Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth
Psalm 46:10
What Liberals Can Learn From the N.R.A.
What Liberals Can Learn From the N.R.A.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Sunday, April 21, 2019
What Great Philosophers Can Teach Us About How to Live
What Great Philosophers Can Teach Us About How to Live: Alain de Botton
The Consolations of Philosophy
In Consolations, de Botton attempts to console the reader through everyday problems (or at least help them to understand them) by extensively quoting and interpreting a number of philosophers.
The Consolations of Philosophy
In Consolations, de Botton attempts to console the reader through everyday problems (or at least help them to understand them) by extensively quoting and interpreting a number of philosophers.
About the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067...
These are categorised in a number of chapters with one philosopher used in each.
Consolation for Unpopularity (Socrates)
Consolation for Not Having Enough Money (Epicurus)
Consolation for Not Having Enough Money (Epicurus)
Consolation for Frustration (Seneca)
Consolation for Inadequacy (Montaigne)
Consolation for a Broken Heart (Schopenhauer)
Consolation for Difficulties (Nietzsche)
The critical reception for Consolations has been primarily positive. A few critics have been negative.
Jonathan Lear, writing in the New York Times said: "Academic philosophy in the United States has virtually abandoned the attempt to speak to the culture at large, but philosophy professors are doing something of incredible importance: they are trying to get things right.
Mary Margaret McCabe stated in the Times Literary Supplement: "In the culture of the market economy, we miss the fact that philosophy is valuable in and by itself....
The book was the inspiration for the Channel 4 TV series Philosophy:
A Guide To Happiness.
A Guide To Happiness.
The series was produced mirroring the book's layout with the following six episodes:
Socrates on Self-Confidence
Epicurus on Happiness Seneca on Anger
Montaigne on Self-Esteem
Schopenhauer on Love
Nietzsche on Hardship
The Consolations of Philosophy
Link: https://youtu.be/joul2MSHZtc
The Consolations of Philosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Consolationsofphilophy
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592) was one of the most influential philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592) was one of the most influential philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre.
He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual exercises with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts" or "Trials") contains, to this day, some of the most influential essays ever written.
Montaigne had a direct influence on writers all over the world, including René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Albert Hirschman, William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer, Isaac Asimov, and possibly on the later works of William Shakespeare.
Arthur Schopenhauer (22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher best known for his book, The World as Will and Representation in which he claimed that our world is driven by a continually dissatisfied will, continually seeking satisfaction.
Influenced by Eastern philosophy, he maintained that the "truth was recognized by the sages of India"; consequently, his solutions to suffering were similar to those of Vedantic and Buddhist thinkers (e.g., asceticism).
Influenced by Eastern philosophy, he maintained that the "truth was recognized by the sages of India"; consequently, his solutions to suffering were similar to those of Vedantic and Buddhist thinkers (e.g., asceticism).
The influence of "transcendental ideality" led him to choose atheism. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four distinct aspects of experience in the phenomenal world; consequently, he has been influential in the history of phenomenology.
He has influenced many thinkers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Otto Rank, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, and Jorge Luis Borges, among others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_S...
Link: https://youtu.be/joul2MSHZtc
What Great Philosophers Can Teach Us About How to Live
What Great Philosophers Can Teach Us About How to Live: Alain de Botton
In Consolations, de Botton attempts to console the reader through everyday problems (or at least help them to understand them) by extensively quoting and interpreting a number of philosophers. About the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067... These are categorised in a number of chapters with one philosopher used in each. Consolation for Unpopularity (Socrates) Consolation for Not Having Enough Money (Epicurus) Consolation for Frustration (Seneca) Consolation for Inadequacy (Montaigne) Consolation for a Broken Heart (Schopenhauer) Consolation for Difficulties (Nietzsche) The critical reception for Consolations has been primarily positive. A few critics have been negative. Edward Skidelsky of the New Statesman wrote: "Comforting, but meaningless. In seeking to popularise philosophy, Alain de Botton has merely trivialised it, smoothing the discipline into a series of silly sound bites. ... [De Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy] is bad because the conception of philosophy that it promotes is a decadent one, and can only mislead readers as to the true nature of the discipline." Jonathan Lear, writing in the New York Times said: "Academic philosophy in the United States has virtually abandoned the attempt to speak to the culture at large, but philosophy professors are doing something of incredible importance: they are trying to get things right. That is the thread that connects them back to Socrates -- even if they are not willing to follow him into the marketplace -- and that is the thread that The Consolations of Philosophy cuts. ...[L]et's face it, this isn't philosophy." Mary Margaret McCabe stated in the Times Literary Supplement: "In the culture of the market economy, we miss the fact that philosophy is valuable in and by itself.... It is deeply dispiriting, then, that the latest attempt to popularize philosophy [De Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy] - that is to say, to make philosophy into televisual fodder - does so precisely on the basis that philosophers can provide us with useful tips.... This is not the dumbing down of philosophy, it is a dumbing out. Nothing in this travesty deserves its title; Boethius must be turning in his grave." The book was the inspiration for the Channel 4 TV series Philosophy: A Guide To Happiness. The series was produced mirroring the book's layout with the following six episodes: Socrates on Self-Confidence Epicurus on Happiness Seneca on Anger Montaigne on Self-Esteem Schopenhauer on Love Nietzsche on Hardship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cons... Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (/mɒnˈteɪn/; French: [miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ]; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592) was one of the most influential philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual exercises with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts" or "Trials") contains, to this day, some of the most influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers all over the world, including René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Albert Hirschman, William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer, Isaac Asimov, and possibly on the later works of William Shakespeare. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_d... Arthur Schopenhauer (German: [ˈaʁtʊʁ ˈʃɔpənˌhaʊ̯ɐ]; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher best known for his book, The World as Will and Representation (German: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung), in which he claimed that our world is driven by a continually dissatisfied will, continually seeking satisfaction. Influenced by Eastern philosophy, he maintained that the "truth was recognized by the sages of India"; consequently, his solutions to suffering were similar to those of Vedantic and Buddhist thinkers (e.g., asceticism). The influence of "transcendental ideality" led him to choose atheism. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four distinct aspects of experience in the phenomenal world; consequently, he has been influential in the history of phenomenology. He has influenced many thinkers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Otto Rank, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, and Jorge Luis Borges, among others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_S...
NRA Lessons
What Liberals Can Learn From the N.R.A.
VILIFYING
the National Rifle Association’s tactics has long been standard
practice among liberals.
The
passion underlying such condemnations may be understandable, especially
in the wake of the horrific mass shootings that often prompt them.
But this rhetoric does little to change the gun debate, and most likely reinforces gun owners’ worst fears about how liberals see them.
Rather than demonize the N.R.A.’s strategies, liberals should emulate them.
The organization is, after all, the most effective civil rights group in the United States today.
But this rhetoric does little to change the gun debate, and most likely reinforces gun owners’ worst fears about how liberals see them.
Rather than demonize the N.R.A.’s strategies, liberals should emulate them.
The organization is, after all, the most effective civil rights group in the United States today.
Consider
what the N.R.A. has accomplished.
Just a few decades ago, even loyal conservatives rejected the idea that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to bear arms, as opposed to the states’ prerogative to raise militias.
In 1990, the retired Supreme Court chief justice Warren Burger, a Nixon nominee, dismissed the idea as a “fraud.”
Yet in 2008, the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller ruled that the individual right to bear arms was no fraud, but a constitutional right.
Just a few decades ago, even loyal conservatives rejected the idea that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to bear arms, as opposed to the states’ prerogative to raise militias.
In 1990, the retired Supreme Court chief justice Warren Burger, a Nixon nominee, dismissed the idea as a “fraud.”
Yet in 2008, the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller ruled that the individual right to bear arms was no fraud, but a constitutional right.
How
did the N.R.A. do it? It did not litigate Heller itself.
But its efforts over three decades paved the way for the court’s decision.
But its efforts over three decades paved the way for the court’s decision.
The
story begins in 1977, when hard-line members of the N.R.A. took charge
at its annual convention and formally committed the group to defending
the right to bear arms.
The N.R.A. first focused on the states, lobbying to change state constitutions and laws to protect the right to possess and carry guns.
The organization realized that most gun laws were enacted by states, not the federal government, and that it could win substantial victories there, in part by mobilizing its members, in part by working with the local affiliates it had in every state, and in part because opposition at the state level was largely absent. (Gun-control advocates tended to focus unproductively on Congress.)
The N.R.A. first focused on the states, lobbying to change state constitutions and laws to protect the right to possess and carry guns.
The organization realized that most gun laws were enacted by states, not the federal government, and that it could win substantial victories there, in part by mobilizing its members, in part by working with the local affiliates it had in every state, and in part because opposition at the state level was largely absent. (Gun-control advocates tended to focus unproductively on Congress.)
The
strategy paid off:
By the time the Supreme Court took up Heller, most state constitutions protected an individual right to bear arms; nearly all states afforded citizens a right to carry concealed weapons unless they were specifically disqualified from doing so; gun makers enjoyed immunity from tort liability for illegal use of their guns; and the right to self-defense had been strengthened — all at the urging of the N.R.A.
These changes made it much easier for the Supreme Court to recognize a federal right to bear arms, because for all practical purposes such a right already existed in so much of the country.
By the time the Supreme Court took up Heller, most state constitutions protected an individual right to bear arms; nearly all states afforded citizens a right to carry concealed weapons unless they were specifically disqualified from doing so; gun makers enjoyed immunity from tort liability for illegal use of their guns; and the right to self-defense had been strengthened — all at the urging of the N.R.A.
These changes made it much easier for the Supreme Court to recognize a federal right to bear arms, because for all practical purposes such a right already existed in so much of the country.
The
N.R.A. also enlisted the academy. Beginning in the 1980s, it offered
grants and prizes designed to encourage scholarship that buttressed its
view of the Second Amendment.
With N.R.A. assistance, legal scholars transformed the academic understanding of the Second Amendment, so that by the time the Supreme Court ruled in Heller, the dominant view in the legal literature supported an individual right to bear arms. Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion closely tracked that scholarship.
With N.R.A. assistance, legal scholars transformed the academic understanding of the Second Amendment, so that by the time the Supreme Court ruled in Heller, the dominant view in the legal literature supported an individual right to bear arms. Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion closely tracked that scholarship.
In
addition, the N.R.A. succeeded in getting both Congress and the
executive branch on record as endorsing the view that the Second
Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms.
In
1982, a Senate committee headed by Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of
Utah and an N.R.A. member, adopted the individual-rights view of the
Second Amendment; Congress as a whole followed suit in gun rights
legislation in 1986 and 2005.
Later, the N.R.A. organized a friend-of-the-court brief in Heller on behalf of majorities in both the Senate and the House reiterating this position. And when John Ashcroft, another N.R.A. member, became attorney general in 2001, the N.R.A. prompted his decision to reverse the Justice Department’s long-held position that the Second Amendment protects only the states’ prerogative to raise a militia.
Later, the N.R.A. organized a friend-of-the-court brief in Heller on behalf of majorities in both the Senate and the House reiterating this position. And when John Ashcroft, another N.R.A. member, became attorney general in 2001, the N.R.A. prompted his decision to reverse the Justice Department’s long-held position that the Second Amendment protects only the states’ prerogative to raise a militia.
Most
significantly, the N.R.A. recognizes the importance of political
pressure to the realization of constitutional rights.
It grades every candidate for state and federal office on his or her commitment to gun rights, regardless of party affiliation, and urges its five million members to vote accordingly.
The N.R.A. was one of George W. Bush’s biggest backers in 2000 and 2004.
When President Bush had the opportunity to appoint two justices to the Supreme Court in 2005, it was no surprise that both nominees — John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito — were supportive of gun rights. The vote in Heller was 5 to 4, with both Justice Roberts and Justice Alito in the majority.
It grades every candidate for state and federal office on his or her commitment to gun rights, regardless of party affiliation, and urges its five million members to vote accordingly.
The N.R.A. was one of George W. Bush’s biggest backers in 2000 and 2004.
When President Bush had the opportunity to appoint two justices to the Supreme Court in 2005, it was no surprise that both nominees — John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito — were supportive of gun rights. The vote in Heller was 5 to 4, with both Justice Roberts and Justice Alito in the majority.
There
is nothing nefarious about any of this. It’s how constitutional law
changes in America.
Liberals who are unhappy with the state of
constitutional law today — whether on voting rights, racial equality,
campaign finance or, indeed, guns — would do well to stop condemning the
N.R.A.’s methods and start following in its footsteps.
David Cole,
a law professor at Georgetown, is the author of the forthcoming book
“Engines of Liberty: The Power of Citizen Activists to Make
Constitutional Law.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/11/opinion/what-liberals-can-learn-from-the-nra.html?emc=edit_ty_20160311&nl=opinion&nlid=59725256&_r=0
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Sam Harris and Yuval Harari - Meditation, Religion and God
Waking Up With Sam Harris #68 - Reality and the Imagination (with Yuval Noah Harari) Listen to Sam Harris and the Waking Up Podcast on : https://soundcloud.com/samharrisorg For more information visit: https://www.samharris.org
Link: https://youtu.be/nzvUZLD9ssY
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Meister Eckhart
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No. Be sure of this: absolute stillness for as long as possible is best of all for you. (German sermon 4, trans M.O.C. Walshe)
His Teachings
A succinct and very accessible summary of Eckhart’s teachings was given in a paper by John Orme Mills OP at the Eckhart Society One Day Conference in London in 2002. We present this here with some minor edits.
This seal, dated 1319, is identical to that used by Meister Eckhart when he was Provincial of Saxony 1303 -1311. Permission to include the image was kindly granted by Nieders chsisches Landesarchiv, Staatsarchiv Wolfenbettel, 7Urk 212, which owns the copyright.
Ursula Fleming never pretended to be an Eckhart scholar, but no human being influenced her more profoundly than did Meister Eckhart – not even Marco Pallis, and that is saying quite a lot. When, in her teens, she abandoned her Catholic religion, intending to become a Buddhist, she turned for spiritual guidance to Pallis –mountaineer, musician and philosopher as well as a Buddhist himself – but he told her: ‘Go back to the religion of your birth. Go back to the Sacraments. And read Eckhart.’ When, having done what her spiritual guide told her, she said to him: ‘I like Eckhart but I only understand fragments of what he is saying,’ Marco Pallis replied: ‘Don’t try to understand him. Just go on reading him’
And, years later, we find her repeating this very same advice to all sorts of groups of people – saying, for example, ‘Don’t try to understand Eckhart too much. Don’t try to work it all out. Just read it.’ Really, one could easily get the idea that the writings of Eckhart were just a collection of aphorisms!
Yet it is obvious that Ursula was not at all one of those people attracted to Eckhart because they have the illusion that Eckhart lived in a gorgeously thick mystical cloud. And all the people who knew her, both admirers and critics, were aware that she was not the kind of person who believes that hard clear thinking doesn’t really matter. We find her writing:
Meister Eckhart says that the man who finds no taste of God wearies of looking for him. One of the criticisms of Christianity, and one of the reasons why many young Christians turn to the East, to Buddhism or to Hinduism, is that in Christianity there is no apparent help with method. How do we find God? How do we even start? Eckhart is one of the Christians who faces this and accepts it as a problem. Good intentions are not always enough. We need instruction in how to make ourselves fit to receive the revelation of God, to receive the eternal birth. (Fleming, 1995)
‘Help with method’ – this, perhaps surprisingly, is what she found in Eckhart. And Ashley Young, the General Secretary of the Eckhart Society, writing about Ursula’s Eckhart reader of 1988 entitled The Man from whom God hid Nothing, said that the book was above all ‘about the usefulness of Eckhart.’ (Fleming, 1995, p. xii).
Eckhart was certainly not a muddled thinker. He was an outstanding theologian at the period when scholasticism was at the peak of its prestige – in fact, when it was the dominant influence in Western European thought. And, whatever reservations many of us may have today about scholasticism, there is no doubt about the importance scholasticism gave to logical soundness in argument, to scrupulous analysis of theses, and to systematising. Eckhart knew how to organise his thoughts.
However, if what we are looking for is a guide to the spiritual life suitable for people who are not academics, obviously it will not be Eckhart’s Latin works, which were predominantly written for academics, that we will turn to, but his German sermons. Generally speaking, sermons, as a genre, are not ideal for instructing people in spiritual development in a simple systematic way, unless they are being given to a regular audience. And Eckhart’s sermons, however substantial, were always sermons, not lectures, and few were composed as a cycle – a series. The theology in Eckhart’s German sermons has foundations as solid as the theology in his Latin works, but tracing ideas in Eckhart’s German sermons usually involves jumping to and fro all over the place.
There are, though, a handful of exceptions to this general rule. And the first of Eckhart’s cycle of four sermons on the eternal birth of the Word in the ground of the soul (a sermon-cycle very probably preached to his fellow Dominicans) sums up nearly all the most important aspects of Eckhart’s teaching on spiritual maturity – teaching at the heart of what he has to say to us about ourselves (Sermons 1–4, Walshe, 2008). In this brief exploration of how Eckhart set out to help people to develop a deep spirituality I will focus mainly (though not entirely) on sermon 1. I will then turn briefly to sermon 9. The sermon numbers I use throughout are those of Walshe (2008).
Finding God Within
One of Ursula’s more provocative remarks was that human nature is such that, whatever we may seem to be doing or however far we may seem to be from the mark, we are really searching for God (Fleming, 1995). She was prompted to say this by Eckhart’s assertion that when we go out of ourselves to find God or fetch God we are making a mistake: that, on the contrary, we do not find God outside ourselves and we should not conceive him except as in us – that our best chance of finding God is where we left him.
The Birth of the Word
Courtyard formed by the Preachers Church at Erfurt and the surviving remains of the old claustral buildings of the Dominican Priory which still contain the refectory and the chapter house. © Falko BehrYes, where we left him! Eckhart’s most distinctive teaching is probably his teaching that the eternal birth of the Word from the Father is ‘now born in time, in human nature’ … that, if nothing separates our souls and God, the birth of the hidden Word can take place in the depths of our souls. This teaching of his he refers to over and over again in his sermons. However, it is in sermon 1 that he focuses on the ways in which we must change for this birth to take place in us. As he says himself at the beginning of that sermon (Walshe, 2008, sermon 1):
‘What does it avail me that the birth is always happening, if it does not happen to me? That it should happen in me is what matters.’ So said St Augustine [he didn’t, actually!]. We shall therefore speak of this birth, of how it may take place in us and be consummated in the virtuous soul, whenever God the Father speaks His eternal word in the perfect soul.
Being Utterly Passive
‘In the perfect soul’, notice! He emphasises that an indispensable condition for this birth is that we should be living a very good Christian life. He distrusts rigid programmes for progressing in the spiritual life, saying that there is no single ‘way’ to God – contrary to what many pious people down the centuries have thought (McGinn, 2001, p. 58). What he does stress is that before anything else we must be utterlypassive. Passivity, as we commonly understand the term, is the very contrary to all that is most admired in our present culture. In fact, Eckhart is not saying that we should be weak and negative and torpid (he was none of those things himself). The eternal birth takes place in the depths of the self, of the soul, beyond our senses, and he is saying that with God’s help we should acquire the capacity to inwardly empty the mind of all sense experience, of all that takes us out of ourselves.
The Dark Way to God
Incidentally, this should not be taken to mean that the withdrawal and passivity required for the birth necessarily has to involve ‘rapture’ or ‘ecstasy’. As Bernard McGinn (2001, p. 59) says ‘the dark way to God is given absolute priority’. It is of the very nature of the Divine Word to be hidden in its revelation and revealed in its hiddeness.
Learning to be Passive
All the same, Eckhart does not consider that it is easy to acquire the state of passivity he describes. He says elsewhere that it is rare for anybody untrained to reach the stage at which they are proof against disturbance. This needs hard work, and demands especially two things. The first of these is physical seclusion; the second, an ability to throw out ideas wandering into the mind, so that one ‘does not scatter oneself and get sold into multiplicity’, as he rather nicely puts it. He stresses that to still the mind one must still the body too.
Being Firmly Fixed in God
It was Eckhart’s view that whenever the mind is firmly fixed on God the senses are obedient to the mind (Fleming, 1995, p. 17, quoting Evans, 1924, p. 31). In fact, in one of the talks he gave to novices and students when he was Prior of Erfurt he said: ‘A man should accustom himself to having God present always in his disposition and his intention. Believe me, if you were constant in this way, no-one could come between you and the God who is present to you’ (Walshe, 2008, Talks of Instruction 6).
Giving up all Externals
Near the end of sermon 1, Eckhart quotes Christ’s teaching in Matthew 10:37 about abandoning all things: ‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.’ Clearly he sees this teaching as telling us to give up all externals, so as to retreat into the inner ground where God enters without image in absolute stillness. And in another sermon (McGinn, 2001, p. 134, quoting Walshe, 2008, sermon 22) we find him saying: ‘You have to start first with yourself and leave yourself.’
Letting Ourselves Go
If we can learn to let ourselves go, we are in effect letting everything go. Total letting go is the way to gain all things in the God who is the real being of all (Walshe, 2008, sermon 6). ‘He who would save his soul must lose it’ (Mt 16:25) is one of Eckhart’s favourite sayings of the Lord. He tells us: ‘Now God wants no more from you than that you should in creaturely fashion go out of yourself, and let God be God in you… Go completely out of yourself for God’s love, and God comes completely out of himself for love of you’ (Walshe, 2008, sermon 13b), For, as he says in Sermon 4: ‘God must act and pour himself into us when we are ready, in other words when we are totally empty of self and creatures. So stand still and do not waver from your emptiness.’
How do We discern the Birth in Us?
To quote Bernard McGinn (2001, p. 139):
It is in and through the deconstruction of self in detaching, letting go, relinquishing, unbecoming, that the birth of the Word in the soul takes place. Detaching and birthing are not successive stages in a mystical path but two sides of the same coin.
But how are we to know that the Divine Word has been born in us? Clearly it is not something that we know we have in the way we know we have the flu.
Discerning the birth
Well, we will know partly by the way we behave. Says Eckhart: ‘The man who rests on nothing, who is attached to nothing, though heaven and earth should fall, will remain unmoved’ (Fleming, 1995, quoting Evans, 1924, p. 115). And he also says: ‘The more and more clearly God’s image shows in us, the more evidently God is born in us’ (Evans, p. 16 ?). But we know what has happened mainly from what we are aware has happened to us. In the words of Eckhart: ‘You must know that God is born in us when the mind is stilled and sense troubles us no longer’ (Fleming, 1995, p. 16). And ‘All things become simply God to you, for in all things you notice only God’ (Walshe, 2008, sermon 4).
Must We have a Leisurely Life?
However, a much more urgent question has to be answered: Is Eckhart in effect telling us that in this world we can only share God’s life at a deep level by leading a retired and leisurely existence? In other words, that it is unlikely that the Divine Word will be born in us if a lot of our time is absorbed in a busy life in the world? To put it another away: was the mystical tradition of the nine centuries after St Augustine and, for that matter, the predominant mystical tradition of the seven most recent centuries, right in seeing the active life as something basically to be endured and to be escaped from whenever possible?
Possessing God in All Places
The old refectory in the surviving remains of the claustral buildings of the Dominican Priory at Erfurt. © Falko BehrTalking to that group of young men in Erfurt when he was himself still quite a young man, Eckhart said: ‘Whoever truly possesses God in the right way, possesses him in all places: on the street, in any company, as well as in a church or a remote place or in their cell… Grasping all things in a divine way and making of them something more than they are in themselves cannot be learned by taking flight, but rather we must learn to maintain an inner solitude regardless of where we are or who we are wit
h’(Walshe, 2008, Talks of Instruction 6).
Possessing God in All Things
Talking to those young men on another occasion he took a step further. He said to them: ‘Either a man must find God in works or abandon all works, but, since a man cannot in this life be without works, he must learn to possess God in all things’ (Walshe, 2008, Talks of Instruction 7).
Only Leading an Ordinary Christian Life
In sermon 55 I think we can discern the direction in which his line of thought was going. Sermon 55 is almost certainly in fact a talk given by Eckhart to his fellow Dominicans one evening. In it he is telling them what it means to live the life of detachment from the self and pure attachment to God alone. It is clearly quite a different kind of life from what most people think. Eckhart says:
You should never pray for any transitory thing: but if you would pray for anything, you should pray for God’s will alone and nothing else, and then you get everything. If you pray for anything else, you will get nothing. In God there is nothing but one, and one is indivisible. If you seek or expect anything more, that is not God but a fraction. You should seek nothing at all, neither knowledge nor understanding nor inwardness nor piety nor repose [yes, not even repose!] but only God’s will. If you seek God’s will alone, whatever flows from that or is revealed by that you may take as a gift from God without ever looking or considering whether it is by nature or grace or where it comes from or in what guise. And you need only lead an ordinary Christian life without considering doing anything special.
A Mysticism of Everyday Life
Bearing in mind the line of thinking in sermon 55, it is not surprising, really, that Eckhart comes to the conclusion that he does in his sermon 9. Sermon 9 is his famous and controversial sermon on Martha and Mary, which has for its heroine not the contemplative Mary who only wanted to sit at the feet of Jesus but the overworked Martha, whom St Luke tells us was ‘distracted by her many tasks’ [10:41]. Drawing not only on his highly personal reading of the story of Martha and Mary but on his past theologising and doubtless his own experience, he argues that it is possible for a spirituality substantially rooted in an active life to be of even greater value than the traditional life of the contemplative. This is completely contrary to the opinion of St Augustine, St Gregory and St Bernard. He abandons the long-prevailing conviction that there is an irreconcilable tension between the contemplative life and the active life. For the first time since Christianity’s early days we have a spirituality of the active life – an achievement of enormous significance almost forgotten after Eckhart was brought for trial in Avignon. It is now clear that, in spite of his emphasis upon the importance of inwardness and of abandoning materiality, Eckhart’s mysticism is (to quote Bernard McGinn’s phrase) ‘a mysticism of everyday life’.
A New Kind of Action
Sermon 9 is unfortunately not easy to read because of the many digressions in it. It is Eckhart’s basic thesis in it that both emptiness and activity are necessary in our lives: both the freedom of detachment and what he calls ‘work and activity in time’, which he says does not lessen eternal happiness and is even necessary to get to God. In fact, he believes that, in a life lived out in the world, in what he sees to be ‘a new kind of action’, in other words a spirituality rooted in activity rather than vision, a higher form of knowledge is possible than even the light of contemplative ecstasy – at least contemplative ecstasy of Mary’s kind, which is unconnected with ordinary everyday life. Martha (as Eckhart discerns her) is sufficiently mature to be able to work undisturbed in the midst of the concerns and troubles of the world, and it is Eckhart’s conviction that in a life like hers, much of it spent in the kitchen, a nobler kind of communion with God is possible than any except the highest unmediated vision. Here is his reply to the question: ‘Can we only share God’s life at a deep level by leading a retired and leisurely existence?’ I think Ursula Fleming would have approved of it.
References
Evans, C. de B. (trans) (1924, 1931) Meister Eckhart Doctor Ecstaticus, 2 vols. London: Watkins.
Fleming, Ursula (1995) The Man From Whom God Hid Nothing. Leominster: Gracewing.
McGinn, Bernard (2001) The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing. New York: Crossroads Herder.
Walshe, Maurice O’C (trans) (2008) The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart.New York: Crossr
oads Herder.
WITHIN ECKHART:
INTRODUCING ECKHART
ECKHART: THE MAN
HIS TEACHINGS
SOME OF ECKHART'S SAYINGS
HIS TEACHINGS
Almost seven hundred years ago a man began spreading word and seed that have meaning and relevance today
READ MORE
Link: https://www.eckhartsociety.org/eckhart/his-teachings
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Alexander Shulgin was a pioneer in Psychedelic Medicine
Sasha Shulgin was the grandfather of this track of investigation in America:
Advances in Psychedelic Medicine: State-of-the-Art Therapeutic Applications
edited by Michael J. Winkelman, Ben Sessa MD
More than a decade ago, the U.S. government lifted its ban on all testing of psychedelic substances. Winkelman and Sessa now provide updated scientific research and applications of these substances, now moving into approved categories of medicine. The text is an up-to-date assessment of the latest advances in the field of psychedelic medicine, covering the use of LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, ayahuasca, and other substances to augment psychotherapies for a range of disorders. It discusses medical and psychiatric concerns, clinical efficacy and safety, ethical considerations, and neuroscience findings regarding the psychedelic compounds.
Topics covered include an overview of psychiatric applications of psychedelics; treatments for addictions and depressive disorders; effects of psychedelics on inflammation and neuroplasticity; evidence for clinical applications of DMT, ayahuasca, and cannabidiol; psychedelic treatment of sociopathic disorders; microdosing psychedelics; training psychedelic therapists; and community-based harm reduction approaches to managing psychedelic crises.
Mazatec Mushroom Usage: Notes on Approach, Setting and Species for Curious Psilonauts
Sam Gandy
“There is a world beyond ours, a world that is far away, nearby and invisible. And there is where God lives, where the dead live, the spirits and the saints, a world where everything has already happened and everything is known. This world talks. It has a language of its own. I report what it says. The sacred mushroom takes me by the hand and brings me to the world where everything is known. It is they, the sacred mushrooms, that speak in a way I can understand. I ask them and they answer me. When I return from the trip that I have taken with them, I tell what they have told me and what they have shown me.” – Maria Sabina
http://realitysandwich.com/323749/mazatec-mushroom-usage-notes-on-approach-setting-and-species-for-curious-psilonauts/
The approach used in modern therapeutic psilocybin sessions can be summarised as “trust, surrender, let go”. Expanding on this, Dr William Richards (senior Johns Hopkins psychedelic researcher at Johns Hopkins) offers the following insight:
“The same force that takes you deep within will, of its own impetus, return you safely to the everyday world,” the manual offers at one point. Guides are instructed to remind subjects that they’ll never be left alone and not to worry about their bodies while journeying, since they will be monitored. If you feel like you’re “dying, melting, dissolving, exploding, going crazy etc.—go ahead, embrace it: Climb staircases, open doors, explore paths, fly over landscapes.” And if you confront anything frightening, “look the monster in the eye and move towards it. . . . Dig in your heels; ask, ‘What are you doing in my mind?’ Or, ‘What can I learn from you?’ Look for the darkest corner in the basement, and shine your light there.”1
This approach has been successfully applied in therapeutic psilocybin sessions at Johns Hopkins, N.Y.U. and Imperial College London and other institutions exploring the therapeutic potential of psilocybin, and appears to buffer against the adverse reactions sometimes associated with recreational use of psilocybin. The recommended setting is a comfortable room with subdued lighting, with the participant lying down wearing eyeshades on a bed or sofa, listening to playlist of carefully selected, predominantly instrumental music (avoiding human vocals) playing through headphones, ensuring comfort and encouraging the experiencer to focus inwards. The lyrical narrative of human vocals is avoided as they tend to be emotive and powerfully influence people’s experiences in certain ways. This approach has its merits and the results of some of the modern studies speak for themselves.2,3,4,5,6 However, this is a stark divergence from the approach employed by Mazatec curanderos, or shamans.
Several indigenous groups in Mexico are known to practice the ceremonial use of Psilocybe mushrooms, or what they refer to as los Santos Niños (“the Little Saints”) or nti si tho (“the little ones who spring forth”): the Nahuatls in the states of Mexico, Morelos and Puebla; the Matlazincs in the state of Mexico; the Totonacs in the state of Veracruz; and the Mazatecs, Mixes, Zapotecs and Chatins in the state of Oaxaca.7 Of these, the epicentre of usage in Mexico can be considered among the Mazatec, who are considered to possess the greatest knowledge of mushroom lore. They employ mushrooms for problem solving, physical, psychological and spiritual healing, and seeking lost or stolen objects.
Ancient tradition calls for fasting prior to ingesting mushrooms, with the exception of fruit and water if necessary. Alcohol and other drugs are avoided before and after the ceremony, or velada. One is recommend to bathe prior to the experience and wear clean white or brightly coloured clothing, while black is avoided. Powdered San Pedro (Nicotiana rustica) tobacco may be used alongside the mushrooms, applied topically to the wrists and forearms by the shaman as a tonic for the body. The tobacco is believed to have magical and remedial qualities, and is also used as an offering on the altar. Sexual abstinence is usually recommended for several days before and after a ceremony, and pork tends to be avoided during this time.
Communion with the mushroom is to be approached with humility and respect, but not fear. One should remain calm and be prepared for mental turbulence that can accompany entry into the bemushroomed realms. It is good to remain silent and speak as little as possible, at least in the beginning phase of the mushroom velada. Excessive talking can detract from the focus and energy of the experience, so conversations are reserved for later. Only the mushroom imbibers should be present, and overall, the fewer the better, as too many people may taint the atmosphere.
A single species of Psilocybe is employed in a given ceremony, and mixing of different species is avoided. Mushrooms are cleansed in copal smoke prior to ingestion, and are consumed fresh, in pairs on an empty stomach. People are encouraged to take their time to chew the mushrooms thoroughly, which allows one’s system to adjust to the experience. Unsweetened cacao is often consumed alongside the mushrooms, this being a custom practiced by the Aztec as part of their mushroom ceremonies, and according to some it greatly intensifies the visionary aspect of the mushroom. Following consumption of the mushrooms, candles are blown out, and total darkness descends. Mazatec shamans may chant and perform bodywork on participants during the velada with their hands.
Natalia blessing mushrooms in copal smoke. Credit: Christopher Casuse
Unlike the clinical therapeutic approach, the shaman ingests psilocybin alongside their patients. At the present time, patients are only permitted 1-3 psilocybin sessions in a research study context, whereas in the traditional Mazatec context, people have the option of repeated and regular sessions. The Mazatec often consume mushrooms in family groups, which is rare outside the traditional context of the velada.
The Mazatec velada setting is usually in the shaman’s home, in a room with an altar. Sessions take place during the night, often in darkness, or sometimes with candle light. This is to minimise distractions and focus the mind. A velada may begin in pitch darkness, to ensure that visions are bright and clear (an approach that well-known psilonaut Terrence McKenna also recommended), with candles lit at a later time. The presence of candles is important…beeswax candles are favoured by the Mazatec. Candle flames serve as a neutral and absorbing focal point for a tried and tested means of anchoring awareness in the present. Candle flames have been employed in this context by many cultures and traditions, such as in yogic Trataka meditation, Buddhist Kasina meditation and in Jewish ceremonies going back many centuries. The night is recognized as the time most conducive to visionary insights and deep inner work. Despite regional, cultural and linguistic differences between various indigenous groups, this setting and timing is a shared common element.
In the context of a Mazatec mushroom velada, the focal point of the setting is a traditional altar, comprising a table adorned with images of religious figures, local cultural deities, candles, flowers and saints. The syncretic nature of the post-Colombian Mazatec tradition made it easy for them to assimilate Christian imagery into their rituals following the Spanish invasion and the spread of Catholicism that accompanied it. Psilonauts are encouraged to focus on the candles and images, with sustained attention and avoiding “falling” into the trance, maintaining their intention on invoking the sacred. The typical Western approach, where people close their eyes and allow the music to guide them, has been described by Mazatec elder shaman Natalia Martinez as a “lazy approach”, which does not allow the full potential of the mushroom to manifest.
Of course, some Westerners may not be comfortable with pictures of religious figures, but an altar can be tailored to one’s personal resonance. For example, those with a more pantheistic perspective maybe prefer natural objects, such as shells, crystals, pine cones, flowers or feathers.
Mazatec style altar.
For those training with her, Natalia offers a full dinner plate of derrumbe (“landslide”) mushrooms (P. caerulescens) and encourages experiencers to maintain awareness throughout the experience. This is deemed an invaluable exercise in training one’s perception, in order that one can navigate their experience with a clear and centred mind, and allow one to work with what the mushroom presents to an undistracted mind. This is considered an essential part of the training for those who wish to provide mushroom veladas themselves. One sits erect on a small stool before the altar, maintaining awareness and open-eyed focus on the candles and images on the altar while remaining present. The altar acts as an anchor, providing a powerful means for orientating the experience and navigating challenging content when necessary. Natalia has been doing this work up to three times a week, for the past 40 years, and has amazing energy for an 87 year old woman.
Consuming mushrooms in the Mazatec setting can result in powerful experiences and openings, and this approach may yield a very distinct set of experiences from that of the Western therapeutic approach. Consumed regularly and consistently, weekly in some cases, the practice results in a set of progressive and deepening experiences, with each building upon the previous. Working with mushrooms in this way is considered by some to constitute a form of theurgy. In the US, taking mushrooms in this traditional manner means it may qualify as a sacred plant tradition, which would be protected under the Religious Freedom Act.
The Mazatec and other indigenous Psilocybe using groups tend to take the view that different species of mushroom have different qualities or their own ‘signature’. Some are revered more than others or used for specific purposes. This view is shared by ethnobotanist Kathleen Harrison, who has worked extensively with the Mazatec and various Psilocybe species, and is commonly echoed by experienced growers and psilonauts. In the context of indigenous mushroom usage, the more potent species tend to be revered more highly. There are 53 known species of Psilocybe mushrooms in Mexico, with around a third of these used ceremonially. Only a handful of species are frequently employed in veladas. Of these, the most important and commonly used species are P. caerulescens, P. mexicana, P. cubensis, P. zapotecorum and P. hoogshagenii.7 In the Aztec language Nahuatl the umbrella term teotlaquilnanácatl (“divine mushroom that describes or paints”) is applied across species.
The Mazatec hold P. caerulescens, known as the landslide or derrumbemushroom, in particularly high regard. This species is thought to have likely been used by the Aztecs in their rituals, as documented by 16th century Spanish chronicler Bernardino de Sahagún, and referred to as teonanácatl (“flesh of the gods”). It was this species through which R. Gordon Wasson and Tim Leary had their seminal introductions to psilocybin. It is revered for its potency and its fuerza or force, the mushrooms produce a strong, physically medicinal effect, sometimes experienced as deep waves of warmth and energy in the body.
P. zapotecorum is another highly regarded and potent species, another derrumbe mushroom, known as badao zoo (“drunken mushroom”) by the Zapotec Indians. It is held on par with P. caerulescens by the Mazatec, but is a species held in particularly high esteem by the Zapotecs, from which its name is derived, and it appears to have a long history of usage among them.
P. mexicana, known as pajaritos (“little bird”) is another highly revered species used by a number of Mexican indigenous groups, it being the mushroom from which the great chemist Albert Hofmann first extracted and identified psilocybin and psilocin. It was also the most cherished species of the Mazatec shaman Maria Sabina, responsible for introducing psilocybin mushrooms to the Western world. The Mazatec say of this species ‘que suave’ (‘how smooth’). The Zapotec give this mushroom to their children as they view it as the friendliest and most forgiving. It is known by many different names among the various indigenous Mexican groups that use it, referred to as nize (“little bird”) by the Mazatec.
Another species of note is P. hoogshagenii, which is employed shamanically by the Mixe and Zapotec, and it is known by a variety of different names. In Spanish, it is referred to as los niños or los Chamaquitos (“the little boys”) as pajaritos de monte (“little birds of the woods”) by the Mazatec, and atka:t (“judge”) by the Mixe, who deem it a very wise mushroom, sought after by shamans faced with an important philosophical decision. It is interesting to note that this species (in particular P. hoogshagenii var. convexa) is highly revered by psilonauts that have grown it. It is slow to fruit, but is said to be as easy (if not easier) to cultivate than the more widely known P. cubensis. It was originally assigned the species name ‘semperviva’ which translates as ‘undying’, due to its highly resilient and tenacious nature and its ability to produce many flushes of highly potent mushrooms over many months.
P. cubensis, the San Isidro mushroom was made famous by the McKenna brothers. It has a pan-tropical distribution, growing throughout tropical and subtropical zones of the world, having spread alongside cattle farming as it grows on bovine dung. It is easily cultivated and fruits abundantly, and as a result has been cultivated worldwide. In Mexico, P. cubensis is used widely by a number of different indigenous groups, and is a dependable ally, fruiting abundantly and possessing a long growing season. It is known as di-shi-tjo-le-ra-ja (“divine mushroom of manure”) by the Mazatec. It is certainly not one of the more revered species however, and among Mexican Psilocybe-using groups is widely considered to occupy the lowest rung of the ladder of shamanic mushroom preference. Perhaps this is due to its non-native status (having being brought in with Spanish cattle), its habit of growing on dung, or its lower potency or different experiential qualities compared to other species.
San Isidro is the patron saint of the fields, farming and labour (this mushroom thriving in farmland), and some Mazatec will consume this mushroom prior to building a house or tilling a new field, or prior to embarking on some important work to give them clarity and luck. However, not all shamans will work with P. cubensis, including Maria Sabina, who never worked with it in her veladas.8However, Mestizo charlatan shamans have been known to use P. cubensis in ceremonies as a means of generating income from tourists. In 1988, Terrence McKenna had an experience with P. cubensis that was so harrowing that he swore off heroic mushroom doses altogether.9 Psilonauts with extensive experience of the different species almost universally hold the view that those revered by shamans surpass P. cubensis in experiential qualities. This species with its universal accessibility, has been profoundly important, extending its mycelial tendrils into the brains of so many members of our species, but there is more to the Psilocybe mushroom world than it alone.
The Mazatec have over 500+ years of experience of working with mushrooms and far deeper knowledge of their phenomenology and application in healing than Westerners, who are comparative newcomers to the mushroom. There is much to be learned from the Mazatec shamans, and the loss of their knowledge would be a tragedy. Due to the advent of modern medicine however, the increasing domination of Western civilisation in Mazatecan lands, and the subsequent erosion of their cultural traditions, very few of the younger generation of Mazatec are interested in pursuing healing work using mushrooms. The traditional Mazatecan shamanic approach to working with the mushroom may soon become extinct, so we ought to prioritise the preservation and transmission of their knowledge.
References
Pollan, M. (2015, February 9th) The Trip Treatment. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment
Carhart-Harris, R.L., Bolstridge, M., Day, C.M.J., Rucker J., Watts, R., Erritzoe, D.E., Kaelen, M., Giribaldi, B., Bloomfield, M., Pilling, S., Rickard, J.A., Forbes, B., Feilding, A., Taylor, D., Curran, H.V., Nutt, D.J. (2018) Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: six month follow-up. Psychopharmacology, 235(2): 399-408.
Griffiths, R.R., Johnson, M.W., Carducci, M.A., Umbricht, A., Richards, W.A., Richards, B.D., Cosimano, M.P., Klinedinst, M. A. (2016). Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized doubleblind trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(12): 1181–1197.
Griffiths, R.R., Johnson, M.W., Richards, W.A., Richards, B. ., Jesse, R., MacLean, K.A., Barrett, F.S., Cosimano, M.P., Klinedinst, M. A. (2017). Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviours. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 32(1): 49-69.
Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W. A., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology, 187(3): 268–283.
Ross, S., Bossis, A., Guss, J., Agin-Liebes, G., Malone, T., Cohen, B., Mennenga, S.E., Belser, A., Kalliontzi, K., Babb, J., Su, Z., Corby, P., Schmidt, B.L. (2016) Rapid and sustained symptom reduction following psilocybin treatment for anxiety and depression in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(12): 1165–1180.
Guzmán, G. (2008) Hallucinogenic Mushrooms in Mexico: An Overview. Economic Botany, 62(3): 404-412.
Schultes, R.E., Hofmann, A., Rätsch, C. (2001) Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers. Rochester, Vermont, USA: Healing Arts Press.
McKenna, D. (2012) The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss. Clearwater, Minnesota, USA: North Star Press of St. Cloud.
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PhD ecologist and writer, with a passion for nature and psychedelics.
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http://realitysandwich.com/323749/mazatec-mushroom-usage-notes-on-approach-setting-and-species-for-curious-psilonauts/
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