RADIANCIES OF THE "ETERNAL NOW"
Is there any past, any future, in our lives? If I look back upon the
past, or anticipate the future, whether with joy or pleasure, do I not
do it in the _now_? To-morrow never comes, for when it arrives it is no
longer to-morrow,--it is _now_. Life is one _eternal now_. The great
trouble, however, with most people, is that they have not learned that
fact. They do not live in the _now_, they sit down and lament over the
past; weep that its joys are gone, its glories faded, altogether
oblivious of the resplendent beauties that now surround them, the
radiant joyousnesses that environ them, NOW. Or, they sit in fond
anticipation, in expectation, with impatient waiting for to-morrow, for
next week, for next year, ignoring the immediate and present sweet
singing of the birds, the exquisite daintiness of the flowers, their
delicate fragrance, the majesty and sublimity of the snowy mountain
peaks, the upright stateliness of the trees, the supernal clarity of the
sky, the pellucidness of the atmosphere, the champagne-like quality of
the air, NOW.
What time we lose, waste, pervert, by forgetting the duty, the joy, the
delight of living in the Eternal Now. Take your joys as they come along.
It is the Divine plan that every moment shall be filled with His
joy--the joy of living, of being.
Eyes are given to see with _now_! Are you using them now? Do you gaze
upon the grass, the trees, the flitting butterflies, the busy insects,
the bees, the beautiful birds, the clouds, the sky, the sea, the
rippling cascades, the _everything_ of Nature, NOW, and enjoy their
many-formed, many-hued, many-graced splendors.
Ears are given for hearing _now_!
Are yours alert for all the sweet, the pleasant, the comforting, the
joyous, the sublime sounds that might come to them now? Or are you like
the "fools and blind" who will sit at a Boston Symphony concert and
gabble gossip or retail slander?
Palates are given to taste with _now_!
Are you tasting the apples, the rare lusciousness of grapes, peaches,
oranges, plums, and the thousand and one delicate fruits _now_, or are
you regretting the lost truffles, the sauces, the spices, the wines, the
stimulating things of yesterday, or longing for the Lucullus repasts of
to-morrow?
Oh, the content and happiness of taking joys as they come, in their
simpleness and naturalness, in their every-day, common, normal order; of
looking for them, expecting them, anticipating them, going out, as it
were, to meet them.
Is it only a walk of ten blocks (or five) to the store, or office, or
school? Are you ready as you step out of your door to inhale the
fragrance of the morning air, or enjoy its own peculiar delight if the
morning is wet, misty, foggy, rainy? Do you see the moving and sun-lit
clouds; the clear sky, the rustling leaves of the trees; the hopping of
the happy birds; the joyousness of the children walking to school?
Be alert, receptive, ready. Seize the _small joy of the now_, and you
will find it far more delightful than all the anticipations, and even
the realizations of what seem to be the _large joys of the to-morrow_.
One of the saddest pictures on canvas to me is one called "The Pursuit
of Pleasure." It represents a female figure as _Pleasure_, floating
through the air, and followed by an eager crowd of men and women, of all
ages and conditions in life. Reaching, grasping, breathless, regardless
of their tramplings upon each other, indifferent that some of their
whilom companions are fallen and cannot arise, and that hopeless despair
is depicted in their eyes and faces, each and all of the remaining
strugglers fix their eyes upon the phantom though alluring figure. And
thus the pursuit goes on continuously; there is no reaching her; she is
ever illusive and evasive, a delusion and a snare, ever beckoning yet
ever retreating.
In her sculptured fountain at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, Mrs. Harry
Payne Whitney expresses the same idea, but even more forcefully than
does the picture. Here are thirty-seven figures nearly all intent upon
reaching their goal of happiness. They cannot even see what it is. Yet
the eagerness depicted upon the faces, in the straining attitudes, the
strenuous striving in that one direction, all typify the desire, the
intentness, the resolute pursuit of happiness. Then, alas, when the
doors are reached, they are both found closed, guarded by Assyrian and
Egyptian figures, that suggest the occult mystery of the beyond, and
that look down sternly and unyieldingly upon the two figures at their
feet, long strivers, evidently pleading for the admission that is denied
them. There are two definite, distinct, and different ways in which
these two allegories can be interpreted. One is that mankind ever lives
in the world of the senses, pursuing the gratifications of the now, the
feastings, the drinkings, the carousings, the pleasuring, the wantonings
of the sense-life, the sensual life, and that such a pursuit is ever
doomed to failure, for man--the spiritual, created in God's own
image--can never be satisfied with the temporary things of earth and
sense.
The other interpretation is that man is ever seeking for some _far-off_,
great, _extraordinary_ pleasure, joy, or satisfaction, something in the
future, rather than living in the smaller joys of the _now_. The child
longs to be the youth or maiden, enjoying "sitting up at nights," "going
to parties," "eating candies," "going out with the boys," "smoking like
a man"; the youth eagerly works for the time when he shall be his own
master, control his own business; the maiden, have her lover, marry
successfully, become the mistress of her own house; the grown man looks
forward to and works desperately for the time when he shall have "made
his pile," and the woman to "an assured place in society." These, and a
thousand and one "_pursuits_" engage men and women.
In my own life I am eagerly desirous to radiate the opposite of both of
these conceptions. I certainly do not wish to belong to the class
pictured in Christ's parable of the rich man; he who thought only of the
so-called good things of this life which he would enjoy now--he who
said: "Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die." The
slightest observation of life, of the men and women one meets daily,
soon convinces one of the hollowness, the dissatisfaction, the
incompleteness of all earthly things. The subject is too trite to need
any amplification. Yet, the wonder of it is, that, in spite of this
fact, the great majority of people still thus strive for wealth, place,
power, honor, social success, possessions, attainments. Why is it that
this _ignis fatuus_ has such power of allurement? Why is it that men
and women are so foolish, so slow to rule their actions by their own
inner spiritual awakenings, rather than the habits and fashions followed
by others?
I have no desire or ambition for fame, for honor, for success, for
place, for power, _as such_. They are useless to me save as I may use
them for the benefit, the happiness, the pleasure of my fellows. I am
slowly awakening to the realization of what I believe now to be a primal
fact, viz., that all a man can really hold and enjoy in his living hand,
in his soul, in his life, is that which he gives away, shares,
distributes among his fellows.
Elsewhere I have quoted Joaquin Miller's lines from _Peter Cooper_:
For all you can hold in your dead, cold hand,
Is what you have given away.
I now wish to radiate my belief in the enlargement of that idea as
stated above. Even knowledge can give no real satisfaction unless
shared, given to others; the joy of a picture owned is lost unless
others can enjoy with you. In other words, the possession of anything
_for self alone_ is destructive of happiness. One learns slowly but
surely that even in these things of the mind and the soul:
That man who lives for self alone
Lives for the meanest mortal known.