[MD] New Age++

[david buchanan]

Mrrsha said to dmb:
I wonder if enlightenment is what everybody is looking to obtain?  It might 
be pretty scary.  Maybe people just want to suffer less.  We live in a 
culture that is terrified of the dark, and death.  In this culture we are 
taught to hang on tightly to whatever security we can find.  You've read 
about the journey.  Isn't it a rather lonely experience with many trials?

dmb says:
I didn't mean to say that everyone on the planet is looking for 
enlightenment, although that might be true too. I meant that the seekers who 
are not satisfied with Western culture. I think there is presently a 
reaction against the West's blindspot to mysticism and that is what drives 
the new age movement.

But I guess you're right about those who just want to stop suffering. I 
think there's a lot of truth to the idea that basic needs have to come 
first, not just creature comforts and a place in the society, but some kind 
of maturity too. If Wilber is right, enlightenment is at the peak of a 
developmental process. I'm not sure if that's exactly right, but its gotta 
be hard to find Nirvana when one you're a hungry outcast or otherwise living 
in misery. Unless its on purpose, of course.

And I guess you're right about the culture too. Its full of fear, the desire 
for security, for distraction, for ego satisfaction. I would also add that 
the level of dishonesty, stupidity and cruelty is enough to make a grown man 
cry. I suppose that's part of the reason so many seek alternatives.

And yes, as I understand it, the journey its supposed to be lonely and full 
of trials. But I don't think its lonely in the usual sense. Its not a 
negative emotion or mood. Its more like a reference to one of the more 
important features of the journey, which is the realization that you can't 
be told or shown or instructed by books. Or rather, they can only take you 
so far. At a certain point even the wisdom of the ages won't help and you're 
out there on your own. As Pirsig said, enlightenment is different for every 
person. The climax of ZAMM depicts this pretty well, I think. The way his 
intellectual battles build and then he gets stuck, sort of reaches the end 
of rational thought and then "he" finally disappears and finds what he'd 
been looking for.

When I was a kid I had a dream about an underground world full of amazing 
secrets, the entrance to which looked like the opening of a concrete sewer 
pipe. It was a round hole with a metal ladder on the inside. In the dream, I 
wanted to go down into that world and explore it desperately, but my head 
was too big to fit through the opening. Now, as a grown up, I see why its 
important to loose your head when trying to enter secret worlds.

For some reason, a scene from FINDING NEMO comes to mind. The dad fish had 
been searching for the son fish for a long time, overcoming all kinds of 
obstacles, when he finally says something real simple like, "Oh, I give up." 
And being the kid movie that it is, we see an image of the dad fish 
literally let go of something he's been clinging to. This is when he finds 
his son, when he gives up and lets go.

I think this is what it means to "be a dead man", to put those intellectual 
pattens to sleep, to stop looking at the pointing hand.

Thanks.
dmb

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