I try to find an answer to the most important question of my existence – "What is the point of different events in my life in the view of a physical death?" And I notice that while scrutinizing the different aspects of the problem that are available to me, and keeping in mind my aspiration for a merciless depth of analysis, my thought heavily depends on the form of this narration. This form sometimes imposes its own answers and allows a thought to slip off the "diamond core of intuition" as the most reliable reality of our consciousness.
Maybe this slip is imperfect, but it remains the only available form of connection of thought with the existential mystery of self-consciousness, with our "selves" which are the main condition of existing in the Anderssein.
The unavoidable metaphysical category of "chance" gives rise to uncertainty – a general feature of the universe that occurs everywhere from the deepest spiritual processes to infinite complexity of the world. Uncertainty in the sense of aleteya is the unity of secrecy and disclosure which admits the possibility of an individual self-consciousness being preserved after the physical death of a body.
The probability of the death of mind may metaphysically depend on the quality and degree of uncertainty in processes produced by the mind itself.
The metaphysics of the existentia of mind and time begins with the metaphysics of meanings – which are quite materially based on chains of images produced by our sensory receptors as the stimulation of different areas of neurons. If the stimulation persists, these chains of images become fixed as quite stable connections – primitive meanings that interact, and thus creating the initial level of subconsciousness – feeling, intuition and then thinking which are crowned with a reflection. A thought is born when intuition is interpreted as an objective. Primitive meanings are articulated with out vocal cords gradually becoming oral, and then written speech. While going through these stages, children's minds are developing to be able to conduct complicated mental processes that could not be comprehended by an adult's mind.
The effectiveness of art is probably explained by the way it addresses the oldest level of mind – image thinking, which serves as the necessary deep background for modern artwork's content.
Our "selves" appear as a result of intuitive and emotional, intellectual and spiritual life shaping the personal self-consciousness of a human being – his or her existentia. Every personal self-consciousness may be considered as an individual form of the Anderssein in existential time.
The operation of the mind leaves indelible traces in the Universal. We perceive the objectified Universal together with all its attributes through the prism of our existentia which influences events in both microcosm and cosmos.
It abolishes all impenetrable borders between the inner and the exterior, the existential and the objectified, the sensory and the transcendental. A prominent creative mind, that can never be anything other than creative, has a significant impact on events in the Universal perceived in this way. Products of the mind – images – are combinations of the energy of sense and state of mind (these discoveries are lying ahead) that can consolidate into a "quantum" of self-conscious substance, which inherits the personal consciousness of a human being, in some circumstances. The end of physical life may be one of the "triggers" of this consolidation. Assuming that there is no absolute non-substantivity, then we can think of a "quantum" of self-conscious substance as "indecomposable whole" (Aristotle) of a certain level of non-substantivity and metaphysics.
The main problem of the nature of such a "quantum" of self-conscious substance cannot be solved by means of modern science, and such complicated processes of the mind have not found adequate forms of language to describe themselves. But a human is given a divine ability to see into the objective picture of the world with the help of the mind's eye and thus experience existential revelations from the consciousness that often become scientific facts.
The question of the existence of the Absolute Anderssein, with some standard set of truths and revelations, cannot be raised properly within the frames of the existential "self". It is a matter of faith that is nourished by the magnificent, rich and powerful sound of the harmonious Logos of the United Universe which is perceived by every form of the Anderssein through its own prism, just as we – temporary participants of "the Earth's Anderssein" – perceive it while we are reading this text.
The existence of the "quantum" of self-conscious substance (or soul, in the terms of Christianity) in the Anderssein predetermines its moral and ontological transformation, an area of communication and Goal, the pursuit of which can be compared to the Eros of mortal life when it comes to the intensity of its experience in the Anderssein.
The objectified cosmos ceases to be morally indifferent as soon as human mind appears.
The absolute completeness of any form of existence, that could never be achieved ontologically, demands the presence of mystery in this form, as a space for spiritual life. Faith determines the nature of the creative spirit.
November 22–30, 2016
About Sacrifice
We train our ability to sacrifice when we run our daily errands, the fact we have to do them is an essential condition of spiritual life and life itself.
A sacrifice cannot be spiritual, it is always material. The etymology of the word indicates this meaning. One cannot sacrifice one's spiritual state, although one can lose it. Sometimes we sacrifice our spiritual life in a certain sense, but if it is a sacrifice, not a fall, and a decision is not based on the choice of a more effective way (which is not a sacrifice), but rather on ethical reasons, then it will reveal new depths of a more meaningful spiritual life in ourselves.
Sacrifice can only be voluntary. One always sacrifices some part of his or her existence or, in extreme cases, the whole life, which is understood as a value.
Therefore sacrifice is always related to an inner fight, to overcoming of own imperfection, suffering and spiritual growth. One sacrifices less valuable things for more valuable ones. Sacrifice of life means a prophetic feeling of finding values that are higher than ever before. The experience of sacrifice made by other and for others may be purifying. Thus Calvary acquires a redemptive sense. Sacrifice is something you make for the sake of others. Another interpretation of sacrifice is the legacy of pagan psychology.
Sacrifice becomes most tense on the highest level of manifestation of spiritual life – self-sacrificing love, when self-denial brings a human being closer to the Divine principle.
Events resemble an hourglass. Their inevitable sequence counts down the time of physical and physiological actions, which is also the time of our spiritual achievements. The best part of our "selves" manifests itself when we transform physiological existence into intellectual need for sacrifice in the name of art.
The deed may be not be an assertion of spiritual growth but rather its consequence. Here a sacrifice is no longer a sacrifice while an action is a natural expression of the state of spirit that has been already found.
July 11, 1982–October 2, 2015
Thus the nature of art – which is entirely based on sacrifice as a form of communion with experience of the beautiful and goes back to intuition of existence after death – the final goal of any sacrifice – becomes clear.
The tragedy of individual consciousness lies in incompleteness and the temporary nature of its involvement in creative act, inability to fully enjoy the moment because it always means something happening afterwards and includes the anticipation of something. But this something usually occurs without the participation of an individual perceived as just an artist taking part in the ongoing Eternal Creation.
We act as if the quality and inevitability of getting a different life depends on how soon we make our communion with it in a form of emotional self-identification with the choice of one or another spiritual reality, while forms of this communion with "eternal life" carry within them the sacrament of our Eucharist.
The real form of communion is always a sacrifice. Even the rejection of hope for existence after life and the acceptance of inevitability of personal death are sacrifices of resignation and, consequently, forms of communion based on the inclination to reach perfection.
"…Inclination to reach perfect existence
takes shape of religious feelings"
Aristotle
The unavoidable presence of uncertainty, of chance in human behaviour, makes it impossible to lead a way of life that is fully moral and thus achieve perfection.
The perfection of an idea is opposed by the incompleteness of a creative act. The communion is opposed by the incompleteness of dedication. Transfiguration is opposed by the incompleteness of the Eucharist.
Life is a constant initiation, an uninterrupted creative act aimed at preserving the individual self-consciousness in the Anderssein, lying in the understanding of the meaning of life.
What are the spiritual revelations, findings that have been lived through in short moments of life, and which make up the best part of our "selves"?
What does the future hold for them? What is worth preserving, what is able to preserve itself? And for what purpose?
Is it the meaning of an individual who seeks self-knowledge and self-realization?
Is there a religious meaning and help from Heaven when it comes to experiencing revelations that form the metaphysical Anderssein of the spiritual experience of an individual and mould his or her soul as an indecomposable whole?
September, 1997–October, 2016
P.S. My fears about the fact that the form of narration has an excessive influence on its content were not groundless: the text is, by and large, of hypothetical nature that inevitably implies "skimming over the surface of the subject", and it becomes more specific in thoughts about art and life.
Valery Yevdokimov
October, 2016
* Anderssein – the second stage of triadic development, as defined by Hegel (- Ed) |
