The extraordinary phenomenon of what religious people call
"conversion," a phenomenon which implies a change of heart so
unexpected and startling as to seem miraculous, is a proof of how
unwise it is to be in any particular case rigidly dogmatic as
to where the sunken rock of destiny really begins. So many
appearances have taken the shape of this finality, so many mirages
of "false fate" have paralysed our will, that it is wisest to believe
to the very end of our days that our attitude to destiny can change
and modify destiny.
Assuming then that the articulation of the mystery of life which
has been outlined in this book, under the name of "the philosophy
of the complex vision," must remain the barest of intellectual
hypotheses until it has manifested itself in "conduct"; and
assuming further that this "conduct" includes the whole of that
portion of life, whether contemplative or active, which can be
reduced to a fine art by the effort of the will; the question
emerges--what kind of effort must the will make, both interiorally
and exteriorally, if it desire to respond, by a rhythmic reciprocity,
to the vision which the intellect has accepted?
It must be remembered that the vision upon which this philosophy
depends and from which it derives its primordial assumptions is
not the normal vision of the human soul. The philosophy of the
complex vision rejects the normal vision of the human soul on
behalf of the abnormal vision of the human soul. Its point of view,
in this matter, is that the human soul only arrives at the secret of
the universe in those exalted, heightened, exceptional and rare
moments, when all the multiform activities of the soul's life
achieve a musical consummation. Its point of view is that since
philosophy, at its deepest and highest, necessarily becomes art;
and since art is a rare and difficult thing requiring infinite
adjustments and reconciliations; what philosophy has really to use,
in formulating any sort of adequate system, is the memory of such
rare moments after they have passed away. The point of view from
which we have made all our basic assumptions is the point of view
that the secret of the universe is only revealed to man in rare
moments of ecstasy; and that what man's reason has to do is to
gather together in memory the broken and scattered fragments of
these moments and out of this residuum build up and round off, as
best it may, some coherent interpretation of life.
From all this it follows that the first rhythmic reply of the human
will to the vision to serve is a passionate act of what might be
called "contemplative tension," in the direction of the reviving of
such memories, and in the direction of preparing the ground for
the return of another "moment of vision" similar in nature to those
that have gone before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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