Thursday, December 02, 2010

On Taking Yes for an Answer

... yes I said yes I will Yes. --Shem the Penman

As we were saying a couple of days ago, a fellow "is free from some of the practical implications of morality only by identifying with the intelligible source from whence morality arises" (Bolton).

Incidentally, this is something we're really trying to emphasize in the moral development of Future Leader. That is to say, rather than transmitting the cosmic Law in wholly negative terms -- as a list of things he shouldn't do -- we're trying to foster an awareness of the plane from which virtue arises, i.e., the Good. So far, so Good, in that he's wonderfully empathic, caring, and well behaved, but in a spontaneous way, i.e., without being at all repressed.

Conversely, when I was a kit, the realm of morality was pretty much defined by NO!, but in reality, there is -- and must be -- an affirmative realm of YES! behind the NO! The lives of the saints teach us that abiding in the YES! can pretty much take care of the NO!, i.e., once the mind parasites and other impurities aren't dominant.

But for the average man who can't even control what he puts into his mouth, he requires the top-down NO! rather than the inside-out YES! to govern his appetites and impulses. (No wonder we see more and more legislation regarding food and tobacco.)

Which, by the way, is why our nation is being systematically undermined by the left, since the good man doesn't require all the thousands and thousands of coercive laws enacted by the left. He neither needs nor wants to be governed and micro-managed from without, which was how things stood in America prior to the unprecedented expansion of the state by Hoover and FDR. In freeing man from moral standards, the left simply imposes its own standards through the state (and extra-judicially through political correctness).

Once things that should be done spontaneously are demanded by law, the locus of moral control dissipates from the individual and is invested in the state; in other words, because people have less self-mastery, it is outsourced to the government.

Thus, for example, the majority of black children grow up without fathers, so paternal authority is just located downstream, in the judicial system (people with flesh-and-blood fathers generally don't require brick-and-mortar ones). Or, feminists who imagine they don't need men, just replace Daddy with an intrusive paternalistic state to care for them. This is why, as Dennis Prager says, "the bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

The Superior Man is free not just to do anything, but to do good, which is the only real freedom -- just as freedom to know truth can be the only real intellectual freedom.

Virtue is a kind of slavery that frees, which is a fine example of how Jew-Know-Who I AM conveyed universal principles in the form of light yokes and rustic paradoxables, so that their truth could be freely "discovered" rather than "imposed" from on high.

Among other things, this is one of the ways the secret protects itself. Which it does, an ontological fact to which our malodorous trolls provide smelloquent testimony. God never forces free will, nor does he grossly interfere with it.

Here is a key point -- call it a key of gnosis. Bolton writes that "Once it is realized that the everyday world depends on an unseen world with a reality of its own, values can be understood as the points at which this unseen world enters our awareness of the visible one, rather as the mountain tops of a submerged continent appear to us as islands" (emphasis mine).

This is a wonderful metaphor that applies to all of the transcendentals, i.e., the True, Good, Beautiful, Existence, and Unity. In each case, it is only known by virtue of its "piercing" through the phenomenal realm.

To put it another way, phenomena have a "metaphysical transparency" (Schuon) through which humans have constant access to the noetic Light in all its modes.

This is not speculation, but a very experience-near fact of moment-to-moment existence. If it were not true, we wouldn't even be animals, but something truly horrible. Most of the real damage in the world is caused by people without this awareness. Drained of spirit, the world becomes a preyground for predators.

Better yet, turn the image upside down, as with the Upanishadic Tree, with its roots aloft and branches down below. The branches and leaves pierce the world of maya from above; or, as I expressed it in the book, they take the form of little flowing springs of grace that dot the landscape. We encounter and drink from them every day, all day long.

Indeed, were it not for these springs, the world would truly be a barren, good-for-nothing wasteland, a literal prison, a gulag, a concentration camp, an income tax audit, a proctology exam, an MSNBC program, sharing a single bathroom with Rosie O'Donnell.

This is precisely where revelation, truth, love, beauty, and all the archetypes come into contact with, penetrate, and hijack this terrestrial plane. It is absurd to think that they randomly lojack us from "below." Let the dead bury the tenured. Ho!

This is also the area where we leave behind those worldly A-influences and come into contact with the transnatural B-influences. We must follow the B-influences back upstream to their source. This is obviously the meaning of the sacred river, whether it is the Ganges or in Revelation: And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

This source is prior to thought, the latter of which is down in time: it is up there by the pure headwaters of the eternal, by the fountain of innocence, next to the vantastic "garden misty wet with rain."

Oh yes, don't you remama? When she satya down in a crystal daze, toddling loose & lazy beneath a diamond sky with both hands waving free? No? Yes! I do. ¡Straight into the blisstic mystic, bright blazing fire and ecstatic cinder, Shiva, me tinders, count the stars in your eyes! --The Cosmobliteration of the Wholly Coonifesto

I guess that's enough for today....

22 comments:

julie said...

...but in reality, there is -- and must be -- an affirmative realm of YES! behind the NO!

Heh - this one is apropos for me today. A little someone woke me an hour early, and was happy to be wide awake beyond the time I had planned to go to the gym. Which would be all well and good, except that DH has a real job and needed that extra couple of hours for sleeping, not entertaining the baby.

To the point, I was all set to internally moan about having to miss yet another workout. Then L started laughing and babbling to himself, just happy to be alive and have some company, and I figured I had gotten something better, instead.

Those little flowing springs of grace pop up any time, often when we least expect them. But if we're too caught up in what we've think we've lost by the No, it's easy to miss out on what we've really gained from the Yes.

Speaking of kits and graces, this is just too cool not to share: Pepper Water.

Open Trench said...

So then:

What shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morn?

mushroom said...

so paternal authority is just located downstream, in the judicial system (people with flesh-and-blood fathers generally don't require brick-and-mortar ones

One of my favorite insult phrases I picked up a few decades back was "state-raised". I heard it while working with convicted felons in the state prison system (as opposed to unconvicted ones under the capitol dome).

Tigtog said...

To: Grant
Re: Drunken Sailors

"Roll them over and take their wallet." Its the only right thing to do given the circumstances.

Van Harvey said...

"Once things that should be done spontaneously are demanded by law, the locus of moral control dissipates from the individual and is invested in the state; in other words, because people have less self-mastery, it is outsourced to the government."

... "This is why, as Dennis Prager says, "the bigger the government, the smaller the citizen." "

So horribly true... horrible because of the ever increasing amount of new laws and ways to get around even having to follow a procedure for creating a law.

The old question was can laws create a good society, and the nearly unknown answer is still, no, but they can create a bad one (good laws, laws which protect peoples rights to make their own choices, can enable a good society, but they can't create one).

Big governments favorite moviel: "Honey, I shrunk the kids!"

julie said...

But for the average man who can't even control what he puts into his mouth, he requires the top-down NO! rather than the inside-out YES! to govern his appetites and impulses.

Related. For "Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man; but that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man."

I disagree that anonymity automatically makes people behave worse than they are. Rather, I think the true nature of a person is revealed by how they behave when nobody can see them. The fact that so many people lose all control when they think they're invisible speaks instead to the fact that the control they have comes from outside themselves - from the parental, top-down NO! - and not from an internal desire instead to align oneself to the Good - from the willing YES!

Van Harvey said...

Julie said "I disagree that anonymity automatically makes people behave worse than they are. Rather, I think the true nature of a person is revealed by how they behave when nobody can see them. "

Exactly so. The NY Times ought to keep in mind the Federalist Papers were written anonymously.

..."let’s start to rein in bad behavior by promoting accountability. Content providers, stop allowing anonymous comments. Moderate your comments and forums... "

Then again... that's probably what they fear.

Magnus Itland said...

I agree with Julie that what we do unseen is the baseline of our personality.

However, in the case of most Internet trolls, there is above all a desperate need for attention. It is the same toddler who was making mischief to get his parents to even look at him.

For people with little to no spiritual awareness, there is no other attention than what they can get from other people in this world. As such, they usually exist in a state of constant hunger. In light of this, their desperation is understandable.

Hopefully artificial intelligence will be able to comfort many of these people, when it becomes advanced enough to fool the stupid. Actually, this may already be happening. I read a report from someone who had corresponded with a woman from a Russian dating site for several weeks before realizing she was a robot. (Of course, expectations were probably a bit lower than they are on OC...)

mushroom said...

I disagree that anonymity automatically makes people behave worse than they are.

Actually, I'm a much nicer and more intelligent on the internet than I am in person.

I read a report from someone who had corresponded with a woman from a Russian dating site for several weeks before realizing she was a robot. (Of course, expectations were probably a bit lower than they are on OC...)

Now that right there is funny.

Open Trench said...

Well OK. The Russian thing was me.

On one of the cable channels they had a fascinating series of documentaries on efforts to perfect a "love robot."

One attempt was to simply hypnotize a real woman and then "program" her to follow directions.

This worked pretty well. The husband was one happy camper.

mushroom said...

Best Line Of The Day Not Originating On One Cosmos:

"Of course, at its core ...is the notion that only people with standards should be held to any." (Olbermann alert)

julie said...

However, in the case of most Internet trolls, there is above all a desperate need for attention. It is the same toddler who was making mischief to get his parents to even look at him.

Good point. It's ironic, though, that the only way they seem able to get that attention is by hiding themselves.

julie said...

Mushroom - good article.

"Bristol Palin... today‘s Worst Person in the World."

Good grief, what a delusional asshat.

Tigtog said...

To: Julie and schroom
Re: "Bristol Palin... today‘s Worst Person in the World."

I may actually tune into his show when Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters are "censured". Especially if there are tax and legal consequences to their "sloppy bookkeeping". I wonder what the asshat will opine then?

I have always been amazed that any network would feature a toad like him. Guess audiences react to toads. Certainly would explain Dan Rather's career.

Jack said...

I would be interested to hear more about instilling in a child a YES! in relation to the Good rather than a terrifying NO! to avoid evil. That seems like it could be a HUGE shift in how children are raised. Which means it could be a huge shift in the human relationship to the Good. Or so it seems.


P.S. I hate to *that guy* and nitpick...but isn't:

"... yes I said yes I will Yes. --Shem the Penman"

...from Molly Bloom at the end of Ulysses rather the from Finnegans Wake?

Gagdad Bob said...

Shem the Penman is one of the names Joyce gives to himself in FW. His complementary fraternal archetype is Shaun the Postman....

Jack said...

But of course! I stand corrected!

I recently purchased an audio book version of "Finnegans Wake" believe or not. Though I'm not sure on what basis to judge it, so far I am liking it very much.

Finnegans Wake

For the first time I am actually able to "read" the book...now "understanding" it is another thing.

I ordered some secondary material so as you've said before, maybe that will shed some obscurity on the subject.

Though somewhat ironically I wake up in the morning with certain words and phrases from the book in my head.

Gagdad Bob said...

There's a recording of Joyce himself reading an extended passage, showing how musical it is. It really needs to be heard, like poetry, for the pure sound of it.

I still think Joseph Campbell's Skeleton Key is the best intro...

Stephen Macdonald said...

Julie:

Your first post here today was lovely and affecting. It's hard to exaggerate just how, well, wonderfully weird it is to be a new parent.

Love the Van Morrison selection. Where is he playing these days? Last time I saw him was Toronto in 2008 on one of his "off" nights.

ge said...

kind-o relevant:
Joyce's early poem given loving treatment by el
Syd ster

ge said...

Most religions have important 'crazy-wise' strands woven in

In western art we can be proud of a related literary peak Joyce reached in FW....noted and duly celebrated by such as Cage, Kerouac, NOBrown, Laing [soft 'g'], PTKingsley etc-- to wit: your best life-bet/only hope may just be to go more [not less] nuts....as Brown would thimble-ize, choose Dionysus over Christ, babble over discourse, wandering over arriving

Jack said...

GE-

Choosing "Dionysus over Christ" seems to be a very compact way of stating the issue. Of course there are other "archetypal" choices we can and do make. Still, this one seems to be a particularly apt representation of the past 100 years of Western art and intellectual life.

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