29 April 2005 | Draft
Enlightening Endarkenment
selected web resources on the challenge to comprehension
- / -
Introduction
Experimental clustering
Group A: Distinguishing endarkenment through projection
Group B: Disembodied reflection and insight
Group C: Experiential processes
Group D: Beyond fixed distinctions
Introduction
This is an exercise in detecting web resources referring in some way to "endarkenment"
("ensombrement" in French, or "Verfinsterung" in German).
These are marked below with ##. Within the quoted
phrases containing such a reference, "endarkenment" is placed
in bold font for convenience -- even though this was not done in the original
version. The resources were selected because of the insights into usage rather
than because they formed part of a comprehensive study of the question by a
recognized authority. The length of any quotation included is such as to give
a sense of context for the particular understanding of endarkenment.
The items selected are tentatively clustered into 10 different "modes"
of understanding of "endarkenment" as contrasted
with "enlightenment". These modes are further clustered into 4 "groups".
The clustering, discussed below, is also tentatively associated with the insights
into enlightenment and endarkenment offered by the 10 Zen Ox-herding pictures.
It is also tentatively related to the insights from depth psychology regarding
the alchemical process, notably that of the nigredo.
Experimental clustering
The modes below indicate how "light" and "dark" are variously
comprehended through their metaphorical equivalents (positive and negative,
good and evil, etc). They could be understood as stages in a learning process.
Any such separation into "higher" and lower" levels of comprehension
can however be a trap. The preference here is to treat them as modes of understanding
that may have greater or lesser value and appropriateness under particular circumstances.
However it is also the case that those who identify more particularly with one
mode may well perceive any other as a dangerous heresy. Those more distant from
any particular mode might be considered even more dangerous aberrations.
Each mode might well be considered characteristic of a particular "religious"
belief -- or a spiritual understanding within a "religious" belief.
Most references to endarkenment are associated with Modes 2 and 3.
Tentatively in each case, in order to relate to non-western styles of thought,a
possible comparison is suggested here to one of the ten classic Zen "ox-herding
pictures", whose black and white patterning could be understood as a meditational
challenge to comprehending the relationship between enlightenment and endarkenment.
These pictures have been the subject of extensive commentary and reflection
down the centuries. This could potentially enrich considerably the tentative
brief notes associated with each mode below. With regard to the extensive commentary
of Kubota Ji'un (Ten
Ox-herding Pictures with the Verses Composed by Kakuan Zenji, 1996)
to which the specific links are made, he notes:
Here, our essential self is compared to an ox. We seek the ox, grasp it,
tame it and finally the self which has always been seeking becomes completely
one with the ox. But this also is forgotten so that we now simply carry on
our ordinary lives.... The Ten Ox-herding Pictures have concretely
depicted the process in which the imperfect, limited, and relative self (the
little child) awakens to the perfect, unlimited, and absolute essential self
(the ox), grasps it, tames it, forgets it, and completely incorporates it
into the personality. But we must stress that these pictures and verses are
merely an indication of the way to practice and not an object for conceptual
thought.
The 10 modes of endarkenment identified have been tentatively clustered into
4 groups:
- Group A: These modes are concerned with
the developing recognition of endarkenment as "evil" -- as it is
to be found in others and in the environment perceived as
a threat (and provided one commits oneself appropriately
to the "good"). This group may be understood in terms of disengagement
from the world and the mundane -- notably facilitating the extremes of exploitation
of the latter.
- Group B: It is in these modes that recognition
emerges that, despite one's efforts, the seeds of "evil" are notably
to be found within oneself and those one believes to have been uniquely identified
as exemplars of the "good". The modes give form to the challenge
of how to reframe one's understanding of human endarkenment with compassion
and forgiveness, recognizing that differences in understanding have a vital
function in a healthy and meaningful society -- despite one's own problematic
engagement with it. This group may be understood in terms of disembodiment
-- disengagement from the body and its mundane implications -- to enable a
non-material "re-embodiment" as an affective or intellectual being.
This ensures a disassociation from the extremes of exploitation of the body,
whilst cultivating a belief in the quality of life and well-being.
- Group C: In these modes there is the engagement
in practice with healing processes (as a necessary consequence of the previous
group) associated with the "endarkenment" (namely what had been
repressed) as part of a larger cycle whose paradoxical and mysterious nature
becomes apparent. This group may be understood as a re-engagement with the
body -- a re-embodiment of the phenomenal body (if only for health reasons),
giving expression in practice to the quality of life for oneself, for others,
and for the entities of the environment.
- Group D: In this mode the polarity between
enlightenment and endarkenment is finally transcended experientially in such
a way as to give meaning to the range of modes as an expression of that understanding
-- whether through endarkenment or enlightenment. This group may be understood
as a re-embodiment of the world, taking responsibility for the quality of
the environment as one actually experiences and engenders it.
In avoiding the level trap, it is useful to explore the associations of the
different groups with different periods of time, preferably in a cycle, if
only metaphorically. This points to the recurrence of certain modes thought
to have been left behind, and the paradoxical and unpredictable emergence
of others. It also avoids the sense in which particular modes are considered
to be only accessible after forms of effort and discipline to which few may
believe they have access. The period associations are then:
- Group A might be metaphorically associated in time with the period in
the daily cycle from midnight to the experience of a new dawn, waking
up after the terrors of the small hours of the night -- or as the period
in the lifecycle from birth to adulthood.
- Group B might be metaphorically associated in time with the period in
the daily cycle from dawn until noon in which the "darkness
within" becomes apparent, despite the light without -- or as in the
period in the lifecycle of early adulthood.
- Group C might be metaphorically associated in time with the period in
the daily cycle from noon to dusk in which the perspective and ambiguity
associated with the experience of the darkness within enriches the actual
quality of life -- or as in the period in the lifecycle of late adulthood.
- Group D might be metaphorically associated in time with the period in
the daily cycle from dusk to midnight, interweaving light and darkness
meaningfully without attachment to either -- as in one's elder years
in the lifecycle. .
The only discipline to give serious attention to the processes associated
with "endarkenment" might be said to be depth psychology and its
attention to the challenge of integration of the "shadow" [more].
For depth psychology, the shadow is a part of the unconscious mind which is
mysterious and often disagreeable to the conscious mind, but which is also
relatively close to the conscious mind. It may be (in part) one's original
self, which is superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind; afterwards
it comes to contain thoughts that are repressed by the conscious mind. The
shadow is instinctive and irrational, but is not necessarily evil even when
it might appear to be so. [more]
Following the efforts of Carl Jung (Alchemical Studies, Psychology
and Alchemy, and a final volume Mysterium Coniunctionis), the nigredo
(or "blackening") is identified by depth psychology as the first
of the three stages in the alchemical process through which a fourth condition
emerges [more].
It is therefore worth considering how those stages might be related to the
group of modes identified here. Three possibilities were considered:
-
Directly associating the alchemical stages with the groups:
Group A (nigredo), Group B (albedo), Group C (rubedo),
Group D (outcome). This best reflects the first awareness of the problematic
conditions projected onto the external world.
-
Associating the last three groups with the three stages:
Group B (nigredo), Group C (albedo), Group D (rubedo).
This reflects the awareness of the need for inner work starting in Group
B.
-
Associating the last four modes with the alchemical stages:
Mode 7 (nigredo), Mode 8 (albedo), Mode 9 (rubedo),
Mode 10 (outcome). This best reflects the initiation of the therapeutic
process in Mode 7 in which there is a more engaged awareness of the need
for action.
The final option was selected and reflects the separation of the associated
understanding and symbolism from the earlier modes of understanding endarkenment.
It is also possible that there is a form of resonance between all the options.
Further commentary is called for in relation to various understandings of
endarkenment in symbol systems. For example in the I Ching ("The
Book of Changes"), hexagram 36 is specifically associated with "the
Darkening of the Light", on which it comments:
In adversity it furthers one to be persevering. The light
has sunk into the earth: The image of Darkening of the Light. Thus does the
superior man live with the great mass: He veils his light, yet still shines.
[ more]
The approach here derives in part from much earlier involvement of the author
with the Committee for Conceptual and Terminological Analysis (COCTA), although
here the compilation is very preliminary and primarily intended as a trigger
for further reflection.
Group A: Distinguishing endarkenment through projection
This group is concerned with the identification of the nature of light and
its meaningful separation from dark. Understood metaphorically, this is extended
to positive vs negative, right vs wrong, etc.
These modes are concerned with the developing recognition of endarkenment
as "evil" -- as it is to be found in others and
the environment and others perceived as a threat, and provided one commits
oneself to the "good". This group may be understood
in terms of disengagement from the world and the mundane -- notably facilitating
the extremes of exploitation of the latter.
Metaphorically the group might be associated in time with the period from
midnight to the experience of a new dawn, waking up after the terrors of the
small hours of the night -- or as the period from birth to adulthood.
This word seems at the moment to have been used in rather
random ways on the web. Citations I found ranged from strange new agey religions,
to people talking about hair, to people complaining about rock and rolls afro-carib
roots. In fact as much as I like the sound of the word, I probably won’t
use it much as I don’t like the company this word seems to keep at the
moment.
Mode 2: Recognition of "badness" -- and the light
at the end of the tunnel of darkness
The apparently inimical forces of the environment are recognized as a source
of pain. Nature exemplifies badness. Through fear and suffering the possibility
of something else is articulated and recognized. It is an attractor under conditions
of despair and hopelessness. It is clearly easier to see the light from its
shadow than directly from within the light, and what about the light with which
one sees?
This mode might be compared to the second of the 10
Zen ox-herding pictures entitled: Finding
the Tracks
## Lance Morrow. The
Real Meaning of Evil. Time Magazine, 18 February 2003:
But even if it's elusive and even if the term is used brainlessly,
evil is still there — a mystery, a black hole into which reason and
sunshine vanish but nonetheless ... there. Talk to the children with chopped-off
hands in Sierra Leone. It is as fatuous to deny the existence of evil as it
is to toss the word around irresponsibly. The children of the Enlightenment
sometimes have an inadequate understanding of the possibilities of the Endarkenment.
The question is how evil exists, how it works.
Mode 3: Embodied light contrasted with embodied
badness -- negative collective trends
As a result of identification with the values and conditions associated with
light, they are effectively embodied through a "conversion" process
-- possibly as a godly person, a person of righteousness, or an enlightened
person of "brilliance". The contrasting conditions are clearly seen
as embodied by "bad people" -- possibly even understood as under
the influence of demonic forces. The more clearly others are experienced as
"bad", the more powerfully any personal sense of "goodness"
is reinforced. The more darkness that can be distinguished in others, the
more light must necessarily characterize the perceiver. People see themselves
as belonging to a select group of the righteous == those who have "seen
the light" -- to be contrasted with those who have not and may well be
misleading others.
This clear polarization into light and dark favours a process of associative
projection through which "others" are identified as bearers of badness,
darkness or even "evil". Any "difference" may be used
to justify this perception (eg women, homosexuals, handicapped, unemployed,
foreigners, etc). Those of dark skin, for example, may tend to be automatically
labelled as "bad". This has been evident in the attitude of Caucasians
to other races. It also evident in the ready association of terrorists with
those of Arab extraction. The clarity of the polarized separation makes any
suggestion of relativity deeply suspect. There can be no moral relativism.
Righteousness is absolute. Those "who are not with us are necessarily
against us". Enlightenment effectively becomes a religious monopoly.
A characteristic feature of this mode is that the "light" may be
seen differently by different groups -- who are then highly articulate in
labelling each other as representing demonic or satanic forces. Particularly
curious is that the historic period known as the "Enlightenment"
is now labelled by some as the Endarkenment -- now terminated
by the increasing political influence of Christian fundamentalists as bearers
of enlightenment. On the other hand, the impact of that same fundamentalism
has in turn been labelled as initiating a period of Endarkenment
following the so-called historic period of Enlightenment.
This mode might be compared to the third of the 10
Zen ox-herding pictures entitled: Catching
Sight of the Ox
## Edward Haskell. Framework
of the Periodic Table of Human Cultures (In: Full
Circle: The Moral Force of Unified Science, 1972)
In overcoming the dangerous medieval haziness of thinking
-- in carrying out the 18th century's response to that challenge, fatuously
called the Enlightenment -- these scientists created the twentieth century's
far more dangerous challenge: our deep Ensombrement, which Lippmann
calls The Eclipse of the Public Philosophy (Walter Lippmann. The Public
Philosophy--On the Decline and Revival of Western Democracy, I955, Chapter
VIII). This was not due to viciousness or stupidity, but to the structure
of evolution, inherent in the Systems-hierarchy, which poets have called the
darkness before the dawn.32
As late as the eighteenth century, men held what Lippmann calls the doctrine
of natural law: the certainty that there is law "above the ruler and the sovereign
people . . . above the whole community of mortals." But in the twentieth century's
Ensombrement there is "a plurality of incompatible faiths" and multitudes
of agnostic, existentialistic and nihilistic people. And far worse yet, there
are millions of ideologists in the totalitarian countries and infiltrated
throughout the egalitarian democratic states for whom strong Circles of Perfection
had been closed prematurely, and incorrectly, back in the 19th century: namely,
Marxists and fascists.
## Linda Deak. The
Endarkenment. onlinejournal.com, 27 October 2004
It is a shock to the people of Europe that this election is even a contest.
How can people in these times, in the Information Age, have their collective
heads in the sand and believe the nonsense that Bush spews on the campaign
trail? The truth is out there and has to be eschewed by people supporting
Bush.... exhalation of breath from the outside world when Kerry is elected.
The relief will be palpable and felt by all. We are all going to have to
help America come out of this Endarkenment. We are going to have
to start with media reform, election reform, business reform, tax reform,
healthcare reform, education reform and restoration of relationships with
our allies from around the world.
The crisis of modern civilization, which is the unprecedented
assault on faith and reason resulting in the total eclipse of reason, and
subsequent loss of faith, due to God’s eternal marriage of faith and
reason being divorced by man, has one underlying current. Its genesis is
rooted in the confusion of “genuine authentic freedom,” the
freedom to do what we ought, with “license,” the freedom to
do what we want.... Regardless of whether we are talking about radical sexuality,
feminism, literary criticism also known as deconstructionism, or any of
the other “radicals” as characterized by the worst excesses
of political correctness, this seminal truth that freedom is license for
the disciples of The Enlightenment, which in reality is better titled The
Endarkenment, becomes their “first principle” in ushering
in a new world order where the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is replaced
with the “god in the mirror.” This explains the animus of liberal
ideologues towards Holy Mother Church who makes them uncomfortable with
their vices by holding them to a higher Truth, Who is a Someone, not a something....
The command to suspend reason has not come from Sacred Scripture or the
Tradition of the Church but rather from the liberal disciples of The Endarkenment.
They tell us that truth is relative not absolute.
## Vishal Mangalwadi. From
Enlightenment to Endarkenment
The New Age Movement represents a widespread and influential
worldview and spirituality in the West as well as beyond. May we be challenged
to reach the numerous men and women who embrace this "Endarkenment."
May we reach them with the glorious light of the Good News of Jesus Christ
and usher them into true spirituality. (International Journal of Frontier
Missions)
They claim we are in the age of enlightenment. No way.
This is the age of endarkenment, where truth is hidden from the
mass and models are sold as hawkers once sold snake oil remedies, from
people who have not even questioned their beliefs.
## P. G. Mathew. The
Holy Anointing, 29 April 2001
When we speak about spiritual enlightenment, we are not
speaking about the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. That has nothing
to do with true enlightenment. In fact, to me such philosophies are endarkenment.
We are speaking about the Holy Spirit of God removing blindness from us,
regenerating us, and enabling us to understand the wonderful truth of the
gospel.
## DancesWithAnxiety. Review
of A Refutation of Moral Relativism: Interviews With an Absolutist
by Peter Kreeft, 1999
The histrionics are interesting and important reading, though
not in a way Kreeft intends... This book is packed with insights into the
philosophical shibboleths of the contemporary religious right in America
and beyond. Early on, he tells us that the enlightenment should be called
the "endarkenment" since it privileged reason
over faith, and by the book's end, he has connected supposed errors in Ockham,
Hume, Kant, and others with the rise of deconstructionism, Nazism and...
the sexual revolution....No doubt the self-proclaimed ethical "absolutists"
in Tehran, Mecca, and Kabul would find plenty of common ground with Kreeft's
denunciation of the "endarkenment", and would
nod along with Kreeft's call to shun reason and get back to the prayer mats.
Even the most appealing economic programme cannot save American
liberalism if it is associated with values that most Americans reject. Fortunately
for the Democrats, most Americans are found in the political and moral centre,
not on the far right. Bush's Protestant fundamentalist constituents may
despise the Enlightenment as the "Endarkenment",
but Bush and the Republicans won the election only by appealing to centrist
Americans on the basis of their Enlightenment republican values.
I said that the United States was the product of the eighteenth century
Enlightenment. What we are seeing in the twenty-first century is The Great
Endarkenment. Let me end, then, by going back to Mesopotamia less
than a year ago as U.S. forces shocked and awed Iraqis with a massive
bombardment and moved into Baghdad. In less than a week, Baghdad's National
Museum was looted and trashed. You heard about that. But did you hear
that Mosul's museum was also trashed, and that Iraq's universities were
sacked and burned, and that its great archaeological sites continue to
be looted? Moreover, the Iraq National Library and the Koranic Library
were looted and burned while American soldiers were ordered to guard the
records in the Oil Ministry...
There is a great deal that those who have taken over Washington do not
want you to know about what has been and is being done in your name, and
the great danger to which those actions are exposing us all in order to
get more energy, and to build yet greater fortunes for themselves and
their colleagues. That is why I call this period The Great Endarkenment,
and it is perhaps the greatest of all betrayals of the founding ideals
of this nation, and the monopolized mass media shares a great deal of
responsibility for propagating this giddy ignorance, and this justified
fear of what is to come.
Erich Neumann. Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, 1969
The shadow, which is in conflict with the acknowledged values,
cannot be accepted as a negative part of one's own psyche and is therefore
projected--that is, it is transferred to the outside world and experienced
as an outside object. It is combated, punished, and exterminated as 'the alien
out there' instead of being dealt with as one's own inner problem.
Group B: Disembodied reflection and insight
Having apparently successfully distinguished light from dark, positive from
negative, and right from wrong -- by separating out the unwanted and projecting
it onto others "without", the following group of
modes is faced with the challenge of why more complete enlightenment is inhibited
from "within", and why the constraints are to some
degree innate. Others are not the only carriers of darkness, and are not solely
to be blamed.
It is in these modes that recognition emerges that, despite one's efforts,
the seeds of "evil" are notably to be found within oneself and those
one believes to have been uniquely identified as exemplars of the "good".
The modes give form to the challenge of how to reframe one's understanding
of human endarkenment with compassion and forgiveness, recognizing that differences
in understanding have a vital function in a healthy and meaningful society
-- despite one's own problematic engagement with it. This group may be understood
in terms of disembodiment -- disengagement from the body and its mundane implications
-- to enable a non-material "re-embodiment" as an affective or intellectual
being. This ensures a disassociation from the extremes of exploitation of
the body, whilst cultivating a belief in the quality of life and well-being.
Metaphorically the group might be associated in time with the period from
dawn until noon in which the "darkness within" becomes apparent,
despite the light without -- or as in the period of early adulthood.
Mode 4: The inner challenge to enlightenment: "negative
thoughts"
The focus is increasingly on the light within and what constrains its recognition.
There is recognition of the constraints on the effective embodiment of enlightened
being, even by those convinced of its merits. There is acknowledgement of
personal fallibility -- "we are all sinners". Personal "badness"
is notably associated with the temptations of the body -- which must necessarily
be transcended. The functions of the body are then associated with endarkenment.
This recognition tends to be projected (typically by dominant males) onto
relations with the opposite sex -- considered to embody the temptations of
endarkenment. Any thinking that does not celebrate the positive, and
exclude the negative, is suspect of facilitating endarkenment. Holding
to the certainty of the light is a means of excluding the uncertainties of
the dark -- and the eroding effects of doubt.
This mode might be compared to the fourth of the 10
Zen ox-herding pictures entitled: Seizing
the Ox
## Charles T. Tart. Mind
Science: Meditation Training for Practical People
Concentrative Meditation: A lot of people, including me,
are interested in reaching "enlightenment." Personally I know I’m
far from whatever enlightenment is, and I don’t really know what enlightenment
is, but I am an expert on endarkenment. I’ve had more than fifty
years of personal practice and professional study of endarkenment!
Knowing how to generate high levels of endarkenment, I figure that
the less of that stuff that we do, the less endarkenment we generate,
that moves us in the direction of whatever enlightenment is! If you don’t
make noise, it’s naturally quieter. So if you really have to cough,
cough. If you have to move, move (mindfully) and get it over with and then
go right back to the meditation practice, don’t worry about the fact
that you moved or coughed or whatever. Everything you add above what is simply
necessary to do the action and then come back to the practice is just that
much more distraction, that much more endarkenment.
A tendency to all-or-none thinking, you're either enlightened
or you're not at all enlightened, confuses our understanding of possible aspects
of spiritual growth. These ordinary state reflections begin with the difficulties
of defining enlightenment, showing how it is clearer to consider endarkenment
and work away from that all too common condition...... What altered states
of consciousness can a person access that are appropriate to various situations?
(How effectively are you using it?) ... A person might be relatively enlightened
with one particular state ... or a person might have access to many altered
states of consciousness but function neurotically in all of them...
## Greg Swann. peaceofmind.net,
2005
Libertarians despair that there is nothing that they can do to forestall
an imaginary bogeyman, called "endarkenment" by some, but
one of the most vitally important things any libertarian can do to change
the world is to live, breathe and especially teach the values of the middle
class... I think I have established that the idea of an "endarkenment"
is absurd. History is driven by people, not by nebulous Hegelian trends....
The idea of "endarkenment" is inherently fatalistic. We
hear the word "fatalistic" and we think of "fatality,"
of a morose conviction in the inevitability of morbidity. But the root of
"fatalistic" is fatalis, fate. The opposite of fatalism
is not optimism. The opposite of fatalism is free will.... There is no "endarkenment",
and there is no justification for despair. The world gets progressively
better... What is professed to be an "endarkenment" is
simply willful self-destruction in an elaborate disguise. A correctable
malady, although the time lost to it is irredeemable.
## Liz Greene
You see the issue of the Shadow isn’t a question of admitting
faults. It’s a question of being shaken right down to your foundations by
realizing that you are not as you appear — not to others, but also to yourself.
Part of the motivation for our refusal to assimilate the "shadow"
is the pervasive ideal of "purity," an ideal closely related to classical
Western theology. Going beyond Neumann here, we must note that often the ideal
of purity has meant the repression of ambiguity, duality, polarity, and internal
contradiction. This "purity" and a simplistic metaphysical dualism are intimate
associates. Immunity to the "imperfections" of multiplicity, temporality,
bodiliness, and relativity is the philosophical expression of this vacuous
purity and perfection.
Mode 5: Balance and complementarity
In this mode there is increasing understanding of the complementarity of the
functions associated with light and dark (exemplified by circadian rhythms),
positive and negative (exemplified by electricity), right and wrong (exemplified
by the stages of learning processes), male and female (exemplified by relationships).
In conventional spirituality it may be associated with forgiveness and compassion.
In religious terms this may be associated with gnostic beliefs or tantra
This mode might be compared to the fifth of the 10
Zen ox-herding pictures entitled: Taming
the Ox
## Michael Ventura. Letters at 3 am: Reports
on Endarkenment, 1993
Comment: His opinion is that modern music forces physical expression of repressed
sexual forces in dancing and thus heals the mind-body split caused by Christianity
and western 'mental' emphasis. Though that idea resonates through his early
work, his later writing talks of a process of "endarkenment",
the fascination with evil which permeates much of American music and society.
We have only to look at who gets the most attention in the media and movies:
it is mass murderers, convicted felons, rock musicians, and corrupt politicians.[more]
Comment on the author's views: He considers that we're already into the new
day, albeit the darkest, scariest part of it. In Whole Earth Review
he wrote that we are living in an "age of endarkenment." What each
of us must do is cleave to what we find most beautiful in the human heritage
- and pass it on. The implied metaphor here links us with the monks of the
Middle Ages: when the endarkenment eventually ends, ...those precious things
we've passed on will still be alive. [more]
## Mark Domenic Amadeo Tripp Pesce. Interfaces
to the Sublime, 1995
From Enlightenment to Endarkenment: Decartes' Golem and Oroboros:
... We're entering an age which will see use of more emotional terms, like
de Chardin's Noosphere - defining the layer of being (thought, emotion, action)
which surrounds the planet. It's time to integrate our metaphors, especially
when discussing something as profound as the Noosphere.... So now we earnestly
seek not enlightenment but endarkenment. We know our lighter natures so well
that our darker sides could easily kill us. We must study the dark, because
it is also of us. As the yogi moves toward enlightenment, he achieves endarkenment,
and sees his worst nature outlined. This is purely natural and absolutely
upsetting. This is also one of the functions of art, particularly of sacred
art.
The dark being of the enlightenment is the body. It's that which the Cartesian
nature would transcend to become wholly being without body. Yet, the further
we travel in our technological development, the more we understand that the
body has a transcendental nature which is absolutely vital to the being of
man; you can not discard it, any more than you can discard the brain. We are
not growing out of the body; we're finding out how to live within it. Like
Oroboros, the snake who consumes his own tail, we reach out for the essence
of the spiritual and come back firmly grasping our own flesh. This flesh is
the ground for a new articulation of the sacred.
## Hanan A. Muzaffar. Feminist
Postmodern Disruption of the Patriarchal Systrem of Binary Oppositions Praxis
in Four Phases. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, August 2000
Trinh T. Minh-ha (Woman Native Other, 1989} also argues that theory
that relies on reason—man’s reason—cannot be used by women
to liberate them... She critiques the quest for a higher truth explaining
that knowledge:
leads no more to openings than to closure. The idealized quest for knowledge
and power makes it often difficult to admit that enlightenment (as exemplified
by the West) often brings about endarkenment.... Theory
oppresses, when it wills or perpetuates existing power relations, when it
presents itself as a means to exert authority – the voice of knowledge.
Here theory and knowledge, in their patriarchal sense presented as the only
valid theory, become problematic not just for women, but for any group working
outside the “existing power relations.” As the term “closure”
suggests, theory as “the voice of knowledge” closes the arena
for any critique that works from different perspectives
## Elaine N. Aron. Sensitive
Spirituality: HSPs, Meditation, and Enlightenment. Comfort Zone Online,
May 2004:
Identifying with the Self as archetype may be the most dangerous confusion
of an ego with an archetype. Acting from that position, the ego begins to
make serious mistakes, like thinking it knows how to make others enlightened
or how to change the world. It may even think it blesses others by having
sexual union with them, or by giving others the chance to merge their egos
with itself, becoming a sort of robot extension of the enlightened person.
(Jung said that the way to know you are in the hands of a cult is when the
leader tells you to dismiss your own dreams as unimportant, and forces you
to live out the symbolism of his or her dreams.) Suddenly enlightenment looks
like endarkenment. As Jung said, I believe, the brighter
the light, the darker the shadow. Or he should have said that.
## J Bull. Hither
and Yon, 6 April 2004
But in [Dane] Rudhyar's interpretation of the cycles ... Running time forward,
individuation moves toward enlightenment as a cycle moves from conjunction
to opposition. Still running time forward, a cycle moves from light into darkness
as it moves from opposition to conjunction. The second half... of a cycle
is about endarkenment - release of enlightenment.
## Shepherd Bliss. Celebrating
The Holidays During America's Dark Age. CommonDreams.org, 19 December
2004
In a Dark Time by the late American poet Theodore Roethke
starts as follows: "In a dark time, the eye begins to see,/ I meet my shadow
in the deepening shade." Many of us have denied things about America for
too long, stuffing them into a "shadow." Now they are catching up
with us.
We are entering a time of endarkenment, which may eventually
evolve into enlightenment. Much can be revealed to us in the darkness about
reality and our real selves that can guide us into a better future.
We can look realistically at darkness, cope with it and continue to live
joyously and express gratitude for the many gifts that remain during these
holidays. We also have hard work ahead of us, which some resting during this
season can help prepare us to do.
## Unitarian Universalist Men's Network. The
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