MIERLEEU: June 2011
Die waarheid is outobiografies
Einde verlede jaar het ek ŉ bietjie navorsing gedoen oor iets wat dan nou sou bekend staan as postmoderne spiritualiteit. Toe het ek ŉ akademiese artikel vir ŉ internasionale vakjoernaal geskryf met die titel: Postmodern spirituality: experience rather than explain.
Daarin het ek geskryf hoe die groot Duitse teoloog van die vorige eeu Rudolph Bultmann gesê het dat feite rondom Jesus en die Christelike dogma eintlik niks sê en niks in sigself vir ŉ mens se geloof beteken nie. Jy moet die Christelike verhaal ontmitologiseer voordat dit vir jou sin maak. En waar dit eintlik die meeste sin maak, is wanneer jy tydens die prediking van die verhaal, geloof ervaar. Geloof gebeur dus nie wanneer jy die feite aanvaar nie, maar wanneer jy verkondiging hoor. Die prediking is dus op ŉ manier ŉ tipe “happening” waartydens jy ŉ ervaring het van wat die kruis en die opstanding dan nou sou beteken.
Weg van die teologie af was daar die sielkundige Carl Jung wat reken dat elke mens met bepaalde template in jou onderbewussyn gebore word. Alle mense op al die verskillende plekke op die aarde besit hierdie template in hulle onderbewuste. In elke kultuur funksioneer daar dan ook ŉ corpus mitologieë. Alle kulture se mites vertel dieselfde tipes verhale, elk net met ander karakters teen ŉ ander dekor wat binne daardie kultuur aanvaarbaar is. Wanneer jy dan tydens godsdienstige of kulturele byeenkomste hierdie verhale of mitologieë hoor, of dit in rituele beleef, maak dit op een of ander manier kontak met jou onderbewussyn en die templaat in jou onderbewussyn erken die grondpatroon van die verhaal en maak dan oop daarvoor, en so ervaar jy hierdie diep oomblik wat vir jou sin maak, sonder dat jy regtig kan verklaar wat met jou gebeur het.
Weg van die teologie en die sielkunde af, is daar die literêre filosoof, Ernst Cassirer wat verduidelik wat die verskil is tussen allegorie en tautegorie. Allegorie is om taal, simbole en metafore los te maak uit hulle oorspronklike konteks en om dit net so van toepassing te maak in ŉ ander tyd en konteks. Dis wat ons vandag by die fundamentaliste sien. Dit staan teenoor die tautegoriese lees van ŉ verhaal, waar jy dieselfde ervaring wil hê as die oorspronklike leser. Dit kan jy alleen hê as jy simbole en metafore vertaal in ŉ eietydse idioom wat dan dieselfde tipe ervaring by jou sal wakker maak as die ervaring wat die eerste aanhoorder van die verhaal sou gehad het.
Dit bring my toe by die konklusie dat spiritualiteit nie te doen het met ŉ stel feite of ŉ belydenis of iets wat jy aanvaar en wat jy kan verduidelik nie, maar dat dit eerder iets is wat jy ervaar of beleef en wat jy nie presies kan verduidelik nie.
Die artikel het so 2 weke gelede verskyn en ek lees dit toe weer. ŉ Dag of drie nadat ek dit gelees het, lees ek verder aan die boek van Andre Comte-Sponville met die titel: “ Atheist Spirituality” wat gaan oor spiritualiteit sonder ŉ teïstiese God. Daarin skryf hy toe ook ŉ gedeelte waarin hy vertel hoe spiritualiteit nie iets is wat met godsdiens te doen het nie, maar hoe dit ŉ ervaring is van jou teenwoordigheid, jou immanensie in hierdie werklikheid. Hy vertel hoe ŉ mens amper op ŉ mistieke en misterieuse wyse jou teenwoordigheid as deel van die groter geheel ervaar en hoe hierdie bewussyn ŉ spirituele ervaring word.
Dadelik ervaar ek toe hierdie konneksie tussen hoe ek dink en hoe hy dink. Die feit dat ons so dieselfde oor hierdie aspek dink, was op daardie oomblik toe vir my nogal ŉ eienaardige spirituele ervaring.
Dinsdag kry ek ŉ epos van die universiteit af met ŉ briefie by wat vra of ek die artikel in die aanhangsel sal keur. Dis ŉ artikel wat voorgelê is vir moontlike publikasie in ŉ vakwetenskaplike tydskrif van die fakulteit teologie.
Hulle stuur altyd die artikel anoniem, maar ŉ paar sinne in die eerste paragraaf in, toe weet ek dat Julian Muller die outeur is en dat dit gaan oor sy nuwe boek “Om te mag twyfel”, wat onlangs by Tafelberg verskyn het. Daarin maak hy toe die interessante opmerking wat by dieselfde punt uitkom, as Bultmann, Jung, Cassirer, Comte-Sponville en dit wat ek al baie kere vir u gesê het, naamlik dat ŉ mens se spiritualiteit outobiografies is.
Jou ervaringe van die lewe word ge-storie. Jy dink na oor dinge en jy reflekteer oor gebeurtenisse. So ontstaan daar nuwe verhale in jou. En so formuleer jy dan jou persoonlike teologie. Jou spiritualiteit word dus gevorm, nie op grond van argumente nie, maar op grond van verhale. Ja, verhale is vol argumente, maar dit is kontekstuele argumente! Argumente los van verhale word a-kontekstueel, a-histories en uiteindelik irrelevant. Nutteloos en magteloos!
Maar stories is nie net ŉ manier om jou ervaringe mee te beskryf nie, dit help jou ook om jou eie realiteit mee te konstrueer. Dit is iets wat jy gebruik om betekenis aan jou ervarings mee te gee. Die proses werk met ander woorde so:
Jy ervaar of beleef iets. Dan formuleer jy jou ervaring in taal. So vorm jy ŉ verhaal. Dan vorm daardie verhaal jou om die mens te word wat jy is. Dit word dan, of dit gee aanleiding tot ŉ nuwe ervaring. En so word die lewe ŉ nimmereindigende proses van storie en word… en word en storie.
En dis alles outobiografies want dit is jou ervaring en jou storie en jy word daardeur gevorm. Jou storie gegrond op jou ervaring word jou spirituele proses. En so wórd jy en erváár jy en vórm jy aan jou verhaal en op die ou einde aan jouself! Hierdie proses is jóú spirituele ervaring van die lewe. En so word jou lewe dus ŉ verhaal wat nooit klaar vertel is nie. Dit word voortdurend. En hierdie wordingsproses is spirituele groei!
Ere aan wie ere toekom.
Behalwe dat dit 'n bietjie baie nagraads is, erg kategories is, vir die "template" wat maar sjablone kon gewees het en die ""happening"", is hierdie 'n verdienstelike praatjie.
Trouens, soos vroeër praatjies neig dit sterk daarna om tereg te onderskei tussen begrippe soos geloof, religie, godsdiens, kerk en geestelikheid - 'n onderskeid wat 'n sine qua non is om dié dinge (behoorlik) te begryp.
'n Wetenskaplike of feitelike verklaring van dinge wat die onderwerp van geloof vorm, beëindig summier die geloof-waardigheid of "gelooflikheid" van sodanige geloofsartikels. Geloof is per definisie wetenskaplik onverklaarbaar, bonatuurlik en onbewysbaar - 'n mens sou byna kon sê ongelooflik - anders sou dit nie geloof gewees het nie.
Sodra ('n) geloof(sartikel) wetenskaplik (of "andersins") bewys of bewysbaar is, is dit nie meer geloof nie.Dis presies dít wat geloof só almagtig maak: dit is nie onderworpe of gebonde aan "wetenskaplike" of ander wette nie.
Dít is gevolglik waarom die Bloedriviergebeure en -Gelofte die vestigende Afrikanermitologie is - om by Carl Jung aan te sluit.
Ons sal nooit kan bewys dat dit wat by Bloedrivier gebeur het 'n wonderwerk was nie - die Voortrekkers het immers vuurwapens gehad - maar ek wíl gló dat dit 'n bonatuurlike gebeurtenis was (en daarvoor hoef 'n mens nie "godsdiensgelowig" te wees nie), wat my bring by die Nietzschiaanse WÍL, wat niks anders is nie as DF Malan se:
Glo in U volk!
Glo in Uself!
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*Sien video onderaan
To covet the beyond and neglect the here and now?
Ever since I read Ernest Becker's "The Denial of Death" (1974) in the middle 1990s, I have been convinced that humanity has spent the entire span of its known history literally barking up the wrong tree.
Even the archpessimist Nietzsche agreed that the number one priority of all humans is a life that does not end, though this greatest of German philosophers went to great lengths to point out the fallacies of our own belief systems that produce out of their own self-referential contortions a fabricated solution to this problem — eternal life guaranteed if you just follow a few simple rules. A century later, Becker had clarified the equation to: "Man is a frightened animal who must lie in order to live" (a statement which encompasses the entire history of every religion).
It has been my most sincere contention for some time that the corruption produced by this constant embellishment of establishment religious rituals not only diminishes human consciousness by its rote brainwashing and routine genocide of alternative ideas, it also has served to conceal the true purpose of human beings by leading them in a false direction — making the things required for eternal life overshadow and erase the realistic requirements for a healthy civil society on this planet.
All our activities in this life are calibrated to the idea that we live forever. It is my belief that the sorry condition of this world at present is entirely due to this very idea, because Planet Earth today is a society that is based on a lie — the lie that we do not die. It would therefore be an occult karmic inevitability that we would destroy the planet because of this. Just imagine! A planet killed by self-serving prayer.
The great architectural monuments on this planet — from the obelisks and pyramids of the past to the skyscrapers and cathedrals of today — are all blustering manifestations of the notion that we have overcome death by our monuments. The poet Shelley had something to say about that and a king named Ozymandias. So while we worship our monuments, our planet is being suffocated by our own excrement. Yes, you already know most of the details.
Our entire lives are spent ignoring death and what it means. Therefore, the true lesson of life is never learned. So almost no one knows that without death, the possibility of love does not exist.
What humanity is learning now is that the monotheistic model of religion has created nothing but two millennia of wars and hypocrisy, and the reason for this is that the structure was a lie to begin with.
Whatever good in the way of civilizing barbarian tribes may have been accomplished, it was accomplished by fraud and force. The alternative was being burned at the stake.
The Roman creation of the Hebrew godman was made possible by the destruction of ancient records, notably the burning of the Library of Alexandria by maniac Christians, to conceal the evidence of its thefts. This process led, in short order, to the Dark Ages, which lasted about six centuries. This impulse to erase the past, notably evident in the sorry history of the Jewish Soviet Union, is always a sure sign of evil tyranny.
What too few people still realize is that the construction of the Old Testament covered up the egregious crimes of the Hebrews in Egypt by describing a Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Modern archeology later proved ancient Israel did not even exist on any map when the great heroes of the Bible were supposed to have ruled there.
Even worse in the creation of both Judaism and Christianity was the theft of rituals from the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The Babylonian Hebrews not only plundered Egypt with pestilence and usury, they stole their legends, changed the names, and that is the religion that powers today's fouled facsimiles of the worship of Osiris, Horus, and the Feather of Truth.
But even way back then, in the unfathomable mists of prehistory, the human course was set in the wrong direction. Because the goal was always to survive death. And that never was possible. Hence, the human-created delusion that some all-powerful being had the ability — and the interest — to grant your wish for eternal life. Every church ever built had for its foundation this specific pretext. And every society ever created depended on this mentally constructed mythology for its authenticity, its supernatural sanction, and its reason for being.
And it is not authentic at all. Like the Jews' claim to the holiness of their religion, it is based on nothing at all, only the insistence by its promoters that it is true, when it clearly is not.
You can draw a straight line from this lie to the current condition of the world. Our own personal immortality is far more important than the survival of the world, wouldn't you say? Let me put that another way. Who among us wouldn't abandon the whole world just to live another day?
The corruption that has emanated from this millennia-long attempt to convince the world to believe in the impossible far outweighs any benefit these organizations claim to have had on the population at large. The crimes against humanity are authorized by these religions. And worse, this pathological course of action guaranteed that under the spell of a belief that is not true, that all subsequent decisions in the development of civilization would be skewed by this erroneous assumption — the primary example of wishful thinking in history.
This erroneous assumption is why we attempt to build empires rather than spread love. We blame it on our need for food and other resources, but really we are attempting to immunize ourselves from our own deaths by conquering others. You can see this axiom at work if you think seriously about the nature of sporting events, which offer victory over darkness and ignominy, however transitory, as a homeopathic sop to our primary wish to live forever.
Imagine how different society would be if we recognized death and the disappearance of ourselves as a natural inevitability rather than as a subject not to be talked about. Each one of us WILL come to that moment when there is nothing else on our minds, and it is then we will realize that our entire lives are really only a preparation for this moment.
I've always felt that religious types are hurling profound insults at the God they profess to worship by insisting they know exactly what He said, and when He said it. I myself believe that any conjecture about an afterlife is useless, since eligibility for such is wholly dependent on your actions on this plane of existence. That's why prayer bothers me. A real prayer is an action that helps someone else and is of no direct benefit to the person taking the action. Just do the work.
Organized religion talks light but brings darkness, threats, exploitation, blackmail. Organized religion has no allegiance to you; only you to it. Hence, it is slavery, and very effective, because it has convinced you it has given you a gift, when in actuality it has only addicted you to its ontological anesthesia, and actually prevented you from thinking about who you really are in a nonjudgmental way.
Organized religion is for idiots unable or unwilling to even attempt to plumb the depths of their own minds. And it's all based on a falsehood that God is some entity outside the body when in reality it is a quality, an aptitude, OF the body, inasmuch as it is of the mind and derived from the minds of other people.
And while I'm haranguing belief systems, let me point out the single most important debility of organized religion: it teaches humans to be followers, subservient to the curious pronouncements of strange men thousands of years ago. Religion does not activate leaders, it rubberstamps followers, and hence perpetuates bad habits of believing without knowing (the common attitude of most young soldiers) and killing without thinking, because it has been ordered from above by people who have the weight of organized and corrupt religion on their side.
Following these examples of religious rectitude has produced nothing but two thousand years of war.
Over these past fifty-some years of writing for various publications, I've always kept the possibility of one story in mind. After all, what is the purpose of life? To advance the cause and general health of all lifeforms, I'd say. Not just the beneficial ones, either. You have to study the effects of the bad ones to eliminate them, if necessary.
That one story, I still haven't decided on a title, would be something about the heritage of the human future. What will it be? What do we want to make it? And what are we being made into that could forever prevent us from exerting a controlling influence over our own future?
In other words, what are we aiming for?
I've honed it down to one sentence, first written about 25 years ago.
"To make laughter reign beyond the sun for as long as the future shall be."
But lest I get too metaphysical, sometimes I look at life like a car wreck. First, see if anybody's hurt or worse. Then, clean up the wreckage. Finally, find out what happened so you can attempt to prevent it from happening again. If the same thing keeps happening, then you must take action against the people who are perpetrating it.
The most valuable piece of information I have seen in the catacombs of the Internet was uttered by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. He said this. You have something inside you that nobody can ever take from you. It is not dependent on anybody else's approval. You get to decide whether you are happy or not. Do not allow anyone else to make the decision for you.
And hey, what's the worst thing that can happen? The worst thing that can happen to you after you die is that you wind up at the party at the end of time — everybody winds up there sooner or later. Of course this means having to spend eternity with your relatives and the friends you have made during your life, with no way to communicate back to the living world whether this is actually hell or not.
WAT IS 'N WOORD? 'N KLANKWEERGAWE VAN 'N SENUPRIKKEL*
June 21, 2011 "TomDispatch" -- The Obama administration has come up with a remarkable justification for going to war against Libya without the congressional approval required by the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
Now, Obama wants his Libyan war not to be a war and so has arranged to define a certain kind of war -- the American-casualty-free kind -- as notwar (though without even the full support of his own lawyers). Along with Libya, a good English word -- war -- is under attack.
June 17, 2011, 12:00 a.m. EDT
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — This isn’t about “bailing out Greece.” Yes, the Greeks owe about $500 billion, but they already have spent the money.
People are going to scare you. They’ll say it will be just like Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. LEHMQ -1.85% “If Greece goes bust, the whole financial system will go down.”
Maybe they’re right. But the burden of proof is on them.
After the high-finance fiascoes and thievery of the past few years, I will take some convincing. We were told we had to step in to rescue AIG to protect Grandma’s annuity, and then it turned out we were really protecting Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS -0.02%
Greece, as I say, owes about $500 billion. But even if it defaults, all that money won’t be lost anyway. Greece won’t vanish from the world. What will happen instead is that the bond holders will be forced to take a haircut.
Or a buzz cut.
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