Читать книгу The Great Reduction - Jay Trott - Страница 13

We can see or hear beautiful things and enjoy them, but the eye and ear always want more. This is the law of desire. Or as Solomon says in Proverbs, “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”

When we are young, desire seems like a blessing. Let the seeing and the hearing commence! And when we say “young,” we think this feeling probably extends well into middle age, while the life-spirit remains strong and we have not become too reflective.

But a strange thing has happened to Solomon, who is now well beyond middle age. As former pleasures fade, he has seen the dark side of desire. The eye is never satisfied; the ear is never filled. And this poses a problem for someone who longs for contentment.

To be content is to be filled. Desire ceases its restless striving because we already have what we want. But then contentment and the desires of the ears and eyes are at odds with each other. The eyes and ears continue to seek pleasure but can never be satisfied.

Solomon is speaking philosophically. The pleasures of nature, for example, as great as they are—and they are incomparable—cannot provide contentment. The very force that makes them seem so desirable also deprives us of the rest we are seeking.

The fault is not in them but in ourselves. They cannot fill us because we have another longing that we are trying to satisfy with the things of this world. And this is even more true of the things we ourselves have made or won or earned.

Solomon built a famous temple, but his eyes could not be satisfied with it. He heaped up gold, but it did not make him happy. He married seven hundred wives, but he longed for a single wife whom he could love and who would sincerely love him in return.

The eye is never satisfied because the soul desires life. Thus the great pleasures of the eyes can become a curse as well as a blessing.