PAPER 160: Section 2.
The Art Of Living
P1775:2, 160:2.1 There are just two ways in which mortals may live together: the material or animal way and the spiritual or human way. By the use of signals and sounds animals are able to communicate with each other in a limited way. But such forms of communication do not convey meanings, values, or ideas. The one distinction between man and the animal is that man can communicate with his fellows by means of symbols which most certainly designate and identify meanings, values, ideas, and even ideals.
P1775:3, 160:2.2 Since animals cannot communicate ideas to each other, they cannot develop personality. Man develops personality because he can thus communicate with his fellows concerning both ideas and ideals.
P1775:4, 160:2.3 It is this ability to communicate and share meanings that constitutes human culture and enables man, through social associations, to build civilizations. Knowledge and wisdom become cumulative because of man's ability to communicate these possessions to succeeding generations. And thereby arise the cultural activities of the race: art, science, religion, and philosophy.
P1775:5, 160:2.4 Symbolic communication between human beings predetermines the bringing into existence of social groups. The most effective of all social groups is the family, more particularly the two parents. Personal affection is the spiritual bond which holds together these material associations. Such an effective relationship is also possible between two persons of the same sex, as is so abundantly illustrated in the devotions of genuine friendships.
P1775:6, 160:2.5 These associations of friendship and mutual affection are socializing and ennobling because they encourage and facilitate the following essential factors of the higher levels of the art of living:
P1775:7, 160:2.6
1. Mutual self-expression and self-understanding. Many noble human
impulses die because there is no one to hear their expression. Truly, it is
not good for man to be alone. Some degree of recognition and a certain amount
of appreciation are essential to the development of human character. Without
the genuine love of a home, no child can achieve the full development of normal
character. Character is something more than mere mind and morals. Of all social
relations calculated to develop character, the most effective and ideal is
the affectionate and understanding friendship of man and woman in the mutual
embrace of intelligent wedlock. Marriage, with its manifold relations, is
best designed to draw forth those precious impulses and those higher motives
which are indispensable to the development of a strong character. I do not
hesitate thus to glorify family life, for your Master has wisely chosen the
father-child relationship as the very cornerstone of this new gospel of the
kingdom. And such a matchless community of relationship, man and woman in
the fond embrace of the highest ideals of time, is so valuable and satisfying
an experience that it is worth any price, any sacrifice, requisite for its
possession.
P1776:1, 160:2.7
2. Union of souls -- the mobilization of wisdom. Every human being
sooner or later acquires a certain concept of this world and a certain vision
of the next. Now it is possible, through personality association, to unite
these views of temporal existence and eternal prospects. Thus does the mind
of one augment its spiritual values by gaining much of the insight of the
other. In this way men enrich the soul by pooling their respective spiritual
possessions. Likewise, in this same way, man is enabled to avoid that ever-present
tendency to fall victim to distortion of vision, prejudice of viewpoint, and
narrowness of judgment. Fear, envy, and conceit can be prevented only by intimate
contact with other minds. I call your attention to the fact that the Master
never sends you out alone to labor for the extension of the kingdom; he always
sends you out two and two. And since wisdom is
superknowledge, it follows
that, in the union of wisdom, the social group, small or large, mutually shares
all knowledge.
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3. The enthusiasm for living. Isolation tends to exhaust the energy
charge of the soul. Association with one's fellows is essential to the renewal
of the
zest for life and is indispensable to the maintenance of the courage
to fight those battles consequent upon the ascent to the higher levels of
human living. Friendship enhances the joys and glorifies the triumphs of life.
Loving and intimate human associations tend to rob suffering of its sorrow
and hardship of much of its bitterness. The presence of a friend enhances
all beauty and exalts every goodness. By intelligent symbols man is able to
quicken and enlarge the appreciative capacities of his friends. One of the
crowning glories of human friendship is this power and possibility of the
mutual stimulation of the imagination. Great spiritual power is inherent in
the consciousness of wholehearted devotion to a common cause, mutual loyalty
to a cosmic Deity.
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4. The enhanced defense against all evil. Personality association and
mutual affection is an efficient insurance against evil. Difficulties, sorrow,
disappointment, and defeat are more painful and disheartening when borne alone.
Association does not transmute evil into righteousness, but it does aid in
greatly lessening the sting. Said your Master, "Happy are they who mourn"
-- if a friend is at hand to comfort. There is positive strength in the knowledge
that you live for the welfare of others, and that these others likewise live
for your welfare and advancement. Man languishes in isolation. Human beings
unfailingly become discouraged when they view only the transitory transactions
of time. The present, when divorced from the past and the future, becomes
exasperatingly trivial. Only a glimpse of the circle of eternity can inspire
man to do his best and can challenge the best in him to do its utmost. And
when man is thus at his best, he lives most unselfishly for the good of others,
his fellow sojourners in time and eternity.
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I repeat, such inspiring and ennobling association finds its ideal possibilities
in the human marriage relation. True, much is attained out of marriage, and
many, many marriages utterly fail to produce these moral and spiritual fruits.
Too many times marriage is entered by those who seek other values which are
lower than these superior accompaniments of human maturity. Ideal marriage
must be founded on something more stable than the fluctuations of sentiment
and the fickleness of mere sex attraction; it must be based on genuine and
mutual personal devotion. And thus, if you can build up such trustworthy and
effective small units of human association, when these are assembled in the
aggregate, the world will behold a great and glorified social structure, the
civilization of mortal maturity. Such a race might begin to realize something
of your Master's ideal of "peace on earth and good will among men." While
such a society would not be perfect or entirely free from evil, it would at
least approach the stabilization of maturity.