[Buddha-l] Blaise Pascal

[Joy Vriens]

Jim,

>> "We are floating in a medium of a vast extent, always drifting 
>> uncertainly, blown to and fro; whenever we 
>> think we have a fixed point to which we can cling and make fast, it 
>> shifts and leaves us behind; if we follow 
>> it, it eludes our grasp, slips away, and flees eternally before us. 
>> Nothing stands still for us. This is our 
>> natural state and yet the state most contrary to our inclinations. 
>> We burn with desire to find a firm footing, 
>> an ultimate, lasting base on which to build a tower rising up to 
>> infinity, but our whole foundation cracks 
>> and the earth opens up into the depth of the abyss." 
>> —Pascal, Pensées, fragment 199/72 

>Pascal. Wasn't he that mathematician fella?? I see why he left it a 
>fragment. What is the next sentence you write after 
> "our whole foundation cracks and the earth opens up into the depth 
>of the abyss." ? 
 
>Perhaps our whole foundation was already cracked. 

I see that mr. Pascal's cliffhanger has you hooked :-)

" Let us, therefore, not look for certainty and stability. Our reason is 
   always deceived by fickle shadows; nothing can fix the finite between the 
   two Infinites, which both enclose and fly from it. 

   If this be well understood, I think that we shall remain at rest, each in 
   the state wherein nature has placed him. As this sphere which has fallen to 
   us as our lot is always distant from either extreme, what matters it that 
   man should have a little more knowledge of the universe? If he has it, he 
   but gets a little higher. Is he not always infinitely removed from the end, 
   and is not the duration of our life equally removed from eternity, even if 
   it lasts ten years longer? 

   In comparison with these Infinites, all finites are equal, and I see no 
   reason for fixing our imagination on one more than on another. The only 
   comparison which we make of ourselves to the finite is painful to us." Pensée 72
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pascal/pensees.txt

Apart from a brilliant writer and thinker Mr Pascal was also a militant christian and in those days that came with an obnoxious attitude towards "the Jews". It can be very offputting, but there is still a lot of good meat left. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9es

Some quotes on his distinction between mind and heart:

 "For there are two principles, which divide the wills of men, 
   covetousness and charity. Not that covetousness cannot exist along with 
   faith in God, nor charity with worldly riches; but covetousness uses God and 
   enjoys the world, and charity is the opposite." pensée 571

   "All bodies together, and all minds together, and all their products, are not 
   equal to the least feeling of charity. This is of an order infinitely more 
   exalted. 

   From all bodies together, we cannot obtain one little thought; this is 
   impossible and of another order. From all bodies and minds, we cannot 
   produce a feeling of true charity; this is impossible and of another and 
   supernatural order."