Old wisdom for today’s life.
I found a book with a collection of Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks in an antique bookstore.
The notes come from the archives of,
- Institud de France, Paris.
- Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.
- Royal Library, Oxford.
- Royal Library, Turin.
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
- British Museum, London.
- Library of the Academy, Venice.
- Laurenziana Library, Florence.
And after reading it, it blew my mind. Afterward, I have selected three simple life tips from the great Leonardo to share with you because I am sure that if you implement them, they will improve your life.
“All that is beautiful in the human being passes and does not last.”
Leonardo speaks to us in his notes of the impermanence of life. He will go so far as to say, “People deceive us and time disillusions. Death laughs at our worries. The anxieties of life are nothing.”
Which implies two things.
- Everything rots: love, relationships, friendships, physical beauty, joy, virtue.
- None of it matters in the end. No misfortune lasts forever since the future for all is the same: death.
This advice, paradoxically, gives me some peace. Because Leonardo lived from 1452 to 1519 (67 years), what happens to me (or you) does not only happen to me; it already happened to him in his time.
I am referring to the disillusionment and the lack of brightness and desire that, with age, accumulate bitterness and indifference in life.
Time rots everything, and it has nothing to do with being born in the XXI century, the era of hyperindividualism and physical distancing of people favored by the Internet.
And this gives me hope because I know what my enemy is, time. And it is up to me to put more enthusiasm and optimism to compensate for its effect on life.
“He who possesses more is more afraid of losing it.”
In this phrase, Leonardo warns us of the dangers of accumulating.
About ambition, he wrote in his notebooks, “The ambitious, to whom neither the joy of living nor the beauty of the world is content, has as his penance the waste of his life and to remain without the benefits and the beauty of the world.”
Conclusion: it is necessary to stop occasionally to smell the roses. And not to strive day after day to accumulate wealth.
Does this mean that we have to forget about materialism?
Not at all.
Leonardo says, “Acquire in youth that which can remedy the infirmities of old age. And if you are aware that old age has wisdom instead of food, strive in youth so that you will not lack sustenance in old age.”
So please get what you need for tomorrow, but don’t waste today, and enjoy a little of the beauty that each day gifts us.
“The person who does not control his instincts is lowering himself to the level of the beasts.”
This last sentence is the key.
Leonardo says, “You can have no greater mastery over another than you have over yourself”.
Boom!
This phrase resonates with me.
It’s like a slap in my face.
I have spent my life trying to change my loved ones without being able to change me.
I can’t expect them to listen to me calmly if I am incapable of being patient enough not to raise my voice when they don’t listen to me.
First, I have to be a master of myself to make myself understood by others and consequently have more chances of being listened to.
As they say, you lead by example, dear reader.
A virtual hug
AG