a constructed course in life ..., a human strategy, aphorism 497

497 

We seek out a constructed course in life toward something “higher” — our lives becoming a significance of something higher — the marking of a trail which would seem to those who desire immortality as futile ... not seeing that we too climb the steps of desire, that the lower, stronger desires are replaced by the higher but weaker, requiring a greater degree of self-control and intelligent cultivation ... and that only from these higher levels can we see that the energy behind our desires, revulsions, and resentments have been translated from the objects into processes and methods of self-transformation ... that these desires are trustworthy and offer longer lasting satisfaction. However, not seeing what we see, they conclude that we refuse all desire ... that because we do not respond in like manner to the same stimuli, we therefore deny ourselves any response whatsoever. They believe that we deny ourselves a love for immortality, when in actuality we love this life enough to increase its value.

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