Riddle:
What's better than God
And worse than the Devil?
The Dead eat it
But, if you eat it,
You would surely die.
Guiding Question: Is the Holy Grail empty?
We began the course by discussing beginnings, and
we will end it with a discussion of Death. Certainly every human
being has wondered what lies beyond the portal we call "Death." Our
earliest remaining human artifacts have been found in graves which seem
ritually prepared to help the departed in another world. With the
advance of civilization, these small artifacts will culminate in great
Pyramids and Cathedrals, as well as tombs which honor and revere the departed
in both artifact and ritual. The question of what lies beyond the
life experience even defines many traditional conceptions of faith. One’s
faith is judged by the amount of confidence one has that one will continue
to live on.
The state of our consciousness and personality which
may survive Death range in interpretations throughout the world's great
religions. Particularly of Hinduism, it is implied that we will go
to that place where the karma of our lives have best suited
us. If we were good, we will go where we choose. If we have
lead a life against the life principle itself, our souls may go to a hellish
planet or we will be reborn as a lower life form in order to review some
lessons before earning the privilege of being a human once again.
Such attitudes toward Death also tend to define the paradigms of various
cultural values, from the eternal hunting grounds of some Native American
religions to the Valhalla of eternal war and renewal in the religions of
the ancient Vikings. Our more positive options in the next world
range from becoming higher angelic beings in paradise (such as the Christian
Heaven) and there sharing in the presence of God, to becoming a part of
the deity itself, while retaining some sense of our own personality (as
in some conceptions in Hinduism), to losing our personalities in the ultimate
Godhead (as in the Hindu Nirvana).
There is too the Buddhist notion concerning an ascension
to what could theoretically be the source of all Being itself; and which
ironically, to the Western ear, is Nothing. Yet, this Nothing is
not negative. As in the Tao, it is the source of all that is, just
as all that has form and substance in the appearance of the world, merely
stands out from the greater venue of space which surrounds it.
What may be most difficult in our Quest, even as
a concept, is the idea of an all-encompassing Nothingness as emptiness.
Could this clairvoyant, pure absence untainted by matter, form or substance,
be what Galahad saw when he looked inside and saw directly the mysteries
of the Holy Grail?
Is such a realization of pure emptiness pleasure
or horror? Is our highest state of consciousness (as some Oriental
religions and philosophies might have it) merely realization and final
acceptance of what we may fear the most? And is this merely the sum
reflection of ourselves? Is this nothingness, as in the Tao, merely
what we pour into it, but is never exhausted, always empty, and therefore
pure, offering us back only our own reflection? If so, what qualities
must a person have within themselves to revere such Nothingness as one's
“Thou?” The word "Nothing" in English means "No Thing," thus
not an It. It is thus pure subjectivity. Would those
qualities be admired by our family, friends and co-workers?
The required readings will explore ideas concerning
Nothing from different cultural perspectives, drawing on various different
human faculties in the process. Reason as discursive thought
will be employed, just as understanding is utilized as intuition of concepts,
judgments and principles. Revelation as a realization communicated by Divine
Will also comes into play. The selection from Sartre’s Being
and Nothingness will explore these approaches to Nothingness in far
more detail, using terminology which has been developed in the field of
philosophy over centuries of European history. Though one may detect
a sense of reverence in Sarte for Nothingness, this sense of reverence
is even more apparent in some religious texts. In both the Hindu
and Buddhist traditions, non-Being is juxtaposed against an array of deities
whose personalities may be seen as representing philosophical concepts.
In a certain sense, for Chan Buddhism in China, which is later mispronounced
as "Zen" in Japan, “Nothing IS better than God.” Even God, as entity,
bows to the void, and thus the realization of no-thing-ness manifests our
highest state of consciousness. True Nirvana is a profound emptiness.
Thus it is suggested that to grasp our own subjectivity in time, even as
this incorporates our consciousness of the fact of Death, may be the most
vital aspect, the final goal, of being alive; and what is most vital about
being alive has always been what has guided our Quest.
Required Reading: "Week 12" in the Study Guide; The Quest of the Holy Grail, pp. 269-284; Jean-Paul Sartre: Being and Nothingness (1956), Part One: Chapter One: Section V "The Origin of Nothingness"; D. T. Suzuki: Manual of Zen Buddhism (texts from 406 CE - 1768 CE); Mandukya Upanishad and Karika Upanishad (600 BC).
Homework: We will continue our conferences our the next two weeks and the Instructor will be available for advisement during that time while you are completing you final papers.
(Note: Sections of the description of "nothingness" in the Study Guide for Week 12 are paraphrases or excerpts from a manuscript by Laurence L. Murphy and Dominick A. Iorio, both of whom are amongst the Authors of the general MAPS Curriculum. The general section is by Robert H. Price, also amongst the Authors of the general MAPS Curriculum.)