The Mystery Of Human Life

Somewhere, in one of the great texts of the great thinkers and philosophers, maybe even in something said by Saint Anthony (this is the ascetic monk of Egypt, 3rd century AD) although I doubt as much him, necessarily - there is, fully explained to us, in a way that we can easily understand, the mystery of the human being, and of his life.

Interestingly in the case of this very wealthy guy, Anthony, who gave away all of his material riches to live in the desert or something ('off grid,' I suppose), he once questioned God about how come some people die at great age, and some good people very young, some are very wealthy, and some hard-working honest people remain not wealthy their whole lives... ...to which he received a reply from an angelic source, more or less delivering the pronouncement of God to Anthony: 'Ah shut up and mind your own business. Don't worry about them, just worry about your own affairs.'

What do people learn, over their lives?
Wendy Matthews - Canadian-Australia
singer, songwriter.

Even though he, Anthony, did go off on his own largely, although people came to visit him and inquire of him his thoughts on various matters - even though he went 'off grid,' let's face it, there was no television in those days, and he was often visited by demons and 'phantoms of women.' Well, I must say though, this is pretty cool, Anthony. It's all very well you sending them all away all the time but come on man, they must have kept you slightly entertained to some extent. 

I mean I know just actual real women can be damn annoying sometimes and you would like to just 'send them away' too but you can't... 'Phantom women' who were trying to tempt Anthony away from his austerities would have had to have been 'not so outright annoying' because they would have been trying to 'tempt' him rather than simply 'be there' accompanying him in his ordinary affairs and offering endless gratuitous 'advice' like they all do. 

Yeah, I dunno Anthony. I think apart from your initial great act of giving wealth away (which is pretty meritorious), the rest of the stuff is just a lot of side-tracking, distractions in the way of nothing very special at all. I have never read any account of Anthony's demons that explained what was so atrociously bad about them. So... Demons. So... Phantom wenches... And the point of all of that is what?

Of course, I am being unnecessarily hyper-critical and perhaps unkind too, I suppose. After all, he did give away all his money.

They learn all kinds of stuff.
I don't know what (they learn).
Because that ain't me.
 

There's nothing about this Saint Anthony's life that explains the real underlying mystery of the human existence. He kind of says something to the effect of that you must focus your mind on God, and he doesn't really say 'pray to' or 'worship' or 'submit' or anything like...

Interestingly to me, he does say 'turn your complete attention to -, all the time.' And that is interesting.

There's nothing either though, in the reports and accounts given by others of what that actually means - what are you exactly focusing on, Anthony? When you say 'God' what are you looking at?

When the Old Testament (the Tanakh) says 'dew of heaven' it almost certainly does not mean this was some actual substance that literally came from actual 'heaven' that people all mean when they mean that 'supernal' place and not just simply 'the sky' or 'the clouds.'

If it was dew from actual heaven, then, hey, it might have had some amazing properties and given some amazing sensations... And then Nebuchadnezzar would have been having a good time, being out in the open, with everyone thinking he was in a sad state of things - but he was getting drunk on this 'dew of heaven!'

Alas however I do not think that was the situation.

We're just out here, being in the desert,
being drenched with the dew of heaven...

I am myself not into these 'turns of phrases' just doing for important places and important matters. You know, like it's all just a metaphor.

Nah nah nah nah.

If Anthony of Egypt gave real wealth away from his own material possessions, then God has to give him real heaven, not 'metaphorical heaven!' 

As for the other 'Saint Anthony,' the one that helps you find things - his real birth name was Fernando. And he was from Lisbon, Portugal and he lived in the 12th and 13 centuries AD, and he started off trying to preach to the Moroccan guys who had beheaded five friars - but his ship went off-course and he ended up in Sicily and from there went on to Tuscany, I think.

All these poor human beings, living all kinds of different, and often slightly mixed-up, and sometimes rather mixed-up, lives.

Some are Nebuchadnezzar, and some are the Moroccan King Yusuf II (who denied the attributes of Allah because they were incompatible to his Oneness) who beheaded the first five Franciscan friars when they would not convert to Islam, although, to be fair, they were annoying him as well, since they were trying to 'convert' him as well...

And some are the Anthony who went 'off grid' in the Egyptian desert, and some are the ABBA kids who went to the desert in the dark, at night, under the stars to have photos taken.

And there was one time, this guy who came along, and said that not even King Sulaimaaaaaahn, in all his glory, was arrayed as magnificently, as a single flower bearing the dew of heaven. I added the 'bearing the dew of heaven' bit. Because I can.

Actually it's not even the 'arrayed more magnificently than Solomon in all his glory' part that I'm interested in. It's frankly, that 'and they toil not, neither do they spin.'

You know -, men toil, and women spin. ; )