One Way You Won't Gain Fulfillment

(After reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, Chapters 12-20)

Dorian Gray lived his life doing whatever he wanted with no negative effects on his body. The negative effects were transferred to a certain painting of him instead.

Dorian was a beautiful man. His body did not age beyond the youthful beauty of his early adulthood. When he committed evil deeds, the cruel look that a man's mouth and eyes might begin to acquire through such deeds did not come upon him. Worry lines and the mocking look that he deserved to carry did not touch him. The burden of all those effects was placed on the painting. Dorian would look at the painting of himself turned ugly by his thoughts and deeds, with a twisted sense of pleasure, seeing what he deserved but did not have to account for. His own face retained a peaceful look of youthful innocence and uprightness.

As a result, Dorian did whatever he wanted to do. He had no fear of consequences. He fed all his appetites freely and was cruel to people if it did not suit him to be kind. He lived a life of extravagance and worldly pleasure. He took what he wanted and escaped from reality whenever he wanted and however he wanted. And yet...

He was not happy. Those temporary pleasures ceased to please him. He got bored with them. He became bored with life. His self-indulgence grew worse in an attempt to find satisfaction, but that emptiness could not be satisfied with worldly things. He committed wicked acts, because the only person he ever thought about was himself. His wickedness grew until it was perverse and dangerous. He committed murder, even, and felt justified in it because the other person made him angry by telling him the truth.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a study on what it would be like to live for worldly pleasures. The results of such an experience, lived through Dorian Gray, were completely unsatisfactory, an utter failure. Dorian Gray shows us that living for pleasure cannot bring happiness. Having everything we want cannot bring happiness.

Earthly things and pleasures will not give us fulfillment. For fulfillment, we must look beyond instant gratification, beyond earthly pleasures, beyond what we think we want, beyond living only for ourselves.

Related articles:
A Portrait Of Dorian Gray … in each one of us
That Which Truly Satisfies
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If you’re still breathing, it’s not too late.
That which satisfies
Distractions

Consequences Make Us Wiser

(After reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, Chapter 11)

It is a good thing there are consequences for what we do. Consequences are a second chance to learn something. Our first chance to learn something is to listen to our conscience. When we ignore or push aside the warning of the conscience and do something our conscience urges us not to do, negative consequences, usually painful in some way, teach us the same lesson again. Hopefully, the consequences will prevent us from going down that same path or a similar path later. The consequences can also teach us to pay more attention to our conscience and obey it in the future to avoid similar consequences.

Painful consequences include being marred physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. Sometimes consequences are experienced as loss--loss of friendship, loss of money, loss of health, loss of time, loss of integrity, loss of trust, loss of a clear conscience. All these things are meant to bring us to admit that it was wrong to do that, and not to go that route again--for our own good and for the good of others.

If there were no consequences, then it would far too easy for someone who begins down a wrong path to continue going down that path, onto worse and worse things, things that hurt other people or even take lives, because the person never learns to tame their passions or question their urges. If this pattern continues, devastation, desolation, and death will eventually be the result--and then there are eternal consequences to consider. It it better to be corrected, albeit painfully, but sooner, to keep from going too far down that treacherous path.

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THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, by Oscar Wilde, chapter 10

We are all given a conscience to guide us in doing what is right. When we go to do something that is not right, our conscience sends us a warning, a knowing that it is not the right thing to do. We are given the choice whether to give heed to our conscience or not, but if we refuse our conscience, it is wounded and damaged, and then if we persist in going the wrong way, our conscience becomes hardened, numbed. After our conscience has been numbed, we don't notice the messages our conscience would give us to warn us that something is not a good thing for us to do. This is not a good place to be, because the conscience is there for our own good and protection, as well as for the good of others. If we walk without a conscience, only doing as we please, the dangerous path leads to suffering, devastation, and death.

The good news is that it is not too late. Right now, if you listen, you will hear your conscience guiding you, showing you the right way, warning you not to go the wrong way. As you give heed to the very quiet voice, it will grow stronger, it will take up its place again, and you will begin to walk in right paths, where you will find increasing wisdom, truth, and peace. Keep walking in the right and true paths, keep listening for what is right, and you will find those most important things you have been separated from.

Seek, and you shall find.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, by Oscar Wilde, chapters 8 and 9

Outer beauty is nothing compared to inner beauty. Inner beauty is powerful and true and lasting. Outer beauty is lovely if it clothes inner beauty, but if outer beauty covers inner ugliness, it is like a lie spoken in smooth words--it may sound good, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a lie, and it is all the more despicable because it tried to look good.

Outer beauty that covers inner wickedness and hatefulness is like a lie that sounds good. A lie is a lie no matter how good it sounds, but if it sounds good, some people might be deceived by it and suffer as a result. It is the same with beauty: if a person appears beautiful on the outside, but inside there is the ugliness of pride and selfishness and malice, the appearance is deceiving. The outer beauty idly promises good things which the inner wickedness cannot bring about.

Inner beauty is more important, and indeed, more beautiful, than outer beauty. Inner beauty carries out its promises. Inner beauty is incorruptible--it does not fade like outer beauty does. Inner beauty increases with time. Inner beauty outshines outer beauty. Inner beauty can be seen both with the eyes open and with the eyes closed. Inner beauty tells the truth and uplifts all who gaze upon it.