“What is that which has
been? It is that which is, and what is that which has been done? It is that
which is done, and there is not an entirely new thing under the sun. There is a
thing of which one says, ‘See this, it is new’! Already it has been in the ages
that were before us! There is no memory of the former neither shall there be
any memory of the latter that are to come, among those that shall come after.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11)
These verses warn us about our unchanged behavior and repetitive
approach to life, as if human consciousness is doomed to remain the same no
matter how much progress we may have claimed throughout the ages. Solomon’s
words could refer to a general trait or trend that makes us discern,
understand, assimilate and feel in the same way regardless the circumstances or
times where we have lived in history.
Solomon’s reiterative remarks in this book point out to
the inherent repetitive patterns in the negative traits and trends of ego’s
fantasies and illusions. This reveals the obsessive and addictive tendency to
the temporary nature of fantasies and illusions entrenched in a self-centered
approach to life. All that our hearts and eyes desire remains unchanged since
Adam and Eve transgressed God’s commandment not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil that was “desirable to the eyes”.
This unchanged pattern can be replaced through a “paradigm
shift” based on embracing principles and values that focus more in pursuing
individual and collective goodness for the sake of goodness, than fulfilling
ego’s desires under the rules of a consumer society.
“I, Kohelet, have been king
over Israel in Jerusalem. And I have given my heart to seek and probe in wisdom
concerning all that has been done under the heavens. It is a bad matter God has
given to the sons of man to respond about.”
(1:11-13)
These verses reaffirm the context we comment on, for it
is a negative pattern approaching God’s creation in general and the material
world in particular, based on the vanity and futility of ego’s fantasies and
illusions. Wisdom is useless as long as applied to the latter.
We said in our
commentary on The Song of Songs in this blog
that “there is not true wisdom without love, and there is not true love without
wisdom”. These verses also confirm this, and the heaviest burden we carry is to
waste the potential of human intellect and wisdom by living a meaningless or
useless life.
We learn here that we put on ourselves the consequences
of the choices we make, not God. He commanded us to choose the blessings of
life and reject the curses that lead to death. In this context, ego’s fantasies
and illusions along with their negative traits and trends are the burdens for
which God makes us accountable. Hence we must understand Solomon’s message not
as an unchangeable and meaningless human condition unworthy to be lived, but as
a fact for us to realize that the opposites of the temporary nature of the
vanities and futility of an egotistic approach to life are the transcending
qualities of love’s ways and attributes.
“I have seen all the deeds under the sun, and behold all
is vanity and a vexation of the spirit [soul]. A crooked thing cannot be
straight [lit. fixed], and what is absent [lit. lacking] cannot be counted.” (1:14-15)
Here we understand that what is broken can’t return
to its original state, simply because its fragmented state. This also refers to
ego’s materialistic desires derived from beliefs and feelings of lack, for lack
is the opposite of wholeness.
In love’s ways and attributes there is never
lack, for love encompasses and integrates everything that is valuable, and
therefore named and counted by God as part of the goodness He wants to make
prevail in His creation.
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