Tuesday, October 28, 2008

How to Create a Real Cosmos (11.10.11)

I don't know why these "integral" types believe they have discovered something new. The other day, one of them emailed Bob to let him know that no one at the "higher stages of development" -- he didn't name names, but one can well imagine the stench up there -- agrees "with the policies of George Bush or Sarah Palin since they represent a lower level of evolution." Somehow -- he didn't explain how -- we are supposed to integrate and transcend "primitive" conservative ideas, but he didn't mention which ones.

At the conclusion of The Chariot, UF describes what an integral man would actually look like. Suffice it to say, he doesn't look like Deepak Chopra.

For example, he will manifest creative being, meaning that his thought will possess the qualities of creativity, clarity, fluidity, and precision (in contrast, Deepak's disjointed thought is unimaginative, unclear, desiccated, and imprecise). In the domain of feeling, his heart will radiate warmth, magnanimity, sensitivity, and faithfulness. And in the domain of will, one will see intensity, scope, adaptability, and firmness. The integral person will balance serenity, mobility and resolution; and will also reflect the four cardinal virtues, i.e., wisdom/prudence, courage/strength, temperance and justice. As Schuon would say, he will embody "the center at the periphery" or be a reflection of the "unmoved mover," hence his dignity.

Now obviously, this is a lifetime project. One of the reasons one must strive to be "integral" -- and this has always been known -- is that overemphasis on one of these qualities to the exclusion of the others will create an imbalance and therefore a fall. For example, our scientistic jester's thought is precise but devoid of creativity or fluidity, not to mention lucidity or metaphysical discernment. And its clarity is a result of his terrible simplification of reality. This kind of artificially narrow clarity always comes at the expense of doing violence to the Real (and therefore oneself).

In the final analysis, as Schuon writes, this type of "worldly intelligence" which oversteps its bounds is a product of pride; it destroys the "essential functions" of the intelligence, even "while allowing the surface mechanism to remain incidentally, as if in mockery." This is why an Albert Einstein could be such a brilliant physicist but such a political and philosophical boob. One could cite countless examples of so-called "geniuses" whose intelligence is "fragmentary, unilateral, asymmetric, and disproportional." As a result of this imbalance -- or lack of integrity -- their thought will always contain a "hidden poison."

This is why it is critical that our intelligence not become detached from "metaphysical truth or with eschatological reality": "the definition of integral or essential, and thus efficacious, intelligence is the adequation to the real, both 'horizontal' and 'vertical,' terrestrial and celestial." Lacking each of these dimensions, it becomes a pale shadow of man's true capabilities and ousts him from his cosmic station. It necessarily absolutizes the relative and thereby fashions a graven image. The rest is commentary. To live at the horizontal fringe of the cosmos is to subsist at the margin of one's Self. You become an unreal person in an unreal reality.

Let me just conclude by emphasizing that it is extremely dangerous to surround oneself with mediocre and "un-integral" intellects who have no idea that they are. Very dangerous. This point was driven home to me last Saturday, when I was at one of my all-day discontinuing education seminars. The speaker was a renowned psychoanalyst whom I had great difficulty understanding. Not because his thought was so elevated, but because it was so mundane and metaphysically confused.

Here again, it must be emphasized that this has nothing to do with "IQ." But if I were to try to "adapt" my mind to his reality, I would lose it, precisely. I then realized that this was the problem with my whole journey through the educational system. I very nearly lost my mind. This, by the way, is why so-called "intellectuals" such as Peggy Noonan, David Frum, or David Brooks disapprove of Sarah Palin. I would also go nuts if I were forced to assent to these mediocrities. They imagine themselves superior to a Rush Limbaugh, when they're really just lame bloggers with huge platforms.

On to The Justice. I have to admit that this card posed some challenges for me, and in many ways is above my pray grade. For the most part, I try to write about more general religious principles, but this card has a lot of material that is quite specific not only to Christianity, but to Christian mysteries. Therefore, I'll just poke around the edges and see what resonates with me.

I like the idea that to think is to pronounce judgment and to therefore render justice. What immediately comes to mind is the totolerantarian left, which prides itself on being so "non-judgmental." As such, this answers the question of why their thought is so confused and why their policies begin and end in injustice. And of course, they are actually extremely judgmental, but since they are not permitted to realize it, must project it into the "intolerant" right. Thus, hanging Sarah Palin in effigy is "art," while hanging Obama in effigy -- which no conservative would actually do, but liberals know they'd really like to -- is vile and racist.

I also like what UF has to say about science, as it is pretty much the Raccoon view, being that we by no means reject science, but nor do we turn it into an idol. As UF writes, the application of science has resulted in three singular discoveries; first, the fact that this is an evolutionary (which is not to say "Darwinian") cosmos; second, that matter reduces to pure energy; and third, that the consciousness of the surface ego is but a "local" phenomenon floating within (actually, "outside") an upper and lower vertical which are nonlocal (i.e., the "unconscious" and all it implies).

Whereas science is "public" and "general," esoterism is private and particular. In short, no one else can make its discoveries for you. This is knowledge that cannot simply be "given" to you. Rather, it must be undergone -- even at times "suffered" -- so that in each person it will have a slightly different inflection but nevertheless be "objective." This is a critical point.

As UF writes, only a person may synthesize religion and science. Religion cannot do it. Nor can science do it. Thus, the esoterist engages in a "double discipline": he prays and he thinks. Or he "thinks on his knees." In so doing, he is able to "redeem" whatever it is he successfully assimilates. And this integral assimilation can only occur under the conditions of creativity, clarity, fluidity, precision, warmth, magnanimity, sensitivity, faithfulness, intensity, breadth, depth, height, adaptability, firmness, dignity, and serenity.

This is how one turns mere perception and thought into a real Cosmos worthy of Man.

49 comments:

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

To get Cosmos I usually look for the right package in the seeds display

This is quite something different!

Niggardly Phil said...

"fragmentary, unilateral, asymmetric, and disproportional."

Isn't that the motto of the APA?





fragmentarité, unilaterité, assymetré!

Gagdad Bob said...

At the seminar I attended last Saturday, the moderator felt utterly free to make a moronic Sarah Palin joke from the podium. First of all, it wasn't even funny. Rather, it was just contemptuous of her, of God, and of any believer. Nevertheless, I think every participant laughed. I would guess that well over 90% of west side psychologists are unthinking liberals.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

But to be liberal is to be thinking! It requires nothing aside from the proper shibboleths.

You mean to say that 'thinking' is some kind of action, rather than a moral state?

What vast worlds remain uncharted?

;)

Niggardly Phil said...

Here's a thought - the notion of judgment, and hence justice, is essentially relative, in the sense of relating two things - a person with what they are owed, for example. In that sense, one builds up through experience and relations with others a sense of what is just. With the left as we see today, it seems the opposite is the case - one has inside the "sense of justice", a policy to be carried out and unfolded on the world. In that sense, their judgment (or relation) is subsequent to the principle held inside of the liberal, who alone knows how things should go down. It's despotic, because there is no code of laws that one can refer to, rather one must refer to the liberal to know how he feels about this or that issue, what is just in this or that case, to determine what to do. It depends on the principle that they carry in their blood, as it were. It is not related to anything except itself, need not refer to anything above or beyond.

No amount of experience or relation can change this principle in the blood, doesn't matter how many failed governments or how much damage is done in real life by such an approach, because it is a divine and absolute principle that "wealth must be spread around", without regard to anything except that inner voice telling me what is fair. It is unrelated to experience, steeped in blood.

It is impregnable.

Niggardly Phil said...

impregnable to thought from outside, I should say. Experience (pain more specifically) can break it easily enough.

Niggardly Phil said...

er, wrong APA!

Ray Ingles said...

For example, our scientistic jester's thought is precise but devoid of creativity or fluidity, not to mention lucidity or metaphysical discernment.

It's impossible for people to mistake a lack of understanding on their own part for a lack of lucidity on the part of others. Right?

Anonymous said...

No, you could hardly be more clear in your absence of understanding of God and religion.

Gagdad Bob said...

Notice the APA website: homosexuality good, climate change bad. That's a pretty good encapsulation of their intellectual level.

Anonymous said...

>>The other day, one of them emailed Bob to let him know that no one at the "higher stages of development" -- he didn't name names, but one can well imagine -- agrees "with the policies of George Bush or Sarah Palin since they represent a lower level of evolution."<<

Sure, because, to them, conservatives are not as overtly "compassionate" or "caring" as are the more spiritually "evolved". That's traditional left wing reductionism. We're all children, we can't walk on our two feet. we require coddling.

I believe that in ages past, the masses were indeed children, and did, in fact, need the guidance of divinely-inspired "overlords", to one degree or another. But, as Zimmerman has said, *things have changed*. If people are not adults, they should be by now or should, at very least, be getting a glimpse of adulthood on the horizon. I do think the world is approaching the time of a major Initiation (I mean majorly major), and in some ways, this Initiation could be thought of as a test as to the extent of our adulthood. If a spiritual, evolutionary Initiation is at hand, is it that much of a surprise that there arises at this time a huge counter-evolutionary mvt?

In past comments, I've maintained that one definition of "evil" is that which is out of spiritual/historical phase. I think our contemporary out-of-phase-ness boils down to - a developed intellect coupled with a lack of spiritual self-awareness. This gives birth to every modern evil. Given the fervor of the Obama-figureheaded counter-evolutionary mvt, I'm not going to be underestimating the extent to which evil manifests here in the USA. After all, the USA was meant - providentially designed - to be the staging grounds for the coming Initiation into spiritual adulthood.

julie said...

(Psst... Walt - looking back at Justice, I see where I probably first came across the word "Sephiroth," starting on pg. 177. Below are some greatly abridged but seemingly relevant snippets:

"...the system known as the "Sephiroth Tree" consists of three pillars: the right, the left and the middle...
The right pillar is often designated as the "pillar of Grace (Mercy)", whilst the left pillar bears the name the "pillar of Severity".

In the system of Sephiroth it is a matter of a system of balance established simultaneously in four worlds, or on four planes: the world of emanation..., the world of creation..., the world of formation..., and the world of action, both in a vertical sense, i.e. the balance establishes and re-establishes equilibrium between that which is above and that which is below, as well as in a horizontal sense, i.e. the the balance maintains equilibrium between the right side and the left side, the pillars of Grace and Severity."

Hmmm...)

julie said...

Phil and Bob - it's dumbfounding that the headline topic on the Psychology page is about "Climate Change!". Holy cow - shouldn't psychologists have more esoteric problems to worry about?

Niggardly Phil said...

I know! Climate change, psychology... huh?

They need the Cyclops treatment from O Brother:

"It's an exercise in psychology, so to speak.."

Rick said...

Bob, brilliant post, again.

“…felt utterly free to make a moronic Sarah Palin joke from the podium. First of all, it wasn't even funny.”

This is one of a few things I can’t figure out about their type. I’ve witnessed it many times - in this office, visitors to my home and family gatherings. Even when it’s just me and another person. They may already know where I stand or just met me. I don’t get it. And, yes, often not funny. I’ve always said, if a joke is funny enough it transcends offensiveness.

Obviously not a major problem, just an indicator I think to something deeper going on. I mean, if you are just meeting me, don’t you want to wait awhile before you risk insulting me or hurting my feelings? And if you know me, why do you keep doing it…especially unprovoked? What do they hope to accomplish?

All I can come up with is, they really want someone else to feel worse this instant so that they can feel better this instant.
…that and they are very confident they are ahead in the polls - whether they are or not. Doesn’t matter if everyone agrees with them, in fact I think they prefer 49% don’t… as long as they are in the upper 51.

Anonymous said...

Julie -

>>shouldn't psychologists have more esoteric problems to worry about?<<

You would think, being that psychology, by its very nature, is the study of the esoteric. But most of 'em simply do not have the spiritual awareness, the gnosis to think of their profession as being an esoteric pursuit. Forgive them, they know not what they do, but they're still culpable for their own ignorance. And their ignorance will eventually bring them low.

julie said...

Will,

"If people are not adults, they should be by now or should, at very least, be getting a glimpse of adulthood on the horizon."

Interesting you should say that. This weekend, DH and I met up with some alumni from the college where we met. Also present was the person in charge of development, who has been working for the college for at least fifteen years. One interesting observation she had is that the kids who've been coming there recently, though on average the same age as the previous generations, are quite immature. They require a much more careful and inclusive transition period with more bonding and community-type activities, and the syndrome of helicopter parenting is starting to make itself known. This is particularly notable, given that the college is both very small [they recently added dorms, so the total student body can be up to 340 or so; when I was there, it was the low 200s] and very remote, appealing most generally to people inclined toward self-reliance, a hermitish lifestyle, and an appreciation for the outdoors and extremes of weather. Especially cold weather.

So it's not merely the nostalgic or idyllicising (yeah that's probably not a word, but hopefully you see what I mean) remembrance of our own youth, kids today really are less mature. And bear in mind, this is within a span of only fifteen years.

A very disturbing trend.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDbmQmV6O8

Go Sarah!

Van Harvey said...

"I like the idea that to think is to pronounce judgment and to therefore render justice. What immediately comes to mind is the totolerantarian left, which prides itself on being so "non-judgmental." "

As Phil mentioned justice is the process of relating two things, but what prevents it from spinning off into subjectivism, relativism, is the word 'Things', there are two instances, which we are able and capable of perceiving and conceptualizing, which we are then able to relate within a wider context, to evaluate and make a judgment, " In that sense, one builds up through experience and relations with others a sense of what is just."

However, if we can't really know 'things as they are', we can't really know what is, or the causes of things, then we have to just... sort of ... see what other people are doing... take a poll maybe... go with the crowd… and having no root in reality to defend that 'judgment', those whose evaluations clash with your own 'non-judgmental' conclusions, cannot be answered or defended against, since by abandoning reality, you abandon reason along with it, and your only recourse is the sub-human use of force – aka Leftism.

"As such, this answers the question of why their thought is so confused and why their policies begin and end in injustice. And of course, they are actually extremely judgmental, but since they are not permitted to realize it, must project it into the "intolerant" right."

Ask Joe the Plumber.

Van Harvey said...

“…felt utterly free to make a moronic Sarah Palin joke from the podium. First of all, it wasn't even funny.”

Well... not that surprising... most children automatically assume that everyone else 'thinks' as they do.

It's a common result of having no wider experience and no further knowledge, than you're able to gather from living in mommy & daddy's house.

NoMo said...

What we are witnessing, and perhaps about to witness next week in all its majesty is the ultimate triumph of political correctness.

What else would you expect from brains that have been so well cleansed of free, independent thought over decades?

George Orwell is smiling.

Check out this excellent essay from Roger Kimball...5 years ago.

Forget being careful what you say...be careful what you think.

"It's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there". BD

Ray Ingles said...

Petey - I guess God really is an iron.

robinstarfish said...

Whereas science is "public" and "general," esoterism is private and particular. In short, no one else can make its discoveries for you.

Marriage is a fine proving ground for how how this principle works. ;-)

Joan of Argghh! said...

Mmmm... always heart-y fare here at the Raccoon's table.

Nice reverberation on the "discontinuing education" throwaway line, however. For what better example of stagnant thinking is the politically correct point of view?

Behold how it has crept into science, without the creativity of assimilation, just the rigor of rules. Polio is on the comeback, and somehow, it's all racist.

A creeping death sentence for millions, but a shining trophy to mount on the walls of the Ivory Towers.

Van Harvey said...

This does a good job of going into the history of political correctness, better termed 'Cultural Marxism'.

Anonymous said...

"This is one of a few things I can’t figure out about their type."

"And if you know me, why do you keep doing it…especially unprovoked? What do they hope to accomplish?"

"...just an indicator I think to something deeper going on."

Ricky,
Here's my take, FWIW - several factors are working in conjuction.

Imagine what a mess the inside of your head would be if you were trying to manage & make sense of ton of disparate, incongruous & contradictory Lefty-notions, all at the same time.

If the mind, by function, works to build a higher unity out of building blocks of a lower-order, what happens when those lower-order-blocks can't possibly go together in any sort of harmony to ever get even close to a higher unity?

Nutsville, with the chaos erupting out & spewing forth. I get the sense it's mostly involuntary, a la Tourette's or leaking from a fissure.

I don't believe for a minute they're at all confident - more like sheeple who engage in contact-calling to see if there are like-sheeple in the vicinity to call-back to them. Sending out pings to see if they get pinged back, and thus are not alone. See, there are lots of us who are of a type, so I must be ok.

Anonymous said...

Julie -

That is interesting.

I'm just waiting apprehensively to see what the Pluto in Scorpio generation is going to do - the oldest of them would be around 20 - 24 now. They're the ones who are really carrying the transformative fire, for better or worse.

Anonymous said...

Mirror Image

I just hate mirrors!
Stopped to check out someone else
But find it's still me.

So I smashed it. Smithereens!
Now there's so many of me
That I ran away.

I hid in a thorn thicket
Wishing I was you.

Now I have a tic
Whenever there's a mirror.
I duck the right hook.

ge said...

Bob: "This is why an Albert Einstein could be such a brilliant physicist but such a political and philosophical boob..."

Schwaller de Lubicz [in a sense, AE's 'competitor'] had the concurring take: those hubristic scientists were surely sorcerer's apprentices meddling where they oughtn't [with nuclear fission]

Anonymous said...

Political correctness substitutes palliative lies for 'uncomfortable' truths. I guess (I could say "inconvenient" truth, but that one got taken by Algore for the true, and not made up really for reals story of the real true threat from global warming.) Or I could say "truths that don't fit in with the left's agenda", and that, too might come close.
Point is, when PC reigns, Truth is no longer the highest value. If Truth is not the highest value then what is taught, and believed will not conform to the truth.
The only difference between the poorest of the poor, and the richest of the rich is the number of dollars in the bank accounts. Both should be allowed equal access to a home loan. Base economic policy on that kind of truth see what you get, er- have.
Start monkey wrenching the constitution to conform to that kind of "truth", and someone's on the road to utopia.

The rest of us can cling to our Bibles and our guns.

JWM

julie said...

"Base economic policy on that kind of truth see what you get, er- have."

Or rather, have not...

Rick said...

Thanks, Ximeze. I agree.
In fact, I did use once on a repeat offender:
“You can’t hold it in, can you?”
It seemed to do the trick...for a little while. (short term memory is another problem with this crowd)

Anonymous said...

"Ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the -- oh, it's gotta be about job creation too"

-- Sarah Palin

Yeah, Bob, I prefer it when Sarah comes up with her own jokes.

Rick said...

Haa haa!
That's funny anon!
But I don't get the one about the 57 states.. Howz that go again?

Anonymous said...

"Nevertheless, I think every participant laughed. I would guess that well over 90% of west side psychologists are unthinking liberals."

That, or they're loose enough to laugh at a good joke.

Rick said...

Anon,
Almost forgot... Obama said another knee-slapper the other day. He called it “spread the wealth”…I didn’t catch it all but it goes something like this:

A bank robber walks into a bank. He places his gun against the head of one of the customers. Suddenly everyone is relieved that they weren’t picked. The bank robber leaves with the man’s money. He comes back the next day. He places his gun against the head of one of the customers. Suddenly everyone is relieved …

Wait aminit…that’s not funny.

debass said...

One of the primitive ideas that those at the "higher stages of development" should give up is reproduction. The sooner the better for the rest of us. Back to clinging.

gumshoe said...

Zeitgeist=Narcissim?

why iz dat?


The Dubious Triumph of the Therapeutic:The Denial of Character,Alan Woolfolk
pg 69 in Table of Contents

http://tiny.cc/WPOlU

more unsolicited info on the "Therapeutic Culture"
(re: my Philip Rieff link yesterday)

Van Harvey said...

Ooh! Ooh! Aninny! Did you hear the one about the old plagiarizing machine lifer Senator on the Change! ticket, who walks into the diner he frequents that hasn't existed in eight years?! He girds up his loins but then forgets which secion of the constitution covers the job he's running for, so he begins explaining how important it is for leaders to know what they're talking about, just like good ol' President FDR getting on TV after the stock market crash in 1929... oh... waitaminute... that's not funny either....

julie said...

Spike Lee:

"...the election of Barack Obama is 'predeortained.'"

Anonymous said...

That's a good feller Van, always coming to the defense of the indefensible. You'll have eight years now to cry all you want!

Anonymous said...

"One of the reasons one must strive to be "integral" -- and this has always been known -- is that overemphasis on one of these qualities to the exclusion of the others will create an imbalance and therefore a fall."

Job 31:6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

Van Harvey said...

Scathing and insightful as always aninny.

"You'll have eight years now to cry all you want!"

Is that what you've been doing for the last eight years? How sad. But not something I'll bother with, I'll fight it where I can and fugedaboudit the rest of the time... but cry over it?

Just wipe up your spilt milk and MoveOn, aninny. By the way, about those chickens....

debass said...

!You'll have eight years now to cry all you want!!

We won't have eight years of freedom left after the death and treason party takes over.

Anonymous said...

Bruce Walker again hits it out of the park with Negative Liberties and Obama Newspeak over at AT.

"Is the Orwellian character of Obama's mind a surprise? No. He is a man young enough to have grown up in a cocoon of semantic babble. The subliminal contradictions of popular entertainment, the indoctrinary quality of his education, the pandemic use of "politically correct" language, the nonexistence in Obama's universe of any need for critical thinking, his absorption into a parish filled with surreal anger which numb his conscience -- almost every single aspect of the life of Barack Obama dovetails into someone for whom the word "liberties" has no authentic meaning.

It is not just his life, so marinated in rote theory, that makes Obama unique. He is an early prototype of a new creature in our lives: Orwell's children, if you will."

Joan of Argghh! said...

Great link, Ximeze.

I've watched, over the years, the Left consistently pointing the Orwellian charge at the Conservatives. "Looky there!" they cried for decades.

The whole time, they were slowly and quietly taking meaning and perverting it. To the point that the Borg-like assimilation is almost complete.

Niggardly Phil said...

And now for something completely different:

An Encounter With the Sublime

WSJ subscription required I think

Summary of modern art (lacking in this exhibition):

There is no market-conscious irony on offer, no iconic kitsch or profaning of sacred symbols, no porno aesthetics, pickled corpses or "profound acts of transgression."

Anonymous said...

No Pickled corpses?

well, that's no fun...

JWM

julie said...

Phil - what a wonderful article! Thanks for the link.

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