On the Problem of Belief

Why do you believe anything that you read? It does not matter whether it is in the Bible or in the Gita or in the sacred books of other religions. 

The Philosophy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This article is a part of a series on my three literary mentors: Karen Blixen, J.R.R. Tolkien and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

The series could be said to follow Kierkegaard´s three stages on the way to becoming a true self: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. Each of these “stages on life’s way” represents competing views on life and as such potentially conflicts with one another. In my interpretation Karen Blixen belongs to the aesthetic stage. Tolkien and Saint-Exupéry belong to the ethical and religious stage, though this doesn´t mean that aesthetics not is a part of their work. It certainly is. After all: their works are of a high literary quality, and the concept of beauty is quite central. 

Identification with something is one of the most hypocritical conditions

You can identify yourself with the poor or the rich, with a house, a family, a country, or the whole of the planet – it is one of the tricks Man uses in order to simulate unity.

Identity begins with the Ego, the Ego-centric person. Then the feeling of identity can expand to family and society, a socio-centric identity. And the identity can expand to embrace the planet – a planetarian identity.

Identification with something is one of the most hypocritical conditions.

To identify yourself with a group in the name of unity, and still remain alone, is one of the favorite tricks of Man, in order to deceive loneliness.

Or you identify yourself with your faith in such extreme degree, that you are this faith. And that is a neurotic condition.

You can´t find truth through any organization, priest, clairvoyant, philosophical knowledge or psychological method

Realization can, with help from the Source, only come from within, never from outside.

You therefore can´t find truth through any organization, any faith, any doctrine, any priest, clairvoyant, medium, or any ritual, nor through philosophical knowledge or psychological methods.

You can only find it through the philosophical questions´ self-inquiring practice, through the realization of the nature of the Ego, and therefore of the nature of thinking and time.

This understanding gives on the other hand a gradually growing feeling of, that you are spiritual safe on your journey towards this source.

You can´t be afraid of death, the unknown, because you don´t know what the unknown is

Death is the unknown, which always threatens the known, the patterns you have created.

The paradox is, that you can´t be afraid of the unknown, because you don´t know what the unknown is, and therefore there is nothing to be afraid of.

Death is a word, and it is the word, the image, which creates anxiety. The word is a manifestation of your self-image and world-image.

For as long as the image exists -  the image from where the thought origins - the thought must constantly create anxiety.

Then you rationalize your mortal dread and build a defence against the inevitable, or you invent countless faith-conceptions, which can protect you against the anxiety of death.

A human being, who is searching truth, is not dependent on authority, neither in books, or in any person

The Life Artist doesn´t engage in faith. Faith has no meaning at all for a human being, who is searching truth. Faith is only a kind of secureness, an anchorage, a harbor.

A human being, who is searching truth, must navigate on unmapped oceans, like Odysseus. As a life Artist you have no harbors, no place of refuge, you must go out on the open sea in order to investigate.

A human being, who is searching truth, is not dependent on authority, neither in books, or in any person.

As a Life Artist you are searching for truth, not the authority of a person or of a thought-system.