Lou Gold wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 1:01 am
From what did you infer negativity?
I inferred it from the fact that you associated "... aggressiveness, cunningness, timidity, brutality, etc." as "Man has the
animals within his inner nature." Why do you miss this clear demonstration? Why do you not see that gentle/brutal exist in all beings and that the extremes are often worse in domesticated humans. Can you offer examples of wild animals launching armies of genocidal intent such as humans are presently doing in China and Myanmar? You might consider the different understanding offered by animism. A good modern example would be
"Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology" by David Abram.
I see. It seems to you that I equate animal nature with
evil. But this is not at all the case.
We can speak of evil only in the context of freedom. The male lion does not kill the cubs because of wickedness. He doesn't think whether he should or should not kill them. He's following the inner compulsion of his instinctive nature. The Spirit is enchanted in the instinctive dream of the lion, it simply flows together with instinct.
Man becomes man because an additional layer of spiritual activity emerges in the form of
thinking. This is where the Sprit is able to
differentiate itself from the world of pure instinct. At this point man can begin to ask questions, to have ideas, to look for higher purpose of his existence. At this point he can say to himself: "Yes, instinctual dream life has led me up to the point where I find myself. I can see that formerly I've been unconsciously flowing together with blind urges. Now I can distinguish my thinking-self from this flow and I can choose to oppose this flow. To know what I should oppose and what I should go along, I must understand what I am and what's my place in the Universe."
This is the basic point where man becomes aware of the two natures within himself. On one hand - the lower, instinctive, animal-like nature, that has served him well for the longest time and kept him alive. But with the emergence of thinking, man gets in contact with his higher, spiritual nature. This nature has the mission to flow from above into the human-animal vessel and ennoble it, purify it, make it more and more perfect image of the Cosmic Man.
The animal nature is not in itself the
source of evil. Evil comes to the stage when man, as thinking Spirit, uses his higher creativity for the satisfaction of his animal passions. This is where things get out of proportion. So you are perfectly right - genocide, world domination, etc. - all these are possible only within the human. The animal can't imagine such things. Its instincts are perfected by living Nature for very specific purposes. The animal can't go beyond itself and use its instinctive nature for other purposes. But man can do this.
Evil is not really an intrinsic part of man either. What is genocide? It's an idea. A person having the right position in society might be powerful and influential enough that he can turn this idea into physical reality. The idea itself is a living being in the spiritual world, the world of ideas. Here we come to the critical point. Man does not "invent" these ideas, just as we don't invent numbers. We
discover numbers, we don't create them. Everyone is receptible for specific domains of the world of ideas. The mathematician is receptive to mathematical ideas, the artist - to artistic, the criminal - to criminal ideas.
Man steps on the path of self-conscious development only when he becomes aware that it is up to him and no one else, to choose his idea-nourishment wisely. For this he needs High Ideal. This Ideal is litmus paper for him that tells if certain idea, feeling, action leads towards the Ideal or away from it.
The animistic philosophy is a symptom of humans being unable to come to terms with their humanity. Being human comes with many responsibilities - one of which is to choose whether we use our humanity for good or evil. Animism becomes disillusioned with this humanity. That's why it seeks refuge back into the instinctive dream of Nature. The animist says "Human freedom leads only to evil. Man is not wise enough to handle this freedom. On the other hand, Nature is full of wisdom. Everything is balanced. We should forsake our striving for comprehending Nature and instead we should let Nature rule our lives, we should allow the Spirit of Nature carry us on her maternal waves, while we should simply not interfere and question her wisdom."
OK. This is one approach. We can certainly do that. We can completely entrust ourselves to Nature and allow her to give direction of our lives. But what
is Nature? The big Me? The One? If this is the case we're simply saying "The big Me is wise, he created everything. I'm the eyes and ears of this big Me within the sensory realm. Yet I don't have His wisdom. When I try to be creative I only create evil. I can't take this responsibility. I'll entrust all my life-flow to the big Me. I'll be one with Him. I'll not see things from His eyes - that is, I won't see from His perspective how he creates Nature and Her flow. I'll just flow together with His essential nature, from the standpoint of my limited perspective. Only after death I can hope that I'll be able to see the whole Nature, the Body of His Being, from His perspective. While I'm on the incarnate side of Nature I'll forever remain
separate from that perspective. The most I can do is to be
one with the flow of that perspective, which externally carries me."