Lou Gold wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 10:21 pm
Cleric K wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 6:41 pm
"Intuitive thinking begins with the humble realization that in our spiritual activity we've never been apart from the archetypal world."
Cleric,
I like your bolded statement and I've been contemplating it...
"Intuitive thinking begins with the humble realization that in our spiritual activity we've never been apart from the archetypal world."
It strikes me that, if this is true (and I think it is), then why do we need a story or model or representation to explain it? Why not just live it and breathe it into every move we make? Might this be the secret of why engaged mindfulness has become so popular and so able to spread across the boundaries created by identifying with different stories?
How might this work in practice? The life and work of Thich Nhat Hanh offers a model of the process in action. Please note that I'm not a Buddhist so I'm not arguing for "my way". I'm a Judeo-Christian-shamanic-eclectic and quite identified with telling stories, so this perception is not born of confirmation bias. What do you think of it?
Hi Lou,
let's first look at what a 'story' really is. Your life is a story, isn't it? This story would be non-existent in consciousness if there wasn't the mystery of
memory. After all, if our existence consisted of disconnected frames, without memory building up, there could be no story, right? Our story is something much more than the logistic history of a lump of meat on its way from breeding to the slaughterhouse. What we remember is the
inner states of thinking, feeling, willing and perception. These form a stream of metamorphosis which leads to our current state. Seen in this way, our story is not simply a list of dry facts but actual inner experience of continual transformation. Our past is not simply things that have happened to us but the temporal unfolding of our bodily nature, understandings, goals, aspirations, dreams. So even though we conceive of the past as something that has gone away from us, from another perspective we can see it as if the past
has grown into us. What we are now is what the metamorphosis process has grown into. Similarly, the beautiful blossoms that you often send, do not exist in isolation but they are what the whole plant has been metamorphosing towards. I've tried to present this different way of thinking about memory
here.
I'll return to the story but let's look at the second question first:
"Why not just live it and breathe it into every move we make?" Everyone is doing this even if they don't know it. The thing is that this world of potential is differentiated, there are various currents, winds, seasons. It is through our spiritual activity that we align with one or another. We have talked a lot about this before. Everyone of us works under a specific constellation of the archetypal forces. You suggest to simply breathe the potential and ask no questions. But this is also what the colonialist does. This is what the technocrat does. In their inner world they live and breath a very specific constellation of archetypal ideas. They see the Earth as the arena where these ideas can be manifested.
Yet you find the way of the 'younger brother' disagreeable. This in itself should be the living indication that it is not enough to simply breathe and live the potential whatever that might be. In a similar way we don't just swallow anything we get our hands on. We use discrimination. We understand the benefits or dangers of the various things we ingest. It's exactly the same in our inner world. We live in world of spiritual 'foodstuff' - ideas, desires. We need certain way to distinguish the qualities of these foods and ingest in our soul only those which align with our high ideal. What this high ideal is, is something that everyone should determine for themselves in complete freedom. If our ideal is Love, brotherhood, harmonious unfoldment of our shared dream, them we'll seek the ideas, feelings and actions that resonate with these archetypal forces. If our ideal is to feel as a sole dictator over the Earthly kingdom, then we'll seek the forces that align with it.
Of course, seeking to become a conductor for our high ideal requires knowledge, wisdom. We're in constant interaction with a living reality, which is not simply random noise but exhibits certain rhythmic lawfulness. We need to know when to sow the plants and when to harvest them. If we ignore the seasonal rhythms it's not Nature's fault that we're left hungry. And this brings us back to the need of a story.
As said, the story is not simply a dry narrative to satisfy our intellectual curiosity by filling some gaps. The crucial thing is that the story should be the temporal dimension of the living being that we are. Imagine that someone says to you: "Your life story is irrelevant. It is just an intellectual fairy tale to boost your ego. It's all the same what narrative you attach to your persona. The important thing is here and now." While it's true that the story should in no way be used as a booster for the ego, it is simply not true that the story is unimportant.
Our life circumstances in the here and now only make sense when they are seen as the blossom of continual metamorphosis. If the life processes have been different, if our past ideals were different, our blossom today could have different color, different fragrance or maybe it would be shriveled, eaten away by bugs. It's nonsensical to say that only the here and now matters (I'm not speaking of the deeper truth that ultimately all eternity exists in the now but about ignoring the temporal thickness of the now). If till yesterday I've been only eating, drinking, smoking, fornicating, stealing, lying and today I decide to start clean, is it enough to say "All that matters is the here and now"? What about the all the toxins that have accumulated and ruined my body? What about all the damage I've done to those around me? All the memory images that continue to haunt me? All the addictive habits?
While it is true that our innermost essential being is none of these things, they are our living environment now and we have to live with them. If we want a better environment it's of no use to close our eyes and fantasize that our body is healthy, that our heart is pure and all the damage to the world is non-existent. The only reasonable thing is to make all these things our high ideal and from now on begin to direct all our thinking, feelings and actions in alignment with it. If we do this, then in future time, when we look upon the blossom here and now, we'll see that it is what it is because we've been slowly and wisely nourishing it.
But as said, simply yearning for something is not enough. This primes our thoughts and feelings but in order for all this to reach the domain of will, of actions, of deeper transformation of the dream, we need also skills, we need understanding of the rhythmic laws of the dreamscape. And this is where we return to the importance of the story. Through the story we can encompass the rhythmic laws that extend in time. There's no music in the infinitesimal thin now. Our consciousness should spread in time if we are to grasp rhythm, melody, song structure. If we focus only on the here and now, we're like a leaf blown by the winds. We don't know from whence we come and where we're going. We assume that as long as we live and breath the inexplicable life stream it is all good. But doesn't the drunkard do the same thing? Doesn't he live for the sip here and now, living and breathing the moment, without thought about where he comes from and where he's going?
It is for this reason that the story is something much more than prose to make our mind feel more gapless. When we understand the story in its inner essence,
our being consciously expands into the temporal structure of the dreamscape we call reality. This is also why it is not enough to know only our personal story. Our personal story is embedded in the story of the Cosmic organism. Our blossom is not independent of the soil, water, air, sunlight. The story of the ancient Hebrews didn't aim to boost their egos and simply make them feel chosen by God above all other tribes. The story of the OT is not simply a historical account but the inner metamorphosis of the spiritual being of humanity. It shouldn't be taken neither as a dry list of names and events, nor as a bed time myth for the children. Today we're in position to find that story within ourselves, as the organic structure of our time being, which goes much further than our present lifetime.
There are only two main and intertwined thoughts in all the above:
1/ The soul and spiritual world that we live and breath and continually precipitates as perception/memory, contains forces of the most varied kinds. It is up to our freedom to determine what our ideal for becoming is and seek to manifest the corresponding forces.
2/ We can't manifest these forces when we have consciousness only of the the indeterminate now. Or rather, we can manifest many things but we have no clue how these forces will play out in time. That's why we need also consciousness which encompasses time - we also need the story. Not as dry sum of historical facts imparted onto us but as living understanding of the forces of soul and spirit which govern the lawful unfolding of the dreamscape. Put in other words, the story is our living understanding of the Cosmic forces that art the structure of the dream, just like the on-the-surface story of our life is the living understanding of our own thinking, feeling and willing and the way they have unfolded in time and have led us to where we are now.