Chapter 18 Volume 3 Faith-6

III However, if this purpose has been achieved, and human beings are to stay at this destination, what will human beings do?There is no higher state on earth than this state; and all that the generation that first attained it can do is to stay in it, to maintain it, and leave behind some who will do their best. The offspring of what they just did, and those offspring in turn leave off some offspring that did the same thing.Thus man stagnates in his way; therefore man's earthly aims are never his highest.Such earthly goals are understandable, attainable and limited.If we always conceive of the past generations as means to a final and perfected generation, we cannot escape the question posed by serious reason, namely, to what end does this last generation exist?After a generation has appeared on the earth, they will, of course, live not against reason, but in accordance with reason, and become all that they can become on earth; Will it survive at all?Why don't they stay in the birthplace of nothingness?Reason does not exist for survival, but survival exists for reason.

An existence which cannot satisfy reason by itself and solve all its problems can never be true existence. Are these acts, then, directed by the voice of conscience--a voice whose commands I must never think about, but must obey in silence--a means, the only means, to man's earthly ends?It is an indisputable fact that I can only connect these actions with this end, and that I can have no intention of them except this end; but will this intention of mine always be achieved?Is there no need for anything but the desire for the highest good, in order that it may be done?Oh! Most well-intentioned decisions are utterly useless in this world, and others seem to be even counterproductive to the ends which men set up in their actions.On the other hand, men's basest passions, their vices and their idleness, are often more sure of leading to better results than the efforts of an upright man who resolves to do evil to do good; and it seems that the best good in the world It is completely independent of all virtues or vices of people, but grows and develops according to its own inherent laws through an invisible and unknown force, just like the various celestial bodies do not depend on all efforts of people and follow their designation. and it seems that this power, in its own lofty plan, carries all the intentions of men—good and bad—going forward, and directs with extraordinary potentiality what is done for other purposes used for its own purposes.

Therefore, even if the attainment of that earthly goal might be the purpose of our existence, and thus leave no question for reason, this purpose at least appears not to be our purpose, but that of an unknown power.We do not know at any moment what led to this end; and it is left to us, perhaps, to add some material, whatever it may be, to that power by our actions, to make it This force processes and transforms it according to its own goals.In such a case, it would perhaps be wisest for us not to worry about things that do not concern us, but to live as we often think to ourselves, and to transfer our achievements calmly to that power. Method.

The moral laws deep within us then seem empty and superfluous, and seem altogether inappropriate to a being who no longer seems capable of, nor destined to reach, a higher state.In order to be consistent with ourselves, we seem to have to refuse to heed the cry of this moral law, and to suppress it as a false and foolish dream that arises in our minds. No, I do not want to refuse to obey the voice of the moral law, I live and exist very real, and I am willing to obey it, simply because it issues orders.This decision should be the first and highest thing in my mind, and by which all other things must be the criterion, and this decision is neither based on nor dependent on any other thing; Should be the innermost principle of my spiritual life.

But I, as a rational creature who, by my mere determination, has set before me an end, must never act without an end and an aim.If I can admit that that obedience is justified, if it is in fact the reason which constitutes my essence, and not some figment or eccentric dream which orders me to obey, then there must be something in the end to that obedience. achievement, and use it for something.That obedience obviously does not serve earthly purposes; therefore, there must be a supernatural world in which obedience can serve the purposes of this world. The veiled mists vanished from my eyes; I gained a new faculty with which to see a new world.This world is what I see only by the command of reason, and only in connection with this command of my mind.I take hold of the world--I am compelled to call this ineffable, though limited by my sensuous point of view--I take hold of the world only in and with that end in which my obedience must have ; the world is nothing at all but this necessary end itself which my reason adds to the command.

Since the only thing that matters in this obedience is of no use in the sensual world, and can neither be a cause nor an effect, how could I, disregarding all other considerations, believe that the law is conjectured for the sensuous world? , the whole purpose of obedience required by the law is contained in the sensible world?In the sensuous world, which develops continuously in the chain of material causation, in which what is produced is dependent on what came before, the important question is by no means in what way, with what purpose and with what conviction, an action is undertaken, but But simply what the action is.

If the whole purpose of our existence were to create the earthly state of our species, then it would seem that all that is needed is an infallible mechanism for determining our external conduct, and we are nothing more than being properly fitted in the whole machine. It seems that there is no need to be anything other than a cog in the car.Freedom would then be not only futile, but even contrary to purpose; good will would become entirely superfluous.The world seems to have been erected with the most unsophisticated artifice, as if it were traveling toward its goal in an extravagant and wasteful way, by winding and twisting roads.You, mighty world-spirit, seem to prefer to deprive us of this liberty which you have to take care of, and arrange otherwise, which must be adapted to your plans! It seems that we are almost compelled to act as if we were going to your plans. Do that! Then you may reach your goal by the shortest road, as the least inhabitant of your world can tell you. —But I am free; therefore, such a causal connection, which makes freedom absolutely superfluous and purposeless, does not exhaust my whole mission.I should be free; for it is not mechanically produced actions, but the free determination of liberty solely for moral imperatives, and for no other purpose at all—so the inner voice of conscience tells us—constitutes my true self. value, and this determination alone constitutes that value.The bond with which law binds me is the bond of the living spirit; which disdains to harness dead mechanical power, and turns only to the living and self-moving.It demands this obedience; this obedience cannot be superfluous.

Thus arose before me the eternal world, still more radiantly, and the fundamental laws of its order were manifested before my soul.What exists in this world is simply that will which is hidden from all worldly eyes in the dark recesses of my mind, the first link in the chain of cause and effect running through the whole invisible realm of the spirit, as in It is the same as the action that is a certain kind of material movement in the non-eternal world becomes the first link of the material chain running through the entire material system.This will is the moving and living thing of the rational world, just as motion is the moving and living thing of the sensuous world.I am at the center point of these two worlds in direct opposition, the visible world, where action determines, and the invisible and utterly incomprehensible world, where will determines; One of the primordial forces of the world.It is my will that encompasses both worlds.This will itself is part of the supersensible world; just as I move my will by a decision, so I move and change something in this world, my action extends over the whole world and produces new, Eternal things, things that are there without needing to be created.This will explodes into a material action, which belongs to the world of sense and produces in it what it can produce.

I did not gain access to the supernatural world after I was saved from the ties of the mortal world; I exist and live in the supernatural world now, more real than in that mortal world; the supernatural world is now my only firmness. From a standpoint, the eternal life I already have is the only basis for me to continue to live an earthly life.What we call heaven is not beyond the grave; it is already scattered about our nature, and its rays are already projected into every pure heart.My will is mine, it is the only thing that is entirely mine, entirely dependent on myself, and through which I am now a citizen of the kingdom of free and rational independent action.Which decision of my will - the only thing by which I have risen from the world into this kingdom - conforms to the order of this kingdom, my conscience, which the world uses to keep hold of me and unite me to itself The bonds of my life tell me from moment to moment; and it is entirely up to me to give me my appointed mission.So I train myself for the world, I work in the world and for the world, because I am training a member of the world; in this world, and only in this world, I am Pursue my purpose unwaveringly and unquestioningly according to fixed rules, with the certainty of success, because there is no alien force here opposed to my will. —In the sensuous world, as long as my will is actually the will, it will also become an action. This is only the law of the sensuous world.I do not desire action as much as I desire will; only will is entirely and purely my work, and will is all that arises purely from myself.Nor does it require a special activity on my part to unite action with will; action unites itself with will according to the laws of the second world through which I relate myself, The will is as much a primordial force in the second world as in the first. —When I regard the will which conscience offers me as an action, as the cause of action in the world of sense, I am, of course, compelled to regard the will as a means, connected with that earthly end of man; Looking at the plans of the world, and then, on the basis of the insights obtained, estimating what I should do, but the particular action which conscience directly commands me to do appears directly to me as the action by which alone I can conditions help to attain man's earthly purpose.Though afterwards it seems to me that the action did not further the end, or even hinder it, yet it did not cause me to repent, nor did I confuse myself in the matter; when I was engaged in action, I Really just followed my conscience.

Whatever the consequences of an action in this world, it produces nothing but good in the other world.And even to the world, just because the action appears to have failed my purpose, my conscience commands me to repeat the same action in accordance with the purpose, or, just because the action appears to hinder my purpose, my conscience orders me to repeat the same action in accordance with the purpose. Order me to overcome my shortcomings, to eliminate those factors that prevent success.I wished as I ought to wish; the new action bears fruit.Though it may happen that some of the results of this new action do not seem to me to be more beneficial in the sensuous world than in the supersensible; As a result, and for the present world, my task is to improve the past with new activities.Therefore, though it seems that I have not made the slightest advance of the good in this world during my whole earthly life, I must not abandon the good; after each step fails, I must believe that the next step is possible to succeed, and for In that world, in fact, no step is wasted effort. —In a nutshell, I achieve my earthly ends not simply for the sake of the earthly end itself, as an ultimate end, but because my true ultimate end—obedience to the moral law—appears to me in the present world. It is different from fulfilling earthly purposes.If I could one day disobey the moral law, or if that law would someday behave to me in earthly life differently from the moral imperative to achieve my true ultimate end in my situation, then perhaps I could renounce this purpose ; in fact, I will also give up this purpose in another life, in which the moral imperative has set me another purpose that is completely incomprehensible to this shore world.In this life I must wish to achieve this end, because I must obey; it is not my concern whether this end will actually be achieved by an action produced by a lawful will; Of course, in this shore world, one can only point to the earthly purpose—responsibility, not the result.I can never give up the purpose before acting; but after the action is done, I can give up the action, repeat or improve it.Therefore, even here I live and act according to my truest nature and my immediate purpose, only for another world, and this activity for another world I am fully sure of. As far as the world of sense is concerned, I act only for the other world, since I cannot at all act for the other world without at least wishing to act for it.