John, Gavin and Y'all:
John asked me to comment...
I'll leave it there. But I would like your response to my conclusion to an
earlier post, where I said
"The world is full of suffering. I can make an effort here, patch up
something there, but the impact is minimal. The mystic alternative seems
selfish at first. Attend to my own salvation. Yet without this I labour in
vain, since my action flows from judgment that is bound up with my egoic
development, and ultimately flows from childhood trauma and my bondage to
patterns established then. Only liberation within can free me to act morally
in the world."
DMB says...
Now I see that our differences are much more subtle than I thought. Your
conclusion is right on. Its classic wisdom. First remove the mote from your
own eye, then worry about the splinter in your neighbor's. Tend to your own
garden first. Its been said many ways. And I think this idea that ego and
neurosis are the biggest impediments to the kind of internal liberation that
fosters moral development. The cultural (social level) prejudices against
mysticism only reinforce the power of these psychological impediments to
growth. Ideas and ideals (intellectual static patterns) can be a obstacle
too, but so much. Pirsig and Wilber both, for example, employ intellectual
descriptions to advocate mysticism, to describe mystical experience and even
to draw distinctions between ideas and immediate experience (static and
Dynamic). The mystery they point to with ideas will always remain a mystery,
but the intellectual level has brought new conceptual categories that allow
us to approach mysticism in ways that were previously impossible. It seems
they both are careful to point out that ideas are not the same as immediate
experience, but they can only make this claim because they have experienced
both. Of course, the kind of meditative practices that help to clear out and
empty out thoughts, the kind advocated by Wilber and many others is
apparently a valueable activity, but when the session is over ideas return
and they can be used to express and or contemplate that experience. Its not
a permanent state anymore than is sleep. Without some static latching
afterward... Just like dreams, its better to remember and dig in to find the
meaning of the experience. I'm with you on another account too. These issues
are extremely difficult.
Thanks for the kind words and for your time,
DMB
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