@Jamie - Have you read Bertrand Russel's - The Free Man's Worship?
... all the loneliness of humanity amid hostile forces is concentrated upon the individual soul, which must struggle alone, with what of courage it can command, against the whole weight of a universe that cares nothing for its hopes and fears. Victory, in this struggle with the powers of darkness, is the true baptism into the glorious company of heroes, the true initiation into the overmastering beauty of human existence. From that awful encounter of the soul with the outer world, enunciation, wisdom, and charity are born; and with their birth a new life begins. To take into the inmost shrine of the soul the irresistible forces whose puppets we seem to be--Death and change, the irrevocableness of the past, and the powerlessness of Man before the blind hurry of the universe from vanity to vanity--to feel these things and know them is to conquer them.
I'm one of those conflicted former cradle Catholics who couldn't make the church work for me in the end. I was also in grad school in the 80's in French literature and my final presentation to finish my master's degree was teaching a seminar on Girard's Violence and the Sacred, but it's been a minute and the raising of a few kids since then and frankly, I haven't spent as much time thinking as deeply as I did back then in recent years.
You grabbed my attention with both hands here: "But what if we rejiggered our concept of Original Sin, to the slightly more open-to-interpretation alternate, “Original Condition?” If we can accept that our Original Condition means living within the heartless raw deal that is Evolutionary, we can fully embrace how shitty that sometimes is."
The complexity of both/and has been everywhere in my life lately. I've been trying to explain to my partner how I can be joyful, grateful and heartbroken all at once - which has been the case on several occasions lately.
The other day, I found myself compelled to set up our old creche scene from the 80's with all of it's shepherds and wise men on my buffet... really feeling the desire for the depth of that story, only to discover that the one missing piece is baby Jesus. I was really undone by this. I needed a baby Jesus in my life this year. Fortunately Amazon has them - which seems a little like blasphemy, but I'll take complexity.
Beautiful piece. Agree with the duality of “nasty, brutish and short” and “strive for the sublime.” Another way I like to frame it is: Our Meat Computers (brain+body) were designed by mathematics and random mutations to leave as many copies of their replicator molecules (genes) as possible (Meat Computer Algorithm). Our meta-awareness logically prefers net Positive Subjective Experience over Negative Subjective Experience ((Individual Entity Awareness Algorithm). Alignment of the two algorithms will bring our greatest happiness and can be done, simply, when we seek to “Find Flow in Nature” and “Be Kind.” All the rest is details.
This is a work of art, Jaime, and I'm with you all the way. Girard also helped me bridge the incredulity gap.
And...
Your version is the wholly masculine/stoic one, right? I'm gonna say The Story also has a key element of surrender in it. "Let go and let God." That may sound contradictory to your parable of fortitude--and perhaps a bridge too far for some folks. But perhaps the magic happens when we put those two opposites together.
http://www.dabase.org/up-6.htm The Spiritual Gospel of Saint Jesus Retold section 17 contains a scathing critique of our dreadful sanity - the last 8 or so paragraphs of this essay are more-than-wonderful
Another reference re our unevolved dreadful sanity
I love it when you bring it back to the Christ. It takes courage. And a depth of understanding of the implications of the Man on the Cross. Moved, grateful and with you.
Christianity as Complexity - yes! This piece glows for me like burning coals. Could we extend move 3 to Tank Man & pacifism? ...confronting violence with sacrifice as the ultimate practice of "perfectly honor(ing) the Good, True, and Beautiful"? Cheers to railing against thermodynamics!!
Amazing. If this is the true interpretation, then should be reflected in all religions, right? How was the same message delivered in Judaism Islam and in Buddhism?
@Jamie - Have you read Bertrand Russel's - The Free Man's Worship?
... all the loneliness of humanity amid hostile forces is concentrated upon the individual soul, which must struggle alone, with what of courage it can command, against the whole weight of a universe that cares nothing for its hopes and fears. Victory, in this struggle with the powers of darkness, is the true baptism into the glorious company of heroes, the true initiation into the overmastering beauty of human existence. From that awful encounter of the soul with the outer world, enunciation, wisdom, and charity are born; and with their birth a new life begins. To take into the inmost shrine of the soul the irresistible forces whose puppets we seem to be--Death and change, the irrevocableness of the past, and the powerlessness of Man before the blind hurry of the universe from vanity to vanity--to feel these things and know them is to conquer them.
Jamie! This is beautiful.
I'm one of those conflicted former cradle Catholics who couldn't make the church work for me in the end. I was also in grad school in the 80's in French literature and my final presentation to finish my master's degree was teaching a seminar on Girard's Violence and the Sacred, but it's been a minute and the raising of a few kids since then and frankly, I haven't spent as much time thinking as deeply as I did back then in recent years.
You grabbed my attention with both hands here: "But what if we rejiggered our concept of Original Sin, to the slightly more open-to-interpretation alternate, “Original Condition?” If we can accept that our Original Condition means living within the heartless raw deal that is Evolutionary, we can fully embrace how shitty that sometimes is."
The complexity of both/and has been everywhere in my life lately. I've been trying to explain to my partner how I can be joyful, grateful and heartbroken all at once - which has been the case on several occasions lately.
The other day, I found myself compelled to set up our old creche scene from the 80's with all of it's shepherds and wise men on my buffet... really feeling the desire for the depth of that story, only to discover that the one missing piece is baby Jesus. I was really undone by this. I needed a baby Jesus in my life this year. Fortunately Amazon has them - which seems a little like blasphemy, but I'll take complexity.
Beautiful piece. Agree with the duality of “nasty, brutish and short” and “strive for the sublime.” Another way I like to frame it is: Our Meat Computers (brain+body) were designed by mathematics and random mutations to leave as many copies of their replicator molecules (genes) as possible (Meat Computer Algorithm). Our meta-awareness logically prefers net Positive Subjective Experience over Negative Subjective Experience ((Individual Entity Awareness Algorithm). Alignment of the two algorithms will bring our greatest happiness and can be done, simply, when we seek to “Find Flow in Nature” and “Be Kind.” All the rest is details.
This is a work of art, Jaime, and I'm with you all the way. Girard also helped me bridge the incredulity gap.
And...
Your version is the wholly masculine/stoic one, right? I'm gonna say The Story also has a key element of surrender in it. "Let go and let God." That may sound contradictory to your parable of fortitude--and perhaps a bridge too far for some folks. But perhaps the magic happens when we put those two opposites together.
Spot on. Loved this and will save and return to it.
Please find a set of references from and about a unique Philosopher on the topic of The Scapegoat drama and
what Saint Jesus of Galilee taught and demonstrated while he was alive (end of story).
Through his association with Ken Wilber and the book The New Republic of the Heart will obviously know about the author.
Three references on the Scapegoat drama.
http://www.adidaupclose.org/Literature_Theater/scapegoat_intro.html
http://beezone.com/2main_shelf/ontranscendingtheinsubordinatemind.html
http://www.dabase.org/Reality_Itself_Is_Not_In_The_Middle.htm
On Saint Jesus of Galilee and the religion about him
http://beezone.com/2main_shelf/ewb_pp436-459.html Jesus & The Teaching of Truth About Man
http://beezone.com/2main_shelf/secret-identity-of-the-hol.html The Secret Identity of the Holy Spirit of God
http://www.dabase.org/up-5-2.htm The Universal Non-"Religious Teaching of Saint Jesus of Galilee
http://www.dabase.org/up-6.htm The Spiritual Gospel of Saint Jesus Retold section 17 contains a scathing critique of our dreadful sanity - the last 8 or so paragraphs of this essay are more-than-wonderful
Another reference re our unevolved dreadful sanity
http://beezone.com/2main_shelf/stresschemistry.html
This is the kind of thinking that potentially affords resolution of the “culture war”
Jamie, could I hire you to do a little writing on a script?
I mean.. Praise Jesus, am I right? (
I love it when you bring it back to the Christ. It takes courage. And a depth of understanding of the implications of the Man on the Cross. Moved, grateful and with you.
Oddly reminds me of David Hinton's explication of Ch'an...but militant, in the Terry Pratchett sense.
So yeah. Hell yeah, in fact.
Christianity as Complexity - yes! This piece glows for me like burning coals. Could we extend move 3 to Tank Man & pacifism? ...confronting violence with sacrifice as the ultimate practice of "perfectly honor(ing) the Good, True, and Beautiful"? Cheers to railing against thermodynamics!!
Very yes
I love this. A commentary that bridges the mystical and matter. Thank you
Actually, I’ve laid out what I believed to be the answer in my as yet unfinished follow up to the film, “Alive Inside“
I’d be willing to discuss it with you over a cup of coffee, (virtually if necessary)
Amazing. If this is the true interpretation, then should be reflected in all religions, right? How was the same message delivered in Judaism Islam and in Buddhism?