Hello, friends. For the convenience of being able to abbreviate some words I'm going to use "p" for paragraph, "s" for sentence in concord with Mr. Elwes enumerations For example, we are now on to p4s1, beginning with "By sensual pleasure…" Before tackling these next paragraphs, I will borrow directly from Gurdjieff's suggestions on how the read the material at hand. We must, as dgf suggests, get beyond merely reasoning about what Spinoza "means," which generally boils down to a sensation that we have reached a standard of comprehension with which the mind is satisfied. Or perhaps we must give up. It's okay to say "I don't understand." To say "I don't understand" is a simple, adequate idea. The writings will serve us best if we use them as guides to self-observation. Can we see ourselves in what is written? More about this later. There are paradoxes we must rise above. For example, one of Spinoza's chief aims in TEI is to get us to recognize that we need to be consciously conscious of a standard by which to assess the adequacy of any idea. Offhand, I might say that it is like having a photograph of your own face, then being able to pick yourself out of a line-up. What you need is already within you, but it needs to have everything else removed from it such that it may be discerned clearly.
As an aid or method of actually just reading and studying the words of the treatise so as to realize the ideas, Gurdjieff wrote at the beginning of his masterpiece, "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson:
==========
"I find it necessary on the first page of this book, quite ready for publication, to give the following advice:
“Read each of my written expositions thrice:
Firstly—at least as you have already become mechanized to read all your contemporary books and newspapers.
Secondly—as if you were reading aloud to another person.
And only thirdly—try and fathom the gist of my writings.”
Only then will you be able to count upon forming your own impartial judgment, proper to yourself alone, on my writings. And only then can my hope be actualized that according to your understanding you will obtain the specific benefit for yourself which I anticipate, and which I wish for you with all my being."
==========
What particular sorts of sensual pleasure is S. citing in p4s1 below?
==========
[4] (1) By sensual pleasure the mind is enthralled to the extent
of quiescence, as if the supreme good were actually attained, so
that it is quite incapable of thinking of any other object; when
such pleasure has been gratified it is followed by extreme
melancholy, whereby the mind, though not enthralled, is disturbed
and dulled. (2) The pursuit of honors and riches is likewise very
absorbing, especially if such objects be sought simply for their
own sake, [a] inasmuch as they are then supposed to constitute the
highest good.
==========
Sentence one (s1) puts me in mind of good sex, except I don't relate to the subsequent melancholy. Hmmm…. getting sufficiently drunk, so as to suffer a nasty hangover? I begin to wonder then whether Spinoza may have imbibed a fair of amount of drink himself at some point. It doesn't sound like he is speaking abstractly to me. He earned the soubriquet, "The God-intoxicated man," but perhaps in his youth he experimented with less exalted forms of intoxication.
Did he say somewhere,"Nothing human is alien to me..?" Well, no matter, perhaps I digress in speculations, but just here I wish to point out that in Ethics, we find specific mention of drunkenness. I think that being "stoned" on other substances would equate to drunkenness for Spinoza. Please feel free to offer your comments. Here are a few citations from Spinoza's Ethics.
==========
"Among the kinds of emotions, which, by the last
proposition, must be very numerous, the chief are luxury,
drunkenness, lust, avarice, and ambition, being merely species of
love or desire..."
" For temperance, sobriety, and chastity, which we are wont to oppose
to luxury, drunkenness, and lust, are not emotions or passive
states, but indicate a power of the mind which moderates the
last-named emotions."
"Thus temperance, sobriety, and presence of mind
in danger, &c., are varieties of courage ; courtesy, mercy, &c.,
are varieties of highmindedness."
"Lastly, it follows from the foregoing
proposition, that there is no small difference between the joy
which actuates, say, a drunkard, and the joy possessed by a
philosopher, as I just mention here by the way.
[5] (1) In the case of fame the mind is still more absorbed, for fame
is conceived as always good for its own sake, and as the ultimate end
to which all actions are directed. (2) Further, the attainment of
riches and fame is not followed as in the case of sensual pleasures by
repentance, but, the more we acquire, the greater is our delight, and,
consequently, the more are we incited to increase both the one and the
other; on the other hand, if our hopes happen to be frustrated we are
plunged into the deepest sadness. (3) Fame has the further drawback
that it compels its votaries to order their lives according to the
opinions of their fellow-men, shunning what they usually shun, and
seeking what they usually seek.
==========
What did S. know of riches and fame? I think he learned a good deal
about these in young adulthood, when he was still ensconced within
the community in which he was born and raised, etc. I'm no authority
on his bio, and understand that a mind absorbed in understanding
Reality has no personal history per se, that is, it is not drawing on
experience or remembering anything in the sense Spinoza uses the
term, but I thought that S., in his late teens and early 20's was
headed toward "success" in business and as a "rabbi" or highly esteemed leader in his Temple community. And he certainly was able
to observe examples of the foibles in cosmopolitan Amsterdam.
==========
[6] (1) When I saw that all these ordinary objects of desire would
be obstacles in the way of a search for something different and new -
nay, that they were so opposed thereto, that either they or it would
have to be abandoned, I was forced to inquire which would prove the
most useful to me: for, as I say, I seemed to be willingly losing
hold on a sure good for the sake of something uncertain. (6:2) However,
after I had reflected on the matter, I came in the first place to the
conclusion that by abandoning the ordinary objects of pursuit, and
betaking myself to a new quest, I should be leaving a good, uncertain
by reason of its own nature, as may be gathered from what has been
said, for the sake of a good not uncertain in its nature (for I sought
for a fixed good), but only in the possibility of its attainment.
==========
Spinoza here speaks in the first person again about his own process.
He is not didactic in tone, rather he is sharing his experience. I think
this "prelude" part of the Improvement is unique among all of Spinoza's
writing for its autobiographical, down to earth and direct explanation to
readers about his personal pilgrimage out of society as he knew it and
into the metaphysical philosophy that he was too pronounce "the true
philosophy. However, for me, like the man Spinoza claimed to embody
the idea of God, Jesus of Nazareth, we find that his "yoke is gentle."
In other words, I find Spinoza's simple descriptions of his process contain
little of condescension or a berating of the reader that one finds in some
philosophers and many theologians. These paragraphs we are examining
bring to mind a passage of the Gospel According to Matthew. However,
we will find that Spinoza is not so committed to the notions that immediate
and complete renunciation of the worldly is a prerequisite. More to come
on that issue.
*****
Matt. 19:21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven: and come and follow me.
Matt. 19:22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away
sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
Matt. 19:23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto
you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Matt. 19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God.
Matt. 19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly
amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
Matt. 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, "With men this
is impossible; but with God all things are possible."
*****
"The warrior's way offers a man a new life and that life has to be
completely new. He can't bring to that new life his ugly old ways."
-Don Juan Matus
No comments:
Post a Comment