Mapping Out Our Life

I enjoy spending days walking and hiking across valleys and over hills and mountains.  The pleasure begins even before I set out, as I check the rucksack to make sure everything has been packed and take another look at the chosen route before slipping the map into its case.  Then I step outside, ready for adventure, new experiences, and whatever the elements are going to throw at me, in the knowledge that I have made adequate preparations for the journey. 

   

How different it is setting out on the journey of life.  Most things come with a set of instructions but the human being goes through life with only vague directions, following other people and the signs dotted about that lead to the same destination.  Consequently, everyone goes along the same road, in the one direction while all other roads and paths are ignored as though they do not exist.  Arriving at that destination, many people discover they are in the wrong place, living a life that is unhappy, stressful and futile and that they should have taken a different route.  

The modern world directs us along the road of ‘getting and spending’ to the promised destination called ‘happiness’ which we follow without question in the believe that this is the only road available to us.  But if we take the time to stop and look about, we will find that there are other paths to explore and that we are not as restricted as we think.  We are human beings with individual personalities so one size does not, cannot, fit all.  

John Cowper Powys believed that each person needs a personal map which he termed a ‘life-philosophy’ which can be used by the individual to navigate through their life to reach the goals and destination that they choose for themselves.  Instead of following the crowd and conforming to the prevailing values and culture that smother the person’s individuality, each person can think about their own life and chose to live according to alternative ideas and values that preserve their personal identity and leads to a happier and more authentic life.  What each person needs is a personal map that guides him/her through their life and helps them “...to wrestle with the whole mad, wild, insanely terrifying chaos of life...” (JCP, IS).  Without such a map, we stumble through life, tossed here and there like a leaf in the wind and are often confused as to how we have ended up where we are.

Across his writings, he outlines his own philosophy for living and his ideas are as valuable today as when they were written for the themes he discusses are timeless while his analysis of modern life is even more pertinent given the advances and changes in technology and society.  But he presents his life-philosophy for use as a template which the reader must adapt to their own personality and circumstances, thereby turning it into their own personal philosophy.  That is the crucial point of developing a life-philosophy; it must be uniquely our own so that we can use it in our daily lives to live in ways that lead us to happiness, fulfilment and an authentic life.

Below is a list of his philosophical books but Powys used all of his writings, fiction and non-fiction, to present his life-philosophy.

John Cowper Powys's philosophical books:

 

The Art of Happiness
The Secret of Self-Development

The Art of Forgetting the Unpleasant
The Meaning of Culture

In Defence of Sensuality

A Philosophy of Solitude

The Art of Happiness(1935)

Mortal Strife 

 The Art of Growing Old

In Spite Of