The Two Doors of Life: Pleasure and Pain; The One Two-Choice, Say Sages Aesop, Gracian, Jesus and Socrates
Gregg Zegarelli Esq.
Managing Shareholder at Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC
Time has a way of tricking us. It tends to disjoin cause and effect. It can make us forget how even the little things we decide and do today have consequences later.
Like seeds, our deeds lie dormant, springing up later, as flowers or weeds.
But the wisest of human beings suggest that the cause and effect are not two concepts, but one.
In The Art of Worldly Wisdom, the sage Baltasar Gracian says it this way:
If you enter the house of Fortune through the door of pleasure, you will leave through the door of sorrow, and vice versa. So be careful of the way you end things, and devote more attention to a successful exit than to a highly applauded entrance. Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn’t being applauded when you arrive—for that is common—but being missed when you leave. Rare are those who are still wanted. Fortune seldom accompanies someone to the door. She is as courteous to those who are coming as she is rude to those who are going.
Aesop taught as much with many of his fables and his "moral of the story" lessons. [1] Although my personal favorite is the Porcupine and the Cave [2], perhaps Aesop's most famous teaching on this point is The Ant and the Grasshopper [3]; to wit:
One summer day, a Grasshopper sang when an Ant passed by carrying a load.?“Why, this is a day for song — join me!” said the Grasshopper.?“No thank you, today is also a day for work,” replied the Ant, continuing its toil.?
Winter came.?For want of stored food, the Grasshopper was dying of hunger,?and asked the Ant for food.?“So sorry,” said the Ant, “I worked as I needed to serve my family and my needs.?You should have done the same when the circumstances permitted it.”
Moral of the Story: Those who are not industrious with their time not only fail to prosper, but they also fail to survive.
Sure, some people might say that Aesop's Ant was not lovingly charitable to the slothful Grasshopper. So be it, at least for this teaching. Aesop is teaching wisdom, which refuses to be foolish. But, on the contrary, the World is filled with "good," loving and charitable fools. [4] Being wise and being "good" are not the same thing; they can converge, but they are not the same thing. Goodness rides with Wisdom by invitation only.
Emotion is often thoughtless or failing in foresight, but Wisdom always sees the thing from the seed. [5] Wisdom is prediction [6], by definition.
Indeed, Aesop was so formatively important to Socrates that Socrates honored Aesop in the final words of his life on this very point of pleasure and pain. [7] To wit, sayeth Socrates on his deathbed, as set forth in Phaedo:
How singular is the thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain, which might be thought to be the opposite of it; for they are never present at the same instant, and yet he who pursues either is generally compelled to take the other; their bodies are two, but they are joined by a single head.
And I cannot help thinking that if Aesop had remembered them, he would have made a fable about God trying to reconcile their strife, and how, when he could not, he fastened their heads together; and this is the reason why when one comes the other follows.
Pleasure and pain. When one comes, the other follows.
If we have the clarity to see it, pain in life does not exist by itself any less than the components of Yin and Yang. Pain follows pleasure, or pleasure follows pain, but (such as a rule of nature's tendency) they flow together.?Pleasure and pain are conjoined, seen as cause and effect, one or the other first, separated only by the instant of time.?Nature seeks equilibrium.?The cycle of life naturally comes full circle.?No free lunch, at least for Aesop's Grasshopper.?
Adversity is only a function of time, not a function of existence.? The pain comes either way.
So, as sage Gracian puts it, there are two doors in life, pleasure and pain, whichever door we enter, we leave through the other. As sage Aesop puts it, the Ant's toil is rewarded with the food; similarly, as sage Jesus says, "As we sow, so shall we reap." [8] And, as sage Socrates says, Pleasure and Pain are conjoined at their heads. Different metaphors of masterful teaching, all by sages saying the same thing.
The choice is everywhere, whether or not we perceive it. The pain to exercise now, the pleasure of feeling great later. The pleasure of eating the snack now, the pain of a tight belt later. The pain of studying now, the pleasure of being prepared later. The pleasure of spending money now, the pain of having the debt later. The pain of practice now, the pleasure of skill later.
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Every door we choose to enter, implies a second door, being the door of exit. But the pain comes either way, now or later, even if only perceived by the sage.
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[8] ONE?: The Unified Gospel of Jesus, Divine Version [Second Edition] Published [#GRZ_59], citation to ONE:455 [J4:34]
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*?Gregg Zegarelli, Esq., earned both his Bachelor of Arts Degree and his Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His dual major areas of study were History from the College of Liberal Arts and Accounting from the Business School (qualified to sit for the CPA examination), with dual minors in Philosophy and Political Science. He has enjoyed Adjunct Professorships in the Duquesne University Graduate Leadership Master Degree Program (The Leader as Entrepreneur; Developing Leadership Character Through Adversity) and the University of Pittsburgh Law School (The Anatomy of a Deal). He is admitted to various courts throughout the United States of America.
Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.,?is Managing Shareholder of?Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC.?Gregg is nationally rated as "superb" and has more than 35 years of experience working with entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes, including startups,?INC. 500, and publicly traded companies.?He is author of?One: The Unified Gospel of Jesus,?and?The Business of Aesop? article series, and co-author with his father,?Arnold Zegarelli, of?The Essential Aesop: For Business, Managers, Writers and Professional Speakers.?Gregg is a frequent lecturer, speaker and faculty for a variety of educational and other institutions.?
? 2023?Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.?Gregg can be contacted through?LinkedIn.
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1 年Gregg Zegarelli Esq. I love you summarized that all of the sages came to the same conclusion. You matter