Contents:
Variations on
"Pure
Reason"
Tricks of Language
Transcendental Meditation
Mythology
Good and Evil
Holistic Thought
Paradise Found?
* * *
Tricks of Language
Transcendental Meditation
Mythology
Good and Evil
Holistic Thought
Paradise Found?
* * *
Variations
on "Pure Reason"
Personal
experience--including troublesome dreams through November, 2007--has
clarified an astonishing suspicion:
Whereas people have long pined for a better world--variously termed New Republic, Kingdom of God and so on--a rough equivalent has actually been established by harsh experience over the ages; right before our oblivious eyes. Folks fail to notice it by talking too much about possibilities (verbal "conjecture" in short).
Consider the philosophical background. Relatively few thinkers have questioned the effects of using language on human understanding. (See especially Ludwig Wittgenstein's PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS (1953).) Language has long been taken for granted as the valid vehicle of thought, but alternative approaches have appeared over recent decades.
In youth, for example, I struggled through Kant's CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON (abridged transl. 1958). I mostly remember only abstract impressions. These are now regarded personally among the "purest" forms of reason--experienced as non-verbal intuition.
Whereas people have long pined for a better world--variously termed New Republic, Kingdom of God and so on--a rough equivalent has actually been established by harsh experience over the ages; right before our oblivious eyes. Folks fail to notice it by talking too much about possibilities (verbal "conjecture" in short).
Consider the philosophical background. Relatively few thinkers have questioned the effects of using language on human understanding. (See especially Ludwig Wittgenstein's PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS (1953).) Language has long been taken for granted as the valid vehicle of thought, but alternative approaches have appeared over recent decades.
In youth, for example, I struggled through Kant's CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON (abridged transl. 1958). I mostly remember only abstract impressions. These are now regarded personally among the "purest" forms of reason--experienced as non-verbal intuition.
Tricks
of Language
I have
suspected for decades that Americans, especially, have traditionally
tricked ourselves (verbally). We are taught to expect a bad "bogey"--at
some feared depth of the subconscious--which is suppressed accordingly.
In the resulting distortion of reality we are suggestively tempted to become
bad.
Most or all of this comes about, arguably, because people talk too much (to oneself and others).
An alternative hypothesis now appears: Naturally obvious reality defies the expectation when observed--most clearly--with maximum elimination of distracting/ distorting words. This intuitive state of mind is best attained with transcendental meditation. (Various techniques, embellished hereinafter, allow virtual suspension of one's "internal conversation.") Natural reality then appears remarkably cleansed of the pure (unadulterated) evil commonly expected by folks taking the BIBLE too literally.
Humans habitually deduce such horrors--verbally--from what Plato's REPUBLIC calls our "lower" mental faculties of "conjecture and belief" (in his Riddle of the Line introduced at the close of Book 6). These lower faculties demonstrably generate no more than verbal opinions: like common pessimism that the world is worse than it more wondrously appears when intuited--transcendentally--beyond addictive language.
It now seems that most people virtually invent verbally a nightmarishly "fantasy" world; and tend to make it worse with "self-fulfilling prophesy." *
Most or all of this comes about, arguably, because people talk too much (to oneself and others).
An alternative hypothesis now appears: Naturally obvious reality defies the expectation when observed--most clearly--with maximum elimination of distracting/ distorting words. This intuitive state of mind is best attained with transcendental meditation. (Various techniques, embellished hereinafter, allow virtual suspension of one's "internal conversation.") Natural reality then appears remarkably cleansed of the pure (unadulterated) evil commonly expected by folks taking the BIBLE too literally.
Humans habitually deduce such horrors--verbally--from what Plato's REPUBLIC calls our "lower" mental faculties of "conjecture and belief" (in his Riddle of the Line introduced at the close of Book 6). These lower faculties demonstrably generate no more than verbal opinions: like common pessimism that the world is worse than it more wondrously appears when intuited--transcendentally--beyond addictive language.
It now seems that most people virtually invent verbally a nightmarishly "fantasy" world; and tend to make it worse with "self-fulfilling prophesy." *
__________
*Transcendental
exploration of my subconscious has generated another unusual hypothesis
(opinion): We humans continuously "create" reality in a
surprising way. Our cognitions (verbal and non-verbal) take actual
shape as imprinted on the
plastic flux of a surrounding "ethereal" dimension of physical reality
(inter-penetrating invisibly the familiar world). Seriously personal
probing, along these lines, has been sustained by prolonged study of
such (sometimes "occult") sources as Carl Jung's "Psychological
Commentary" on THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD. See also Joseph Pearce,
THE CRACK IN THE COSMIC EGG (1960's); and Claudio Naranjo, THE ONE
QUEST (from around that same decade of exploratory self-discovery).
Even our dreams become real, therefore, in this enhanced sense. We literally slip into the higher dimension during nightly sleep--and when dreaming-while-awake; as in the transcendental "vision quest" of Plains Indians reported famously by Neihardt, in BLACK ELK SPEAKS (1930'S). See also anthropologist Carlos Castaneda's astounding JOURNEY TO IXTLAND (around 1970, reporting hair-raising lessons from Mexican-Indian shamans). Compare the "power" poem, "Ode to a Nightingale," written by John Keats upon emerging from a beautiful enchantment: "Do I wake or sleep?"
See next Joseph Campbell's mid 20th-Century classic, HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES (scholarly compilation of commonly transcendental--"peak"--experiences; including the "shaman's journey" into ever higher dimensions).
Campbell's CREATIVE MYTHOLOGY later indicated that humans continually replenish an active store of global mythology. It processes collected experience over the ages into instructively suggestive, "archetypal" forms. These then provide an abstract "script," which people live out--dramatically--in the replenishing experiences of everyday life.
Remember finally the prototypical advice of Socrates--"know thyself"--for a very pragmatic reason, as it turns out.
Even our dreams become real, therefore, in this enhanced sense. We literally slip into the higher dimension during nightly sleep--and when dreaming-while-awake; as in the transcendental "vision quest" of Plains Indians reported famously by Neihardt, in BLACK ELK SPEAKS (1930'S). See also anthropologist Carlos Castaneda's astounding JOURNEY TO IXTLAND (around 1970, reporting hair-raising lessons from Mexican-Indian shamans). Compare the "power" poem, "Ode to a Nightingale," written by John Keats upon emerging from a beautiful enchantment: "Do I wake or sleep?"
See next Joseph Campbell's mid 20th-Century classic, HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES (scholarly compilation of commonly transcendental--"peak"--experiences; including the "shaman's journey" into ever higher dimensions).
Campbell's CREATIVE MYTHOLOGY later indicated that humans continually replenish an active store of global mythology. It processes collected experience over the ages into instructively suggestive, "archetypal" forms. These then provide an abstract "script," which people live out--dramatically--in the replenishing experiences of everyday life.
Remember finally the prototypical advice of Socrates--"know thyself"--for a very pragmatic reason, as it turns out.
__________
In any event,
evidently, tricky language ordinarily prompts people to imaginatively
analyze primal reality into such "incompletions" as "evil" and
"falsehood." (Spinoza suggested something like this centuries ago.)
It seems that language leads us ever deeper into artificial distinctions: like "pure good or pure evil" and "all-true or all-false," for example, along with another tricky one--"mind versus matter." People then mistake such words for primary reality itself--rather than (separately real but approximating) representations of it. (The mistake is compounded by primitive "either/or" logic.)
These verbal distortions of reality exemplify how that bad "bogey" mentioned at the outset is imagined--and indeed actualized as we torment ourselves with its fearful specter.
It seems that language leads us ever deeper into artificial distinctions: like "pure good or pure evil" and "all-true or all-false," for example, along with another tricky one--"mind versus matter." People then mistake such words for primary reality itself--rather than (separately real but approximating) representations of it. (The mistake is compounded by primitive "either/or" logic.)
These verbal distortions of reality exemplify how that bad "bogey" mentioned at the outset is imagined--and indeed actualized as we torment ourselves with its fearful specter.
Transcendental
Meditation
It allows
one to (more or less) suspend the verbalizing habit (a lifelong
addiction usually taken for granted). Spontaneously then, the rest of a
human mind tends to kick in with archetypally
universal insights--beyond
divisibly verbal "speculations."
The raw "wholeness" of natural reality is thereby intuited--as an "aesthetic continuum"--through what Plato's REPUBLIC calls our "higher" faculties of "reason and understanding" (again in his great "Line" riddle introduced at the close of Book 6).
These "faculties" typically appear in modern translations as "affections of the soul." My exploratory meditations have confirmed Plato's indication that the higher ones generate knowledge--intuited beyond words--whereas the lower ones ("conjecture and belief") are structurally limited to verbalizing opinion. The lower tend to drown out the higher ones though, as humans habitually preoccupy ourselves with beguiling words. These were called "shadows of reality" in Plato's accompanying Allegory of the Cave (Book 7).
Words are evidently no more than that--notably as they stream through subliminal consciousness--persistently like a "stuck record." Through meditation one can struggle to stop that "internal conversation"--long enough to start experiencing natural reality in whole gulps--beyond the distorted/ distracting fragmentations imposed by verbal groupings and distinctions.
Doing this does hurt of course, like withdrawal from any narcotic--along a "razor's edge" of the nervous system. The strain shifts toward increasing bliss though, once the internal chatter is really stopped.*
The raw "wholeness" of natural reality is thereby intuited--as an "aesthetic continuum"--through what Plato's REPUBLIC calls our "higher" faculties of "reason and understanding" (again in his great "Line" riddle introduced at the close of Book 6).
These "faculties" typically appear in modern translations as "affections of the soul." My exploratory meditations have confirmed Plato's indication that the higher ones generate knowledge--intuited beyond words--whereas the lower ones ("conjecture and belief") are structurally limited to verbalizing opinion. The lower tend to drown out the higher ones though, as humans habitually preoccupy ourselves with beguiling words. These were called "shadows of reality" in Plato's accompanying Allegory of the Cave (Book 7).
Words are evidently no more than that--notably as they stream through subliminal consciousness--persistently like a "stuck record." Through meditation one can struggle to stop that "internal conversation"--long enough to start experiencing natural reality in whole gulps--beyond the distorted/ distracting fragmentations imposed by verbal groupings and distinctions.
Doing this does hurt of course, like withdrawal from any narcotic--along a "razor's edge" of the nervous system. The strain shifts toward increasing bliss though, once the internal chatter is really stopped.*
__________
*The
raw ingredients of cognition itself begin to appear--as one launches a
descent into the subconscious--down to the dream
images streaming through a
foundational level (rather like a continuous "movie"). These
"elemental" images were analyzed scientifically by Carl Jung as
"archetypes;" programmed into the very sinews of a human mind. (See
generally Jung et al., MAN AND HIS SYMBOLS (mid 20th-century classic).)
They are indeed revealed through dreaming--more sharply while one is
still awake; during meditation.
One can then witness how these fleeting "building blocks" of experience are constantly re-composited into the variegations of consciousness--notably as thoughts, perceptions and imagination.
One can then witness how these fleeting "building blocks" of experience are constantly re-composited into the variegations of consciousness--notably as thoughts, perceptions and imagination.
__________
By thus watching
the anatomy of one's own mind,
in action, a degree of self-control is attainable over what the
stream-of-consciousness will impart to personal understanding. One can,
for example, see
how language inexorably chops experience up--into discrete
"objects"--and yet how to peer through a resulting "screen" of divisive
words into the contrasting continuum of raw reality beyond. For
example, people pragmatically label objects among our natural
preferences for good over bad experience. (The word "evil" has thus
emerged evidently as a construct. More on this later.)
Mythology
Verbal labels are
thus congealed--from a flowing continuity--as real things, yes; but
secondarily artificial and separate from the raw reality they roughly
represent. Words obviously mirror that primal reality imperfectly.
Indeed they distort it drastically for endless reasons: again, for
example, to identify objects and preferences. Language also colors and
blunts reality, with euphemisms and other dodges.
People use language to imaginatively dramatize dynamics transpiring in primary reality. Natural and social events are made more manageable by fictional scenarios--dogmas notably--and familiarized by cliches, stereotypes and other glosses. Gossip too. Folks fool themselves mightily during days of continuous verbalization--consuming chatter!
Natural reality is nonetheless altered in these ways to permit ritualized routines; softened and made more malleable. Nature's gift of language thus affords a modicum of human "control" over itself; which animals lack. The trouble is that constantly confounding words wag our intuitions about what is really going on; primarily.
The trouble has been inevitable though. Humans started learning long ago to label their innate instincts, intuitions and preferences. These constituted their primitive "animal" savvy. This then became a non-verbal element for ensuing mythology. It has evidently emerged in turn as an active process--whereby that savvy is translated into the (fictional) forms of (conjectural) language (as fantasies). Human experience over the ages has been collected thereby into symbolic suggestions for living out dramatically the resulting myths.
Another hypothesis follows. Global mythology has devolved into religion (and philosophy) as verbal approximation toward lessons imparted by primordially preferential/ instinctive intuition--which in its vague way remains more realistic than the illusory "certitude" of verbal definition.
People use language to imaginatively dramatize dynamics transpiring in primary reality. Natural and social events are made more manageable by fictional scenarios--dogmas notably--and familiarized by cliches, stereotypes and other glosses. Gossip too. Folks fool themselves mightily during days of continuous verbalization--consuming chatter!
Natural reality is nonetheless altered in these ways to permit ritualized routines; softened and made more malleable. Nature's gift of language thus affords a modicum of human "control" over itself; which animals lack. The trouble is that constantly confounding words wag our intuitions about what is really going on; primarily.
The trouble has been inevitable though. Humans started learning long ago to label their innate instincts, intuitions and preferences. These constituted their primitive "animal" savvy. This then became a non-verbal element for ensuing mythology. It has evidently emerged in turn as an active process--whereby that savvy is translated into the (fictional) forms of (conjectural) language (as fantasies). Human experience over the ages has been collected thereby into symbolic suggestions for living out dramatically the resulting myths.
Another hypothesis follows. Global mythology has devolved into religion (and philosophy) as verbal approximation toward lessons imparted by primordially preferential/ instinctive intuition--which in its vague way remains more realistic than the illusory "certitude" of verbal definition.
Good
and Evil
Now consider a
really pivotal hypothesis. It appears that "pure" evil is the product
of a fictional dramatization. It has been superimposed by western
(religious) mythology upon a natural reality that defies the label when
intuited non-verbally.
Orientals obviously came closer to understanding how "opposites" really interface with one another--especially without any sharp ("either/or") division between "pure" evil and good, for example. The oriental picture of "yin and yang" would blend and balance them--in accordance with a more natural (triangulating) logic. The eastern variation might be termed "both/ and . . ."
Orientals obviously came closer to understanding how "opposites" really interface with one another--especially without any sharp ("either/or") division between "pure" evil and good, for example. The oriental picture of "yin and yang" would blend and balance them--in accordance with a more natural (triangulating) logic. The eastern variation might be termed "both/ and . . ."
Yin
and yang (male & female)
Nevertheless an
arresting quality does lurk among shadowy aspects of nature. It can be
termed "impure" evil: something more intriguing than the simply "bad."
The dark-character actor Vincent Price once narrated a TV documentary
about that extra "something" (an incremental "inflection"). He drooled
dramatically about a "delicious" cruelty as the black widow devoured
her mate. Something sublime; spellbindingly sinister.
A special enchantment exists in Poe's poetry perhaps. Nothing appears though so nearly strong as the mighty "Universals" to be discussed shortly. (Like love. Everything would have disintegrated long ago were it not so?) Nothing negative appears overwhelming enough to really turn regular social life religiously into sin--or justify affording half the Cosmos to "forces" of evil (for their holy war against good).
That said, a killer instinct does remain to be controlled; and humans do harbor inherent fascination for that alluring "dark side." Recall the
Force in "Star wars" (reportedly conceptualized for the movie series by Joseph Campbell). It had a "light" side too, toward which series characters wisely oriented themselves. Yet a "shadow" of their dark "killer" ways gave them strength to fight injustice. Nonetheless a moral balance was needed for survival--just as it is on earth.
Campbell and the series writers conceived a remarkable model of nature. The drama unfolds with an array of character traits needed for the fully formidable personality to attain the critical balance therein.
As a further hypothesis, given those "dark" temptations, it appears that "personifications" of evil take actualizing shape when spun from our verbally fragmented cognitions; tortured as they are. Presumably these personifications take actualizing energy from our emotions -- as evoked by the verbal polarization of "pure" evil versus "good forces" -- when those emotions are unbalanced in either direction.*
A special enchantment exists in Poe's poetry perhaps. Nothing appears though so nearly strong as the mighty "Universals" to be discussed shortly. (Like love. Everything would have disintegrated long ago were it not so?) Nothing negative appears overwhelming enough to really turn regular social life religiously into sin--or justify affording half the Cosmos to "forces" of evil (for their holy war against good).
That said, a killer instinct does remain to be controlled; and humans do harbor inherent fascination for that alluring "dark side." Recall the
Force in "Star wars" (reportedly conceptualized for the movie series by Joseph Campbell). It had a "light" side too, toward which series characters wisely oriented themselves. Yet a "shadow" of their dark "killer" ways gave them strength to fight injustice. Nonetheless a moral balance was needed for survival--just as it is on earth.
Campbell and the series writers conceived a remarkable model of nature. The drama unfolds with an array of character traits needed for the fully formidable personality to attain the critical balance therein.
As a further hypothesis, given those "dark" temptations, it appears that "personifications" of evil take actualizing shape when spun from our verbally fragmented cognitions; tortured as they are. Presumably these personifications take actualizing energy from our emotions -- as evoked by the verbal polarization of "pure" evil versus "good forces" -- when those emotions are unbalanced in either direction.*
__________
*Some
demons may have shadowy "discarnate" sources as well--perhaps fleeting
through an "animistic" continuum--right into the human mind. Consult
the Cheyenne (shamanic) lore reported in H Storm, SEVEN ARROWS (1972).
One lesson is that spiritual (ancestral?) "tricksters of learning" are
always streaming through the people's minds--from somewhere out there
among ever higher dimensions of physical reality.
If so, humans have no apparent way to determine whether "they" (any or all) harbor cruel intentions; or benign (perhaps to scare us for "educational" purposes). When such "either/or" questions are presented, it becomes intuitively probable that natural reality somehow unfolds in both ways--with intractable blending of good and bad (balanced like the lovers yin and yang).
The "Devil himself" seemingly has similarly elusive sources. Consider that tormenting "monkey" which orientals reportedly find among our internal conversations. The BIBLE depicts a "discarnate" trickster that both tempts us to be bad--and accuses us when we have been. This is conceivably a verbal personification of our inherent conscience. Remember thus the collaboration with God "Himself" reported (mythologically) in the ancient Book of JOB.
In these connections consider ISAIAH 45: 7. It "quotes" the Hebraic God: "I . . . create evil." Why not? It has provided one "hell" of an education for the human body and spirit.
If so, humans have no apparent way to determine whether "they" (any or all) harbor cruel intentions; or benign (perhaps to scare us for "educational" purposes). When such "either/or" questions are presented, it becomes intuitively probable that natural reality somehow unfolds in both ways--with intractable blending of good and bad (balanced like the lovers yin and yang).
The "Devil himself" seemingly has similarly elusive sources. Consider that tormenting "monkey" which orientals reportedly find among our internal conversations. The BIBLE depicts a "discarnate" trickster that both tempts us to be bad--and accuses us when we have been. This is conceivably a verbal personification of our inherent conscience. Remember thus the collaboration with God "Himself" reported (mythologically) in the ancient Book of JOB.
In these connections consider ISAIAH 45: 7. It "quotes" the Hebraic God: "I . . . create evil." Why not? It has provided one "hell" of an education for the human body and spirit.
__________
Apparently
mythology approximates some duality of flesh and spirit originating
with non-verbal intuition. Under deep scrutiny though, nowhere do we
find anything really like the "pure" evil promoted by western
religions. So far as I am concerned it remains no more than a verbal
fiction--superimposed upon the natural balance of good and bad pictured
more realistically in the oriental figure of yin and yang.
Holistic
Thought
Up to this point
our minds have been subjected to scathing scrutiny by a resurgence of
elemental intuition. More is needed though to reconcile what has been
seen so far with traditional views of what is going on. Emphasis now
shifts accordingly to the nascent potentialities of human reason. Let
us observe, first off, that common experience and science have
confirmed Plato's scenario of the mind in his REPUBLIC (books 6
& 7).
Notably a local friend related recently how he solves a problem that remains puzzling to mere words. He draws a "picture" of it in his mind. That visualizing capacity has become colloquially popular in recent decades as the "right brain;" since scientists showed how cognition shifts thereto from the verbal "left brain." Humanity has been doing this all along, of course.
Plato's higher faculties evidently include these "right-brain" visualizations; but run deeper into the whole ("gestalt") mind. We there find the nervous equipment (including senses) to reason--holistically--with and beyond preparatory language.
Lower and higher faculties thereby coalesce into a grandly natural appreciation for the great constellation of UNIVERSALS: justice, notably, merging into truth, beauty--and love. These elastic abstractions appear to be (biologically) programmed into our higher faculties--archetypally--as described scientifically by Carl Jung.
Medieval philosophy suggests that Universals are abstract "thoughts of God." Plato rather similarly suggested somewhere that all reality unfolds--perhaps filtered down through universal Form--from some ultimately intelligent, sheer Idea. Variably verbal speculations give shape thus to Abelard's intractable ONTOLOGY: A Great Spirit is revealed as we dream up Its presence felt (intuitively)--and obviously!
One thing is clear though. Words can really get no closer to precise identification of an obviously higher Source. Religious description of a "personal" God leads, notably, to fanciful belief that "He" takes sides--and then to the divisive disgust of atheists who deny it.
Earthly manifestations of an inescapably mysterious Source are nonetheless observable empirically--as embodied in common usages of perhaps humanity's most comprehensive word: Nature. Classical Natural Law further indicates that reality unfolds from a pervading (spiritual) rationality. It is evidently programmed fundamentally--and biologically--into our higher faculties as simple common sense.
The human quest over the ages has been obviously to disentangle the higher from those lower faculties (which still dominate consciousness). The lower ones have enabled humans to "dissect" reality--with empirical science notably--and label the parts for detailed examination; as evident preparation for higher (holistic) consciousness.
Perhaps then we can understand the "tooth and claw" game appearing on a (transitory?) surface of educational nature--presumably as some preparatory "boot camp."*
Notably a local friend related recently how he solves a problem that remains puzzling to mere words. He draws a "picture" of it in his mind. That visualizing capacity has become colloquially popular in recent decades as the "right brain;" since scientists showed how cognition shifts thereto from the verbal "left brain." Humanity has been doing this all along, of course.
Plato's higher faculties evidently include these "right-brain" visualizations; but run deeper into the whole ("gestalt") mind. We there find the nervous equipment (including senses) to reason--holistically--with and beyond preparatory language.
Lower and higher faculties thereby coalesce into a grandly natural appreciation for the great constellation of UNIVERSALS: justice, notably, merging into truth, beauty--and love. These elastic abstractions appear to be (biologically) programmed into our higher faculties--archetypally--as described scientifically by Carl Jung.
Medieval philosophy suggests that Universals are abstract "thoughts of God." Plato rather similarly suggested somewhere that all reality unfolds--perhaps filtered down through universal Form--from some ultimately intelligent, sheer Idea. Variably verbal speculations give shape thus to Abelard's intractable ONTOLOGY: A Great Spirit is revealed as we dream up Its presence felt (intuitively)--and obviously!
One thing is clear though. Words can really get no closer to precise identification of an obviously higher Source. Religious description of a "personal" God leads, notably, to fanciful belief that "He" takes sides--and then to the divisive disgust of atheists who deny it.
Earthly manifestations of an inescapably mysterious Source are nonetheless observable empirically--as embodied in common usages of perhaps humanity's most comprehensive word: Nature. Classical Natural Law further indicates that reality unfolds from a pervading (spiritual) rationality. It is evidently programmed fundamentally--and biologically--into our higher faculties as simple common sense.
The human quest over the ages has been obviously to disentangle the higher from those lower faculties (which still dominate consciousness). The lower ones have enabled humans to "dissect" reality--with empirical science notably--and label the parts for detailed examination; as evident preparation for higher (holistic) consciousness.
Perhaps then we can understand the "tooth and claw" game appearing on a (transitory?) surface of educational nature--presumably as some preparatory "boot camp."*
__________
*The
awesome setting is a natural system literally devouring itself--with
creatures killing for survival--and ruthless recycling of the animate
and inanimate; ghoulishly. (See generally Freud, TOTEM AND TABOO
(earlier 20th Century).) Nature is indeed terrifying when viewed from
an immature (soft-minded) perspective as (at least superficially)
"evil:" a Dance Macabre under some hideous spell of Shiva or
bloodthirsty Aztec gods. Cruelty abides apparently--as the black widow
devours her mate.
The perspective readily shifts though, toward a cosmic Dance of Love; intermingling--communal. A balance of good and bad (like lovers yin and yang mating)? Consider the Cheyenne tale about "Jumping Mouse" in H. Storm's astonishing SEVEN ARROWS (1972). While struggling toward "shining mountains" the mouse was grabbed by an eagle. As he was carried aloft, a voice called out: now you are "eagle."
The perspective readily shifts though, toward a cosmic Dance of Love; intermingling--communal. A balance of good and bad (like lovers yin and yang mating)? Consider the Cheyenne tale about "Jumping Mouse" in H. Storm's astonishing SEVEN ARROWS (1972). While struggling toward "shining mountains" the mouse was grabbed by an eagle. As he was carried aloft, a voice called out: now you are "eagle."
__________
One archetypal
suggestion is that we lowly creatures will shed the temporal body--like
an old "skin"--while the immortal spirit merges into higher (better)
dimensions of physical reality. Maybe.
Uncertainty provides arguably a great educational adventure; for the
tough-minded anyway.
At least we can hope. That can stand as a generic meaning for "faith;" although that word is currently confined to outright belief (soft-minded) in religious "hearsay." (Believers find illusive security in wishful conjectures--verbally founded as supposedly certain--and then fight about which ones are authentic.)
We are left with perhaps more ironically realistic (if vague) indications from transcendental intuition. (Conceivably a Kingdom of God does already exist "within.") The best we can do is observe (after Karl Llewellyn) a "neglected beauty of the obvious"--through and beyond the confusing screen of language.
At least we can hope. That can stand as a generic meaning for "faith;" although that word is currently confined to outright belief (soft-minded) in religious "hearsay." (Believers find illusive security in wishful conjectures--verbally founded as supposedly certain--and then fight about which ones are authentic.)
We are left with perhaps more ironically realistic (if vague) indications from transcendental intuition. (Conceivably a Kingdom of God does already exist "within.") The best we can do is observe (after Karl Llewellyn) a "neglected beauty of the obvious"--through and beyond the confusing screen of language.
Paradise
Found?
Arguably our
digressive dissection of reality has been instructively
dramatized by the mighty mythology of GENESIS--once we learn to
interpret it more symbolically
than literally. John Milton
provisionally interpreted the scenario as PARADISE LOST.
Re-consider though the Serpent's Deception about a "forbidden fruit" which would demolish our natural bliss. Learning to use language over the ages has indeed generated the bulk of our suffering--as apparent aspirants toward the transcendent unity of a Promised Land--beyond the currently fractured nightmare.
In conclusion, consider Plato's dictum (again in THE REPUBLIC) that an audience of celestial Schoolmaster(s) has "censored" information available to students; leaving us with mythological "rumors" about what is going on. Our desperate attempts to find out have arguably constituted a classical education.
An intuitive goal now appears anyway (as a closing hypothesis) for graduation: to simply grow up by bravely knowing and conquering ourselves; to find oneself, individuated as advised by Carl Jung, and self-actualized according to Abraham Maslow--with free will--beyond "animal" instinct.
Lowly creatures will thereupon emerge resplendent from childish wars (within and) among ourselves--fully compassionate--as just humans. Each will thereby minimize suffering by maximizing pleasure as
Re-consider though the Serpent's Deception about a "forbidden fruit" which would demolish our natural bliss. Learning to use language over the ages has indeed generated the bulk of our suffering--as apparent aspirants toward the transcendent unity of a Promised Land--beyond the currently fractured nightmare.
In conclusion, consider Plato's dictum (again in THE REPUBLIC) that an audience of celestial Schoolmaster(s) has "censored" information available to students; leaving us with mythological "rumors" about what is going on. Our desperate attempts to find out have arguably constituted a classical education.
An intuitive goal now appears anyway (as a closing hypothesis) for graduation: to simply grow up by bravely knowing and conquering ourselves; to find oneself, individuated as advised by Carl Jung, and self-actualized according to Abraham Maslow--with free will--beyond "animal" instinct.
Lowly creatures will thereupon emerge resplendent from childish wars (within and) among ourselves--fully compassionate--as just humans. Each will thereby minimize suffering by maximizing pleasure as
a philosopher-king
(or queen) of oneself . . .
McCord
roughly drafted in December, 2007
Stone County, Missouri
edited and entered on-line: January l, 2008
roughly drafted in December, 2007
Stone County, Missouri
edited and entered on-line: January l, 2008
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