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Holy Madness
| Article
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19557 |
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Section : |
EDITORIAL
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| Issue
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11 / 1991 |
721 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
The November book excerpt from Holy Madness is a fascinating account of the search by spiritual adepts for an enlightenment that involves the sacrifice of the ego. The reviewers are properly skeptical of the claims of these religious adepts and on the mark in pointing to their essential parasitism in practicing a life-style that would be impossible were mankind to follow their path.
I am even more skeptical than the reviewers. Richard Rubenstein recounts the story of the Japanese Zen master Gutei:
It was his habit to raise a single finger in response to any question put to him. When a visitor asked one of Gutei's disciples to explain the master's essential teaching, the disciple held up one finger. When Gutei heard of the encounter, he cut off the disciple's finger. ... The raised finger was [not the essence of the master's teaching but his] way of rejecting dependent relationships that impede enlightenment.
Was the disciple enlightened, or did he learn that masters, but not disciples, are permitted to respond by raising a finger? And if he chose a "different" method of enlightening his followers, would it not necessarily be only a minor variation? Perhaps he would raise an eyebrow? We have only partisan accounts to attest to the enlightenment of either master or disciple.
The American philosopher Josiah Royce once said that mysticism is an irreproachable doctrine as long as it does not enter the court of reason. The moment an explanation is offered, it is subject to all the tests that ordinarily accompany reason, and it fails.
Many things, including the methods of the mystics, may produce enlightenment. I was enlightened by reading Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. My life until then had been dominated by the types of intellectual concerns that were exemplified by Settembrini or Naphta. The vibrantly alive Peeperkorn was a shock to me. I decided I did not want to be like either, that both were truncated excuses for a human life. I had been in a peace movement until I saw a newsreel of Nazi troops parading through Paris. I quickly became enlightened and opted for American involvement.
Enlightenment involves an understanding of the self and its relations, not its renunciation. A far better standard was offered by Hillel two thousand years ago: "If I am not for my self, who will be? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now,
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