[MD] New Age++

[david buchanan]

Marsha quoted:
"When Phaedrus first went to India he'd wondered why, if this passage of 
enlightenment into pure Dynamic Quality was such a universal reality, did it 
only occur in certain parts of the world and not others?  At the time he'd 
thought this was proof that the whole thing was just Oriental religious 
baloney, the equivalent of a magic land called "heaven" that Westerners go 
to if they are good and get a ticket from the priests.  Now he saw that 
enlightenment is distributed in all parts of the world just as the color 
yellow is distributed in all parts of the world, but some cultures accept it 
and others screen out recognition of it."  (Lila, Chapter 32)

dmb says:
"Enlightenment is distributed in all parts of the world". If I had to 
describe the basis of the perennial philosophy in ten words or less, that 
would do pretty well. This is one of my favorite pieces of Lila and I think 
the sentiment goes along quite well with the up side of the New Age 
movement. I mean, when people go fishing around for alternatives long 
enough, this is what they'll discover. I think that our scientific secular 
culture and our mainstream religious culture are BOTH among those who 
"screen out recognition of it" and that this cultural blindspot is what 
sends people out looking for alternatives.

When it goes bad, you end up believing that we were created by the space 
aliens who built the pyramids long ago and have now returned to probe us, 
save us or destroy us. Take yer pick. When it goes bad, the search for a 
spiritual life leads you to worship Thor and hang out with militia men at 
gun shows.

But if we can avoid getting caught up in fantasy or tribal regression and 
take a look at what the various cultures have said about enlightenment, then 
I'm all for it. And I suppose there no big mystery about the what makes it 
go bad or not. It just a matter of being careful and having a little 
patience. Like I said, when you're very hungry, just about anything tastes 
good. Or, to switch metaphors, lonely guys tends to fall for the first girl 
that comes along. I mean, there is a certain kind of desperation that makes 
it easy to fall for a partial view or a half answer. But I think 
enlightenment is really what people are looking for and I'm in favor of 
whatever works. And if its distributed in all parts of the world, then it 
should be too hard to find some wise words about it.

But there is no such thing as "yellow". That's just a lot of superstitious 
nonsense. Sure, there's lots of truth in vermillion, but people who believe 
in yellow are totally full of shit.

Thanks.
dmb

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