{"id":8630,"date":"2016-06-30T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T04:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=8630"},"modified":"2020-06-30T07:48:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T11:48:04","slug":"spirituality-for-the-xxist-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=8630","title":{"rendered":"Spirituality for the XXIst Century"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>\nAs the moon is the intelligible unity in the four-dimensional manifold of positions and phases, so human subjectivity is the intelligible unity in the multi-dimensional manifold of the conscious events of a lifetime. ~ <strong>Bernard Lonergan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Matter is essentially multiplicity and division; and this, be it said in passing, is why all that proceeds from matter can beget only strife and all manner of conflicts between peoples and between individuals. The deeper one sinks into matter, the more the elements of division and opposition gain force and scope; and, on the other hand, the more one rises towards pure spirituality, the nearer one approaches to that unity which can only be fully realized by consciousness of the universal principles. ~ <strong>Rene Guenon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Come Timothy Leary, crede che essere religiosi nel XX secolo senza usare l\u2019LSD sia come pensare di studiare i pianeti a occhio nudo. [Like Timothy Leary, Philip K Dick believed that to be religious in the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century without using LSD is like believing you can study the planets with the naked eye.] ~ <strong>Andrea Scarabelli<\/strong> (<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.ilgiornale.it\/scarabelli\/2016\/06\/03\/philip-k-dick-emmanuel-carrere-fantascienza-e-metafisica\/\">Science Fiction and Metaphysics\/<\/a> )<\/p>\n<p>If LSD was necessary to be religious in the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, then Rene Guenon is necessary to be religious in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century. ~ <strong>Cologero Salvo<\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Three Modes of Spiritual Recovery<\/h2>\n<p>With the decline of religious influence in the modern world, there have been successive attempts among intellectuals to justify an alternative spiritual worldview. These are summarized as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>19<sup>th<\/sup> Century<\/strong>: Philosophical idealism<\/li>\n<li><strong>20<sup>th<\/sup> Century<\/strong>: Direct experience<\/li>\n<li><strong>21<sup>st<\/sup> Century<\/strong>: Tradition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>First in Germany, then in England and Italy, philosophical idealism served as a replacement to religious belief. This has been previously dealt with <a href=\"?p=8366\">in other posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 20<sup>th<\/sup> century tried to use direct experience in the manner of scientific positivism. Thus, there was an Aldous Huxley, a Timothy Leary, an Alan Watts, a Philip K Dick, or a Carlos Castanada, who relied on psychedelic experiences to break the spell of consensus reality. Channeling became popular as an alternative to ancient texts. New Thought techniques sought to manipulate the physical world in conformance with one\u2019s will. Sex Magick took the sublimation of sexual energy all too literally as a means to transcendence. Of course, an Aleister Crowley could combine all these elements into a larger system.<\/p>\n<p>Both these approaches had to overturn, deny, or reject archaic traditions, yet there lasting effects have been minimal. Now that the works on Tradition by Rene Guenon have become generally available, we finally have a more fruitful and satisfying approach. While idealism appealed to the reasoning mind, and experience to the senses and emotions, Tradition goes straight to the intellectual center of man. Guenon gives us the key to understand religious symbols and dogmas, explains the relationship between the exoteric and esoteric, and outlines a satisfying metaphysical conception of man, God, and the cosmos.<\/p>\n<p>Personally speaking, I have traveled through all these options. Living in tune with a Tradition may seem difficult today, but, judging by drug usage, suicide, and general unhappiness, life in the modern world has its own difficulties. Ultimately, Tradition is a rational, satisfying, and a fully human way to live in the world.<\/p>\n<h2>Thinking and Acting<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>\nActions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of action, and therefore are cursed by the Lord since He Himself cursed the fig tree when He found no fruit but only leaves. ~ <strong>St. Anthony of Padua<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. ~ <strong>Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The American logician <strong>Charles Sanders Peirce<\/strong> in the essay <a href=\"library\/HowToMakeOurIdeasClear.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to Make our Ideas Clear<\/a>, asserts that the \u201cfinal upshot\u201d of thinking is volition. That is, a clear idea is manifested in action. For example, if I really believe it will rain on Saturday, I will cancel my picnic plans. However, few people are at all self-aware about the actual content of their thoughts. A believer can justify a course of action as a manifestation of her Christian beliefs while an atheist can advocate the same action on totally different principles. Hence, we can suspect that there is something deeper involved, even if unknown and unacknowledged to the Christian and the atheist.<\/p>\n<p>That is because most spiritual beliefs are limited to exoteric forms, and conversions are from one exterior form to another, i.e., a horizontal move. An intellectual conversion, on the other hand, is in the vertical direction, and involves one\u2019s entire being. Hence, the interminable debates among atheists, Christians, pagans, and so on, are pointless as long as they are restricted to external forms only. Instead, discussions should be based on certain metaphysical principles and the consequences of their acceptance or denial. We will address these questions on three levels.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cosmic<\/strong>. These are the universal metaphysical principles that need to be considered.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Historical<\/strong>. The cosmic does not efface the historical, so metaphysical principles do have consequences. Now Guenon accepts the unity of all Traditions, so that a particular tradition is somewhat arbitrary, at least for certain types of men.<br \/>\nWe are inclined, however, to Augustine\u2019s understanding that although there is but one Tradition, it is now known as the \u201cCatholic\u201d tradition. This we will explain and justify.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ethical<\/strong>. How does the intellectual conversion affect the way that life is lived?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In this post, we will deal with the cosmic aspect, with the others to follow subsequently.<\/p>\n<h2>Cosmic<\/h2>\n<p>Interiority is a great mystery to most people. Seldom do they bother to examine, in an objective and detached way, their thought processes nor are they interested in the unspoken assumptions supporting their worldviews. Typically, people are interested in the answer to the \u201cwhat is\u201d question: e.g., he is a democrat, a pagan, a Zoroastrian, and so on. Those turn out to be merely nominal associations and denote nothing consistent or transcendent.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, what is of more interest is a person\u2019s viewpoint on various metaphysical principles. A nominal affiliation, except for those who consciously and deliberately choose it, seldom serves to answer such questions. Here we will consider some of these principles, detailing the traditional view, and the implications of their denial. Of course, what follows are not arguments, but rather first principles. Either they are assumed or intuited or they are not. What is different however is this: the person who bothers to think about such principles can see clearly the effects of their denial, whereas denialists are seldom even aware of them. Hence, they often act as though the principle were true, while denying it at the same time.<\/p>\n<h3>Being<\/h3>\n<p>The Universe really is One and all things are interrelated. God is the Principle of Being, so one strives to keep the awareness of Being in consciousness and to live in that presence.<\/p>\n<p>The denial of Being is to assume that only beings exist. Unfortunately, neotheism, which is the belief that God is one of those beings, is quite prevalent. That assumes that God is not the ultimate principle, so neotheism does not respond to the question of Being.<\/p>\n<h3>Order<\/h3>\n<p>The universe is an ordered whole. Moreover, Order, or Logos, must be one with Being, otherwise there will be a dualism between Order and Chaos.<\/p>\n<p>The denial of Order means that there is just the random movement of things.<\/p>\n<h3>Intelligibility<\/h3>\n<p>Since Order is inherent to the universe, the real is intelligible. Beings with an intellect, then, are able to understand the real. Whatever is not intelligible is not real. To know a thing is to know what it is.<\/p>\n<p>The opposite is to regard the world of the senses as real. We can never know that world, but only discover better theories. Words are used to group things with related properties and do not point to a higher intelligible reality. Hence, entirely new classes of people are created simply by definition, with no relation to real distinctions.<\/p>\n<h3>Providence<\/h3>\n<p>There is a purpose and a direction to the cosmos. We don\u2019t mean, by this, a simplistic notion of a god interfering with events from time to time, but rather a permanent, omnipresent principle. It is a responsibility to be aware of signs of Providence and to act on them.<\/p>\n<p>The denial means that there is no real purpose to life. Events are the result of chance and determined physical processes. Many would include human willfulness as a factor in events. Yet this willfulness itself can have no ultimate purpose as much as it may try to live a purposeful life.<\/p>\n<h3>Fall of Man<\/h3>\n<p>Without going into specific details, which will be considered in the follow up, the various traditions regard man as existing in a \u201cfallen\u201d state, that is, from a higher state of being. His task in life is to overcome the forces that maintain him in that lower state in order to return to his rightful place in the cosmic order.<\/p>\n<p>The denial means that man is born free or perfect, and that it is society that condemns him to a lower state. Hence, if a man has certain desires or habits, these are ipso facto considered to be \u201cgood\u201d. There is no necessity for him to \u201covercome\u201d anything. Rather, all efforts must be directed to changing the environment, both social and physical.<\/p>\n<h3>Summary<\/h3>\n<p>What is considered to be \u201cprogress\u201d is actually, in most cases, a regression to a more primitive worldview. Materialism, atomism, and the belief that events result from unchangeable fate, random processes, or pure will, are opposed to the process of regeneration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the moon is the intelligible unity in the four-dimensional manifold of positions and phases, so human subjectivity is the intelligible unity in the multi-dimensional manifold of the conscious events of a lifetime. ~ Bernard Lonergan Matter is essentially multiplicity and division; and this, be it said in passing, is &hellip; <span class=\"continue-reading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=8630\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[1241],"class_list":["post-8630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-metaphysics","category-tradition","tag-charles-sanders-peirce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8630","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=8630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12365,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8630\/revisions\/12365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}