120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 35

Chapter 2 Section 13 The Birth of Human Real Life

[Russia] Tolstoy
When we observe the manifestations of man's life in time, we shall see that the true life is always present within man, as it is in the seed, and when the time is right, this life will be revealed.The revelation of real life lies in the fact that animal man lures man to personal happiness, while rational consciousness points out to man the impossibility of personal happiness and points out another kind of happiness.Man looks toward that happiness pointed out to him from afar, but cannot see it, at first disbelieves in that happiness, and then falls back to personal happiness.But the rational consciousness which points out his own happiness so vaguely points out the impossibility of personal happiness so convincingly and beyond doubt that man again abandons his personal happiness and looks again at the new point pointed out to him. happiness.Rational happiness cannot be seen, and physical happiness has undoubtedly been destroyed, so that human existence cannot continue.Thus, a new animal man's attitude towards rational consciousness begins to take shape within man.Man begins to be born for the real life of man.

Something similar to the birth of all life in the material world happened. The fetus was born not because he wanted to be born, not because he was born better, nor because he knew that he would live a good life when he was born, but because he matured. He can't continue his original state of existence, he must devote himself to a new life.This is not so much because a new life is calling him, but because the possibility of being alive as before has been eliminated.

Rational consciousness grows quietly in the human body until the point where the continuation of human life becomes impossible.

Exactly the same thing happened with the budding phenomenon.The seed disappears, the former life form disappears, and a new sprout appears.The original form of the decomposing seed seems to be fighting, and the young shoot continues to grow, nourished by the decomposing seed.For us, the birth of rational consciousness is different from the birth of the body that we can see, in that during the birth of the body we can see, in time and space, what and in what way the embryo is made of When did something happen.We know that seeds are fruits, and we know that under certain conditions, plants will grow from the seeds, and they will also bloom, and then bear fruit and bear fruit like seeds (the entire life evolution process is completed before our eyes).But we cannot see the growth of rational consciousness in terms of time, nor can we see its evolution process.We cannot see the growth of rational consciousness and its evolution process because we are completing this process ourselves, our life is nothing else, but the birth that we cannot see is in our own birth, so we cannot see it anyway it.

We cannot see the birth of this new man, the new attitude of rational consciousness towards the animal man, just as a seed cannot see its own sapling grow.When Rational Consciousness emerges to us out of its hidden state, we think we are experiencing a contradiction, when there is really no contradiction, any more than it exists in the dissolving seed.We see only in the decomposed seed that the life that formerly existed in the husk now exists in its young shoot.In the same way, there is no contradiction in man with awakened rational consciousness, but only the birth of a new man, the birth of a new attitude of rational consciousness towards animal man.

If a man lives without knowing that other people exist, without knowing that enjoyment does not satisfy him, he is no different from death, he does not know that he is alive, and there is no contradiction in himself.

If man sees that other men are like him, that misery threatens him, that his existence is a slow death; if his rational consciousness begins to disintegrate his human existence, he cannot maintain himself in this disintegrating human body. life, and inevitably thinks that his own life is opening up to him a new life.There is still no contradiction, just as there is no contradiction in a seed that has germinated and thus decomposes.

【Together with you】

Life is a rational consciousness.Everyone coming from a chaotic world is like a seed passing through the thick soil, only to receive the sunshine and the nourishment of rain and dew.Only by overcoming the inherent natural attributes of life can one improve oneself in a higher direction.In the process of transformation from primitive to metamorphosis, everyone is subjected to a hell-like test.Contradictions are everywhere, and all kinds of separated forces have become obstacles to our continuous improvement.To make life develop in a better direction, we should make more efforts.Nature weeds out all helpless children and does not allow anything helpless to stay in her world.

(End of this chapter)