The Suggestions of the Divine

Dante’s Ulysses who “per seguir virtute e conocenza” (to follow virtue and knowledge) decides to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules, therefore beyond the limits of human knowledge, is the symbolical figure whom we often refer to celebrate the uncontainable desire which man has to know ”considerate la vostra semenza” (consider your origin), to confront the unknown and to debunk the mysteries. A desire which implies an act felt as duty to render homage to rationality, love for truth as opposed to prejudgments and superstitions.

The myth of Ulysses represents, in a final analysis, the exaltation of the sense of duty when it is the expression of a free choice, not induced by human conventions but only by the refusal “a viver come bruti” (to live as brutes), pursuing in that way an ideal of frank rationality with respect to the noblest and the most complex human nature.

One likes to compare this figure of the Homeric hero against the ascetic man: the letter prefers the mystic contemplation rather than the rational interpretation of the fundamental themes of existence when these reach the limits of intelligibility, that is the symbolic Pillars of Hercules of human logical capacities.

Actually, the man devoted to mysticism, in another way, but urged by the same sense of duty, has chosen to go “ beyond”, toward the truth, toward the desirable dissolution of the unknown reasons of existence, trusting a supreme, transcendent authority considered holder of all truth.

Even the mystic experience shows, therefore, man’s insuppressible impulse to accomplish an unavoidable duty against brutality that identifies with the indifference or the refusal to investigate the reason of our presence in the universe, the transience of our existence, the sense of time and our unavoidable physical extinction and even more, the disquieting why of such awareness.

So, on the one hand, there is the man who, for the sake of truth, faces the unknown and the mysteries of the physical world relying on boldness and on the light of reason: on the other hand there is the man who sanctifies his own existence favoring the contemplative attitude to the logic resources, counting thus on a revealed interpretation.

However, from this opposite approaches, which find agreement in the purpose but are in contrast with the method, emerges as a main duty the analogous, anxious attitude of the search for truth.

Everyone must be a researcher of the arcane origin of his own existence, though risking to lose himself when he wanders the reason of why one must research.

In fact, where does the sense of duty which man perceives as persistent inalienable companion for the whole existence originate from? Surely the animal does not seem tormented by the sense of duty and it is evident that, among the complex organisms which inhabit the earth, the man differs just because he has inside himself this seminal attribute which seems a kind of torture, but which, on the other hand, bears a fundamental finalistic role of stimulus to emancipation toward the other living beings and toward himself.

Insisting on this theme we, most probably, could go into an unanswerable research, so it seems opportune to avoid asking ourselves why we must and rather confine ourselves to take note that the sense of duty is part of the primary intellectual-emotional structure peculiar to human nature.

It seems, therefore, reasonable to think that each phylogenically advanced man with the boldness and the intellectual faculties at his disposal, must look for a rational interpretation of his own presence in the universe, before indulging as much emotionally as uncritically, in inspired , peremptory and indisputable hypothesis, still not denying in a preconceived way the possibility that the difficult course of research based on reason can eventually come to an end with the acceptance of a satisfying and comforting revealed message.

Anyway, every man must give himself answers on the theme of existence, on its absolute value and its reasons: all in all, unlike animals, man must feel actor in the scene of universe and not leave the scene without trying to give himself a personal and intimate interpretation of the script of life.

It is believable that when the reference to virtue recurred more often compared to the present days, this supreme and noble state of human soul should face with priority to the man’s attitude driven and motivated by the observance of the sense of duty, both in the direction of the practical social life and also and mainly in the pursuit of the answers about the reasons of one’s existence during the unavoidable moments of the most intimate reflective meditation.

This reflection on the themes of transcendence aims at showing the conclusion of a course of free, and in the sense above-mentioned virtuous research, which gratifies, at least so far, the personal need of a systematic elucidation on the greatest myths of existence.

A second purpose, pursued with as much intensity, coincides with the need to share my feelings and ideas.