Passion for the Intellectual Life

Thinking back to the cruise I took in May the main book I was working through at that time was a philosophical work, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods by A.G. Sertillanges, O.P. He was a philosopher, author and priest in France born 1869 and died in 1948. This was one of his most popular books. Obviously I do not know French so this was a translation. The book was challenging as it dug deep into living life as a philosophical thinker. He used his studies of Thomas Aquinas for the moral underpinnings of his concepts in the book. Being a philosopher obviously he was sharing his passion for the intellectual life. He shared in it that people in different vocations have various passions yet his principles of critical thinking, spiritual character, time management and organization relate to all of us in whatever vocation we are called to so I think this book has benefits to us all. In the start of the first chapter he speaks to the deepening of the mind. “I say the deepening, in order to set aside the idea of a superficial tincture of knowledge”(p.3). He is revealing the importance of having discipline and immersed engagement in the intellectual life. Personal discipline is important and that weaves through many chapters of this work. Personal choice from the will is also important in his thinking as he says, “The most valuable thing of all is will, a deep rooted will to be somebody, to achieve something, to be even now in desire that somebody recognizable by his ideal.” (p.10). That is a good reminder for all of us to willfully seek to be somebody in whatever our passion is. For myself it was to be best I could be as a professor to my college students when I was teaching. Now since I am focused on being a counseling therapist my passion is to be my best as a people helper to help others reach their potential in their lives. He explains how the spiritual disciplines relate to intellectual development. Being in tune with the spiritual aspect of life is important in this work. He emphasizes the importance of prayer and times of silence. As to silence he states, “Hygienists recommend three things for the body: the bath, the air bath and the inward bath of pure water. I would like to add for the bath of the soul the bath of silence, in order to tone up the organism of the spirit, to accentuate the personality, and to produce the active consciousness of it.” (p 51). Especially is our culture of stress and constant doing his discussion on adding silence to life is so important. Even just 10-15 minutes of silent meditation at the end of the day has benefits for our mental and spiritual growth. We tend to think of mindfulness as a recent discovery since Jon Kabat Zinn and others research on it in the past 20-30 years. Yet I capture in these writings the concept of being mindfully present. “So aquire the habit of being present at this activity of the material and moral universe. Learn to look: compare what is before you with your familiar or secret ideas. Do not see in a town merely houses, but human life and history. Let a gallery or museum show you something more than a collection of objects, let it show you schools of art and of life…” (p71). This points to his emphasis on the aspects of life going into depth to get to the richness of life experience. Too often we are too superficial in our observations and it carries over to superficiality in our relationships. There is so much in this classic book which is why I feel it would be beneficial for all to read it. It is a life challenging and self improvement text. One more item of many that stood out to me about curiosity in our work. “The intelligence is like a child, whose lips never cease their why. Does a good educator leave this fruitful restless questioning unsatisfied? Does he not take advantage of this fresh curiosity…” (p.123). This thought shows the importance of keeping curiosity alive in our work and all areas of life. Curiosity keeps life long learning exciting. Another aspect of this book I enjoyed is he quotes other French philosophers and since I have never read any works by the French this opened me up to research other great thinkers from his time period. It was helpful to learn about the spiritual disciplines and other concepts of life from such a great thinker. Reflection: Are you mindful in your observing of things in life around you? Try going to a park and be mindfully present in your observations. Also think of a time you were truly curious about something in life. What are your memories of that?