Weltanschaung

The Philosopher’s Stone

zenothestoic@protonmail.ch

Tag: Wisdom

  • Joy to the World

    Joy to the World

    I will never be able to resolve my unshakable disbelief in Christian dogma with the profound peace I find singing sacred classical music in an ancient English church with a good choir.

    I sang yesterday at the Christmas service at our local church, sitting up in the beautiful Victorian choir stalls, next to one of the regular members of the wonderful permanent choir. Having sung themselves out during advent, the organist had called for help as the regular choir (or most of them) took the day off.

    Needless to say I struggled with aspects of the service, in particular the awful passing of the peace, and as usual did not take part in the wine and biscuit binge.

    And yet I could not help myself being moved by the sermon, beautifully constructed if rather gratingly delivered in a rasping American accent.

    It was about feeling the numinous, and was expressed by comparison to feeling a baby’s hand, vaguely and mysteriously, through the walls of a mothers womb.

    It was a simile I took to. There is a wonder in the world and nowhere do I feel that more strongly than in an ancient church, however crappy I find the bizarre belief system.

    That there is goodness in the world is never easier to believe than on Christmas day when I am far from thoughts of money (or rather of running out of it) and even further from words like “competition” and “business”.

    I can’t help it if I don’t believe in the birth on earth of the son of god, however beautiful the advent story. I can’t help it if my belief aligns more with the Taoists than the Christians.

    The truly wise know that the same witness to the divine can be felt as easily by the Buddhist as by the Taoist or the Muslim.

    The tragedy is that so many feel the need to push their bigoted, narrow and doubtless erroneous views as to what they believe is truly out there.

  • The Unknowing Fool

    The Unknowing Fool

    The unknowing fool counts himself as wise since he knows no better.  The fool so beloved of Shakespeare was a different order of man, and clever.  The unknowing fool is the one who does not know that he does not know.

    How should you treat the unknowing fool? Derision, or cruelty and mocking are clearly wrong, however easy it may be to fall into such ways.

    The problem is that there are degrees of foolishness; and types of fool. If the fool is “simply simple” he may be a delight to bump into. The harmless village idiot tending the graveyard. A friendly and child like figure, who deserves a smile and a few minutes of happy conversation.

    This fool will be a knowing fool; he will know that he is simple and you will readily accept him for that.  He is easy to “suffer”.  It is a pleasure to do so.

    The bumptious fool is far more difficult to deal with. The bumptious and arrogant fool, several degrees worse.

    Snobbery of any sort is wrong, morally wrong. The sign of an un-enlightened individual.  It is very easy to give up ridiculous class snobbery or money snobbery.  Such forms of snobbery are so patently shallow and absurd.

    Intellectual snobbery is rather harder to abandon.  It is very difficult indeed to suffer an unknowing fool, and even more difficult to suffer a fool who combines ignorance with bumptiousness and arrogance.

    And yet suffer him we must, if we are to obey those two most important of  dicta: “turn the other cheek”, “treat your neighbour as you would have them treat you”.

    I am not a man who suffers unknowing fools gladly and when they are also bumptious and arrogant, my tolerance is stretched to its very limits.

    And yet suffer him I must if I want to be true to my ideals. I must back off and show kindness and understanding, not intolerance and exasperation. I must not trample him or cow him with word or thought. Or deed.

    St Augustine famously said “Lord make me good, but not just yet”.

    I have had enough of being difficult and curmudgeonly.  I would very much like to be “good now”, but it is far easier said than done.