Spiritualism - Lesson #6

Spiritualism - Lesson #6
The points raised in the current discussion bring us face to face with the imponderables of life. Nothing can really be known for what it is – the best we can receive are "impressions." For example when I watch the news on TV what I am actually seeing is what those transmitting the news want me to see leaving me with no real knowledge of what's going on in the world. This reasoning can be applied to almost anything. For example politicians take the same set of statistics and then use them against each other to make opposing arguments. Neither is right or wrong; honest or deceitful – they are, however, meaningless. Again, I might say a flower is pretty while someone else might say it's horrible – but who is right? What, indeed, is right, wrong, just, beautiful, worthy and good? Socrates made the following point concerning tallness. Person A might be taller than person B and in turn shorter than person C. But A isn't made tall simply standing next to B. In other words A is not made tall because of "B's" shortness; standing beside the Eiffel Tower all three would be minute according to that argument; it follows, said Socrates, you would be afraid to say that ten is more than eight "by two," or that two is the reason for its excess over eight, instead of saying that it is more than eight by, or because of, being a larger number. (Plato, The Last Days of Socrates, Penguin, p, 177)
When it comes to suffering people make subjective judgments according to how it affects them. For example a city built above a fault line in the earth is destroyed by an earthquake. People ask "how could God allow this to happen?" rather than acknowledging that earthquakes are a natural phenomenon particularly in the vicinity of a fault line. Besides, earthquakes, like volcanoes, are benign – quite beautiful when viewed rationally from a distance. I have no right to demand the world conform to my standards of right and wrong not least as morality is culturally bound. Long established laws are overturned according to human whims so that conduct, formerly considered criminal, becomes acceptable and then legalised. Nevertheless, people continue to make these judgements.
Socrates held that seeking wisdom through philosophy was the route to happiness. As such the seeker after wisdom abstains from pleasures, desires, pain and grief which (being "visible" as opposed to the soul which is "intelligible") deceive and therefore imprison us. The first task of life, therefore, is to examine and then question one's cherished beliefs – all the things we accept without thinking about them. To do this is to rise above the daily complexities of life and in doing so be untroubled by them. This was the way to the "good" life and also a peaceful life. For Socrates the only life worth living is a "good" life but one can only attain the good life if one really knows what good and evil are. Good and evil are not relative (as we might think) but absolutes which can only be found by a process of questioning and reasoning. In this way morality and knowledge are bound together. At one point people hailed Socrates the wisest man in Athens. At first he rejected this accolade but upon reflection accepted saying that he knew nothing!
The problem is that the only way we can experience the world is through our senses. But sense-experience is not absolute (we're all different) and this can lead to conflict. What one considers just another considers unjust and so on. For example the rich man sees the poor man as undeserving while the poor man sees the rich man as an oppressor. As a result many people feel powerless because those who rule over them make the laws and dictate the terms under which they live. The struggle to break free from oppression may seem futile. The Buddha sought a middle way between self-indulgence and self-mortification as the way to "happiness" and "enlightenment." The Buddha (like Jesus) was acutely aware of the sufferings (and inequalities) in the world which, he thought, was the result of striving, sickness, old age and death. It was only by freeing oneself from what the Buddha called "attachments" (e.g. sensual desires and ambitions) that peace of mind may be attained.
However, there can be no simple easy answers to life's mysteries because human-beings have no direct knowledge of either a first-cause or a final destination. Nevertheless, it's as if human-beings do possess an elusive kind of "intuition" concerning spiritual matters (knowing there's more than we see) but lacking total insight to solve the riddle. That was the conclusion of the Teacher, in the Hebrew book of Ecclesiastes, – who, having tried many things in life to find happiness, declared life to be "meaningless." That's an honest assessment of his "sensual-experience" yet not even the Teacher fully subscribed to that negative view. Concerning life after death Jesus said let not your hearts be troubled….believe in God and believe in me. Faith is the answer even the faith of the unbeliever!

Rog

29th Jan. 2016