It seems this nation, and the entire world for that matter, are in a state of crisis, doom and gloom appear to be everywhere we look, and some religious fundamentalists are delighted at the prospect of what they interpret as signs of the end of times ... so much confusion, and a dangerous time when humanity's hope for a better day could lead to new and even more hysterical belief systems and faith-based delusions, and more fanatic conflicts as fear spreads.

Beauty and ugliness are but two human perceptions and interpretations of a universal energy that is neither good nor evil but infinitely greater than the sum of these thoughts.

A simplistic approach to the question of the divine nature states that all that was created was originally perfectly good, but as humanity misbehaved it needed to be punished, "banished from paradise," and all suffering and even diseases and death are the outcome of this punishment.

According to Christian doctrines "salvation" would come through the repudiation of all that is bad or "evil" ("sins") and a complete surrender to what is good as strictly defined by this dualistic religion.

Furthermore, according to Carl Jung, the Anima (the feminine aspect of the human psyche) represents the "primitive" layer of man's psychology, a "heretic" in more or less open revolt against the dualistic Christian point of view. Jung defined the Anima as a "negative entity" representing the "inferior Eros in man."

Not only were "heaven" and "hell," or the spirit and the flesh, conceptually separated by patriarchal cultural beliefs, so were the male and female principles, which facilitated the oppression of women,

who were sensed to be "instinctive dialecticians" intent upon undermining the "progressively developing dualistic principles of rational thought" upon which western civilization and to a lesser extent other patriarchal societies were able to build their destructive and coercive, authoritarian

dominant power.

This dualistic ideology, which still pervades our thoughts, guides our world and causes much chaos and unnecessary suffering, is about as realistic and accurate as to view the above-ground part of a tree, its beautiful leaves and fragrant fruits and flowers blossoming in the clean air and sparkling sunlight, as good and existing in accordance with divine laws, and its roots, that spread blindly in the dark and "dirty" soil "infested" with worms, lowly insects and "ugly and repulsive" creatures of the "underworld" as evil, the outcome of a transgression against the divine and the creation of a "devil."

Could a plant exist without its roots? Could the day exist without the night? Could pleasure be known without pain? Could life be appreciated without the knowledge of certain death? And could love be as intense as it can be without experiencing loss?

The redemption of the human heart is not dependent upon a person following a particular religion's precepts and dogma, but when all joy and all sadness, all pleasure and all pain, all fear and creativity are embraced as boldly as if they were the ebb and flow of the same tide of consciousness expanding in

the act of life itself, because they are.

It is when life is lived halfway, when the timid heart retreats into numbness, detachment or rationalization, and pleasure is sought and held against all reason, and pain is avoided as if it was the devil itself, that "heaven" and "hell" become as true enemies in our psyches, our inner clarity is lost in this internal mayhem, and confusion and struggle become our very identity.

 

Peace returns to the person who makes the two as one: the above and the below, the inner and the outer, life and death, good and evil, "heaven" and "hell,” because they are one and can only be experienced as being separate in the dualistic conceptual creations of the human mind.

However they cannot be understood to be one, that is to say inseparable and complementary, in intellectual detachment: they can only be re-integrated successfully in the heart that is completely open, and when in the full intensity of all of its experiences of ecstasy and despair it grows to manifest the true invincibility and wholeness that are part of the essence of the eternal soul.

Out of decay springs new life, a life that can neither be born nor sustained in a sterile environment. Worlds, nations, people and all of the elements of nature experience internal decay ... from death itself arises a richer and more powerful life.

Raphael Montoliu lives in Lakeport.

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