WHAT DO WE WANT? — PART IV

Aldous Huxley wrote, “There comes a time when one asks even of Shakespeare, even of Beethoven, is this all?”  It’s difficult for me to think of a sentence that puts its finger more precisely on the Ancient Wisdom Figures attitude toward the world.  The stuff of this world is not bad; by and large the stuff of this world is good.  Eventually, for many however, folks come to the realization that this world is finite, limited and ‘wears out.’  When folks come to this awareness then the question, “Is this all there is?” emerges into their consciousness.

This is the moment the Ancients have been waiting for.  As long as a person is content with pleasure, success or a life of duty the Sages will leave them alone [Oh, they might well offer some suggestions but they will probably not “disturb” the person(s)].  The critical point comes when one decides that these are not enough.  Does not life offer more?  Now, whether life does or does not offer more seems to be the question which divides us more sharply than any other.  The Ancient Wisdom Figures tell us, unequivocally, that life does hold more than these.  So we come back to our initial question: “What do we want?”

Pleasure, success and duty are not our ultimate goals — at best, they might help direct us toward what we really want.  Consider, gentle reader, that what we really want are things that reside in a deeper level.  The Ancient Wisdom Figures believe that, first, we want “being.”  Each of us wants to “be” rather than “not be.”  Normally, none of us want to die.  Ernie Pyle, the great World War II correspondent, once described the atmosphere in a room where thirty-five flyers had gathered prior to a bombing raid over Germany.  On an average, seventy-five percent of them would not return from the mission.  What Pyle described was not that these men were afraid but it was, as he wrote, “a profound reluctance to give up the future.”  Few of us take happily the thought of the future proceeding without us [I know I do].

Second, we want “to know, to be aware.”  We are endlessly curious; curiosity is inherent in our nature.  Thirdly, we want “contentment.”  Contentment is the filp side of feelings like frustration, futility, and boredom.  For some, contentment becomes beyond their reach because they become caught up in pleasure, success and/or duty and these, we know, do not in the long-term bring contentment.  The Ancients also said that not only do we humans want these three but that we want them “infinitely.”  We might say that what we really want is “infinite being,” “infinite knowledge and awareness,” and “infinite contentment” [some Ancients call this “Joy” rather than “Contentment”].  Perhaps what we really want is “freedom from limitations.”

The Ancient Wisdom Figures now tell us that not only can we have these infinitely but that we already have them infinitely — they are within reach if we choose to reach out for them [or rather, if we wish to reach-in for them for they reside within us].  There lies deep within us, an abiding spirit that never dies, that is without limit when it comes to being aware and to being content.  Why am I not able to easily access this abiding spirit?  The answer, the Ancients tell us, lies in the extent to which the “infinite,” or the “eternal,” is buried under a mountain of distractions, false ideas, self-regarding impulses, deep assumptions, prejudices, stereotypes, and false-truths.  These are what we present to ourselves and to our world.  Our challenge is to “cleanse ourselves” so that our abiding spirit will manifest itself.  Many of us have had glimpses of our abiding spirit and when we do we feel truly alive, aware and content.  We also know how difficult it is to hold onto this abiding spirit.

This is what the Ancient Wisdom Figures tell us that we want.  For me, the challenge is to hold the question for myself: “What do you want, Richard?”  Gentle Reader: “What do you want?”