Philosophy Articles   

The future of the earth lies in our hands, and not only in our hands but in our hearts, our minds, and in the ability that each of us has to contribute to the vast network of light and of consciousness of which we form a part.

More precious than any acquisition of man, yet far more mutable than mercury in the palm is the nature of time. Its swiftly passing tide has strewn the earth with forgotten empires and potentates. In its wake, tombstones present a constant witness to its victorious conquest of earthly existence. From an anthropocentric perspective time is always the unspoken enemy that lurks in the back room of the mind, always bringing to finality the meticulous plans of a lifetime. The fluid nature of time leaves nothing untouched, forcing our mortality to crave a transfixing at the point of our highest, momentary contentment. "Because I feel a haughty discontent for my gross blemish of mortality, I find no joy in any element that cannot wash my flesh away from me." (Edward Struble Johnson, Jr., "Anthology of Verse" from the Yale Literary magazine, 1836-1936, p. 133) The desire to extract from time in each successive event every conceivable fulfillment ends in complete futility. This anwei of spirit, soul and mind is the resultant consequences of time's illusory nature. It may promise but can never fulfill. For the meaning of time is not inherent within the continuum of time. "And all that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was futility and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun." (Eccles. 2:10-11)