Monday, August 16, 20211
2:20 a.m. It occurs to me, we neglected to set the topic for our next session. Can we do that now?
What any one person is experiencing, all are experiencing, remember. By that, we mean, the same rules apply to one and all, and things that you may have thought about in terms of one person also proceed for others – so the effect on “the scheme of things” is quite different than it would be if it were only a rare phenomenon.
I’m too tired to clean that up, but it gives me what we need. In a few hours, I hope.
1:50 a.m. Let’s get to it, then.
You are probably too tired still. The fact that you can’t sleep because your head is filled is not the same as saying you can proceed.
Why don’t we try anyway? We can always quit.
2:30 a.m. Nothing like a few games of Minesweeper (and sitting up instead of lying down) to clear the head. So let’s proceed.
Well, we continue, reminding you that the end in view is an idea of who you really are, so that you can get a sense of what you’re moving into when you die. Once we remove the fear of death from a culture, many things change. It doesn’t bring Utopia – for many wrong ideas may attach themselves to any greater view of relity- but it does help free you from a paralyzing silent terror that freezes your minds and imaginations.
Are you meaning only Western culture, or human culture in the 21st century in general?
Let’s not get too theoretical. You don’t need to count the cats in Zanzibar.
I think it’s a legitimate question, though.
Legitimate, but tending toward the sterile impersonal rather than the productive personal. Very well, we will say this much: All the world is living in the shadow of the Renaissance and its ideas. In 500 years, many silent and unnoticed influences have spread, in the same way that water seeks its own level. Thus a Sikh or Muslim or Hindu or Maori or descendant of the Incas may be true to the ways of his ancestors and yet still be somewhat a child of Renaissance ideas. Chinese Communists, Islamic mullahs, African tyrants, you cannot reliably name any people or any social phenomenon that is uninfluenced by the Renaissance, if only by the vehement rejection of the ideas in which we must swim.
So when a way of thinking has sent its tentacles so broadly, in so many combinations with various national or ethnic traditions, it may be said to be universal, and perhaps ripe for replacement.
No child grows up to be what the parents wanted or expected. They may approve or disapprove, but they will be surprised in some respects. The children of the Renaissance are far-flung, they have married into different families with different religions and traditions and values. Still they show their common ancestry if you look.
Even the Taliban use the most modern weapons they can acquire.
Yes but the Renaissance influence on them extends far deeper than that, or why the fanatical resistance to what they fear? It isn’t simple nationalism, not among people whose tribalism is that strong.
They are afraid because they can feel the allure within themselves.
Of course. Fanaticism is always fueled by self division trying to enforce inner unanimity.
I think you are implying that the very existence in the world of a dominant culture that does not share their beliefs is perceived by them as a threat.
You make us smile. Do you think the West is any different? Or what was the Second World, the Communists? Every society fears the fact that others believe differently – because that undermines one’s own beliefs, you see. It is unconscious warfare, and thus all the more frightening.
Now, we’re not interested in spelling this out. Any one of you can read the news and think. What is your internal cultural war (in which “your side” is of course well-intentioned and well-informed, and “their side” is malevolent and ignorant), if not two groupings taking some of the fruits of the Renaissance worldview and opposing others who cling to different fruits?
I don’t know if that is clear or persuasive to everybody, but it is to me.
Well then, confine the argument to the question of “What happens to me after death?” Surely you can see that even an approach to that question must involve belief-system upon belief-system.
You remind me of Bruce Moen, who used to talk about belief-system crashes (in which an event could cause someone to realize that the world was not as they supposed in some aspect), which sometimes became what he called cascading belief system crashes, in which the collapse of one set of ideas removed the props from another set, and perhaps more.
If a civilization goes through a cascading belief-system crash, don’t you suppose it would be as well for a truer belief-system to exist for them (if they can find it), if only as a life raft?
Yes indeed.
Well, in the interim between an old universal understanding and a new one, you will find many small ones filling the void. That is your time, as you well know. It takes time for a new cultural belief-system to emerge and spread, and your generation will not see it.
As I have said for years.
Yes, but perhaps what you have not realized is that anything that can be constructed in this interregnum period must be fragmentary, somewhat oversimplified, and temporary. There isn’t anything wrong with that; how could there be, given that it is what must happen with systems? But, realize it.
If we were trying to create the next civilization, that reminder would take the pressure off, a bit!
Don’t imagine that the next culture will be predominantly Western in origin. The West will contribute to it, as Rome contributed to the Medieval world, but the West today can no more imagine the next civilization than Rome could.
So, our part here?
Well, that’s the nub of it, isn’t it? Your job – as always – is to live your lives. Beyond that, it is to shape your character as best you can. That is real work, not a pretended siege of Babylon. But you will find that sincere work done on a personal level has unexpected and unpredictable side-effects on the culture by way of non-3D connections. Only, you must live your values. It does no good merely to believe what you do not live.
Knowledge not lived is sin,” Edgar Cayce’s source said.
It is, at least, a great waste of time and opportunity.
I got us off-track today, didn’t I?
If there were a track, you might have done. But all roads lead to Rome. The thing to keep your eye on is people’s attitude toward death.
I have said for years, if you want to know someone’s opinion of life really (as opposed to lip service), see how they feel about money, and death.
Yes, of course. Now, think about it this way: How do one’s feelings about money reflect assumptions rooted in the Renaissance and rippled down to the present? How do people’s feelings about death reflect the same set of influences over time? Then compare the common view to your own. Do you share the culture’s view (thus making you, to that extent, a child of the Renaissance), or not? And if not, in what way not?
That is a little oversimplified. Surely there is a wide range of beliefs scattered through society.
Of course, but there will be one set of beliefs that will be most obvious to you, whether by background or propinquity or whatever. Measure against that.
And let us pause with this orienting reminder. Your attitude toward death is probably largely pre-conscious. Work done to make it conscious will help you immensely as we go on. (We don’t care so much about your attitude toward money, except as an indicator of how much you do or don’t trust life.)
I can’t help thinking I skewed this session. I’ll take your word for it that it’s okay. A title? And a projected next installment?
“Culture and the concept of death” is one possibility, not a particularly inspired one.
“Children of the Renaissance”?
If you wish. Not bad. Next time, we should return more closely to the question of what is the real situation of soul and spirit, given that they are one and the same thing, yet with different emphasis.
Thanks for all this. Till next time.