i don't really think the "masses aren't ready yet" arguments hold water. from plato to lenin, the idea of an intellectual elite governing affairs in the interests of all is, in practice, fraught.
i think jesus was talking about stuff we all can grasp and know directly - it is the mediator (the church etc) that obfuscates. we are all on the same trip and are of the same consciousness - the evolution of one evolves all others and vice versa. what is there to know anyway? do i need to know how the rollercoaster works to enjoy the ride? --- On Wed, 23/9/09, John Carl <[email protected]> wrote: From: John Carl <[email protected]> Subject: [MD] Rationality for the Few; Magic for the Many To: [email protected] Received: Wednesday, 23 September, 2009, 10:38 AM I struggled to understand the relationship between the rational philosophy of Buddhism and the more widespread religious superstitions. Religion in SE Asia has its same tensions between its poetic and rational dimensions that one finds in Western monotheisms. I kept thinking of Dostoyevsky's famous "Grand Inquisitor" scene in which Christ comes back to the modern world and is arrested by the Church. Dostoyevsky, a devout Orthodox Christian, unfolds a story in which the Church captures Christ and the chief inquisitor asks him to go away because the challenge of righteousness is way too difficult for human nature to accomplish. The Inquisitor explains to Christ that "the Church" is much better than Jesus at giving humans what they want and what they need: "miracle, mystery and authority" What's great about this little chapter of the Brother's Karamozov, is that you can't just oversimplify with some "Christ good, Inquisitor bad" interpretation. When the Inquisitor is finished with his rant, he really seems like a person who loves humanity more than Christ does, because he (the Church) can give average people the comfort and ease that their daily suffering requires. ... The cost is, that people have to hand over their freedom and responsibility to the authority of the church, but according to the Inquisitor (and the psychologist Erich Fromm, for that matter) most people will gladly lay down the "burden" of moral responsibility if they could just have a holy man or some other authority tell them what to do. This points out the fact that for every big idea, there're always two versions: a pop version for the masses and gnostic version for the cognoscenti. In ancient Greece, the teat for the western mind, they used to say, "Rationality for the few, magic for the many." A similar tension exists here in Theravada Buddhism throughout Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Sri Lanka. Stephen Asma, Gods Drink Whiskey. ----- Rationality for the few - Lila Magic for the Many - ZAMM John Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ __________________________________________________________________________________ Get more done like never before with Yahoo!7 Mail. Learn more: http://au.overview.mail.yahoo.com/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
