Thoughts on Life and Religion: An Aftermath from the Writings of The Right Honourable Professor Max MüllerMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
Thoughts on Life and Religion: An Aftermath from the Writings of The Right Honourable Professor Max Müller
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Life; Philosophy; Religion; Theology
One month will go after another, till at last this journey is over,
and we look back on it grateful for the many pleasures it has given
us, grateful for the company of so many kind friends whom we met,
grateful also for the struggles which we had to go through and which
will appear so small, and so little worth our tears and anguish,
when all is over and the last station and resting-place reached in
safety.
_MS._
LOVE
I cannot help thinking that the souls towards whom we feel drawn
in this life are the very souls whom we knew and loved in a former
life, and that the souls who repel us here, we do not know why, are
the souls that earned our disapproval, the souls from whom we kept
aloof, in a former life. But let us remember that if our love is
the love of what is merely phenomenal, the love of the body, the
kindness of the heart, the vigour and wisdom of the intellect, our
love is the love of changing and perishable things.... But if our
love, under all its earthly aspects, was the love of the true soul,
of what is immortal and divine in every man and woman, that love
cannot die, but will find once more what seems beautiful, true, and
lovable in worlds to come, as in worlds that have passed.... What we
truly love in everything is the eternal _âtman_, the immortal self,
and as we should add, the immortal God, for the immortal self and
the immortal God must be one.
_Last Essays._
We must not forget that if earthly love has in the vulgar mind been
often degraded into mere animal passion, it still remains in its
purest sense the highest mystery of our existence, the most perfect
blessing and delight on earth, and at the same time the truest
pledge of our more than human nature. To be able to feel the same
unselfish devotion to the Deity which the human heart is capable of,
if filled with love for another human soul, is something that may
well be called the best religion.
_Gifford Lectures, IV._
What the present generation ought to learn, the young as well as the
old, is spirit and perseverance to discover the beautiful, pleasure
and joy in making it known, and resigning ourselves with grateful
hearts to its enjoyment; in a word--love, in the old, true, eternal
meaning of the word. Only sweep away the dust of self-conceit,
the cobwebs of selfishness, the mud of envy, and the old type of
humanity will soon reappear, as it was when it could still 'embrace
millions.' The love of mankind, the true fountain of all humanity,
is still there; it can never be quite choked up. He who can descend
into this fountain of youth, who can again recover himself, who can
again be that which he was by nature, loves the beautiful wherever
he finds it; he understands enjoyment and enthusiasm, in the few
quiet hours which he can win for himself in the noisy, deafening
hurry of the times in which we live.
_Chips._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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