Western and eastern religiosity
When considering our connection with the world, we might either ask
Western religions consider creation a known with very limited ways in which men connect with the world. Hence the main subject of western religious thought is what to devote our potential to, so that we may fulfil our religious duty.
This is always an unpleasant question and answering it requires us to face the terror of the void that we are supposed to fill with the holy.
On the other hand, when our connection with the world is believed to be unlimited, we'll never find creation inadequate or devoid of holiness and our thinking turns to the conditions and signs of our connection.
Differently put, the belief in a God that moves the world in accordance with us makes our devotion natural and unproblematic, but such a belief doesn't come about by choice, but only through sincere inquiry about the ways in which we are connected, possibly on the heels of the understanding that creation definitely would be inadequate, if a richer connection than the supposed one wouldn't exist.
And that is the nature of eastern religiosity.
It so happens that Christianity gave birth to gnosticism, mostly because of the parading around of Mary's hymen, which any man of understanding knew in advance would cause reverence of whores due to man's tendency to entertain polarly opposite views of any woman he's interested in.
And it also happens that gnosticism shares certain similarities with eastern religions. However, excess in Hinduism, for instance, is simply a tool to get sick and tired of something. The hope to find fulfilment in pleasures is utterly alien to eastern religions, because it is born out of the inadequacy of creation.
The same is true of the thoroughly Taoist reasoning in the gospel of Judas concerning the reason of the events prophesied in the Revelation(s), namely that they are caused by the zeal of Christians. This springs again from a hope born out of the inadequacy of creation in the case of the gnostics, but not in the case of the Tao.
Gnostics fear the void and they refuse to suffer it. They decry the attempt to bring light into it as pointless and hence unnecessarily painful. The Tao on the other hand argues from the position of a king who is better off, when his subjects don't cause trouble, which they won't, after their ambitions have been uprooted.
This could not be further apart in spirit. Gnostics flee the pain of any real achievement and seek refuge in make-believe. Hindus and Taoists on the other hand simply cut off the foot that gives them trouble - in their respective ways.
And finally, concerning the question, whether the Matrix films are gnostic: not very much, only in so far that the writers didn't face the void in order to come up with something meaningful and went with something cheesy instead. Other than that: The gnostics don't consider our world to be a dream world at all. And they don't hope to wake up in the real world either. It's the other way round exactly: Cypher is a gnostic, who goes back to the purity of the juiciness of his steak, only that he lacks the clarity to not want to forget his former misery so as to underscore his regained bliss, because only in that comparison there is any bliss.
Well, in fairness, the gnostics also want their body gone and not know it to be fed intravenously either. After all, something might happen to it. What about peace of mind?
- how we should be connected or
- in which ways we are connected.
Western religions consider creation a known with very limited ways in which men connect with the world. Hence the main subject of western religious thought is what to devote our potential to, so that we may fulfil our religious duty.
This is always an unpleasant question and answering it requires us to face the terror of the void that we are supposed to fill with the holy.
On the other hand, when our connection with the world is believed to be unlimited, we'll never find creation inadequate or devoid of holiness and our thinking turns to the conditions and signs of our connection.
Differently put, the belief in a God that moves the world in accordance with us makes our devotion natural and unproblematic, but such a belief doesn't come about by choice, but only through sincere inquiry about the ways in which we are connected, possibly on the heels of the understanding that creation definitely would be inadequate, if a richer connection than the supposed one wouldn't exist.
And that is the nature of eastern religiosity.
It so happens that Christianity gave birth to gnosticism, mostly because of the parading around of Mary's hymen, which any man of understanding knew in advance would cause reverence of whores due to man's tendency to entertain polarly opposite views of any woman he's interested in.
And it also happens that gnosticism shares certain similarities with eastern religions. However, excess in Hinduism, for instance, is simply a tool to get sick and tired of something. The hope to find fulfilment in pleasures is utterly alien to eastern religions, because it is born out of the inadequacy of creation.
The same is true of the thoroughly Taoist reasoning in the gospel of Judas concerning the reason of the events prophesied in the Revelation(s), namely that they are caused by the zeal of Christians. This springs again from a hope born out of the inadequacy of creation in the case of the gnostics, but not in the case of the Tao.
Gnostics fear the void and they refuse to suffer it. They decry the attempt to bring light into it as pointless and hence unnecessarily painful. The Tao on the other hand argues from the position of a king who is better off, when his subjects don't cause trouble, which they won't, after their ambitions have been uprooted.
This could not be further apart in spirit. Gnostics flee the pain of any real achievement and seek refuge in make-believe. Hindus and Taoists on the other hand simply cut off the foot that gives them trouble - in their respective ways.
And finally, concerning the question, whether the Matrix films are gnostic: not very much, only in so far that the writers didn't face the void in order to come up with something meaningful and went with something cheesy instead. Other than that: The gnostics don't consider our world to be a dream world at all. And they don't hope to wake up in the real world either. It's the other way round exactly: Cypher is a gnostic, who goes back to the purity of the juiciness of his steak, only that he lacks the clarity to not want to forget his former misery so as to underscore his regained bliss, because only in that comparison there is any bliss.
Well, in fairness, the gnostics also want their body gone and not know it to be fed intravenously either. After all, something might happen to it. What about peace of mind?
Labels: 25, charaktere, formalisierung, gesellschaftskritik, gesetze, identitäten, institutionen, metaphysik, sehhilfen, wahrnehmungen, ἰδέα, φιλοσοφία
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