Reflections on Body and Soul
Against Stoicism.— Each of us, when we slam a window on our finger or stub our toe, is instantly two years old again. If you think this reveals a profound truth about our nature or “undermines all our pretenses of reason and civilization,” then you are either of the nature of a materialist cynic who shouts his atheism, prayer-like, to the heavens, or you are of the nature to embrace Stoicism or Buddhism. If you are inclined, on the contrary, to see this undeniable fact about physical pain as a reminder of the terrible war that we, as souls, are all fated to wage against our ruthless demagogues of mindless agitation and meaningless distraction that are forever scheming to undermine our aims and demean our essence, then you are of the nature to reject both cynical and Stoic materialism as forms of surrender, and instead to prefer even death to any such life-belittling compromise on principles.
Renunciation.– It is easy, in the sense of being convenient, to “renounce” what you have never had, or believe you could never have. To renounce what you possess, or is at least tangibly realistic for you, is the only true sign of your earnestness about renunciation. More importantly, it is the only evidence of your seriousness and dedication to that for the sake of which you renounced what you possessed. For to renounce a thing without awareness of what you are renouncing it for amounts to an admission, however inadvertent, that you are merely choosing the self-denier’s stance as a means of protecting your pride against some fear of inadequacy, whereas to renounce as St. Augustine renounced his sinful pleasures, or as Pascal renounced his intellectual ones, indicates greatness of soul.
To renounce what you do not, or fear you cannot, have, is merely to invent self-aggrandizing causes after the fact to obscure the painful effects of failure or self-doubt. To renounce what is real or desirable for you without a clear notion of why you are doing so is to renounce life. To renounce what is or may be yours for the sake of a sacred mission or ideal vision is to be true to the highest element of your soul, for it is to elevate the universal and timeless above the personal and temporal.
