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Docta Ignorantia XXIX Anthropology The principal deprivation of Western society and especially of the Christian religion, as that has been handed to us through various lines, is correct, complete anthropology. Pauline anthropology, one feels, is accurate, but since the corpus of that Saint's writings is so corrupted, one cannot get a clear, much less a complete, picture from it. The sayings of Jesus, handed to us in no less corrupt a version than those of Paul, hardly yield a complete anthropology either, and one suspects their Author never meant them to. The great Christian and Jewish mystics do not yield a systematic anthropology, sometimes from inability but usually from disinterest, after the manner of their Master -- showing that disinterest in this matter is not necessarily a fault. Old Testament anthropology is buried under worthless scholarship and is not systematic to begin with. Nor is the text pristine with regard to the core of Hebraic religion, namely, the desert monastics, whom we call Prophets. The heterodoxoi, through the ages, produce varying amounts of garbled nonsense. The anthropology promoted by psychiatrists and psychologists is superficial, dangerous and worse. Indian Philosophy in its Adwaithin apotheosis is the desired, that is, correct, complete anthropology. From it springs correct sociology, politics, biology and all other realms of inquiry. But all are based on correct anthropology. That is, correct anthropology is a correct description of the activities of the individual, the community, the nation, the society and the world. Correct anthropology is, and is only, Adwaitha philosophy. The organization of the academic departments sketched in the Quintivium [see The Long Way or The Short Way, by Adwaitha Hermitage, 1993] is based on Indian anthropology, or Indian phenomenology. It is based on the premises of Adwaithin or Non-Dualistic philosophy. A drastic overhaul of the character of parents, teachers, administrators and students is implied. The Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning -- Santa Inez is designed to teach the means of earning Bliss while doing useful labor in the world. Duty to self (Liberation of Consciousness), duty to world (fostering goodness). This is the purpose of the Christian religion, par excellence. The effort to think this and other design projects through has made me realize that, along with spiritual rebirth, we are in need, also, as a society, of design rebirth -- to make beautiful, charming things, once more. Beauty is cognized by every being: rock, water, plant, animal and human. Beauty does not exist in the eye of the beholder. It is Uncaused and is a designation of the Universal Absolute. Beauty manifests Itself as Primal Structure: Ur-Form, the male principle assumed by Truth. It is specific number and ratio, specific harmonic. There is no question of opinion or taste here. Beauty is as absolute, as specific, as undebatable, as universally recognizable and as certain as any sunrise or sunset. Beauty is anantha, timeless, endless. The experience of grandeur is wanted. It is sought by stimulating the senses to the maximum. It is had by depriving the senses of stimulation, by restraining the mind with the intellect, to keep the mind from running out through the senses and reveling in pleasures. Heaven is veiled by hardships. Hell is veiled by pleasures. Man has a ticket to Heaven, but, he boards the plane for Hell! This is a pity! The Pythagorean dictum, All is Number, is a statement of Non-Dualistic philosophy. It is not of the same logical type (Dualism) as the linear number series. All is Number is a simple formula which declares the great Truth: All Life is One.
Adwaitha Hermitage
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