Spirituality: Session Eight A
Session Summary - On Emerson's "Oversoul"
Tonight's session began with a clip from the movie Dead Man Walking. The connecting link between this horrific portrayal of the human plight and Emerson's thinking was that despite the character's (Ponselet) vice-full life, glimmers of something more authoritative shine through ("I want the last thing you see to be the face of love.").
Marilyn guided us through the essay, Oversoul, through reading a series of quotations from the essay. She commented that, for her, there is a healing effect when reading this essay. Something curative, balancing begins to happen in the inner part of ourselves. Perhaps the most powerful evidence of the existence of the Oversoul is hope and mystery. She found that she was brought back to her past - a rememberance of words that met her in a deep way. She noted that the imagery of wind and water throughout Emerson's essay was in some way connected to Biblical themes that were familiar to her soul.
Perhaps this is Emerson's very point. The Oversoul is what connects the many threads that run throughout our own individual soul as well as throughout the spirit of various historical periods - both ancient and modern.
It was helpful to view this essay through the lens of
biography and how Emerson's life circumstance helped to
create the philosophy of the Oversoul. The following is
just to list a few significant steppingstones:
- study of naturalism
- love of Ellen/struggle with her death
- religious devotion of mother
- Unitarian background
- Armenien influence - which stressed that all of life is a miracle
- not just the episodic supernatural moments; the miraculous invades all of life.
At this point, Marilyn invited all of us to discuss the various themes and how we were touched by the reading. The rest of this summary hopes to capture some of the thoughts and reflections of the group, although given there was much energy and depth of conversation and many things were covered, what I have written is just that, a summary. The nuances of the evening are recorded in our individual memories.
Paul commented that the ideosyncracies of our personality are intermingled with the spark which is eternal. It is his thought and belief that the specifics of our personality fall away, only to reveal the spark eternal.
Lyle remarked that encountering the divine goes beyond seeing the future in concrete, predictive terms. Emerson always went beyond the concrete which is evidenced in his thoughts about miracles and which could be summed up in the phrase: "This is thou, this is not thou" (not coined by Emerson).
To further the discussion, Paul spoke of the idea that spiritual experience is to fall in love with the universe. When we literalize that experience we are left merely with forms that begin soon to crumble and we ultimately loose sight of the overarching Oversoul.
Cal remembers a recent radio show on gurus, spirituality which takes the individual path and seeks out an individual relationship with the divine is ultimately the harder way. Religion is the easy way out where forms carry the faith for the collective.
In response, Paul asked what happens if we discover that there is nothing within - we need guides to show the journey, however the guru is not the end.
Linda noted that this is not an easy process and sometimes we need the religious forms for a time in our life. To go on the individual path, to think all is within and the external is nothing, can lead to radical egocentrism Paul warns.
Lorna tied the discussion into the themes of the movie, Kandun. She asks the question - "What if the training that the Dalai had was given to all the Tibetans?" - not just reserved for the Dalai.
Marty shared his reservations on disembodied teaching that seems to reoccur in Emerson's writing. Ideas and thoughts and true soul teaching is not just about passing on words but rather it's a transferrance of soul - if we take seriously the core of Oversoul we have to buy into an incarnational approach.
The discussion returned once again to the theme of the falling away of personality/death. Paul once again commented that our particular personality is like a shell which surrounds our soul, this shell eventually falls away when we die. The "I" goes on, but not in the same form.
The Oversoul continually reincarnates itself into many forms - not necessarily our personal distinction lives on but the essence of who we are, who the world is, lives on.
The Body/Soul distinction is a Christian dillema whereas the Oversoul has the two interconnected.
Paul used the imagary of multiple personality in describing God: God or spirit is a conglomeration of many personalities, a gem/jewel with many facets. God is much more than Trinity.
Janice commented "God is also much more and beyond multiplicity. He is much more than we could ever imagine."
Another way of approaching this theme is that when we die, perhaps we expand and become part of the universal gemlike facet-full soul of God.
Lorna brought up the question of what does the philosophy of the Oversoul mean for the Dead. In response to this question, Paul mentioned that they still hold meaning for existence - their essence still lives on.
Cal asked about personality in regards to Jesus and whether the gospel gives us his essence - we may not even what to know the personality of Jesus.
Paul brought in Buddhism and their teaching is that we live on, not for ego reasons but to bring joy and love to the universe or to make up for a previous journey that was unhealthy.
Towards the end of the discussion, we came to the conclusion that throughout life, in a response to our fear of dying, we create metaphors to help us deal with the inevitable crisis and ambiguity of life/death.
Dave shared his radical fear of death and the process of moving to a place of trust where we are ultimatily not in control.
Death doesn't make sense at the best of times and yet death/suffering engender amazing things, bring about hope and a faith that God is a part of "all" and exists in the very ambiguity of life.
Often the thought of death brings us closer to the beauty of materiality, to the ground from which we were born. (The dark and the light must live in sync with each other.)
The ambiguity of good/evil evokes the heart/compassion and creates a context of love. Emerson too was in a place of deep suffering and yet in his life he had the hardest time affirming deep love and affection because he could not face his suffering.
Marilyn brought the discussion to a close by quoting Emerson:
"He will learn that there is no profane history; that all history is sacred; that the universe is represented in an atom, in a moment of time. He will weave no longer a spotted life of shreds and patches, but he will live with a divine unity. He will cease from what is base and frivolous in his life and be content in all places and with any service he can render. He will calmly front the morrow in the negligency of that trust which carries God with it and so hath already the whole future in the bottom of the heart."
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