{"id":15997,"date":"2022-04-10T22:25:18","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T02:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=15997"},"modified":"2022-04-11T07:35:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T11:35:28","slug":"waking-up-among-the-beasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=15997","title":{"rendered":"Waking up among the Beasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; \u00a0<\/sup>who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. ~ John 1:12-13<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In At the Crossroads of Science and Mysticism<\/em>, Pavel Florensky<\/strong> brings up the topic of discontinuity in nature. Since science depends on the principle of continuity, there can be no \u201cjumps\u201d between states. We can add another argument to his, one that he could not have been aware of: viz., the quantum states of electrons require jumps.<\/p>\n

When he applies continuity to evolutionism (in the Darwinian sense), creativity is eliminated. It requires that there is no qualitative difference between animals and man. But evolution does seem to be discontinuous. Hence, as he says, there is indeed a sudden qualitative change in the descent of man from apes. In principle, it is possible that man was created by a momentary addition of particular qualities to the ape.<\/p>\n

\n\"Animal<\/a>
\n<\/figure>\n

This notion is not unknown to esoteric teaching and Florensky was certainly familiar with esoteric teachings, and probably even his mentor Serapion Mashkin<\/strong>. Florensky writes:<\/p>\n

Serapion Mashkin vividly describes a herd of animals that do not differ much from human beings. One of these animals was transfigured and in his sleep saw the Light of Tabor; when he awoke he saw that he was surrounded by beasts and he felt how alone he was. He had suddenly become a new creature.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He mentions Theophan the Recluse<\/strong> as having a similar view, but I have yet to find a reference. So that begins the Genesis story. Of course, his first task is to find Eve from among the beasts. Genesis implies that there are such biological humans; Cain, for example, had founded a city, perhaps from such beings.<\/p>\n

Waking up from Sleep<\/h2>\n

In esoteric training, every action, facial expression, posture, etc., has meaning. One must be alert to them. Those occur in the waking state. However, the dreaming state and even the state of deep sleep can be observed. You can watch yourself fall asleep. You will notice that thoughts become disentangled and unrelated as you slowly drift off to sleep. The mystery then is exactly \u201cwho\u201d wakes up? Sometimes you can even observe it. Here is a recent example from my own experience.<\/p>\n

I was dreaming that I was reading a text, not a dream world text, but a wake world text. I was having trouble following it. Another voice told me it is time to wake up. I objected that I wanted to finish reading the text. The voice explained that I could not be sure I was reading the correct one. I saw the point, and we decided to wake up together.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus, Serapion Mashkin\u2019s thought experiment seems plausible.<\/p>\n

Overcoming Negativity<\/h2>\n

One of the goals of personal development is to attain the state of ataraxia. I recently received a phone call from my health insurance company telling me I was eligible for a special program to help me deal with \u201cchallenges\u201d around health, covid, lockdowns, and all the other negativity. I would get 8 weeks of counseling and 8 weeks of a behaviour coach, whatever that is. So a few days ago, I got an introductory call from the therapist. We spent time going over medications and recent medical challenges. I objected to the word \u201cchallenges\u201d and called them conditions that I could deal with.<\/p>\n

Then she asked me if I have thoughts of suicide or murder. I denied both and asked, \u201cIt sounds like you have an interesting job!\u201d \u201cYes, sometimes,\u201d she conceded.<\/p>\n

More questions like these:\u00a0do I feel anxiety or depression, do I have trouble concentrating or getting through the day, and so on. \u201cno, no, no, no, no \u2026\u201d were my responses. I interrupted and said, \u201cI think I am disappointing you.\u201d<\/p>\n

After about 20 minutes, she kicked me out of the program. She said, it was pointless for me to continue. So no free psychobabble for me. She understood nothing. She focused on what makes me feel bad and never asked about what makes me happy!<\/p>\n

The Crisis of Philosophy<\/h2>\n

Florensky does not deny rational philosophy, but instead points out:<\/p>\n

there is a way out that takes us beyond rationality and pure reason; it consists in the fact that philosophy is determined by an act of noumenal will.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Truth is insufficient without an agent to act on it. No once can be compelled to accept a valid argument; try it with someone on Twitter if you don\u2019t believe me.<\/p>\n

That is the crisis of philosophy. Tear away the veneer of ratio<\/em> and see the primacy of faith, intuition, noumenal will. As examples of the latter, he mentions Henri Bergson and William James. Although Rene Guenon makes a great effort to debunk Bergson, he appears too often in others I respect. My first impulse is to scoff at James\u2019s idea that truth is what works, not what can be proven (and very little can be proven). As a practical matter, when you need to make a personal choice, will you go with what you know \u201cworks\u201d or will you attempt to follow some complex philosophical theory? Be honest.<\/p>\n

Night and Day<\/h2>\n

Gradually, the secular worldview has taken over domains formerly occupied by the Christian worldview. The understanding of the cosmos, space, and time has been conceded to secularists. The Christian understanding has been eclipsed by morality, which is but a small part of Tradition. Rather, the emphasis needs to be on asceticism and mysticism. Florensky, repeats a theme dear to our own worldview:<\/p>\n

The human spirit has two aspects: nighttime and daytime, male and female. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, sleep and wakefulness (sleep is not an absence of life, but life sui generis<\/em>; without sleep our soul would not be nourished).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our age is a time of twilight; one culture is dying, another is birthing. Few notice and pretend that the yesterdays will continue indefinitely into the future. Yet the Owl of Minerva flies at dusk. Then there will be a time of darkness before the next dawn.<\/p>\n

Those who are awake to this find themselves among beasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a way out that takes us beyond rationality and pure reason; it consists in the fact that philosophy is determined by an act of noumenal will. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1382],"class_list":["post-15997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musings","tag-pavel-florensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15997"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16003,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997\/revisions\/16003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}