"It is clear to me that neither my walking, nor my bodily movement, nor my thoughts represent life. What is life? I know only one answer: life is the liberation of the spiritual principle of the soul from the body that confines it. And that is why it is clear that those conditions that we consider catastrophes, misfortunes about which we say: this is not life (as I used to say and believed about my situation), they are precisely life or, in the last instance, its possibility. Only in those situations that we call catastrophes and in which the struggle between soul and body begins, only then does real life, life itself, become possible, if we struggle being aware of it, i.e. the soul conquers the body.
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Author
Leo TolstoyAll Translations
All Translations
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It is clear to me that neither my walking, nor my bodily movement, nor my thoughts represent life. What is life? I know only one answer: life is the liberation of the spiritual principle of the soul from the body that confines it. And that is why it is clear that those conditions that we consider catastrophes, misfortunes about which we say: this is not life (as I used to say and believed about my situation), they are precisely life or, in the last instance, its possibility. Only in those situations that we call catastrophes and in which the struggle between soul and body begins, only then does real life, life itself, become possible, if we struggle being aware of it, i.e. the soul conquers the body.
""Mi-e limpede că nici mersul meu, deplasarea mea corporală, nici gândurile mele nu reprezintă viața. Ce este viata? Cunosc un singur răspuns: viața e eliberarea principiului spiritual al sufletului din trupul care îl îngrădește. Și de aceea e limpede că acele condiții pe care le considerăm catastrofe, nenorociri despre care spunem: asta nu e viață (așa cum spuneam și credeam eu despre situația mea), tocmai ele reprezintă viața sau, în ultima instanță, posibilitatea ei. Numai în acele situații pe care le numim catastrofe și în cadrul cărora începe lupta dintre suflet și trup, numai atunci devine posibilă adevărata viață, viața însăși, dacă ne luptăm fiind conștienți de asta, i.e. sufletul biruie trupul."