Serge and I were buddies. Our interests were largely similar. We were both interested in Oriental mysticism, travel literature, art, architecture, and ceramics. 

“The mystical part about making pots is whether you are in a good state when you make them, or anything else. Trying to achieve a good state by throwing pots as a therapeutic undertaking must be difficult. No, the state comes first and everything else follows,” I suggested.

“Sounds rather obvious,” Serge said.

“That’s the trouble, really. We expect our jobs, our hobbies and everything else we do, to give us peace. Of course, we must do our work with our minds, but the mind had better be in abeyance or you have no chance of creating anything worthwhile.”

“But artistic aspirations…?”

“I like basic aesthetics. Slender pots appeal to me more than fat ones. A fairly minimalist approach is evident. A traditional Japanese house delights me. I too, of course, wish to be empty.”

“How about architecture?” he asked.

“It is about form, which by necessity is governed by function. I greatly admire architects and I can feel their dilemma when attempting to combine form and function. The great architects give us spaces that are comfortable for our interior worlds. “

“But empty…?” Serge prodded.

“I suppose I mean the ability, the luck or grace to receive vision. I am convinced that any artistic endeavor begins with an inner vision. A quiet mind is almost a prerequisite. Then comes the work of getting stuff made, which I contend is the job of the mind. I once read that Mozart claimed to have seen music floating before him; he then had the task of getting it all down as sheet music.”

“So you equate throwing pots with a mechanical process,” Serge said.

I explained: “One obviously must learn the mechanics. I spent a year at art school learning how to throw in series. I was fanatical and everyone said I was crazy because I never fired anything. I once worked on a Greek island and was made aware of Greek potters who have little or no artistic ambition. They see working with clay in the same way that a mechanic works on a car. I heard about one potter in Athens whose wheel head never stops turning. Balls of clay are usually weighed to make certain pots and one then places the ball on a stationary wheel head, gets the thing turning, throws the pot, stops the wheel and cuts off the pot to be placed on a board. The man in Athens simply grabs a chunk of clay of about the right weight, whacks it on to a running wheel head, centers and throws the pot and cuts it off and removes it while the wheel head is in motion. He does that all day long, hour after hour.”

“Wasn’t it the Bauhaus people who spoke about a machine for living?”

“Sure,” I said. “But for them function was an aim. The rest was a philosophy of de-cluttering. Décor art also has a function, I hope, because it can get people forgetting themselves, if only momentarily, which I believe is the best way to experience pleasure.”

“What do you mean by forgetting yourself to experience pleasure?”

“It is quite clear – and many doctors and psychologists agree – that the activity of the mind can be repressive. Mental activity is seldom conducive to healing if taken to an extreme. A patient’s first thoughts are naturally the stuff of concern and the need to seek help! If the patient can surrender his or her condition completely to the expertise of the doctor, the doctor’s task is simplified because the patient’s mind does not meddle with the doctor’s work. More important, the mind is placed in abeyance and permits, or releases, the flow of a natural healing process.”

Serge was confused. “But how does creativity come into it?” he asked.

“One could say that any flow of natural energy, meaning not mind-induced, could be pleasurable. But it is not simply a question of absolute faith in a doctor because the mind in this very complex world has often formed what in German is known as an Eigendynamic, a life of its own, which means that the mind could take control of a person’s life and becomes a personal, overriding function. That which should be a person’s servant has then reversed the roles.

“Most people find a feeling of equanimity in a state of passive focus. I once attended a concert featuring Ella Fitzgerald and a jazz trio. The lady was in such fine form that within a few minutes she had captured the attention, the hearts, and the minds, of the entire audience, thus giving them a release from self. The feeling of euphoria was utterly palpable. Any great artist can give this grace to people. To look at a Rembrandt, at least for the first time, can be stunning – meaning, the mind is stunned. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and many more, were capable of offering such grace. I would suggest that truly great artists are themselves in a state of mind abeyance, as mentioned above, when creating their pictures, sculpture, music, literature, and architecture. Great artists ‘receive’ rather than ‘conceive’ their works.

“We are encouraged to be selfless, to simply let go of the thoughts that constantly bug us and turn to what we instinctively know to be true. True art, design, architecture, and hopefully ceramics, can therefore not only be pleasing but also beneficial.”

“Is humankind sick?” he asked.

“Not at all but there does appear to be a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction as we travel down our days. We have little repose. You might say we don’t give ourselves a chance to be truly happy. Was it Krishnamurti who said that there is only one thing between you and God: you. Get out of the way.”

“So you think a mystical approach would be useful?”

“I really do believe that, but, naturally, one would need the time to get quiet. Having a family, a job, earning a living and all the rest is hardly conducive to achieving equanimity from the outset. I can now make ceramics at my leisure but I admire those creative people who are able to achieve great work within the hustle of daily life, especially the young ones.”

“Looking at the pictures, there seems to be an ‘Asian’ approach to your ceramics.”

I said: “The master-potter, Bernard Leach went to Asia to learn about ceramics. He returned to England in 1920 and brought the Japanese master, Shoji Hamada, with him. Hamada and Leach showed us the possibility of selfless pottery making. They constructed and fired a wood-burning kiln, which, opposed to the radiant heat of an electric kiln, brings out the inherent qualities of the clay beneath a glaze. This is achieved by reducing the air intake at a critical point during firing because, obviously, a naked flame requires oxygen to keep burning. Thus the flame starved of oxygen seeks oxygen in the glazes and the clay. The result is buttery textures and some marvelous hues. I have a potter friend, however, who studied with Leach and he said it took years to escape from his influence.”

“But what of selfless pottery?”

“Again, it is the state of having one’s mind in abeyance. Leach maintained that if six potters were to each make a simple tea bowl and one of the potters was in a quiet state the result would be noticeable. In fact, he said that eight out of ten observers would instinctively choose that one bowl.”

“This would seem to imply meditation,” Serge said.

“I have nothing against meditation, but I never did it.”

“So what is your approach?”

“I do nothing really special: just get quiet, relax, begin, and watch what happens. I’m sure many others are happy with the way they operate.”

“Is there a learning process, in all this?”

I told him, “It’s like learning to drive a car, which is initially undertaken as a mental process. Beginners tend to be nervous. Gear changes get snarled, the rear-view mirror is largely forgotten, and so on. The mechanical learning process gradually becomes internalized and a natural flow takes over. Gear changes and all of the other skills become automatic. When this has occurred the mind is set free to concentrate, although focus would be a better word, on what is coming at you on the road.”

“So how did you learn?”

“It may sound far-fetched but one might say that the hands learned what to do. There is a marvelous video on YouTube showing the jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan playing a number (Jumpin’ Jack). Jordan has the ability to play melody and bass simultaneously, somewhat in the way a pianist plays. Deep into his solo one sees Jordan looking down at his hands and there is a smile on his face that seems to say ‘…hey, you guys are really having a good time.’”

“Oh come on, jazz and a quiet mind?”

“Jazz means improvisation engendered by freedom. The freedom from self, conflict, and anything else that hinders creativity.”

“Of course it would be impertinent to speak for other artists but I love the idea of what the Japanese call Shibui. It is a feeling engendered by quiet reticence, something that gives pleasure for reasons beyond explanation. I suppose it means a special rightness about something. Since I am not a Mozart, I do not expect to stun or startle with my work. I am satisfied if a bit of Shibui arises through a combination of shapes and glazes.”

“Talking about shapes…” Serge said.

“As I said before I prefer slender pots; pots that narrow down to a small foot. This gives the pot an appearance of floating – is soaring too presumptuous? My bowls usually have a turned foot. It gives them a lightness that I find pleasing.”

“Have you not been copying the painter Giorgio Morandi with his still-life renderings of ceramic vessels, especially the fluted bottles or those with cut sides?”

“I had never heard of the man before you mentioned him,” I told my friend. “But Morandi does appeal. Thanks for introducing me to his work.”

“The glazes are obviously an enhancement!”

“True but there is a lot of science involved. I fire with an electric kiln because it was given to me as a gift. We are too strapped for cash to buy a preferred gas or wood-burning kiln. My glazes have therefore been things to overcome rather than just use.”

“Build your own kiln!”

“I would love to but for the time being I am where I am at. The electric kiln I use is not particularly large, 60x75x50 centimeters inside, and it does have its eccentricities. All potters have this problem and have adjusted their glaze recipes and firing cycles accordingly. After several test firings, I have been lucky to achieve a good off-white, a really luscious chocolate black, a rather startling blue, a gorgeous dark green thinning to brown on the edges. I also have a nice pale green, which is supposed to be a celadon, but never really came out that way. I am still looking for a classic Chinese tenmoku glaze that fires at 1250°. It is a wonderful black breaking to brown on thin edges.”

“Your glaze application sometimes seems somewhat free-form,” Serge said. “What is behind that?”

“Well, if you have ever tried to draw an arc or a circle you will see the distinct wobble of the line because of an unsure hand. Just swish the pencil around on the paper and the result is likely to be much more graceful. You may not achieve a perfect circle but the result will be more pleasing to the eye. Lord knows how Giotto did a perfect circle in the thirteenth century. Splash glazing is a sort of just do it endeavor. There is no foresight involved, I dribble a glaze on to a pot and…”

“Watch what happens?”

“Right,” I said. “It is again the idea of not really putting one’s mind into a thing. Otherwise I dip my pots into a bucket of glaze in the usual way. Of course, large vessels must have a glaze poured over them, but it is still uncontrolled.”

“Clay?”

“The stoneware clay I use has been great help in achieving texture, although it is not very easy to throw. I mix two clays, with and without grog. The clay is speckled with pyrite and it looks good on the unglazed parts of a pot. The pyrite also shows through the glazes, especially in the off-white.”

“There seems to be lifestyle aspect in what you do.”

“I got around to it a bit late but consider myself lucky. We have a nice old house and a small pottery room. The garden is up and running. My marriage seems to be good, although I am definitely not going to ask her opinion about that. How you live, where you live, and what you do are largely a matter of circumstance for most people. An organized human environment is rather required.”

“Do you remember us talking about Francesco Patrizi, the author of many works of philosophy and the arts?”

“That’s right. He was looking for perfection of a sort,” I said.

“Patrizi wrote a book tantalizingly called The Happy Town. The work is Utopian and an attempt to counter Thomas More’s notion of separating church and state. Patrizi proposed the integration of both. He was born into the nobility in Croatia in 1529 and had the time and inclination to consider the improvement of the world around him. La città felice was written in 1551 in Padua and was printed in Venice in 1553, when Patrizi was only 22 years old. His book proposes a topographical situation that is obviously seen as the Croatian town of Cres in its deep, protective bay, and is about achieving an ideal state. We are confronted with a man who wished to create order, but it was order-imposed. His architectural notions encompassed ‘…straight streets to enhance winds in the hot season’ and ‘…streets meandering like a river to divert winds in the winter months.’ There were to be squares and institutional buildings for commerce, but his main thrust was the stuff of social order. Fabrizi proposed two social groups, the nobility, composed of soldiers and the priesthood, and workers and peasants forming a second group. This second group in The Happy Town were not actually meant to be happy but were only to serve and ‘…not to attain a state of bliss.’”

“Ho hum for Fabrizi. Thomas More was really a humanist, someone who cared.”

“Exactly!” Serge said. “Patrizi was an architect who wished to tell people what is good for them. One debatable point about art could be about what it does to people. Should art bring people to quiet reflection – bliss would be an exaggeration in my case – or should it provoke? Personally, getting people all riled up doesn’t make sense to me.”

“So what is the message?”

“Not offending anyone’s sensibilities, which means offering stuff that calms rather than antagonizes.”

“Your method…?”

“Get quiet, relax, begin.”   

“And watch what happens?”

“That’s about it.”

Yet, regardless of our age, gender, culture, religion, or socioeconomic status, we all have existential questions that beg answers. Where did I come from? Who am I? Where am I going to? We can’t help but ask these questions, and it is literally impossible to shut them off. Yet, it is mind-boggling to observe how much we try to avoid these questions by numerous distractions while at the same time, we need clear answers. Because otherwise life simply does not make sense, and we cannot truly enjoy anything. Yet, the urge and need to find answers to these fundamental questions runs so deep in us that we do not want to and cannot accept any dogmas. Ultimately, this search for existential meaning is a search for true happiness. Or I like to call it inner peace.

Because of the way we are (the way we are created), we seek meaning. We seek meaning in our relationships. We seek meaning in life. We seek meaning in material things. And it is impossible to have inner peace and to be in harmony with life and the universe without satisfying this need for meaning. We can describe this as “being in congruence with our creation (the way we are created).” We are given various faculties, such as the heart, spirit, mind, reason, etc., and they are all an integral part of us. Without heart (that is, shutting off our conscience, for instance), we become like beasts and commit atrocities. Without reason (that is, giving undue attention to reason), we fall into the darkness of ignorance. If we were to make a functionalist allegory, a table is a table with four legs (for the sake of the example, let’s assume all tables have or must have 4 legs). In other words, a table missing a leg would not serve its purpose. It would not fulfill the purpose of its creation. Just like this, a human being who shuts off one or more of his or her faculties (heart, mind, spirit) cannot be a perfect human being and cannot fulfill the purpose of creation. Hence, being in congruence with our nature (our creation) requires us to satisfy the needs of all of our faculties. Answering our existential questions, finding meaning in our lives, satisfies both our heart and our mind.

The strategies our egos develop to try to shut off or to ignore our existential questions are many. Some of the most obvious means for trying to silence our inner voice are alcohol consumption, workaholism, and dedicating one’s life to family or social causes to the extent that one becomes consumed with them. Some people just choose to deceive themselves into thinking that we can never find the answers to these questions, hence it is pointless to even try. We are who we are and that’s the end of the story. Yet, all these strategies are doomed to fail and end up in increasing portions of the population tormented with depression.

All of us want to find that happiness that would last forever. In a way, most of what we do in life is to attain that inner peace. Yoga classes, friendships, religious activities, ambition in our careers… And indeed we do find moments of bliss here and there. But seldom does this happiness last. We strive to buy this very nice car, and once we buy it and use it for sometime, it ceases to make us happy. Then we look for another reason to be happy and life goes on like this. But in the meanwhile, we get tired and depressed of this unending quest and endless disappointments. We waste our lives in search for something that we never quite find.

But what is happiness really? Have we ever thought about it thoroughly? What are we looking for? Fulfilling our dreams, passions, needs? Is this the aim of our life, and can this pursuit in itself bring us happiness? Happiness is rather instantaneous. We have randomly dispersed moments of joy, followed by moments of sorrow. Once we have a momentary pleasure or happiness, many times we withdraw and have very sad times. This is why it is said that life is all about ups and downs. Think of your many shopping sprees, and the subsequent plummeting of your emotions for instance!

In fact, the real happiness we are looking for is unceasing and ever-lasting. We want to be happy all the time at a maximum. Even though we have never experienced this feeling of utmost and continuous happiness, we want it with all of our being. This desire is a sign attesting to the existence of such everlasting happiness. Is it therefore possible to attain such happiness?

To be able to answer this crucial question, we need to face our existential questions and first ask who we are and accordingly try to figure out what kind of happiness can make us really happy. What makes us happy can only be something that is in line with who we are, in congruence with our creation. Although we can never change who we are, we sometimes do pretend to be something other than our true selves, with temporary needs, looking for transient joys. But we cannot change our nature or the way we are created.

Therefore, the solution lies in being frank with ourselves, being sincere about our feelings and thoughts, and not deceiving ourselves that temporary sources of happiness can actually satisfy our heart, intellect, and spirit. We need to reach out and listen to our feelings and thoughts that we have been trying to repress. Happiness lies in being peaceful with our reality, with who we are, and acting according to this reality.

Who are we and why are we here?

It seems like many of us spend our entire lives reading hundreds of books, maybe studying for years and years to obtain a PhD degree, or working for days and nights to get somewhere in our careers. Yet, without pausing and pondering upon these existential questions, who we are and why we are here, it all seems so very pointless with death awaiting us at the end. Deep inside, we all wonder who we really are, where we came from, and where we are going. We find ourselves in this mysterious world. We feel strongly connected to endless things in it. Many things in this world attract our attention. A sunny day is something we enjoy, and when we see a beautiful rose, we smile, we feel happy…Yet, we have not really decided on these responses and emotions. It seems that everything is somehow related to us, and we seem to have a close relation with everything in this universe. But surprisingly, all these things that we like fade away, die, and do not last…the rose we admire, the sun that sets, the friends that die…and at the end we know that we will die too. Death is so real, but seldom do we think about it. Every instant, something we attach ourselves to dies or fades away, yet we still refrain from thinking about it. Since death is so real, we cannot help but ask, “Where am I going and what is really going on?”

The truth of the matter is that these questions are vital for understanding who we really are. Interestingly enough, for all of us these existential questions are rather innate. Whether we like it or not, they come to us naturally. But many times, we choose to suppress them, thinking that these questions are too serious and ruin our happy moments! We mistakenly worry that thinking too much about these existential questions would shatter the dream world that we have built, but which is at the same time unable to fulfill our desire for happiness. Only sometimes, when our beloved ones die, or when we have tragic accidents or events, we are reminded again… and sometimes we decide to pursue the answers.

We are literally like guests in a mysterious house full of things that we admire yet we cannot quite hold onto. We are brought here for an indefinite amount of time, and we are taken away suddenly without us having much say in the matter. It is therefore only reasonable and natural to wonder and to want to know what is going on here. What does this all mean? Why am I here, who brought me here, and where am I being taken to? Unless we pursue these questions for ourselves, instead of shutting them off or relying on cliché answers “inherited” from our parents or culture, we can never be truly satisfied and happy.

Eren Tatari is a PhD student at the Political Science Department, Indiana University, Bloomington.

According to theological fatalists, all events, including human deeds, are absolutely determined by God’s foreknowledge and will. We human beings think we can act or carry out our actions voluntarily, but if God foreknows how we will act in the future, in other words, that we will act in a specific way, then we must necessarily act as He knows because divine knowledge is infallible and unchangeable. If we act out of necessity, then there is no voluntary choice in our acts and thus God’s foreknowledge of what we will do in the future determines our will. In order to establish their ideas they argue that even though humankind wishes to be happy in the future, we cannot be happy because we do not have the power to be happy; only God makes one happy. In short, for fatalists, God’s foreknowledge and will is a necessity.

Augustine, like other monotheists, defines God as omnipotent, omniscient and good. For his definition, God unerringly foreknows everything, including our future acts, so the problem here is whether divine knowledge determines our acts in the future. By making use of the dialectical method, that is, the Socratic Method, and some philosophical arguments, Augustine seeks to prove the existence of free will and then analyzes the problem of the compatibility of free will and God’s foreknowledge. As an answer to the question posed by theological fatalists: “Why can we not achieve our future will if we have free will?” his reply is that we may wish to be happy in the future, but may not be able to achieve this because to do so would be dependent on factors that are wholly beyond our control. In other words, there may always be external constraints which hinder us in fulfilling our desires.

Thus, for Augustine, we can not speak about freedom of action, but only freedom of will. When we use the concept of “something being in our power,” we mean simply “being able to do what we will.” Therefore, there are very few things that are in our own power, but our will is one of them; for in the moment we wish to do something the “will” is there and we discover it within ourselves. This is a kind of psychological argument that proves Augustine’s claim for the existence of will; in addition, Augustine uses a linguistic analysis to support this. The propositions “It is not voluntarily that we will” and “It is necessarily that we will” are meaningless and far from true. For if we necessarily will, why do we need to speak of “willing” at all? When we say “we wish to do anything” we directly claim that we have a faculty called “the will.” Lastly, he called attention to a logical mistake; his logical analysis of “what we will” as “a physical action” and “an effect of our will” is completely different from “our will” as a spiritual action. Even if we do not achieve what we will, we cannot say that we do not have the power to will. We may only think “we will” but in fact we do not achieve whatever we wish, for our success in attaining what we wish depends not only on our will, but also on other factors that are wholly beyond our control. However our will itself would be our own as long as it remains in our power, therefore, “it is not necessary to deny that God has foreknowledge of all things while at the same time our will is our own”; in other words, God’s foreknowledge of the entire future does not determine our will. Despite all of these arguments, Augustine concludes: “we shall exercise our wills in the future because He has foreknowledge that we shall do so.” Rather, it would be more consistent with his arguments if he had said: “He has foreknowledge that we shall exercise our wills in the future, because we are allowed to do so” for we will exercise our future wills with our own will by His permission. In this case, God’s foreknowledge is consistent with our will, but His foreknowledge is not the cause of our choices. But Augustine’s concluding sentences claims the opposite, that is, our will is determined by God’s foreknowledge.

In conclusion, human beings can choose one particular action from among various alternatives. As Augustine concludes, the power to will is not taken from us by or is not opposed to God’s foreknowledge. In fact, Abrahamic religions necessarily support the idea of the compatibility between divine knowledge and human free will. For if we did not have free will, in other words, if we must act in a certain way, then why would God judge us? This would be meaningless. Furthermore, His divine foreknowledge certifies our will because His timeless foreknowledge is consistent with our will in a future time, therefore there is no incompatibility between God’s foreknowledge and our free will.

* This article is a product of my reflections over a section in the book Readings in the History of Christian Theology Volume I by William C. Placher, pp. 106-111.

Izzet Coban is a theologian living in Chicago. He has an MA from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Notes

1. Augustine of Hippo or Saint Augustine (354-430) is one of the most important theologians in the development of Christian theology. In Roman Catholicism, he is a saint. His famous works are “The Confessions,” considered to be the first Western autobiography, and has been translated from Latin into many languages, and “On Free Will,” “The City of God,” and “On Christian Doctrine.”
2. Evodius (d. ca 69) appears as a speaker in two of the dialogues that Augustine conducted in the Thagaste community. In his On the Free Choice of the Will, written in 389, Augustine introduced Evodius as the interlocutor. (www.augnet.org)

Dancing in the enchantment of Your love,

Like a moth, the world is rushing to meet You,

I wish I could reach You, even if only once it may be.

I await, on the horizon of my hopes, the rise of the moon,

Your hands caressing my anguish-burned face,

You opened to me the sanctuary in Your presence,

May the torment of these painful days conclude soon.

My heart is hungry for Your eternal love,

My life-long palpitations will not ease otherwise,

Nor can my bosom sing in its finest voice.

Would my lips move without You in my heart?

Come and clear the face of my night of sorrow,

Make my troubled bosom happy with Your compliments,

Satisfy with Your love my endlessly searching soul,

Appear in my heart, declaring it Your home…

“Now I’d like you to step forward over here. They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you; their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? …(1)

In order to emphasize the point, he brings them closer to the photos and whispers in their ears:

Carpe… hear it? …carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.”(2)

In this article, we will look at the phrase carpe diem in detail and find answers for such questions as: What is carpe diem? Why is it so important? What if we don’t carpe diem? and How can we live by this phrase?

Carpe diem defined

Carpe diem is a quotation from the Roman poet Horace (65-8 bce). It appears in the last line of Poem 11 in the first book of his Odes, which was published in 23 bce. The Latin word carpe refers to seize, and diem refers to day.

Carpe diem is a way of thinking, perceiving, and approaching daily life. It simply means to seize the day and to know that yesterday has already left you, and as for tomorrow, you have nothing to prove that it will be yours. In which case, your true life is the present day.(3) Thus, make the present day the most important day of your life. Seize the day, catch the wind, and use all of your potential before it is too late to reach your goals and to realize your dreams.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present. Babatunde Olatunji

Carpe diem does not suggest that yesterday was unimportant or that tomorrow is not critical. Rather, it means that today is the only day over which we have some control, and that today is the day during which we can introduce differences into our life.

This idea is stated clearly in a Sanskrit proverb:

Look to this day,

This very life of life.

In its brief course lie all

The realities and verities of existence:

The bliss of growth,

The splendor of action,

The glory of power.

For yesterday is but a dream,

And tomorrow is only a vision.

But today, well lived,

Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,

And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day.

The importance of seizing the day.

A Senegalese proverb says: If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don’t wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. In other words, time marches on. However, we should not forget that every day is unique in itself, since each one of us has only one chance to live each day. No one has another life in the bank. Let’s ask ourselves: If I knew that today was my last day, what would I do? We most certainly would make good use of this day! This is what carpe diem means, and the reason why it is important.

The same idea can be seen clearly in the carpe diem cliché read by Prof. Keating to his students in the Dead Poets Society:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

Old Time is still a-Flying;

And this same flower that smiles today,

Tomorrow will be dying.(4) Robert Herrick

In addition, we should know that carpe diem is the key to understanding how nice, valuable, and important the current day is. When we realize this, we get a better understanding of what is really happening now, as well as a chance to respond to it with our full capacity on time so that we can make use of the opportunities provided by the current day. Thanks to this approach, we can live a more present-centered life, achieve our goals, and become more successful and happy. Richard Carlson’s formula for success illustrates this quite well: “When you focus your attention in this moment, instead of moments that are over or yet to be, you will maximize your productivity, creativity, and ability to accomplish your goals. Too many future-oriented or past-oriented thoughts cloud your vision and distract you from what you are doing. The more present-moment oriented you become, the easier it will be to stay on track, get focused, concentrate, and achieve your goals. In short, an undistracted mind is able to make wise, appropriate decisions.”(5)

No yesterdays are ever wasted for those who give themselves to today. Brendan Francis

What if we do not seize the day?

In this case, we never truly understand what is really happening around us. We either live in the past or the future – not today. If we do not capture the day and do not shape our life, we let other people and factors shape and direct our own life and so loose control of our own boat. We start making zigzags with every storm in the ocean that is our world. As a result, this vicious circle does not let us become who we really are and does not allow us to reach our goals and dreams, although we have the potential to do so.

Fr. Alfred D’Souza says: For a long time, it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.(6) source needed. Those who do not live by carpe diem will always face such obstacles. They will always get ready to live, but in reality, they will never live.

Furthermore, we must remember that every day is a new door with a new hope for a new beginning. If we do not seize the day, we think of today as past hardship and difficulty, as troubles and misfortune. Distressed, we imagine the possible future sorrows of disaster, become impatient and pessimistic, and feel unhappy. In being so, we resemble a foolish commander, who, although the enemy’s right flank joined his right flank and became fresh forces for him, sent a significant force to the right flank, and weakened the center. Then, while there were no enemy soldiers on the left flank, he sent a large force there and gave them the order to fire. No forces then remained in the center. The enemy understood this and then attacked and routed him.(7) As it is seen in this example, we ruin the center (the present day) by focusing more on past worries and future concerns than on the present day.

How to seize the day?

First, we should remember that “every day is a new door for new beginnings. And for everyone, every day has a private world out of this world, and its nature is dependent on the person’s heart, thoughts, and actions. [This is] like a splendid palace reflected in a mirror, [which] takes on the color of the mirror; if it is black, the mirror appears black; if it is red, it appears red. Also it takes on the qualities of the mirror; if the mirror is smooth, it shows the palace to be beautiful, and if it is not, it shows it to be ugly.(8) As we understand this and alter the shape of our own world with today’s heart, mind, actions, and wishes, we will make differences in our lives and acquire a more hopeful and positive perspective in order to achieve our goals and to become happy.

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. Alexander Graham Bell

Second, we should perceive the past as destiny, which cannot be changed, and the future as a new place that can be built with today’s thoughts and actions. Otherwise, we will always be occupied with past worries and future concerns.

Today’s opportunities erase yesterday’s failures. Gene Brown

“As for future days, they have not yet arrived, and to think of them now and feel bored and worried is a lunacy like thinking today of future hunger and thirst, and starting to shout and cry out.(9) Since this is the truth, reasonable people will think only of today in connection with hardship, suffering, and so on.

Third, we should recognize, accept, and appreciate who we really are and the conditions in which we live. Thus instead of complaining or admiring, we should look at those who are living in worse conditions than us and be thankful for the things that we have. In addition, we should use our wings of hope and determination to become like those who are living in better conditions than us. Doing so will help us to become more realistic and to live a more present-time-oriented life. Otherwise, our minds will be engaged with time-consuming, unproductive ideas and opinions. And, as a result, there will be no room remaining for carpe diem.

Fourth, we should be well-organized, systematic, and more focused toward our goals. We should not postpone anything, but rather should do things on time by making good use of each moment, for it is almost impossible to seize the day if we do not even know what to do, how to do, and when to do it. Such people can be blown from one coast to another by any little change of wind in their life.

You may delay, but time will not. Benjamin Franklin

Fifth, and last, we should not worry about anything; rather, we should make a serious effort to continue with a new eagerness and fresh enthusiasm each day.

Conclusion

Carpe diem is a way of life that makes people more successful and happier by helping them to live more in the present time. We should recognize that if we practice this idea, if we make today the best that it can be, if we can be attentive and sensitive to what is happening now, as well as make wise and appropriate decisions today, then we should be hopeful. Why? Because all of the efforts exerted and the hardships endured are like melodies of the happy future world in whose warmth the past and the future will be embraced and the present will unburden itself to its blessed friends.

Footnotes

1. Tom Schulman, 1989, Dead Poet’s Society Movie Script
2. Ibid.
3. Bediuzzaman, The Words, 21st Word, First Station, Fifth Warning
4. “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, Robert Herrick
5. “You Can Be Happy No Matter What”, Richard Carlson
6. Fr. Alfred D’Souza, www.quotationspage.com
7. Bediuzzaman, The Words, 21st Word, Third Station, Fifth Warning
8. Bediuzzaman, The Words, 21st Word, First Station, Fifth Warning
9. Bediuzzaman, The Words, 21st Word, Third Station, Fifth Warning

Some mothers are silent, indistinct, and unknown but nevertheless undertake the highly sensitive and difficult task of raising children, who resemble roses and fine plants; others sacrifice so much that even their portrayals in legends and main characters is novels cannot do them justice.

Earth is a mother to seeds and a spring to a waterfall, just as Eve is mother to humanity, the Virgin Mary to a Spirit, and Amina is a mother to reality, creation’s secret, and the essence of secrets (Prophet Muhammad).

There are mothers who are good and those who are not so good. People gladly sacrifice their lives for good mothers, and stay silent for those who could not make their children happy or were not made happy by their children.

Mothers and their children are two spirits in one body. Children are a piece of their mother’s body, a heartbreaking lover in their laps, a crawling baby at the beginning, and later on a brazier that burns the bosom, a spear in the heart with endless separations.Each developmental period and educational experience makes a mother’s hearts jump with fear. She weeps when her precious one starts school, goes to college, joins the service, and gets married. Yes, she always cries and extends her love like an incense burner extends its scent throughout one’s house. Sometimes she is consoled; sometimes she bursts into tears.

Don’t cry anymore, Mother, for the clouds formed by your tears are coming to give you peace of mind, and all of us are trying to ease your sorrow and pain.

Unfortunately, the biggest millennial issue was the Y2K syndrome. Instead of focusing on this temporary problem, we should have been concentrating on evaluating the century we so recently left, and devising ways to improve people’s mental and spiritual capacity. However the focus was Y2K, which showed once more that advances in technology and science are not enough to make us happy. Now that this particular “crisis” has passed, to what issue should we turn our attention? In our opinion, we should focus on our need for a new philosophy to unite our hearts and minds.

Science and religion have been separated for centuries, and religion has been accused of being implausible and superfluous. But during the last years of the twentieth century, we saw some new approaches to understanding religion and reconsidering human beings as believers. Despite this positive development, some futurists still claim that the next century will be one of religious polarization. The strongest answer to this claim is to understand the meaning and purpose of-life: “Altruism, beauty, and sincerity are the essentials of the world. No matter what happens, the world will come to those essentials.”

The continued call for interfaith and intercivilizational dialogue are strong indications that the next century will be one of mutual understanding. This is the position taken by the author of our first article, who writes: “I believe and hope that the world of the new millennium will be a happier, more just, and more compassionate place, contrary to the fears of some people. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all come from the same root, have almost the same essentials, and are nourished from the same source. Although they have lived as rival religions for centuries, the common points among them and their shared responsibility to build a happy world for all creatures of God make interfaith dialogue among them necessary. This dialogue has now expanded to include the religions of Asia and other areas. The results have been positive.”

The second coming of Jesus is another factor for hope. Perhaps he is the one who will unite our hearts and minds, and remind us of the reason behind creation. In this issue, one of our authors deals with this topic from an Islamic point of view.

We sincerely hope that the new millennium justifies our optimistic expectations…

Bayezid-i Bestami gives an account from his experience:

In my time there were thousands of saints. They prayed intently, and trained and disciplined themselves in the way of Allah, living an austere routine; some had even been workers of miracles. But the leading saint of the age was a blacksmith. There seemed to be nothing extraordinary about him. He had been doing nothing but shaping metal, hammering at his anvil to make his living. I asked myself how such a person could be kutb, the leading saint, of the age. Out of curiosity, I went and visited him in his shop. When he saw me he became extremely happy, held my hands, kissed them repeatedly, and begged me for a special prayer for himself. Since he did not enter that realm where miracles are possible or experience anything of it, he was unaware of how great a saint he was. When I earnestly asked him to pray for me, he replied: ‘I cannot be relieved from my own worries and troubles by praying for you.’ When I asked for an explanation, he said, ‘I wonder at and am troubled about how the people will manage when they are to give account of their lives before Allah on the Day of Judgement; I am deeply concerned and sorrow for those who will not easily be able to do so. Other than this, I have no worries or troubles.’ Even as he said this he burst into tears. His demeanor and sincerity caused my own tears to flow too. And I heard a voice within my self, proclaiming, ‘This man is not of those who say “my self, my self” but of those who say “my people, my people, my people”.’ And then I understood why he was so great and why he was the leading saint of the age. He seemed to me to be directly on the path of the Prophets. ‘But the people, the account they give of themselves, and their chastisement, these are not your burden.’ I said. He answered: ‘The most inward part of my being, the very nature of my self, was kneaded by compassion. I can only be happy and free from the burden of worries and troubles if all people in Hell are forgiven and only then if I could suffer in Hell on their behalf.’ I sat and conversed for hours with the blacksmith in his shop. He knew only enough verses of the the Qur’an to perform the obligatory prayers. However, I realized while in his presence that I received such Divine Blessings and attained such a station as I had been unable to acquire for years. I also realized that being a kutb was not a matter of only prayers, knowledge, and asceticism, but also a matter of such profound understanding, and depth of feeling and dependence upon the blessings of Allah.

How fortunate are those who show concern for, sensitivity to, and understanding of, the sufferings of the ummah and all mankind. And how blessed are those who suffer on account of others’ sufferings. How lucky, too are those who try to be with such people and share in their feeling.