LEONARD COHEN

 A

What is a sage? A sage is someone who has achieved a remote human

possibility. It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has

something to do with the energy of love. Contact with this energy results in

the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence. A sage does not

dissolve the chaos; if he did, the world would have changed long ago. I do

not think that a sage dissolves the chaos even for himself, for there is

something arrogant and warlike in the notion of a man setting the universe

in order. It is a kind of balance that is his glory. He rides the drifts like an

escaped ski. His course is a caress of the hill. His track is a drawing of the

snow in a moment of its particular arrangement with wind and rock.

Something in him so loves the world that he gives himself to the laws of

gravity and chance. Far from flying with the angels, he traces with the

fidelity of a seismograph needle the state of the solid bloody landscape. His

house is dangerous and finite, but he is at home in the world. He can love

the shapes of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is

good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love.

Leonard Cohen

A

This beautiful quote by Leonard Cohen offers a deeply poetic and grounded definition of a sage, contrasting sharply with traditional, idealized notions of spiritual perfection or otherworldly detachment.

In Cohen's view, a sage is characterized by several distinct qualities:

• Acceptance over Control: A sage does not attempt to conquer, fix, or eliminate the chaos of the world. Cohen notes that doing so would be "arrogant and warlike." Instead of trying to alter the universe, the sage accepts it exactly as it is.

• The Art of Balance: Rather than escaping reality or "flying with the angels," the sage achieves a perfect, fluid balance within the chaos. The imagery of an "escaped ski" riding the drifts or a "seismograph needle" tracing the landscape suggests someone who moves effortlessly with the natural laws of gravity, chance, and human suffering, rather than resisting them.

• An Grounded, Human Love: The sage’s connection to the "energy of love" is not abstract or detached. It is a profound, intimate love for the world's flaws—the "solid bloody landscape" and the "fine and twisted shapes of the heart."

• Being at Home in Limitation: Even though the sage's existence remains "dangerous and finite," they possess the rare ability to be entirely at home in the world.

By calling them "balancing monsters of love," Cohen celebrates the sage not as a flawless, divine being, but as a deeply human anchor of stability, grace, and affection amidst the turbulent currents of existence.

A