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Σοφιας Φιλαι/חברי חוכמה
May. 9th, 2007 02:58 pmLately, I've been reading Sex, Ecology, Spirtuality, a massive tome about everything by philosopher Ken Wilber. What I've been reading integrates really well with what I already believe, and it's been clarifying some things about my sense of purpose in life and relationship to the sacred. I've also just attended a major festival of an endearing cult whose liturgy points back to the earliest stirrings of the wisdom tradition in the West. Together, these factors have conspired to produce a wonderful sense of knowing who I am, why I'm here, what I'm supposed to be doing, and with whom I'm supposed to be doing it.
All real wisdom is holy wisdom — there is no sacred topic or group of topics that is distinguished above the others as more worthy of study. This is because every aha! is aha! — the brilliant moment of realizing the Oneness and Goodness of All Things and the brilliant moment of realizing, not only that dxn/dx = nxn-1, but why this is so (or equivalently for any other aspect of any other academic subject) are not two. The love of learning is its own reward and the key to most other rewards (nice package, that). Throughout history, there have been many institutions which have nurtured this love. Some were, and are, cultic in character. Some are more purely exoteric. One might think that, while the exoteric academy can teach the lower wisdom, the higher wisdom is reserved for the esoteric societies. But, then, whence the academy?
That's right — I, too, am a member of an ancient lineage with flowing black robes and funny hats and degrees of initiation and everything! True, I've only actually worn the robe and the funny hat for a little while. Nevertheless, I am a bachelor of arts, and someday I hope to be a PhD — a teacher of the love of wisdom (how much more explicit could that be?). Even now, I'm a teaching assistant, and, as mundane as TAing looks, that means that I'm helping to initiate the next generation into the love of learning. Regardless of the subject (in this case, computer science), when I bring my whole self to that endeavor, as I strive to do, it becomes holy work. And that, my fellow friends of wisdom, is the work that I am here to do.
I suppose this means I should get back to writing that term paper, doesn't it?
All real wisdom is holy wisdom — there is no sacred topic or group of topics that is distinguished above the others as more worthy of study. This is because every aha! is aha! — the brilliant moment of realizing the Oneness and Goodness of All Things and the brilliant moment of realizing, not only that dxn/dx = nxn-1, but why this is so (or equivalently for any other aspect of any other academic subject) are not two. The love of learning is its own reward and the key to most other rewards (nice package, that). Throughout history, there have been many institutions which have nurtured this love. Some were, and are, cultic in character. Some are more purely exoteric. One might think that, while the exoteric academy can teach the lower wisdom, the higher wisdom is reserved for the esoteric societies. But, then, whence the academy?
That's right — I, too, am a member of an ancient lineage with flowing black robes and funny hats and degrees of initiation and everything! True, I've only actually worn the robe and the funny hat for a little while. Nevertheless, I am a bachelor of arts, and someday I hope to be a PhD — a teacher of the love of wisdom (how much more explicit could that be?). Even now, I'm a teaching assistant, and, as mundane as TAing looks, that means that I'm helping to initiate the next generation into the love of learning. Regardless of the subject (in this case, computer science), when I bring my whole self to that endeavor, as I strive to do, it becomes holy work. And that, my fellow friends of wisdom, is the work that I am here to do.
I suppose this means I should get back to writing that term paper, doesn't it?
