Speaking of bowing to the dictates of authority...
when i was writing the previous post about the pope, i was reminded of a book that had a tremendous influence on my thinking and, subsequently, how i have been able to make sense out of a lot of things that guide our societies and personal lives...
the book is Coming to Our Senses and the author is morris berman... the thing i found particularly intriguing about the book which, oddly, is not even mentioned in the Publishers Weekly review (included with the book link), is that berman traces 2000 years of western history in the context of heresy... yes, ok, the main thesis of the book, as the review states, is a "call for a life of the body--as opposed to an emphasis on success, material possessions and divisive 'isms...' '' but the point that stuck with me is berman's convincing argument (he footnotes extensively as befits a former professor of the history of science at johns hopkins) that the definition of heresy, as has been demonstrated over two millenia, is a refusal to accept the dictates of external authority and instead relying on our own direct experience to guide the conduct of our lives...
wow...!
for me, that was one of those flashes of insight that literally changed everything... berman's examples of Gnostic seers' fusion with godhead, Jewish mysticism, 11th century French Cathar heretics with their trance and ecstasy techniques, the soul travel of Renaissance occultists, suddenly threw a blinding light on all sorts of things from Joan of Arc, papal infallability, all varieties of religious dogma, worshipping at the altar of scientific method, right on up to today's fundamentalist christian extremists... anybody who dares to listen to their inner voice and chart their life's course based on a direct experience of the world and/or their spirituality risks running afoul of the "authorities..." they're there, after all, to give you that direction and, moreover, to insure you follow it... those who think for themselves and live according to their inner dictates, beware...! ok, it's obvious that this line of thinking can lead directly to the school of "if it feels good, do it" and we certainly have seen where that mindset can take us... but the notion of "doing your own thing" has a connotation that does not fit what i believe personally nor is it what, i believe, berman was attempting to communicate...
it was during some of the darkest moments in my roller-coaster life that as a last resort i turned to meditation and, in so doing, discovered my "inner voice..." my only previous experience with such a phenomenon had been mere weeks before... i was driving to an interview for a job i desperately wanted and needed... we (i was married at the time) had just filed bankruptcy and i was feeling lost and forlorn... it was a sub-zero day with the kind of intense blue sky that can sometimes accompany a severe cold front... there was plenty of snow which made for a ferocious glare... as i drove down the interstate, i did something rare for me... i prayed... "help me, higher power, whoever you are... i REALLY need this job..." of course i was nervous and, as i often do in hard times, had lapsed into self-pity and whining... suddenly, as if someone had suddenly switched on the radio at full volume, i heard a voice in my head saying, "shut up, will you? look...! it's a beautiful day...!"
i'm not gonna try to make any case whatsoever for god, higher power, spirit guides, angels, familiars, my sub-conscious, or anything else... what i do know is that, since then, when i have succeeded in chilling out my constant mental blabber (no easy task, i assure you), i have encountered that voice numerous times... and here's the really strange part... when it speaks, i know, at a level that i cannot articulate, that it speaks the truth... it's never foretold my future, it's never told me directly what to do or how to behave, and, with the exception of the example above, never butts in... more telling, i think, is that the wisdom i have received in this manner is often not to my liking... in fact, i've often laughingly thought at the time, "hey, is there somebody else up there i can talk to...?"
this, then, is what i think berman means when he talks about direct experience - you determine your path, choose and observe your values and beliefs, and behave in a way that is congruent with what you know to be inner truth... damn...! sure puts the pope, dubya, the anglican communion, and the grand ayatollah in a different light, doesn't it...? it also clearly points out what fundamentalist religious zealots are panting for - the subjugation of everyone to the external authority that they and only they deem valid...
kinda scarey, isn't it...? Submit To Propeller
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the book is Coming to Our Senses and the author is morris berman... the thing i found particularly intriguing about the book which, oddly, is not even mentioned in the Publishers Weekly review (included with the book link), is that berman traces 2000 years of western history in the context of heresy... yes, ok, the main thesis of the book, as the review states, is a "call for a life of the body--as opposed to an emphasis on success, material possessions and divisive 'isms...' '' but the point that stuck with me is berman's convincing argument (he footnotes extensively as befits a former professor of the history of science at johns hopkins) that the definition of heresy, as has been demonstrated over two millenia, is a refusal to accept the dictates of external authority and instead relying on our own direct experience to guide the conduct of our lives...
wow...!
for me, that was one of those flashes of insight that literally changed everything... berman's examples of Gnostic seers' fusion with godhead, Jewish mysticism, 11th century French Cathar heretics with their trance and ecstasy techniques, the soul travel of Renaissance occultists, suddenly threw a blinding light on all sorts of things from Joan of Arc, papal infallability, all varieties of religious dogma, worshipping at the altar of scientific method, right on up to today's fundamentalist christian extremists... anybody who dares to listen to their inner voice and chart their life's course based on a direct experience of the world and/or their spirituality risks running afoul of the "authorities..." they're there, after all, to give you that direction and, moreover, to insure you follow it... those who think for themselves and live according to their inner dictates, beware...! ok, it's obvious that this line of thinking can lead directly to the school of "if it feels good, do it" and we certainly have seen where that mindset can take us... but the notion of "doing your own thing" has a connotation that does not fit what i believe personally nor is it what, i believe, berman was attempting to communicate...
it was during some of the darkest moments in my roller-coaster life that as a last resort i turned to meditation and, in so doing, discovered my "inner voice..." my only previous experience with such a phenomenon had been mere weeks before... i was driving to an interview for a job i desperately wanted and needed... we (i was married at the time) had just filed bankruptcy and i was feeling lost and forlorn... it was a sub-zero day with the kind of intense blue sky that can sometimes accompany a severe cold front... there was plenty of snow which made for a ferocious glare... as i drove down the interstate, i did something rare for me... i prayed... "help me, higher power, whoever you are... i REALLY need this job..." of course i was nervous and, as i often do in hard times, had lapsed into self-pity and whining... suddenly, as if someone had suddenly switched on the radio at full volume, i heard a voice in my head saying, "shut up, will you? look...! it's a beautiful day...!"
i'm not gonna try to make any case whatsoever for god, higher power, spirit guides, angels, familiars, my sub-conscious, or anything else... what i do know is that, since then, when i have succeeded in chilling out my constant mental blabber (no easy task, i assure you), i have encountered that voice numerous times... and here's the really strange part... when it speaks, i know, at a level that i cannot articulate, that it speaks the truth... it's never foretold my future, it's never told me directly what to do or how to behave, and, with the exception of the example above, never butts in... more telling, i think, is that the wisdom i have received in this manner is often not to my liking... in fact, i've often laughingly thought at the time, "hey, is there somebody else up there i can talk to...?"
this, then, is what i think berman means when he talks about direct experience - you determine your path, choose and observe your values and beliefs, and behave in a way that is congruent with what you know to be inner truth... damn...! sure puts the pope, dubya, the anglican communion, and the grand ayatollah in a different light, doesn't it...? it also clearly points out what fundamentalist religious zealots are panting for - the subjugation of everyone to the external authority that they and only they deem valid...
kinda scarey, isn't it...? Submit To Propeller
Tweet
posted by profmarcus at
4/02/2005
