A brief addition to the last:
What has always puzzled me is that I know that we know a lot more than we let on to ourselves - that is, that we pretty much know what's coming our way, just as the trees do, but we don't let on to ourselves. I know this because I have run across my inner "overmind" - and it is like a benign, unobtrusive god, fascinated with the little fellow down below (it feels as if it is up above) and how he's dealing with his self-imposed (or outwardly imposed) blindness. In thinking of this, it comes to me that we know both our personal and cultural destiny - at least in probability. My theory is, that this overmind is perfectly aware of what our destiny should be, but is only very aware but not perfectly so as to what will actually happen. Like the growing tree, it cannot know certain outside incidentals (for instance, the park is sold for a condo development). This is only an analogy. The overmind knows us better than we know ourselves, but is not God - redemption and grace may be sought and obtained that the overmind would not know of for certain.
In the case of cultural - now world - destiny, I believe this is known to us in a similar way. We are headed in a certain direction, and the super-intelligence (that is, our overminds) know this - but this may be altered as it might be in the personal realm. Still - Jesus knew that the end would come, just not when. And that's what I would hang my hat on. We might, then, have several centuries to go yet. And what?, we might discover faster than light travel and get off this particular terrestrial cycle as well. On the other hand, that may never have the chance to occur before the end of the age.
I have been brought to think about this again, again with my reading, and again with the last chapters of Schuon's book. In it, he shows how Christianity is an esoteric - that is, essentially spiritual - "religion." I put religion in quotes because religious forms are by definition exoteric (outward signs, words, symbols, etc). Christ did not bring us religion, but Truth - but we genuinely cannot handle the truth. What Schuon makes of it is this: there is therefore an inherent instability within Christianity, its exoteric form clashing with the esoteric essence of Christ's message (all outer form is ultimately NOT the truth, as truth is ALL without exception. A religion, for the average man, cannnot be all.) Schuon goes on to explain that this was not only planned (of course, by a perfect God) but planned to be unstable to hasten the end of this last, most imperfect era - that is, our era. Christianity, then, is an act of mercy with its destabilization of human form - much like Jesus's relatively quick death was an act of mercy. We must suffer, but not longer than necessary.
And so Christianity, through its instability, facilitated the Renaissance which facilitated the Reformation, which facilitated the industrial rev, scientific and colonial imperialism and so on - down to the final stage. But the thing is, we know this, too. Several years ago, a friend admitted that he was anxiously awaiting disasters - this was before 9/II - and felt guilty about it. At the time, I passed it off as a desire for excitement, for some change in our ordinary humdrum life, but now I see it differently. Now I see that many of us are anxious for this era to end, as we know it will. We feel guilty about it because it involves some sort of misery, and we feel anxious about it because the misery will affect all of us, but still the desire is there. I liken it to the desire to get the root canal over with. Just get it done! But, really, how much better to have the tooth miraculously healed? We can hope and do what we can to stop the final dis. I suppose, in the contradictions that make up Christianity, that is what we're supposed to do. FK
What has always puzzled me is that I know that we know a lot more than we let on to ourselves - that is, that we pretty much know what's coming our way, just as the trees do, but we don't let on to ourselves. I know this because I have run across my inner "overmind" - and it is like a benign, unobtrusive god, fascinated with the little fellow down below (it feels as if it is up above) and how he's dealing with his self-imposed (or outwardly imposed) blindness. In thinking of this, it comes to me that we know both our personal and cultural destiny - at least in probability. My theory is, that this overmind is perfectly aware of what our destiny should be, but is only very aware but not perfectly so as to what will actually happen. Like the growing tree, it cannot know certain outside incidentals (for instance, the park is sold for a condo development). This is only an analogy. The overmind knows us better than we know ourselves, but is not God - redemption and grace may be sought and obtained that the overmind would not know of for certain.
In the case of cultural - now world - destiny, I believe this is known to us in a similar way. We are headed in a certain direction, and the super-intelligence (that is, our overminds) know this - but this may be altered as it might be in the personal realm. Still - Jesus knew that the end would come, just not when. And that's what I would hang my hat on. We might, then, have several centuries to go yet. And what?, we might discover faster than light travel and get off this particular terrestrial cycle as well. On the other hand, that may never have the chance to occur before the end of the age.
I have been brought to think about this again, again with my reading, and again with the last chapters of Schuon's book. In it, he shows how Christianity is an esoteric - that is, essentially spiritual - "religion." I put religion in quotes because religious forms are by definition exoteric (outward signs, words, symbols, etc). Christ did not bring us religion, but Truth - but we genuinely cannot handle the truth. What Schuon makes of it is this: there is therefore an inherent instability within Christianity, its exoteric form clashing with the esoteric essence of Christ's message (all outer form is ultimately NOT the truth, as truth is ALL without exception. A religion, for the average man, cannnot be all.) Schuon goes on to explain that this was not only planned (of course, by a perfect God) but planned to be unstable to hasten the end of this last, most imperfect era - that is, our era. Christianity, then, is an act of mercy with its destabilization of human form - much like Jesus's relatively quick death was an act of mercy. We must suffer, but not longer than necessary.
And so Christianity, through its instability, facilitated the Renaissance which facilitated the Reformation, which facilitated the industrial rev, scientific and colonial imperialism and so on - down to the final stage. But the thing is, we know this, too. Several years ago, a friend admitted that he was anxiously awaiting disasters - this was before 9/II - and felt guilty about it. At the time, I passed it off as a desire for excitement, for some change in our ordinary humdrum life, but now I see it differently. Now I see that many of us are anxious for this era to end, as we know it will. We feel guilty about it because it involves some sort of misery, and we feel anxious about it because the misery will affect all of us, but still the desire is there. I liken it to the desire to get the root canal over with. Just get it done! But, really, how much better to have the tooth miraculously healed? We can hope and do what we can to stop the final dis. I suppose, in the contradictions that make up Christianity, that is what we're supposed to do. FK
RSS Feed