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MESSAGES IN THIS DIGEST (1 MESSAGE)1. The Language of Orthodoxy From: Kenaz Filan View All Topics Create New Topic
MESSAGE
1.
THE LANGUAGE OF ORTHODOXY
POSTED BY: "KENAZ FILAN" KENAZFILAN@GMAIL.COM HOUNGANCOQUILLEDUMER
Wed Oct 13, 2010 6:14 pm (PDT)
[from
CYA behaviors. Rote memorization can replace passionate devotion:
political
jockeying and corporate in-fighting may serve its leaders better than
piety.
But I wonder if we aren't missing the role organized religion can play in
grounding and effectuating the spiritual experience. Its rigidity and
conservatism can provide a powerful structure within which Ecstasy can be
transmuted into the Word and from there into the Deed.
Every language must have an underlying
grammar,
a structure upon which sounds, characters and gestures are combined in
certain constrained and predictable ways. Mystics may experience the Divine
in a lightning flash which transcends all language - but in its aftermath of
their vision they must try to incorporate the vision into their daily life.
To describe it to themselves - and later to others - they will use the words
and symbols of their culture. Of course, this incorporates a chance for
error. It also offers a way of communicating, however imperfectly, the
vision of the ineffable.
Since Freudand
Jungwe
have concentrated on personal interpretations of dreams: we focus on
what
the symbols mean to the dreamer. A similar focus prevails in many spiritual
and theological circles. Faced with the immanence of the Gods, we ask what
impact Their presence has on the seer. Pantheons are recast as images and
reflections of some nebulous undifferentiated Divine Force, or as
psychodramas playing out inside the shaman's skull. Their role as protectors
and progenitors of the clan, the city or the people is subjugated to their
new role as therapist: They become a resource to be tapped for
self-improvement, something to be exploited rather than worshipped.
A living tradition provides us a different lens for viewing our experience
and a different language for communicating it. It gives us access to the
teachings of others who have been touched by the
Gods,
to their techniques and their coping mechanisms: it provides information
which is vetted by centuries of profitable use. It also gives us goals and
guideposts against which we may measure our visions. This can help us to
separate the spiritual experience from wish-fulfillment. The line between
enlightenment and self-delusion can be a fine one: having history to draw
upon can provide useful checks and balances.
Orthodoxyforces
us to deal with uncomfortable issues in its taboos, restrictions and
moral requirements. We may approach its strictures as reformers or as
reactionaries: we may follow its rules with varying degrees of adherence.
But we must engage with and be shaped by them nonetheless: we must allow its
worldview to color our own. We must address problems we would rather avoid
and account for transgressions we might prefer to bury. In a self-led
spiritual quest, we may never find our way outside our comfort zones and may
never account for difficult questions.
Eliadereferred
to shamans as "technicians
of the sacred
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