Article Archives, Featured
Liberation, Part I
October 16, 2009 by Craig · 2 Comments
The idea of spiritual or human liberation is a good indicator to show how followers of certain perspectives aim to live on this planet. Let us first take a gander through some traditional views. Please note that these are very general interpretations; significant variability exists within such views.
Orthodox Christians have tended to seek liberation—or more aptly, salvation—via forgiveness from original sin, something with which all of us, short of Jesus and Mary, are inherently born. Goals are otherworldly, in that Christians find their peace, God forbid, when they make it to heaven. Desires of the flesh and worldly “success” are minimized at best.
Traditional Buddhists have been equally otherworldly, as followers tended to detach from ego aggregates, including desires, in hopes to be released from the cycle of soul transmigration and unavoidable suffering. Liberation is found via the 8-fold path to Nirvana … typically considered a rare state and not achieved in this world.
Hindu liberation, meanwhile, is achieved via dissolution, or realization, through an awakened awareness that our reality is an illusion at best, possibly a mistake at worst. Otherworldly views of the East have arguably resulted in societies ill-equipped to build Earthly institutions for its people. We don’t need to be reminded of the results from the shadows of traditional Western followers, do we?
In my opinion, Taoists have been more balanced. They held the view that all things consists of polar forces. The best “way” is to flow with such poles. Successful examples are found in Chinese medicine and their martial art and meditative practices.
Other views have been considerably more this-worldly, including paganism and indigenous views across cultures. These views tend to recognize cycles and systems of nature, as well as “mythological” spirits and Gods. Generally speaking, the idea of liberation rests more with being in harmony with the outer world and of Spirit, including Mother Earth.
Traditional science, of course, is the most this-worldly in that materialists see only matter as real. Spirituality to these theorists are only warn out beliefs that were developed to help uncivilized people cope with forces and fears they did not understand. Scientific liberation might be through understanding the mechanistic laws of the universe so that we can “master” our environment. Despite its major successes, modernity ironically brought us to the brink of extinction through its divorce from Earth and the spiritual cosmos. Traditional psychology, a paradigm that grew out of modernity, emphasizes “normal” ego personality functioning based on genetics, environment, and/or early stage development.
Stay tuned for part II, as we will continue to explore this idea of liberation by meandering our way through new paradigms that are currently competing to best perceive our reality and our times. Many of these newer views attempt to bridge otherworldly and this-worldly agendas and also offer interpretations of inner states of reality. In the mean time, what does liberation mean to you?
Photos courtesy of Free Web Photo
Related posts:
- A Truly Integral Neoperennial Philosophy (Liberation, Part III) Here, I’ll respond first to thoughtful remarks about oversimplification and...
- Liberation, Part II Now that modernity is essentially dead and “orthodox” or popular...
Hi,
I find your discussion and/or indictment of Eastern views as being “otherworldly” and at fault for not creating viable institutions to be simplistic and ill-informed. You mention that these are general interpretations and that there is variation within the traditions — but the issue is that your general starting point is with cliches and patent misunderstandings of what liberation is.
There is no shortage of scholars who complain about the otherworldly goals of mysticism and emphasize the need for bridging to “this-worldly” goals. Yet, the key point is that a mind that has yet to be transformed by awakening does not understand what is “the real world” in the first place, nor what liberation actually is.
To think that one can, through intellectual analysis, delineate and separate the various “liberations” of the traditions, and then to assess such goals as being otherworldly and “a rare state and not achieved in this world” is an unfortunate trend.
Mike
Mike,
Your points are certainly not without merit. At the same time, you may be making some generalizations yourself regarding those who are discussing the way in which “popular” understandings of Eastern mysticim have been received and applied throughout history. Of course, many have and still do follow an Eastern practice well by deepening there experience and bringing into their relationships and work “real world” improvement. My point is that as the species evolves and our reality deepens, we will have greater ability to bridge the two paths.
cb