I\u2019m pretty sure these two categories cannot be adequately separated. I\u2019m not talking about the distortions of recognized mental illness, but rather the distortions and illusions imposed by pretty healthy folks who are moderately introspective and somewhat philosophical. As we have learned more about the prevalence of illusion and how compelling this is, it becomes clear that illusion is not something that just weak-minded people fall prey to, but rather intrinsic to the human condition. It is not clear if any class of people can be adjudged free of illusion, even if they are relatively free of certain specified illusions or types of illusions.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not suggesting that a moderate amount of seeking rational patterns in the cosmos through science, philosophy, or the arts is not a fruitful enterprise. I\u2019ve found that this process continues to be interesting and, I think, productive. Where it gets in its own way is in falling prey to the illusion that its answers can be more than provisional. I\u2019m both pragmatic and metaphysically apophatic\u2014meaning that I am pretty convinced that human mind\u2014both reason and intuition\u2014can never grasp the Glorious Whole. (That\u2019s an intriguing name for the Wondrous Becoming<\/em>, the Ground of Being<\/em>, the Cosmic Awakening<\/em>, the Unknowable Source<\/em>, etc.)<\/p>\n Epistemological Limits<\/strong><\/p>\n Epistemology is the contemplation of how we know what we know, a branch of philosophy, and I don\u2019t know the word for thinking that conscious mind can ever will itself to be the complete master of itself, much less knowledge of the All. <\/p>\n I strongly suspect that thinking that at least in theory it\u2019s possible for the mind to know<\/em> itself absolutely is one of the most compelling illusions. It appeals to vanity, but I know of no one who has completely succeeded in this. Similarly, complete self-mastery is also a misleading goal.<\/p>\n I do concede that the degrees of self-knowledge and self-mastery can increase and that a number of methods for improving this are being developed and are described in countless self-help books. But this is an asymptotic limit, meaning one of those things like perfection or the speed of light\u2014the closer you get to it the harder it is to advance further. <\/p>\n I also suspect that consistent practice and intent will gradually turn even the unconscious mind toward the goals of the \u201chigher self,\u201d especially if the \u201clower self\u201d is acknowledged, understood, and properly dealt with. Sometimes this involves making compromises. There must be an alignment of the goals, though; a relative freedom from distraction by other goals (e.g., sex); relative freedom from unworthy conflicts (e.g., resentments, childish and unrealistic expectations for short-cuts), and so on. People need to appreciate the degrees to which the lower mind can generate rationalizations to suit its purposes. A fair amount of what poses as philosophy really is a more elegant and pretentious form of rationalization.<\/p>\n Associated with this is the illusion that any human mind or even some imagined higher sentient mind can know all<\/em> that is going on. This is terribly foolish, as if we could look at a mountain and know all the burrows and burrowing animals on that mountain. It\u2019s absolutely impossible. The growth of the field of complexity has made it clear that one would not only need a super-computer to handle the variables, but that no computer could deal with the non-rational slippage among the categories. There are too many frames of reference as well as too many elements involved, so fully comprehending anything is thus rendered an illusory goal. Again, this recognition of limitations should not dissuade us from continuing to extend our knowledge. It\u2019s just that \u201cgetting there\u201d should not become a goal\u2014rather, just getting further.<\/p>\n Another illusion arises from language, of finding clever terms, names for complex processes. But just because you can name<\/em> something doesn\u2019t mean you can have a full grasp of what it\u2019s about. This is especially true for theology. We point to God and talk about God but now and again recognize the absolutely transcendent nature that cannot ever ever be conceived of by the relative simplicity of the human brain. We get arrogant in thinking that we can begin to understand. <\/p>\n The problem of Job is that it\u2019s a caricature of a series of tragedies\u2014bad things happening to good people\u2014set within a primitive theology that imagines God as \u201cdoing\u201d or \u201cpermitting\u201d them\u2014as if there were a personal \u201csomeone-up-there-in-control.\u201d The reality of the imperfect nature of body and the cosmos, the susceptibility to not just death but also disease and suffering, seems incompatible with the vaunted goodness of the creator-as-king. It also imagines God as being in absolute control, because we project our illusion that we are in control of our actions.<\/p>\n Consider as an alternative metaphor—one I prefer—that God is<\/em> the cosmos, is unfolding, becoming, is multi-dimensional, is beyond all that you can know, and also this: God is far from perfect\u2014in spite of what we would have Him be\u2014and far from exercising the superficial flow of will and control that we imagine characterizes the essence of humanity as well as super-humanity (God). (As you may gather, while I have come to imagine a wholeness that fits with what Mystics say about God, to some degree, it is yet far from the Biblical version of a male, jealous, law-giver and dispenser of rewards and punishments. That is a parental transference that is created and in turn nourishes and frightens those who can only relate to this kind of mental projection.)<\/p>\n So these are some thoughts about theology at this mid-point of my eighth decade\u2014almost 76 years old. I may yet change my mind, deepen my understanding, toss this whole formulation out. We shall see what we shall see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m pretty sure these two categories cannot be adequately separated. I\u2019m not talking about the distortions of recognized mental illness, but rather the distortions and illusions imposed by pretty healthy folks who are moderately introspective and somewhat philosophical. As we have learned more about the prevalence of illusion and how compelling this is, it becomes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,35,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autobiographical","category-mind-spectrums","category-spirituality-and-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}