Zhou Guoping. One’s Own Pilgrimage. Hunnan People’s Press, 2010. Pg 8-9. Trans., Niko Bell.
周国平. 各自的朝圣路. 湖南人民出版社，2010. 8-9页. 译：林文杰.
It is often said that people, especially lovers, should share a mutual understanding and empathy, to the point where one is transparent to the other. Albert Schweitzer in Memories of Childhood and Youth, however, says that not only is this impossible, but that even if it were possible it would be a demand on another person beyond what can be asked.
“Not only are there physical humiliations, but also spiritual humiliations, and we must respect them. The soul has its clothes, and we should not tear them off.”
Just like one might respect the mysteries of God, we cannot simply take another person and read his or her inner self like a book. We can only love and respect. Each person is a mystery to all others, and we must face that fact.
The best that we can do is “walk shoulder to shoulder in the dark,” doing nothing more than applying ourselves in an effort to follow our own light, sharing our mutual experience of that effort, encouraging each other, and “going without seeing the other’s face or scrutinizing the other’s soul.”
Reading these inspired words, I have nothing to add. They allow me a glimpse at the depth of Schweitzer’s idea of “respect for life.”
People who possess a rich and deep internal life will have a deep understanding of the mysteriousness of spiritual existence, as well as a great respect for it. Schweitzer is one such person. In his view, all living things spring from the substance of a hidden spiritual essence of the world. It is from this theory that he draws his respect for life.
Of all living things, human beings draw closest to this original substance of life. Therefore, he says, people who respect the basic spiritual substance of life will naturally “respect the spiritual essence of other people.”
The idea of trying to understand each other in order to make social connections comes from a lack of appreciation for the mystery of other people. Because of this way of thinking, people try very hard to be understood, and actively search out the understanding of others. In terms of sex, particularly, looking for the understanding of others has almost become the mainstream way of thinking. Not being understood, on the other hand, has become a very serious accusation — often the final reason for ending a relationship.
People also try very hard to understand other people, and to this end try to force other people to reveal everything, accusing others of lacking trust if they refuse. In romantic, family or other close relationships, we see this kind of war over understanding and being understood quite often.
But really, how well do we know ourselves? When one realizes how difficult it is to understand one’s self, one will not be so eager to make others understand, nor will one try too hard to understand others.
In our most internal life, we are alone, and love can do nothing to remove this isolation. But it is precisely because we can grasp other people’s isolation that our internal selves are capable of love. We walk shoulder to shoulder in the dark, walking on our own pilgrimage, not knowing whether we are walking towards the same holy land. We have no way of knowing what other people’s — or our own — holy land looks like.
However, the same feeling of pilgrimage helps us believe that there may be a shared holy land. As a living being with a soul, man’s greatness and tragedy lie in just this.