GOLDEN VERSES: A CONCLUSION
Continuing the Quest
IS THERE AN AFTER-QUEST?
‘This story is not mine – I had it from my mother – how Heaven and Earth were once one form, and when they were separated apart from one another they gave birth to all things and brought them to light, trees, and winged creatures, fishes, and mortal men.’
- Melanippe by Euripides.
I am not sure that there can be an end to our quest for the holy things by which to live our lives. While we can partake of ‘after-ski’ refreshments after a day of being active on the snowy slopes of the mountains, or even have graduation celebrations after we have completed and received our degree, but we cannot receive an ‘after-quest’ certificate to mark our progress or achievements in philosophy, because we are not done yet. This path we are on is one that we have to continue treading in order to perfect it, and that takes every day of the rest of our lives. There is no ending to our quest.
Continual repetition is often thought to be something that ‘advanced people’ can give up when they reach ‘a certain level.’ The stark truth is that, just as a concert violinist still has to practice scales, arpeggios, and swift hand placement at least 6-8 hours a day, so do we. Indeed, as my dear friend, R.J.Stewart often says, ‘There is no advanced, there is only practice!’ which is the last word in the reality of all this.
The Golden Verses do not stop supporting us. Pythagoras’ followers recited some form of these verses together every day, and the Stoics continued to do the same both morning and evening. For us, these verses remain the essential stepping stones keeping us upon the road of life, no matter how far our path diverts from expected directions, no matter how often we fall off of it, or come back to it again. The evidence of repetition is found in successive techniques of knowledge, memory and usage over many millennia.
