Thursday, August 12, 2004
Hope Amidst a Sea of Despair
An article in today's newspaper highlighted a thought-provoking quote from a contemporary writer: "What passes for optimism is most often the effect of an intellectual error."
This assertion led me to reflect a bit on whether is it possible, even appropriate, to hold on to optimism in the current world of multiple disasters. We seem to be surrounded by crises and threats on all levels. Our faith in human goodness and powers of regeneration is being severely tested. Do we dare to maintain our hope that transcendence is possible in current circumstances?
I like to think that we pass through three major phases in our progress to intellectual and spiritual maturity. The first is that of youthful idealism, the time when one believes that anything is possible, that slogans such as "love not war" will save the world, and that every change is a sign of progress. Later, disillusionment sets in. We see that persons in authority are often inadequate or corrupt, that many in society are motivated by greed, not innate goodness, and that the bottom line apparently rules in all circumstances. Our intellect confirms such observations with myriad instances. Indeed, it is essential to see through the shams and slogans, to shatter the false myths by which much of society operates. At this point, many become bitter and even cynical, and renounce all hope for a better future.
In order to get beyond this limiting and ultimately self-defeating view, one has to cross a threshold, where mind alone does not rule. True, mind is utterly essential in the restricted realm of "practical" human affairs. It affords protection from charlatans, opens our eyes to deceit and deception, keeps us from falling into all sorts of follies. It also allows for impressive progress on the advance toward understanding of ourselves and our universe.
But mind has set limitations. At some point, those who rely solely on mental approaches are like blind men stumbling against an invisible wall. Their progress is halted, for at this point they are relying on the wrong instruments to see.
There is a universe outside the apparent realm of familiar experience. To enter, we must be willing to open on a new level, to take immeasurable risk, to voyage into uncharted space. Here are the spheres of the transcendent, the places unmarked on any atlas and unnamed on any map of the universe. To find them, we must risk all in what T. S. Eliot calls "the awful daring of a moment's surrender." "Only then will we find 'it'," the treasure locked within, the Self we have yearned for so long.
We will not be hopelessly blinded by our new vision. We will continue to acknowledge the shadow as well as the redeeming light. Glory and horror, suffering and transcendence--all will be recognized as realities existing together in our limited human plane.
Kundalini operates to awaken us to the possibilities of transcendence. Once this light flows through us, we know through the testimony of our own bodies and spirits that redemption can come in unsuspected ways and transformation occur in surprising circumstances. It becomes the ground for perpetual affirmation, the basis for undying hope, for now we have met "the still point of the turning world." (Eliot)
Transcendence is no longer a concept to be proved, but a reality to be experienced.
This assertion led me to reflect a bit on whether is it possible, even appropriate, to hold on to optimism in the current world of multiple disasters. We seem to be surrounded by crises and threats on all levels. Our faith in human goodness and powers of regeneration is being severely tested. Do we dare to maintain our hope that transcendence is possible in current circumstances?
I like to think that we pass through three major phases in our progress to intellectual and spiritual maturity. The first is that of youthful idealism, the time when one believes that anything is possible, that slogans such as "love not war" will save the world, and that every change is a sign of progress. Later, disillusionment sets in. We see that persons in authority are often inadequate or corrupt, that many in society are motivated by greed, not innate goodness, and that the bottom line apparently rules in all circumstances. Our intellect confirms such observations with myriad instances. Indeed, it is essential to see through the shams and slogans, to shatter the false myths by which much of society operates. At this point, many become bitter and even cynical, and renounce all hope for a better future.
In order to get beyond this limiting and ultimately self-defeating view, one has to cross a threshold, where mind alone does not rule. True, mind is utterly essential in the restricted realm of "practical" human affairs. It affords protection from charlatans, opens our eyes to deceit and deception, keeps us from falling into all sorts of follies. It also allows for impressive progress on the advance toward understanding of ourselves and our universe.
But mind has set limitations. At some point, those who rely solely on mental approaches are like blind men stumbling against an invisible wall. Their progress is halted, for at this point they are relying on the wrong instruments to see.
There is a universe outside the apparent realm of familiar experience. To enter, we must be willing to open on a new level, to take immeasurable risk, to voyage into uncharted space. Here are the spheres of the transcendent, the places unmarked on any atlas and unnamed on any map of the universe. To find them, we must risk all in what T. S. Eliot calls "the awful daring of a moment's surrender." "Only then will we find 'it'," the treasure locked within, the Self we have yearned for so long.
We will not be hopelessly blinded by our new vision. We will continue to acknowledge the shadow as well as the redeeming light. Glory and horror, suffering and transcendence--all will be recognized as realities existing together in our limited human plane.
Kundalini operates to awaken us to the possibilities of transcendence. Once this light flows through us, we know through the testimony of our own bodies and spirits that redemption can come in unsuspected ways and transformation occur in surprising circumstances. It becomes the ground for perpetual affirmation, the basis for undying hope, for now we have met "the still point of the turning world." (Eliot)
Transcendence is no longer a concept to be proved, but a reality to be experienced.
