[p.132] Eucken states that we do know whither we are going. What are the
over-personal spiritual norms and standards but stars by which to steer
the direction of our course over the tempestuous sea of time? Everyone
who guides his life in connection with reason guides it by means of some
norm or other. Even the daily avocation requires this in order to be
fulfilled. And the norms which furnish guidance to the spiritual life
have originated and are utilised in precisely the same manner as those
of the daily avocation. The only difference is that there is more
meaning and value in the former than in the latter. But each is a
_Sollen_ and constitutes a _beyond_. This _Sollen_ is a certainty; it
exists, and its existence is _in itself._ It is the star for the
_Wollen._[46] The Will is our own; the Ought is not our own; the fact
that we possess it as an idea is no proof that it has become a
possession of the whole of life. In this sense the Ought has an
objectivity and a subsistence of its own. The Will has to travel in the
direction of the Ought, and its course is mapped out by this Ought at
every step of its progress. Hence, in order to reach towards the
_Sollen_ the nature of the _Sollen_ must become known. As noticed in
previous chapters, such a movement towards so high [p.133] a goal
becomes a difficult task--a task which demands the activity of the whole
spiritual nature. Man's dependency and the meaning of his life are thus
set before his eyes, and the aspects of momentary existence are valued
as of secondary importance. Unless this meaning of the norm becomes
clear, life will revolve around the reality nearest-at-hand, and will
consequently fail to unfold the deeper spirituality of its nature. "And
if all depended on the brief flash of the moment, which endures but the
twinkling of an eye, only to vanish into the dark of nothingness, then
all life would mean a mere exit into death. Thus, without eternity there
is no spirituality, and without connection there is no content of life.
But what is enthroned in itself above Time becomes for the man who wins