Biography(1623 - 1662) Blaise Pascal was a very influencial French mathematician and philosopher who contributed to many areas of mathematics. He worked on conic sections and projective geometry and in correspondence with Fermat he laid the foundations for the theory of probability.
Q: No matter how hard I try to shake it off, a deep feeling of loneliness clings to me. I was told that mysticism has a new and workable solution to this problem, but I wonder whether I will be able to grasp it.
Pascal's Answer: An heir finds the title-deeds of his house. Will he say, 'Perhaps they are forged?', and neglect to examine them?
Q: So the chief cause of the human problem is human delusion?
A: Human life is thus only an endless illusion. Men deceive and flatter each other. No one speaks of us in our presence as he does when we are gone. Society is based on mutual hypocrisy.
Q: Most people are really shy and frightened of each other. Is this a natural and necessary state, or an acquired false condition which can be corrected?
A: We are troubled only by the fears which we, and not nature, give ourselves.
Q: Is there a tactful and effective way to correct a person who is wrong but cannot se it?
A: When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not mistaken, and that he only failed to see all sides.
Q: So if we raise our own level of consciousness we will also know what the great teachers know?
A: A principle installed into a good mind brings forth fruit.
Q: Recently I read a lecture by one of those rare men who really knows what he is talking about in spiritual matters. One part of me was afraid to accept the strong truths he offered, but another part was immensely attracted to him. Please comment on this.
A: When a natural discourse paints a passion or an effect, one feels within ourself the truth of what one reads. This feeling was there before, although one did not know it. Therefore, one is inclined to love him who makes us feel it, for he has not shown us his own riches, but ours.
Q: Does this revelation tell us what we need to know about ourselves?
A: Man's true nature, his true good, true virtue, and true religion, are things of which the knowledge is inseparable.
Q: I have difficulty understanding the basic cause of mental and emotional suffering. Will you please explain it as simply as possible?
A: We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we desire to shine. We labour unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence, and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness or generosity or truthfulness, we are eager to make it known, so as to attach these virtues to the imaginary existence.
Q: We seem to be on a futile march. Our desired happiness recedes before our eyes as we approach it.
A: Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present, and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future . . . So we never live but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.
Q: You state quite correctly that our minds often refuse to see our actual unhappiness, because we prefer to live in dreamland. How can we conquer this self-evasion? Are our emotions more honest than our minds?
A: We are not miserable without feeling it.
Q: A group of us at the office have been discussing the topic of individual happiness. Will you please supply an idea which I might add to the discussion?
A: The greatness and wretchedness of men are so evident that the true religion must necessarily teach us both that there is in men some great source of greatness, and a great source of wretchedness. It must then give us an explanation of these astonishing contradictions. In order to make man happy, it must prove to him that there is a God, and we ought to love him, that our true happiness is to be in him, and our sole evil to be separated from him.
Q: It may be shocking to reveal our weakness to ourselves, but of course it is necessary. How can we learn about our weak points?
A: Observe yourselves.
Q: The mystics speak of an inward friend who is more powerful than all exterior enemies. What do they mean by this?
A: Notwithstanding the sight of all those miseries which wring us, and threaten our destruction, we have still an instinct that we cannot repress, which elevates us above our sorrows.
Q: What is the basic cause of all problems?
A: There are people in the world, who, having renounced all the laws of God and nature, have made laws for themselves which they strictly obey.
Q: If I could hear the answer to this one question I could spend months thinking about it. The question is, why do we suddenly run into difficulties and disasters which give no visible warning?
A: We run carelessly to the cliff, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.
Q: I was once told that I must have as much knowledge about what is wrong as I have knowledge of what is right. Why is it not enough to simply know what is right?
A: The knowledge of God without that of man's misery causes pride. The knowledge of man's misery without that of God causes despair.
Q: But isn't it right and necessary to have various kinds of authorities? Don't they do their best to make us secure and comfortable.
A: Are you less a slave by being loved and favoured by your master? . . . Your master favours you; he will soon beat you.
Q. I still do not understand why our thinking should not simply fall in with the majority. That seems to be the best we can do in this ailing world.
A: Why do we follow the majority? Is it because they have more reason? No, because they have more power.
Q. You pointed out that self-reliance is a stout shield against getting into trouble. May we have an instance of this?
A: I have often said that all the misfortunes of men spring from their not knowing how to live quietly at home, in their own rooms.
Q. What is an example of a free mind?
A: True eloquence scorns eloquence.
Q. How would you describe man's present condition?
A: Man does not know in what rank to place himself. He has plainly gone astray, and fallen from his true place, without being able to find it again. He seeks it anxiously and unsuccessfully, everywhere in impenetrable darkness.
Q. In general, what is the chief obstacle to our discovery of the higher life?
A: Each; has his own fancies, opposed to his true good.
Q. Why do we so easily accept shallow answers, and foolish doctrines?
A: A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.
Q. A chief neglect of ours seems to be the neglect of independent exploration.
A: We are foolish to depend upon the society of our fellow-men . . .they will not aid us . . . We should seek the truth without hesitation, and, if we refuse it, we show that we value the esteem of men more than the search for truth.
Q. May we have an example of a self-punishing attitude towards spiritual matters?
A: Those who do not love the truth take as a pretext that it is disputed, and that a multitude deny it. And so their error arises only from the fact that they do not love either truth or clarity.
Q. I am very fond of the principal that the truth is the most powerful force in the universe. Since it is helpful in a practical way, and also encouraging, will you please go into it?
A: Argument may be overcome by stronger argument, and force by greater force, but truth and force have no relation -- nothing in common by which the one can act upon the other. They dwell apart, and will continue to do so.
Q. What is the explanation of all the cruelties and stupidities which often masquerade as religion?
A: If we subject everything to reason, our religion will have nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we violate the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.
Q. In other words, truth is the absence of self-contradiction?
A: It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of your own reason, and not of others, that should make you believe.
Q. By what means can we recognize an authentic teaching?
A: It must give us explanation of our opposition to God and to our own good. It must teach us the remedies for these infirmities, and the means of obtaining these remedies.
Q. I am impressed by the esoteric fact which says that comfort cannot be found by running away from sorrow, but sorrow can be dissolved by inner wisdom. This seems to be a major truth.
A: There is no consolation except in truth alone.
Q. In studying the messages of all the great teachers and philosophers, I notice how firmly they speak against human folly. Often they suddenly switch from speaking of salvation and love to denounce human hypocrisy. Will you discuss this?
A: This resting in ignorance is a monstrous thing, and they who pass their life in it must be made to feel its extravagance and stupidity, by having it shown to them, so that they may be confounded by the sight of their folly.
Q. Up until a short time ago I had not appreciated these true teachers and teachings. How can I speed up my appreciation?
A: In proportion as our own mind is enlarged, we discover a greater number of men of originality. Commonplace people see no difference between one man and another.
Q. You teach that our approach toward true life must be dynamically different from the methods used in everyday business. What is the difference?
A: Human things must be known to be loved, but Divine things must be loved to be known.
Q. Man has been compared to a ship without a rudder, which every wind catches and drives back and forth, up and down. How can we take charge of our psychic ship, so that it is not at the mercy of another person's frown or of unwanted news?
A: Man is obviously made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole merit and his whole duty to think as he ought.
Q. I wonder whether I can express my problem clearly. My mind takes over and forces me to think stupid and useless thoughts. I am like a man swept along by a raging river, battered and miserable, with no way out. Do you understand my condition?
Pascal's Reply: Man is so made that by continually telling him he is a fool, he believes it, and by continually telling it to himself he makes himself believe it., For man holds an inward talk with himself, which it pays him to regulate . . . We must keep silent as much as possible, and talk with ourselves only of God, whom we know to be true, and thus we convince ourselves of the truth.
Q. Nervous people are usually advised to get involved with something, or to forget themselves by helping others. While this does seem to be stale and mechanical advice, doesn't it work for people?
A: Take away their diversion, and you will see them dried up with weariness. They feel then their nothingness without knowing it . . . If our condition were truly happy, we would not need diversion.
Q. I sense that the mystics possess an unfailing confidence. What is this solid foundation?
A: I possess the truth, and we shall see who will take it away.
Q. Please show us how we can turn a negative experience into a positive force.
Pascal's Answer: We owe a great debt to those who point out our faults for they humiliate us . . They prepare for us the exercise of correction and freedom from fault.
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