifting. A quote to remember.
I started collecting quotes when I was 16 years old. (1972) I’m 68 now, as I write these words, (2024), and there are 472 quotes in my collection. At this precise moment.
That’s not really that many over the course of 52 years. I guess I am fairly discriminating. Sometimes years can go by and the collection lays dormant. In other years there is a great harvest of quotes.
These are not necessarily famous quotes, things you’ll often hear referenced. For the most part, they simply represent words that I read that made me stop for a moment to meditate and bask in their impact. And quotes I enjoy reading and re-reading and quoting myself!
These quotes represent the evolution of my thinking over the course of 52 years. I look forward to pondering what it is that made me find each one meaningful enough to save.
Commentaires