Mount Everest, North Face. Wikimedia Commons
The Global Soul
The Global Soul
The French philosopher Frédéric Lenoir has written a book with the title “L’Âme du monde”, which I choose to translate as “The Global Soul”. His aim is to try to find the common elements among the world’s different cultures, in response to the fundamental questions on how one can find the way to a good life.
He identifies seven common questions raised in all the major cultures that together form the key to find this wisdom:
1. The meaning of your life.
2. The relation between body and soul.
3. True freedom.
4. Love.
5. What to cultivate and what to reject.
6. The art of living.
7. Accepting what is.
My interpretations of the way he explores these questions are given briefly below.
1. The meaning of your life.
Most of our troubles come from living unconsciously in response to our immediate material and emotional impulses, without asking ourselves the question of what the significance of our life is. Our life runs through the flow of existence, like logs in a river, without mastering the situations that arise. Living only in response to our immediate needs, we do not allow the needs of our soul to come forward.
Why are we here? Do we have anything we wish to achieve? Are the events we are faced with of random nature or do they have significance? Do we have a destiny to accomplish? Are we the fruit of our instincts and our education or can we acquire real freedom? If so, how can we best use this freedom? On what will we base our life? Can real and lasting happiness be found? How can body and soul be nourished?
By trying to answer these questions according to your own reasoning and your own preferences, you will be able to live consciously - with open eyes. The choices you make will be conscious, and you will increase your chances to live according to your nature – and be yourself.
2. The relation between body and soul.
We have been given a physical and a psychical constitution, which together form our body. These two parts of our constitution have to be mastered by our soul. During our life, we will need to learn how to attain a proper balance between these, and to master this balancing act as we go along.
You need to know the physical capacities and limits of your body, and cultivate its capacities without straining your body beyond its limits – and giving it the necessary rest. If you mistreat your body, your soul will suffer in consequence. Illnesses and depressions will follow from exhaustion. Correspondingly, our psychical capacities and limits – as seen through our sensibilities, our feelings, and our spirit – need to be attended to. Just as we actively attend to our body’s needs, attention to our psychical needs are crucial. We need to listen to the signals our body sends us when we are depressed or when we are ill in other ways. Many people neglect these signals, and the consequences often show up in the form of total exhaustion or other forms of mental breakdown, which may take years to heal.
3. True freedom.
Absolute freedom, in the form of absence of restrictions of any kind (economic, legal, cultural, emotional, social, or other forms), is unattainable if you wish to live in community with other people. In our search for freedom, we need to start with our own inner life. We have fears, desires, habits, and addictions that often force us to act in certain ways or stop us from doing certain things.
Is it freedom when you get nervous, irritated or aggressive because it has been too long since you last got a cigarette, a drink or some other drug? Is it freedom spend most of your money on lotteries? Is it freedom when you spend most of your leisure time in front of a computer or TV-screen? Is it freedom when you don’t express yourself publicly because you are afraid of speaking in public?
The process of attainment of true freedom needs to start with introspection. You need to get to know your own character. How do we act in our lives? What are the causes behind our different actions? What is the result of fears, addictions, uncontrolled desires and habits? Are our actions governed by our own conscious priorities? Are they results of circumstances we do not control? How can we influence the causes behind our actions in such a way as to gain a better control of our lives?
4. Love.
Love is a strong energy. It takes many different forms and it often affects our lives profoundly. If we wish to experience love in its true forms, we need to combat the way our own egos stand in the way. If we allow the immediate needs of our own egos to govern our actions, we are not likely to experience true love. Love starts by thinking of the people around you, the people you meet. If you guide your attention to them and their needs, you will get a form of contact and interaction which is the basis for love.
5. What to cultivate and what to reject.
If we have made progress in getting to know ourselves, we will have a better knowledge of what is good for us and what is bad for us. From philosophy and religion we know that life is a constant struggle between forces that act for the good and forces that are of evil nature. The same struggle goes on inside ourselves. If we manage to see clearly what types of actions in our lives produce results that we jugde to be desirable and what types of actions produce negative results, we have a fundamental starting point for improving our lives. By raising our consciousness in this respect, we can better identify what we should do more of and we should do less of.
6. The art of living.
A good life is achieved when you obtain inner calm. Inner calm is obtained when you manage to balance the conflicting forces that struggle within you. You need to look for a proper balance between attachment and detachment. Extreme attachment to certain needs and desires will always come at the expense of other needs and desires.
If you have a family and an interesting job, you have an excellent point of departure for a good life - emotionally and professionally. However, if you allow your professional ambitions to take control of the most part of your time and attention, your family will suffer and so – in the end – will you. You need to strike a balance between the two. A good way to find this balance can be achieved by constant dialogue with the persons at home and at the work place. Don’t underestimate the need for communication.
Aristotle, and many others before and after him, have underlined the importance of finding the middle way if you are looking for the good life.
7. Accepting what is.
Everybody faces difficulties, challenges and problems of all sorts in their daily lives. In so doing, it is crucial to recognize the facts you are faced with and accept to face them properly. Many people, when faced with something they dislike, will start by looking away from the problems and try to behave as if the problems actually were not there. Denial is the biggest enemy of problem-solving, as any family member of an alcoholic will be able to testify.
Many facts of life are extremely hard to deal with, but they need to be faced. Hiding from problems does not solve them, and it creates other problems in addition.
The French philosopher Frédéric Lenoir has written a book with the title “L’Âme du monde”, which I choose to translate as “The Global Soul”. His aim is to try to find the common elements among the world’s different cultures, in response to the fundamental questions on how one can find the way to a good life.
He identifies seven common questions raised in all the major cultures that together form the key to find this wisdom:
1. The meaning of your life.
2. The relation between body and soul.
3. True freedom.
4. Love.
5. What to cultivate and what to reject.
6. The art of living.
7. Accepting what is.
My interpretations of the way he explores these questions are given briefly below.
1. The meaning of your life.
Most of our troubles come from living unconsciously in response to our immediate material and emotional impulses, without asking ourselves the question of what the significance of our life is. Our life runs through the flow of existence, like logs in a river, without mastering the situations that arise. Living only in response to our immediate needs, we do not allow the needs of our soul to come forward.
Why are we here? Do we have anything we wish to achieve? Are the events we are faced with of random nature or do they have significance? Do we have a destiny to accomplish? Are we the fruit of our instincts and our education or can we acquire real freedom? If so, how can we best use this freedom? On what will we base our life? Can real and lasting happiness be found? How can body and soul be nourished?
By trying to answer these questions according to your own reasoning and your own preferences, you will be able to live consciously - with open eyes. The choices you make will be conscious, and you will increase your chances to live according to your nature – and be yourself.
2. The relation between body and soul.
We have been given a physical and a psychical constitution, which together form our body. These two parts of our constitution have to be mastered by our soul. During our life, we will need to learn how to attain a proper balance between these, and to master this balancing act as we go along.
You need to know the physical capacities and limits of your body, and cultivate its capacities without straining your body beyond its limits – and giving it the necessary rest. If you mistreat your body, your soul will suffer in consequence. Illnesses and depressions will follow from exhaustion. Correspondingly, our psychical capacities and limits – as seen through our sensibilities, our feelings, and our spirit – need to be attended to. Just as we actively attend to our body’s needs, attention to our psychical needs are crucial. We need to listen to the signals our body sends us when we are depressed or when we are ill in other ways. Many people neglect these signals, and the consequences often show up in the form of total exhaustion or other forms of mental breakdown, which may take years to heal.
3. True freedom.
Absolute freedom, in the form of absence of restrictions of any kind (economic, legal, cultural, emotional, social, or other forms), is unattainable if you wish to live in community with other people. In our search for freedom, we need to start with our own inner life. We have fears, desires, habits, and addictions that often force us to act in certain ways or stop us from doing certain things.
Is it freedom when you get nervous, irritated or aggressive because it has been too long since you last got a cigarette, a drink or some other drug? Is it freedom spend most of your money on lotteries? Is it freedom when you spend most of your leisure time in front of a computer or TV-screen? Is it freedom when you don’t express yourself publicly because you are afraid of speaking in public?
The process of attainment of true freedom needs to start with introspection. You need to get to know your own character. How do we act in our lives? What are the causes behind our different actions? What is the result of fears, addictions, uncontrolled desires and habits? Are our actions governed by our own conscious priorities? Are they results of circumstances we do not control? How can we influence the causes behind our actions in such a way as to gain a better control of our lives?
4. Love.
Love is a strong energy. It takes many different forms and it often affects our lives profoundly. If we wish to experience love in its true forms, we need to combat the way our own egos stand in the way. If we allow the immediate needs of our own egos to govern our actions, we are not likely to experience true love. Love starts by thinking of the people around you, the people you meet. If you guide your attention to them and their needs, you will get a form of contact and interaction which is the basis for love.
5. What to cultivate and what to reject.
If we have made progress in getting to know ourselves, we will have a better knowledge of what is good for us and what is bad for us. From philosophy and religion we know that life is a constant struggle between forces that act for the good and forces that are of evil nature. The same struggle goes on inside ourselves. If we manage to see clearly what types of actions in our lives produce results that we jugde to be desirable and what types of actions produce negative results, we have a fundamental starting point for improving our lives. By raising our consciousness in this respect, we can better identify what we should do more of and we should do less of.
6. The art of living.
A good life is achieved when you obtain inner calm. Inner calm is obtained when you manage to balance the conflicting forces that struggle within you. You need to look for a proper balance between attachment and detachment. Extreme attachment to certain needs and desires will always come at the expense of other needs and desires.
If you have a family and an interesting job, you have an excellent point of departure for a good life - emotionally and professionally. However, if you allow your professional ambitions to take control of the most part of your time and attention, your family will suffer and so – in the end – will you. You need to strike a balance between the two. A good way to find this balance can be achieved by constant dialogue with the persons at home and at the work place. Don’t underestimate the need for communication.
Aristotle, and many others before and after him, have underlined the importance of finding the middle way if you are looking for the good life.
7. Accepting what is.
Everybody faces difficulties, challenges and problems of all sorts in their daily lives. In so doing, it is crucial to recognize the facts you are faced with and accept to face them properly. Many people, when faced with something they dislike, will start by looking away from the problems and try to behave as if the problems actually were not there. Denial is the biggest enemy of problem-solving, as any family member of an alcoholic will be able to testify.
Many facts of life are extremely hard to deal with, but they need to be faced. Hiding from problems does not solve them, and it creates other problems in addition.