"Love responsibility. Say: It is my duty, and mine alone, to save the earth. If it is not saved, then I alone am to blame."
In these difficult times, when Greece is every day in the news, we take a look at the seminal work of Nikos Kazantzakis: Askitiki - The Saviors of God.
The original text is here:
http://www.diaplous.org/library/askitiki.php
An English translation of this short book is listed here:
http://www.angel.net/~nic/askitiki.html
It might lose some of the power of the language of the original but still a very vibrant text !
Written in 1922-23 and revised n 1944, he wrote this before his epic (and rather difficult, if not flawed) "Odyssey". It deals with the authors struggle to understand man, life and god. Subtitled "Spiritual Exercises",the author writes in a passionate and poetic style, yet in systematic fashion, trying to set down the philosophy embedded not only in the "Odyssey" but in everything he has written.... Worth reading , before attempting to read some of his other masterpieces.
The text strives to go beyond philosophy and metaphysics, and consists of several Parts. The first words summarize the undercurrent of The Saviors of God: "We came from an abyss of darkness; we end in an abyss of darkness: the interval of light between one and another we name life."
This short video provides a few highlights accompanied by music:
Kazantzakis thought that there are two streams in life: the first one runs toward ascesis, synthesis, life and immortality, while the second one runs towards dissolution, matter, death. However, both streams are part of the universe, and being so, sacred. One of Kazantzakis' main concerns was what force drives the uncreated to the created. As opposition seems to be intrinsic to life and infinite, human beings should strive to ascend to a harmonic view of these oppositions, to be a guide for thought and action.
In these difficult times, when Greece is every day in the news, we take a look at the seminal work of Nikos Kazantzakis: Askitiki - The Saviors of God.
The original text is here:
http://www.diaplous.org/library/askitiki.php
An English translation of this short book is listed here:
http://www.angel.net/~nic/askitiki.html
It might lose some of the power of the language of the original but still a very vibrant text !
Written in 1922-23 and revised n 1944, he wrote this before his epic (and rather difficult, if not flawed) "Odyssey". It deals with the authors struggle to understand man, life and god. Subtitled "Spiritual Exercises",the author writes in a passionate and poetic style, yet in systematic fashion, trying to set down the philosophy embedded not only in the "Odyssey" but in everything he has written.... Worth reading , before attempting to read some of his other masterpieces.
The text strives to go beyond philosophy and metaphysics, and consists of several Parts. The first words summarize the undercurrent of The Saviors of God: "We came from an abyss of darkness; we end in an abyss of darkness: the interval of light between one and another we name life."
This short video provides a few highlights accompanied by music:
Kazantzakis thought that there are two streams in life: the first one runs toward ascesis, synthesis, life and immortality, while the second one runs towards dissolution, matter, death. However, both streams are part of the universe, and being so, sacred. One of Kazantzakis' main concerns was what force drives the uncreated to the created. As opposition seems to be intrinsic to life and infinite, human beings should strive to ascend to a harmonic view of these oppositions, to be a guide for thought and action.
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