person & condition

person - eternal, enduring (infinite)
condition - temporal, changing (time, finite)

Schiller sets up a relationship that reminds me much of Proust's understanding of reality. "We pass from rest to activity, from passion to indifference, from agreement to contradiction; but we remain, and what proceeds directly from us remains too." (Schiller, p 115).

"The person therefore must be its own ground; for what persists cannot proceed from what changes. And so we would, in the first place, have the idea of absolute being grounded upon itself, that is to say, freedom. The condition, on the other hand, must have a ground other than itself; it must, since it does not owe its existence to the person, i.e., is not absolute, proceed from something. And so we would, in the second place, have the condition of all contingent being or becoming, that is to say, time. "Time is teh condition of all becoming" is an identical proposition, for it does nothing but assert that "succession is teh condition of things succeeding one upon another."

"Only inasmuch as he changes does he exist; only inasmuch as he remains unchangable does he exist. Man, imagined in his perfection, would therefore be the constant unity that remains eternally itself amidst teh floods of change."

"...most characteristic attribute of Godhead, viz., absolute manifestation of potential (the actualization of all of that is made actual). "

"There proceed two contrary challenges to man, the two fundamental laws of his sensuo-rational nature. The first insists upon absolute reality: he is to turn everything that is mere form into world, and make all his potentialities fully manifest. The second insists upon absolute formality: he is to destroy everything in himself that is mere world, and bring harmony into all his changes. In other words, he is to externalize all that is within him, and give form to all that is outside him. Both these tasks, conceived in their highest fulfillment, lead us back to that concept ofGodhead from which I started."

With all of this I am brought to consider the challenges face through the act of 'giving form' (intellectual "out-take[?]") while pressed against the tendency to turn form into world (sensuous intake). this brings me further to conclude that in respect towards a Godhead, we must deny extending ourselves out of our own sensuous nature and immerse ourselves into the 'moral realm' (heavenly, holy, sacred realm) while extending ourselves from there outward- so that all that ebbs (inward) and flows (outward) is a manifestation of God's ultimate purpose and divine will. This is our greatest challenge as artists (as persons) and our highest calling. (seek first his Kingdom...)