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NOTES for Ecc 6:10-12

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10 That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
11 Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
12 For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
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Ecclesiastes keeps returning to the theme of life in the present. Or rather, in the Present. Exactly so, with a capital letter. Though it would seem he is not speaking about God or about any mystical illuminations, but simply about joy. It would seem, not even about Joy. But the point is that joy from which a person truly feels joyful and at peace can only be Joy with a capital letter, and nothing else.

And if the one rejoicing does not experience any special mystical illuminations and does not go through any altered states of consciousness, perhaps that is not needed. After all, the great prophet of Israel, Elijah, understood that God can be near even when He is silent. That He can more readily be heard in inner stillness, in apophatic silence, than in storm, fire, or earthquake, as Elijah himself had been used to in his former life.

After all, any illuminations, revelations, and experiences are born from that same inner stillness. From apophatic silence. But all this still has to be born. Joy and peace, however, always accompany God's presence. This is the form of its manifestation in our world and the way it exists in our heart. But the joy of God's presence can exist only in the Present.

In the Present, which a person usually experiences as the current moment, as the here and now brought to a halt. There is more meaning in the appeal "stay, moment, you are beautiful!" than appears at first glance. And the point is not only that the best moments should remain with us forever. The point is that only a stopped moment can be beautiful. A moment fallen out of the spaces and times that form the bad infinity of the created world spoiled by the fall. A moment that contains both the fullness of creation and the eternity of God.

Such moments are always in the present. They are, in fact, the true present, not memories of a past that no longer exists and not dreams of a future that does not yet exist, but the present as the only true reality. And since every true joy is from God, it can be experienced only in the present. In a stopped moment. But trying to find happiness in the future is a useless occupation, meaningless and exhausting.

The expected happy tomorrow will keep moving to the next day, as in the familiar children's poem about the monkey who could never wait for tomorrow, because every day that came somehow turned out to be today again. Living by endless expectation of a future that never arrives and working for its sake is truly exhausting. And meaningless. For only God's presence can give meaning to everything, and it is always in the present. Always here and now.

Other notes

 
For Ecc 6:1-12
1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:
2 A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
3 If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
4 For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
5 Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
8 For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
10 That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
11 Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
12 For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
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In his reflections on the meaning of life, Ecclesiastes again and again returns to the thought of the uselessness of any...  Read more

In his reflections on the meaning of life, Ecclesiastes again and again returns to the thought of the uselessness of any human deeds and efforts applied by a person to achieve the goal he has set before himself. And the point is not even the impossibility of achieving the goal as such. Often, according to Ecclesiastes, it happens that, having everything, a person cannot make use of anything (vv. 1-2). One may live many years, but if during all these lived years a person has never had occasion to experience the joy of life, one may consider that the person has not lived at all (vv. 3-6).

Clearly, the main theme of Ecclesiastes' reflections becomes the quality of human life. A person labors for sustenance, for physical bread, but his life ("soul") is not satisfied by this bread. And wisdom, if it is reduced only to reflections, abstraction, speculation (to what Ecclesiastes calls "wandering with the soul"), is also worth nothing: it is important not only to reflect, but also to see with one's eyes (vv. 8-9). Clearly, in the search for the meaning of life Ecclesiastes became so immersed in reflections, speculations, and abstractions that he himself sensed their excessive instability. This is not surprising: for the concept of wisdom in ancient Israel was always connected not so much with theory as with practice, whether practice connected with craft or artistic labor, or the practice of social relations, or, finally, as in the post-exilic writings of the wise, the practice of righteous life, inseparable from the observance and fulfillment of the Torah.

But every practice presupposes the presence of a meaning obvious to the one practicing it, and this, clearly, Ecclesiastes has lost. One can be a righteous person, but righteousness is not rewarded in this world and is needed by no one in it except the righteous person himself. One can be a good ruler, but there are still more bad rulers, and no one has the power to change the life of society for the better. And the main thing is that everything ends in Sheol, which deprives everything of meaning: human efforts aimed at arranging life, all the deeds of a good ruler, and even righteousness itself. What remains is only the human being before the face of an unknown, blind force that is certainly stronger than he is (v. 10). And then it really becomes completely impossible to determine what the meaning of human life consists in, what is better for a person, and how to gain wisdom that would make life in this senselessly hostile world at least somewhat bearable (vv. 11-12).

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