Monday, April 13, 2009

The Mystery of Love, Divine and Human

So, things attain some sort of "completion in the sphere of subjectivity." This is a strange -- strange but true -- idea, but in order to grasp it, you have to exit the implicit materialist point of view that so demonates our consciousness, which maintains that subjectivity is essentially a kind of meaningless side effect of objects that has no intrinsic connection to them, or to anything else, for that matter. Yes, life exists in this cosmos, but it tells us absolutely nothing about the nature of the cosmos. Yes, consciousness exists, but it is entirely accidental and contingent, not essential. How something that is entirely contingent can presume to pronounce on absolute truth is not explained, but we'll let that go.

To say that things attain their completion in the realm of the subject doesn't just turn the cosmos inside out and on its head. First of all, it is experientially and phenomenologically true, which I believe is Balthasar's point. In this particular volume, The Truth of the World, he doesn't get much into theology per se. Rather, he is just setting the stage for the theology which will come later. For as always, we must begin at the beginning, with the question of "just what kind of cosmos is this, anyway?" And any answer that leaves out life, let alone consciousness, as intrinsic properties, is a non-starter. Once we realize this, then it becomes much easier to understand where religion fits into the picture, i.e., the cosmic principles through which it operates.

In a truly evolutionary worldview, we would see a cosmos gradually becoming more interior to itself, until it reaches a point at which this interiority doubles back upon itself in man. As such, man can be a subject for objects, as well as for other subjects. And that is not all. For man can also reconcile himself to the Absolute subject behind the play of phenomena. Thus, just as objects complete their otherwise meaningless existence in man -- the locus of worldly meaning -- man completes his otherwise meaningless existence in the Absolute subject, the locus of cosmic meaning.

Again, this is not the least bit speculative. Rather, I am simply describing "what happens." I know that Mrs. G., for example, since her baptism last Saturday, has been feeling so reconciled to the Absolute subject, that she is still being flooded with cosmic meaning that can't even be fully articulated. But this is what happens when one goes from being the source of meaning to being with the source of meaning, for it is somewhat like going from death to life -- or being "born again," to purloin a craze.

Only in the sphere of the subject may we reveal ourselves, which is why one doesn't feel self-conscious to be naked in the presence of the dog. Rather, there is a transitional space that opens up between human subjects, but also in the field between the human subject and the divine subject. It is only in this space that one may "unfold latent potentialities that [one] cannot display elsewhere." Do you see the point? A human being who is not intersubjective is not a human being. We are thoroughly entangled in one another in an irreducible way; there is no "I" in the absence of the thou.

In fact, as I attempted to make plain in the Coonifesto, it is actually the thou, i.e., the (m)other, that is first discovered, and who in turn "confers" our subjectivity upon us. In other words, human beings only discover themselves within an interpersonal matrix. Even when you are alone an thinking to yourself, the internal speech is always "for" someone. Oftentimes that is the key to understanding the nature of a mind parasite, for the activity of the parasite may consist of nothing but a kind of repetitive chatter. But to whom is the parasite speaking? That often removes the veil from the little bugger.

For example, I used to get mad at my school. The teachers who taught me weren't cool. You know the story -- holding me down, turning me round, filling me up with their rules. In fact, me used to be angry young man. Me hiding me head in the sand. But to whom was this anger really directed? Suffice it to say that, thanks to the magic of unconscious logic, I was simply tilting at windbags, i.e., symbolic stand-ins, instead of dealing with the true source. Thankfully, before it was too late, He gave me the word, I finally heard, and now I'm doing the best that I can. And I have to admit it's gotten better.

Now, objects -- just like self-respecting subjects -- won't just open themselves up to anyone. There is an intrinsic "modesty" in existence, through which things simultaneously veil and reveal -- or reveil as I put it in the Coonifesto. But at the same time, the object cannot be known except by another subject, and therefore wants to "unveil its inmost being," "just as a patient bares himself before his doctor" -- a prerequisite of which being that you must also bear your unbearable self.

Come to think of it, this is a metaphor I have often used with patients who wonder why I have to ask so many questions during an evaluation. I tell them that it's similar to when they go to a real doctor -- the definition of a real doctor being a stranger who, when they tell you to take off your clothes, you do it -- except that one must reveal oneself in time as opposed to space.

In other words, the body can show it self all at once, before the eye of the senses. But how does the mind reveal itself, since it is like a stream that runs through time? This is why we must look at the patient as a baby, a child, an adolescent, an adult, and from many different angles at each point along the way -- cognitively, emotionally, interpersonally, etc. A person who doesn't wish to cooperate will simply show you a sort of "object" which they have defensively constructed, either consciously or unconsciously.

HvB talks about the "special gaze" which "leads to the inner sanctum of knowledge." For example, in discussions of love, we tend to focus on the desire of the subject. However, equally important is the desire to be desired, or to be the focus of desire of the other. A love in which we only desired the other would be only half a love; likewise, a love in which we only wanted to be the object of desire would be narcissistic. Many relationships end not because of desire per se, but the desire to be desired in a certain way, to experience oneself through the eyes of the desiring other.

Which reminds me. We're really going off on a tangent here, but I remember a particular patient who was a porn addict. When we explored it, interestingly, what most drew him in was not the bodies, but the eyes -- in particular, the way the women would look directly at the camera. In his mind, it was as if they were looking at him, into his eyes.

In turn, it was obvious that he longed to be looked at -- and therefore known -- in a certain way. Blah blah blah yadda yadda, it ultimately came down to never having come into being in the loving space of his mother's gaze, as she had abandoned the family when he was quite young. As a result, the porn actually entered the picture when he was seven or eight years old, as a kind of "maternal container" for a prematurely awakened sexuality that served as a substitute for the real missing link of love. (I have seen the same pattern in many male homosexuals, for whom compulsive sex is merely a means to an intrapsychic end of which they are unaware, i.e., the attempt to internalize male logos.)

HvB beautifully describes the dynamics of knowing oneself through being lovingly known: "This special gaze, which is possible only in the loving attention of the subject, is equally objective and idealizing." Within this supercharged space, the object "hopes to attain in the space of another the ideality that it can never realize in itself." In order to become who we are, so to speak, we need "someone who believes in [us] -- no, who sees [us] already existing in a hidden state, where, however, [we] are visible only to one who firmly holds that [we] can be realized, to one, in other words, who believes and loves."

Frankly, this is again not all that different from therapy, in which the therapist may be able to "see" the positive essence of the person, the essence that is buried under the activity of the mind parasites. In fact, if I cannot feel that essence, I can't help the person. In my own marriage -- and I'm sure this is the rule for most people -- I fell in love with the essence, but after awhile, other things reared their heads and began to get in the way. But you must realize, this is one of the very purposes of marriage, that is, a "loving space" where these things can be worked out. Now there's pretty much only essence left, so it's very much like being back at the beginning and really knowing it for the first time.

HvB talks about the "mystery of love," through which "the object ventures to be what it could have been but would never have dared to be by itself alone.... The image was only concealed in the beloved, and the eyes of love had to come and raise it from the depths" (speaking of resurrection). Truly, we can only be in the ultimate sense within a matrix of love. And obviously, this has profound theological consequences, for it leads directly to the trinitarian godhead, which is nothing if not two subjects eternally joined in love and "witnessing" to each other. And this is why, only in love can you be all you can be.

The beloved [knows] that the realization of his best potentialities is, not his merit, but the creative work of love, which impelled him to realize them, held before him the mirror and the ideal image, and bestowed the strength to attain the goal. In this creative happening, every distinction between subjective and objective becomes meaningless. The image that love saw and held up is doubtless an image of the object. Not, however, of the object as it is, but of the object as it could be. --Theo-Logic: The Truth of the World

Amen. Can I get a witness?

56 comments:

Anonymous said...

wv sez "rootingel" - it certainly must mean "I shall witness":)

*

"Oh seekers, Love is Truth beseaching Truth, and your truth in seeking and receiving and protecting Love shall determine its behaviour."

From: Secrets of the Heart, penned by Kahlil Gibran

Theofilia

Anonymous said...

Love that is cleansed bytears will remain eternally pure and beautiful.

Kahlil Gibran - Secrets of the Heart

Thofilia wv repaets

julie said...

Can I get a witness?

Amen!

HvB talks about the "special gaze" which "leads to the inner sanctum of knowledge."

I'm reminded of my friend's little boy, just turned three. When I first met him, at about 18 months, he had just been diagnosed as autistic. It was obvious that something wasn't right; he made very little eye contact, and seemed almost completely uninterested in people in general. He didn't care where his parents were, and there was an unmistakeable disconnect. Now, though, after a lot of good therapy it's difficult to tell.

A few weeks ago I drove him to preschool. He wanted to show me his cars.

"Miss Julie?!"
"Yes, Connor?"

When I replied and made eye contact, he went into full-on baby flirtation mode - the giant grin, chin tucked-down, shoulders up, eyes peeking out from under the lashes thing - it was almost agonizingly cute. Anyway, the point is about the eye contact, and the incredible difference in seeing that stage of development (and realizing how important it is, not just as a means of reading faces and communicating, but as an indication of the developing desire to see and be seen) in a child who, under different circumstances, might never have been opened up that way. He has "come into being in the loving space of his mother's gaze," and it's a beautiful thing to see.

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, exactly. Now imagine the same thing in, say, the Palestinian world, where girls are devalued and the mother aspires for her son to kill himself in an act of mass murder.

Gagdad Bob said...

Since it has nothing to do with the Jews, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that it is the female's revenge on male privilege.

julie said...

...it's hard to avoid the conclusion that it is the female's revenge on male privilege.

Indeed; if you think about it (and who wants to, really, because it's a really horrific headspace to contemplate, even at a remove), the whole dynamic of male-female relations in the Palestinian world is both inverted and wickedly twisted - mother, generally abused and devalued as much of anything besides a breeding object, transfers her hatred and aggression towards men (intermingled still, of course, with the thwarted desire to know and be known) into "loving" her little boy by both physically abusing and dominating him, and blessing him with a murderous death wish.

Instead of the loving interaction and flow between subject and object in a joyful giving and receiving, there is rather a forceful and punishing giving that had better be received or else. Psychological (and often literal) rape, as opposed to amortization; which is most assuredly why rape is often used as an effective tool to convince young people of either sex to go and blow themselves up in the midst of a crowd of strangers.

And now I can't help wondering if there isn't some kind of deep-down symbolism to the fact that, when they obliterate themselves that way they are becoming "one flesh" (or anti-flesh?) with the people they kill...

Gagdad Bob said...

Yup. Now you're thinking like a true psychoanalyst.

Gagdad Bob said...

It's also, quite simply, the logic of human sacrifice, i.e., the primordial religion for which Christianity is the cure. If you contemplate and "enter" that picture above of Jesus and Mary, you can get a sense of how the cure works.

julie said...

I like that picture, by the way - where did you find it?

Gagdad Bob said...

Just a random google. I'm sure there are better ones, but it does the job.

Anonymous said...

Well, my witness story is pretty longish, but it wouldn't make sense otherwise.

Fiveish years ago I went to the funeral of my ex-ess parents neighbour-man. WW2 bomber pilot (Thank You Dear Soul for Your Service!)
... set in his ways when it comes to "black's".

He became a doting Grandad pretty late in life. He and wife adored their little grangrrl. I saw her quite often during summer months at the in-laws. Such a cutiegrrl. . . And, then she became a young teen with mom diagnosed with mental disorder and divorce happened. She lived with father in a rough side of the nearby city.

Her Granpa bemoned the fact she was hanging around with black kids. One day all heck broke loose bec. she didn't go to school. She disapeared. Cops got alerted - the whole shebang happened. (Heard the story from the horses mouth, as the saying goes/granpa.)

Who found her? Her black friends! Bunch of them hopped on their bikes and scoured the city streets and beyond. They found her in an abandoned barn in a company of a much older young man.

By then the rift between grandaughter and grandfathr was pretty evident. She didn't come around much to see the grandparents.

At the funeral service I saw her with face burried inside a turtle neck sweater sobbing.
After the funeral at the tea reception, flanked by her dad on one side, and her best friend on the other. With crowed of concerned unlookers nearby standing helplesly witnessing her tearful grief.

Face still tucked inside the sweater. Sweet 14 teen. I knew she had many regrets, one of which was that she was convinced her Grandpa left this world thinking she didn't love him.

Time to do something. Anything!

Kneeling before her I touched her hands and spoke to about her love for Granpa. About how much he loved her. "My son's thought he was your dad, because of the way he took care of you. The way he proudly took you for stroller walks ... "

She def. made eye contact, body still grief-heaving . . .

I placed one hand on the back of her neck still talking. At that point she closed her eyes. Her body relaxed . . . Tears stopped flowing.

Minutes later saw her talking and smiling.

Later, her dad came up to me and expressed his gratitude "For doing that."
Her grandmother called a couple of days later with words of gratitude, saying her older son (university educated) was very much interested in energy work and was going to look into it.

Theofilia

Anonymous said...

The reason why consciousness is seen as only incidental is the apparent primacy of matter.

In other words, things like blood oxygen levels tend to be one of the substrates upon which consciousness depends. Can you blame some people for considering consciousness an artifact? It seems to stops the minute some material process gets interupted. An obvious inference is that consciousness is produced by material processses, and not the other way around.

Matter soldiers on solidly in the abscence of volitional consciousnes. It doesn't seem to "need" it. Therefore the confusion starts.

So, although I agree with your view, one can certainly understand why the other viewpoint has become solidly entrenched.

Petey said...

But such a primitive metaphysic is so easily dispensed with, that something else must be going on, i.e., "motivated stupidity."

NoMo said...

Anon 11:33 - Regarding the "apparent primacy of matter" and understanding why some can't get beyond it, I would simply quote Jesus' words in John 3:

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. All those who do evil hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But those who live by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."

Yep, wv, "nomonsr". Too weird.

will said...

A witness? Well, the Hendersons all were there.

>> . . objects complete their otherwise meaningless existence in man<<

Again, the Judaic concept of bringing the slumbering sparks in all objects, animate and inanimate, to life - this through awareness, prayer, prayerful awareness.

Julie - >>I can't help wondering if there isn't some kind of deep-down symbolism to the fact that, when they obliterate themselves that way they are becoming "one flesh" (or anti-flesh?) with the people they kill...<<

Yes, I think the Palestinian death cult - and the Iranian mullah apocalyptic 12th Mahdi fever dream - manifest yet another form of ape-of-God-ness: replacing the holy desire for an individualized One-ness with the one-ness of obliteration. Actually, I think we see this in the many artists who have succumbed to some form of addiction, alcoholism, primarily. Edgar Allan Poe, a true mystic ("Eureka", his astoundingly cosmic prose-poem is ample evidence of his mystic intuition) wanted to submerge himself in the One-ness, but didn't want to retain his individuality, his individual awareness - it was just too painful for him. So he sauced himself into oblivion.

And Van: re: "prayer as a form of prayer" - hmm, perhaps we could think of "prayer" as being the major network and all its forms, attention, gratitude, etc., as being the local affiliates.

Petey said...

The fact of the matter is that throughout history, right up to the present day, there have been very few outright materialists, just a handful of pinheads who are educated beyond their intellect, e.g., atheists, Marxists, metaphysical Darwinists, etc. For any spiritually normal person, materialism is obviously just completely untenable.

Gagdad Bob said...

Interestingly, the oneness to which Will refers is a kind of "feminine oneness," or primitive merger with the mother that effaces all differences. Drinking to oblivion obviously achieves that.

Van Harvey said...

"In a truly evolutionary worldview, we would see a cosmos gradually becoming more interior to itself, until it reaches a point at which this interiority doubles back upon itself in man."

It's getting better all the tiiime...

Right?

Funny thing about the Darwinista's & friends... all Human evolution of the non-cellular sort, is to them, self-evidently bad! From when Rousseau first determined that civilization, marriage, property, free will... it was all mistaken and baaad!

mtraven said...

You folks remind me of this earlier effort to apply psychiatric pseudoscience to a subject people. See also here.

To forestall the very predictable reaction: I am not saying that suicide bombing is either psychologically healthy or morally defensible. I am saying that trying to understand it without taking into account the actual motivations of the actors, and trying to blame everything they do on "evil", is stupid. And evil, since it perpetuates the conflict.

Schuon said...

The cult of intelligence and mental passion distances man from truth: intelligence narrows as soon as man puts his trust in it alone; mental passion chases away intellectual intuition just as the wind blows out the light of a candle.

julie said...

"To forestall the very predictable reaction..."

Nope, didn't work. I'm still yawning.

Cousin Dupree said...

What an obsessive freak. Not only can he not stay away, he even pores over the comments.

Van Harvey said...

Will said "re: "prayer as a form of prayer" - hmm, perhaps we could think of "prayer" as being the major network and all its forms, attention, gratitude, etc., as being the local affiliates."

Yep, I think so too... just a case of One of the Many forms of prayer (and the most common default form), having the same name as the root One.

Btw, thanks for the Poem (song... One in the Many again) this weekend - enjoyed it.

will said...

<< . . "feminine oneness," or primitive merger with the mother that effaces all differences<<

As I think would be the case with "Mother Russia."

wv: "prollea" - female apparatchik

will said...

you welcome, Van-guard.

Van Harvey said...

mtcraven said "You folks remind me of this earlier effort..."

Your comments remind me of this earlier effort.

Entirely predictable.

Van Harvey said...

Nomo, one of the things that continue to surprise me, is that that particular passage once would have given me a serious case of the Jesus willies... and now with my verticle O glasses on, it is much more like... "Oh... of course."

Petey said...

You gotta love it. Bob is a violent "eliminationist" who wants to kill his ideological opponents, whereas the Palestinians aren't evil genocidal maniacs at all, just misunderstood!

julie said...

Van - yep, me too.

will said...

Wow, Mtraven and his "The actual motivation of the actors" - uh huh. I'm sure WW2 conflict was prolonged because the Allies didn't spend enough time contempating the actual motivation of the Nazis. Which, BTW, are the same motivations that spur the Palestinians and their fellow-travellers.

Gagdad Bob said...

Speaking of mtraven, believe it or not, over at huffpo, they're already making excuses for pirates as being just misunderstood people with a different lifestyle than ours. As with mtraven, it seems like satire, but it's not.

Gagdad Bob said...

Also funny that in the same breath, this moron dismisses psychoanalysis as "pseudo-science," but then talks about "root causes" of evil, which is precisely the perversion of psychoanalytic thought that led to the liberalization of the criminal justice system, and with it, so much more evil and misery.

And with that, I'm out. Opening day at Dodger Stadium, on the tube. Speaking of evil, the Giants are in town.

julie said...

Petey - I've found it interesting that in the past couple of weeks, all sorts of violent motivations have been attributed to raccoons, all of which appeared to be cases of sheer projection.

What's really funny today is that, even though he pored through the comments, he obviously didn't actually read them at all, since we were in fact discussing "actual motivations," and the only one who simplistically used the word "evil" was him.

I think he deserves some kind of award for possessing simultaneously an astoundingly narrow and rigid filter and a near-alarming degree of obtuseness. The oxymoron award, maybe? He's not funny enough to be a replacement for our scientistic jester.

julie said...

:D

will said...

Here's your "root cause of evil" at its rootiest -it's the ego, the satanic pride of the evil-doers.

Cousin Dupree said...

Taranto:

It's 'Bizarre.' So What if It's True?

• "If you go back just a few years, you find top Republican figures making equally bizarre claims about what liberals were up to. Remember when Karl Rove declared that liberals wanted to offer "therapy and understanding" to the 9/11 terrorists?"--former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, New York Times, April 13, 2009

• "Presiding over [Massachusetts'] memorial ceremonies for the first time, [Gov. Deval] Patrick on Tuesday morning called the events of Sept. 11, 2001, 'a mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States. But it was also about the failure of human beings to understand each other and to learn to love each other,' he said."--Boston Globe, Sept. 14, 2007

Cousin Dupree said...

In the twisted world of the left, Capn. Phillips is the bad guy and the pirates are the victims.

julie said...

The inversions are almost breathtaking.

If [s]he'd done nothing except acquiesce to the [rapists]' demands, there would have been no risk, just possible discomfort...

Just wow.

julie said...

Correction - there's no "almost" about it.

Gagdad Bob said...

Hey, it's Cap'n Queeg and his magic bus.

mushroom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mushroom said...

Let's try that again.

Even when you are alone an thinking to yourself, the internal speech is always "for" someone. Oftentimes that is the key to understanding the nature of a mind parasite, for the activity of the parasite may consist of nothing but a kind of repetitive chatter. But to whom is the parasite speaking? That often removes the veil from the little bugger.Thank you for crystallizing that. It's reminiscent of: "Are you talking to me?"

As an aside, it is really amazing the vast number of topics and situations the little bastard can use as a hook to drag me in.

mushroom said...

OK, I give up.

mtraven said...

Why did Captain Phillips have to keep trying to jump overboard? If he had stayed put all this could have been resolved peacefully.

Cousin Dupree said...

It was resolved peacefully. Those three pirates are resting in it.

julie said...

Dude.

Cory said...

The troll is actually one of the raccoons doing a parody of a leftist. Right? RIGHT?

mtraven said...

The comment at 4:55 pm was (pretty obviously) not written by me. Presumably it was Dupree trying to set up his witticism. Pretty lame, dude. Of course, the rest of you are also in the habit of putting words in my mouth although you don't go so far as to forge my name.

I actually have more respect for psychanalysis than most people I know, but it isn't a science. It's an interpretive practice that can be employed well or poorly. Diagnosing entire populations from the comfort of your living room halfway around the world is malpractice.

Being a Freudian anti-materialist makes about as much sense as being a classical liberal torture advocate, so it's in keeping with the general intellectual level here.

jp said...

mtraven says:

"Why did Captain Phillips have to keep trying to jump overboard? If he had stayed put all this could have been resolved peacefully."

You will get probably get more traction talking about the "root causes of evil".

On a more serious note, have you ever been to Vegas?

jp said...

"The comment at 4:55 pm was (pretty obviously) not written by me. Presumably it was Dupree trying to set up his witticism. Pretty lame, dude. Of course, the rest of you are also in the habit of putting words in my mouth although you don't go so far as to forge my name."

That's a first for me. I just responded to a blue strawman.

jp said...

So, is this entire "theofillia" thing a giant strawman just sitting there in blog world? A troll with way too much time on his hands?

At least I know mtraven is an actual person with an actual blog with actual posts that reflect mtraven's actual opinions. Even if someone is faking him here.

Whah Whah said...

"Of course, the rest of you are also in the habit of putting words in my mouth although you don't go so far as to forge my name. "

Van Harvey said...

mtcraven said “Of course, the rest of you are also in the habit of putting words in my mouth…”

A dirty job, but someone’s got to do it; you’ve yet to allow any words of coherent substance to come out of your mouth yourself. It is a dirty job though… quick, someone call Mike Rowe.

Skully said...

mtraven said “Of course, the rest of you are also in the habit of putting words in my mouth…”

Which should make you happy since it makes you appear smarter than you actually are.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"Hey, it's Cap'n Queeg and his magic bus."

Nice pic! It's amazing the mental gymnastics Queeg will go through to give the appearance of logic.

Recently hQueeg criticized those of us who want Obama to fail, saying "It's okay to disagree with Obama's policies but it's wrong to want him to fail."

Seriously. Like the Left, he equivocates wanting Obama to fail the same as wanting America to fail.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

But this is what happens when one goes from being the source of meaning to being with the source of meaning, for it is somewhat like going from death to life -- or being "born again," to purloin a craze."

Amen! Great post, Bob!

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