The practitioners of any religion should continually monitor the type of energy that their chosen faith propagates. The prime function of a religion-and thus its true power- lies in its ability to activate the depths of the psyche to such a degree that the pure energy it creates can drive and sustain an entire lifetime of inspirational living right here on earth, not in some post-horizon heaven.
Now, if a particular religion's psyche-activating power deteriorates into a mere emotional or sentimental love-rush, this simply indicates an addiction to one's preferred deity and afterlife (the proverbial opiate for the masses). In this case the proponents of that religion should let such circumstances transform their concretized religion into a new system of activating symbols, even if this radically changes the original doctrine, language, and message. If you don't understand what I'm proposing in these first two paragraphs, please leave comments and questions...I am happy to discuss and elaborate.
We must remember that the typical religion has rarely lasted beyond a few thousand years before morphing into something new. If that sounds like a long time, remember that our archaeological evidence now extends the human capacity for symbolic imagination (religion) back at least 100,000 years, perhaps longer.
Furthermore, with the compacted time density we experience today through technology, we should not be surprised if we see a religion or other system of mythical symbols arise, spread, and then fade into obscurity in a matter of a few hundred years.
Whenever we see a return to fundamentalism or a quick rise in the ranks of any long-established religion, be it the Isis or Attis cults of the ancient Mediterranean, or the evangelical Christianity and militant Islam of the early 21st century, we should be wise enough to recognize such phenomena as the beginning of the end of those traditions. At the end of its life, a mature star burgeons into a spectacular supernova before obliterating and dispersing its immense energy.
On a similar line, cultural historian William Irwin Thompson speaks of the change-phase a whole culture with its system of archetypes must go through as it evolves to the next level. Whatever that next tier of consciousness or cultural-spiritual paradigm might be, it always emerges out of the noise and disruption of the present system. And that's where we live now, in a world containing an inordinate amount of noise and disruption in the various religions.
If we are to survive as a species (which may not be so important in the longer view), we will ultimately have to transcend religion, but not in any scientific or other secular sense. Rather, the next necessary step in the evolution of the human race will need to be a full embrace of the universal principle of impermanence--the impermanence of all phenomena, be they stars, human beings, gods, or religions. Indian and Chinese philosophy and metaphysics brought this idea to the fore of human consciousness 2500 years ago but only near the middle of the twentieth century did anyone in the West interpret these ideas so we could understand them.
Affirming impermanence requires a shift in one’s prime identity away from theistic or secular (Christian or Capitalist) canons and toward the ground of being, from which they and all other doctrines--and all existence--arise. This strange landscape is something approaching the pristine being state of a human baby.
This landscape is unknowable to the logical or emotional adult mind which has been filled to the brim with concepts and over-trained in the art of distinguishing and emphasizing differences, including gods and devils. But lying underneath this discerning adult mind fascinated with the world's stupendous diversity-and there's nothing wrong with that-is the unborn mind, a sort of eternal tabula rasa, a blank slate completely identical with the mysterious source of all that is. This original mind, which millions on the planet actually know quite well, can never be objectified as "other", but only directly experienced as "is".
Some say it takes ten years in an ashram or a temple to reach such self discovery (traditional guru submission). Others say it arises immediately and spontaneously with no assistance from shaman, priest, or savior (instant Zen realization). For me it is ultimately a form of common sense so utterly simple that it's completely overlooked. How or whenever it presents itself to you, you recognize that at the bottom, are are It. This isomorphic realization is neither egomaniacal nor pious, but a plain awareness that evokes a simple nod of the head.
When this happens, the lens through which you view the world refracts its visual input into a flowing stream of fleeting appearances. Accordingly, religions, sciences, civilizational histories, dearest loved ones, and the drugstore errands you ran yesterday, all become a kaleidoscope that you lie back and happily watch come and go in your mythic imagination.
When you come to know that the separate person desiring this and repelling that is only apparent; that the discrete ego helped by this and harmed by that is only ostensible; when you understand that individual things and events are but the surface of a deeper reality, then you are freed. You now realize that you are ultimately the rootless, boundless mind, something akin to a blank movie screen that remains untouched as it reflects all the beauty and brutality in the world. The movie screen is never affected by the movie it displays. Likewise, the rootless, boundless mind, which you finally are, is never harmed by anything, never born, never dying.
Coming to such realizations, you now understand, as Heraclitus did, that harmony consists of opposing tension, and that which differs with itself is in agreement. Now life flows like a stream and one flows with it, just as it is. There is no more need to meditate, to pray, to do yoga, to be healed, to protect oneself, to choose moral over immoral, to expunge negative thoughts and generate only positive ones. There is no need to make the world a better place. Though such activities certainly have value for their own sake, in the big picture they become children’s games, and thus should be carried out as a form of play.
Reaching this level of awareness, that is, taking the world sincerely but not seriously, all that remains is to simply be your new realized self, going about your daily life. Doing so, you automatically pay it forward, because nothing moves the world more than the mere presence of an enlightened individual.
The big mistake humans make is to create a movement or religion around such an enlightened person. Doing so, my friends, is nothing more than positive projection, the polar twin of negative projection. Just as we project the reprehensible qualities we cannot accept about ourselves onto others in judgment and hate, we also project our latent enlightened nature and all-knowing wisdom onto a god or his messenger. Both forms of projection are immature functions of the mind. The good news is, you are completely and immediately capable of reaching a level of maturity so as to let such infantile projections go.
If the preceding is written off as elitist or delusional, then that is simply falling into the first trap on the road to real self-knowledge. Every great world teacher of Perennial Philosophy said this in his or her own colorful symbol language. Your mind is as expansize as the cosmos itself. How could it be otherwise? Mind and what it experiences (the cosmos) require each other in order for either to exist. They are each other's match. You are Mind and thus perfectly capable of understanding starkly beautiful and vastly expansive ideas. You just need to relax and let this innate ability float to the surface. Doing so is quite enjoyable and one of life's pleasures you surely deserve.
You may open to the possibility of this ordinary truth about the nature of all existence, but still cling to some ameliorative attitude towards the world. Then you may see these two attitudes as a schizophrenic anxiety within your head. But then you remember that the very inner conflict you feel is also a part of the ordinary truth of the world, something to be embraced and not rejected. Now you’re OK. You are the Master of the Two Worlds as Joseph Campbell put it in The Hero With A Thousand Faces.
Can you dig it? Digg it.
Now, if a particular religion's psyche-activating power deteriorates into a mere emotional or sentimental love-rush, this simply indicates an addiction to one's preferred deity and afterlife (the proverbial opiate for the masses). In this case the proponents of that religion should let such circumstances transform their concretized religion into a new system of activating symbols, even if this radically changes the original doctrine, language, and message. If you don't understand what I'm proposing in these first two paragraphs, please leave comments and questions...I am happy to discuss and elaborate.
We must remember that the typical religion has rarely lasted beyond a few thousand years before morphing into something new. If that sounds like a long time, remember that our archaeological evidence now extends the human capacity for symbolic imagination (religion) back at least 100,000 years, perhaps longer.
Furthermore, with the compacted time density we experience today through technology, we should not be surprised if we see a religion or other system of mythical symbols arise, spread, and then fade into obscurity in a matter of a few hundred years.
Whenever we see a return to fundamentalism or a quick rise in the ranks of any long-established religion, be it the Isis or Attis cults of the ancient Mediterranean, or the evangelical Christianity and militant Islam of the early 21st century, we should be wise enough to recognize such phenomena as the beginning of the end of those traditions. At the end of its life, a mature star burgeons into a spectacular supernova before obliterating and dispersing its immense energy.
On a similar line, cultural historian William Irwin Thompson speaks of the change-phase a whole culture with its system of archetypes must go through as it evolves to the next level. Whatever that next tier of consciousness or cultural-spiritual paradigm might be, it always emerges out of the noise and disruption of the present system. And that's where we live now, in a world containing an inordinate amount of noise and disruption in the various religions.
If we are to survive as a species (which may not be so important in the longer view), we will ultimately have to transcend religion, but not in any scientific or other secular sense. Rather, the next necessary step in the evolution of the human race will need to be a full embrace of the universal principle of impermanence--the impermanence of all phenomena, be they stars, human beings, gods, or religions. Indian and Chinese philosophy and metaphysics brought this idea to the fore of human consciousness 2500 years ago but only near the middle of the twentieth century did anyone in the West interpret these ideas so we could understand them.
Affirming impermanence requires a shift in one’s prime identity away from theistic or secular (Christian or Capitalist) canons and toward the ground of being, from which they and all other doctrines--and all existence--arise. This strange landscape is something approaching the pristine being state of a human baby.
This landscape is unknowable to the logical or emotional adult mind which has been filled to the brim with concepts and over-trained in the art of distinguishing and emphasizing differences, including gods and devils. But lying underneath this discerning adult mind fascinated with the world's stupendous diversity-and there's nothing wrong with that-is the unborn mind, a sort of eternal tabula rasa, a blank slate completely identical with the mysterious source of all that is. This original mind, which millions on the planet actually know quite well, can never be objectified as "other", but only directly experienced as "is".
Some say it takes ten years in an ashram or a temple to reach such self discovery (traditional guru submission). Others say it arises immediately and spontaneously with no assistance from shaman, priest, or savior (instant Zen realization). For me it is ultimately a form of common sense so utterly simple that it's completely overlooked. How or whenever it presents itself to you, you recognize that at the bottom, are are It. This isomorphic realization is neither egomaniacal nor pious, but a plain awareness that evokes a simple nod of the head.
When this happens, the lens through which you view the world refracts its visual input into a flowing stream of fleeting appearances. Accordingly, religions, sciences, civilizational histories, dearest loved ones, and the drugstore errands you ran yesterday, all become a kaleidoscope that you lie back and happily watch come and go in your mythic imagination.
When you come to know that the separate person desiring this and repelling that is only apparent; that the discrete ego helped by this and harmed by that is only ostensible; when you understand that individual things and events are but the surface of a deeper reality, then you are freed. You now realize that you are ultimately the rootless, boundless mind, something akin to a blank movie screen that remains untouched as it reflects all the beauty and brutality in the world. The movie screen is never affected by the movie it displays. Likewise, the rootless, boundless mind, which you finally are, is never harmed by anything, never born, never dying.
Coming to such realizations, you now understand, as Heraclitus did, that harmony consists of opposing tension, and that which differs with itself is in agreement. Now life flows like a stream and one flows with it, just as it is. There is no more need to meditate, to pray, to do yoga, to be healed, to protect oneself, to choose moral over immoral, to expunge negative thoughts and generate only positive ones. There is no need to make the world a better place. Though such activities certainly have value for their own sake, in the big picture they become children’s games, and thus should be carried out as a form of play.
[Those are bundles of printed currency the kids are
innocently stacking as building blocks in the above picture].
Reaching this level of awareness, that is, taking the world sincerely but not seriously, all that remains is to simply be your new realized self, going about your daily life. Doing so, you automatically pay it forward, because nothing moves the world more than the mere presence of an enlightened individual.
The big mistake humans make is to create a movement or religion around such an enlightened person. Doing so, my friends, is nothing more than positive projection, the polar twin of negative projection. Just as we project the reprehensible qualities we cannot accept about ourselves onto others in judgment and hate, we also project our latent enlightened nature and all-knowing wisdom onto a god or his messenger. Both forms of projection are immature functions of the mind. The good news is, you are completely and immediately capable of reaching a level of maturity so as to let such infantile projections go.
If the preceding is written off as elitist or delusional, then that is simply falling into the first trap on the road to real self-knowledge. Every great world teacher of Perennial Philosophy said this in his or her own colorful symbol language. Your mind is as expansize as the cosmos itself. How could it be otherwise? Mind and what it experiences (the cosmos) require each other in order for either to exist. They are each other's match. You are Mind and thus perfectly capable of understanding starkly beautiful and vastly expansive ideas. You just need to relax and let this innate ability float to the surface. Doing so is quite enjoyable and one of life's pleasures you surely deserve.
You may open to the possibility of this ordinary truth about the nature of all existence, but still cling to some ameliorative attitude towards the world. Then you may see these two attitudes as a schizophrenic anxiety within your head. But then you remember that the very inner conflict you feel is also a part of the ordinary truth of the world, something to be embraced and not rejected. Now you’re OK. You are the Master of the Two Worlds as Joseph Campbell put it in The Hero With A Thousand Faces.
Can you dig it? Digg it.
Posts
Nice posting. I leave for Cambodia and Viet Nam in a few weeks for some "time". This reads as the itenerary of a trip that I look forward to.....thanks for the focus.
ReplyDeleteInteresting stuff Richard. I especially liked the part about play and will need to let that perculate through my all too serious system.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these and any future comments. This little essay is the last thing I wrote before exiting the self-discovery bubble I lived and taught in for many years, to then re-enter the world of "normal human ruthlessness"...things such as greedy business development, excessive drinking of vodka, sexual exploration, and all the other wonderful pairs of opposites. Say yes to the whole polarized mess I say...but remember the middle. Cheers!
ReplyDelete