Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Parousing God's Liberatory (12.22.10)

I was between the sheets of the forgettery too long last night -- which is to say I was reborn at the wrong time and late to mysoph this morning. Therefore, I have less time, nor timelessness, to remumble something overhead. I'll do my best to hurry up and slow down before I fail to catch a lila big One.

Now, to quote Tomberg again, "Forgetting, sleep, and death are stages basically of the same process." In contrast to them are remembering, awakening, and resurrection. Each of these latter three are reflections of the same process of "the return of what had been submerged in the darkness of the unconscious."

Memory is one of those everynow mysteries that most grunts seem to take for grunted. It is also one of those things that the cold hand of scientism unwittingly disfigures as a result of its ravenous form of "understanding" -- because of the very manner with which it understands. For simply by virtue of reducing the magic of memory to a mechanistic process -- as if it were analogous to pulling up a file in your hard drive -- is to do great violence to something quasi-sacred. With memory, one is ultimately touching on the mystery of time itself, which is the substance of our being. Specifically, we are made of "lived time," which is nothing less than the "extended" interior of the cosmos.

I, for example -- and I'm sure you do to -- have certain memories that live inside me "in eternity." There is even some suggestion -- I've overheard Petey thinking about it -- that these moments stamped with eternity -- or is it the other way around? -- are what we "take with us when we go," so to speak. For when we have touched the eternal, the eternal has also in-formed us most deeply, which is what makes the moment eternal.

Interestingly, we usually don't know at the time it is happening that we are having an experience that partakes of the eternal, but we can call up these moments in hindsight. Often they are quite random. I know that for me, for example, there was a "golden time" between the ages of 9 and 12 that lives like a kind of touchstone of eternity inside of me. Perhaps it is just the natural mysticism of childhood, but to look at it from the outside -- to say, "oh, you're just remembering 1966," is to miss the point. It is impossible for me to describe the magical awesomeness of the feeling of 1966! from the inside. Perhaps a poet could do it. In fact, that's why we tolerate poets, isn't it? -- because the less annoying ones coonjure eternity within time, or reincarnate a hidden selfinus, or "take upon the mystery of things, as if they were God's spies" (Shakespeare).

Let us suppose that we have actually chosen to be here in this life and this incarnation. Who is the "we" that chooses? Yes, you could say it is our "soul," but what is that? It is not the same as the mind. In fact, the mind often interferes with the soul's gnocturiyanal omission, for if the soul has chosen to be here, it has done so for reasons of something it wishes to accomplish, or experience, or learn.

What the soul ultimately wishes to learn about is itself, and the terrestrial condition of human embodiment is the only way -- perhaps -- it may do this. Remember, we are just "supposing" for the purposes of fulfilling my sacred bObligation to come up with a post this morning, but let's further suppose that our soul thirsts for a lived experience of itself. It is one thing to "have a self," but it doesn't really mean much -- that is, it is a rather dry and abstract thing, an "empty category" -- unless we are able to discover and articulate the unique "idiom" (as the psychoanalyst Bollas calls it) of our authentic self.

Now, just the fact that we are born with an "unarticulated true self" is a great mythtery to punder. It is another reason why we cat- and dogmagorically reject the satanic ideology of leftism, for all forms of leftism are at war with the self, which may only articulate itself under conditions of liberty. That is, the latent self specifically requires the existence of an "open future," which is the sufficient reason to live in the hope that we will eventually "re-member" ourselves and then truly use the time we are given as a medium for the self's joyful articulation. This is the "art of living": the exteriorization of the soul for the purposes of the interiorization of eternity.

Conversely, to indoctrinate people into identifying with their skin color, or their dopey culture, or their "class" is to reverse the ontological order; ultimately it is to teach that the self is here to serve the collective, rather than vice versa. This is the horror of liberal academia. The original meaning of "educate" is from the Latin educare, meaning to "draw out." For our tenured radicals, it is the opposite -- doctors who indoctrinate, or shove it in, big time. This is why you will have noticed that radicals are always -- always -- such existential "phonies." In fact, the more genuine they are, the more deeply phony. They are weightless, but weightless in such a way that it takes the form of a heavy, spiritually opaque darkness that pulls them and the luckless souls under their influence further into the abyss, 32 feet per second per second, to be exact.

We cannot pretend that this leftist brainwashing and soultarnishing don't do real harm. If I were a bitter man -- which a Coon never is -- I would be furious at what this indoctrination did to me -- specifically, the precious time it stole from my life, time that should have been spent discovering, "drawing out," and articulating my true self and its idiom. My book and blog (and family, including the extended family of Coons) represent the culmination -- or let us say, the temporary fulfillment -- of this idiom, and it is truly a miracle of providence that I climbed off the bleak scaffolding of a spiritually empty academonic world which would have me be what I am not -- which no one is, as a matter of fact. For no one is a Darwinian machine, or a gender, or a race, or a talking monkey. But as always, Light is the best disinfuckedup, if you'll pardon the French, which I'll never do.

Once the true self is discovered, one finds that it is generative, or "fruitful." It is as if it produces waves from a hidden but intelligent ocean that lap upon the distant shore of consciousness. Anything that denies the ocean and prevents our river from finding its shore is a priori satanic, whatever the context, for it is the foreclosure of the self and the end of our reason for being.

In the words of Bollas, "From the beginning of life one's idiom is rather like a vision-in-waiting, a preconception, as Bion would say, of things to come, which takes shape over time. Idiom seeks objects because they materialize form which realizes itself as it shapes these contents of a life. This is a deep pleasure [emphasis mine]. It is a manifestation of the drive to present the particularity of one's being, a form which suggests itself as a visionary movement through the object world."

In another book, Bollas characterizes the articulation of one's idiom as the erotics of being, surely an accurate description. We live in strange times, for never before in human history have more people had the opportunity to enjoy the erotics of their being, and yet, they imagine they are deprived. They are deprived, because they are misusing their time and therefore abusing their self -- and punishing God.

For in the final unalysis, why do you think God set up this witness procreation program for cosmic selves? Petey once told me a story -- I'm not sure if it was one of his "eschcatall tales" -- but he said that he once checked out God's libarary when He was dictating something to Schuon. First of all, the library was huge, as you might imagine. But what most struck Petey was that none of the books had any highlighting. This was apparently because God already knew what was in all the books. There were no "surprises," nothing that provoked an inner journey down an unsuspected byway. Why, it reminds me of an enigmatic boblical passage from the Coonifesto:

One's upin in a timeless without a second to spore and noplace to bang anyway, only himsoph with nowhere to bewrong, hovering over the waters without a kenosis. Vishnu were here, but God only knows only God, and frankly, ishvara monotheotonous -- no one beside Him, no nous, same old shunyada yada yada. Ah, this old ombody's so philled with jehoviality, can't He create anamour? 'Elo, Him, what samadhi you? Stop deidreamoing and gita life, bodhi!

And that is what He did. It turns out that human beings are to God what a library is for a human being. We are God's liberatory of freedom and surprise. For human beings, reading is the "mystery school of individuation." The books we are attracted to and choose both reflect and shape the soul on its journey to itself. They are full of surprises, but the surprise is paradoxically just us terrestrial earth worms finding our teleological time tube in the tunneling passages of an unsuspected lifetome.

When we find and live our authentic selves -- and therefore, God -- it is analogous to a highlight in one of God's books: the famous Book of Life. It gives him great delight, for it is the only true novelty there is for him. Sure, he "knows" us before we do, but so do we. That doesn't take away the fun. Rather, it just adds to it. For it is the first day of creation all over again. Which is God's favorite rememberme, because it's the gift that keeps giving -- to oneself and to others.

The essential act of faith is the remembrance of God; “to remember”, in Latin, is recordare, that is re-cordare, which indicates a return to the heart, cor. --Frithjof Schuon

"Petey, are you sure this is the right planet?"

(TW: Todd)

*****

This excellent piece at American Thinker (this too) explains why so-called "progressivism" is always wrong from the cosmic point of view, or "cosmically f***ed up."

25 comments:

Unknown said...

I truly have nothing "deep" to say Bob... which your blogs seems to warrant, but I must tell you every time I read your posts I am moved in some way. Usually laughter (don't worry though, I'm laughing with you), sometimes its not laughter and its in some other way. You've got an anointing on you if you know what I mean... and while I know you're posts are not because of us, but because of you, I want to say thanks for being you and for the posts. Elways Onjoyable.

Anonymous said...

Great pictures this week, Bob. I meant to say it the other day, but forgot.

"It turns out that human beings are to God what a libarary is for a human being."

What a great way to look at life. Just reading that section is like getting a boost to the next switchback on the mountain.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of memory and forgettery, what is your take on this new pill being developed that could "delete" a traumatic memory?

(link here)

It seems to me that this is, in general, a bad idea; while I have great sympathy for those who have lived the kind of trauma that affects their ability to function, couldn't taking away those memories cause a whole new set of problems? And how do they know other memories won't be affected?

Are there other, better ways to deal with post-traumatic stress?

Anonymous said...

;~)!

robinstarfish said...

i can't remember
the nine billion names of god
except while asleep

Rick said...

Another wonderful post Dr. I look forward to remembering it again.

Reminds me of certain movies I never seem to tire watching – same for some books too – even though I know how they turn out. Sort of hoping to see something different the next time. The hoping. I enjoy rereading certain lines just for the pleasure of how well they themselves ‘turned out’ by their writer/creators.

Love that picture and caption too – genuine coffee-sprayer.

Van Harvey said...

"But as always, Light is the best disinfuckedup, if you'll pardon the French, which I'll never do."

Ok, note to self, to list of hazardous imbobitories while reading One Cosmos, in addition to the well known "Don't drink while reading One Cosmos", add "Don't ever, EVER, eat salad in the company cafeteria while reading One Cosmos on the PocketPC.

Did I say Ever? NEVER EVER!!!

so himbareassing.

NoMo said...

wv: mccfukjb (random? - you be the judge)

NoMo said...

But seriously.

"This is the "art of living": the exteriorization of the soul for the purposes of the interiorization of eternity."

Versus the "science of living". There you have it.

Rick said...

Dr Bob says:
“so-called 'progressivism' is always wrong.."

Ricky adds:
If progressives were truly progressive, they'd eventually be conservatives.

So there is hope for them…just may take an awful long while for some.

Anonymous said...

'He "knows" us before we do, but so do we. That doesn't take away the fun.'

A comedy-writing course taught by Neil Simon's brother offered the foolproof formula for real humor: when someone you just know will do something in response to a stimulus, does it. The utterly predictable, arising in just the right, light framework. Heaven must rock with laughter at us. No wonder there's a cloud of witnesses. Probably lined up around the star for the Earth-telescope on a Saturday night.

And Proust hadn't quite nailed the mystery of memory so satisfactorily. The mystery is there, but you've added the "ah, yes...."

We saw a good production of The Glass Menagerie this weekend, and the "voice-over" underscores that it is a memory play. It demonstrates that memory takes on the agendas as well as the "idiom" of the rememberer, for better or worse. It may be an important part of the task to examine and untangle the elements of self-serving or sentimentality. And the horizon of hope, usually associated with the future, I think interweaves with and makes the context for memory, otherwise memory tends to nostalgia, obsession, or despair.

We found Bollas at the library. He's good, flashes of real feeling and humor, but your explained excerpts are much pithier.

And the re-Joyceing only gets better. Headlong speed in these explorations may be A Good Thing (daffodils in the mulched beds always make me remember dear no-longer-incarcerated Martha...)

NoMo said...

Non-political scientists must make the determination (to the degree possible) whether "global warming" is a significant threat and, if so, whether or not changing human behavior can prevent it. If the threat IS significant, but, as many believe, is part of natural earth cycles (not manmade), perhaps we could take an entirely different approach. That is, abandon prevention and pursue adaptation.

If I were a cynical man, I might think that those pushing the futile prevention agenda just want to be in power when the inevitable comes down -- because it is those who are in power that have the means to survive. Nah.

Stephen Macdonald said...

Completely off-topic, but I couldn't resist.

How messed up is Sweden, you ask?

This messed up:


'Girlie' ice cream enrages Swedish consumer watchdog

The Swedish Consumers Association (Sveriges Konsumentråd) has reacted angrily to one of the ice pops in GB's new line. 'Girlie', a star-shaped, pink ice-cream with glitter make-up stored inside the stick, is entirely inappropriate, according to the association.

The Swedish Consumers Association however uses an entirely different word: "gender-profiling".

"Girlie, GB's new ice pop, is pink and has make-up inside the stick. It says a lot about what GB thinks about girls and how they should be," said the association in a statement.

GB's marketing manager, Christoffer Schreil, considers it unfortunate that some people have viewed the ice cream as being directed solely at girls.

"We reply to everybody who gets in touch and tell that we certainly did not mean to reinforce or cement gender roles in any way," he said.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Juliec said:
"Are there other, better ways to deal with post-traumatic stress?"

I believe that depends on the definition of real trauma and obsession with a "bad" memory.

IMO there is a difference, and there are some bad memories that people become obsessed with, often with "help" from well-meaning friends or Leftist propaganda (you are a victim, now act like it).

Rosie O'donnel claims to have PTSD due to the news of the Columbine tragedy.
That isn't PTSD, that's immaturity combined with obsession and compulsion to be a victim and extreme narcissism (among other things) drives this "need" to be a "victim".

My wife was molested and raped repeatedly as a child until she was in her twenties and she was sold into sexual-slavery and her life was threatened several times.

That was real trauma, and I have seen the pain she suffers from it.
Thankfully she has found a good psychotherapist after years of quacks, and is learning to cope,
but it has been slow going.
If the pill worked as advertised, I believe my wife would jump at the chance.
I know I wouldn't object, again, IF it worked without any unintended consequences or worse side effects, although that's hard to imagine in her extreme trauma case.

Anonymous said...

"If the pill worked as advertised, I believe my wife would jump at the chance."

I suppose that's my concern about something like this. My older sister went through some similar (though on a far smaller scale; she was only raped twice as a kid) experiences as your wife did. I know that if she could forget, or just remember it differently, her life would be very different and yes, absolutely much happier.

On the other hand, if she had been able to "erase" that trauma, there might be four fewer delightful children in the world, and perhaps I would have been the problem child instead.

I guess my concern with things like this is the law of unintended consequences. Not only about possible side effects of a medication like this, but also on wider scale about how our society deals with trauma and violent crimes. If traumatic memories get erased as a matter of routine, might that not affect the way criminals are punished, for instance? If criminals know that you'll forget what happened as soon as you go to the hospital and the emergency room docs administer the anti-trauma drug, might that not embolden them?

I don't know. I wish my sister didn't have to live with some of her memories, and I wish the same for your wife, Ben. If that can be accomplished safely, and without serious repercussions, I am in favor of it.

That's an awfully big "If," though.

Van Harvey said...

Going for a pretty thin reference here, but in one of the Star Trek movies, don't remember the name, but Spock's brother hijacks the Enterprise to the center of a Galaxy because he thinks GOD lives there and can remove their pain. Bones, Spock, Scotty and the rest allow it to remove their pain, but Kirk refuses. Says something like "I... don't... want...... to...... let go-of-my-pain it's what makes me who...I.......AM!", and of course the God turns out to be a demon, and Kirk saves the day because he remained true to himself.

Bouncing back in the extreme other direction, in The Odyssey, Odysseus is offered Ambrosia by Calypso, so that he can become one of the deathless Gods - he refuses, believing that to change who you are, notice that doesn't mean to develop, overcome, or evolve - but to just change who you are - as if replacing spare parts of your soul, is to no longer BE You.

Horrible memories, as with any significant emotional experience, have got to be so intertwined with all that you are... IMHO, I can't imagine how they could be removed without removing major thought and personality structures as well, I would think YOU would come tumbling down like a game of Jenga taken one block to far.

Of course you'd like to lessen the pain of a loved one, but what if in doing so that loved one was lost to you and to themselves? I'd recommend checking that 'gods' ID pretty thoroughly before letting them monkey with the core of who you are.

Anonymous said...

Bob, once again you have walked us along a line of thought, using your inner scenery to improve our view of things. I mean, how often do we notice that "we are made of 'lived time,' which is...the extended interior of the cosmos?" The interior narrative that drones on/on/on in me is indeed "dry" most of the time, so to find one's potential described as an "unarticulated true self...which may only articulate itself under conditions of liberty," speaks to my responsibilities to myself as well as to our society, and our country. And you emphasized the "deep pleasure" derived from "the drive to present the particularity of one's being," and this too reinforced choices made long ago. (Ha-ha, in the middle of performing a song, Pete Townshend once shouted, "This is better than sex!" He knew what you mean.)

In some Tibetan traditions, students of lamas and geshes will keep the "pith sayings" of their respective teachers, which are claimed to contain much truth in not-many words. Like Van, I stopped short on the phrase "As always, Light is the best disinfuckedup."
Pretty pithy, I'd say. (A keeper).

Thanks so much.

Anonymous said...

Bob, my wife suggested that it might make for an interesting post sometime if you would work around the concept of "satantic," along the lines of how you used the word today. It is another very saturated word, that is both evocative and provocative...and it would be interesting to hear your expanded version.

Just a suggestion...(from a dedicated lurker).

Anonymous said...

Sifting through film reviews today, I uncovered two gems:

Amazing Englishman cures cultural mind parasite.

Life among the Roman Catholic monks of the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps opens this week at the Film Forum in New York.

(What? Not all monks brew ale?)

Anonymous said...

Lo siento.
Life among. . .

Gagdad Bob said...

Julie:

I don't know what to say about the trauma pill except that in general, media reporting on medicine and health is almost always wrong. All psychiatric medications are more or less effective for some people some of the time. For a lucky few they are magic bullets, for some they help for awhile, and for others they just make them feel lousy. Every new medication is always greeted with considerable hype when it is introduced to the market, but the hype is always tempered once the medication is used in real settings instead of just controlled trials. In all liklihood it will no more cure trauma than valium cured anxiety, but we'll see. I am very pro-drug, but within their inherent limitations.

NoMo said...

"They are weightless, but weightless in such a way that it takes the form of a heavy, spiritually opaque darkness that pulls them and the luckless souls under their influence further into the abyss, 32 feet per second per second, to be exact."

Hmmm. Weren't we discussing black holes recently?

Anonymous said...

Juliec and Van-
I concur, except as a last resort.
As Bob said, new meds are always overhyped my the media anyway, and not all of the negative side-effects are realized immediately.

But if this pill does get approved
for that purpose I could not blame my wife if she decides to try it.

I won't go into all the details, but I saw her go from a joyful woman who could make friends with practically anyone within minutes
turn into a woman I barely recognize (and in some ways not at all).

She somehow managed to repress all of this for over 20 years, but since it finally bubbled up to the surface, she has relived the nightmares almost constantly since, whether awake or asleep.

Obviously I'm kinda desperate at this point.
I just want my wife back, but I know that may never happen.

Take each day as it comes and don't give up.
And never take anyone for granted.
That's my motto.

Anonymous said...

Bob,
Thanks for answering; it's nice to have a professional opinion on these things sometimes. I think for mental health especially there is just so much wrong information out there it's hard for us laypeople to know what to believe re. medications and different types of treatment. I'm a pragmatist at heart; I just want to know what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, with mental health it's rarely so simple (at least, it seems that way to me).

Ben,
to say I'm sorry for what your wife had to go through and for the troubles it is now causing sounds completely inadequate, but it's true nonetheless. I was (lucky? blessed?) in my life, in that I had a couple of close calls but made it through to adulthood unscathed. There are many in my immediate and extended family, however, who did not, and the damage it has wrought in their lives has been tremendous, in some cases even "unto the third generation." Few things can make you feel so helpless as watching someone you love live this type of pain.

You're a good man, Ben, and your wife must have tremendous strength of character to get along as she has for all this time. I'll remember you both in my prayers, as often as I can.

I hope you find your magic bullet.

Sal said...

Ya'll have reminded me of a Newberry novel called "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. It's about a Utopian society that chooses one of its members to be the keeper of its former memories of emotion and pain, which have been eliminated for everyone else through social engineering.
A youth novel, but worth a look.

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