Well, Ahab hasn’t had any second thoughts about pursuing Moby Dick, and he still thinks Moby DIck isn’t pursuing him...
We’ve got to where we are by being what we are. If we want to be somewhere else, we have to be something else.
This may not be as utterly daunting as it sounds.
What if the change actually only involved being what we actually are, rather than what we have fearfully , deceitfully, arrogantly, bullyingly been pretending to be? The change would then be an affirmation of whatever rare wisdom the human race has shown in its history:
“Know Thyself”
“To thine own self be true”
“Consider the lillies of the field”
“The unexamined life is not worth living”
“Truth is a pathless land”
“Unless a man die and be born again he shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven”
“The Kingdom of Heaven is spread over the Earth and you do not see it”
“The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”
“All of the worlds problems can be explained by man’s inabilty to sit silently in a room by himself”
The illusory nature of existence is a common thread running through the revelations of humanity’s great teachers, regardless of time and geography. Maya is the fundamental nature of the vessel, apparent to all who sail in her, but seldom acknowledged.
Why don’t we want to call it like it is? It’s been said that “human kind can only bear so much reality”. Is that it? We prefer to accept an obvious lie for as long as we can. Then the storm carries our ship of fools onto the rocks of reality or spins it in a vortex down to the deep unconscious of the Sea. Oh Man - this is terrifying!
Is it really better than stopping for a breath, surveying our own personal experience and recognising that there are patterns in the infinitely varied events of this illusory existence. Not repetitions, but patterns - Waveforms, metaphors, poetic justice, epiphanies, resonances, sympathies, certitude (but no certainties), all of which have to do with our own observed experiences and whatever we can share of each other’s (thank God for language and art!)
Of course it ‘s immediately apparent that this is a very dangerous place. But better that than the current bloodshed, self-inflicted economic agony, and ignorance.
In a few short years the two major intellectual systems contrived by the Westernised mind to bring rational order to this uncooperative World have come apart at the seams. Communism proved it’s bankruptcy a little earlier (“COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!!!!” crows the the Capitalist as his trousers fall). Capitalism may not yet be finished disappointing it’s gullible Popes and Emperors and True Believers, but the writing on the wall is in the plain language of the repentant heart. ***
The schools of religion were full of human frailty and villainy. But it may still be worth having a thorough browse in their libraries. Those who speak with authority (authors of lives, not of books) aren’t like priests and interpreters and critics. Real authors write from within. Since it’s clear at the moment that we can’t look outside for truth or Truth, perhaps there are some useful guides somewhere for the journey inward.****
*** Somebody on BBC Radio4 last week offered the reminder that repentance originally meant nothing about shame, guilt or self-flagellation. It comes from the same root as ‘pensive’. ‘Penser’ is the French verb for the activity of thinking. It just means ‘think again’.
**** Have a look at A Guide for the Perplexed by E F Schumaker
Monday, 16 March 2009
