"Knowing" the truth

The Master famously says: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 

If we seek the truth because we want to be free, however, this will not happen. Or at least not at once, although we are heading in the right direction.  But the truth is not like a doctor we come to with our symptoms, who then fixes us up and we part amicably. Rather, truth is like someone you fall in love with and marry, and live happily (but not always easily) ever after.  We know truth in the Biblical way, so to speak, the way Adam knew Eve. Or, in our case, rather the other way around. Of this is our freedom born, out of our love for truth and its love for us.

Or so the voice in my head says.

We are all atheists...

...in the sense that there are gods we don't believe in.  For instance, we don't belive in the capricious, lustful gods from the ancient pantheons. By our standards, they are barely even human, much less divine. This is probably no accident:  For only by becoming more human are we able to grasp more of the divine. (The gods of the ancients were probably majestic to them, just realistic enough to connect to.) It is not by coincidence, I believe, that the world's great religions push so strongly on their believers to live a moral life and discipline the mind. It is not only a good thing in itself, but also a precondition to perceive the divine with more clarity. If we were completely in the thrall of our impulses throughout the day, we would be stuck with inferior gods as well, because we can only see so far ahead of where we are.

Actually, some of us have some experience with that.  I not only disbelieve in the capricious gods of the heathens, but also the capricious God of some literalist Christians: The God who hides fake fossils to "test the faith" of his followers. Even the God who tells Adam that the punishment for disobedience is death, only to explain later that actually by "death" he meant an eternity of unbearable pain.

I won't say we all get the God we deserve. That would be bad. But I think there are limits to how far ahead (or up) we can see from where we stand, or if not our life then at least our highest aspiration. 

The fake courage of fake materialists

Occasionally a would-be materialist will mention the courage it takes to live without believing in anything supernatural.  This is amusing because it is not even wrong, just impossible. Courage is supernatural.

If you were a true materialist, you would know that courage can not exist anywhere in the universe, and certainly not in yourself. If only because there is no self.  There is this moving mass of protoplasm, wandering through the world, driven by its DNA to seek out and digest pieces of dead plant or animal matter, kind of like a slime mold but faster.  Further the DNA will occasionally drive this lump of living matter to briefly unite with other lumps to create a new cluster of cells with a combination of their DNA, to repeat the whole process over again.

There can be no courage, no beauty and no hope in a creature propelled merely by the firing of its neurons as dictated by its genes and environment. It does not even have as purpose to survive and procreate - it just so happened that those cell clumps that were programmed to survive and reproduce gave rise to the current fauna, while those whose DNA failed to contain these programs fell by the wayside.

If we zoom in, all we see is atoms combining their electrons to a more stable configuration, then being torn apart by random movements and combining again. If we zoom out, we see a dirty speck of iron circling an average star, dwindling into the background light of a random galaxy on its way through time to inevitable destruction.

So no, if you are still alive, I don't think you have ever been a materialist.  But I suppose roleplaying one can help attract shapely lumps of protoplasm of the appropriate gender. 

A revisit

This morning, I felt the urge to fetch from my commode a book I have not read since my early to mid twenties, I believe. The book is by Elias Aslaksen, and called "Sytti veier til Himmelen" ("70 paths to Heaven", I believe would be the best English translation, but I have never seen it in English. The Christian Church at Brunstad is quite diligent about not throwing its pearls before swine, so it is probably distributed by personal contact.)

One thing I realized quickly was that I had understood amazingly little back when I was young. I am not sure how aware I was of it at the time.  Another things I realized was that I still understood very little.  Yet, some, I believe.

The first of the fairly short chapters is the Path of Humility. And I realize that these years have humbled me a little, though they have also had less positive effects.  But simply observing my own life and others could not help but humble me. When I was young, I meant to humble myself. That was my plan, but I suspect that I may have done quite the opposite. But the terrain of life, so to speak, has still showed me the difference between our potential and what we have actually achieved.  (With a few exceptions, probably, none of which are me.)

Fantasies

If perverse fantasies make us more perverse, would holy fantasies make us more holy?

In other words, is it the content of fantasy worlds that change us, or the very act of living in a fantasy world in the first place?

In Japan, they use the word "otaku" about a person who spends his free time reading comics, watching animated movies and playing computer games. This lifestyle has exploded there, and is spreading rapidly in America and Europe as well.  In Japan, "otaku" is a very negative word now, but in America it is considered neutral or positive. (They word has been borrowed from Japanese. It is more specific than "geek", which could also be obsessed with this-worldly things like science or languages.) 

I personally believe that a process of dissipation will necessarily set in if the imaginary world is lower than the real world. That is to say, if it functions as wish fulfillment, or gives a false temporary sense of being powerful or important. You will notice that higher worlds have the exact opposite effect: They fill you with awe and make you feel small, but they center you and leave a resolve when you return to daily life.

Even though I say these things, I think the content of what you immerse yourself in makes a difference too.   I do not know this for sure though.

Small note on the science of blessing

Without any contradiction, the lower is blessed by the higher.

For us who are on a similar level, it is not quite that simple.  Each of us has peaks and valleys, so to speak.  By this I mean that we may have come further in some parts of our lives, or perhaps we just have a gift for calling down a special kind of grace. From these peaks in our lives we may be able to bless people who are actually far ahead of us in most respects. If all goes well, we are also blessed by them. Of course, this requires humility. Humility is always realistic, awareness of incompleteness; there is no need to imagine ourselves at a lower level than we actually are. If it seems that way, our aspiration is far too low. Blessings are wasted if there is no room for more. If we know it all, we cannot learn.  If we are already perfect, we cannot improve. If we dwell on our peaks, we will not receive the blessings we need.

Container and content

The half-secret esoteric traditions of the great religions all have certain... techniques, I guess we may call them, to greatly strengthen the human mind, and in a more limited sense the body too. These days, this knowledge is widely available. It is often referred to as "spirituality".  By following certain principles, you can grow beyond the limits of ordinary humans not only in that primitive past, but even beyond most of what is considered humanly possible today.

This is a bad thing.

In these traditions, you strengthened the container so as to be able to carry the sacred truths, that could easily destroy an ordinary mind. As we remember, the "stuff" of higher-level worlds is harder, denser, more real than our everyday life. It is no wonder that the wineskins would burst and the wine be spilled. Due to the sheer real-ness of the content, even the greatly fortified container would seem to them a fragile piece of pottery, ugly and weak and temporary compared to the treasure they were to contain.

You want to be strong, not to carry the heavy burden but to achieve great things for yourself? You want to live a long and healthy life, not to fulfill your duty but to enjoy your senses? You want to see what is hidden, not to protect what is precious but to impress the simpleminded? Yes, you may be filled with pride by your achievements. But the treasure is hidden in plain sight. Like a small child you play with the colorful box, unaware that you have missed the gift itself.