Author
|
Topic: Holisticism -- Transcending Categories
|
Valus Knowflake Posts: 3228 From: Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted July 26, 2010 03:36 PM
I find myself posting in LLC2.0 a lot, mostly because my threads don't fit neatly into the square pegs offered by the other forums. While they may touch on issues signified by the other forums, they touch on more than one issue at a time, and it would seem more appropriate to post them here than to post multiple copies of them in multiple forums. Allow me to explain...As a highly Uranian, highly Aquarian individual, my interests often carry me into complex areas of study and reflection which are not easily classifiable under one heading. Health issues are often bound up with political ones. Political reflections relate naturally enough to spiritual concerns. Spiritual questions involve psychological, and often astrological, probing. Politics and philosophy enter into, and often confound, matters in the workplace. Religious understanding evolves shoulder-to-shoulder with insights into soul union relationships, our animal brothers and sisters, and radical political activism. And so on. All of this can make it extremely difficult to know where my increasingly holistic thoughts and impressions fit into a rigidly structured and intentionally fragmented environment. For insight into this situation, I'm forced to consider the themes and operations of the planet Chiron, whose orbit carries it between Saturn, a planet known for it's deep respect for neat and systematic categorization, and the planet Uranus, which startlingly resists simplistic classification. Nicknamed "The Wounded Healer", Chiron is customarily identified with holisticism; or, the interweaving of various, seemingly disparate disciplines, into one multi-dimensional whole. The following excerpt from Henri Nouwen's "The Wounded Healer" may provide some further clarity into this phenomenon: quote: It is my growing conviction that in Jesus the mystical and the revolutionary ways are not opposites, but two sides of the same human mode of transcendence. I am increasingly convinced that conversion is the individual equivalent of revolution. Therefore every real revolutionary is challenged to be a mystic at heart, and he who walks the mystical way is called to unmask the illusory quality of human society. Mysticism and revolution are two aspects of the same attempt to bring about radical change. No mystic can prevent himself from becoming a social critic, since in self-reflection he will discover the roots of a sick society. Similarly, no revolutionary can avoid facing his own human condition, since in the midst of his struggle for a new world he will find that he is also fighting his own reactionary fears and false ambitions.The mystic as well as the revolutionary has to cut loose from his selfish needs for a safe and protected existence and has to face without fear the miserable condition of himself and his world. It is certainly not surprising that the great revolutionary leaders and the great contemplatives of our time meet in their common concern to liberate nuclear man from his paralysis. Their personalities might be quite different, but they show the same vision, which leads to a radical self-criticism as well as to a radical activism... For the mystic as well as for the revolutionary, life means breaking through the veil covering our human existence and following the vision that has become manifest to us... For a Christian, Jesus is the man in whom it has indeed become manifest that revolution and conversion cannot be separated in man's search for experiential transcendence. His appearance in our midst has made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as the two beams of the cross. Jesus was a revolutionary, who did not become an extremist, since he did not offer an ideology, but Himself. He was also a mystic, who did not use his intimate relationship with God to avoid the social evils of his time, but shocked his milieu to the point of being executed as a rebel. In this sense, he also remains for nuclear man the way to liberation and freedom... I suppose you will hesitate to consider yourself a mystic or a revolutionary, but when you have eyes to see and ears to hear you will recognize him in your midst. He is sometimes undeniably evident to the point of irritation, sometimes only partially visible. You will find him in the eyes of the guerrilla, the young radical or the boy with the picket sign. You will notice him in the quiet dreamer playing his guitar in the corner of a coffeehouse, in the soft voice of a friendly monk, in the melancholic smile of a student concentrating on his reading... You will find him in your own town, in your own family, and even in the strivings of your own heart, because he is in every man who draws his strength from the vision that dawns on the skyline of his life and leads him to a new world. It is this new world that fills our dreams, guides our actions and makes us go on, at great risk, with the increasing conviction that one day man will finally be free -- free to love!
The eighteenth century thinker, Novalis, writes: "The division of Philosopher and Poet is only apparent, and to the disadvantage of both. It is a sign of disease, and of a sickly constitution." And the idea may be carried further, without unnecessary confusion, to include every discipline belonging properly to humankind. The complete person is a philosopher, a poet, psychologist, activist, theologian, historian, scientist, teacher, doctor, lover and friend. He/She is all of these, and not merely by turns, but simultaneously. As a whole and holistic being, such a person can rarely speak of politics without being philosophical and poetic. Where theological matters dominate, questions of material science may suddenly become paramount. And so on. To expect such complete human beings to pare and parse their reflections, so as to fit them neatly into this or that sphere of human activity is absurd. Only the narrowest of minds fail to glimpse the subtle connective relationships that weave together an expansive variety of human concerns. We should endeavor to emphasize these subtle relationships, rather than violently amputate one meaningful issue from another. What we find, when we attempt to limit the philosophical to philosophy, the political to politics, the medical to medicine, and so on, -- is that what we have really limited, what we have really amputated, is, after all, our own understanding. And this is a great misfortune.
IP: Logged |
SunChild Moderator Posts: 988 From: Melbourne. Victoria. Australia Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted July 26, 2010 06:41 PM
IP: Logged |
Valus Knowflake Posts: 3228 From: Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted July 26, 2010 11:50 PM
IP: Logged |
eskimono Knowflake Posts: 536 From: uk Registered: Dec 2009
|
posted July 27, 2010 09:03 AM
V - I will reply here, as I can't reply in the other thread.I really am good, you really haven't offended me, and my choice of words in the other thread was careless (was meant with humour, not malice). IP: Logged |
Valus Knowflake Posts: 3228 From: Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted July 27, 2010 10:27 AM
Thank you for clarifying. No hard feelings here either. IP: Logged |
AbsintheDragonfly Moderator Posts: 991 From: Gaia Registered: Apr 2010
|
posted July 27, 2010 11:59 AM
Moving this to UC.IP: Logged |
katatonic Knowflake Posts: 4576 From: Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted July 27, 2010 01:53 PM
http://starseeds.net/profiles/blog/show?id=2312030%3ABlogPost%3A203553&xg s=1&xg_source=msg_share_post Because the world You see is just a reflection of Your mind and the collective mind, to change what You see, You MUST CHANGE YOUR MIND. This requires You to use Your power to say no to all that is not in alignment with Your HIGHER SELF, Your GOD Self, Your HEART. You do not have to do as You are told. You are more powerful than You know, but You will not find Your power until You start to exert some Divine Will in Your decision making. If it does not FEEL GOOD, at the level of the Heart and Soul, DO NOT DO IT! This is the beginning. You must understand You have a choice. You must understand that You have the power to experience Your world as You want to see it. You have all been brainwashed into believing that You have no power. YOU HAVE ALL OF THE POWER!
IP: Logged |
SunChild Moderator Posts: 988 From: Melbourne. Victoria. Australia Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted July 27, 2010 07:17 PM
Have to be careful with statements like that though... it has turned many people into delusional and 'fantastic' thinkers. There still exists right observation, right thinking and right examination for all things... but yes it's true what is says about personal power and the ability to be doing things in alignment with your heart and higher self. IP: Logged | |