29Mayмая · 29-е мая
Жизнь есть сознание своей божественной сущности, заключенной в пределах.
Life is the consciousness of our divine essence, enclosed within limits.
1. Единственная непосредственная достоверность есть достоверность сознания.
1. The only immediate certainty is the certainty of consciousness.
Probably from Discours de la méthode · reworded by Tolstoy .
Not in Leo Tolstoy as EditorDescartes is only a candidate: the line is not a sentence of his; it states what “je pense, donc je suis” means, in the terms of Schopenhauer’s gloss on it, and Tolstoy’s source was not found.
Original · French… remarquant que cette vérité, _je pense, donc je suis_, étoit si ferme et si assurée, que toutes les plus extravagantes suppositions des sceptiques n'étoient pas capables de l'ébranler, je jugeai que je pouvois la recevoir sans scrupule pour le premier principe de la philosophie que je cherchois.
Source text: gutenberg.orgIn English · John Veitch, 1850… as I observed that this truth, I think, therefore I am (COGITO ERGO SUM), was so certain and of such evidence that no ground of doubt, however extravagant, could be alleged by the sceptics capable of shaking it, I concluded that I might, without scruple, accept it as the first principle of the philosophy of which I was in search.
Source text: gutenberg.orgRelated · Schopenhauer, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, vol. II, ch. 4, Von der Erkenntniß a p…Eigentlich aber hat Karteſius damit die große Wahrheit ausdrücken wollen, daß nur dem Selbſtbewußtſeyn, alſo dem Subjektiven, unmittelbare Gewißheit zukommt …
Source text: archive.orgDetails
A likely source, not certain. Discours de la méthode (1637), part IV, Part IV, the cogito; Veitch's translation, part IV.
Descartes's thought, in another writer's words. «Единственная непосредственная достоверность есть достоверность сознания» ('the only immediate certainty is the certainty of consciousness') is not a sentence of Descartes; it states what his 'je pense, donc je suis' means. Its terms are Schopenhauer's gloss on the cogito: 'what Descartes really wished to express was the great truth that immediate certainty belongs only to self-consciousness, to what is subjective' (Haldane and Kemp's English, vol. II, ch. IV; German 'unmittelbare Gewißheit' = «непосредственная достоверность»). Tolstoy read Schopenhauer closely, and the Circle quotes him often; whether he took the line from this chapter or from an anthology is not known. Searched as well: Amiel's Journal (which mentions Descartes but has no such line) and Boiste's Dictionnaire universel.
2. Берклей и Фихте правы и Эмерсон тоже: мир есть только подобие чего-то; волшебные сказки, легенды так же истинны, как и естественная история, — даже более, так как они — более понятные подобия. Истинно существует только душа. Что же всё остальное? Тень, предлог, образ, подобие и сновидение. Одно сознаваемое нами духовно. Мир — это какая-то игра, цель которой — образование и усиление души. Истинно есть только сознание и солнце его — любовь.
2. Berkeley and Fichte are right, and Emerson too: the world is only a likeness of something; fairy tales and legends are as true as natural history — even truer, since they are more intelligible likenesses. Only the soul truly exists. What, then, is all the rest? A shadow, a pretext, an image, a likeness, and a dream. Only what we are conscious of is spiritual. The world is a kind of game whose aim is the formation and strengthening of the soul. Truly there is only consciousness, and its sun — love.
From Fragments d'un journal intime · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changed“Consciousness alone is immortal, positive, perfectly real” becomes “Only what we are conscious of is spiritual,” the world as “a firework, a sublime phantasmagoria, destined to cheer and form the soul” becomes “a kind of game whose aim is the formation and strengthening of the soul,” and “Consciousness is a universe” becomes “Truly there is only consciousness.”
Original · FrenchComme alors tout se transforme et que tout paraît autre ! Berkeley et Fichte ont alors raison, Emerson aussi …
… qu'est tout le reste ?... ombre, prétexte, figure, symbole et rêve; immortelle, positive, seule parfaitement réelle est la conscience; le monde n'est qu'un feu d'artifice, une fantasmagorie sublime destinée à égayer l'âme et à la former.
La conscience est un univers, son soleil est l'amour …
Source text: archive.orgIn English · Mrs. Humphry Ward, 1885Berkeley and Fichte seem right, Emerson too; the world is but an allegory; the idea is more real than the fact; fairy tales, legends, are as true as natural history, and even more true, for they are emblems of greater transparency.
Mere shadow, pretext, figure, symbol, or dream. Consciousness alone is immortal, positive, perfectly real. The world is but a firework, a sublime phantasmagoria, destined to cheer and form the soul. Consciousness is a universe, and its sun is love.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fragments d'un journal intime, Journal, 26 avril 1852 (7th ed., Geneva 1897, t. I, pp. 47–48); Ward's translation, April 26, 1852.
A continuous passage of the entry, reworked; Tolstoy signs it «По Амиелю». Amiel writes that in moments alone with the infinite ('alors') Berkeley and Fichte are right; Tolstoy drops 'alors' and makes it a plain statement, and leaves out 'l'idée est plus réelle que le fait'. 'Le monde n'est qu'une allégorie' becomes «мир есть только подобие чего-то», and the legends' 'emblèmes plus transparents' «более понятные подобия». Three clauses change: 'immortelle, positive, seule parfaitement réelle est la conscience' (consciousness alone is immortal, positive, perfectly real) becomes «Одно сознаваемое нами духовно» ('only what we are conscious of is spiritual'); 'un feu d'artifice, une fantasmagorie sublime destinée à égayer l'âme et à la former' (a firework, a sublime phantasmagoria meant to cheer the soul and form it) becomes «какая-то игра, цель которой — образование и усиление души» ('a game whose aim is the forming and strengthening of the soul'); 'La conscience est un univers, son soleil est l'amour' becomes «Истинно есть только сознание и солнце его — любовь» ('only consciousness truly is, and its sun is love').
3. Под ногами морозная, твердая земля, кругом огромные деревья, над головой пасмурное небо, тело свое чувствую, занят мыслями, — а между тем знаю, чувствую всем существом, что и крепкая, морозная земля, и деревья, и небо, и мое тело, и мои мысли — случайно, что всё это только произведения моих пяти чувств, мое представление, мир, построенный мною, что всё это таково только потому, что я составляю такую, а не иную часть мира, что таково мое отделение от мира. Знаю, что стóит мне умереть — и все это не исчезнет, но видоизменится, как бывают превращения в театрах: из кустов, камней сделаются дворцы, башни и т. п. Смерть произведет во мне такое превращение, если только я не совсем уничтожусь, а перейду в другое, иначе отделенное от мира существо. Теперь я себя, свое тело с своими чувствами считаю собою, тогда же совсем иначе выделится что-то в меня. И тогда весь мир, оставаясь таким же для тех, которые живут в нем, для меня станет другим. Ведь мир такой, а не иной только потому, что я считаю собою то, а не другое отделенное от мира существо. А отделенных от мира существ может быть бесчисленное количество.
3. Underfoot, the frozen, hard ground; all around, huge trees; overhead, an overcast sky; I feel my body, I am busy with my thoughts — and yet I know, I feel with my whole being, that the firm, frozen ground, and the trees, and the sky, and my body, and my thoughts are all accidental, that all these are only the products of my five senses, my representation, a world built by me, that all this is as it is only because I make up this part of the world and not another, that such is my separation from the world. I know that I need only die — and all this will not vanish, but will change, like the transformations in theaters: bushes and stones will turn into palaces, towers, and so on. Death will work such a transformation in me, if only I am not wholly destroyed, but pass into another being, separated from the world in another way. Now I consider myself, my body with its senses, to be me; but then something will be set apart as me in quite another way. And then the whole world, while remaining the same for those who live in it, will become different for me. For the world is as it is, and not otherwise, only because I count as myself this being separated from the world, and not another. And there may be countless beings separated from the world.
4. Ищите бога в своем собственном сердце, вы не найдете его больше нигде.
4. Seek God in your own heart; you will find him nowhere else.
Source not found yet .
Not found yet.
No source found for «Ищите бога в своем собственном сердце, вы не найдете его больше нигде». The thought is close to the Desatir's on the heart (5-18.4) and to the Sufi verse of 5-7.1, but no text with this wording was found. The Jubilee name index lists the name with this page only and no identification. «Хаджи Абдул Гезди» (5-1.8) proved to be Burton's pseudonymous Hâjî Abdû el-Yezdî, so this name too may be a pen name or an invented "Eastern" signature in an English source; the calendars in the Jubilee source list (The Higher Thought Calendar, 1904; the Theosophical Publishing Society's Perpetual Calendar), which were not found online, are possible sources.
Searched: Thoughts of Wise Men (1903) and its source list (Jubilee vol. 40); the Jubilee vols. 41-42 (name index, attribution corrections, source list); Conway's Sacred Anthology; d'Herbelot, Bibliothèque orientale vol. I; Palmer's Oriental Mysticism; the Desatir (1888 reprint); Burton's Kasîdah; Southgate (both), Coit, Tileston; the saved issues of The World's Advance-Thought and The Coming Day; web searches for the name with the English of the saying.
Translation note. The name is given as Tolstoy wrote it, «Алманзор дар Гафед»; whom it names is uncertain.
5. Жизнь наша есть наше сознание себя вечным, бесконечным, т. е. безвременным и внепространственным духом, ограниченным условиями временных и пространственных явлений.
5. Our life is our consciousness of ourselves as an eternal, infinite spirit, that is, a spirit timeless and spaceless, limited by the conditions of temporal and spatial phenomena.
Человеческое сознание есть сознание божества.
Human consciousness is the consciousness of divinity.
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