Sunday Listening

"Ain't nothing but a stranger in this world
I'm nothing but a stranger in this world
I got a home on high
In another land
So far away
So far away"

Divine Madness

“That would have been a fine thing to say if madness were bad pure and simple; but in fact the best things we have come from madness, when it is given as a gift of the god” (Plato, Phaedrus).

The sections concerning madness and the irrational in the Phaedrus have been some of the most interesting pieces of writing I’ve read in a while. They are so intriguing because Platonism is a philosophy pre-occupied with bringing oneself in accordance with reason, subjecting the passions and in general living in a way conducive to contemplation. It is not obvious (at least to a beginner such as me) that irrationality and madness would have a place in Platonic philosophy and life, and yet Plato has Socrates describe madness as an inherent part of love, and the vehicle by which true art is produced. This leads to questions of what it means to live as a human being and a philosopher: is it possible that being taken outside of ourselves by means of ecstatic experience makes us more into ourselves?

Quote

“Before you can be a saint you have got to become human."

- Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, ch. 35.

Reflections Upon Reading Hadot: The Tyranny of the Future and the Past

“If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind, free of the future and past – can make yourself, as Empedocles says, ‘a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness,’ and concentrate on living what can be lived (which means the present)… then you can spend the time you have left in tranquility. And in kindness. And at peace with the spirit within you.”

-        Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book XII:III

To my thinking, nostalgia is as much of a vice as anxiety. Even the most beautiful of memories can cause a disproportionate amount of pain in the one who remembers. And to one who is particularly afflicted, mundane or even unpleasant memories become objects of nostalgia. While the recollection of what we perceive as better times can be a source of joy, I think that it is more often than not a source pain.