St. Augustine and the eternal truth of God

St. Augustine states that in order to find peace and happiness one must cleave to the eternal. The eternal being truth, and the truth being God. But what is the pragmatic application of that? How can I on a daily basis cleave to the truth? I literally mean, what would one’s day/schedule look like if they adhered to that? Would one simply spend the entire day praying and reading the Bible…or what? How would one live this way in a normal modern day life?

Become a minister, I guess. All that and a paycheck, too. I suppose you could do as Bob would advocate, to live prayerfully. I think that requires a strong ability to delude oneself, but I actually really admire people like that. Faith and madness at that level are indistinguishable to me, but everyone’s mad in some way.

I think that would be an admirable way to live, if one is able to “take the blue pill” [if one will forgive me that extremely banal and pathetic metaphor. :wink: ]

Hi PhilosophyGirl,

Emphasise the Holy more than the mundane. Life is not really so much about what we are doing but how we are doing it. About going about your normal daily tasks with awareness. Total awareness and attentiveness to the moment at hand. Recognising God in every moment and being true to that. Yes, it is living a prayerful life. True prayer is when you are walking hand in hand with God. Living your life according to your conscience, the voice of your heart, the part of you that understands God’s heart.

A

Hi PG

I’ve come to accept that there is only one way to cleave to the truth and that is through attention at the expense of imagination.

We become caught up in life through our imagination which takes the place of the conscious ability for the experience of ourselves. False gods that society conditions us to worship for the purpose of sustaining one or another of its conflicting values normally capture our attention leaving us with imagination. Further from Simone Weil:

She provides a most wonderful description of being “in the experience.” This does not deny by creating selective experience through imagination but opens us to the whole of our capacity for an objective human experience.

Prayer is affirming what IS and its natural extension is “what now?” and the need to feel meaning from this objective experience. Words are not necessary here. The need is pure and as such, doesn’t require words. This is what invites contact with what lies above and allows us to be known from above though we are existing on earth. It is this direction that I believe St.Augustine is referring to.

While the days schedule would be similar, the conscious experience of it would be completely different.

Philosophy girl.Has an admirer of Talullah.Her last name is Bankhead and not Bunkhead.(I know,I know but…) :wink: