Spiritual Formation: Part 2

The title link will take you to Part 1

Symptoms: Observations

It takes little observation to come to the conclusion that the World is in chaos. War, extinction, pollution, genocide, hunger, disease, drought, hurricanes and typhoons, the list could continue...

It also takes little observation to come to the conclusion that this state of existence has a root cause, namely homo sapiens sapiens (for those of you who don't speak Latin, that means you and me!). War, pollution, hunger, and disease are easily traced back to human activity or inactivity; more recently we are hearing that human beings are also major causes in factors that create drought, famine, and even storms on the far side of the plant.

It takes even less observation to see that humanity is in chaos. Murder, rape, torture, theft, dishonesty; alienation, loneliness, depression, anxiety, suicide, emptiness; abandoned children, betrayed spouses, addicted bodies; in the words of an old-dead-guy, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

The conclusion, simply, is this:

The world is broken because humanity is broken.

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So what is the problem with humanity?

At this point there is obviously some diversity of opinion. However there is also remarkable continuity amongst thinkers from many diverse contexts...

A cross-section of thinkers, observers, ethicists, educators, theologians and spiritualists from all cultures and times (as best as I can understand them), line up to support this conclusion:

The problem with humanity lies in the human will.

Granted, not everyone would use this terminology, however, if we continue to use the term will as we have been (synonymous with heart, and spirit; the seat of human desire and choice), I believe that this statement is consistent with the understanding of Classical Greek thought, Buddhist thought, the Monotheistic tradition, and even some of what might fall under the rubric of "eastern philosophy." *

Arguably the dominant paradigm in our own culture (what we might here call Modern Western Secularism), it should be noted, seems to move away from this conclusion**

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The problem lies in the human will.

The Ancient Greeks concerned themselves with implanting virtue (the capacity to will and to act for good) in the heart of men. Muslims, Christians and Jews speak of repentance, obedience, and submission; subjecting our will to that of God. Buddhists speak of desire as the source of suffering, and so work to eradicate the yearning will within a human being.

The capacity for choice, the ability to create, the drive for purpose, that comes from the heart of a human being is also the source of human evil. We find ourselves in a state where our will or spirit does not rule the self, but is rather subject to it; emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations telling us what to choose, as opposed to our capacity for choice and purpose re-aligning our thoughts and emotions around the will.

The emotional and intellectual states of a six month old with the body of Lou Ferrigno would be an appropriate mental picture to associate with such a state (helped of course by Mr. Ferrigno's portrayal of a man who's capacity for choice was completely overrun by his emotional states).

Our will (the center of creative power, choice, and purpose) flails around at odd times and places, in total disjunction to any real sustained agenda. We choose to honor our commitments and then to break them, act selflessly toward a stranger and then stab a friend in the back, depending on which set of emotional attachments are screaming loudest in our mind at the time the decision presents itself...

There is something drastically wrong in the heart of man.

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The conclusion, simply, is this:

The world is broken because humanity is broken and...

...humans are broken because our spirit is broken.

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...more to come.


*I am fully aware that there has also existed throughout cultures and times the gnostic view that the essential problem with the world is that we lack the proper knowledge (gnosis). This seems tied either to the pantheistic view that Good and Evil (and hence moral action, including choice) are actually an illusion, or the dualism that calls the world Evil and and escape from it Good. How these ways of seeing speak of human choice (the will) I don't really know. But they seem (to my best way of understanding) to either deny the existence of the will, or to marginalize it's role in the problem of human nature.

**Interestingly enough Modern Western Secularism seems not so much to ignore the will, but rather to view the fundamental problem with humanity is the frustration of the human will for any reason. The real problem is that the Universe doesn't acquiesce to our demands; we don't get what we want and when we want it! The solution then becomes a special kind of gnosis that allows us to better manipulate our bodies, or the physical world around us, to produce the desired results.