As I read this entry and recall my readings of edward mooney’s blog and books, I notice a similarity. This lyrical philosophy is writing beautifully about things these philosophers are reading—books, ideas written by their heroes. henry david thoreau would be apalled! (See Words written outdoors vs indoors.) But why can’t we do both—a philosophical life that consists of reading a lot and writing about what onne reads and writing outdoors to open oneself to direct revelation?
In this entry, henry bugbee directly responds to Gabriel Marcel. He returns to the subject of faith.1 He begins by stating that faith (i.e., openness or trustingness) is as important in ethical reflection as in action. Philosophical truth, he claims, arrives to the present from the past via reflection. But this arrival requires faith on the possibility of realization because philosophical truth, the meaning of one’s past experiences, comes involuntarily like insight (insight cannot be predetermined). We do not control its arrival artificially. We can only wait and trust (i.e., have faith) that it will arrive.
We become more open to its arrival if we keep ourselves in our “true mode of being,” which resides in the present moment.2 The more present we are, the more chance of recollection and the better our odds of capturing meaning. The arrival of such meaning—what is essential in our lives—come when we have already given up, surrendered, and have returned to our normal routines. It is in the middle of mundane life when the most essential realizations arrive, unanticipated and involuntary. Interestingly, when we recollect the meaning of past experiences, we also realize our deepest reality—that of being an existent in the present moment. In his entry, Bugbee repeatedly mentions Marcel, in conversation with him, reacting to his texts. It is the same thing I find in Mooney.