We are all building a life in a material sense – money, house, possessions, the chance to travel – and a life in an internal sense – narratives around our improving sense of self, our identity.
I still see this as embracing a theology of dissociation. Sounds pretty, who could really fault you on this? However- to me this still reads like you see yourself as some sort of tourist in this life. Where’s the commitment? You teach authors who have a deeply existential position; but that existentialism is founded on the reality of this world- not escaping into some realm of light in some afterworld. You’ve already acknowledged that a philosophy of non-attachment can lead to nihilism, and I think you’re trying to find a way around that, which is laudable. However, there’s a difference between the middle path and plain old mediocrity. I struggle with that a lot- it truly is the razor’s edge. I think there are different roads to finding the middle way- practicing and extreme form of non-attachment and therein finding what it’s impossible to detach from, or attaching so fully that everything nonessential falls into place. It seems to me that so much that goes wrong with the notion that we have to dissolve our ego is the failure to acknowledge that you first have to build one. Buddha walked away from a kingdom and Jesus accepted the cross. Rejecting full embodiment is to reject the possibility of transformation that is offered by Love, by Eros in its highest form. If you place your heart in a place that the world can’t reach, it will never be broken, but you will also never fully live. Happy Easter.🙏
Some very interesting and thought-provoking points.
“..or attaching so fully that everything nonessential falls into place..”. Or, rather falls away?
We build our egos over a lifetime, and it becomes a mighty fortress shielding us from the God consciousness we seek and placing obstacles in the way of our path to the soul’s ascendancy. But the body, the corporal, is the vessel in which our spiritual nature arises to surmount ego and finally, sometimes not until death, dissolve all attachment.
I still see this as embracing a theology of dissociation. Sounds pretty, who could really fault you on this? However- to me this still reads like you see yourself as some sort of tourist in this life. Where’s the commitment? You teach authors who have a deeply existential position; but that existentialism is founded on the reality of this world- not escaping into some realm of light in some afterworld. You’ve already acknowledged that a philosophy of non-attachment can lead to nihilism, and I think you’re trying to find a way around that, which is laudable. However, there’s a difference between the middle path and plain old mediocrity. I struggle with that a lot- it truly is the razor’s edge. I think there are different roads to finding the middle way- practicing and extreme form of non-attachment and therein finding what it’s impossible to detach from, or attaching so fully that everything nonessential falls into place. It seems to me that so much that goes wrong with the notion that we have to dissolve our ego is the failure to acknowledge that you first have to build one. Buddha walked away from a kingdom and Jesus accepted the cross. Rejecting full embodiment is to reject the possibility of transformation that is offered by Love, by Eros in its highest form. If you place your heart in a place that the world can’t reach, it will never be broken, but you will also never fully live. Happy Easter.🙏
Some very interesting and thought-provoking points.
“..or attaching so fully that everything nonessential falls into place..”. Or, rather falls away?
We build our egos over a lifetime, and it becomes a mighty fortress shielding us from the God consciousness we seek and placing obstacles in the way of our path to the soul’s ascendancy. But the body, the corporal, is the vessel in which our spiritual nature arises to surmount ego and finally, sometimes not until death, dissolve all attachment.
“…Our true nature is the awareness in which all things appear…” what a deeply aware statement!
Equanimity is in short supply these days - it’s a good quality to cultivate as you say. Thanks for this reflection.
🙏
Another good piece. Too bad most of us spend our lives feeding our egos as opposed to feeding our souls.
🙏
this is beautiful Patrick! x
Thanks Kuba