THE NEW WISDOM
A Human-Transcendent Wisdom
HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE
A Human-Transcendent Wisdom
Written, Compiled, & Edited
By
Joseph Edmund
CONTENTS
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A CONTEMPLATIVE PERSON
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EMINENT AND PERCEPTIVE PERSONS
CONTENTS
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Ancient Perspectives
Modern Perspectives
Ancient Perspectives
Modern Perspectives
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PART ONE
A CONTEMPLATIVE PERSON
Introductory Thoughts
1
We are in the midst of a conscious transformation – a transformation of consciousness that goes beyond knowing to understanding, beyond reason to intuition, beyond self-love to selfless-love; a transformation through a Love-wisdom: human-transcendence, leading to the ascendancy of justice and wisdom over injustice and ignorance.
As our nature is both human and transcendent (flesh and spirit, self and soul, so to speak), each pitted one against the other, as it always seems, this human-transcendent Love-wisdom resolves this age-old conflict by having these two "antagonists" balanced into a relatively harmony – hence a conscious transformation.
Underlying this wisdom is the unifying bond, or power, of Love that holds all things together in their proper place; so that rather than our humanness repelling our transcendence, and vice versa, each attracts one another in the right proportion, or tension, relative to the individual.
This human-transcendent transformation, then, has wisdom as its guide, and Love [as the bond of unity] – (or Love, with a capital 'L') as its source.
Human-Transcendence covers a wide range of human, transcendent, and human-transcendent observations of our complex humanity moral and spiritual idealism, evil, our vulnerabilities, our various moods and inclinations, our frailties, our inner and outer conflicts, our insecurities, and so on.
By pinpointing the array of our human complexities, this work helps us become acutely – not just vaguely – aware, and accepting of, the limitations of our humanness, the limitlessness and uplift of our transcendence, and the possibilities and refinements of our human-transcendence.
2
What is this conscious transformation in regards to wisdom?
It is an expanding self-understanding that comes through a wisdom that balances our humanness with our transcendence. This wisdom plumbs the psychological essentials of our humanness in relation to the philosophical essentials of our transcendence. Both these essentials originate from the source of wisdom; namely, Love [as the bond of all unity].
Transcendently speaking, we identify this bond of unity as the Meaning of unity, as an undivided, unmanifested whole: the oneness underlying all things, all reality. Spiritually speaking, we identify this bond of unity – Love – this meaning, this oneness, as God, or the Godhead, to be more precise.
And since each of us – not to mention "things" – is an individual unity-complex, there is this aforementioned underlying bond that unifies us into this particular being, interrelationally part by part, so to speak. Hence we have our individual meaning in the scheme of things, are essentially Love, and so of oneness. Accordingly, in this sense, of Love, we are essentially God, are essentially the Godhead. And so, God is within us as It is within everything, unifying all being into infinite relationships.
This "God within" paradigm is the cornerstone of the conscious transformation of which I speak; since it is the foremost living truth of our being – : that we are essentially the meaning, oneness, love, of all being. "God is love," as it has been handed down to us from all time and from all climes. And as God is love, so is love God.
These grand statements, of course, have to be demonstrated as believable – hopefully true – beyond just words, however philosophically, poetically, even scientifically, convincingly stated. And the closest we can get to that truth is to experience Love and its results. It is a simple enough matter to experience and witness acts of love in our everyday lives. These, however, do not transport us to the ultimate oneness, the bond, of Love. Yet there is the experience of that ultimate oneness known as the mystic experience. Perhaps we have all experienced, momentarily, at least, that oneness to one degree or another. If we were to read of this ultimate experience from authoritative sources from all time and from all places, we would become more familiar with its reality; and so perhaps be convinced of that reality as being Love, God, Power; as being ourselves too as that Love, God, Power, even though we may not have experienced it.
Having set down this evidence, the next stage would be to introduce the reader to the wisdom of this God- within reality; from which stage would follow the source of this wisdom, being Love.
As a person gains this wisdom, that is, attains self-understanding, he becomes more receptive and sensitive to the truths, the Meaning, of human nature and of essential nature: Love.
This conscious transformation happens through the contemplation and practice of these truths.
3
The Call
I want to be free! – The soul-cry of our age.
And what is this freedom that is so cried-out for? Not political freedom; assume we have that. Not personal freedom; assume we have that too.
Then what? Is it not freedom from our all-too-human self in its suffering and vulnerability, in its lusts and carnality, in its frailty and self-absorption? ...That's it! – the target for a type of individual whose eye is on his-her more-than-human self.
Such individuals are bothered, troubled, frustrated, even oppressed, by their humanness, regardless of their practicality, regardless of their social status, regardless of their age, regardless of their success, regardless of their biology; and however they attempt to assuage or discount this eternal insignia of their (human) nature, they fail either comically or tragically. They feel severely limited compared to the limitless power they intuit inwardly.
Something more – much more – than their human side is discerned in their intuitive minds, call it what they might: soul, spirit, transcendence, nothingness, purity, oneness, eternity, Love, will. It is their God; not the God of the Jews, nor of the Christians, nor of the Mohammedans; but the God that resides in the inwardness of their minds – where they themselves, and everyone and everything else, are God, are One!
Essence, Source, Power, Love, Meaning-whatever It may be called-of everything is that which resonates their being, whether they're in the glut of the mundane, or in the glow of transcendence, or in the thrall of depravity. It stays ever present, however distant we are from it – Knock! Knock! Knock!: always the knock, as D.H. Lawrence wrote of It.
From whence It comes, or why It strikes this or that individual so poignantly, so acutely, so profoundly, remains as mysterious as Itself. But It cannot be denied neither in the beginning nor in the end.
And it is this Presence – this absent Presence, that inspires the cry for freedom in such individuals. This is what they mean when they cry out, I want to be free! Their freedom is to be in touch with It; to move with It; to live in, for, and by It. This is their freedom – their self-freedom: the freedom from the pull and push, the drag and jolt, the whim and crush, of their all-too-attached-self. Once freed from self, one then is in touch, in contact, in enlightenment, with one's eternal Transcendence; then weakness transforms into strength, lust into love, cowardice into courage, ego into humanity, and finally flesh into soul.
That is the ideal to which we aspire – and to which we will never fully, or even nearly fully, attain in this life; for how can we possibly be free in life when we are bound to natural necessity. That is the contradiction facing every individual who cries out, I want to be free! It is as much as crying out for God, or Purity – "Give me purity before all else!" (Wittgenstein) There is no attaining to, not to mention sustaining, It, God or Purity, or Soul -- or Freedom in this life. If there is any freedom in life it is the promise of death. And should death be Freedom-in its pure state then that is when we will attain it permanently, and not before.
But can we attain to a measure of self-freedom in this life? Can we approximate it? If the answer is no, that will make no difference to the warriors of self-freedom. Nothing will stop them; not even the impossible. They are convinced. They know that freedom is in their mind – "God has put eternity in man's mind," saith the Bible. Their quest is to transmute that freedom in the mind to freedom in act, in consciousness. They want to, need to, must, reach it; make it a living reality in their daily lives. But How?... How? And that is their struggle. And that is their tragedy. How very few of us throughout the ages have tapped this mine of Freedom. Yet there it is: ever in our minds...somewhere…somehow.
And if the answer is yes; then what? What do we do? Where's the way, the path, the guide? Have we not searched everywhere: all religions, all philosophies, all wise men and women, all art, all mysteries? And we are still nowhere – except at the promise. Our mind says no; It says yes. It calls us on and on beyond ourselves into the dark of our mortal minds unto the light of our immortal being.
And this Call will not abide only a passive cross-legged, on your knees, meditative prayer for freedom from the human condition; it necessitates an engagement with the human condition – to enlighten not only yourself but your fellow man: if only one other human being.
And is this not the very thing so many of us want: to free ourselves from our own chains so that we can free others? Yet the inward struggle proves too exacting of us, not only in the long run, but in the short run as well; so we turn outward to help others. We wear ourselves inside out. Our own freedom always seems so far off, so elusive; its efforts so tiring, so tedious, so hard! Just when we think we have it, it's gone. Or just when we think we can relax a little from it, it makes its demands once again. We can't free ourselves? Then let us free others! And so we sing our songs, write our books, paint our pictures; change the laws, feed the poor, expose corruption, minimize exploitation, dignify minorities – all good works, helpful, all heading toward the goal; yet always within the same old interminable rut of human psychology: – the right of justice and wisdom on the defensive against the might of injustice and ignorance on the offensive.
Yet [I]t is given to us in our times to turn the tables on this tiresome, centuries-old state of affairs. A new psychology is needed in tandem with a new wisdom, to tip the scales in favor of justice and wisdom. Another book of ideas alone will not do it. We need a book of an individual's mind and will in struggle for a balance, a harmony, between his humanness and transcendence – for freedom from self-absorption opened to self-freedom. This person must stand as a living proof a testimony, a witness, of not only the struggle but the achievement of this balance. And what is this balance? Freedom – self-freedom, to be precise, in which he lives the freedom to be himself at his optimum in relationship to others and to his transcendence.
So what we have is a person who is in touch with his transcendence, and who aspires to, and struggles toward a balanced harmony with it in relationship to others. This is his freedom, his self-freedom for which his daily struggle is carried on; never attaining to its ideal, but ever advancing toward it.
Let me announce myself, the author, as this man, who after 35 years of innumerable searchings, trials and tribulations, has attained a measure of higher understanding enough to live by in sightings of the ideal of Love.
Let my experiences infuse with those who are of like mind so that our numbers increase many-fold in the years to come, so that we transform not only ourselves but society into warriors for justice and wisdom unto freedom – self-freedom.
Let us begin with self-understanding – deep understanding toward higher understanding. It is through self-understanding that we will aim us toward the freedom that we cry out for from our depths and our heights.
…
Van Gogh
Prelude
A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
1
Rejoice! I, Koheleth, teach a new wisdom imparted from the old. Hear me you seekers, you aspirants, you despairers, you world-wearied ones, you tortured of soul, you psychically damaged victims. Heed me well. Vanity of vanities! All is vanity, and a chase after wind – as I taught in ages gone by.
But now the dawn breaks over the dark of these tense and anxious times to radiate with full splendor within the mind of man an inner vision, a living presence, of a truth organic to his being.
I renew my plaintive sigh for suffering, dispirited mankind; but now with resplendent beams of hope with which to dispel the shades of his groping self.
Yes! There is found a way for contemporary man out of his malaise, a way for him to love the earth, to love the rich flow of his blood, without being victimized by them; a way to a consciousness of finer realities through the lush forest of the coarse and the ugly and the grotesque.
Listen to my words, my son, my daughter; let them sink deep into you, leaving you renewed, refreshed, in the bath of self-freedom.
Not immortality do I teach; not heaven nor hell; not sin nor purity; not rebirth nor resurrection; – no, not even God do I teach! Wisdom is what I teach; a wisdom that balances man’s humanness with his transcendence – a human-transcendent wisdom; through which all things fall into place, into proper perspective. Having reached the fullness of one’s humanity, all need of faith and hope and belief dissolves of itself.
Once again, for the sake of this new age, do I refrain that nothing is new under the sun; all is eternal occurrence. And so I speak not of new truths, of which there are none, but of the eternal truths of existence, viewed in a new and fuller dimension through which skeptical, trembling man might glean some understanding.
Of a higher and deeper reality do I teach so to bathe your troubled souls with soothing consolation; but not without the boldness of spirit to nobly accept life’s inevitable occurrences.
Come, let your woe be turned to joy, your failings to victories, your fears to daring. I invite you to grow with me to maturity into your inward sanctuary of the Transcendence of all that is. Tranquil pleasures, inner peace, are what we seek; compassion as well as passion; affection as well as desire. I not only affirm life, but affirm more life, which is to be found in the illumined consciousness of a transcendent Reality inherent to phenomenal being.
Not indifference, not passivity, not withdrawal, not acquiescence, do I endorse; but rather robust, ennobling, spirited life both inwardly and outwardly. I wish not so much to enlighten as to edify, and to warm the heart.
Let us then look into the secret breast of man and woman; let us see them as they really are both in their individual and collective nature, and not as they seem to be or should be. Let us enter the variegated corridors of human nature, and there we will unravel the mysteries of man’s inmost feelings, needs, fears, desires, yearnings. Having once detected the tumor of his spiritual malaise, we can then excise it with the salve of holy understanding.
2
What is man but an ever-turning wheel of opposing factions; a kaleidoscope of shifting moods and impressions! No sooner is he satisfied than his restless mind is on the wind again. Change is rooted to his very nature:
now desiring, then satiated;
now of the spirit, then of the senses;
now loving, then hating;
now calm, then enraged;
now fervent in interest, then cool in indifference;
now devout, then profane;
one time in need of attention, another time only solitude will do;
one time optimistic, another time pessimistic;
malice rules his breast as does kindness;
no sooner is he tingling with pleasure than his soul is steeped in disgust;
now is he compassionate, then see him aflame with passion;
how self-assured he is today, how racked in doubt tomorrow;
inspired today, barren tomorrow;
now at peace with himself, then back to his wild urges;
now serious, then given to folly;
now he admires, then he disrespects;
now pleasant, then disagreeable…and on and on.
What are we to make of this wonder of the universe, this ‘paragon of animals,’ this monster of cruelty? Is he ever to be content? Must he ever be excessively desiring, needing, fearing, doubting, resenting, lusting, fighting? Can he never be at peace with himself and with others? Why so easily offended, so easily slighted? Must his turn of mind ever be judgmental and faultfinding? Must he ever be judging, hurting, spiting, backbiting? Why must he always be right? Why always on the edge of anger, despair, depression? Why is he never content for long, and why as quick to irritability as he is to revenge? How deep must we probe before striking his precious vein of goodness, of love in all its variants.
Is it desirable that man be solely good, or must he also be tinged with a touch of evil?
But, I ask, is man essentially good or is he essentially evil? Or is he essentially both? – or essentially neither? Or is he essentially nothing but what he makes of himself? This we must ponder.
3
These are the searching questions I pondered over man for a good many years, and have not found my enquiries in vain. Much understanding have I gleaned of man in his manifold ways and guises and secret yearnings; and in this understanding shines the wisdom of the ages, the eternal wisdom, as a warming, enlightening potion to be administered to the needs of our times, to the skeptical man, to the material man, to the doubting man, to the perplexed man, who yet continues to yearn for higher, more, consciousness, than that of his ephemeral self-consciousness.
Freedom I have to offer; but freedom with understanding and peace, with compassion and affection, with strength and nobleness. The freedom of manliness, far beyond the mere male, the masculine, the freedom of womanliness, far beyond the mere female, the feminine, is the freedom I give.
Come, let your life begin to take on meaning – and your death as well! Come, gain understanding of yourself – your true self, and of others; and you will be better able to live with yourself and with others.
Fragmented man we will now survey in the vanity of his existence and self-strivings, and come to see what little profit man has from all his labor under the sun, and the truth that all is vanity and a chase after wind – except that man know himself in the true nature of his being!
Man is to rise above the vanity of his existence so that he may harness himself to the wisdom of his life: to the ineffable source of, or reason for, his sense of truth, beauty, goodness, and love. Is such a union possible? Let us embark upon our odyssey beginning first with man immersed in and for his self-striving world, and next with man in his gradual ascent of the mount of his highest vision; and then will our answer begin to unfold.
4
Among men and women have I lived these many years, and have witnessed their various ways and byways, their surfaces and depths, their desires and needs, their passions and impulses, and have concluded about man on earth that all is self and a craving for stimulation; from whence issue all the good and the evil in the lives of men and women. Desire and passion are their boon and bane, their pleasure and pain, their joy and suffering, their gain and loss.
Pleasure, profit, power, prestige, are what man seeks, and all else comes secondary – yes, including even the erotic, and friendship; these he needs emotionally as his body needs nourishment; but just as the body requires more than just food for the maintenance of its strength and health, so does the soul, the psyche, of man require more than the erotic, and friendship for the gratification of its strivings and cravings.
That man collectively is not an admirable biped is a tale long told and wearisome to hear; that he has moments of glory and grandeur, of self-sacrifice and heroism, of beauty and purity, need not be reiterated further by me; that he is a victim is also a tiresome theme that has long run its course, and need not be belabored further by my pen. But that man is a creature of his needs and shifting moods, of his human and individual nature, of his transcendence beyond his “I”, this is the theme in need of elaboration by which to view him in proper perspective: the perspective that from the all-too-human side of his nature, he is ever bound to his creature self; but that from his more-than-human side, he is ever free in the bracing atmosphere of his transcendent self. This is the theme through which I revolve my argument that man is to find himself as more, much more, than his all-too-human self; not that he should disintegrate his all-too-human self, but that he should strengthen it, refine it, be less vulnerable to it, less victimized by it; in sum, that he should balance it with his transcendence.
Of a particular type of person do I lend my voice, who in his perplexity, his doubt, his skepticism, his fear and trembling, his anguish, is nevertheless in search of meaning, of integrity, peace and self-freedom.
For such an individual, reason must be harmonized with feeling, facts with the rationale of such facts, concepts with intuition, freedom with responsibility, gentleness with strength of will, matter with mind. Freedom for him must not be a flight to otherworldliness; it must be a balance between life and existence, between reality and ideality, between his humanness and his transcendence.
Man in search of himself must first understand man as man in his humanity, in his humanness right down to his core; and best this understanding comes by understanding oneself – “Know thyself,” advised the wise Socrates.
Yet to know oneself is to cross stormy seas, to track through barren wastelands, to scale forbidding peaks, to descend to subterranean caves, to face fire-belching dragons of one’s frightful self. Are you up to it? Can you brave the journey to its exalted end? Are you a warrior of the soul. If you are, then join me in my own trek through the lush jungle of my soul through which I observed and examined myself: my not too admirable self, my not too self-sufficient self. Having come to myself in all its sundry aspects, better have I been able to live with myself, better am I able to live with others, better am I able to enjoy life as it is.
Come, my friends, dare to know! You will not die, you will not collapse in “fear and trembling,” you will not come to hate, nor lacerate yourself with guilt and shame. After all, you are human, as we all are with all nature’s elements residing in us Remember the ancient Roman’s truism: "I am human; nothing human is foreign to me.”
So, my good friends, rise above yourselves so to gain more understanding, more love, more virtue, more strength, more life. Follow my experiences, my observations of man in his vanity, in his wants and needs, in his pleasures and pains, in his vulnerabilities, and possibilities, from whence will emerge the new man, the new woman.
5
I, Koheleth, applied my mind to search and investigate all things man is capable of under the radiant sun; and behold, found that man in his humanness is lover of self and of stimulation preferably; and that only periodically is he lover of transcendent intangibles which alone give full meaning to his existence, which alone raise his spirit in wonder and bliss.
A leader of men and events, yet is he himself governed by his impulses of desire and passion and possessions.
A lover of beauty yet is he drawn into the whirlpool of sordid, unabashed pleasures.
Humble is he at times, yet proud in his humility.
Strong in intent, but weak is he of will.
Freedom is what he longs for, but bondage is what he craves, and from which he dreads to be released
– the very release of which he aspires!
Paradoxical is this striving, craving, creature, man, grunting under the living sun!
I saw men and women desperate for success; and I asked myself, why?
I saw men desperate to love and be loved; and I asked myself, why?
I saw men and women of a wise stamp turn into fools just to be accepted; and I wondered exceedingly.
I saw all the wrongs man has perpetrated against his fellow man just so he be right, just so he does not lose face, just so he wields a measure of power; and I asked myself, why?
From the wealthy and the powerful, I learned that their need for recognition motivated their interest in wealth and power; and I asked myself, why?
I have known men and women to prematurely age and decline for no other reason than inactivity and no longer being needed; and I wondered exceedingly.
Among the various peoples I have learned that the predominating motive for, and in, war is individual ambition; and this has taught me much about man in his strivings under the sun.
I have witnessed good men turn bad for the sole purpose of approval and acceptance of his fellow men; and I sympathized deeply for his inner suffering.
I myself have done many foolish and reprehensible things in my vain life to gratify my sensuality and appetites, to assuage my fears and needs, to secure myself-esteem, to gain respect and recognition; and I marveled at my vulnerabilities despite my seeming strengths and assurances.
For many long years my appetites, desires, passions, and self-love ruled me mercilessly; and I loved my sensual-self; but too frequently regretted their after-effects. And I suffered in my sensuality and in my self-love, but would not let them go lest I lose my masculinity, my manhood – so I thought in my foolish, vain days of youth. The religion of my fathers instilled guilt and sin in me for the enjoyments of my sensual, sexual, loving self; and I desponded.
But, then came the day when I grew out of the religion of my fathers and no longer was conscience-stricken for enjoying the pleasures of my sensual, sexual, loved self; no longer feared the judgment of an all-seeing God “up there.” I came to accept my ego-sensuality, its boon and bane, without guilt or shame riveting my mind.
Yes, no longer did I suffer religiously for my sensual indulgences, for my self-loving. But now I had myself to answer for them. I discovered to my dismay that my ego-sensuality distanced me from my transcendent leanings; and in consequence of my indulgences, I felt disoriented, less a man. It was now my humanness, not religion, that shamed me. I suffered and sighed for my transcendence.
I then took upon myself an inner search for the reasons why my sensual and loved self caused me more sorrow than delight. And so deeper I burrowed into myself, and into the hearts and souls of men and women, and lo! I discovered the scourge of man in his groping here under the radiant sun – : fear!; fear of physical pain without titillating pleasures; fear of mental pain without the anchor of his ego-sensual strivings.
Now armed with a fuller understanding of man’s condition under the heated sun, I betook myself to further investigation of his grunting and sweating under his tripartite scourge of desires and passions and fears; and this is what I found.
I found man above all in psychological need of being needed, and that in truth all other emotional needs were sublimated to this one over-riding need. Yes, even for many, his need to be loved! And to satisfy this need, I found man susceptible to many meanderings, many evils, many fears and insecurities, much folly, much suffering; even madness. I found men and women crazed, starved, for affection, drunk with power, sunk in perversions, dazed in fantasies, busy in greed, attached to possessions, susceptible to flattery, ruthless in ambition, crazed for praise, frantic in loneliness, faultfinding, plagued by what others think of us, quick to resentments and driven to suicide, induced to cruelty and impelled to rule and manipulate, steeped in pride, given to viciousness. I saw them attempt the improbable, I saw them dazzled by illusion and delusion, the impossible. I saw them crippled emotionally. I looked upon all the injustices committed by man, but the mortal fear of not being needed: his need for meaning; to be of importance; to be accepted, respected, admired, liked, loved – if not by one or few others, then by everyone!
Countless other complexities of behavior have I witnessed men on earth subjected to, or subject others to, all a reflection of his need to be needed; and I wondered exceedingly that he should be termed primarily a sexual being! I have known men and women to take their lives even in early youth, for no other reason than that they felt no longer needed: no longer of worth or meaning, either to themselves or to others or because of personal honor. I have known of crimes and outrages committed for no other reason than to be noticed, recognized, accepted, admired; to belong to one’s peers. I have seen men and women reject or repel love for personal honor, for power, for acceptance by their fellows. I have witnessed countless lives ruined for no other reason than parental rejection, or parental dependence. I have seen the pursuit of power and possessions, and wealth, and honor, and fame, destroy marriages and families and friendships. I have known men and women who lived against their conscience and better judgment merely for the plaudits of the crowd. I came to understand the intricacies of sexual behavior, and found them to be more a result of psychology than physiology: more a result of emotional needs than physical needs. I witnessed men and women using rather than gratifying each other for their own personal ends and fantasies and ego-strivings. I saw men and women aroused to mating more for enhancement of their self-image than of their sexual needs.
Yes, I was not blind to the fact that Nature’s secret chamber of chambers was that humankind propagate itself, and that all else, human and animal, issued from that one impulse. As She designed the male peacock with its array of feathers to captivate the female for propagation, so she designed mankind’s ego-sensuality array for that same purpose. Yet I learned that man was more than his ego array, more than his sensual-sensuous-sexual array; that his self superseded his ego-sensuality, that it encompassed psychological and transcendent needs that defined his humanity, his living existence. Man must work and relax, man must create and destroy, man must thrill and despond, man must know and understand, please and be pleased, man must need and want, must feel pleasure and pain, must love and hate – and so must contend and harmonize the opposites rife in life.
No, man is more, so much more than his sexual-erotic nature, however it may dominate his life – and dominate his life it does for the majority of our race. And, so from that vantage point, I concluded that man’s sexual needs are more as a means than as an end: a means toward self-importance, toward the security of being loved, of belonging or possessing another, of being needed.
With this new understanding of man’s need to be needed, I marveled exceedingly that man has of late been classed as primarily a sexual being!
But I probed further into this new finding that man was essentially in need of being needed lest I overlook the all-pervading power of sexual love, and lo, I found that sexual love is but one important aspect of man’s existence on this earth, not the important aspect! And further I discovered that this aspect is primarily a youthful phenomenon in which to propagate our human race which in midway of our life is transformed into a phenomenon in support of our emotional well-being: as relief from tensions, as supportive of our self-image, as a means of putting meaning into our lives – as supportive of our need to be needed.
And, behold, I even discovered that our need to be loved is a reflection of our need to be needed. For I knew that if I were to be loved by another, I was needed; and if I were needed, I was important; and being important, my life had meaning; and that my life had meaning meant I was secure from the ravages of loneliness and aloneness which can lead us invariably to desperate acts, to disoriented states of mind. Being loved by another, I was cared for, belonged to someone, had someone of my own – was in an emotional affectionate bond of unity with another human being. I was not alone, and so not estranged from my self. I was a well-balanced, integrated individual who meant something to someone, and so was needed, and so was secure, and so was contented. I loved her as complementary to myself, and so was bound as one with her; she fulfilled my need to be needed. But I found that so long as my love resulted from my self-need, my love was not truly love, but need. Love, I told myself, must be more than a self-directed need; but at the time I knew not what love could otherwise be.
I learned that as human love, in its transcendent aspect, involved compassion and affection, and that many unfortunates cannot love in this way or are not loved in this way; their psyches resort to a psychological turn of mind in needing to be needed than to be loved; it was like, “if I can't, nor am inclined to be loved, then I will be needed.”
This also I learned of the love-need among men and women toiling under the heavens: that what they claimed to love was what they really needed for their personal security. I have heard men claim love of God, and to love for Him, when what they meant was that they needed God for their inner security. I have known men who claim to love mankind, and who dedicate themselves to good works, when what they meant was that they needed to love mankind for their inner security. I have heard men expound their love of knowledge and beauty and creativity, and I knew in my heart that they needed to love these for their inner security.
And I knew that this inner security imparted to them inner power of pride and self-possession. I knew that self-possession to be a necessity to vulnerable man under the heavens, and so to be secured whatever the price, whatever the deed – whatever was to be loved! All these aspects of man I witnessed and knew myself to be as susceptible in my own way as the next man.
6
No, I did not see that the evil men do is necessarily evil inherent in man as a whole! Yes, there are those given to evil most naturally as I had encountered more than enough in my worried, turbulent life; but more often than not, I saw good men become evil. I saw need; I saw fear; I saw appetite, desire and passion! I saw his physical and emotional needs ruling him. I saw his physical and emotional fears pursuing him. I saw him governed by his appetites, and desires and passions in his need of being needed. I saw self and the craving for sensation, and the fear of negation of either. I saw a pitiably, insecure soul in man, and I no longer wondered at or judged his vagaries and cruelties under the heavens. I saw him more as a victim than master of himself. I saw him driven by the gusts of his natural inclinations and his fears, I saw him scourged and maddened by jealousy; and I despaired exceedingly that there was little hope for man to become master of himself and of his destiny. I believed in man, and so believed in hope for him. But to my sorrow, I not only saw men and women driven and subjected by the insufferable natural conditions given to every man being of human nature – for I have seen and heard of many who have conquered these; but I saw also men and women subjected and driven by their own individual nature, unable or concerned to rise above their lower selves to the noble acceptance of life. I despaired what I thought in my mind that many are destined to be lost souls. Why, I asked myself, will one person take to moral or wise exhortation, and not another person though you brand it into his brain? To attempt an answer to this perplexing enigma, I took myself to deeper investigations into the human factor, and learned of the following truths.
7
Among the sons of men I lived for many years and was bewildered by the sundry diversities of attitude and behavior. I applied my mind diligently to seek a common pattern governing men’s actions, but was unable to find one. But then I turned my sights in upon myself seeking a frame of reference determining my own behavior and attitude behind my appetites, desires, and passions, behind my fears and need to be needed. And what I found was an unchangeable character, my own individual nature which was the center of all that I was, and which has not changed during all my checkered life. In many ways have I altered my mode of life and thought, much have I learned and matured, but always accompanying these various alterations, was my identifying center that made me inclined to whatever modifications my character underwent.
Ever I remained, Koheleth, the unique individual man of a type of nature receptive, vulnerable, repelled, impressionable, unimpressionable to the various experiences to which my mind and character were exposed.
I viewed my life in it panorama of events and growth and maturity and understanding and character development, and discovered of myself a particular type of nature: one of sensibility, of a reflective cast of mind. Energetic, vital, and daring I was; yet always with a touch of modest reserve. These I discovered are as much a part of me as is my physical stature, and that I could no more change than my height. These and other states of mind are me, are the psychological counterparts of my physiology which make up the unique me, without which I would not be myself.
Though subject to my lusts, I preferred continence. Though subject to my desires and passions, and so impelled to lies, dishonesty, inconsideration, anger, stinginess, I was nevertheless inclined toward justice. Though subject to my selfish ends, I was nevertheless inclined to the welfare of others. Though passionate, I was inclined toward compassion. All these inclinations are as much features of my mind and character as my facial features. They are me and I am them.
As another man loved physical prowess, I loved mental prowess. Given the opportunity, my mind took easily, lovingly, to knowledge and understanding. As another man must climb a mountain, or sail the sea, so must I seek and love on the alpine peaks of intellect, wisdom, beauty, spirit. Amidst all my alterations of mind and character, never has my central nature been adverse or indifferent to the call of glorious wisdom.
Though much of a reprobate in my fiery youth, ever did my moral character – offshoot of my individual nature – suffer in conscience and yearn for nobleness. Always when I wronged myself or others. I suffered tenfold for my wretchedness. Never could I be offhand or casual to the inner demands of my moral character. This I know of myself since the dawn of my reason. I saw others free from guilt of conscience in their injustices, who even preened themselves for their injustices and lusts; and at one time I envied them their carefree ways – so I thought them in my foolish youth. I attempted to emulate them in their wrongs hoping to be free of all restrictions, but never was to succeed.
Much was I ridiculed and scoffed at, and pitied that I could not give way easily to the “way of all flesh.” An idealistic soul in a materialistic milieu is one destined to suffer many humiliations. And so he attempts to conform, and suffers more; but his need to be accepted outweighs his resistance to assert his individuality, his idealistic yearnings. But I secretly knew of myself that as much as I conformed to foreign patterns of behavior, just so much I remained my innately true self. Given the least opportunity, I rebelled against artificial oppressions against my innate self; and though I suffered in loneliness and by rejection, I stayed true to myself even in spite of myself. I could act no other way. I was destined to act out my true and demanding self, though very much stifled by social conventions.
Fortune shone on me, for I found a loving friend and companion who perceived my starving self submerged by untoward conventions and attitudes foreign to it. And behold! With her faith and guidance brought me to my true self, free from all my other superficial, social selves.
And so with love and guidance, knowledge and understanding, moral development, I came to know my true, inner self free from its artificial bindings – my innate, unchangeable self which, though for many years stifled, still governed me unknowingly; governed me in that I was always, primarily of a soft and gentle disposition, and this, no extent of social conditioning or threat could have changed, however it may have thwarted or modified this disposition.
Being predominantly of a soft, gentle, quiet, retiring nature, how could I radically change to an opposite, hard, coarse, loud, outgoing nature except by some overpowering force? Even if such a force did alter my basic disposition, still it could only be an artificial, temporary change without intrinsically changing me; for me to intrinsically change, my nervous system would have to be reordered.
So, I am who I am, and who I have always been, though in a less developed stage of development. For though my basic disposition remains ever the same, it still is subject to modifications of mental and character developments, or even retrogressions.
8
Having learned of my innate, unchanging moral character, and that I was predominantly of a soft nature, I betook myself to compare and contrast my nature with those of others, and found myself confronted with a prodigious task; but have since arrived at some finding which have not only enlightened me in the under- standing of intricate human nature, but in this understanding, have bettered my relationship with those of whom I applied this enlightened understanding; which has proved to me the validity of my findings.
Of my observations of groping mankind under the ever-turning wheel of night and day, I saw men and women of innumerable types, some of noble souls, and others craven souls; some of spirited temperament; some of delicate sensitivity and others of raw crudeness; some gross but gentle, others refined but coarse; some moral-minded, and others far removed from a moral sense. I knew of unscrupulous opportunists, and of uncompromising idealists; I knew of men and women with cruel and dominant streaks in their nature, and men and women of benevolent and accommodating natures. I have known those of a warm and engaging personality, and those whose personalities were cold and distant. Some have impressed me as preeminently selfish, and others as preeminently selfless. I have encountered those concerned only for ambition, and those only for aspiration; those concerned only with that is, and what ought to be for them, and those concerned with primarily what ought to be for the good of all, and those who live only for pleasure wherever they can get it.
After much cataloging of the motley characteristics of intricate man, I discovered, to the delight of my understanding, a fundamental pattern of two opposing traits in the nature of man; that of a soft nature, and that of a hard nature! What under the predominantly soft nature, one set of characteristics predominated; and under the predominantly hard nature, another opposing set of characteristics predominated. This I learned: that no one person is wholly soft nor wholly hard, but predominantly one or the other. This also I learned: that one of a soft nature was of a more impressionable, pliable, receptive cast, as is soft wax; whereas just the opposite applied to the hard-natured individual, as is hardened wax.
With this new understanding, my eyes and mind went searching for comparisons and contrasts in these dual natures of men and women, and made the following observations: that a type of person was impenetrable to moral exhortation, and he, I termed predominantly hard-natured being unimpressionable to the principles of justice and the feelings of compassion and affection.
That a type of person was predominantly self-directed and so inclined toward the traits of arrogance, aggression, avarice, antagonism, ruthlessness, shamelessness, cold-heartedness, expeditiousness, injustice, meanness, superciliousness, worldly, inflexibility, amorality.
That a type of person though self-directed too, yet nonetheless strongly other-directed, and so naturally inclined toward the traits of benevolence, kindness, compassion, empathy, sympathy, affection, justice, even-temper, consideration, moral-minded.
And from these contrasting natures, I learned that an extreme of hardness or softness leads to weakness and vulnerability; that the over-soft individual is as susceptible to inhumanness as is the overly hard individual; that for a well-balanced nature, one needs a proper balance of both hardness and softness, but that always one or the other predominated in a man or woman.
Having come to recognize the innate and unchanging nature in men and women, and that one’s nature was predominantly hard or soft, I searched into myself and discovered the basis of my own nature, which without question was predominantly soft. All the traits I ascribed to the soft natured soul I found in me more or less. I found also that the softness of my nature was fairly tempered by the hardness of my male elements. I learned of myself that I was neither too good nor too bad; self-engrossed but not oblivious to the feelings or concerns of others; passionate, but not without compassion nor affection; sensual, but not disinclined toward virtue; ambitious but not ruthlessly.
I recognized the dualities in me, the dualities of my soft and hard counterparts; but always, even in my worst moments, I recognized the better, more refined, part of my soft nature, that part which continued to strive for a higher more noble existence. I knew my softness was not weakness, but was malleable as gold under fire; that it was this malleability that made it possible for my soul to be strong in its weakness, in its vulnerability, in its impressionability, in its susceptibilities. I would be hard against my weakness, and it was my softness that made this hardness possible.
And with this new understanding of human nature, of its innateness and unchangeableness, of its soft and hard counterparts, I realized what it was that would nor could ever change in me, that it was my moral character which sprung from my basic soft nature resultant of my unique temperament and constitution founded on the physiology of my nerve cells and chemistry. I found, after deep reflection, that though my moral character changes exteriorly in my actions and attitudes, it does not change interiorly. For its center is this peculiar extent of my receptivity to the unity of human nature, and this receptivity determines the extent of my sense of justice, sympathetic sensibility and selflessness, which I can sum up in the one beautiful word love.
Understanding myself thus, I now looked about at others expecting to see the same order whether of softness or of hardness. I thus found myself faced with prodigious difficulties, for it was not simple matter to determine whether one person was basically hard or basically soft; since society had the insidious tendency to harden and submerge the soft-hearted. I found that unless one had immense inner resources, and, or, fortunate upbringing, to show one’s softness was to make one too vulnerable to the will of others; and so one hardened himself to his finer sensibilities, and sensitivities.
I learned that many hid behind false masks so to protect themselves from the predators, the ridiculers, the militants; and that in most cases, it was invariably impossible to reach into the secret well of another’s deepest and truest self; that to possibly learn of the true self of another, one had to know that person intimately; which the opportunity for such intimacy and trust is incredibly slim.
But I came to learn the signs of one or the other nature: that a predominantly soft natured person invariably showed signs of a moral, sympathetic, gentle sensibility; and that the predominantly hard-natured person the opposite signs if one could see through him beneath his frequently deceptive facade of a glowing personality.
This I learned after much painstaking and frequently mistaken observations: that beneath the social influences and personal modifications and surfaces lies the central, unchanging core of one’s nature, predominantly hard or soft; and thus I concluded that men and women in their time under the heavens do not change, that what they fundamentally are at birth of disposition, so they remain till their dying day.
I learned this truth, and from thenceforth came to better understand the intricacies of men and women striving to live on the face of this earth. And with this understanding, my illusions and delusions, my hopes and expectations, for man in his gropings disappeared one after another. I learned to accept men and women as they were, no longer as I thought they should be, according to my ideals of nobleness. But I saddened that many men and women were ruined by their environment, by others by their own selves; that they would never come to know themselves for better or for worse, because of their own limitations and those of their surroundings. I saddened that men and women were destined to never rising above themselves despite all their efforts; that they would always be governed by their all-too-human needs, fears, desires, passions, impulses, lusts, vulnerabilities. I saddened for those who were primarily soft-natured, though forced into hardened actions and attitudes foreign to themselves. I saddened that the morally and spiritually inclined were distorted into immoral and materialistic channels beyond their control. I also saddened that the hard-natured ones exploited and corrupted the overly soft individuals; I angered at their ruthlessness, their cruelties; the magnetic hold they had the more receptive, susceptible, sensitive soft ones.
But in my sadness and anger, I recognized the truth of human nature in its softness and its hardness, and came to accept the natural order of this duality in human nature, and saw that by certain compulsions, inner and outer, the soft-natured could be hardened into the exigencies of survival and self-respect; and that the hard-natured could be softened into the aristocracy of refinement and culture.
I learned too that the soft-natured are not all good, as the hard-natured all are not all unfeeling and selfish; that the soft-natured can be induced into injustices by inner and outer necessity, just as the hard-natured can be induced to just and considerate acts.
I learned too that the hard-natured are as indispensable to human relationships and culture as is the soft-natured; that the one complements the other; that indeed there is “a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace; a time to gather stones and a time to scatter them; a time to embrace and a time to be far from embraces…” And I learned also that man in his restlessness for diversity cannot be satisfied with love alone, or with peace alone, or with compatibility alone, or with goodness alone, or with anything alone. Life is diversified, and so consequently is man in his varied degrees of softness and varied degrees of hardness. No one is totally soft or totally hard; totally good or totally bad; totally loving or totally hating; totally sympathetic or totally unfeeling; totally dispassionate or totally passionate; totally considerate or totally inconsiderate.
What makes the difference from one man to the next is whether he is satisfied in his varied dualities; or whether he seeks to go beyond them; toward a more comprehensive love or a more comprehensive hate; more goodness or more badness; toward more sympathy or more cold-heartedness; more dispassion or more passion; more consideration or more inconsideration; more spiritualness or more worldliness. Moving toward the exclusiveness of the negatives alienates one from the oneness, unity of human affiliation and life; moving toward exclusiveness of the positives unionizes one toward unity of humanity and life. That direction which brings with it the higher, refined experiences of joy, peace, inner freedom, and strength, is the path we, my sons and daughters, are to take in quest of higher consciousness, of transcendence. And as all sages from East to West have discoursed on the path of unity, of oneness, of love, of virtue, of the spirit, as the only path to higher consciousness, so this is the path we are to take, but in light of this new wisdom of man, as not only a creature of self and the craving for sensation, but as being essentially in need of being needed, and so driven by his appetites, desires, passions, and fears; as well as being subject not only to the limitations of his human nature but of his individual nature, predominantly hard or soft.
What emerges from this new understanding of men and women under the heavens, is an inevitability of human limitations but without the determinism beyond man’s control; for it is possible to rise above this inevitability, to nobly accept it in a higher consciousness of the Higher Reality beyond phenomenal reality. This noble acceptance and higher consciousness frees man from his fate while at the same time being subject to it; the difference being that he is no longer a victim of his fate, but master of it.
Come, my sons and daughters, journey with me up to this Higher Reality under the enlightenment of this new wisdom, this new understanding of man as an inevitability, but master of it. Come to understand yourself, and so come to yourself, through the observations and experiences of me, Koheleth, a man who has come to peace within his troubled soul, a man who has found a new-born freedom from the embroilments of this panting world, a man who has found the essence of Being within himself, in and out of the world, a man who has found love in his breast, but a love tempered with a restraint of understanding the inevitability of man in the world.
Let us begin our higher and ultimate journey.
9
The Moral Quest
In my newly gained wisdom of the human breast, I saw man in his affairs under the revolving heavens in an entirely different focus. I now saw him from two aspects, and so could no longer say that all men and women were this, or all men and women were that. Here was one man or woman predominantly soft-natured, and there was one who was predominantly hard-natured; and on the basis one’s basic nature, one person more given to justice, and another more given toward injustice. In which case I could no longer say of man collectively that he was either basically bad or basically good; for I now understood that we all had both tendencies in us, though one was less or more predominant depending upon the person’s intrinsic nature.
I saw those who were basically just act unjustly because of influences of fear of rejection, of not being loved or needed, of social pressures of one kind or another, of not being accepted. I saw those who were primarily unjust act justly, not because of an intrinsic change of character, but because of such influences as expediency, age, to make favorable impressions, and fears of one sort or another.
I gained insight also into man’s nature, that though he was circumscribed, determined by the dictates of his intrinsic nature, he nonetheless had the freedom to expand the potential of his particular moral character whether for good or for ill, toward more injustice and indifference, according to particular tendencies. I saw that man was free in this regard, but not free to be other than his nature, both human and individual, dictates. Yes, he is free to become more just, more loving, more considerate, more generous, more courageous, calmer, inwardly stronger; just as he is free to develop more oppositely of these traits – but only if his moral character tends toward either set of traits. Yes, man was free, but within the bounds of his human and individual nature.
I soon came to understand that it was the fool who ever rested content with himself, who believed himself to be as morally good or bad as he was capable. Man is an imperfect being, pulled this way and that by the impulses of his self and craving for sensation through which, on both counts, give rise to his manifold appetites, desires, passions, lusts and fears. Ever given to these allurements, he can never attain to the ideal image of himself. But in inverse proportion to the lessening of his sensual and needing self, just so does his moral and spiritual self increase. So I learned as I took perspective of myself over the long years of self-development from the lure of my sensual and needing self to the higher reaches of my moral and spiritual self; or I might say from my lower to my higher self.
10
I did rail at my lower self innumerable times for ever keeping me from my higher ideals; but never did I despise my lower self, for I knew it to be as much part of my human nature as is the potential of my higher self – though I have since learned that my lower self is more allied to my animal nature than to my human nature.
I enjoyed my appetites, my desires, my passions, but to my consternation, found myself given more to excess than to moderation – such was the keenness of sensual pleasure. I often suffered for my sensual indulgences, either in regret, remorse, shame, a weakening of purpose and command of myself, many physical discomforts, frustrations innumerable, a self-directedness which frequently caused friction and resentments with others, a loss of inner control and self-respect, much repentance and wretchedness.
I began to resist my sensual pleasures, but found myself no match for their ever enticing lure. I fasted, abstained, made resolves and vows, but to only temporary avail. I gradually began to fast permanently from one or two appetites which to this day I have abstained. But mostly I continued in my cravings for sensation, never really gaining consistent control or moderation over them.
I loved the pleasures of my body, but loved the pleasures of my soul more, though for many years these pleasures were too tranquil, too short-lived to withstand the intensity of the delight of my senses.
I wanted and strove for virtue to upgrade my stature as a man, but was ever faced with the force of my animal nature. Yes, I became more truthful, more honest, more sincere, more generous, more considerate, more calm; but still was prone and susceptible to carnal pleasures, and first and foremost to my own interests. My integrity never became complete, since my inordinate affections and desires and passions I knew would take precedence were there a conflict with the principles of my integrity. Yes, I would lie rather than having to admit to an inordinate or improper indulgence.
I knew I would gain little moral courage so long as I was under the sway of my sense pleasures; and I despaired at this truth. To know that I had little control over these sense-pleasures depressed my conscience; but I always picked myself up after each fall, each disappointment, each wrong omission or commission, and tried again, and again, and again. I tried every possible and means to overcome, to gain a modicum of control, and slowly, gradually, I gained a small footing; but I always slipped back. Yet I never gave up the good fight. I was intent on wining it; though victory seemed eons away.
11
The more I understood virtue, the more I realized how very tenuous my little virtue was. Though I had attained some of the virtues, I nevertheless knew in my true evaluation that I wasn't truly virtuous nor morally fine. I knew I would fail myself in matters of moral physical courage so long as I was under sway of my sense pleasures. When under such sway, I somehow became less a man, lost some of my self-respect, would not and could not be morally strong when under such influence. I feared the possibility of cowardice, and this truth despaired me.
True, I had moral integrity, but I knew in my heart that this integrity rested on sand, was surrounded by the weeds of my sensuality. I needed to strengthen this foundation so that this integrity would flourish fully against whatever adversary, whatever suffering. I felt compelled to be strong, durable, enduring, noble – and discovered that through self-control I would attain these traits.
So, I searched into the meaning of self-control, and behold I found it to be not one of the virtues, but the way to all of them! I discovered that to be generous my inclination toward possessiveness and stinginess had to be controlled; that to be calm, I had to control my impulse to anger; that to be courageous, my mortal fear had to be controlled; that to be truthful or honest, I had to have my desires and fears under control; that consideration required my self-directedness to be controlled.
Besides control of my sense pleasures being under the domain of self-control, I came to perceive that self-control was not the least important to keep one from despondency, despair, futility; that one must keep his moods under control no less than his appetites.
I learned that at the heart of self-control lie the control of my thoughts and eyes; that with these under control, my sensitive appetites would be under control.
Self-control taught me not to give in so easily to my weaknesses, my susceptibilities, my inclination, I understood that self-control required self-denial and a moderation that at the time I was not up to. I experienced some of the inner strength and tranquility that self-control begot; but this new understanding and practice could only be a temporary stepping stone for me at that stage of my life, because I knew then that only when I arrived at the stage of preferring this inner tranquility, and the strength of denying myself sensuous pleasure over the intense pleasure of “giving in” to them, would self-control be truly effective for me. I was not ready for its demands in the realm of the senses; but it did advance me to the stage of controlling my moods of depression, ennui, hopelessness, restless. This much did self-control gain for me at that stage of my life.
12
Along with my growing understanding of the efficiency of self-control, came thoughts of the acceptance of life as it is, began to course through my mind. I came to see the relationship between the two and knew that I had to accept the struggle, the pain, to control the urges and moods of my sensual self. Yes, I no longer succumbed so easily to my dark moods, my carnality, and sensuality; I had learned to recognize them for what they were, and accepted them as inevitability part of my nature.
Now I did not passively accept my adverse moods and appetites; did not resign myself to them; but came to accept them nobly, with a sense of heroic dignity, and thereby continued my struggle to rise above them if possible, or at last to bear their onslaught. This took a courage I was not always up to; but whenever I did contest with a present mood or passion or impulse and conquered it, then I experienced a strong sense of inner control and peace.
I found that my new consciousness of acceptance induced the desire to control myself, and to accept the inevitable for the sake of my dignity, my honor; because it was noble and beautiful to resist and endure. To master the mood became the dictum of my new consciousness of acceptance. Acceptance was not merely to face a situation, but to brave it as well.
With this new realization of acceptance, and its being the purpose behind my striving for self-control, not only in moral matter, but with my shifting, unaccountable moods, I began to apply its philosophy to the problem of existence, to human life and consciousness.
There is evil in the world, there is ugliness in the world; everywhere cruelties, injustices, suffering, mad folly, licentiousness, and all manners of sights and sounds and odors, which make one recoil in disgust, or fear or protest. So much in life grates our sensibilities grates our sensibilities that we tend to shun all that does not conform to our image of how life and human living should be. We prefer not to face the underside of life, and so we immerse ourselves into beautiful luxuries, beautiful manners, beautiful art and music and poetry. We have our sciences, and our philosophies, and our aesthetics to keep us ever attuned to the beautiful, to the graceful, to the good, to the clean, to the happy, to the sublime, to what we call the “beautiful life.” What is ugly, sordid, dirty, impure, ill-mannered, rude, crude, we avoid as a taint to the beauty we want so much to put into our lives. What is not radiant with color, wit, sociability, affability, goodness, richness, is bleak with pain of spirit. We do not want to face what does not uplift the spirit. We want perfection, order, cleanliness, grace; and we suffer in spirit in the absence of these: when there is strife instead of affability; dirt instead of cleanliness, war instead of peace; disorder instead of order; melancholy instead of cheerfulness; hate instead of love; lust instead of affection; passion instead of compassion; impulse instead of reason. Being so immersed in surface beauty and surface goodness, and surface grace, and surface affability, we cannot easily adjust to, accept their opposites. When faced with overcast weather, we ourselves become overcast; when faced with ugliness our stomachs turn and render us helpless; when faced with our lusts and passions, and impulses, we suffer the consequences of our carnality; when faced with foul odors, filth, disarrangement, poverty, ill-manneredness, we shrink in helplessness. We have become overly-soft, overly civilized, overly cultured overly aesthetic, wrongly thinking our aestheticism is akin to the spirit. We want to reform the world so that everyone will live for beauty, goodness, grace; that everyone will live in peace, in harmony, in love, in spiritual and material well-being. Foolish thoughts! Since when has man, or when will man, ever subscribe to such perfections? Man is an imperfection; a being of varying natures, varying needs, varying inclinations, varying moods. He is human, he is animal; he is good, he is bad; he likes, he hates; he loves, he lusts; ever desiring, ever shifting in moods and affections; he hungers, and so he must kill to eat; he must survive as must his species, and so these life-purposes come before all else, thereby every keeping him primitive, primeval; his life must take on meaning, he must be inwardly secure, and so he takes whatever means, moral or immoral, to satisfy the demands of his every-demanding self. Sensations, enjoyments, stimulations, he ever must have, and so he seeks and craves them wherever they may be found, whatever the price, whatever the novelty. Boredom comes easily to man; satiation comes easily to man. Satiation leads to boredom, and so he must ever replenish his craving for sensations.
No, man is not much of an admirable being; his goodness is every offset by his impulses and appetites; his grace denied by the thrust of his urges which leave him giddy with expectation. Man is self-directed, vain, critical, often times malicious. Whence then all the talk of man and perfection? Life does not accommodate man’s thirst for beauty and goodness, for life is as ugly and bad as it is beautiful and good. Old age is considered ugly, and do we not all age? Selfishness is not an admirable characteristic, and are we not all selfish? Lust is animal-like, and do we not all lust? Personal survival comes before the survival of others, and have not men always killed others in order to survive? As beautiful as we may be in body, face, and dress, are we not full of foul odors and natural functions and habits which remind us of our real origins. As human as we are at beautiful affairs and with acquaintances, are we as easily so with among whom we live with day in and day out, those closest to us?
No, we are not beautiful people living a beautiful life. Life is founded on opposites, and being part of the world, so are we replete with opposite traits.
All this understanding came to me in my new consciousness of acceptance, wherewith I began to look upon living and human life in a more penetrating perspective. I began to put away my foolish ideals and expectations for mankind, though I do admit reluctantly and sorrowfully at first. I did not like it that man in general was not redeemable, that he did not want to be redeemable, except in the very few cases. Regretfully, I had to admit that men and women in general lusted for life, and did not aspire to moral goodness, or to spiritual consciousness, except in those periods when they suffered from loneliness, or poverty, or failure; or in grief, or in matters of necessity or expediency or exigency. When man was successful, loved, appreciated, admired, these proved to him his worthiness as an excellent human being, and so why need he think of moral or spiritual development?
These truths saddened me to see man wrapped in ignorance and vanity and misery, and sensuality and power, and wanting nothing more in life so long as they were needed, so long as they felt themselves to be important in the eyes of others, so long as they had the means to satisfy their appetites and passions, so long as they were still attractive to the opposite sex.
But with my new understanding of acceptance, I was better able to accept man as he is, has always been, and always will be so long as his nature remains human as we know it. He must be loved and liked, he must survive, he must be loved and liked, he must survive, he must be accepted and respected and admired, he must avoid boredom and failure, he must avoid pain and suffering and sorrow, he must feel important, must put meaning in his life, he must have inner and material security, he must propagate his race. And with all these “musts,” he also must satisfy these needs in his own way, no matter how bizarre or wrong, or perverted, they may seem to another person.
This is the way of the human world, so I came to understand and accept which henceforth ended my illusions and delusions of noble man striving under the heavens to live his little life in high morality, beauty, and spirituality before it ends forever in the shroud of nothingness. I came to accept these truths not as “brutal”, but as truths of nature as she in her mysterious way arranged it. Nature, I learned, functioned more as the rule than the exception; and whatever was the rule than the exception; and whatever was the rule, I came to understand was natural however it may go contrary to my taste or attitude or nature. I came to accept people as they are, no longer as they should be. I saw man as governed first by the dictate of their own nature, and second by the dictates of their own nature. I now understood deeper than I ever did, the natural ways of human nature and individual nature, and did not expect anymore of man under the sun.
Most men and women I saw victims of their human and individual natures, and I no longer judged them; nor did I pity them, but rather came to feel for them kindly as all one family of man in need of many consolations and illusions to ease their way through this sweating laborious life.
Now I knew I was prepared to look upon my life with my wife and sons in the radiance of love, for it was my wife of the gazelles who taught me the deep ways of human love; and with human love in one hand, and my transcendent Love on the other hand, I balanced I balanced the two unto a new wisdom: a Love-wisdom of human-transcendence.
And now I take my leave of you, my friends, to find your way through the lush jungle of your humanness and the radiant pathway of your transcendence. May my fecund findings guide you through your journey to self-discovery and transcendent realization, to the transcendence of your humanness, and to the humanness of your transcendence.
Your human-transcendence is the dawn of your day I bequeath to you so that you may rejoice in both your humanness and your transcendence; that in your humanness, your pains may take their rightful place with your pleasures, that your wants and needs may balance you out, that your ego may sublimate itself to the totality of your self; and that your transcendence may lead you to the right of your acts, to the truth of your life, to the understanding of your humanity, to the grace of your integrity, and to the being of your existence – all ideals to be transformed into realities, as far as that is humanly possible, as far as that is individually possible for you.
Onwards then toward a higher understanding.
_________________________________
1
PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS ON WISDOM
1. Let Wisdom be my mistress, as I am male; my master; as I am female.
2. With Wisdom by my side, I soften my defenses, I drop my shield.
3. Wisdom is the passageway through which I meet myself as love.
4. It is a joyful wisdom we want; not a somber, severe, austere wisdom.
5. Wisdom is our transcendence in thought, feeling, and action.
6. Wisdom is the image of eternity.
7. Trying to capture the quick of Wisdom would be like trying to seize a shooting star.
8. Wisdom is as effervescent as a breeze wafting through our mind; yet more real than our breath.
9. After all the words used to try to capture the meaning of Wisdom, it nonetheless remains ever ineffably a conundrum.
10. Wisdom makes us wise in action (in practical matters) and deep in thought (in contemplative matters). How? By imparting to us truths of life and Truth in Love.
11. Our destiny lies in the folds of Wisdom of which we have only intimations.
12. Through Wisdom do we sense our essentiality.
13. Wisdom is nowhere somewhere in our conscious being.
14. Wisdom is God (Pure Being) actualized.
15. What Wisdom means is beyond our ken but “within” our being.
16. Wisdom is the medium through which eternal truths issue.
17. Think of Wisdom as the key to our eternal nature.
18. Think of Wisdom as the messenger of eternal truths.
19. Wisdom is sure to beautify herself in our minds so that we are drawn to her in sweet desire.
20. Wisdom sets forth its ideals in our minds so that we aspire to them however unattainably.
21. Wisdom abides in the eternity of Truth as One, and shares this truth with man in living concepts.
22. Wisdom is so inherent to eternal Truth that those who live only for life's truths have little share in her bounty – though they are offered to them.
23. As there is a method to madness, so there is a share of wisdom in ignorance – though we may never grasp this truth.
24. Wisdom shares her secrets to those who, not only are receptive to them, but who love them. One such secret: that there are no problems, only solutions; another such secret: Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans; one more such secret: Love is all you need. You might recognize these secrets in Lennon's songs.
25. Wisdom is everywhere to herself, but nowhere to us; just as our mind is nowhere to be found (perceived) yet everywhere in thought.
26. Now Wisdom is here, then it's gone; now you're sure of it, then unsure; now in its bosom, then in the cold, now in possession of its treasures then barren of them.
27. When you act wisely, you act in love; since love holds everything together in its place and order – even when it separates in strife; for is not everything bound in relationship one to the next, one to everything however far apart?
28. Through good (morally and deliberatively) judgment, the disciple of wisdom measures (i.e. judges, determines) the proper distance between persons in harmony or in strife.
29. The disciple of wisdom deciphers well good from evil, the soft-natured from the hard-natured, and acts accordingly; that is, measures correctly the distance between the two in persons through sound judgment regardless of the consequences.
30. Acting in wisdom – with good deliberation, good judgment, with understanding of the full truth of the situation.
31. He acts in wisdom – is at one with the Source, the Essence, of universal Truth, eternal Oneness: Love.
32. He acts through wisdom – He lives in, for, and by, the inspiration of Wisdom.
33. Wisdom is your wisdom; you just have to find it in yourself, listen for it, be receptive to it.
34. Perhaps your errors, your wrongs, are as much a part of the wisdom of the whole scheme of things, as are your accuracies, your rights.
35. Be wise in your folly – meaning: be the fool at times but know when you are, and when to desist.
36. Sensuous beauty ensnares us all, but Wisdom's beauty frees us in peace through Love.
37. Project Wisdom in your mind as your Friend – your Jesus (or Buddha, or Krishna, if you will) – your mysterious Presence that is every rapping at your inner door, however silently it may be, however you may ignore it.
38. Wisdom is your vital lifeline to your Eternal Oneness, your Unity.
39. Now and then wisdom does more than guide you through life – it infuses you with its bliss.
40. You might think of wisdom as the “Son of God” who imparts the WORD to our minds from the Godhead.
41. Jesus as the WORD – or just as well Buddha, or Krishna, or Ramakrishna. This WORD gives us as Wisdom through which we live wisely in love and die eternally in Bliss-Oneness.
42. Through understanding I gain wisdom, and through Wisdom, understanding comes.
… continued
Renoir
2
HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE
The following notes and talks give an introductory understanding of the key terms of the human-transcendent wisdom: "humanness," "transcendence," and "human-transcendence – each in relation to the concepts of wisdom and love. With this introductory understanding, one will be better able to assimilate the ideas and ideals in the following development of this human-transcendent wisdom.
PREFACE
The following aphorisms and two fictional talks were written as three separate pieces. They are: The Wisdom of Human-Transcendence, The Psychology of Humanness, The Philosophy of Transcendence.
The purpose of these works is to convey an explanation of concepts in an extended format. These concepts -- humanness, transcendence, human-transcendence – underlie the basic structure of the human-transcendent wisdom set forth in desktop published books and on this website.
The idea behind this threefold division of human nature is that in the most general terms, we are both psychologically and transcendently human; and that, to live a full life, both personally and interpersonally, we have to find the proper balance, harmony, between these two irreducible facets of our being, according to our own individual temperaments and leanings. This balance, harmony, is our human-transcendence; attained through a Love-wisdom.
In the briefest outline, our humanness is that aspect of us that binds us to this life through the erotic, the vital, and the self, in us; our transcendence is that aspect of us that underlies all the physical and psychological determinants of our nature and which inspires us to become aware of, and live, in accordance with it; our human-transcendence is that aspect of us that keeps us in touch with our transcendence through the balancing, or moderation, of our humanness.
It is strongly urged that all interested, sincere persons read these introductory works as the second stage of this Love- wisdom before venturing into the other stages.
INTRODUCTORY NOTES
1. Human-transcendence is a wisdom of life that integrates – balances, harmonizes, the two sides of our nature: our humanness and our transcendence.
1:1. Our humanness is that part of us that comprises our pleasures, pains, our wants and needs, and our self, or self-identity, and how these relate to our transcendence.
1:2. Our transcendence is that part of us that transcends, or goes beyond our humanness, and concerns our moral, aesthetic, and, you might say, spiritual ideals. It has to do with truth, right, understanding, grace, and being.
2. Concerning our humanness, the first thing to consider is that the pleasures and pains, the wants and needs, we experience revolve around – or determine – our sense of self, or more particularly, our self-identity.
3. The pleasures related to our humanness stem mainly from our being needed, admired, respected, accepted, successful – and whatever else that contributes to the well-being of our self. The pleasurable feelings, of such pleasures.
Then there are the physical pleasures of eating and drinking, sex, exercise, relaxation, sport, and all the rest that contribute to our well-being.
3:1. The pains related to our humanness stem mainly from not being loved, needed, respected, accepted, successful, and whatever else that deflates the well being of our self. The painful feelings of depression, anxiety, apathy, worthlessness, resentment, jealousy, guilt, shame, hatred, anger, desolation, loneliness, frustration, desperation, of being rejected, ridiculed, embarrassed, insulted, rejection – are some such pains. Then there are the physical pains that result from improper or excessive eating and drinking, sex, and all the rest that deflates our well-being.
4. It is to our transcendent side that we turn in order to assure ourselves that we maximize the well-being of our self. This we do by acting truthfully overall, by acting rightly overall, by being understanding overall, by being in touch with the grace – the intermediary – of our being.
4:1. These facets of our transcendence help control, moderate, balance, the onrush, excess, and intensity of the emotions, passions, impulses, moods, drives, that endlessly fuel the caldron of our humanness.
4:2. In order for our transcendence to guide us aright in these matters of our humanness, we have to gain the proper perspective, and understanding, of our humanness in relation to the our transcendence; and this proper perspective, this understanding, is what I consider as the wisdom of human transcendence.
4:3. This wisdom gives us the necessary understanding of the relationship, the balance, between our humanness and our transcendence. When our actions approximate this understanding then we can be said to have attained a measure of the wisdom psychology of human-transcendence.
5. The most basic understanding our humanness that we have to realize before we can make any progress in this wisdom is that we are permanently ingrained and enmeshed, in the human fabric; and that any human or transcendent endeavor that we may undertake is going to have to take this reality into account.
5:1. This understanding of our humanness will help us realize that we cannot, and should not, always tell or live the truth, that we cannot always do what is right, and should not; that our human and transcendent understanding is ultimately limited to our human frailties, as is appropriate; that whatever grace we may realize is temporary, and perhaps best for us in this life; and that any grasp of our being in its totality is at best limited to our intuition, insight, and vision, which perhaps is the best state of affairs.
5:2. These human limitations are, of course, relative to the individual; since the more transcendently inclined a person is the more transcendently he or she can be; and vice versa, the less transcendently inclined a person is, the less transcendent can he or she be.
____________________________
Warren
TOWARD HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE
1. A human-transcendence is what we want: a life that is human in its transcendence.
2. We have our humanness, and we have our transcendence; and from these two, we arrive at a human-transcendence.
3. Yes, be transcendent, as transcendent as you can be; but hesitate before you seriously deny, judge, condemn, or hate your humanness – or anyone else's.
4. Transcendence can take you from zero to infinity, from here to eternity, beyond good and evil.
5. A serene calm with transcendence; an agitated tension with humanness. Both profit us in their place, and in balance.
6. Just as you are human so are you transcendent: temporally human, eternally transcendent.
7. At each inspiration, at each effort, to control yourself, refine yourself, go beyond yourself; know that a transcendent element is working in you.
8. Some aspects of our humanness: our need to be needed, to be loved, to belong, to be respected, to be admired, to be secure, to be accepted, to be right, to be appreciated, to be intelligent – and the whole host of psychological needs that anyone can fill in. Then there are our fears, our insecurities, our moods, our sensuality, our ego, our passions, our lusts, desires, greed – and on and on, endlessly it seems; all indicative of our humanness, our all-too-human self.
9. Some aspects of our transcendence: our sense of beauty; our tendency toward goodness, toward right, toward grace, toward being, toward contemplation, meditation; our impulse to create, to know, to under- stand, to observe, to reflect, to analyze; our intuitions and visions of universal truths; nirvanic states of pure bliss-light-power; all indicative of our transcendence beyond the categories of self and reason, space and time.
10. Let your sense of transcendence offset, soothe, the brunt of your humanness.
11. The balance of opposites is the key to freedom: to self-freedom; and human-transcendence is such a balance.
12. Transcendence saves.
13. Think transcendently, and you will feel transcendent, you will be transcendent. Through the way of human-transcendence we are neither all-too-human nor more-than-human; we are human in our transcendence and transcendent in our humanness.
14. Human-transcendence is a mature wisdom of life; for normally those who strive for higher ideals have to pass through a long gestation period before they come to realize that they cannot be totally transcendent, no more than can the realist be totally human.
15. The way of human-transcendence aims for a guiltless, fearless life.
16. Be wary that your humanness does not get the better of you – nor your transcendence.
17. Try not to be too hard on yourself; give way to the human in you when need be – or desire be – at times; relax the tension of effort now and then, but be careful that it doesn't slacken. The human in us tends more toward inertia when it comes to effort .
18. Human-transcendence: simply the moderate balance between both the human and transcendent in us.
19. Living this human-transcendence, you do not lose your masculinity, or your femininity; rather, you refine it so that you become more manly than masculine, more womanly than feminine.
20. The transcendent-humanist delights in diversity, and joys in unity; for he sees diversity as the other side of unity.
21. The human fascinates; the transcendent awes.
22. The human-in-us limits us; the transcendent-in-us expands us.
23. If you must, continue to strive to be transcendent only beyond the all-too-human part of yourself; and finally, if you are human in the full sense of the word, you will come back to your human side, and not make severe, austere demands upon it so much. Having reached this stage of your development, you might then begin to harmonize the two sides of yourself.
24. Living transcendently human is the many-sided, the full, life amidst the play of opposites.
25. Before you readily fall into the trap of the excuse, "After all, I'm only human," remember that you are also transcendent; and that part of you makes its demands too. And judgment is on the side of your transcendent self; use it often, and wisely – if that's not being redundant.
26. Human-transcendence is an ideal wisdom grounded in the realities of life.
27. The transcendent experience is that state of consciousness which goes beyond self-consciousness.
28. This wisdom of life gives not only the proper due to the Dionysian (sensual, dark) and Apollonian (reason, light) sides of our nature, but it is an endeavor to harmonize the two. It is the all-too-human and the more-than-human way of life; it represents the law of polarity, and acts as a checks and balances of the opposites in life. There is no perfection in this way, only a balance between perfection and imperfection: a balance between ideals and realities.
29. In this way of life there is little embarrassment or shame at being all-too-human, or regret or remorse for not being more-than-human.
30. Even those who are not very receptive to transcendence would do well to foster some aspects of their transcendence if only to relieve them from the relentless pull and frustration of their human side.
31. You have failed yourself transcendently? You are not coming up to your ideals? Fine. Don't despair; your human self wants its way, too, you know; you still have blood coursing through your veins, you know; you still drink, eat, and sleep, and eliminate, and copulate, you know; you still feel warmth and cold, fatigue and irritation, you know; if you examine yourself closely enough, you will see that your pride is still with you, you know. These are all human; so let us not disparage them, please...you know.
32. Nietzsche's overman – a chimera? Not at all! It is a reality if one can come to live the human-transcendent life.
33. Relax both sides of yourself; be kind to each other.
34. In order to accept and love your humanness, you need your transcendence; you cannot pull yourself up by your own human bootstraps, as the saying goes. Your humanness is blinded to itself: it only knows itself, or more correctly, it only is itself. It is your transcendence that loves, that understands, that tries.
35. Human-transcendence is an ideal philosophy – not a philosophy of ideals alone, but an ideal philosophy in the sense that it is an ideal way to live in accordance with one's humanness and transcendence – : that is the ideal to strive for.
36. How good, how free, it is to once again love your humanness! This truly is the joyful wisdom of which Nietzsche taught...Nietzsche! humanity's prophet of the new man, of the new way, of the new freedom. We are your heirs, dear man, who loved mankind so much that you laid down your sanity for it. You are the true Christ-like figure, the true Christian, not your wax models from churchdom, from Christendom. We owe a vast debt to you, oh, titan of freedom! You are our Prometheus.
37. Oh, to get to the point of just as soon turning to your humanness as your transcendence without compulsion, without impulse; but with judgment, perspective, understanding, wisdom.
38. What we need in our age above all is to come to a human-transcendence; and that is the enterprise for generations to come: a wondrous enterprise; a challenging, daring enterprise; the Olympic enterprise – if not a terrifying enterprise!
39. Should you feel superior, or worse, arrogant, in what you believe to be your freedom in human-transcendence, you are sorely mistaken in that freedom, friend; because superiority and arrogance smack solely of the human, not of the transcendent. You're on the wrong track. Try again.
40. Enjoy your humanness; rejoice in your transcendence; let the one run into the other; for in the balance of both of these two sides of yourself, you are truly, fully human.
41. At the moment that I am aware that I am human, all-too-human, I am transcendent of my humanness. It is this willing awareness that transcends my self-will.
42. This human-transcendent Love-wisdom, is surely the best of two worlds: the human and the transcendent.
…
112. And what does not feeling contempt for anything imply but that such a wise individual has come to accept and love the diversity and opposites in both human life and all other forms of life.
113. There is beauty and goodness in life just as there is ugliness and evil. We've known this all along. Life has it that way, and who are we to deny or reject the one over the other? True, the one delights and the other pains; but are we such softlings that we would want only the delightful?
114. You say your life has been a wreck. Others did it to you, more than you yourself. You have no promise in your life. Rage, and resentment war in your mind. Depression sinks it often enough. You have no God to turn to. A few friends make it possible for you to go on. Yet your life is on the wane. Your humanity has fairly much done you in. Nothing seems left...except your transcendence! And what can your transcendence do for you? Well, let's take a review of some of its aspects: – our sense of beauty. our acts of love, our tendency toward goodness, toward right, toward grace, toward being, toward contemplation, meditation; our impulse to create, to know, to understand, to observe, to reflect, to analyze; our intuitions and visions of universal truths; nirvanic states of pure bliss-light-power. Of these aspects, which appeal to you
115. Life itself is ugly and cruel; and humans and animals are merely instruments of this bleak side of life. They didn't ask for it; it was biologically given free of charge. and so, let us be a little more hesitant before we judge too severely, too cruelly, the evil that comes over us impulsively. Fortunately, most of us are not so easily overcome by such force; but others by temperament and constitution are mere playthings to this force of evil in life. They haven't a chance; they're victims, as we all are in our own way. So, why all this judgment and prejudice and bigotry and condemnation and humiliation?
Let us consider the sexual side of us for a minute to make my point stronger. Those given uninhibitedly to their sexual nature we denominate as whores, rakes, degenerates, perverts. but did they freely choose their particular proclivity, I ask you proponents of free will ? When puberty washed over them like a flood, did they, could they, carefully deliberate whether puberty should or should not have such a volcanic effect on them? Was it their choice to be so sexually sensitive that they become engulfed by the least sexual stimulation, and can think of hardly anything else? Are they to be condemned for their "sins" to everlasting hellfire for their natural tendencies? Rather condemn life than these poor souls who received such an untoward fate – untoward not so much for the individual who might very well be content with his endowment, but untoward because of the price society exacts on them in ridicule, condemnation, rejection, punishment. Not to say that the extremes of sexuality do not have to be kept in check; but they don't have to be degraded. After all, in the final say, it is life itself that is the culprit.
116. But how many can attain, let alone maintain, this point of view? and how many of these can put such a point of view in practice?
117. Still, there is always tomorrow, always something to look forward to; and the least, if not the most, we can say about people in general is that they get bored with anyone way of looking at matters. And so, for no other reason than boredom, they might try a new way of life. And if so, then, my fellow men and women, we have a future to look forward to.
… continued
Michelangelo
3
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMANNESS
Sharon. In what sense do you use the word our "humanness"? Couldn't you just as well use the word our "psychology"?
Joseph. As I see it, our humanness is one pivotal range of our psychology. Put simply, it is our vulnerability.
Sharon. Vulnerability to what?
Joseph. To necessity.
S. Necessity to what?
J. To our humanized animal nature.
S. Which is?
J. The composite of our pleasures and pains, our wants and needs, and our self – or self-identity.
S. Well, if these are what define our humanness, without which, I suppose, we would be no more than clams, why then do you consider them our vulnerability? The higher animals – the apes, in particular – are made up of this composite of pleasures, pains, wants, needs, and self. They don't manifest any significant signs of vulnerability – boredom, for one – even though they are vulnerable to sickness, attack, aging, etc.
J. True; but the distinctive mark of the human animal is our self-consciousness: the awareness of being a human being – and all the psychology that derives from that reality.
S. I see that. In sum, then what you're saying is that our self-awareness if our vulnerability, which in turn, defines our humanness.
J. Right. It is our self-awareness that motivates us to imitate, explore, innovate, be curious, beyond mere animal consciousness.
S. I noticed that you're speaking both of self-consciousness and self-awareness. Are you using the two terms interchangeably?
J. No, not precisely. There is a distinction. As self-conscious, we are psychologically human; as self-aware, we are transcendently human.
S. You'll have to explain that carefully to me.
J. Let me put it in a nutshell: as self-conscious, we know what we are doing; as self-aware, we know why we do what we do: we know the motives or intentions of our actions. And it is this knowing-why that troubles us so much that would make Thoreau declaim that we all live in quiet despair. ...Well, I don't know about all of us; but at least those who are self-aware. I think that as soon as a human being begins asking "why" of his existence, or of existence itself, self-awareness clicks in with the reality that there either are no answers or that if there are answers, we can't know them all or to their limit. And this troubles, frustrates us, to the point of despair, dread, angst, anxiety, of all sorts. And for these self-aware individuals, knowing that there are so many unanswerable questions to their lives, realize the mystery to life and existence: Why? Why? Why? No answers despite all the answers! And this troubles them, consciously and/or unconsciously, some to the extent that they must pursue this unknowable mystery all their lives; or they take to faith or a religion, astrology, or any meaningful (to them) answers that will explain the mystery away so that they can be rest assured that all's right in God's heaven and earth.
When under such an influence, the mere human is looked at askance, is perceived as a block to the answer to these inscrutable mysteries. They think that if they minimize their human side the Other side will appear in all its glory, that the Holy Grail will be given them. From that point, all natural human-animal functions become cumbersome, "animal," even "unnatural"; They must limit the irrational in us and emphasize the rational – at least to the barest minimum, otherwise we'd die as individuals and as a species – wants, needs, pleasures, pains, self, so that the Answers will pour into our being. Then, guilt enters the picture, since our animal-human side will not give in so easily to such tomfoolery, unless we divorce ourselves from mainstream humanity – hence monks, sanyasins, gurus, and the priesthood to a good extent. And even then there is no escaping entirely the lure of sensuality
Now we can attribute all this anxiety-ridden frame of mind to the bane or boon, depending upon the individual, of self-awareness. Without self-awareness, no such mental dendrites would be created, and so no psychological ideation. We could still be self-conscious, as so many people only, or mostly, are; that is, know that we are alive, know that we are to die, know how to reason, know how to build and create, know that we are propagating our race differently than the animals, know that we are man and woman beyond male and female, know the similarities and differences between the sexes, between the races, between justice and injustice, and so forth. But without enquiring as to the why and wherefore of these human conditions, no, or few, psychological "problems" would arise, and so no reason not to enjoy our human sensuality. Why should our pleasures, wants and needs be curbed so long as no one is hurt except oneself, perhaps; so long as we are not striving to transcend our minds to answer the mysteries of life and existence? Yes, we are still vulnerable: vulnerable to the consequences of excess, of public opinion, of failure, of rejection, of insult, of embarrassment; but we are not vulnerable to anxieties, neuroses, and the like. This is the position of the self-conscious individual.
S. Well that was quite an exposition, and fairly much explains the issue at hand. But how does all this relate to our humanness?
J. We, as human, are all vulnerable to stimuli that arouse our erotic nature, our vital nature, our self-nature. This vulnerability, when active, pains us for relief, for satisfaction, for gratification; there's almost no stopping this very human process. The more self-aware we are of this vulnerability, the more we realize how bound we are to our sexual, vital, self wants and needs; how they interfere with our higher leanings, how tedious they can become, how victimized we are to them, how limiting they are. Those who are mainly self-conscious only, can continue in the round of pleasures with their pains, wants and needs, self-stimulation with hardly a thought of the mysteries of life and existence; but the self-aware individuals suffer deeply knowing that they are stuck, stymied, frustrated, in their humanness; that their lifelong habits and conditioning that ground them to their humanness are walls to their transcendence – that is, to the freedom that they sense is to be found in the answers to the mysteries of life and existence. The Faust legend is the paradigm of a man who sells his soul to the devil so that he can get to, unravel, the ultimate secrets of nature.
S. I see now quite well your distinction between self-consciousness and self-awareness, that the former knows the facts of his life; whereas the latter, not only knows but questions these facts; and I agree with it; I also see that the self-aware person suffers more than the self-conscious person for his questioning awareness. However, I'm still not clear on the vulnerability relationship to our humanness. Wouldn't you apply the term "humanness" to the self-conscious person as well?
J. Well, in the general sense of the word, yes; as humanness is the noun form of "human", which applies to all attributes characteristic of mankind. In a more specific sense of the word, however, as I am using it, its meaning applies to the self-aware person. In which case, we say of such a person that his humanness conflicts with his transcendence; or in other words, her all-too-human side conflicts with her more-than-human side. In other words, whatever psychological traits and behavioral patterns that contrast, or limit, a person's aspirations and inspirations of a higher, transcendent, ideal order, then those traits and patterns can be classified as that person's humanness. Is that clear?
S. Let me see if I've gotten it. Is this what you're saying: whatever psychological traits or actions, motives, or intentions we have that conflict with our transcendent nature, these are what constitute our humanness? Is that right?
… continued
Picasso
4
THE PHILOSOPHY OF TRANSCENDENCE
Sharon. All that you write revolves around the concept of transcendence. I like the word; it seems to have significant meaning.
Joseph. It has even more meaning when you personalize it as my transcendence.
S. What is my transcendence?
J. Everything just and wise that you are. In other words, whenever you act justly and wisely – or in justice and in wisdom – you are acting, or being, transcendent.
S. How do I know when I'm acting justly or wisely? It seems very complex to me.
J. Well, first of all, we can simplify the matter by saying that when you act justly, you as much act wisely, and vice versa; in which case, you have done the right thing.
S. Sounds even more complex to me; because in my experience, doing the right thing can be as difficult as a novice archer hitting a bulls-eye.
J. And why do you think that is?
S. Well, for one thing, our ignorance gets in the way, clouds our mind; as do our ego, our impulses, our passions, our fears, our lusts, our insecurities, and on and on.
J. Speaking of bulls-eyes, you hit the bulls-eye with that truth. So, then are you saying that doing the right thing is almost impossible?
S. Certainly in most cases, unless you're a monk, or a bachelor, with few responsibilities. It's all to much, too overwhelming, too requiring, to have to be doing the right thing all the time. There's no end to it, no let up. We falter after a while; we're not up to it. Too many obstacles bar the way: fatigue, varying moods, impatience, disappointments, to name a few of our human frailties.
J. I see. Now, before we go on, we have to be clear in what respect we're using the word "right." We're using it mainly in regards to our personal and interpersonal well-being. We're not using it in regards to our work and in relation to our co-workers and peers. Doing the right thing in these areas do not pose too much of a problem for most people, since our job is at stake, for one thing, and we're getting paid for doing the right thing. Nor are we using the word in moral matters; since we are not faced with many moral decisions or dilemmas in the normal course of our daily lives. And for those who are moral-minded, doing the right thing morally, does not normally pose much of a conflict.
So, given that right is not a problem in the matters just mentioned, it is clearer as to what we are referring to in speaking of the immense difficulty in consistently doing the right thing in every day matters. Regarding this thought, the title of an old love song comes to me: "Little Things Mean a Lot."
S. And what are these "little things"?
J. They're innumerable, of course. But a few of them are: "Should I pick up this piece of paper or leave it for her to pick it up?" Leaving things to the last minute; having to have the last word in everything; holding grudges; leaving undone what should be done. And then there is the whole host of unfair conduct toward others, such as: pettiness, insults, impatience, irritability, inconsideration, spite, criticisms, backbiting, gossiping, prying, and on and on and on.
S. All this negativity seems to stem mainly from one's ego, doesn't it.
J. That's right; and the insensitivity and desiring and greed, and vanity; the misunderstandings, prejudices, denials, delusions, power hunger, and more, are all symptoms of the ego-directed person.
S. It's amazing, even astonishing, of how much we have going against us in this matter of right-doing.
J. That's true. They keep us, in good part, from not only doing right, but in ignorance of what is right. We perceive and judge a situation or person more by our ego perspective than by their perspective, than by fuller truth of the matter.
S. Right. And without knowing the fuller truth of a situation, or of a person, how can we possibly know what is the right thing to do in so many complex situations. So, we "play it by ear"; we act from what we "feel" is right, from our experience, than with understanding.
J. Exactly. So, where are we now in this matter of right and transcendence?
S. I'm not sure, but I do know that acting only from our ego engenders much conflict and hostility between people.
J. That's for sure. No wonder that sages and seers and gurus of all ages and climes have insisted upon dispelling the ego if there is to be any spiritual – or in our terminology: transcendent – advancement.
S. But hardly anyone wants to, or can, let go of their ego. That's all they have, or, so they think.
J. And no convincing them otherwise will ever alter that state of mind.
S. So, there seems nothing to do then. Mankind is fixed ever in his ego with just glimmerings of something beyond it: something more valuable, more precious, more life-affirming, more complete.
J. That's true, but with this one proviso: that not everyone is so ego-bound that it governs their every act and thought. There are countless people, I'm sure, who do see the truth, who are understanding, beyond their ego. These are the individuals who, not being so compelled by their ego, can see clearly the right thing to do however they might not be able to act upon that insight.
S. But don't these individuals you're describing have a low self-esteem, in the first place?
J. I think you're confusing two concepts here. There is a distinction between a person's ego and his self. Ego is just one integral facet of the total self-complex, not similar or identical to it. The ego is concerned with the "I"; with the "me first," the "I am the best," the "I am someone special – more than you". The self, on the other hand, involves our vital nature: its fears, needs, anxieties, guilt; its will to life, to keep the body healthy, and more. It covers the whole range of emotions and sentiments involved in the erotic element in us – marriage, children, family.
Accordingly, a person may have a low ego threshold, yet by fulfilled as a parent, a spouse, a professional, a worker. In which case, his self-esteem is at a high key. On the other hand, another person may have a strong ego, but because of various setbacks and failures in family life and professional life, his self-esteem would be at a low ebb.
S. Can we say, then, that an egoistic, or egotistical, person is not the same as a self-loving person?
J. Good question; and right on the mark. We could put it this way: vanity is an earmark of ego, which renders a person insensitive to anything much beyond that vanity; whereas, pride is an earmark of self-esteem, which can be a noble trait in a person.
S. So it is the ego that has to go, not the self?
J. Well, we couldn't very well function as human without our self; but we could fairly much without our ego.
S. So, having made this distinction between the self and the ego, where are we now?
J. That, where the ego prevails and its vanity predominates in an individual, there he or she stays enmeshed. For those whose ego and vanity are a minimal part of their psychological makeup, these are the ones who can be receptive to transcendence.
S. By which you mean receptive to justice and wisdom?
J. Right. For then they are open to knowing the truth about a situation or person or themselves. And with this truth, they can gain an understanding that will help balance their self with the wisdom of their total being.
S. Their total being?
J. Yes, the totality of their physical and mental structures and processes.
S. That's an infinite interchange of energy and matter.
J. Yes. where does it end?...Or is there an end to it all?
S. I don't suppose we'll ever know.
J. Certainly not "know"; but perhaps "be".
S. Well, rather than we get into the metaphysics, or spirit, of this, let me ask you. You defined transcendence at the beginning of our talk as "everything just and wise that we are"; which I think gives an excellent understanding in one sentence. I'm thinking, however, why you didn't include "loving" in it; since love is such an all-pervasive, positive concept, that I believe is the basis of justice and wisdom, or more particularly, of our being just and wise.
J. It's interesting that you should ask this question because it anticipates my own thoughts. as I see it, transcendence is love. It is the undercurrent, the essence, of all that we are and all that we do in good and in evil, and in between.
S. That's quite a stupendous statement! But, I have a question. Didn't you identify transcendence with everything just and wise that we are? Now you're saying that transcendence is everything, period; which means to me that transcendence is not only the just in us, but the unjust as well, not only the wise in us, but the ignorant in us as well. Then you say that transcendence is love; which, according to you, is the source of both good and evil. Can you clear this up for me? I'm terribly confused.
… continued
5
HUMAN-TRANCENDENCE AS A WISDOM OF INSECURITY
Preface
This I asked my wife: What would it be like were I to live by my belief that everything is ordained Meaning?
I mean, if I really believed that everything is meant to be – and let me add: and if it were true? – then why would I be so quietly anxious all the time: about my work, about my family, about others, about security? Why not just flow with life, as it is, as it must be?
"Monumental questions," as my wife put it; and added, were probably impossible to answer. ... Ah, a challenge! Impossible, did she say?
And so I armor myself for another transcendent quest.
This thought comes to me: The new warrior of the soul: He-she who combats fatigue, inertia, impatience, irritability, insecurity in order to be more than self – to simply be whatever is!
Wallich
THE WISDOM OF INSECURITY
An Invocation
With truth in one pocket and faith in the other Let us face the unknown.
Let us leap into our destiny:
to circumvent the law of supply and demand,
to overwhelm the rule of the few over the many, to wrestle the inertia of passivity,
to penetrate the blind force of will.
Let us be worthy
Let us be mighty.
Let us be warriors of the soul.
But how?
Enact your noblest deeds from your profoundest need.
How?
Set aside security.
In place of what?
For the wisdom of insecurity.
And let my children starve?
Your children will not hunger.
Guarantee me that.
There are no guarantees.
I can't live with that.
And in that way your children starve.
For what?
For the succor of your strength.
Security, then, is weakness?
Not weakness, but death.
Of what?
The instincts of life.
Which are?
To live by tooth and nail.
Like a savage, an animal?
A human animal.
War, then?
Precisely. War against your enemy.
Which is?
Your security.
So I am to live in pain and fear?
You do anyway.
In my security?
In the dread of losing that security.
Dread?
The dread of desolation – the more security, the more dread.
Am I then not to be secure?
Oh, yes, you are to be, by all means; but to live insecurely in that security
In dread, then.
No, in wisdom.
What wisdom?
The wisdom of insecurity.
You're speaking in riddles.
Yes, in the riddle of human life.
Solve it for me.
And would its answer be the ultimate security, for you?
It could also be the ultimate insecurity, depending upon the answer.
And now you yourself have come to the wisdom of insecurity, of which I speak.
How did I do that?
There are no answers, you see, despite all the answers.
Another riddle?
A particular answer solves a particular question in the realm of the rational mind. The mind (or rationale) of Life itself proffers no such questions nor answers for us. And there lies the dread of our ultimate insecurity: that we may not be eternally
conscious of ourselves.
That's unsettling enough to consider; but where does your wisdom of insecurity fit into this ?
My point is that since we are ultimately insecure as to our essential being, how could we possibly be or feel secure in our conscious self? We are not only essentially insecure at all times, but relatively insecure at all times as well by the vary obvious facts of reality themselves
I don't feel insecure at all times.
No, you don't feel insecure at all times, but you are insecure at all times. It's just a matter of circumstances that make you feel it – which are bountiful enough, in this life of flux and opposites
True enough. And so the wisdom of this insecurity is ?
That we are essentially insecure, and so are relatively insecure; and to live by this wisdom.
And what kind of life is that?
To live rightly in action and purpose according to your circumstances and character regardless of reward or no reward – the universal message of the Gita, as it comes to me now.
Were you speaking with the Gita in mind?
No, the relationship of the wisdom of insecurity and the Gita's message just came to me as I was saying it.
Interesting.
Very...And just as convincing to you?
Yes... strangely, yes. Yet at the same time, insecurity frightens me very much.
It is supposed to. It is a polar negative in life.
The thought of losing what and who l love is excruciating.
And that is why the Zen masters advise that you free your mind from thought. Then that agony goes.
Is that what you suggest?
Only if you live in and for wisdom solely. Then that would be your purpose in life: to end suffering of the mind; because it all
is in the mind: the pain and pleasure, the needs and wants.
But I want to live in the stream of life.
And its tempest.
Which I can't escape, of course.
And you never know when life will be one or the other.
True.
Then, all the more must we live in that truth, that wisdom: that nothing is secure, even from moment to moment.
It's so obviously true when you think of it.
Yes, but we don't allow ourselves to think of it, because, as you pointed out, it pains too much.
But wisdom is supposed to bring tranquility, equanimity, isn't it?
Like being in the eye of a storm?
Something like that, yes.
… continued
Wyeth
David
PART THREE: The Meaning
THE MEANING UNDERLYING HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE
David
THE POETICS OF LOVE
I: Transcendent Love
1 Of Love I write in accents deep
as inward bond of unity.
Love it binds all things as one
as ordered will through Meaning's bliss.
2 In the beginning at the end
when past and present and future meet,
pure limitless, underlying Love
bathes our being in radiance.
3 Love is Meaning; Meaning, Bliss.
that is all we need to know;
for Love is will to-be-at-one,
and Meaning is one-will in Bliss.
4 As Planets spin and atoms swirl
as good and evil interact,
one will gives ordered meaning to
their ultimate identity.
5 Though Love with strife do rule the world,
strife is but Love's consequence;
for toward good and bad we are inclined.
In either case, it's what we love.
6 "Everything is relative" – true;
relative to this or that;
and Love, being both this and that,
is unity relative to none.
7 Love, Meaning, and their Bliss – these three
are but the same in Unity:
Love binds, Meaning knows all things,
their Bliss shines on eternally.
8 Unity – the generic word
for Love, its meaning, and their Bliss –
is God in Its divinity:
its sacred text and holy prayer.
9 Unity on Love depends,
and Love is Meaning's binding force:
the cause and reason for its being,
as the mysterium of the world.
10 Unity is the cosmic One
from part to part and part to whole;
impersonal – yet personal too:
in Love, which binds it all in place.
11 If Love is all and everyone,
It knows Itself as-in all things;
so everything, as Love itself;
knows itself as-in everything.
12 Love as Meaning, Meaning as Bliss:
these three as pure conscious Unity:
an all-embracing world of light,
as the power that wills the world.
13 Love, Meaning, and Bliss, into one:
as pure conscious radiance;
experienced as Unity
is our birthright for us to know.
14 For every action there's reaction
empirically in space and in time.
The Meaning of phenomena,
however, tells it otherwise.
15 Rejoice! I have good news to tell!
Of a way of Love as something new:
that Love is everything and One,
is of good and evil and beyond.
16 Love binds the world as principle
of willed cohesive unity;
though strife opposes unity,
it is strictly consequential.
17 All things will the integrity
of their individual unity;
and whatsoever threatens it,
exists as strife of separateness.
18 Strife is pain of separateness
in all living sentient beings;
in inanimate form and matter,
it is force of disintegration.
19 Without love, strife is but a nullity;
for to what purpose would strife be
were there naught for it to undo,
since there must be for there not to be.
20 Strife is love in conflict with itself
in all its multiplicity;
for everything is Love as one
that cannot coexist as one.
21 As Love enjoins all things as one,
so strife destroys this unity;
but it can only break what is
and that which is embodies strife.
22 Strife is love in conflict with itself
in all its multiplicity;
In which case, Love conquers all things
– Even itself in form of strife.
23 That which holds all things together
Is all things together as one;
Love we call it – the soul of being:
Its meaning essentially we are.
24 Unity is love manifested
in myriad multiplicity
of forms in interrelations
separate but together as one.
25 Love and Soul – interchangeable:
when "love" is felt power is spent;
when soul" is thought principle is meant.
they mean the same differently.
26 Love, the bond of everything as one,
is One itself indivisible:
The soul of all that is as, at, one,
the soul of everyone and thing.
27 Love is One indivisibly,
manifested divisibly
in which all things are as, at, one,
as intimations of their Source.
28 As all numbers are series of ones,
so all things are as, at, one,
as a calculus of infinity
wherein all "ones" are lastly One.
29 These:– Meaning, Love, and Unity
are as the Holy Trinity:
Meaning the Father, Love the Son
and Unity the Spirit-Mother
30 First God was outward; now: inward.
First God was "He," now He's "It."
First He was Father-son-Holy Ghost;
Now It's Meaning-Love-Unity.
31 Survey the unity in this world
that manifests itself as one:
in all diversity of forms,
in things together or apart.
32 Love is meaning, meaning is love;
one is inside, the other out:
Meaning gives to love its will,
while love gives unity its world.
33 Each ordered multiplicity
is an object of structured form
in striking uniformity
of all its parts in unity.
34 Love: a building up, a drawing to;
strife: a breaking down, a turning from.
Both are part of nature's way
to keep the world a separate one.
35 Love is an identity
of everything as equally one,
however different and separate
whatever strife destroys in life.
36 Identity is the same of two
or more separate entities;
is that which binds them ultimately
and separates them relatively.
37 Destruction is love's other force
(creation its positive charge);
one attracts, the other opposes;
both together balance the world.
38 Love is the bond, the glue, of all
keeping the world in ordered flux;
It is principle and power:
The Soul and will that moves the world.
39 All the world is will in process:
willing to this or willing to that;
a willing to maximum effect,
and maximum effect is its power.
40 Will is power to the effect:
the cause of everything that is;
– Even its effects are causes too-:
cause to effect, effect to cause.
41 Love is the meaning of the world:
it's ordered bond of unity;
but love as meaning of the world
is not the meaning of itself.
42 Identity is love in act
with everyone and everything
at the meaning of our being;
as the being of the world.
43 Love is the synaptic link
between here and eternity,
between reality and meaning
where bliss is bathed in radiant light.
44 Love is enactment of world meaning
in creation and destruction
of ordered processes and forms
that keep it altogether as one.
45 Is there such a thing as soul
supernatural to this life?
I would venture there is for sure;
Yet not a soul as one by one.
46 Soul I know as being-pure,
where nothing is except itself:
being inclusive of everything,
yet of itself is but itself.
47 "What is soul?" you want to know –
A question touching life and death.
Soul is the bond of unity:
that which keeps all things at, as, one.
48 Soul as the bond of unity
is the metaphysical name
for the physical name of will,
or for the human name of love
49 "Soul": the word for you alone;
"Love" the word for others with them;
"Unity" the word for the whole;
and MEANING the word for all words
… continued
II: Human Love
59 Erotic love joins body-mind
of masculine and feminine
to propagate oneself from two
for immortality of life.
60 Sex release for self alone
with another, or oneself,
is love of sex as urge and thrust;
not sex as womb and phallic Love.
61 Strife in everyday human terms
is conflict of opposition,
felt as pain of sink or swim
– and love holds out as best it can.
62 The business of life demands
our whole attention practically;
and only now and then can we
contemplate its reality.
63 If your love is deep or intense
beyond yourself into this life,
you will joy when that bond is fast,
and grieve, as well, when it is lax.
64 If you love only what is good
or easy, or beneficial,
then love in part is your life's worth;
for love in full is to love in pain.
65 Life in all its diversity
fascinates the mind of man;
for each mind creates its world of sense
in ordered multiplicity.
66 And when self-love gives no relief
from pain of living futilely,
then love of death takes over one
to self-destructive acts on others.
67 When strife attacks, self is afoot
for the pleasure gained in conflict.
This pleasure can be so keenly felt
it cancels out all self-concern,
68 And when self-love gives no relief
from pain of living futilely,
then love of death takes over one
to self-destructive acts on others.
69 When strife attacks, self is afoot
for the pleasure gained in conflict.
This pleasure can be so keenly felt
it cancels out all self-concern,
70 Whatever contributes to our good
that we pursue as best we know;
those of justice live for love,
as do the unjust live for strife.
71 The bond of families is of blood
that keeps them tightly knit as one;
but love of kin personally
transcends the family unit.
72 Where there is little love or none
for parent or child personally,
still respect the bond of family;
but save yourself from kinship grip
73 Love of my wife is balm to my soul;
balm to my soul is love's caress
of my mind and my senses that make
me feel intimations of bliss.
74 Love between persons is blind to right;
it binds them together for themselves;
justice is love's catalyst
that keeps in mind our love for all.
75 Fatigue, it gets us every time
so that we care not what is right;
our loss of energy rules our mind,
our best intentions slip away.
76 Love without judgment is blind will
caring indiscriminately,
often at mercy of others
and the suffering of oneself.
77 The will to fight crosses over
physical retaliation
to psychological response
of spite and malice for the thrill.
78 This thrill wells up from primeval blood
to harm and hurt mercilessly
anyone who poses a threat,
or irritates, or disagrees.
… continued
III: Human-Transcendent Love
98 Passion for what we desire,
sympathy for all that lives,
is ardent will to be-at-one
with that of which we're separate.
99 Do right, be true, to all, to you;
understand yourself in all.
Accomplish this in vibrant grace,
then know through Love you share in Being.
100 Love is knowing we can be
everything in Unity;
though outwardly we just are this,
inwardly we all are this.
101 Love is you, Love is me, Love is all,
at the Meaning of our being.
and the Meaning of our being,
is the same of everything.
102 Hear me those who love the most:
You are nearest Love's secret way
and this secret must you cherish,
for in it is your strength in weakness.
103 Interpretation is all we know
of Unity's reality.
We think and live it as we can
from which perspective suits our mind.
104 That we are Love, know that for sure
at the essence of our being;
of this truth our first duty is:
to live this love in strength and grace.
105 Love is knowing we can be
when we close our minds to thought,
can be the Love we truly are:
the Bliss of Love's pure entity.
106 If to the word "Love" you are intent,
then feel your body bonded whole;
and if to "Meaning, "think your mind;
and if to "Unity," then be as IT.
107 As human beings of flesh and blood,
we suffer through the force of strife;
but as transcendent human beings,
we are the principle of Love.
108 Love is the "Son" – the Soul of Meaning:
our one eternal heritage.
And when we act in love toward all,
We radiate transcendent Meaning.
109 My Soul of Love, I am its being,
though here live within my mind–:
mortality my destined end.
an end that is the ONE beginning.
110 Those who have a beauty of soul
radiate the beauty of Love
as the inwardness of unity
as the pure light of Meaning's bliss.
111 "It' is your soul I love" means
It is the love in you I love,
your loving nature from its source,
suffusing your humanity.
112 O, my Soul! I am as Love!
It's so hard to bear this life,
that without my mind on you, I sink;
yet even that I can hardly do.
113 The business of life demands
our whole attention practically;
and only now and then can we
contemplate its reality.
114 Love in man creates unity
and love in woman preserves it.
What seems destructive in such souls
is inverse creation for the whole.
115 First God was outward; now: inward.
First God was "He," now He's "It."
First He was Father-son-Holy Ghost;
Now It's Meaning-Love-Unity.
116 Survey the unity in this world
that manifests itself as one:
in all diversity of forms,
in things together or apart.
117 Pleasure we want, but pain we shun;
thereby limiting our short life.
Let us live with pain a little more
so to enrich our life in love.
118 If in love you aspire to live
then to its center aim your will
where all is compact of fire pure,
where Meaning lights and frees our world.
119 Once I sought within my mind
the meaning of Love's realty.
Partial answers only I found,
until I knew that love is meaning.
120 Love is meaning, meaning is love;
one is inside, the other out:
Meaning gives to love its will,
while love gives unity its world.
121 I am love and so are you
and so is everything in being;
and though we live in strife as well,
we're all together for or against.
122 All will to power is a quantum leap
from less to more, from here to there;
more free the will, more might the power,
until is reached the power to will.
123 To look up at the sky in sighs,
and witness nature's wondrous sights:
white sun beaming through fleecy clouds;
I know the glory of my mind.
124 Soul is but an image of love
an identification
of our essential divinity
and of our immortality.
125 See your soul as an inward image
representing your divinity:
as Meaning of the world in love
diversifying unity.
126 Our soul is love personalized:
To give an image where's there's none;
"soul" gives meaning to our being –
personal to the impersonal.
127 Love your world of divinity, yes;
but not that you should scorn your life;
for life is your reflection of
eternal still in vital flux.
128 "Meaning" for the contemplative mind;
"Love" we enact in bond with others;
"Unity" we see as the whole;
and "Bliss" is for the mystical.
129 Bliss is pleasure taken from here
unto eternity, infinitely:
in sheer power of luminance,
in purity of consciousness.
… continued
The Meaning of Love
Introductory Thoughts
1 Love is the Meaning of all that is.
2 Meaning empowers Love, which wills unity.
3 The more I love in act, the more I am Love in Meaning.
4 I am my Meaning more than I am my self.
5 My Meaning is Love – that which binds me as this being in relation to all beings.
6 Both good and evil are human consequences of Love; yet Love is neither one nor the other.
7 Meaning inheres in, manifests itself through, Love.
8 Love imparts unity, and Meaning imparts Love.
9 Love binds the world as it is according to its ultimate meaning.
10 Though Love keeps the world as it is, Meaning keeps Love as it is.
11 Love holds everything together as it is; Meaning is why everything is as it is.
12 Meaning –: the Meaning of everything.
13 Meaning is/is-not everything.
14 The meaning of Meaning in a word: Meaning.
15 Meaning –: the ultimate mysterium of everything.
16 Were we to ask, "What is the meaning of Meaning," we would find ourselves moving in a circle going quite nowhere. We could only keep answering: meaning.
17 The "scheme of things," The "nature of reality," and all such phrases, are familiar substitutes for "the meaning of ..."
18 That our life has meaning -: our dread and anguish if it does not.
19 Self-love –: so that our life is to mean something.
20 All that we do or think has meaning – whether we know it or not.
21 As life has its meaning, however unfathomable that meaning is to us, so our life has meaning.
22 That we mean something is our share in Meaning itself – however insignificant our share may seem to us.
23 We strive and struggle to put meaning into our life so to be in touch with the meaning of life itself; though we have no idea that that is our passion. Perhaps one day we will have that idea.
24 My meaning is Meaning; is essentially Meaning, to be more precise.
25 Though I may be of little consequence in life, I am of all consequence in meaning.
26 My "lowly" meaning in relationship to all meaning I fit into the total existential mosaic. I play my part in the scheme of things, however insignificantly to my perspective.
27 From good to evil, from love to hate, from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the ordinary to the bizarre, all that we do and think in our interest and concern is that our life be meaningful, that we matter in some way - and so, that we are loved; or at least needed.
28 A person will kill for love, or lack of love; and that is the evil inherent in love.
29 Our pursuit of God is no less nor more than, is ultimately, our pursuit of Meaning.
30 If God is Love, then the Godhead, of which the mystics speak, is Meaning.
31 Though I may conceive Meaning, though I may intuit It, even experience It, I nevertheless can never understand Its eternal infinitude.
32 We can know of Meaning; but can never know It – at least in our present form of consciousness.
33 Meaning is "behind the scenes," so to speak of the modes of Love that we conceive, such as, order, essence, being, substance, and the like.
Love is my divinity, while Meaning is my sanctity. And why "my divinity"? Because of its pure one ness of everything. And why "my sanctity"? Because it is the that love is pure oneness - Remember "I am that I am."
Love is free - the way unto self-freedom.
… continued
_________________________
UNTO SELF-FREEDOM
[The Pursuit of Meaning]
Introductory Notes
1. I want to be free! – The soul cry of our age, of all ages in one way or another.
2. Is it free to or free from or both?
3. We want to be free to do or be or think or feel this-or-that.
4. We want to be free from doing or being or thinking or feeling this-or-that.
5. To be free from something is to be free to something.
6. Conversely, to be free to something is to be free from something.
7. So we have answered the query: from #2 as both.
8. More particularly, we want to (aspire, etc.) be free from such-and-such so that we may be free to such-and-such - however trivial, however lofty – and vice versa.
9. But so long as we want to be free - to, or be free - from, we are in fact not free except incidentally, in this or in that case - but certainly not in all cases.
10. So, as long as we have wants, we have obstacles to one or more of these wants that push us to want to be free to satisfy or gratify them. These obstacles our own or others or circumstances are what we want to be free from - which obviously cannot always happen. So we are bound, not free; and will always be bound so long as we have one want that cannot be met.
11. Hence we cannot be free in any absolute sense of the word. Relatively, incidentally, here and now, yes, we can be free; and perhaps the less wants we have, the more free we can be - so far as wants are concerned.
12. One would think that if we could minimize our wants to the furthest margin, then there would end all obstacles to our freedom from this-or-that and to this-or-that; for then we would not want to be or do or have this or that; and since we would not want to be or do or have this-or-that, there would be nothing to be free from so that we could in fact be, do, or have this-or-that. In this state of affairs we would be not want free, but obstacle free; since all other wants would be minor, of little or no consequence, having no obstacles to bind us from satisfying or gratifying them. In which case, we would have attained the freedom from burning desire that Buddha sought and taught long ago.
13. But does this freedom of desire assure us our freedom from the suffering of the world, that by being unattached to objects of desire, we become free from suffering?
14. Before answering this crucial question, let us assume that one who is free from compulsive wants (or desires) is also, by proxy, free from his or her compulsive ego; since it is the ego aspect of our own self that does most of our wanting.
15. And a further question is, what has this ego sublimated itself into now that it is not compulsively, but only moderately, wanting "everything under the sun"? It could not have just disappeared – the ego prevails if not stampedes! It must be wanting something - even if it's nothing!
But I'll return to this question shortly.
16. To refer back to the question from #13, my contention is that by far that that person who closes the door on one major form of suffering – wants – opens another door of suffering even wider; that door being his needs. Our needs touch that vital part of our self, our being, even. Aside from physical needs, being a source of much suffering if not met, there are our psychological needs and transcend out needs, which if not met can be a source of deep suffering. So, if our need to love and be loved is frustrated, unmet, we suffer; if our self-respect, our dignity is trammeled by others or by circumstances, we suffer; if we meet with failure, we suffer; if our loved ones suffer or die, we suffer – and on and on.
17. "But," you may say: "The reason you suffer in your needs is because you are attached to them. So, just as you freed yourself from attachment to your wants, do the same with your needs, and all the more will you be free.”
"All the more" – which implies that this freedom that we cry out for is a relative freedom, not an absolute freedom. In which case, the freedom of which Buddha spoke is, if it is a psychological freedom, seriously falls short of conviction, since he did not consider our needs in his analysis.
Which brings me to my answer to the matter of renunciation of attachment to one's needs. Now as it is possible to minimize one's wants so as not to be attached to remaining insignificant ones, is it as possible to minimize our needs? Not if we want to remain human, however flawed, frail, and vulnerable we are. The freedom we want is to make us more human, not less than human. It is freedom with our needs, not freedom without them.
18. Our needs are those which constitute our vital humanity. To not need to be loved nor needed, to not need to be respected, nor admired, to our dignity and honor - and to not suffer when these needs are not met - whether for God or bliss or eternity, may make us saints or seers or avatars or sages but they will not number us among the human race; perhaps some super race.
19. Accordingly, we cannot be free with our needs, nor free without them so long as we are all-too-human. And I believe that the cry for freedom is for the freedom within the human sphere not without; since we have an eternity for that freedom upon our death.
20. So we come to the juncture that this freedom that we cry out for is relative in the first place - relative to the minimization of our wants and their concordant ego presence and relative to the interplay of our psychological needs, not to mention our physical needs – since when it comes to survival we are reduced to the animal level or physiological stimuli-responses, and all their myriad variations; nor to mention our biological needs to reproduce our species and all their variations and controls over our behavior.
21. Clearly, then, there is no absolute freedom in our human living framework. What then is this freedom that is so sought after? Surely those who aspire to it must intuitively know that there is no absolute freedom just as there is no absolute anything ensuing from the human conceptual mind whether it be absolute justice, absolute love, or absolute anything. What then?
22. "I want to be free!" An ideal of the mind or a truth of the mind? So let us ask what someone means by that exclamation in the following dialogue – considering that the reader has read this brief analysis so far.
First Person:
By "wanting to be free," what exactly do you mean?
Second Person:
Well, considering all that you're analyzed so far, I can say that I want to be free enough from my wants and ego so that I may be free to be more expansive toward others and life, and to accept and love my human needs and consequent vulnerabilities, frailties and faults with the guidance of wisdom.
Well, you've put – or should I say packed – the matter very succinctly. And it's all quite clear and self-explanatory except for two words: "expansive" and "wisdom." Would you expand on them?
By "expansive," I mean to be more thoughtful, more considerate, more understanding, less critical, less judgmental, less...
May I stop you here before I forget my comment?
Yes, of course.
When you say more "understanding" of people, wouldn't you find in this understanding that there are people who are hard-natured enough that you could not be considerate nor thoughtful toward them; that you'd have to be more on your guard against then loving toward them?
Yes, that's true, but that doesn't mean that I would have to be inconsiderate or unthoughtful toward them, does it?
No, but how would you treat them then in your new-found freedom?
With caution first of all, of course. But then on second thought, I suppose this caution, wariness and distance would be interpreted by them in certain circumstances as treating them inconsiderately, unthoughtfully – especially if the person is a member of your family, with whom you live with everyday.
So you would have to limit your thoughtfulness and consideration only to those deserving of them.
It looks that way, doesn't it; though that doesn't mean that I would therefore treat them unjustly; or on the grounds of an eye for an eye.
Certainly not unjustly; but why not an eye for an eye?
So you mean like you stole from me so I'll steal from you; or you insulted me so I'll insult you?
No, that doesn't sound like the appropriate conduct for you, does it? How then would you treat someone who treated you unjustly, unfairly, by insulting or embarrassing you in front of others, let's say? And I ask you this in light of your freedom.
That's a hard one; and perhaps is the type of situation that is the reason all ethical theories of right and wrong fail overall.
I can see that. So do you have a solution?
The truth is, I don't. And that's my point in wanting the wisdom to know the right thing to do in such cases.
Which brings me to my other question as to what you mean by "wisdom".
To know what is right and to act by that knowledge.
And how does wisdom give you that knowledge and strength?
I'm not sure, but I believe it has something to do with understanding. The meaning of wisdom has always eluded me somehow.
And almost everyone else, I'm sure.
But there's something about wisdom that is not only humanly practical, as in your explanation of it, but transcendent as well.
Yes, I believe that, because I don't see how we humans could ever gain practical wisdom, given all our human proclivities, without there being something transcendent, as you said, something divine, more than human about it.
I believe it. And so when you, or anyone, exclaims I want to be free, they are in fact crying out for wisdom. Would you say that?
Now that you mention it, yes. Because if we have this wisdom we are free to act rightly if not in all cases, then in most cases. And that would be all we could expect being human as we are, as you pointed out quite clearly in your little exposition on wants and needs.
Not to mention our pains and pleasures that accompany these wants and needs. Depending upon their severity, their intensity, would it then be even possible in their extreme to be free to act in wisdom, wisely?
Hardly, I'm forced to say. I remember a friend saying to me "When I'm so tired, I don't care what is right or wrong"; and she was an upright woman concerned with propriety duty, and right conduct.
And, you know, even if we did possess this practical wisdom, underscored by wisdom's transcendence, I believe it is impossible, utterly impossible, to not only not always know what the right thing to do is, but just as impossible to act rightly always. In this matter of right, there are innumerable subtleties that determine what is right at the right time with the right person, in the right circumstances, that we cannot possibly consider them at all times. Just as our reason is limited to the mind's fundamental categories of space, time and causality, so is the extent of our morality, our wisdom, limited by the sheer number of behavioral instances, and of what we call exceptions.
Bewildering! Well, so much for freedom.
No, I wouldn't say that categorically. This freedom – which more particularly is self-freedom – is an ideal toward which we strive, aspire, to attain but can never actually attain because basically it is unattainable; it is not real but is a construct of our mind that seeks perfection in an imperfect world.
So why strive for something that doesn't even exist?
The ideal may not exist except conceptually, but the perfection that we invest into this ideal of self-freedom perhaps does exist in some way beyond our rational mind, but that we intuitively sense is real.
Do you mean that there is this perfect freedom that exists beyond this reality that somehow inspires us to it?
Well, I don't know for sure, certainly; since it would be beyond our capacity to know. For all I can surmise, our idealization of this freedom might be the mind's device to impress illusions and delusions upon us so as to stave off our fear of the unknown, or of our eternal extinction, or of our need to be more than merely human.
I know for myself that it is my need to be more than merely human that inspires me to this self-freedom; not
because I want to be superior to others or even to myself – however odd that may sound; but...I can't explain it.
Could it be because you want to reach, to be in touch with, something inward that is more than your mere humanness?
Yes, I think that might be it. Yet even that could be a compensation for my dread of my mortality as being nothing but a speck of dust in the universe, of no consequence whatsoever.
And if it is that dread, would that alter your aspiration to be more than human – transcendent, in a word?
Perhaps for a time I would renounce it; but then knowing myself, I would be back to it sooner or later. You see, I know myself, I'm realistic enough to accept my mortality as transient and nothing more; I know that when I die it won't make any difference to me that I'm no longer alive; and that that is all right. I've been through all of that. But this knocking keeps at me about this self-freedom, this transcendence, as you call it; and I can't deny that knocking; or turn away from it. Oh, I don't know, maybe that the bottom of it all, I'm a coward - I'm not able to face the wretchedness, the absurdity, of this life.
Perhaps you are, and perhaps you aren't; you'll never fathom it, will you. Which reminds me, I want to read you something that relates to this, which might shed some light on this matter. Just a minute; I'll get it. ...Here it is; let me read it to you.
All that I've read, done, thought, felt. experimented, known, is nought but vanity, a chase
after wind, as old Koeleth wrote centuries ago; and yet for me to be still unfulfilled, seeking
to be fulfilled is a mockery gone wild.
I'm always looking for answers, solutions to problems regarding these eternal matters, - the final Truth – but to no avail. Could it be that I'm on the wrong track? Is it true that there are
no problems only solutions, as Lennon sang it?
Let me assume that it is true that there are only solutions.
But what solutions? Where are they that will resolve my existential, transcendent
predicament? I'm always faced with solutions: in books, in my mind, in my experiences, in art, science, aesthetics, ethics, people, and all else...All else? I certainly do not know everything, let alone understand a mere part of what I know.
And here is the first solution that intrigues me: I do not understand most of what I know. I know X, but do I understand X? Most likely not. How do I come to understand X? By questioning it? But questions imply problems.
So, I propose not to question anything; since such questioning leads me to the cul de sac of there being no Answer despite all the answers.
Why did I think to capitalize "Answer?" Am I looking for the answer: Certainty? The Absolute? the Ultimate? The Thing-in-Itself? God?
I don't know. Again, questions.
How do I strip myself from questioning? Can I thus strip myself? Is everything in life, in mind, a question, rather than a solution for that questioning? Are solutions only a partial understanding of any given phenomenon?
Again, there are no ultimate answers, no ultimate solutions.
So, then, everything is surely relative; certainly in this life. Yet, I'm not justified to use this concept "certainly" in relative existence. There is no certainty. Even this latter statement is not certain.
So what do I come to? A world of contradictions? I mean it is no more certain to say that X is certain than it is to say that X is not certain. so what is certain? Nothing? Or everything? Or both? Or neither? Everything is and is not? Or everything is or is not?
The latter question is easily answered in the affirmative in our normal rational mind; the former question is too paradoxical to even consider answering. Yet this does no warrant that there is no answer; the answer to that question could be the Answer we are transconsciously seeking, yearning for, heading for. Yet, our rational mind cannot answer it. So rather than answer it, let us assume it. In this case, we then delete the question and add the solution.
Hence, regarding The Answer (assuming that there is It), there are no questions; there are only solutions to It, which is Its own solution (I am that I am = God).
Hence all our questions are solutions in disguise. Strange...But true? I don't know. It could be true or it could not be true; or it could be true and it could not be true; or it is true or it is not true; or it is true and it is not true. It all leads to the same solution: there is no solution. Yet there could be. But is there? I don't know...do you? I can't imagine so. But what I can or cannot imagine does not constitute any final solution to anything.
Is there a final solution? I don't know. But do I know that I do not know? No. Yet how do I know that I don't know? I don't know. Which means then that I could know without knowing that I know. That's possible.
Yet it could be impossible. Could it be both possible and impossible? It could be. I don't really know. But perhaps I do know; and perhaps I don't know. I don't know in either case; but perhaps I do....and on and on in a circular track of conceptual reasoning. Perhaps this is what Socrates, the wisest of men, meant when he said that he knows nothing.
All possibilities lie waiting for us then if what is is, and what is is not, or what is is not.
We have to start anew with fresh ideas and concepts and images and feelings and acts and relationships and distinctions and conclusions and beliefs and values and attitudes. We have to trek through unknown tracts of our mind to discover untapped potentials. We have to catch our minds off guard by capturing its fleet messages from unborn boundaries as they dart and dash and disappear through our dentrites.
SPONTANEITY! That is the philosopher's stone by which we will grasp the is and the is-not; or the is or the is-not; or both at the same time! Who knows? Who does not know? PARADOX! That is the non-logic through which we will discover...: who-knows-what?
Spontaneity. Paradox. Are we up to them? do we need so excruciatingly to leave behind us, except for practical use, our moldy manner of mind? If so, then we will be seeking a truth that is false – false to what we normally, conditionally, traditionally, ancestrally, think. We have no choice if we are to transcend the cast of limited thought and action: the cast that pronounces falsely that nothing new is under the sun. Nothing new is within the sun, not under it – perhaps.
To spontaneity and paradox, let me add the other word that mystifies everything even more: PERHAPS!
We will never know – perhaps! We will come to know – perhaps! Who knows? No one. Everyone. Some – perhaps!
We don't have to know anything – then perhaps we might come to know everything. Let us go beyond mere knowing; it has and does serve us well in Newton's three-dimensional world; but not in Einstein's or Heisenberg's multi-dimensional world. let us strive to understand. Let us seek the meaning of what we do, think, are. But let us not ask questions. Let us have solutions, whatever they are, however contradictory.
Let everything be a solution, not a question or an answer to a question. Or even better, let our questions be themselves solutions. Let us catch our thoughts and images on the run, observe them, wonder at them, record them, live by them, die for them. Let us realize meaning in any mental occurrence, however bizarre, absurd, contradictory, unreal, evil, self-deprecatory, embarrassing, shameful. "I contradict myself. Then I contradict myself," saith the poet Whitman. He knew the lush tropics of the mind that lie awaiting our wonder.
What are we against in this frame of mind? Let me give you a hint. You know, of course, the thoughts that cross your mind which you could never, never, speak aloud to yourself - certainly not to others! – thoughts that would give recognition to what you really believe; and you know you could not bear that truth.
Perhaps you might have dared to voice such thoughts once or twice in your lifetime impulsively. Can you remember the rush of freedom that you felt? Perhaps you said something like: "There I said it! It's out. That's the way it is, and let me go on from here." Perhaps your life had changed from that moment on, for better or worse. But it was the truth that poured out, and you had to face and live it once and for all. Nothing could stop you. Your perspective on life, your life, for good.
Now what if you made it a way of life to face such truths about yourself and others so that you came to know yourself as you never had an inkling before? You lived your truth, if not exteriorly, then interiorly. what if new dimensions of understanding came to you spontaneously, paradoxically, about yourself, others, life, death, good, evil, love, sex, human relations, human nature? Would you choose such a life?
Perhaps not...There is our "perhaps" again! Perhaps you would; perhaps you couldn't help yourself. You wouldn't know. Perhaps if your mind was so confused, it would automatically make your decision for you. You don't know; yet, perhaps you do. It might be today; it might be tomorrow; it might be...who knows when? A traditional, family, working man in his fifties awoke one morning with a startling self-confession: "I am a scoundrel!" he exclaimed. And from that moment his life changed dramatically. He left his family and lived his life according to his new-found revelation.
So we don't know when the inexplicable will strike us; but you can be almost certain that it will strike at the most inconspicuous, perhaps, inappropriate, time – especially if you're living a lie, knowingly or not. And then where will you be? and then who will you be?
So what I'm advocating is not so far-fetched, if you think about it in relation to yourself. What I am prescribing is to get to it before it gets to you – consciously or unconsciously, psychologically or psychosomatically. Free yourself: face yourself; free yourself: know yourself; free yourself: transcend yourself. You are waiting for yourself.
Having learned what you have learned; having believed what you have believed; having felt what you have felt – take another perspective transcendent of the "known". Try for understanding; let your intuitive self have its way; give it free rein and reign; let it be what you are. Put meaning into your life; stand in awe of it! Dare to understand; understand yourself, and you will UNDERSTAND.
Very intriguing. So your point is, I suppose, that everything could be and could not be at the same time. That certainly goes against the grain of our logical reasoning. It's saying that you are sitting and standing at the same time, or that 1+1 is 2 and is not 2. Which is logically impossible.
But conceivably or even perceptibly possible.
What do you mean by that?
Well it's possible that as I perceive you sitting down another being, say with a different perceptive apparatus perceives you as standing and standing is sitting. Or more simply, just think of how different a frog's perception of objects are is from a human's perception.
Well, I can see that; but I'm not sure that I can conceive that one plus one can be other than 2. The whole structure of our world would be unrecognizably different.
In what way, would you think?
Well, let's say that our alien creature has a number system based on two rather than one; there would be no such thing as one of anything; for him his two is one; and so his arithmetic would begin as one (two) plus one (two) equals four, not two. In his case, the number one would act as our zero...I think this is all trailing into nonsense.
It can't help but do that, because we're operating from our own only known mathematical structure and system. But I think what you're trying to say is that if both you and the alien are looking at a tree, from your perspective of his perspective you would see his two-trees-as-one; whereas from his perspective of your perspective, he would see no tree at all.
That's baffling!
As baffling as the mystic's or physicists insight that there are subatomic particles that can be in two places at the same time, or of parallel and holistic universes, or of nonlocality, and the whole host of phenomena that transcends our 3-dimensional, mental categories.
It's awesome beyond belief, but then belief is no longer of any consequence in relation to these other-worldly phenomena. But returning to our subject matter what does all this have to do with self-freedom?
I think it has to do with infinite possibilities set in eternity – or more specifically, set in the eternity of our mind. Do you remember that sublime saying in the Bible, "God has put eternity in man's mind," and that eternity we can think of as the universal mind; and we are all of the universal mind; that is where our oneness, of which the religions speak of everything is, where we are all one. And it is this oneness, this eternity, that is our freedom - our freedom not only from the suffering of the world, but from the world itself as three-dimensional, of space, time, casualty. Somehow we know, intuit, we are of this Eternal Mind, essentially are It; and we want to free ourselves from our self; our self-consciousness, in order to be, experience, live by, our transconsciousness, our Eternal mind. But as we know, or come to accept, we can never free ourselves absolutely, perfectly, living in a relative, imperfect world.
I see what you're saying; and, of course, it's what all the main religions at bottom proclaim, now that I think of it.
Exactly, which in itself is a whole study that needs to be revealed.
Yes. And what I'm thinking now is that when a person exclaims "I want to be free!" in effect what he is exclaiming is that he want to reach his divinity as Eternity; as God, as oneness.
Excellent insight. And not only does he want to reach It, that is, to be in touch with it, but to live by it.
And yet he can't, because It is limitless and he is limited.
True, he can't absolutely, but he can relatively.
How relatively?
Well, there are the mystic, bliss experiences of this oneness of everything, there are the intimations of It, intuitions of It, that pass through us momentarily, or longer, depending on the person. Some people experience this oneness as beauty of the good. And in a sense, these are the absolute, abstract, experiences of It, since everything disappears but this absolute oneness during the experience of it.
But the person's still experiencing It in his time, in his space, in his causality.
I know, that's why I qualified my point by prefacing it with "in a sense." Because even though the experience of Oneness occurs in time, space, and casualty. The actual experience of It is absolute in the sense that time, self, everything relative, dissolves into this absolute Oneness.
I see your point; and it's very clear and explanatory. Yet I'll raise the commonplace objection to such pure experiences that they are of such fleeting, momentary passing, of what practical value are they? We still have to go on with our daily lives with all their opposing opposites. I know that the magnitude of such experience can change one's over all perspective on life, such as, he might no longer have a psychological fear of death, or that he may gain the courage to overcome a long-time destructive habit, and the like. But the efficacy of these pure experiences wear off, and we often return to our old ways without any support or guide from them. Yes, that's true; and that is where wisdom comes in.
Oh, yes, the ever-elusive wisdom.
And why do you think it is ever-elusive?
Because we can never really fully attain it, nor know it.
And why is that?
Because it's an ideal of perfection, an absolute, and we're imperfect relative beings; we covered this in our discussion of right conduct.
I know. And being an ideal of perfection, an absolute, that puts it on a transcendent level, beyond our mere psychology.
That would follow.
Yet being an ideal of perfection or of being absolute, it somehow remains in the human sphere to as a conception that has meaning and influence.
I can see that.
So we can consider wisdom as both of a human and transcendent reality; as a sort of mediator between the human mind, and the universal mind - a kind of image of the universal mind that crosses over into our conscious mind as a transconscious concept. Do you understand what I'm saying? Probably not.
Partly; you'll have to explain it further. It's very abstract, to say the least.
Let me break it down analytically first. A "mediator", as you know, is a person who intervenes between two persons, or parties, to objectively resolve a dispute between them. An "image" is a mental picture of an holistic impression; in which case the sensation or perception of a never-before-seen object transforms into a mental picture called an image; and can be recalled at will. A "concept" we might say is the meaning of an image by which we assign words. So, for instance, the first time I see a horse, my brain takes a picture of it, so to speak. This is the image of the horse. As an image only, it has no meaning to it; it is a bare image with no meaning, nor name. Once I learn that this image belongs to a class of animals that is and does such-and-such; and that it is called a horse; it now has been invested with meaning and a name; and now has become a concept which I can understand and speak about without resorting to the image in my mind. All right, so far?
Yes. I understand your terms.
Let me go further with this analysis of image and concept. Now that I understand cognitively and linguistically what a horse is, whenever I now "see" a horse, I can be said to perceive it as a horse, that is, my mind no longer "sees" a horse as an image only, but as an image with meaning; and so, my mind perceives the horse as horse not merely as an image of a horse. Clear?
I think so. So, now we're dealing with four terms: mediator, image, concept, and perception.
Right. Now let me see if I can connect them all together to clarify my point about wisdom. Wisdom is the mediator between the universal (or eternal-infinite) Mind and the individual mind in as much as it is a prism mirror reflecting the oneness, or universality of everything. But this reflection remains for must of us a vague image with no content other than vagueness - a sense of the universal mind. It has little or no lasting effect on us other than its sublime sense. Now the more we read of its meaning, the less vague it becomes; and eventually it transforms into a concept - image to concept through knowledge conveyed by words. We now know that wisdom is related to the universal or eternal or essential nature of the world, as well as to our own essential nature. The words and names, poetic, religions, philosophical, explaining or describing this interconnection may be in themselves vague, archaic; nonetheless, when we speak of, or think of wisdom, we do so conceptually, however unclear, remote, or vague is its meaning - at least it now has some meaning.
And what is this meaning?
Well, let's say that you have learned about the nature of wisdom from Aristotle that it is both practical and theoretical, and from the wisdom books in the Bible that it is both practical and spiritual; and that you come to realize that in practical matters, wisdom imparts the judgment necessary to act rightly overall; and that in speculative or spiritual matters, wisdom imparts to you universal truths about nature in general, and about human nature in particular; and that somehow these transcendent (theoretical, spiritual) truths are the foundation for human (practical) wisdom. So you see that this concept of wisdom is taking on more meaning for you so that you're deriving an intuitive understanding of wisdom. And this intuitive understanding is what makes you exclaim " I want to be free!" For then the truth of your universal being or mind is knocking at your door – knock, knock, knock. And you don't yet know how to open the door; so you go scrambling about opening other doors in search of this freedom, i.e., your universal nature. Now all these other doors - books, scriptures, meditation, therapies, gurus, priests, may all build upon this intuitive understanding until one day, the full perception of the word floods your mind with understanding. And finally, you are convinced that your individual mind is an emanation, a manifestation, of the universal Mind. And there are no more doubts shading your mind. You now know this truth; you perceive it as true. You will not understand it, since wisdom at bottom only an image of this universal mind, oneness. It has helped you make a connection with It, as through a mirror darkly. The word "wisdom" is the mantra, the symbol, the talisman that consciously connects you to the transconscious image of eternity. In Christian terms, you might say wisdom is the holy spirit that guides you through life by the son Jesus (or Buddha or placeKrishna, etc.) to the Father - God, the universal Mind, Oneness. Well, does that "explain matters" to you, extended as the explanation is?
More or less, I suppose.
Let me see if I can wrap it up in an analogy of our original horse picture example. Let us say that you have never seen a live horse, and that you most likely never will; but you do for the first time you see a picture of one, beautiful and noble. That is the image of the horse; and you are drawn to it irresistibly. You want to know more about horses. Consequently you read all about them and become very knowledgeable about them. Your original image has become a concept full of meaning. Then you take the next mental step by imagining that you are riding, feeding, tending to, this horse that you know only as a picture. You have now transferred yourself in connection with this picture-horse. You have now gained an intuitive understanding of this horse as related to you - as horses actually are to human beings. Now your original mental image had progressed beyond your conception of it to a perception with understanding. It is almost real; but not actually, nor will it ever be real to you, since in your circumstances you never will see a live horse. Do you see this analogy I'm trying to make with our individual mind and the universal Mind?
Yes, it brings the abstractness of wisdom into focus. But I'm thinking now of how sad it would be, how frustrating, that I would never see this live three-dimensional horse.
I know what you're saying, but you could compensate for that by painting pictures of horses, or writing stories or poems about them, or sculpturing one, or you could even attempt cross-breeding other animals to make a horse – depending upon how much of your life you wanted to devote to horses.
But I would never see a live horse?
Let's say that; just as you would never become the universal Mind so long as you are encased in your individual mind. You may have intimations of It, you may even mystically experience It momentarily, more or less, but you, nor anyone, I would venture to say will ever be it purely out of this third dimension reality.
I can accept that, as I would have to accept the fact that I would never see a live horse. But it just occurred to me now, how would I know if there were in fact a real live horse that the picture represented if I never were going to see one?
You wouldn't.
And all the books I read about them.
Could all be a figment of someone's imagination.
But how could such a noble stallion be a figment of someone's imagination?
It could be or could not be, or could both be and not be. Do you remember what I read you about that perspective?
Yes I do. And does this apply to the universal Mind as well?
It could be or could not be, or could both be and not be.
I get your point. I'm not sure I like this way of looking at things; it kind of leaves you nowhere - neither this nor that nor neither.
As possibilities.
And of course what is possible is not necessary.
But it could be necessary.
Oh, yes, that possibility – or necessity.
Now you've got it.
Perhaps; but I don't know if I like it. Do you realize that such a belief system leaves us with no logical foundation?
How so?
Just consider this well-known syllogism: All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal. Now, if all men are or are not or are and are not mortal , then all situations (are or are not) or (both are or are not)...and on and on. We have no footing in reality, it becomes a maze, senseless.
In other words an infinite regress of possibilities and/or necessities. In effect, we have shifted the mathematical calculus into a language calculus.
Which in either case, we cannot grasp conceptually.
As an image, yes; but this image one day can become a perception. And once it becomes a perception, we understand it, and so are close to its meaning; just as mathematicians have turned the image of calculus into a meaningful concept and study however abstract it is.
That may be; but of what consequence can such knowledge be to a person such as me who is simply aspiring to be free to be in touch with my transcendence so that I can act rightly beyond my ego-concerns.
That's a good point.
So do you have an answer? I'm certainly receptive.
Well, what comes to me is that such a non-logical world holds promise.
Promise of what?
A “brave new world,” as Shakespeare put it.
“A brave new world!” What does that mean, other than poetry?
So I hear a strain of combat in your voice?
Yes, you do. I'm getting dizzy from all this talk about “otherness,” and all its “infinite possibilities” when all I want is some freedom.
It's in this otherness where your freedom lies.
Well, I can't see freedom in chaos, which all this is to my mind however fascinating it is.
I'm not sure that it is chaos as such.
Randomness, then? That still doesn't interest me other than intellectual curiosity.
Let me acquaint you with a phenomenon – or more precisely “trans-phenomenon, since it occurs only in my mind – that occurs in my mind before I slip into sleep. There have been a few rare times that just as I'm about to fall asleep, I hear this stupendous music that I can only describe as music “of the spheres.” And if I were a musician and could notate that music, I would be the greatest composer who ever lived - such is the grandeur of this music. It doesn't last long, I don't know how long, seconds most likely; but it is unmistakably happening to me. Then it's gone. This has occurred, I think, at least twice. Has this ever happened to you?
No, but I believe you.
Now where did that music originate, where did it come from? How did I tap into it for those few seconds? It's simply awesome to me.
Doubtfully from the universal Mind of which you spoke.
Where else? And what else exists, or sub-exists, in that mind? Is that where the Ideas, or Forms, of everything exists, as the mighty Plato propounded more than 2000 years ago?
I just was about to say and in Jung's “collective unconscious,” but this music you heard does not exist in our reality.
It's just overwhelming. And in a lesser vein, let me tell you further, that what happens in my mind almost every time I transcend my self-thoughts – again before I go to sleep – I either can opt for a kind of blank state of nothing there, which is pleasant enough, yet hard to maintain, or I can let my mind “of itself,” without my willing, conjure up either the most fantastic of scenes, or the most domestic of scenes. Regarding this latter, before I know it, I can be witnessing a conversation between two people in 19th century garb as though they were real people in real time; and I am a witness to this scene without their knowing it. And then “out of nowhere” a little girl will stick her head between them and stick her tongue out at them. This is just one of many such scenarios that happen to me will-lessly, or unintentionally. Of course, only rarely is such scenes of visual clarity or duration. Has this happened to you?
I think so; something like that; but I can't put my finger on memory right now. That's fascinating. But tell me of your fantastical scenes.
I haven't had those in a while; but something like a flying elephant, or a burst of colors shattering everywhere...or, nothing comes to me now; but I've had them in plenty.
And what do you make of all this?
Well, if we consider all the phenomena that has occurred to variant psychic people of all times and in all places, psychics, mystics, clairvoyants, seers, one has to exclaim quite emphatically that there is another world “in” there that makes itself known to the awe and wonder of the human consciousness.
And let me ask – and I don't mean it facetiously – Could this “other world,” or universal Mind, be or not be; or be and not be...and so forth, referring to our earlier topic?
Well, the answer - provisional, at best – could be related to the perennial question: How did the many come from the one, or multiplicity from unity, and all such inquiries.
And probably the other perennial religious philosophical matter of the freedom of the will – are we free or are
we not free, or are we both; or are we neither?
What do you think it would be like to live always under this either-or-either-and frame of mind; never certain of anything real and unreal, and so on infinitely?
… continued
PART FOUR: The Wisdom
The Love-Wisdom
LOVE COUNCILS
1 Love what you do not love – identify with it.
2 What you identify with, you understand.
3 Love your enemies at a distance, of course.
4 Love what is ugly but with different eyes than toward that which is beautiful.
5 Love yourself for sure, but not at the expense or harm of others.
6 “Pain is the price of each precious thing,” so writes the incomparable Shakespeare; and that
applies as well to the love of each precious thing.
7 What is precious to us is what we love; though not all that is precious to us is what we should love.
8 What do we love more: that which harms us or that which benefits us? Obvious answer; but not an obvious consent.
9 Can we bear the pain for that which we love more to withhold consent to that which we love less?
10 Love is what we are just as love is what we crave, desire, long for, are enflamed by.
11 The difference between love and Love (with a capital “L”): Love is why we love.
12 Passionate love as compared, contrasted to, compassionate love is the difference between fire and its glow.
13 Love – with a capital `L' confirm to yourself to be the bond of all unity; love with a lower case `l'
consider as the bond of this-or-that in life.
14 Let your love of Love itself be your ruling love.
15 Though one mood after another traverses your mind - those that please and those that pain - keep the thought of Love ever infused in them.
16 Love your pains - certainly not as you love your pleasures, but as an inevitability of life.
17 What is beyond your will to do anything about, leave it to itself and return to Love.
18 Know that Love is the meaning of your life.
19 Love will save you from yourself.
20 “Say the word and you'll be free / And the word, the word is love.” - John Lennon.
21 Love be with you.
22 Love the beauty of a shark but avoid it, or protect yourself from it, for your very life.
23 Love strife not as its proponent but as its opponent to the other face of love.
24 Love your enemy – as your enemy. Identify with him; know his ways so to protect yourself from him
who you would certainly not treat as a friend nor expect him to treat you as a friend, except to harm you.
Know him, respect him, for what he is, but be prepared to oppose him if and when you must - certainly not
with defensive love but with offense love that acts on this maxim: Intimidate him before he intimidates you.
Catch him off guard not knowing where you're coming from: use your methods, not his. Pretend as he
pretends, but for your protection not his.
25 Act with grace as you do right; act in grace to be sure you do right.
26 Know what can and cannot be done, and do, or do not do, what you must with Love on your side.
27 Let Love inspire you to do what is right - otherwise you don't have much of a chance, overall.
28 Love yourself - be with yourself.
29 Be divine – turn inward to your Love source, to your Love divinity.
30 Keep the thought of Love ever on your mind interspersed between everything that goes on within it;
for Love is certainly in your mind; in fact, is your mind.
31 “Love bears all things” (Paul) And so Love makes it possible for us to bear all things.
32 Act in Love, and you act with wisdom.
33 Love is your eternity. Live it here and now in its living reality.
34 Be prepared always for your adversary's bite;
Meet it resolutely with the power of Love's might.
35 Let the energy of Love calm your anger before it ignites you into an unjustifiable fury.
… continued
THE WORD: LOVE
The following thoughts are mostly ideals to strive for, not unfailing prescriptions to live by. They are my spontaneous thought-feelings that have some considerable truth and effect to them - they helped me on the moment, and fairly consistently – but are not for everyone; certainly not always. One has to be sensitively receptive to the meaning and power of transcendent Love for their pronouncements to take effect; and even then, there is no consistency to them, since we are especially fallible, susceptible, vulnerable, when it comes to the intense emotions and conditions of our lives. However, even these points are relative to the individual; since the more committed one is to the transcendent sense of Love, the more effective will Love have on one's life and behavior. So, consider these thoughts as effective, yes; as the answer to the psychological and spiritual freedom we are seeking – no. They are one such answer - and an essential one – but much more is needed in this stormy, unpredictable life. The follow-through of this little book, of this Love religion, are part of this "much more is needed."
But for now, let these "words of wisdom" suffice, and place you on the right path – "the road less taken."
NOTE 1: The word “Love” as it is meant by Lennon and myself is the transcendent, or spiritual, sense of it, interchange- able with God, Oneness, the bond of all unity, that which determines love in all its human, transcendent and human-transcendent manifestations.
NOTE 2: There is no particular order of these notes; they were written as the thoughts came to me, and placed mostly in the same numerical order. There is some repetition of ideas, but with variation.
1 "Say the word and you'll be free." Free from what? Free to what? Free from the adversities of life, from the impetuosity of one's ego-sensuality, from anxiety and despair, from depression and worthlessness…and on and on. Free to be more self-understanding, free to be transcendent, free to be moderate, free to be loving, and on and on.
2 Let Love soothe the "savage beast" in you; however buried, sublimated, repressed, it may be. Keep in touch with your Love divinity, and you will keep from the dark forces of your nature, of human nature.
3 Love – transcendent Love – certainly is all you need, as Lennon sings; especially when It comes to freeing you mind.
4 Say the word "Love," chant the word Love, sing the word Love, as in the song Love is all you need: Love, love, love.
5 Do you want a dosage of strength in a particular situation? Turn to Love. Repeat the word, and that dosage will impart that strength to you - more than, perhaps you can imagine. Keep the faith!
6 Let Love take over. It knows. Certainly more than you know.
7 Ah, the word Love! sweet to the ears, balm to the mind!
8 Temper the word Love with the wisdom of the species – good and evil, you know; lest you become engulfed in "sappiness," in treacle.
9 Saying, chanting, singing, the word Love will save you from yourself. Not totally, but in good part.
10 Saying the word, thinking the word, Love will embark you on a high adventure sans boredom and egoism and neurosis, and...
11 Don't think that love is merely a feminine quality, while truth is the masculine stance; when in fact they're interchangeable, with the additional merit of love as the pathfinder of truth. Or again, it is the masculine quality of Love that emboldens one to be more than he or she is. As a matter of fact, just think of that old, familiar reality of being first in love with another person. Cannot you then "move mountains." Cannot you then "conquer the world." Are you not "eight miles high?" Are you not in another staggering dimension of your humanity willing to sacrifice yourself, rehabilitate yourself, die, for your love? So perhaps, since we have that surpassing, transcendent dimension in loving another person, something comparable happens to us in loving Love; though certainly not as emotionally intense a river-rapids experience, but a more tranquil, long-lasting oceanic flow. And just as you want to be with your loved one all the time, why wouldn't you want to be with Love all the time – through the word Love, the concept of Love, the feeling of Love, the strength of Love, the presence of Love. Yes, the word Love is an abstraction, but it is a relative human abstraction just as it is an absolute pure abstraction - relative to us, personal to us.
12 You wake up depressed with mind clouded in despair; and can't seem to get through it. Do you drink or eat, or drug, or lust yourself against the depression? … Love can help you. "Say the word and you'll be free." Then you get up and do something creative, constructive, helpful. You work; but in mind is always Love, Love, Love.
13 Boredom drains your energy so that all you can do is "mope around," "loaf around," sleep, You grope for some kind of relief, stimulation, even mischief, to end the dullness. Love can help you. –"Say the word and you'll be free."
14 You're aroused sexually unexpectedly, unwantedly, on the instant; your thoughts, your images, can't stop themselves. You're flooded with "the urge"; your conscience can't help you; your vows are but straw in the fire. And so you give in; and so do we all, with no way out, it seems. The incomparable Shakespeare puts it in his sonnet.
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoy'd no sooner but despisèd straight;
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
And again in The Tempest:
Do not give dalliance
much the rein, the strongest oaths are straw
To the fire I' the blood: be more abstemious,
Or else, good night your vow!
15 What are we to do, then against this implacable force? The best answer is: The best we can, over and over again. Turning to the word Love does help us do this "the best we can."
16 Anger blazes through you at the injustice committed, and you go blind instinctively to
attack verbally or physically; yet can you abrupt yourself with a thread of reason before it's too late…with the word Love repeated over and over again. "Say the word and you'll be free!"
17 Anxiety swells up in you as you forebode the worst. How will you ever get through the "calamity" of what is to, or might, come. The situation is dire; loss looms over your precarious life. How will you deal with it? Perhaps the chant of Love as your saving grace might ease the pain enough to forestall your mind from expecting the worst, to give you another perspective, to put you back on your feet, so to speak.
18 You can't get to sleep, as you toss and turn restlessly; wanted and unwanted thoughts invading your consciousness aimlessly – so it seems. Then is the time to chant slowly the word "Love," as it soothes you from the flurry of your unwanted thoughts. Observe how restful and quiet and obedient your mind becomes to the incantation of the word Love as your mind readies itself to put you to sleep. Not always, of course.
19 The word Love is a fathomless fount of physical relief and psychic settlement
20 Let your Love divinity be your constant companion.
21 Be with your Love divinity "come rain or shine"
22 Know that Love is your God of all that is! – the God that binds you all compact into this body-mind-soul tripartite.
22 Your Love is the all of everything; It is not any this or that thing.
23 Chant the sacred word Love just as the sacred word OM is chanted slowly, deep-breathingly; let its meaning pervade you.
24 Say the word aloud, to yourself, in a whisper, depending on where you are, or what situation you're in, or what mood you're in. In either case, its effect takes hold.
25 Desire, passion, impulse, are natural enough in themselves as they're part of our human makeup. Mostly, however, we do not use good judgment when under their sway, but rather follow the "way of all flesh." Our saving grace, though, is that the wisdom of Love (intuition?) will guide us aright without thought intervening. If you have a moment in between your stormed emotion and your acting on that emotion, … Say the word Love; it might save the day – if you want it to.
26 When you're saying or chanting or singing the word Love, don't think of Love as this or that; but rather feel it as an all-pervading presence.
27 Let Love be your alter ego; that aspect of you that guides you aright when you might otherwise go astray, or sink into psychosomatic turmoil or depression, or laxity, or whatever else. Know that you have a divine part of you that knows what is right and good for you, even though you may not see it that way. In which case…say the word and you'll be free.
28 We often fail ourselves, as we know, when it comes to doing the right thing; but, by being in touch with Love, we will more often be inclined to do the right thing more than we otherwise would.
29 Let your chanting the word Love be your holy prayer.
30 "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought" (Shakespeare) you conjure up the sacred word Love, then you will experience the variations of your mind free from the whirlwind of conscious thinking. Your mind transforms into various transconscious states such as into surreal imagery, in which a tiger is playing the flute, or a kaleidoscopic explosion of colors is whizzing about every which way, or scenes of people from another age, or faces of persons nowhere seen in your life, a magnificent oratorio, or … and the variations go on limitlessly. Or your mind transforms into a blessed feel of peace and silence and stillness. Or the ultimate transconsious state of Oneness that pervades your mind with the bliss of nothing but Power - nothingness; the so-called misunderstood: nothingness.
31 Keep in mind that for all the optimism I proclaim for the word Love, we nonetheless are still subject to, beyond our control, the chemistry of our glands and organs and tissues, and blood; and the physiology of fatigue and and hunger and sleep, and sexual appetite, and all the accompanying psychosomatic reactions ensuing from these physical realities that limit our transcendent horizons; and make us vulnerable to failing ourselves when most we would want not to.
32 Drown them out! those seducing thoughts and imagery that sweep you into the chaos of the blood. Turn to Love, your only salvation in such turbulent, burning,
33 The word, the presence, of Love is always there for us; but we don't always want it, do we!
34 Blind yourself to the impulse! Go mentally blank into Love; there is no other way out. It will feed upon itself; and then where will you be? Back into the sink of your self gone "wild," if not "mad," for the moment.
35 Let me tell you, for those whose sense of Love has little or no effect, because it is too abstract, too remote. In that event, you can turn to the word "transcendence." This word has perhaps more concrete meaning, since its meaning is clear: beyond self and ego, beyond the phenomenal mind. It has the spiritual sense of Love; since, in a way the two are interchangeable - which is to be explained in another work. So, when in need, and the word or sense or presence of Love fails you; say the word "transcendence" repeatedly and rapidly so that it blocks out the unwanted thoughts, images, actions, arousal. It works; but you must want if not , need, to be free from them; otherwise even this word will have no immediate effect. Or, if even the word "transcendence," is too abstract or vague a word, then say the verb form of the word: "transcend." Accordingly, you repeat rapidly the words "transcend it." These two little, but powerful, words have the advantage over the usual utterance we say in a troubled mind state: "Don't think of it," inasmuch as the word "transcendence has am ultra-psychological, or spiritual meaning, beyond just the psychological "Don't think of it." This utterance has us pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, so to speak; it's just a psychological defense against our humanness, and not often an effective one, as everyone knows; whereas the saying of transcendence or transcend-it goes beyond the mere psychological part of our nature.
NOTE: All this will be made clearer, and more complete, in a further work.
36 When the mood of futility sneaks up on you to invade your self-confidence, to make all that you have done, and are going to do, seem worthless, to make you want to chuck it all and sink yourself into self-destruction - that is when you most need to offset that false seduction with the positive sun rays of the word Love by saying It, singing It, chanting It until your self-confidence returns and hope displaces futility.
Yet, let us say that that futile mood is valid, that the direction you are going in, the life that you are leading, is, in fact, wrong, misplaced. Then what? It is then that you apply at least three of the transcendent aspects of this Love religion: right, truth, understanding. You ask yourself: Am I on the right track? What is the truth of my life? Do I really understand what is going on? What next is required, is that you strongly face the reality, the integrity, of the answers to those questions. And for you to answer these questions truly, you are to have your Love divinity by your side, otherwise you will delude yourself by the stark truth of the possible answers to your enquiries. Actually, the process you are going through is what I call wisdom enquiries; which is an integral part of this Love religion. In struggling, striving, to answer these life-meaning questions, you actually are seeking wisdom; in particular, the wisdom of your life. These wisdom enquiries is a trans-psychological dialogue you are undergoing to discover the truth of your life; which is the real path toward self-understanding in relation to the Love of the world, the Love of your life.
37 It's easier to do what you know to be right when motivated, fortified, by the thought of doing it for Love. Love is your salvation; if not, then make Love your salvation.
38 Feel your pain, your arousal, whatever it is, focus in on it, Love it, identify with it, be it accompanied by, armed with, your word Love, Love, Love.
39 Yes, he is "crazy" under the surface, the veneer, of his "normalcy." Yet, what is it that keeps him intact, so to speak. Is it not love – that he is loved and is able to love without fear of rejection or of being used. So let us rephrase the statement: Are we not all crazy, or would be crazy, in one degree or another without the love that we need for our particular life?
40 Yes, she is bipolar, a manic-depressive, a neurotic, a borderline schizophrenic; since love as his nature required has ever eluded her both from her parents and her husbands. Her children assuaged her condition, but only as a temporary, sublimated stopgap. How could she elude this crucial lack of her formative years except through repression and sublimation and medication, and who knows what else. Good works help, therapy helps, career success helps, material goods help, friends help, religion helps, knowledge helps, peer recognition help - all these and more, help her get through her life without extremities. Yet still she remains an incomplete woman because she is not loved as her being demands; and so conversely, she herself cannot love as her being demands. Where is the right man - or woman - to free her? And, as human nature, human ignorance, would have it, it is hardly likely that she would find such a person. And so she lacks her fourth dimension: being herself
From the perspective of our Love-spirituality, Love is her only path to her self-freedom - to love herself so much that she recreates herself in her own image of the person she truly is, however repressed or sublimated that true person is; and to live by and for that person either solitarily or interpersonally, or socially. Love in its full meaning will thereby set her free - free from guilt, free from reprisals, free from repression, free from anxiety, and all the rest of the refuse of our ignorance. By no means do I advocate the absence of all restraints, or the "derangement of the senses" What I do advocate is wisdom; more specifically, the wisdom of the species. This wisdom, of course, takes a stupendous understanding of one's self, of human nature, of human relationships, of transcendence. It comes down to human-transcendence -- the balance between one's humanness and one's transcendence, which is the wisdom of our Love-spirituality
41 Love is a metaphysical God; not an anthropomorphic God – except that Love is embedded into the very being of our human existence.
42 My first inclination is to resist her criticism; but the word Love stops me in my tracks to reconsider that I'm more interested in the rightness or wrongness of that criticism than my wounded self-love.
43 Isn't it amazing! that just before we were flooded with lust, or whatever other extreme, and then with a change of mind through the word Love, that flood dispelled; we were free of it; it's as though it didn't even happen.
44 You say the word Love, it saves you for the time; then it comes back., and you say the word again until it dispels again and again and again; until your mind, of itself turns to something else quite oblivious of what previously troubled you before.
45 Saying the word Love to save yourself from yourself, and to save others from yourself, is an ideal, to be sure. So, as everything else human, cannot be attained absolutely, perfectly. Yet it is an ideal that becomes more and more real as we come to be in love with Love, so to speak. To be in love with Love is to want always to be with Love, and to do well by Love; just as you would be toward your sweetheart.
46 Since Love is of eternity and of infinity and of life, so we too are the same, since it is embedded in our being, and all being.
47 Love is so delicate to us, so ephemeral, so elusive, so "jealous," so to speak, that at the least resistance to It, the least forgetting it, the least questioning It, the least discarding it, leaves us devoid of its presence and effect. Accordingly, we must approach It as sacred, holy, divine, spiritual. In a religious sense, then, we have to no less than worship It as our God that we must worship It for its sacred effect on us.
… continued
_____________________________________________________________________________________
LOVE AS PURE-CONSCIOUS-BLISS
"Everything leads us to believe that there is a certain state of mind from which
life and death, the real and the imaginary, past and future, the communicable
and the incommunicable, height and depth are no longer perceived as contradictory."
- André Breton
Vallen
MYSTIC LOVE
The "Experience" of Love
[Love experienced as pure conscious bliss beyond all awareness of self-consciousness. Nothing (nothingness) but the oneness of power in the radiance of total light, yet with the fullness of darkness.]
|
INTO BLISS
INTRODUCTORY NOTES
The main theme and purpose of this account are to advance not only the credibility of the mystic experience but to advance it in light of the conscious transformation we are undergoing in our times. This conscious transformation encompasses the “God-within” reality in relation to a human-transcendent wisdom essentialized by Love as the bond of all unity – that is, World Love or Essential Love, as I would put it
Our next stage in the conscious transformation movement is to "prove" the existence of the God-within reality. Of, course, in the ultimate sense of the word, there can be no proof of God, just as inultimate sense, there can be no name for God.
But we experience incontrovertible intimations of this Other Reality, visually, conceptually, and experientially; and so, being human, we must name, and record, and communicate, these inner experiences, these mental thoughts, that come to us from we-know-not-where. Yet can we irrefutably prove them logically? No. Philosophically? No. Psychologically? No. How then? Well, discarding the qualifier "irrefutably," these intimations can be proven experientially. If I have had a transcendent/mystical, experience that concords with, is similar to, the transcendent/mystical experience of other persons, from all cultures, from all times, from eminent persons to perceptive persons, to the average person, then we can safely conclude that there must be truth to the reality of these transcendent/mystical, experiences.
This truth, then, has its factual basis in common human, mental experience. As to whether this transcendent-mystical experience is in fact God, or Soul, or Love, or our immortality informing us, this we cannot presume; though it might be. We can't say with certainty, in either case.
But this we can say: There certainly is a conscious reality beyond our normal consciousness, beyond, I would say, our unconscious, or even our collective consciousness – I term it our transconsiousness; and it accords with the one principle, power, that has been recorded immemorially, and named in its sundry ways according to the peoples of various cultures and ages.
Whether this transconscious state proves that God exists, or that our soul is immortal, or that we are essentially God ourselves – well, as mentioned, that is conjecture. But what cannot be denied is, first, its actuality; second, its purity beyond our familiar three-dimensional conceptual reality; and third, that the wonderment of it inspires us beyond our little self-loving selves, and intimates an eternal reality that possibly we essentially are. Without having experienced, or believing in, this transconscious state, this possibility would be one dimension removed from us. All we would have – and have had for centuries – would be our concepts and rituals, and Bibles, and churches, and theologies.
The following selections validate the transcendent/mystic experience of "the God within."
NOTE: Regarding my own experiences, I have always hesitated to speak about them, mainly because it is so personal, so real, of such sanctity, that the very mention of it lessens its reality to me. Perhaps this is what Wittgenstein, the logician-philosopher, really meant by his closing statement in his Tractatus, "Of that which we cannot speak, we are to be silent." However, that it is imperative to spread its gospel, its "good news," outweighs my personal considerations; and so, we must get on with it.
Forward
There happens to many of us on rare occasions a suffusing sensation of such pure, beauteous, glowing elation that we seem transported into a world of radiant conscious-bliss. It generally is of only short duration; seconds, minutes perhaps; and then is gone in its intensity. It is the type of experience one never forgets, and one which we long to experience again. It instills in us a new understanding of ourselves in relation to the world. There are lesser experiences of the same, but none ever quite reach the intensity, the purity, the divinity, of that one "big" experience. Some people consider it a spiritual or mystic vision; but whatever it may be, it generally manifests itself as a oneness with the totality of the world; a sublimity surpassing all sensuous and natural beauty; a benign resignation to one's mortal fate. It is an experience that makes one gasp with its ineffability; an experience that moistens, if not floods the eyes with emotion; an experience that etherializes us for the moment; one that makes us shake our head in sheer wonder- ment. The cause of it may be a delicate fragrant breeze that wafts through the nostrils, a glorious sunset, the vast sea or sky, or the presence of a saintly personage, or a sudden illumination of understanding, or of any of the myriad natural phenomena.
Whatever the source, or the meaning, or the significance of this supra-phenomenal experience, it nonetheless transcends the dualities (time-space, good-evil, life-death, etc.) of the earthly human condition. It is a real experience of a higher reality here on earth in the human consciousness, and not exclusive to the very few. It is this perception that will not permit us to remain only earthbound, only concerned with and for man. This experience suggests the core of our spiritual yearnings and strivings for a higher, deeper feel beyond our mere humanity -- which is recognized of extremely small significance compared to our universal self; compared to the infinite, eternal possibilities inherent to the world. With such a vast spectrum, how could the sensitive individual be content to live only for man who, taken all in all in his lower extremities and leanings, is of not much worth: we all know how insignificant and indispensable mere life is, whether insect, animal, or human.
Many men and women gradually come to the realization that they aspire to more than what humanity has to offer; and it is a sense of a higher reality that they want. And because of their periodic sublime and purifying sensations, and for other reasons, they know that somehow this higher sense of reality is attainable; not because religion or philosophy or poetry, or spiritual master has declared it so, but because they themselves, in their own small way, too, have had their spiritual, or mystic, or aesthetic, vision of a kind. They sense that there exists something beyond, transcendent of their self-consciousness; and they desire to eventually come to live in and for it primarily. But they also realize that this experience cannot be had for the asking, and so they seek various means to attain it once again, for longer periods of time. And so they turn to intoxicants, meditation, and the like without realizing that just as their vision sprung from within themselves, and not through the teachings or sermonizing of others, so it can be attained through themselves again; as a matter of fact, can be a way of life for them. IF THEY ONLY KNEW HOW! This heart-cry resounds through them. It is as though their one or two peak experiences were a bait "to make the taker mad"; being never attainable again.
No, I don't think so. The vision, or spiritual experience, they had, though it did not occur through their own willing of it, was nonetheless a cumulative, synchronized total convergence of all that the individual is in the eternal evolution of his human self. All psychic variants gelled evolution of his into that one momentary vision of the eternity of his existence, of existence itself. There are fainter experiences of the same, but rarely do they ever reach the intensity of that one, rare, sublime, divine moment. These are the moments that the mystics and sages strive and aspire to all their lives. They live in and for this Higher of Eternal Reality, waiting for those rare illuminations of what they deem to be the final Truth. In the meantime, they live a relatively tranquil, serene self-transcendence.
Their experiences and lives of this of this Inward-Eternity are not illusions, then; not wasted; but living in the highest, deepest, fullest sense of the word. This transcendent consciousness is no chimera, no figment of the imagination. It is an actual experience, and we have all experienced it in one manner and degree, or another. This is what the old sage, Koheleth, meant when he wrote that God put Eternity into the minds of men. It is this visionary, or spiritual, sense of so many of us that has engendered the notion of God in our breasts; not necessarily only the fear of self-annihilation.
We are not able to capture this divine sense of our inner eternity in any lasting; fruitful degree except through our own efforts, our own self-refinement, our own growing understanding. The example of others, the majestic beauty of temples and churches, the rituals and dogmas of religion, the teachings and sanctification of sages and saints, can only verify, clarify, guide, inspire us; but cannot instill in us on any permanent basis the divine influence of this inner sense of eternity. We have no other recourse but to come to it ourselves by putting into practice the necessary requirements for this attainment; which briefly, is a self-refining, self-transcending process. Not an easy road, by any means, and not particularly attractive for the average aspirant but one which is fraught with all manner of high and rich inner adventure. Only the brave and daring spirit could embark on such a venture. Any other might carry within himself the faith in such a divine reality beyond his self-consciousness that is eternally himself, and let that be a source of strength, adoration and salvation for him; but that he does not, cannot, live this faith, keeps him ever vulnerable to the contingencies and relations of his life, which he may very well prefer; and which is fine so long as his life takes on a higher meaning in his faith that supports him in his daily life and in his relations with others.
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Preface
The following personal account is true, and was written and tape-recorded as the thoughts and feelings occurred to me, “on the spot,” so to speak, when I was between 40 and 41 years old. Rather than tamper with the authenticity of these thought-feelings, I leave them as they were recorded without editing other than the odd lack of clarity
To offset any skepticism from my readers, let me say right off that my life at this point has been mainly contemplative, private and uneventful, except for the adventures in my mind. I am normally heterosexual, am fairly much emotionally and psychologically stable, am university educated in philosophy, and am concerned with the advancement of our species through my writings. I have never taken drugs nor have I drunk alcohol except minimally on one or two occasions in my early twenties.
PROLOGUE
I have been in another state
Of consciousness beyond all self:
"Where" nothing is pure everything,
And power radiates in bliss.
This state it comes at its behest,
I cannot bring it on at will;
But this I know beyond a doubt:
I've had to be receptive too.
It comes upon me...just like that!
There I was, then Here I am:
Transported into purity,
Bathed in the light-dark of power's bliss.
First day, October 8, 1981
All this crazy optimism in people – in myself.
And those closest to us now will one day most likely be farthest from us.
Nothing outside of us is really ours. We are essentially alone in ourselves; and this can be very lonely at times.
We don't really change.
Nothing is certain – but even that is not certain. So where are we?
I think as though I want freedom, but I don't live as though I do – not for more than a day or two anyway.
I'm tired of all this seeking for the so-called ultimate of things, the essential reality, and all those nonsense words. It's nothing but a grasp – a gasp, in truth – for air, as far as I can see.
RIGHT! - This is the word that seems to have any meaning to me now.
I overeat and I'm overweight and I can't stop it. The incentive is not there; but I feel that I need that incentive, however illusionary. I don't think anymore that it is a spiritual incentive. More realistically, it's an aesthetic incentive – I can't bear the ugliness of my having a protruding stomach. Slender is beautiful in my eyes, is indicative of a person more concerned with the mind than the body, and so of a fine cast. Besides, I like the idea of appearing slender to the opposite sex. I want to feel as an artist not only in my writing, but in my form, my appearance, my gait. That's more to the truth, I think, than any spiritual incentive not to be overweight.
Sexual arousal – this has been the thorn in my spiritual side for all these many years that I can in no way, it seems, extricate. I love women and I love lust – and this is as candidly honest as I can get. Anyone can fill in the details from there. I could never admit this to myself before now; but there it is in words, out in the open: I love my lusts. Actually it's a love and hate relationship in that I really hate them, but at the same time – or at another time – love them for their pleasure and ease of tensions. I don't want them, but I really do, since my body and mind continually call on them. I'm embarrassed by them, and was for a long time ashamed by and disgusted with them; but what can you do; there they are. I have a strong sense of modesty in front of people, but when the old letch is on me, sexual release is all that matters.
But all this is nothing new with humans, is it? It's just that I'm saying it.
I want to suspend all hope. I don't know if I can.
I feel discouraged, despondent; and I don't care.
We die and that's the end of it all – all of the bubble world and words of other-wordly seekings.
Protagoras: Man is the measure of all things.
Pope: Know then thyself, presume not God to scan.
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Precisely my sentiments at this time.
I'm afraid of being afraid, that I'll fail myself in time of trial, in the "evil days." Spiritual enlightenment and commitment are supposed to quell this fear; but I wonder, as in my case, whether it is not fundamental manliness that quells it? In the few times that I've faced up to the fearsome, I've had no sense of spiritual strength, but rather the strength in knowing that I am doing the right, honorable thing. This type of fearlessness is essentially – has to be essentially- moral and manly; not spiritual
I intend to block out all transcendent thoughts – and that's all they are: thoughts. I don't want to be concerned with spiritual matters anymore. As a matter of fact, I feel quite indifferent to higher matters right now; and it feels good; and it feels like a mighty load off my mind.
To just not care anymore. What a release!
For so many years I've been on this spiritual gig – and that's the way I feel about it right now: that it's been a gig – and my whole life's endeavor since my mid-twenties, and my writings, have been mostly based on it; and now if I have to give it all up, and if it's all been a waste, a chase after wind, then very well, let me start afresh; let me get closer to the truth of the matter. I'm living, I'm thinking, I'm feeling, I'm eating, drinking, eliminating, working; one day I'm up, next day I'm down; one day optimistic, the next pessimistic; happy, sad; hopeful, despairing, angry, happy, loving hating, assured not assured, excited, calm, wanting to be alone, wanting to be with others, interested, disinterested-the whole gamut of opposites and diversities, and diversions; all this life-play of tensions. This is it, here and now. Why am I up in the clouds?
For some time now I've held that it's not that I want to end suffering – the Buddhist way, but that I want to bear suffering. ...I wonder, though, if that's true; whether in fact I want to end suffering; that the wanting to deal with suffering is in fact wanting to end it, or at least ease it considerably knowing that I have a transcendent entity supporting me. Oh, we are devious in our minds when it comes to pleasures and pains! We set up our theories that seem transcendent of our humanness, but in reality they seem ultimately to be reduced to the rather simple physio-psychological truths of elemental needs and wants. . . .Or is there really some "Beyond" that I intuit – I'm getting tired of this word "intuit"? Stop it! Don't even think of it.
Sense pleasures! They get me every time. There's no getting around them, that's for sure, regardless of all spiritual endeavors and devotions, regardless of the promise of spiritual serenity and joy. They tingle, they thrill, they dominate; they're intense, they're momentary; they release physical and psychic tensions, are indiscriminate, and want their due regardless of judgment, control or resolve-relax these an iota, and pleasure runs free, if not wild.
What tensions and pains do bodily pleasures relieve? – those of hunger, boredom, sex, restlessness, futility, emptiness, rejection, failure, confusion, humiliation, thirst, cold, disappointment, malaise, loneliness, guilt, self-abnegation, of not being loved or needed, of the awareness of the injustices and horrors in life and human life – and on and on.
And what kinds of pleasures do we turn to, and are impelled to, to soothe the blisters of our human condition? – those of the palate, of the genitals, of alcohol, of pills and drugs, of entertainment, travel, of love affairs – anything for release! Ah, the sweet balm, the Lethe, of pleasure!
And what of psychological pleasures that relieve tension and pain? Self-pity does it; so does the bent for self-destruction; and then there are our sundry fantasies, illusions, and delusions that help; pride and the sense of superiority help too; intellectual diversions are a great antidote as well. And if I were to go into the collective mind of our humanity, I would witness a kaleidoscope of such pleasuring thoughts as:
"I'm somebody. I'm loved. I'm needed. I'm successful. I'm doing something worthwhile. I'm rather quite good looking. This child is mine. This woman (man) is mine. Look at all my possessions. I'm eight miles high.
"Look how people look up to me, love me, admire me, honor me. How important I am, how special. I have the world in my hand...I am the world! What power I feel! I'm bursting with energy and verve!
"I have an idea that will capture the minds of everyone; will make me a fortune; will benefit the world.
"I'm an artist. I'm a scientist. I'm a poet. I'm a philosopher. I'm a tycoon. I'm the boss. I'm the president. I'm a millionaire.
"I'm a man. How manly, how masculine, I am; how desirable to women. She cares for me! I can't stop the rapture of thinking of her all the time.
"Ah, this music! How it lifts me, how beautiful it makes me feel. I'm going out tomorrow and conquer the world, do what I've always wanted to do, win that woman. How music gets to the primitive in me, the emotional in me, the sentimental in me.
"Here comes the urge again! Damn!...Good! I don't want to give in to it...but then I do – I must. Can't help it! Quick! To the refrigerator, to a drink, to that arousal, to that lust. Got to get out of the house: to where people are, to where things are happening. I think I'll go to a movie. I think I'll go shopping. I have all this money; I've got to spend it on something. I'll read. I'll watch television. I'll do the crossword puzzle. I'll call my friend. – I've got to do something; I can't just sit here doing nothing, or meditating. Why don't I join some group.
"I need to be stimulated; to be seen; to shine among others. I have to express myself. I can't just waste my talent. Life is passing me by. I have so much to offer: my knowledge, my expertise, my personality, my example, my desirability. I've been put here for a reason; I'm going to help change the world.
"The money that's rolling in! And the offers, and the letters. How lucky can a person be! I'm the man of the hour.
"Ah, what a delicious meal; and this soothing wine. Oh, good, here comes the dessert. Nothing like the palate to soothe the body and mind.
"What's that, sir? You say that all these pleasures of the flesh and mind ar
e naught but vanity, are but straw compared to the joys of the soul? No doubt you are right, dear master of eternal wisdom, and I'll listen to you with all my heart and mind and soul; and, yes, you inspire me to the heights, to the upper regions of pure consciousness. But then I have to go home later, and you won't be with me, and I'll be back at the mercy of my moods, impulses, urges, desires, passions, needs, fears, anxieties, problems; and when these hurt, which is often enough I can tell you, I know only my familiar pleasures to ease them. I get immediate sense and appetitive pleasure; I don't have to meditate, contemplate, or pray to feel pleasure. All I have to do is put a sweet in my mouth, and pleasure happens; all I have to do is turn on the television set or music, and pleasure happens; all I have to do is think sex, and off I go. It is instant pleasure that I need to soothe my "troubled breast." What do your joys of the soul have to offer to match these pleasures? I have felt your joys of the soul often enough – I'm no novice to this area – but then a woman, who "walks in beauty" passes by, and back to my humanness I am. I'm slighted or insulted, and all inner calm vanishes; I'm ready to attack. My anger and strife seem always to get the better of me; they throw me off course without warning.
"What, by the way, is your particular 'thorn in the side,' sir? And isn't solitude a necessary component in the tranquil life of the spirit? But I can't be with myself for any length of time; I'm too active, too energetic, too hyper, to sit in still and silence for long. What is your antidote to this spiritual failing in me? Perhaps when I'm older and slower and freer from the tensions of pleasure and pain, wants and needs, solitude will have more meaning to me. But what about now? Am I cut off from a consistent joy of the spirit until I age. But will I want it then? Will it have any meaning for me then when I'm troubled by so many aches and pains accompanying old age? Where does spiritual solace come in then? So, either I'm on the wrong track, sir, or – forgive me for saying it – you are.
"I know I'm drowning in my world sense pleasures, and I don't know how to swim; and it looks as though I don't much care to learn. So you doubtlessly have wasted your time on me. I'm a lost soul, I suppose. But I have the consolation of being in my majority. If you're going to teach me anything, teach me how to live amidst my pleasures and pains. Please don't suggest that I eliminate them; you won't succeed, you can't succeed. Let us praise diversity as well as unity. Let us not lose our humanness, however base it can get. If anything, let us integrate our so-called soul with our humanness. Let us have a cheerful wisdom, not an austere one. What? You say that pleasure and joy can never be reconciled, harmonized? Well, that may be your experience – your limited experience, if I may be so bold as to say – but your experience is not the total human experience for all times.
"You have said that if one out of a thousand gets your message, and puts it into practice, you have succeeded; you have saved a soul. Well, surely you can do better than that, sir! I would think you need a more effective approach to get across your truth – which, don't misunderstand me, I am very amenable to. Please, my dear master, come back to reality - my reality, which as I've said, is not in the minority. You're overlooking a whole side of human life in your teaching – or if not over-looking, then minimizing it – which makes your fine teachings of the beautiful and the good and the pure and the spiritual a two dimensional image. Probe the phenomena of pleasure and pain, desire and evil - not from the old Buddhist or Hindu or Christian or Judaic approach, which are, for all practical purposes as outmoded as the Olympian gods. These religions addressed a far simpler mentality than ours. What ordinary man could eliminate desire? Go egoless? Think of God always? Turn the other cheek? End thought? - Have you not heard of Descartes' "I think, therefore I am?"
"And so, my gentle and compassionate teacher, open up to diversity, to complexity, to opposition, to the blood of life; and then will your wisdom of eternity and unity and bliss take on meaning for me. Don't kill my ego; refine it."
…
Late Evening:
But there is a pure Reality! And in life! I've experienced it. It's real, and it's in the mind. And if only one man experienced it, it would thereby stands as a testimony, a reality, for all men whether they experience it or not.
I can't deny this pure reality, because I've experienced it directly twice; and not to mention all the sages and mystics and unknown individuals who have experienced it as well.
The first time I experienced It (I capitalize "It".) was in a dream a year or so ago. I was about to be executed by rifle. A blindfold was put on me, and I waited. The shots were fired, and in that instant I was projected into a pure conscious dimension of effulgent bliss. I – not the self-conscious "I" – was nothing but this pure bliss consciousness. It was glorious. Continuing in the dream, my mind was brought back to reality again; and again they fired at me; and again I was projected into this pure conscious state of bliss. It happened once more that I returned to my self-consciousness, and again they fired on me, and I died on the instant, being projected into this pure state again. In this pure reality, nothing existed but an infinite sea of radiant consciousness. It was consciousness, pure and simple, and nothing else. It was not a consciousness of this or that, or of anything; but simply consciousness itself.
I awoke from the dream and was emotionally overcome with awe and wonder and ecstasy. I said to myself, "I've tasted death; I was dead, and death is glory." I couldn't believe what had happened to me. And though my "death" occurred in a dream, the reality of it seemed more real than my waking consciousness. But then my questioning mind entered, and brought home to me that it was only a dream; I was not actually dead, and so this pure reality I experienced (if I may called it an experience) was merely a dream state. Though somehow I couldn't accept rational analysis in this case, for it seemed too real to be a chimerical dream; and furthermore, such a pure state of consciousness has no reference point of empirical experience.
I quickly leapt out of bed and turned to my books for some verification of this divine experience, and found, to my great joy, the following reassurances from ancient and modern Eastern sources-I knew none from Western sources:
When the soul is in the land of dreams, then all the worlds belong to the soul.
- The Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad
The Spirit of man has two dwellings: this world and the world beyond. There is also
a third dwelling place: the land of sleep and dreams. Resting in this borderland the
Spirit of man can behold his dwelling in this world and in the other world afar, and
wandering in this borderland he beholds behind him the sorrows of this world and in
front of him he sees the joys of the beyond.
- The Supreme Teaching
If God be real He must remain always. You remain in sleep and in wakefulness just the
same. If God be as true as your Self, God must be in sleep as well as the Self.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
It is through dream and sleep-of trance which can be regarded as a kind of
dream or sleep-that the surface mental consciousness normally passes out of
the perception of objective things into the inner subliminal and the superior
supramental or overmental status. In that inner condition it sees the supraphysi-
cal realities in transcribing figures of dream or vision or, in the superior status,
it loses itself in a massed consciousness of which it can receive no thought or
image. It is through this subliminal and this superconscient condition that we can
pass into the supreme superconscience of the highest state of self-being.
Yajnavlkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states very positively that there
are two planes or states of the being which are two worlds, and that in the dream
state one can see both worlds, for the dream state is intermediate between them,
it is their joining-plane. This makes it clear that he is speaking of a subliminal
condition of consciousness which can carry in it communications between the
physical and the supraphysical worlds.
- Aurobindo
…
Needless to say, this dream vision transformed my whole mental outlook, dispelled all disbelief and doubt, and ratified the tenor of my spiritual consciousness. I, of course, still had my sensuality, and my ego to some extent, to deal with; but essentially my life had been confirmed in this transcendent realm. It's reality has never been doubted by me since.
But there is more. Not only have I experienced this pure reality in sleep, but in a definitely awakened state as well. It occurred a number of months after the dream vision. It was my second day into a 40-day spiritual retreat I had undergone in the evenings at home after work. This retreat required that I did nothing but be with myself: with my thoughts, moods and sensations. I went into the desert of my soul, as I called it, hoping to reach the soul of my being and to integrate it into my daily life. This latter aspiration, by the way, didn't work, as I expected it would at the time; still, it was an advancement for me to have undergone such a rewarding "soul-struggle," as well as the divine state of consciousness I slid into. Without saying anything more, let me flashback to the notes I took of that memorable, ineffable Experience. The evening before, I had been simply observing myself in my thoughts, sensations, feelings; and let my notes-written or orally recorded "on the spot, " so to speak-on this "self-observing" process, as I called it, serve as a prologue to the next evening's gradual development to my Experience.
But before I do, let me set up the tenor of this spiritual retreat, as I called it at the time, to give a feel of the purpose and activity of this venture.
Actually, this retreat, to which I'm referring, was the third one, five months after the first retreat (which failed on the second day) and three weeks after the second retreat (which lasted three days). I'll cite some passages from the first two retreats to get across my point that they were no "breeze."
FIRST RETREAT
Dec. 13, 1978
Evening
My first retreat. I had a sudden desire to go on it this morning - where did it come from?
The plan of my retreat: no reading, no writing, no television, no converse with anyone – not even with my beloved woman friend, Celeste during that part of day I devote to the retreat; nothing except to record the experience as it happens.
Am sitting in the living room alone with nothing to do but be with myself. I plan to sit doing nothing for two hours. It's very pleasant so far.
A half hour later. I'm beginning to feel restless. I don't know how I'm going to last the full two hours. It's not as easy or soothing as I thought it would be.
The telephone rings. Celeste answers it. I'm hoping it's for me so to break this monotony.
I'm moving around very restlessly; and, on top of it, I'm beginning to get cold.
I intend to continue this retreat through the Christmas vacation from teaching. How in the world am I going to last through two weeks if I can hardly be with myself doing nothing for two hours.
Why am I doing this? What prompted me? I want so much to reach my eternal nature that I feel the only way I'm going to get to It on a continuous basis is to learn to quiet my ego-sensual nature, so that I make myself receptive to whatever this eternal nature is.
I'm hoping that Celeste would call or come downstairs to see me; anything to break this monotony - though not through my own doing.
All kinds of thoughts are passing through my mind to free me from my resolve.
An hour and fifteen minutes have passed. Believe me, I'm counting the minutes! I feel as though I'm punishing myself.
If this is so difficult for me, then why don't I give it up? Because I know it's going to be difficult; I know my vital nature is not going to take this inner quiet inactivity lying down. It's going to fight like a demon to have its due, which are stimulation and diversion and enjoyments. Well, I'm ready for the fight. ...Or perhaps tomorrow will be a little easier.
This just sitting in one spot doing nothing is almost unbearable; yet I said I would sit here for two hours, and I intend to do just that.
I somehow can think of nothing but the fact that I am sitting here suffering. I've tried repeatedly to think of the metaphysics of the Eternal Reality, but with no success.
Only fifteen minutes to go! Oh, blessed relief!
The two hours are up. I did it.
Am in bed now and a hundred percent more comfortable than sitting in a sofa chair. Lying down here makes my inner solitude much more palatable. Tomorrow, I'll stay in bed on my vigil; not sit again. I have to make this retreat as easy as possible, otherwise, I know I'll throw it over.
How long will this retreat last before I join hands with my eternal nature? Days? Weeks? Months? Can I hold out however long it takes? Can I neither read nor write – my two important, pleasant, self-defining activities – for an extended period of time? I was about to answer that I wasn't sure; but second thoughts told me that reaching my Soul was far more important than reading or writing, or anything else for that matter. These thoughts inspired further confidence that I'll do without these two important activities until I gain my goal.
A sweet sensation just spread through me of how important, of how right, of how essential, is the inner trek that I've taken upon myself. I must go through with it! I will! I will not fail myself, not this time...not this time. My determination is set; nothing will stop me. I want my inner quietude, my inner freedom, my equanimity, my joy of the Eternal too much for me to fail myself.
This retreat is really, in effect, going into the desert (for forty days?) – the desert of my soul.
… continued
SECOND RETREAT
...
Third day
Morning
I awaken and my retreat seems to have lost its savor, its luster and purpose. Even so, it matters not; I'm to stay with it regardless of my moods.
I've been too busy at teaching this morning to give much attention to my inner quiet; but I notice that overall I'm being short with my students. I don't feel relaxed. I feel as though I'm being driven, pressured, by I know not what; as though every little thing matters much more than it should.
Have controlled my eyes much more this morning.
Afternoon
Again I'm tempted to drop this retreat and to return to my normal, fluctuating, unsatisfying little groping self. Still, I'll not think of it.
My retreat is over again. I have once again fallen back to my normal daily routine. I'm still not strong enough, still not ready enough; the world is too much with me.
I don't feel crushed, nor even disappointed; I'm simply not thinking of it. I'm too accustomed to my vagaries to be surprised at my failings, weaknesses, vulnerabilities.
Oh, well. At least I lasted longer at this attempt than my first one.
… continued
It was during the next retreat three weeks later that IT happened, and which kept me on a forty-day retreat. Since this retreat is the one that tipped the scales for me in my transition from a primarily intellectual life to a primarily transcendent life - not religious, nor even a spiritual life in the sense of a being a devotee of God. I'll go through the main highlights of my notes to get the proper perspective as to what I gained by my Experience.
THIRD RETREAT
May 9, 1979
Evening
Well, here I am again at another attempt at a spiritual retreat. This time, however, I'm not so intense about it. I simply slid into it, so to speak. I simply want to; and that is all there is to it. Somehow my subconscious faith in the efficacy, the rightness, of this retreat predominates, and has quietly moved me to try again. I feel much more relaxed this time, with no set determination to do this or that. I just want to quietly sit or lie alone with myself, and let what happens happen, let what thoughts come, come. I'm tired of reading the spiritual ideas and experiences, and theories of others: Zen, Buddhism, Vedanta, and the rest. Somehow their way, their spiritual psychology is too unrealistic for me, for the average sensual, though sensitive, individual living in a practical world. There are too many conflicting, short-sighted, statements in these religious or philosophical theories. They somehow do not get to the pith of the spiritual dilemma of Western man. What they claim as natural is in fact supernatural. One religion says don't think at all; another says don't resist thoughts for that is simply continuing the I-process with all its memories and conflicts; another religion says think of God – and it goes on and on.
I want no more of it. I'm going to find my own way , through my own inner delving. Of course, there is some truth to what all the various religions have to propound; but there is too much bewilderment for me, and so continuous unrest; and it is this unrest I don't want. And so, here I go again into my self. I want to make my own distillation of all that I've read without any distractions.
The normally expected desire to write just past through my mind; and instead of rejecting it, I simply accepted it, observed it, and adopted a smiling attitude of an observer quite familiar with such desires, but with no intent of satisfying them; simply because it is not worth satisfying. This is what I feel now; yet, will I be able to continue to be so relaxed and objective about such normally pervasive desires? We'll see.
Relaxed acceptance - that is the key. This is by no means a passive, unconcerned acceptance, but a dynamic, observant, active, creative, effective acceptance.
Another key: self-observance - just quietly observing oneself in a relaxed manner; not falling prey to oneself so as not to lose this quiet, relaxed observant attitude.
This self-observance is not a probing, nor a psychological, analysis; but is rather a passive, though controlled, acceptance of one's mental and physical states.
… continued
__________________________________________________________________________
VOLUME TWO
|
HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE
A Love-Wisdom
Eminent and Perceptive Persons
Edited By
Joseph Sguigna
INTRODUCTION
Some Contemporary Thoughts of Wisdom
[The following passages from scholars sum up the contemporary view of the need of
wisdom in our times – and in all times.]
"Whatever wisdom is, it is complex, and not easy to describe. Yet isn't it important that we attempt to do just that? How can we hope to integrate wisdom into our lives if the concept isn't clear and we don't have the words to talk about it?
"Wisdom is a state of the human mind characterized by profound understanding and deep insight. It is often, but not necessarily, accompanied by extensive formal knowledge. Unschooled people can acquire wisdom, and wise people can be found among carpenters, fishermen, or housewives. Wherever it exists, wisdom shows itself as a perception of the relativity and relationships among things. It is an awareness of wholeness that does not lose sight of particularity or concreteness, or of the intricacies of interrelationships. It is where left and right brain come together in a union of logic and poetry and sensation, and where self-awareness is no longer at odds with awareness of the otherness of the world. Wisdom cannot be confined to a specialized field, nor is it an academic discipline; it is the consciousness of wholeness and integrity that transcends both. Wisdom is complexity understood and relationships accepted.
"John White's inaugural address (1994) offers some encouragement for those who would ask with trepidation why wisdom is not currently a goal of education in contemporary Western society. White argues for "an alternative
picture of personal flourishing suitable for a non-religious society" (3). His basic thought "is that non-religious citizens need frameworks within which to make sense of their existence, both at the social and at the cosmic level" (3). His main question is whether "personal well-being needs to be understood against some kind of cosmic framework" (7). He identifies six values associated with personal well-being which invoke some cosmic consideration:
If the cosmos is not the source of values, it does provide the ultimate framework within which
values exist.
Nature, either in particular manifestations or globally, can be the object of many of our values.
Nature pleasures have their roots, if only as a matter of explanation and not justification, in our animal
nature.
Many feel attachment to nature as our dwelling place.
Many feel delight in the beauty of the natural world.
A sense of wonder by the very existence of anything at all is warranted.
"The first task is to understand what might be entailed by wisdom. Essentialist and stipulative approaches to definition must be disregarded – the first because it is impossible; the second because it is arbitrary. Wisdom has never been confined to a single meaning, though this does not mean that any definition will do. Wisdom has multiple meanings, some of which contrast sharply with others, while some will overlap. The concept is not tidy. Several characteristics are associated with wisdom. Biblical [from the Wisdom Books] examples are used to illustrate these points.
"Wisdom always refers to a state of mind that is judged to be good. This point is reminiscent of the one R.S. Peters once made about education: it would be odd to say of someone that she was wise but the worse for it. It would be equally odd to say of her that she was wise but unethical.
"The possession of wisdom is both a cognitive (part of ones understanding) and an affective matter (part of ones feelings and, thus, a source of motivation). While some wisdom may be encapsulated in precepts, it cannot be fully appreciated if it is simply learned by rote.
"Cosmological wisdom broadens the horizons of concern. It rests on a Weltanschauung), or world-view, and lays out how a person can live in harmony with the world. Toulmin puts it this way in The Return to Cosmology: Postmodern Science and the Theology of Nature (1982)
This ambition [to talk about the Universe as a Whole] has reflected the need to
recognize where we stand in the world into which we have been born, to grasp
our place in the scheme of things, and to feel at home within it.
"This last passage is in a way reminiscent of some statements the Carl Jung made regarding man's need of a religious, or spiritual, outlook in life – or as he titled one of his books: Man in Search of a Soul."
I have treated many hundreds of patients, the larger number being Protestants, a smaller number
Jews, and not more than five or six believing Catholics. Among all my patients in the second half of
life – that is to say, over thirty-five – there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was
not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that everyone of them fell ill because he
had lost that which the living religions of every age have given to their followers, and none of them
has been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook. This of course has nothing whatever
to do with a particular creed or membership of a church.
It seems to me, that, side by side with the decline of religious life, the neuroses grow noticeable
more frequent. ... Among my patients from many countries, all of them educated persons, there is a
considerable number who came to see me, not because they were suffering from a neurosis, but
because they could find no meaning in life or were torturing themselves with questions which neither
present-day philosophy nor religion could answer. Some of them perhaps thought that I knew of a
magic formula, but I was soon forced to tell them that I, too, had no answer to give. I have found
that modern man has an ineradicable aversion for traditional opinions and 'inherited truths, He is a
Bolshevist for whom all the spiritual standards and forms of the past have lost their validity, and who
therefore wants to experiment in the world of the spirit as the Bolshevist experiments with economics.
When confronted with this modern attitude, every ecclesiastical system is in a parlous state, be it Catholic,
Protestant, Buddhist, or Confucian. People no longer feel themselves to have been redeemed but the
death of Christ.
I heard a patient exclaim: “If only I knew that my life had some meaning and purpose, then there
would be no silly story about my nerves”.
General conceptions of a spiritual nature are indispensable constituents of psychic life. We can point
them among all peoples whose level of consciousness makes them in some degree articulate. Their
relative absence or their denial by a civilized people is therefore to be regarded as a sign of degeneration.
Hunter
The Nature of Wisdom
ANCIENT PERSPECTIVES
[From The Old Testament-Wisdom Books: Ecclesiastes, Sirach, The Wisdom of Solomon, The Proverbs]
1. In her [wisdom] there is a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent and pure and most subtle.
2. For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things. For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal life, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.
3. Though she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets; for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail. She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well.
4. Kinship with wisdom there is immortality, and in friendship with her, pure delight, and in the labors of her hands, unfailing wealth, and in the experience of her company, understanding, and renown in sharing her words, I went about seeking how to get for myself.
…
8. Happy is the man who gains wisdom, and the man who gets understanding, for the gain from it is better than gain from silver and its profits better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy.
…
Augustine
1. Wisdom is the knowledge of divine things
2. Wisdom is the charity of God.
St. Gregory
Wisdom is a remedy against folly.
Heraclitus
1. Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth, giving heed to the nature of things.
2. Wisdom is one and unique; it is unwilling and yet willing to be called by the name of Zeus [God, the Creator of all being]
3. Wisdom is one – to know the intelligence by which all things are steered through all things.
Plato
1. The virtue of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable.
2. When a man is always occupied with the cravings of desire and ambition, and is eagerly striving to satisfy them, all his thoughts must be mortal, and as far as it is possible altogether to become such, he must be mortal every whit, because he has cherished his mortal part. But he who has been earnest in the love of knowledge and of true wisdom, and has exercised his intellect more than any other part of him, must have thoughts immortal and divine, if he attain truth, and in so far as human nature is capable of sharing in immortality, he must altogether be immortal; and since he is ever cherishing the divine power, and has the divinity within him in perfect order, he will be perfectly happy. Now there is only one way of taking care of things, and this is to give each the food and motion which are natural to it. And the motions which are naturally akin to the divine principle within us are the thoughts and revolutions of the universe. These each man should follow, and correct the courses of the head which were corrupted at our birth, and by learning the harmonies and revolutions of the universe, should assimilate the thinking being to the thought, renewing his original nature, and having assimilated them should attain to that perfect life which the gods have set before mankind, both for the present and the future.
Aristotle
1. We do not regard any of the senses as Wisdom; yet surely these give the most authoritative knowledge of particulars. But they do not tell us the 'why' of anything – e.g. why fire is hot; they only say that it is hot.
2 All men suppose what is called Wisdom to deal with the first causes and the principles of things, so that the man of experience is thought to be wiser than the possessors of any sense-perception whatever, the artist wiser than men of experience, the master-worker than the mechanic, and theoretical kinds of knowledge to be more of the nature of Wisdom than the productive. Clearly then Wisdom is knowledge about certain principles and causes.
3. Theoretical wisdom comprises both scientific knowledge and apprehension by the intelligence of things which by their nature are valued most highly. That is why it is said that men like Anaxagoras and Thales have theoretical but not practical wisdom: when we see that they do not know what is advantageous to them, we admit that they know extraordinary, wonderful, difficult, and superhuman things, but call their knowledge useless because the good they are seeking is not human. Practical wisdom, on the other hand, is concerned with human affairs and with matters about which deliberation is possible.
Cicero
Wisdom is the knowledge of things human and divine and of the causes by which those things are controlled.
St. Thomas Aquinas
1. The wisdom which is called a gift of the Holy Ghost, differs from that which is an acquired intellectual virtue, for the latter is attained by human effort, whereas the latter is descending from above.
2. It belongs to the gift of wisdom to judge according to the Divine truth. Hence the gift of wisdom presupposes faith...
3. It belongs to the wisdom that is an intellectual virtue to pronounce right judgment about Divine things after reason has made its inquiry, but it belongs to wisdom as a gift of the Holy Ghost to judge aright about them on account of connaturally with them."
4. Wisdom which is a gift, has its cause in the will, which cause is charity, but it has its essence in the intellect, whose act is to judge aright..." Wisdom (sapientia) takes its name, insofar as it denotes a certain sweetness (saporem)
…
Buddha
The fact is there is only one world – there are not two worlds...People think there are two worlds by the activity of their own minds. If they could get rid of these false judgments and keep their minds pure with the light of wisdom, then they would see only one world and that world bathed in the light of wisdom.
Aeschylus
1. He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
2. It is high advantage for a wise man not to seem wise.
Sophocles
1. There is no happiness where there is no wisdom
2. Much wisdom often goes with fewest words.
3. Wisdom outweighs any wealth.
4. No wisdom but in submission to the gods [the eternal nature of things]
Seneca
1. Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.
2. Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do, as well as talk, and to make our words and actions all of a color.
3. Wisdom is the perfect good of the human mind; philosophy is the love of wisdom and the endeavor to attain it.
4. Wisdom, which is the only liberty.
Epictetus
1. The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.
2. He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
Juvenal
1. Wisdom is the conqueror of fortune.
2. Wisdom first teaches what is right.
3. Nature never says one thing and wisdom another
Plautus
Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.
Cato the Elder
Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
Pliny The Elder
No one is wise at all times.
Terence
True wisdom consists not only in seeing what is before your eyes, but in foreseeing what is to come.
Horace
1. Dare to be wise.
2. To flee from folly is the beginning of wisdom.
Cicero
1. They call him the wisest man to whose mind that which is required at once occurs.
2. The wise man does nothing of which he can repent, nothing against his will, but does everything nobly, consistently, soberly, rightly.
From Tao The King
Without going beyond his own nature, one can achieve ultimate wisdom.
Confucius
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection which is noblest;
second, by imitation, which is the easiest;
and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
From the Maitri Upanishad
The mind should be kept in the heart [as the image of love] as long as it has not reached the Highest End. This is wisdom, and this is liberation. Everything else is only words.
From the Taittiriya Upanishad
May the light of sacred knowledge illumine us, and may we attain the glory of wisdom.
From the Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad
While we are here in this life we may reach the light of wisdom; and if we reach it not, how deep is the darkness. Those who see the light enter life eternal: those who live in darkness enter into sorrow.
From The Upanishads
The childish go after outward pleasures;
They walk into the net of widespread death.
But the wise, knowing immortality,
Seek not the stable among things which are unstable here.
From The Bhagavad Gita
1. Seers in union with wisdom forsake the rewards of their work.
2. A constant yearning to know the inner Spirit, and a vision of Truth which gives liberation: this is true wisdom leading to vision. All against this is ignorance.
3. When in recollection he withdraws all his senses from the attractions of the pleasure of sense, even as a tortoise withdraws all its limbs, then his is a serene wisdom.
4. When the heart has found quietness, wisdom has also found peace.
5. When the mind becomes bound to a passion of the wandering senses, this passion carries away man's wisdom, even as the wind drives a vessel on the waves.
6. He whose undertakings are free from anxious desire and fanciful thought, whose work is made pure in the fire of wisdom: he is called wise by those who see.
7. He has attained liberation: he is free from all bonds, his mind has found peace in wisdom, and his work is a holy sacrifice. The work of such a man is pure.
8. There is nothing like wisdom which can make us pure on this earth. The man who lives in self-harmony finds this truth in his soul.
9. He who has faith has wisdom, who lives in self-harmony, whose faith in his life; and he finds wisdom, soon finds the peace Supreme.
10. Kill therefore with the sword of wisdom the doubt born of ignorance that lies in thy heart. Be one in self-harmony in Yoga [divine union], and arise, great warrior, arise.
From Buddhist Scriptures
1. Blessed is he who has attained the sacred state of Buddhahood [spiritual enlightenment], for he is fit to work out the salvation of his fellow-beings. The truth has taken its abode in him. Perfect wisdom illumines his understanding, and righteousness ensouls the purpose of all his actions.
2. To neglect wisdom will lead to failure in life. The teachings of all religions should center here, for without wisdom there is no reason.
3. Learning is a good thing; but it availeth not. True wisdom can be acquired by practice only.
4. Be strict with speech, control your mind, let not the body do evil. This is the way to wisdom.
5. Meditation brings wisdom, lack of meditation is folly….How can one without wisdom meditate? How can one without meditation be wise? Both together, meditation and wisdom, lead to Nirvana [ Pure Bliss; Enlightenment]
6. Small pleasures given up for a larger joy – this is the way of the wise, the far-seeing man.
From The Crest Jewel of Wisdom
1. The scriptures declare that true wisdom is to know the oneness of the Eternal and the Self [one's inward divinity].
2. Whenever the seeker after wisdom makes a division, even no greater than an atom, in the infinite Eternal, what he beholds through negligent loss of recollection as separate from the Eternal, become for him a source of danger.
3. As the Masters who stand on the further shore and the Scriptures reveal, let the wise man cross over through that wisdom which comes through the divine grace of the Lord, the Logos [the rational Principle of the world]
4. I [the God of all being] am established within all beings through the Self of wisdom, secure within and without; I am both he who experiences and what is experienced, whatever was seen as separate before, with the thought of “that.”
From The Zen Teaching of Huang Po
1. What is called supreme perfect wisdom implies that there is really nothing whatever to be attained.
2. All wisdom and all holiness are but streaks of lightning. None of them have the reality of Mind.
From The Way of the Sufi / Ali
The honour of man is his learning. Wise people are torches lighting the path of truth. In knowledge lies man's opportunity for immortality. While man may die, wisdom lives eternally.
Chinese Proverb
The pine stays green in winter...Wisdom in hardship.
Matsuo Basho
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol
In seeking Wisdom, the first stage is silence,
the second listening,
the third remembrance,
the fourth practicing,
the fifth teaching.
Thomas Aquinas
1. Among all human pursuits, the pursuit of wisdom is more perfect, more noble, more useful, and more full of joy.
It is more perfect because, in so far as a man gives himself to the pursuit of wisdom, so far does he even now have some share in true beatitude. And so a wise man has said: “Blessed is the man that shall continue in wisdom." (Ecclus. 14:22)
It is more noble because though this pursuit man especially approaches to a likeness of God who "made all things in wisdom" (Ps. 103:24). And since likeness is the cause of love, the pursuit of wisdom especially joins man to God in friendship. That is why it is said of wisdom that “she is an infinite treasure to men! which they that use become the friends of God” (Wis. 7:14)
It is more useful because through wisdom we arrive at the kingdom of immortality. For “the desire of wisdom bringeth to the everlasting kingdom” (Wis. 6:21)
It is more full of joy because “'her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness' ( Wis. 7:16 )
2. From the very fact that wisdom as a gift is more excellent than wisdom as an intellectual virtue, since it attains to God more intimately by a kind of union of the soul with Him, it is able to direct us not only in contemplation but also in action.
… continued
MODERN PERSPECTIVES
Schopenhauer
1. If we go to bottom of the matter, all truth and wisdom, in fact the ultimate secret of things, is contained in everything actual…like gold hidden in the ore.
2. When I consider the vastness of the world, the most important thing is that the essence in itself, the phenomenon whereof is the world – be it whatever else it may – cannot have its true self stretched out and dispersed in such fashion is boundless space, but that this endless extension belongs simply and solely to its phenomenon or appearance. On the other hand, the inner being itself is present whole and undivided in everything in nature, in every living being. Therefore we lose nothing if we stop at any particular thing, and true wisdom is not to be acquired by our measuring the boundless world, or, what would be more appropriate, by our personally floating through endless space. On the contrary, it is acquired by thoroughly investigating any individual thing, in that we try thus to know and understand perfectly its true and peculiar nature.
3. Wisdom proper is something intuitive, not something abstract. It does not consist in principles and ideas which a person carries round ready in his head, as results of his own or others' investigation; it is the whole way in which the world presents itself in his head. This is so exceedingly different, that by reason of it the wise man lives in a different world from the fool, and the genius sees a world different from that of a dull-witted person.
