I think it might be interesting to examine Easter from a metaphysical
perspective. Its not that I want to explore the deepest profunities about
chocolate bunnies or marshmallow chicks. Oh, no. This is about progress and
pain as resurrection and crucifixion. I want to show that the intellectual
descriptions of evolutionary progress authored by Wilber and Pirsig are not
only culturally derived, but they expand and articulate the most essential
message of all great religions. But there'll be NO chocolate bunnies.
The Pirsigism about suffering being the negative face of quality (quoted by
John) comes from the same chapter where we are warned about the dangers of
using satisfaction and practicality as the test of what's good (quoted by
Platt). The progress and pain experienced by individuals as they ascend
through the levels is intimately intertwined with the evolution and
development of the whole society and they both operate on essentailly the
same principles. Both of the quotes come from chapter 29, where Pirsig is
connecting several seemingly different subjects. He's connecting Lila's
problems and insanity itself to the role of contrarians in society. (He's
also connecting the MOQ with the philosophy of William James. He also uses
the MOQ to improve Pragmatism and Radical Impiricism, but that's not on
topic.) Anyway, on to progress and pain as it relates to the evolution of
self and society...
"...you can also see that evolution doesn't take place only within
societies, it takes place within individuals too. ... Suffering is the
negative face of the Quality that drives the whole process. All these
battles between patterns of evolution go on within suffering individuals
like Lila. And Lila's battle is everybody's battle, you know? Sometimes the
insane and the contrarians...are the most valuable people society has. They
may be precursors of social change. They've taken the burdens of the culture
onto themselves, and in their struggle to solve thier own problems they're
solving problems for the culture as well." P360
Moral regeneration is necessary for individuals and for cultures. This is
the message of chapter 29 and of the MOQ in general. Pirsig describes the
agents of social change as "contrarians", the one's who feel like they're
going to die if they don't break out of this prison. Campbell's work as a
mythologist brings to him regard this same agent as the hero. They represent
the same dynamic energy. Think of Pirsig's dream, the octopus that was
coming to squeeze the life out of him, and the subsequent description of the
social level as a giant with an appitite for human bodies....
"For the mythological hero is the champion not of things become but of
things becoming; the dragon to be slain by him is precisely the monster of
the status quo: Holdfast, the monster, is the keeper of the past. He is the
enemy, dragon, tyrant, because he turns to his own advantage the authority
of his position. He is Holdfast not because he keeps the PAST but because he
KEEPS. (emphasis Campbell's) The hero deed is a continuous shattering of the
crystallizations of the moment. Transormation, fluidity, not stubborn
ponderosity, is the characteristic of the living God. The ogre-tyrant is the
champion of the prodigious fact, the hero the champion of creative life."
Campbell's HERO P337
The central hero of Western civilization, like it or not, is Christ, whose
death and re-animation we celebrate this weekend. Don't worry, I'm not
trying to get you to join my church or convert you to my religion. We're
talking about compartive mytholgy and metaphysics, not dogmas or doctrines.
But if we examine heros and gods from a intellectual perspective, from a
psychological and philosophical perspective, their meaning remains
spiritual, its still about the progress of the "soul" and our connnection to
the divine (DQ). In THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES (1949) Campbell opens a
section called "From Psychology to Metaphysics" with this statement....
"It is not difficult for the modern intellectual to concede that the
symbolism of mythology has a psychological significance. Particulary after
the work of the psychoanalysts, there can be little doubt, either that myths
are of the nature of dream, or that dreams are symptomatic of the dynamics
of the psyche. Freud, Jung, Stekel, Rank, Abraham, Roheim, and many others
have developed a vastly documented modern lore of dream and myth
interpretation; and though the doctors differ among themselves, they are
united into one great modern movement by a considerable body of common
principles. With their discovery that the patterns and logic of fairy tale
and myth correspond to those of dream, the long discreditied chimeras of
archaic man have returned dramatically to the foreground of modern
consciousness." HERO P255
This is the approch we take to think about Christ on this Easter sunday.
This is Christ as contrarian, as the agent of change, as the hero who slays
dragons, shatters the crystalizations of the moment, who represents the
moral regeneration of his culture and who demonstrates personal
transcendence. We give this hero all the credit today as a way to celebrate,
but this great figure is the same in other cultures too, even if the hero
wears a different face and goes by a different name. Its the same guy in
different cultural clothing. Cambell says, "The Buddha's victory beneath the
Bo Tree is a classic Oriental example of thes deed." and he includes a few
lines from an ancient Germanic work called "Hovamol", which bears a striking
resemblance to the crucifixion.
I ween that I hung on the windy tree,
Hung there for nights full nine;
With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was
To Othin, myself to myself,
On the tree that none may ever know
What root beneath it runs.
The cross of Christ, Othin's windy tree, the Buddha's Bo tree and even Adam
and Eve's tree of knowledge are the same. The represent the world axis, the
spot where reality is centered, where some earth-shattering or
world-redeeming auspicious event takes place. In this light moral
regeneration and personal transcendence aren't just about self improvement
or cultural vitality, they are the aim of all spiritual quests. Suffering
and death preceed enlightenment and resurrection in the same way that pain
comes before progress.(See John B's explanations of Ken Wilber.) On this
central spot, the center of the world psychologically speaking, the
idividual's old self, old personality is shed. The prison is broken out of.
A solution is achieved at the next level, or perhaps even at the ultimate
peak by DQ itself. That's when "I and the Father are one" and the levels of
static patterns are abandoned altogether, even the one's about "I and the
Father". The following quote, Campbell's description of the Buddha's deed,
comes from page 191 of HERO....
"With the sword of his mind he pierced the bubble of the universe - and it
was shattered into nought. The whole world of natural experience, as well as
the continents, heavens, and hells of traditional religious belief, exploded
- together with their gods and demons and chocolate bunnies. But the miracle
of miracles was that though all exploded, all was nevertheless thereby
renewed, revivified, and made glorious with the iffulgence of true being."
OK, I admit it. I added the chocolate bunnies. But the point remains the
same. Was he a DQ guy or what? Its interesting that his transformation
resulted in changing the whole world. Everything is renewed when he is
renewed. Because "Lila's battle is everybody's battle, you know?" There you
go. Please connect the dots and have a happy Easter.
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:02:05 BST