Is Spirituality Spiritual?

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Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. ~ Albert Camus

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[Jana]

You will be assimilated! Yea its 1984
If you rely on others for a livelihood by holding down a job or career then you have to comply with the Borg or you will simply be out of a job. Choose your MO:
1. Aggressive resistance
2. Depressed non compliance
3. Disgruntled unresponsiveness
4. Passive unhappy capitulation
5. Neutral blah zone—numb, dead
6. Pretending to comply positively
7. Cheerful neutral acceptance
8. Proactively creaming the zone
9. Sensitive adherence to right attitude
10. A-personality extraverted smooshing     

[Denis]

1 through 10 for me...and sometimes all in the same day!

[jimtzu]

i go to work to sweep the temple steps 

i think this is the origination of the Borg to the western hemisphere:

Origins of the Doctrine of Discovery
To understand the connection between Christendom's principle of discovery and the laws of the United States, we need to begin by examining a papal document issued forty years before Columbus' historic voyage In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued to King Alfonso V of Portugal the bull Romanus Pontifex, declaring war against all non-Christians throughout the world, and specifically sanctioning and promoting the conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian nations and their territories.

Under various theological and legal doctrines formulated during and after the Crusades, non-Christians were considered enemies of the Catholic faith and, as such, less than human. Accordingly, in the bull of 1452, Pope Nicholas directed King Alfonso to "capture, vanquish, and subdue the saracens, pagans, and other enemies of Christ," to "put them into perpetual slavery," and "to take all their possessions and property." [Davenport: 20-26] Acting on this papal privilege, Portugal continued to traffic in African slaves, and expanded its royal dominions by making "discoveries" along the western coast of Africa, claiming those lands as Portuguese territory.

Thus, when Columbus sailed west across the Sea of Darkness in 1492 - with the express understanding that he was authorized to "take possession" of any lands he "discovered" that were "not under the dominion of any Christian rulers" - he and the Spanish sovereigns of Aragon and Castile were following an already well-established tradition of "discovery" and conquest. [Thacher:96] Indeed, after Columbus returned to Europe, Pope Alexander VI issued a papal document, the bull Inter Cetera of May 3, 1493, "granting" to Spain - at the request of Ferdinand and Isabella - the right to conquer the lands which Columbus had already found, as well as any lands which Spain might "discover" in the future.

In the Inter Cetera document, Pope Alexander stated his desire that the "discovered" people be "subjugated and brought to the faith itself." [Davenport:61] By this means, said the pope, the "Christian Empire" would be propagated. [Thacher:127] When Portugal protested this concession to Spain, Pope Alexander stipulated in a subsequent bull - issued May 4, 1493 - that Spain must not attempt to establish its dominion over lands which had already "come into the possession of any Christian lords." [Davenport:68] Then, to placate the two rival monarchs, the pope drew a line of demarcation between the two poles, giving Spain rights of conquest and dominion over one side of the globe, and Portugal over the other.

[henry]

the kundalini symposium at zaadz is interesting(see julian's blog). today's contributor is "michael" and he focuses on kashmir shaivism, citing muktananda and gurumayi. more siddha yoga to come in days ahead maybe, and other interesting stuff....bjorn

[Nickeson]

Hey,
What ya'all are describing as the Borg are similar to what Nietzsche called the Last Man. The W'pedia item on the subject:

The Last Man (German: der letzte Mensch) was a term used by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, among other works, to describe the antithesis of the imagined superior being, the "Übermensch", whose imminent appearance is heralded by Zarathustra. This 'Over Man' may be contrasted to a weak-willed individual, one who is tired of life, takes no risks, seeks only comfort and security: the Last Man.

Nietzsche saw that nothing great is possible for the Last Man, and it is Nietzsche's contention that Western civilization (Europe) is moving in the direction of the last man, an apathetic creature, who has no great passion or commitment, who is unable to dream, who merely earns his living and keeps warm.

One of Nietzsche's greatest fears was creeping mediocrity. If the "Übermensch" represented his ideal -- the ideal of a being strong enough to create his own values, strong enough to live without the consolation of traditional morality, and strong enough to recognize and embrace the notion of change as the ultimate reality -- then Nietzsche’s so called 'last man' is the exact opposite. He clings to tradition and morality to comfort himself because he is afraid to embrace the reality of change, and exhibiting above all else not a will to power, but a will to preservation.


From what I have read of him, the Last Man does not have enough will or imagination to mount a mission to assimilate anything or anyone. So I wonder if the Borg is really that ambitious either. Maybe the Borg appears to assimilate its Other simply by the gravity of its inert mass and weight, like the earth assimilates dust. I think the Borg and the Last Man pose no dangers to anyone who is even halfway light on their feet. But we have to be watchful and wary of those who can hold the Borg's attention because they are people who are more like...well...you and me.

Steven

[Jana]

Yes the Borg is rather childlike in that it defers to outer authorities...teachers, doctors, scientific orthodxy and credentialed professionals without consideration for the general corruptness of civilization and institutions themselves. I think the Borg thinks that if it becomes a good submissive citizen that it will be protected from the need to make individual/spiritual choice. Thus the Borg is a consensus being that carries the populus within as a counsel of dictatorship to determine their lives.
Perhaps everyone is a Borg until they go through their death-rebirth darknight and plug into a self that is larger than family, community, culture and humanity.
The real danger to the initiate is not seeing the Borg for what it is; as soon as you gain the courage to clearly see it without "judgment" then the Borg no longer has any power over you, if you remain vigillant to its ways.

[Jana]

Here is an example of the Borg in action...one can see this type of thing all day, everyday, everwhere. Notice how the Channel Five reporter "puts down" Shazzies contribution by deferring to THE EXPERTS...and how Shazzies proclaimation that foods can "generate love" the sensation of love in the bodymind is completely foreign to these Borg women...who essentially live in a very different universe to Shazzie.

  shazzie on channel five raw food
4 min - May 20, 2007 -sharing the love, and some evidence of the pros of superfoods...Shazzie channel Five 5 C5 Raw Food Chocolate superfoods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBbr5khuQdw

If you go what Shazzie's other videos you will see that she is a loving campaigner for the antiBorg camp.

  Shazzie: Superfoods are for real Part 1
8 min - Jun 1, 2007 -part 1. Shazzie introduces us to wild foods, the reasons for eating superfoods and gets down and dirty in her garden....shazzie raw food superfood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1wzs256OK4

[Jana]

By putting the emphasis on "institutionalization" and authentication from lineage and a socalled "spiritual hierarchy" KW has been propagating the Borg in the one area in which there still lies potential for the Borg to be penetrated.
Communal religion and collective spirituality is an antithesis to itself and can only really hold back the progress of the individual and the progression of human evolution...through deferment to external authority. Religious organizations are corrupt by their very nature because they interfer with the individuals true connection to the cosmos and their own inherent God.
So KW while having elements of progress is very much propagating Borgsville as is noted by the weak willed minons who clammer after him for authentication and personal power.

Reich wrote Listen, Little Man! in 1946 and it was published in 1948. The book is Reich's warning to the common man in all societies that he, the little, average man, is lethally responsible for the rapidly spreading social cancer of fascism. Reich had seen how common citizens in Germany embraced their enslavement by their Nazi overlords. He was now seeing the reappearance of the same phenomenon in the United States and Europe. Someone needed to tell the average citizen that his personal characteristics were at the root of the world-wide plague of totalitarianism.

    Reich explains the nature of his book in his introduction:

    "It reflects the inner turmoil of a scientist and physician who had observed the little man for many years and seen, first with astonishment, then with horror, what he does to himself; how he suffers, rebels, honors his enemies and murders his friends; how, wherever he acquires power 'in the name of the people,' he misuses it and transforms it into something more cruel than the tyranny he had previously suffered at the hands of upper-class sadists."

…and if some "civilized" neighbor disapproves of my motility I know that they only act that way because they are dead inside and cannot stand to see others truly living (because they know deep down they could, and should, be doing it too).

Wilhelm Reich: Viva Little Man DVD
www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6784846

[jimtzu]

consumerism is the Soma that keeps the masses in check while the Borg slips in the fascist mechanisms under the door and thru the cable.  why think for yourself (and of the rest of the world) when you can buy Borgism for dummies for 3 small payments of only $19.95, buy today and we'll include the pocket shearer, perfect for shearing your friends and family on the go.

[Denis]

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-8677521434864225474&q=mathematical+infinity+and+human+destiny&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0


thought this might be a propos spirituality being spiritual or not.

d.

ps. glad to see you Steven and Marianthi safely back in Vla.

[Jana]

It is my highest aspiration to help take the “cult” out of culture.

The Borg is a conformist trance of the uninitiated...It has a limited set of preprogrammed lines for social interaction. If you deviate from the script the Borg starts to wake up, and that pisses it off.
The Borg operates not so much from fear, but from unawares, unconsciousness, habit and the lack of self-cognition as to its nature. It simply continues because it is not questioned.
I don't want to give any more attention to the Borg, perhaps if I ignore it, it will go away.

Spirituality is increasing diversity, creativity and individuality...the religions of the past have been idol, icon and personality cults for the tantilizing the emotional body and fear-based formop-rule, original sin and punitive parenting (to threaten the inner child)—in order to keep the populous in check and limit their individual genius (awakeness) so they can be farmed for capital (tilth...as in tilling the soil).
True spirituality cannot be contained because it deals with infinite possibility...and is derived from the infinite creativity of Universe herself...with unlimited potential for unbounded creativity.
"Our existence is "Beyond" what we now understand as reality." Captain Jean-Luc Picard

The main operating modality of the Borg is to use fear and seduction to fulfill its aims. However these only work if you can be swaid by the fear and the seduction. Once you are firm in your perception of these tactics as spiritually inferior, immature, low energy and "unconsciously driven" then the no longer "hook" you.

"The man in whom the metaphysical element is stronger than the physical, is propelled by this natural aspiration towards the mystical, to that which the materialist is pleased to call “superstitious belief in the supernatural”. The Church, while encouraging our aspirations after the holy - on strictly theological and orthodox lines, of course - condemns at the same time the human craving after the same, whenever the practical search after it departs from its own lines. The memory of the thousands of illiterate “witches” and the hundreds of learned alchemists, philosophers and other heretics, tortured, burnt, and otherwise put to death during the Middle Ages, remains as an ever-present witness to that arbitrary and despotic interference." The Kabalah and the Kabalists by H.P. Blavatsky
www.theosophical.ca/KabalahKabalists.htm

[Nickeson]

Hey
I learned about 40 years ago, from an arguably insane woman, that if one talks about phenomena that appear to be magical without ever saying the word “magic,” or its various synonyms, and discuss that phenomena in the same way one would indifferently discuss the weather, then one is not going to set off any knee-jerk negativities in any listener and a productive exchange can take place. This indicates that the problem with talking about magic is not the experience of some inexplicable phenomena, but only the word “magic.”

I think that in its own way the same holds true for the words “spiritual” and “spirituality.” But I suspect they are used more as modifiers to one’s identity (“I’m a member of the spiritual-savvy fan club. Are you?”), like the gimmick on a baseball cap or the secret handshake or cryptic phrase dropped into a conversation that identifies one as an initiate into the Latter Day Pubahs of the Hermetic Puce-Vermilion Dawn. Using the “S” words shrinks possibilities rather than expanding them. "I had an interesting experience this morning" just might be a superior communication than "I had a spiritual experience this morning." (And to propound some insipid bromide like "all experience is spiritual" is the same as saying nothing is.)

Perhaps we should just drop these "S" words altogether and project ourselves as obviously aloof and justifiably disdainful of anyone who uses them.

I thought of this when I found myself a little put off with the conclusion of the Infinite Math Video. As soon as the narrator said “spiritual” I began to shield myself from the coming sermon.

Somewhat along the same lines I also thought of  an excellent essay “The Decline of Redemptive Truth and the Rise of a Literary Culture,” in which Richard Rorty has a gentle critique of the “materialist metaphysics” that characterize the video:

“By the middle of the nineteenth century, it had become clear that mathematics and empirical science were going to be the only areas of culture in which one might conceivably hope to get unanimous, rational agreement—the only disciplines able to provide beliefs which would not be overturned as history rolls along. They were the only sources of cumulative results, and of propositions which were plausible candidates for the status of insight into the way things are in themselves, independent of the contingencies of human history. Unified natural science still seems to many intellectuals to be the answer to Socrates’ prayers.
                                                         * * *
“Since philosophy had always taught that an account which bound everything together into a coherent whole would have redemptive value, and since the collapse of idealist metaphysics had left materialism as the only possible candidate for such an account, the positivists concluded that natural science was all the philosophy we would ever need.

“This project of giving redemptive status to empirical science still appeals to two sorts of present-day intellectuals. The first is the kind of philosopher who insists that natural science attains objective truth in a way that no other portion of culture does. These philosophers usually go on to claim that the natural scientist is the paradigmatic possessor of intellectual virtues, notably the love of truth, which (can) scarcely (be sought) among literary critics. The second sort of intellectual who continues along the lines laid down by the nineteenth century positivists is the kind of scientist who announces that the latest work in his discipline has deep philosophical implications: that advances in evolutionary biology or cognitive science, for example, do more than tell us how things work and what they are made of. They also tell us, these scientists say, something about how to live, about human nature, about what we really are. They provide, if not redemption, at least wisdom—not merely instructions on how to produce more effective tools for getting what we want but wise counsel about what we should want.”

The full essay is well worth reading and goes a long way toward telling why a retro, religious/spiritual/philosophy like Integral has such limited intellectual appeal and practical application.

Steven

p.s.--Thanks Denis, a toast to your salud.

[henry]

thanks,excellent steven. "irreducible mind" published this year, may or may not address these issues. very pricey($90), you might file it in the  file....henry

[Jana]

I think the main argument with the Beyond Belief crowd is that belief based thought systems stop intellectual inquiry and development, they even stop empirical investigation. Such a thought system can only be narrowly self-serving and ultimately must become very dangerous because of blindsight and inbreeding of ignorance that occurs...much of America suffers a terminal case of this disease.
Other than Osho and Krishnamurti, the people I consider most "spiritual" are the mystic scientists like Viktor Schauberger, Walter Russell, Bucky etc...

There is such a sense of self-interest in the spiritual circus that it makes me want to dismiss it wholesale. People haven't yet cottoned on to the idea that spirituality is only as good as its usefulness, intead it has become a therapy and a buffer from the uncertainly of a rapidly changing world. People expect you to be impressed with their name dropping...how unconscious is that?

I like to say that modern spirituality is self-incest.

[Denis]

whoa...that is a great essay indeed Steven.
Praise the Lord, I see the light. I have reached the end of understanding the really real truth. 

I wonder though, and this is something I have been wondering silently for a long time, what do I replace redemption with? So far, I go back and forth between the different styles of thought, sort of playing devils advocates for all sides and just witnessing the changes in the nature of what I perceive as reality and give an internal running commentary or to whoever can stand to listen to me as you are doing now.

What to do what to do, look for redemption from all angles or hang on for dear life and enjoy the ride and pay attention.

d.