Kitobni o'qish: «The sages’ art of living»

© Meneghetti А. L’arte di vivere dei saggi. Psicologica Ed., 1992, 1999.

© Antonio Meneghetti Scientific Foundation, 2014–2021 (http://meneghetti.ru).

The sage put his hand to his chest and withdrew a handful of objects which he threw to those present. Some were struck and suffered; they didn’t gather the objects, but rather followed their own shadows and remained in ignorance. Others gathered the objects and placed them between the heart and the mind. These became the light and continued the creation…

Antonio Meneghetti

Introduction

The history of a human thought does not know other such book about the highest esthetics.

After having followed many routes, from time to time considering absolute the one I had chosen, I reached the conclusion that each one forms an important part of the truth. Even today, when I meet people confirmed in their beliefs – some that are exemplary and others that are questionable – I have great tolerance, which allows me to understand people to be continuously beginning new paths that represent the many modes of life.

I don’t like to give advice to the so-called adults concerning the truth of some things, partly because they are already spoilt, partly because they are not able to renounce their historical identity, and partly because they are looking to have rather than to be.

However, when I think of young people (those who are fourteen to twenty-one years of age) my heart opens and my spontaneous desire to share knowledge manifests in a youthful way.

I once found that one of my daughters was crying. She told her mother later that she was suffering because she was not able to direct her life in a meaningful way. At first, I said nothing to my daughter. I said to her mother that it was a rather acute crisis, one of tension and anxiety of the metaphysical, something that is typical for a healthy and intelligent adolescent.

Most people, if not all, carry inside themselves a tomb that conceals the remains of their assassinated metaphysical potential. In essence, almost everyone reduces their existence to a biological cycle because they have not realized the ontic attraction of a metaphysical horizon (beyond the existence). The assassination of this call is systematically paid for with anguish.

I have written this book to reinforce that ontic call, to recognize it and to live it. So instead of living to die, life becomes living to be. Consequently anxiety, even when you are aware of it, is not experienced.

Chapter One
Three styles of life

1.1. The difference between living, mastery of living, and art of living

The verb to live (in Italian “vivere”) means running like a force within a force. From the Latin vis сomes force. Vita (life) comes from vis and from the Greek roots of the verb τιυηµι which means to post, give place or materialize; vita therefore means the place or the situation of living. The term “living” (“vivere”) is formed by the identification of a force within a general force. Both the forces, the individual one and the general one, are moving like a current. The ending “-ere” (as with all endings of the Italian verbs (-are, – ere, – ire)) comes from the Latin verb ruere, which means to run, to roll, to exit from, to precipitate, to rotate.

In fact, living signifies an active participation together with any other living being. The tree lives, the bird lives, and the man lives. Living being is used to describe anything that demonstrates constant autonomous self-movement necessary to accomplish all the functions that specify and characterize the individual as being alive. To live is just a natural participation wherein the species is specified as being without other attributes of superior differentiation. It is a biological current.

Based on this definition, to refer to man as living is both ordinary and universal. The individual enters into the rhythm of nature and through this he experiences – from the moment of birth until death – pleasure, health, and pain at various ages. He is born to reach adulthood, conceive, and support children until they become naturally self-sufficient, and then wait for death in accordance with the custom of the culture into which he was born and educated. Everything that is apparently equal to man belongs to him, including laws, traditions, and religion: man can benefit from them, and he is bound to them. Man seen in the dimension of daily naturalistic living can consider himself fulfilled if he is without illness or physical handicaps, knowing that the well-being is secured and that the basic instincts of hunger, thirst, safety, sex, and sociality are satisfied.

Living as if to exist in the “biological heap” is a good thing, and in order to succeed in doing so, one must follow that which is required by the law of the land, the culture of the environment (or of the masses), and the common religion of the country. By the culture of the environment, or of the masses, one must think of all the types of applied sciences specified by the many roles provided for in the actual society: medicine, business, literature, architecture, law or rights, theology, philosophy, sport, music, and the different professions or crafts, from the peasant farmer to the clockmaker or to the computer operator.

The teachers or guardians of this horizon are the family, the priests, the judges, the police, and the doctors.

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.

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.