"Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction"
All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws
analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception.
To come down by a movement in which gravity plays no part…
Gravity makes things come down, wings make them rise:
what wings raised to the second power can make things come down
without weight? Creation is composed of the descending movement of gravity,
the ascending movement of grace and the descending movement of
the second degree of grace. Grace is the law of the descending movement.
To lower oneself is to rise in the domain of moral gravity.
Like a gas, the soul tends to fill the entire space which is given it.
A gas which contracted leaving a vacuum—this would be contrary
to the law of entropy. Not to exercise all the power at one’s disposal
is to endure the void. This is contrary to all the laws of nature.
Grace alone can do it. Grace fills empty spaces but it can only enter
where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void.
The necessity for a reward, the need to receive the equivalent
of what we give. But if, doing violence to this necessity, we leave a vacuum,
as it were a suction of air is produced and a supernatural reward results.
It does not come if we receive other wages: it is this vacuum which makes it come.
Time is an image of eternity, but it is also a substitute for eternity.
The present does not attain finality. Nor does the future,
for it is only what will be present. We do not know this, however.
If we apply to the present the point of that desire within us
which corresponds to finality, it pierces right through to the eternal.
We have to go down to the root of our desires in order to tear
the energy from its object. That is where the desires are true
in so far as they are energy. It is the object which is unreal.
But there is an unspeakable wrench in the soul at the separation
of a desire from its object. If we go down into ourselves
we find that we possess exactly what we desire.
Decreation: to make something created pass into the uncreated.
Destruction: to make something created pass into nothingness.
A blameworthy substitute for decreation. Creation is an act of love
and it is perpetual. Everything which is grasped by our natural faculties
is hypothetical. It is only supernatural love that establishes anything.
Thus we are co-creators. We participate in the creation of the world
by decreating ourselves. We only possess what we renounce;
what we do not renounce escapes from us. We are born and live
in an inverted fashion, for we are born and live in sin which is
an inversion of the hierarchy. We have to be nothing in order to be
in our right place in the whole. It is necessary to uproot oneself.
By uprooting oneself one seeks greater reality.
We are drawn towards a thing because we believe it is good.
We end by being chained to it because it has become necessary.
Things of the senses are real if they are considered as perceptible things,
but unreal if considered as goods. Appearance has the completeness of reality,
but only as appearance. As anything other than appearance it is error.
The upward movement in us is vain (and less than vain)
if it does not come from a downward movement.
It is the crucified body which is a true balance, the body reduced
to its point in time and space. We must not judge. We must let all beings
come to us, and leave them to judge themselves. We must be a balance.
The beings I love are creatures. They were born by chance.
My meeting with them was also by chance. They will die.
I have to imitate God who infinitely loves finite things
in that they are finite things. We want everything which has a value
to be eternal. Now everything which has a value is the product of a meeting,
lasts throughout this meeting and ceases when those things which met
are separated. To know that what is most precious is not rooted in existence
—that is beautiful. Why? It projects the soul beyond time.
analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception.
To come down by a movement in which gravity plays no part…
Gravity makes things come down, wings make them rise:
what wings raised to the second power can make things come down
without weight? Creation is composed of the descending movement of gravity,
the ascending movement of grace and the descending movement of
the second degree of grace. Grace is the law of the descending movement.
To lower oneself is to rise in the domain of moral gravity.
Like a gas, the soul tends to fill the entire space which is given it.
A gas which contracted leaving a vacuum—this would be contrary
to the law of entropy. Not to exercise all the power at one’s disposal
is to endure the void. This is contrary to all the laws of nature.
Grace alone can do it. Grace fills empty spaces but it can only enter
where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void.
The necessity for a reward, the need to receive the equivalent
of what we give. But if, doing violence to this necessity, we leave a vacuum,
as it were a suction of air is produced and a supernatural reward results.
It does not come if we receive other wages: it is this vacuum which makes it come.
Time is an image of eternity, but it is also a substitute for eternity.
The present does not attain finality. Nor does the future,
for it is only what will be present. We do not know this, however.
If we apply to the present the point of that desire within us
which corresponds to finality, it pierces right through to the eternal.
We have to go down to the root of our desires in order to tear
the energy from its object. That is where the desires are true
in so far as they are energy. It is the object which is unreal.
But there is an unspeakable wrench in the soul at the separation
of a desire from its object. If we go down into ourselves
we find that we possess exactly what we desire.
Decreation: to make something created pass into the uncreated.
Destruction: to make something created pass into nothingness.
A blameworthy substitute for decreation. Creation is an act of love
and it is perpetual. Everything which is grasped by our natural faculties
is hypothetical. It is only supernatural love that establishes anything.
Thus we are co-creators. We participate in the creation of the world
by decreating ourselves. We only possess what we renounce;
what we do not renounce escapes from us. We are born and live
in an inverted fashion, for we are born and live in sin which is
an inversion of the hierarchy. We have to be nothing in order to be
in our right place in the whole. It is necessary to uproot oneself.
By uprooting oneself one seeks greater reality.
We are drawn towards a thing because we believe it is good.
We end by being chained to it because it has become necessary.
Things of the senses are real if they are considered as perceptible things,
but unreal if considered as goods. Appearance has the completeness of reality,
but only as appearance. As anything other than appearance it is error.
The upward movement in us is vain (and less than vain)
if it does not come from a downward movement.
It is the crucified body which is a true balance, the body reduced
to its point in time and space. We must not judge. We must let all beings
come to us, and leave them to judge themselves. We must be a balance.
The beings I love are creatures. They were born by chance.
My meeting with them was also by chance. They will die.
I have to imitate God who infinitely loves finite things
in that they are finite things. We want everything which has a value
to be eternal. Now everything which has a value is the product of a meeting,
lasts throughout this meeting and ceases when those things which met
are separated. To know that what is most precious is not rooted in existence
—that is beautiful. Why? It projects the soul beyond time.
Street art image of philosopher Simone Weil in Berlin Kreuzberg (2019), Marko Kafé
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Simone Weil was a French philosopher and mystic who took part in the French Resistance during World War II. She believed “there is a reality outside the world, that is to say, outside space and time, outside man's mental universe, outside any sphere whatsoever that is accessible to human faculties.”
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