English: This hand-colored print shows a man aging every decade from infancy to 100 years-old. Verses at the bottom accompany the drawings at each stage of life. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Retirement (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Coaching for Elders in transition and for Care Givers
We don’t know how long we will live, but the capacity for change is a vital resilience skill. As we age, new opportunities open for us and new challenges may confront us. The continuance of your life’s contribution should not end with career retirement, personal mobility issues, or the achievement of a specific age. In this specific time of your life’s journey, let us help you or someone you love, honor themselves, celebrate their depth of wisdom, and continue to reach the full dimension of the gifts yet to be given.
Coaching can assist you with your next life choices to “strategically age”, reconnecting core values that truly are your guiding principles, while discarding those that make you non-congruent with your internal gifts. Strategic aging is conscious living, the transition to living in synchronization with your core beliefs and the choices you have yet to make. Our coaching will help you end the cycle of ‘I should have’ or ‘why don’t I’? Together, we will address these areas, creating your ‘strategic aging’ life:
Clarify the issues & opportunities facing you now
Define a true description of your final outcome & the time period for fulfillment
Identify competent resources you may need for complete fulfillment
Honor those values that are still guiding principles and shed those that do not serve you
Acknowledge your flexibility along the road to your final achievement
With our assistance in your transition, you can design your ‘strategic age life’ without guilt.
What’s Next? Continuing Life’s Journey…
All of us have progressed on our journey, having families, pursuing academic or professional success, becoming political advocates, assuming social responsibility; and, assuring environmental safety for future generations. Along this journey your outlook may have shifted or radically changes from those you held in family conventions or acquired by association. So what’s next?
The continuance of your life’s contribution should not end with career or military retirement, end of child rearing, personal mobility issues, or the achievement of a specific age. We invite you to realize your ‘what’s next’ with us.
How will this resolution (promise) bring meaningful change to my life?
Are there external resources you will need to help achieve this objective?
If others are involved, what competency or skills do they need to help you?
Is the time frame you’ve established truly reasonable for your lifestyle?
What are your fallback plans in the event your pursuit does not proceed exactly as planned?
If this resolution is a larger community movement, are you certain you have the staying power for efforts this significant?
Services & Benefits – Transforming Dreams into Achievements
… Coaching provides services for the entire aging process, arriving to mid-life, returning to the job market, defining second careers, assisting Elders in transition, coaching family members, and residence staff to be loving Care Givers. The benefits of coaching transform dreams of any life chapter into real achievements you can be proud to live with. Many people have used our coaching to explore and achieve results in the following areas:
Too Young to Retire-Defining the Next Chapter of your Life
Exploring Your Next Career Choice
Endorsing the Third Age & Sage-ism
Contributing in Civic Engagement-The Sage Mentor
Assisting the Care Giver-What do I do now?
Residence Staff-Tapping Core Values for Resident Satisfaction & Care
Gracious transition to Independent Communities
Renewing Elder Contribution in Assisted Living
“The greatest good we can do for others is not to share our riches, but to reveal theirs.” – Gil Atkinson
Home Living Transitions – Continue the Celebration of Your Life
Each of us has created our homes with loving care. This home represents the unique identity of our life’s achievements, community contributions; and, can contain smiling photos of our family’s legacy. The transition to independent or assisted living communities can be overwhelming. We understand the process of activities involved can cause confusion and fear: what to take, what to leave, what to give to relatives, do you keep your own doctors, what activities will you continue or delete, how will you make new friends; along with, creating the identity of your unique life’s contributions. We believe that the transition from a home of 50 or more years should be a continuing celebration of your life. …develope a transition program assisting the Elder and their family in taking the appropriate steps to create and celebrate a new home.
The Care Giver Family—-Are you asking?
Are you practicing loving behavior to yourself as well as your Elder?
Does your weekly schedule include private time to reconnect to the ‘cosmos’ strengthening your spiritual harmony?
In your domain of responsibility, who is going to be responsible for your well being?
Enlightenment is a word more and more frequently used in our society.
For many of us who ‘contemplate it’, we assume that it is an endpoint. In fact, it is a doorway. Through the doorway of enlightenment we access realms of experience – and of consciousness – that we can barely dream of now. Enlightenment is the beginning of our rediscovering – who we truly are.
For a brief instant, step into the energy field of enlightenment – of just being – of ‘is’.
Memories may flash in you, like snapshots on a movie screen. You may feel sensations in your body or hear inner voices. Notice how your body responds. What do you feel inside of you? What is the expression on your face? How do you feel inside your heart? What do you notice about your breathing? Be as alert as you can possibly be for these few moments.
Familiarize yourself with the energy field of enlightenment so that you can recognize it as an observer in future. As you master this, you will be able to access it again at Will, whenever you choose.
As soon as you have a sense of the energy field of enlightenment, turn around, 180 degrees, and face into infinity. What do you notice, now?
After a few moments … whenever you feel ready to … gently step out of the energy field of enlightenment – even though it feels like your entire being is being fed Love and Light and exquisite beauty. Become an observer simply watching it – from the outside. This returns you to a place of choice.
Enjoy your experience … the afterglow … the ‘prior glow’ … of ‘Being / Is / Enlightenment’!
• light: electromagnetic radiation, esp. from the sun, that enables one to see objects.
• light: not heavy, full, intense, or forceful.
• light: to set down after motion; land after flight.
English: Walentin Alexandrowitsch Serow “Portret of Helena Roerich”. 1909 Русский: Валентин Александрович Серов “Портрет Е. И. Рерих”. 1909 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
…Light is matter plus motion. (Letters of Helena Roerich, Volume I, p 306)
….. the second sign of the Triune name, to the Primary Cause-Light.
People have so confused the concept of Light with lighting that they cannot imagine Light as energy. Let us not look into that Infinity where thought and Light and all that exists merge into unity, but according to the earthly understanding let us apprehend Light as a salutary energy, without which life is impossible. Light is the most pervasive messenger of salvation. One can distinctly comprehend a difference between utilitarian fire and cosmic Light. Not fire, but radiance surrounds each living being. The benevolent thinker is surrounded by a rainbow, and through his light brings healing. So many times We have foretold the future of these radiations. We have said that with such a criterion the very structure of life will be transformed. One may rightly call Light the principle which leads to regeneration. Thought and Light are so closely linked that thought may be called luminiferous. (AUM, 143)
English: The figure shows the comparative wavelengths of three frequencies of visible light – Red, Green and Blue. The wavelengths used are 750, 550 and 450 nm respectively. I generated the figure myself, originally with Microsoft Excel and finally with some manual tidying of the SVG. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Darkness is finite, but Light is manifested Infinitely. Each one who knows this simplest of truths is already invincible. (AUM, 162)
Light reveals the darkness and then disperses it. The bearer of light also sees the dark shadows, which vanish at the approach of light. (Brotherhood, 580)
The best connections with the light are obtained in the morning. Therefore, do not shut out the morning light. Work in the light, make decisions in the light, pass judgments in the light, grieve in the light, rejoice in the light. Nothing is to be compared with the light wave. Even the best electricity, even the bluest, yields eight thousand times less light than a ray of the sun. (Leaves of Morya’s Garden II, p 241) – http://www.agniyoga.org
In Christianity, the word “enlightenment” is rarely used, except to refer to the Age of Enlightenment and its influence on Christianity. Equivalent terms may be revelation, metanoia and conversion.
Western understanding
In the Western world the concept of enlightenment in a religious context acquired a romantic meaning. It has become synonymous with self-realization and the true self, which is being regarded as a substantial essence which is covered over by social conditioning.
The use of the Western word enlightenment is based on the supposed resemblance of bodhi with Aufklärung, the independent use of reason to gain insight into the true nature of our world. As a matter of fact there are more resemblances with Romanticism than with the Enlightenment: the emphasis on feeling, on intuitive insight, on a true essence beyond the world of appearances.[2]
Awakening: Historical period of renewed interest in religion
The equivalent term “awakening” has also been used in a Christian context, namely the Great Awakenings, several periods of religious revival in American religious history. Historians and theologians identify three or four waves of increased religious enthusiasm occurring between the early 18th century and the late 19th century. Each of these “Great Awakenings” was characterized by widespread revivals led by evangelical Protestant ministers, a sharp increase of interest in religion, a profound sense of conviction and redemption on the part of those affected, an increase in evangelical church membership, and the formation of new religious movements and denominations.
This romantic idea of enlightenment as insight into a timeless, transcendent reality has been popularized especially by D.T. Suzuki.] Further popularization was due to the writings of Heinrich Dumoulin Dumoulin viewed metaphysics as the expression of a transcendent truth, which according to him was expressed by Mahayana Buddhism, but not by the pragmatic analysis of the oldest Buddhism, which emphasizes anatta.[5] This romantic vision is also recognizable in the works of Ken Wilber.[6]
In the oldest Buddhism this essentialism is not recognizable.[7][web 5] According to critics it doesn’t really contribute to a real insight into Buddhism:[web 6]
…most of them labour under the old cliché that the goal of Buddhist psychological analysis is to reveal the hidden mysteries in the human mind and thereby facilitate the development of a transcendental state of consciousness beyond the reach of linguistic expression.[8]
Enlightenment and experience
A common reference in Western culture is the notion of “enlightenment experience“. This notion can be traced back to William James, who used the term “religious experience” in his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience.[9]Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of “religious experience” further back to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of “religious experience” was used by Schleiermacher to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular citique.
It was popularised by the Transcendentalists, and exported to Asia via missionaries.[10] Transcendentalism developed as a reaction against 18th Century rationalism, John Locke‘s philosophy of Sensualism, and the predestinationism of New England Calvinism. It is fundamentally a variety of diverse sources such as Hindu texts like the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, various religions, and German idealism.
It was adopted by many scholars of religion, of which William James was the most influential.
The notion of “experience” has been criticised. Robert Sharf points out that “experience” is a typical Western term, which has found its way into Asian religiosity via western influences. The notion of “experience” introduces a false notion of duality between “experiencer” and “experienced”, whereas the essence of kensho is the realisation of the “non-duality” of observer and observed. “Pure experience” does not exist; all experience is mediated by intellectual and cognitive activity. The specific teachings and practices of a specific tradition may even determine what “experience” someone has, which means that this “experience” is not the proof of the teaching, but a result of the teaching. A pure consciousness without concepts, reached by “cleaning the doors of perception”, would be an overwhelming chaos of sensory input without coherence.
Nevertheless, the notion of religious experience has gained widespread use in the study of religion, and is extensively researched.
Asian cultures and religions
According to U. G. Krishnamurti there is no such thing as enlightenment, and “there is nothing to understand”.
Buddhism
The English term “enlightenment” has commonly been used to translate several Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Japanese terms and concepts, especially bodhi, prajna, kensho, satori and buddhahood.
Bodhi is a Theravada term. It literally means “awakening” and “understanding”. Someone who is awakened has gained insight into the workings of the mind which keeps us imprisoned in craving, suffering and rebirth,] and has also gained insight into the way that leads to nirvana, the liberation of oneself from this imprisonment.
Prajna is a Mahayana term. It refers to insight into our true nature, which according to Madhyamaka is empty of a personal essence in the stream of experience. But it also refers to the Tathāgata-garbha or Buddha-nature, the essential basic-consciousness beyond the stream of experience.
In Zen, kensho means “seeing into one’s true nature”. Satori is often used interchangeably with kensho, but refers to the experience of kensho.
Buddhahood is the attainment of full awakening and becoming a Buddha. According to the Tibetan Thubten Yeshe, enlightenment
[means] full awakening; buddhahood. The ultimate goal of Buddhist practice, attained when all limitations have been removed from the mind and one’s positive potential has been completely and perfectly realized. It is a state characterized by infinite compassion, wisdom and skill.
Hinduism
In Indian religionsmoksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष mokṣa; liberation) or mukti (Sanskrit: मुक्ति; release —both from the root muc “to let loose, let go”) is the final extrication of the soul or consciousness (purusha) from samsara and the bringing to an end of all the suffering involved in being subject to the cycle of repeated death and rebirth (reincarnation).
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta (IASTAdvaita Vedānta; Sanskrit: अद्वैत वेदान्त [əd̪ʋait̪ə ʋeːd̪ɑːnt̪ə]) is a philosophical concept where followers seek liberation/release by recognizing identity of the Self (Atman) and the Whole (Brahman) through long preparation and training, usually under the guidance of a guru, that involves efforts such as knowledge of scriptures, renunciation of worldy activities, and inducement of direct identity experiences. Originating in India before 788 AD, Advaita Vedanta is widely considered the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta (literally, end or the goal of the Vedas, Sanskrit) school of Hindu philosophy.[33] Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Viśishṭādvaita and Dvaita; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda.
Advaita (literally, non-duality) is a system of thought where “Advaita” refers to the identity of the Self (Atman) and the Whole (Brahman). Recognition of this identity leads to liberation. Attaining this liberation takes a long preparation and training under the guidance of a guru.
Shankara systematized the works of preceding philosophers. His system of Vedanta introduced the method of scholarly exegesis on the accepted metaphysics of the Upanishads. This style was adopted by all the later Vedanta schools.
Shankara’s synthesis of Advaita Vedanta is summarized in this quote from the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi, one of his Prakaraṇa graṃthas (philosophical treatises):
In half a couplet I state, what has been stated by crores of texts;
that is Brahman alone is real, the world is mithyā (not independently existent),
and the individual self is nondifferent from Brahman.
In the 19th century Vivekananda played a major role in the revival of Hinduism, and the spread of Advaita Vedanta to the West via the Ramakrishna Mission. His interpretation of Advaita Vedanta has been called “Neo-Vedanta”.[38]
In a talk on “The absolute and manifestation” given in at London in 1896 Swami Vivekananda said,
I may make bold to say that the only religion which agrees with, and even goes a little further than modern researchers, both on physical and moral lines is the Advaita, and that is why it appeals to modern scientists so much. They find that the old dualistic theories are not enough for them, do not satisfy their necessities. A man must have not only faith, but intellectual faith too”.
Vivekananda emphasized samadhi as a means to attain liberation. Yet this emphasis is not to be found in the Upanishads nor in Shankara. For Shankara, meditation and Nirvikalpa Samadhi are means to gain knowledge of the already existing unity of Brahman and Atman, not the highest goal itself:
[Y]oga is a meditative exercise of withdrawal from the particular and identification with the universal, leading to contemplation of oneself as the most universal, namely, Consciousness. This approach is different from the classical yoga of complete thought suppression.
Vivekenanda’s modernisation has been criticized:
Without calling into question the right of any philosopher to interpret Advaita according to his own understanding of it, […] the process of Westernization has obscured the core of this school of thought. The basic correlation of renunciation and Bliss has been lost sight of in the attempts to underscore the cognitive structure and the realistic structure which according to Samkaracarya should both belong to, and indeed constitute the realm of māyā.
Pre–philosophical speculations and diverse ascetic practices of first millennium BCE were systematized into a formal philosophy in early centuries CE by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.] By the turn of the first millennium, Hatha yoga emerged as a prominent tradition of yoga distinct from the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. While the Yoga Sutras focus on discipline of the mind, Hatha yoga concentrates on health and purity of the body.
Hindu monks, beginning with Swami Vivekananda, brought yoga to the West in the late 19th century. In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a physical system of health exercises across the Western world. Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma and heart patients. In a national survey, long-term yoga practitioners in the United States reported musculo–skeletal and mental health improvements.
Jnana yoga
Classical Advaita Vedanta follows empahsises the path of jnana yoga, a progression of study and training to attain moksha. It consitsts of four stages:
Samanyasa or Sampattis, the “fourfold discipline” (sādhana-catustaya), cultivating the following four qualities:
Nityānitya vastu viveka (नित्यानित्य वस्तु विवेकम्) — The ability (viveka) to correctly discriminate between the eternal (nitya) substance (Brahman) and the substance that is transitory existence (anitya).
Ihāmutrārtha phala bhoga virāga (इहाऽमुत्रार्थ फल भोगविरागम्) — The renunciation (virāga) of enjoyments of objects (artha phala bhoga) in this world (iha) and the other worlds (amutra) like heaven etc.
Śamādi ṣatka sampatti (शमादि षट्क सम्पत्ति) — the sixfold qualities,
Śama (control of the antahkaraṇa).
Dama (the control of external sense organs).
Uparati (the cessation of these external organs so restrained, from the pursuit of objects other than that, or it may mean the abandonment of the prescribed works according to scriptural injunctions).
Samādhāna (the concentrating of the mind on God and Guru).
Mumukṣutva (मुमुक्षुत्वम्) — The firm conviction that the nature of the world is misery and the intense longing for moksha (release from the cycle of births and deaths).
Sravana, listening to the teachings of the sages on the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, and studying the Vedantic texts, such as the Brahma Sutras. In this stage the student learns about the reality of Brahman and the identity of atman;
Manana, the stage of reflection on the teachings;
Dhyana, the stage of meditation on the truth “that art Thou”.
Bhakti yoga
The paths of bhakti yoga and karma yoga are subsidiary.
In bhakti yoga, practice centers on the worship God in any way and in any form, like Krishna or Ayyappa. Adi Shankara himself was a proponent of devotional worship or Bhakti. But Adi Shankara taught that while Vedic sacrifices, puja and devotional worship can lead one in the direction of jnana (true knowledge), they cannot lead one directly to moksha. At best, they can serve as means to obtain moksha via shukla gati.
Karma yoga
Karma yoga is the way of doing our duties, in disregard of personal gains or losses. According to Sri Swami Sivananda,
Karma Yoga is consecration of all actions and their fruits unto the Lord. Karma Yoga is performance of actions dwelling in union with the Divine, removing attachment and remaining balanced ever in success and failure.
Karma Yoga is selfless service unto humanity. Karma Yoga is the Yoga of action which purifies the heart and prepares the Antahkarana (the heart and the mind) for the reception of Divine Light or attainment if Knowledge of the Self. The important point is that you will have to serve humanity without any attachment or egoism.
Jainism
Jainism (/ˈdʒeɪnɪzəm/; Sanskrit: जैनधर्म Jainadharma, Tamil: சமணம் Samaṇam, Bengali: জৈনধর্ম Jainadharma, Telugu: జైనమతం Jainamataṁ, Malayalam: ജൈനമതം Jainmat, Kannada: ಜೈನ ಧರ್ಮ Jaina dharma), is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul toward divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called a jina (“conqueror” or “victor”). The ultimate status of these perfect souls is called siddha. Ancient texts also refer to Jainism as shramana dharma (self-reliant) or the “path of the nirganthas” (those without attachments or aversions).
In Jainism highest form of pure knowledge a soul can attain is called Kevala Jnana ( Sanskrit : केवलज्ञान )or Kevala Ṇāṇa (Prakrit : केवल णाण). which means “absolute or perfect” and Jñāna, which means “knowledge”. Kevala is the state of isolation of the jīva from the ajīva attained through ascetic practices which burn off one’s karmic residues, releasing one from bondage to the cycle of death and rebirth. Kevala Jñāna thus means infinite knowledge of self and non-self, attained by a soul after annihilation of the all ghātiyā karmas. The soul which has reached this stage achieves moksa or liberation at the end of its life span.
Mahavira, 24th thirthankara of Jainism, is said to have practised rigorous austerities for 12 years before he attained enlightenment,
During the thirteenth year, in the second month of summer, in the fourth fortnight, the light (fortnight) of Vaisakha, on its tenth day, when the shadow had turned towards the east and the first wake was over, on the day called Suvrata, in the Muhurta called Vigaya, outside of the town Grimbhikagrama on the bank of the river Rjupalika, not far from an old temple, in the field of the householder Samaga, under a Sal tree, when the moon was in conjunction with the asterism Uttara Phalguni, (the Venerable One) in a squatting position with joined heels, exposing himself to the heat of the sun, after fasting two and a half days without drinking water, being engaged in deep meditation, reached the highest knowledge and intuition, called Kevala, which is infinite, supreme, unobstructed, unimpeded, complete, and full.
Kevala Jñāna is one of the five major events in the life of a Tirthankara and is known as Jñāna Kalyanaka and supposedly celebrated by all gods. Mahavira’s Kaivalya was said to have been celebrated by the demi-gods, who constructed the Samosarana or a grand preaching assembly for him.
Western culture
Christianity
The word “enlightenment” is not generally used in Christian contexts for religious understanding or insight. More commonly used terms in the Christian tradition are religious conversion and revelation.
Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871–1952), one of the founders of Dispensationalism, uses the word “illuminism“. Christians who are “illuminated” are of two groups, those who have experienced true illuminism (biblical) and those who experienced false illuminism (not from the Holy Spirit).
However, Christian interest in eastern spirituality has grown throughout the 20th century. Notable Christians, such as Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle and AMA Samy, have participated in Buddhist training and even become Buddhist teachers themselves. In a few places Eastern contemplative techniques have been integrated in Christian practices, such as centering prayer. But this integration has also raised questions about the borders between these traditions.
Western esotericism and mysticism
Western and Mediterranean culture has a rich tradition of esotericism. The Perennial philosophy, basic to the New Age understanding of the world, regards those traditions as akin to Eastern religions which aim at awakening and developing wisdom. All mystical traditions are supposed to share a “common core”, a hypothesis which is central to New Age, but contested by a diversity of scientists like Katz and Proudfoot.
Judaism knows the mystical tradition of Kabbalah. Islam includes the mystical tradition of Sufism. In the Fourth Way teaching, enlightenment is the highest state of Man (humanity).
Nondualism
A popular western understanding sees “enlightenment” as “nondual consciousness”, “a primordial, natural awareness without subject or object.” It is used interchangeably with Neo-Advaita.
This nondual consciousness is seen as a common stratum to different religions. Several definitions or meanings are combined in this approach, which makes it possible to recognize various traditions as having the same essence. According to Renard, many forms of religion are based on an experiential or intuitive understanding of “the Real”
This idea of nonduality as “the central essence” is part of a modern mutual exchange and synthesis of ideas between western spiritual and esoteric traditions and Asian religious revival and reform movements. Western predecessors are, among others, New Age, Wilber’s synthesis of western psychology and Asian spirituality, the idea of a Perennial Philosophy, and Theosophy. Eastern influences are the Hindu reform movements such as Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga and Vivekananda’sNeo-Vedanta, the Vipassana movement, and Buddhist modernism. A truly syncretistic influence is Osho and the Rajneesh movement, a hybrid of eastern and western ideas and teachings, and a mainly western group of followers.
Cognitive aspects
Religious experience as cognitive construct
“Religious experiences” have “evidential value” since they confirm the specific worldview of the experiencer:
These experiences are cognitive in that, allegedly at least, the subject of the experience receives a reliable and accurate view of what, religiously considered, are the most important features of things. This, so far as their religious tradition is concerned, is what is most important about them. This is what makes them “salvific” or powerful to save.
Yet, just like the very notion of “religious experience” is shaped by a specific discourse and habitus, the “uniformity of interpretation” may be due to the influence of religious traditions which shape the interpretation of such “experiences”.
Various religious experiences
Yandell discerns various “religious experiences” and their corresponding doctrinal settings, which differ in structure and phenomenological content, and in the “evidential value” they present. Yandell discerns five sorts:
Various philosophers and cognitive scientists state that there is no “true self” or a “little person” (homunculus) in the brain that “watches the show,” and that consciousness is an emergent property that arise from the various modules of the brain in ways that are yet far from understood. According to Susan Greenfield, the “self” may be seen as a composite, whereas Douglas R. Hofstadter describes the sense of “I” as a result of cognitive process.
This is in line with the Buddhist teachings, which state that
[…] what we call ‘I’ or ‘being,’ is only a combination of physical and mental aggregates which are working together interdependently in a flux of momentary change within the law of cause and effect, and that there is nothing, permanent, everlasting, unchanging, and eternal in the whole of existence.
To this end, Parfit called Buddha the “first bundle theorist“.
The idea that the mind is the result of the activities of neurons in the brain was most notably popularized by Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA, in his book The Astonishing Hypothesis. The basic idea can be traced back to at least Étienne Bonnot de Condillac. According to Crick, the idea was not a novel one:
[…] an exceptionally clear statement of it can be found in a well known paper by Horace Barlow.
If the guillotine is the most striking negative image of the French Revolution, then the most positive is surely the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, one of the founding documents in the human rights tradition.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1793 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The lasting importance of the Declaration of Rights is immediately evident: just compare the first article from August 1789 with the first article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed by the United Nations after World War II, on 10 December 1948. They are very similar, though the UN document refers to “human beings” in place of “men.” (Did “men” mean women too in 1789? As we shall see, this was far from clear.)
When the French revolutionaries drew up the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in August 1789, they aimed to topple the institutions surrounding hereditary monarchy and establish new ones based on the principles of the Enlightenment, a philosophical movement gathering steam in the eighteenth century. The goal of the Enlightenment’s proponents was to apply the methods learned from the scientific revolution to the problems of society. Further, its advocates committed themselves to “reason” and “liberty.” Knowledge, its followers believed, could only come from the careful study of actual conditions and the application of an individual’s reason, not from religious inspiration or traditional beliefs. Liberty meant freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom from unreasonable government (torture, censorship, and so on). Enlightenment writers, such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, influenced ordinary readers, politicians, and even heads of state all over the Western world. Kings and queens consulted them, government ministers joined their cause, and in the British North American colonies, American revolutionaries put some of their ideas into practice in the Declaration of Independence and the new Constitution of the United States.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 brought together two streams of thought: one springing from the Anglo-American tradition of legal and constitutional guarantees of individual liberties, the other from the Enlightenment’s belief that reason should guide all human affairs. Enlightenment writers praised the legal and constitutional guarantees established by the English and the Americans, but they wanted to see them applied everywhere. The French revolutionaries therefore wrote a Declaration of Rights that they hoped would serve as a model in every corner of the world. Reason rather than tradition would be its justification. As a result, “France” or “French” never appears in the articles of the declaration itself, only in its preamble.
The Anglo-American tradition of legal guarantees of rights dates back to the Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” of 1215. In it King John of England guaranteed certain liberties to the free men of his kingdom. In 1628 the English Parliament drew up a Petition of Right restating the “rights and liberties of the subjects.” Charles I agreed to it, and the rights were further extended in the English Bill of Rights of 1689. John Locke’s writings on the nature of government in the late 1600s gave a more universal and theoretical caste to the idea of the rights of freeborn Englishmen, suggesting that such rights belonged not just to the English, but to all property-owning adult males.
Until Locke, the English tradition of rights had been just that, English. The various English parliamentary documents on rights had been specifically limited to freeborn Englishmen. They made no larger claims. The Enlightenment helped broaden the claims, and its effects can be seen in the American offshoots of the English parliamentary tradition of rights. Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence of 1776 claimed that “inalienable” rights were the foundation of all government, and he justified American resistance to English rule in these terms. Jefferson’s “declaration” is especially important because it argued that rights had only to be “declared” to be effective. The same belief in the self-evidence of rights can be seen in George Mason’s draft of the Bill of Rights for Virginia’s state constitution. The similarities to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen are not hard to find, for both the Virginia Bill of Rights and Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence had an immediate influence on the French declaration.
What Is Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant 1Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one’s own mind without another’s guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) “Have the courage to use your own understanding,” is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.
Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large part of mankind gladly remain minors all their lives, long after nature has freed them from external guidance. They are the reasons why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor. If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet, and so on–then I have no need to exert myself. I have no need to think, if only I can pay; others will take care of that disagreeable business for me. Those guardians who have kindly taken supervision upon themselves see to it that the overwhelming majority of mankind–among them the entire fair sex–should consider the step to maturity, not only as hard, but as extremely dangerous. First, these guardians make their domestic cattle stupid and carefully prevent the docile creatures from taking a single step without the leading-strings to which they have fastened them. Then they show them the danger that would threaten them if they should try to walk by themselves. Now this danger is really not very great; after stumbling a few times they would, at last, learn to walk. However, examples of such failures intimidate and generally discourage all further attempts.
Thus it is very difficult for the individual to work himself out of the nonage which has become almost second nature to him. He has even grown to like it, and is at first really incapable of using his own understanding because he has never been permitted to try it. Dogmas and formulas, these mechanical tools designed for reasonable use–or rather abuse–of his natural gifts, are the fetters of an everlasting nonage. The man who casts them off would make an uncertain leap over the narrowest ditch, because he is not used to such free movement. That is why there are only a few men who walk firmly, and who have emerged from nonage by cultivating their own minds.
It is more nearly possible, however, for the public to enlighten itself; indeed, if it is only given freedom, enlightenment is almost inevitable. There will always be a few independent thinkers, even among the self-appointed guardians of the multitude. Once such men have thrown off the yoke of nonage, they will spread about them the spirit of a reasonable appreciation of man’s value and of his duty to think for himself. It is especially to be noted that the public which was earlier brought under the yoke by these men afterwards forces these very guardians to remain in submission, if it is so incited by some of its guardians who are themselves incapable of any enlightenment. That shows how pernicious it is to implant prejudices: they will eventually revenge themselves upon their authors or their authors’ descendants. Therefore, a public can achieve enlightenment only slowly. A revolution may bring about the end of a personal despotism or of avaricious tyrannical oppression, but never a true reform of modes of thought. New prejudices will serve, in place of the old, as guide lines for the unthinking multitude.
This enlightenment requires nothing but freedom–and the most innocent of all that may be called “freedom”: freedom to make public use of one’s reason in all matters. Now I hear the cry from all sides: “Do not argue!” The officer says: “Do not argue–drill!” The tax collector: “Do not argue–pay!” The pastor: “Do not argue–believe!” Only one ruler in the world says: “Argue as much as you please, but obey!” We find restrictions on freedom everywhere. But which restriction is harmful to enlightenment? Which restriction is innocent, and which advances enlightenment? I reply: the public use of one’s reason must be free at all times, and this alone can bring enlightenment to mankind.
On the other hand, the private use of reason may frequently be narrowly restricted without especially hindering the progress of enlightenment. By “public use of one’s reason” I mean that use which a man, as scholar, makes of it before the reading public. I call “private use” that use which a man makes of his reason in a civic post that has been entrusted to him. In some affairs affecting the interest of the community a certain [governmental] mechanism is necessary in which some members of the community remain passive. This creates an artificial unanimity which will serve the fulfillment of public objectives, or at least keep these objectives from being destroyed. Here arguing is not permitted: one must obey. Insofar as a part of this machine considers himself at the same time a member of a universal community–a world society of citizens–(let us say that he thinks of himself as a scholar rationally addressing his public through his writings) he may indeed argue, and the affairs with which he is associated in part as a passive member will not suffer. Thus it would be very unfortunate if an officer on duty and under orders from his superiors should want to criticize the appropriateness or utility of his orders. He must obey. But as a scholar he could not rightfully be prevented from taking notice of the mistakes in the military service and from submitting his views to his public for its judgment. The citizen cannot refuse to pay the taxes levied upon him; indeed, impertinent censure of such taxes could be punished as a scandal that might cause general disobedience. Nevertheless, this man does not violate the duties of a citizen if, as a scholar, he publicly expresses his objections to the impropriety or possible injustice of such levies. A pastor, too, is bound to preach to his congregation in accord with the doctrines of the church which he serves, for he was ordained on that condition. But as a scholar he has full freedom, indeed the obligation, to communicate to his public all his carefully examined and constructive thoughts concerning errors in that doctrine and his proposals concerning improvement of religious dogma and church institutions. This is nothing that could burden his conscience. For what he teaches in pursuance of his office as representative of the church, he represents as something which he is not free to teach as he sees it. He speaks as one who is employed to speak in the name and under the orders of another. He will say: “Our church teaches this or that; these are the proofs which it employs.” Thus he will benefit his congregation as much as possible by presenting doctrines to which he may not subscribe with full conviction. He can commit himself to teach them because it is not completely impossible that they may contain hidden truth. In any event, he has found nothing in the doctrines that contradicts the heart of religion. For if he believed that such contradictions existed he would not be able to administer his office with a clear conscience. He would have to resign it. Therefore the use which a scholar makes of his reason before the congregation that employs him is only a private use, for no matter how sizable, this is only a domestic audience. In view of this he, as preacher, is not free and ought not to be free, since he is carrying out the orders of others. On the other hand, as the scholar who speaks to his own public (the world) through his writings, the minister in the public use of his reason enjoys unlimited freedom to use his own reason and to speak for himself. That the spiritual guardians of the people should themselves be treated as minors is an absurdity which would result in perpetuating absurdities.
But should a society of ministers, say a Church Council, . . . have the right to commit itself by oath to a certain unalterable doctrine, in order to secure perpetual guardianship over all its members and through them over the people? I say that this is quite impossible. Such a contract, concluded to keep all further enlightenment from humanity, is simply null and void even if it should be confirmed by the sovereign power, by parliaments, and the most solemn treaties. An epoch cannot conclude a pact that will commit succeeding ages, prevent them from increasing their significant insights, purging themselves of errors, and generally progressing in enlightenment. That would be a crime against human nature whose proper destiny lies precisely in such progress. Therefore, succeeding ages are fully entitled to repudiate such decisions as unauthorized and outrageous. The touchstone of all those decisions that may be made into law for a people lies in this question: Could a people impose such a law upon itself? Now it might be possible to introduce a certain order for a definite short period of time in expectation of better order. But, while this provisional order continues, each citizen (above all, each pastor acting as a scholar) should be left free to publish his criticisms of the faults of existing institutions. This should continue until public understanding of these matters has gone so far that, by uniting the voices of many (although not necessarily all) scholars, reform proposals could be brought before the sovereign to protect those congregations which had decided according to their best lights upon an altered religious order, without, however, hindering those who want to remain true to the old institutions. But to agree to a perpetual religious constitution which is not publicly questioned by anyone would be, as it were, to annihilate a period of time in the progress of man’s improvement. This must be absolutely forbidden.
A man may postpone his own enlightenment, but only for a limited period of time. And to give up enlightenment altogether, either for oneself or one’s descendants, is to violate and to trample upon the sacred rights of man. What a people may not decide for itself may even less be decided for it by a monarch, for his reputation as a ruler consists precisely in the way in which he unites the will of the whole people within his own. If he only sees to it that all true or supposed [religious] improvement remains in step with the civic order, he can for the rest leave his subjects alone to do what they find necessary for the salvation of their souls. Salvation is none of his business; it is his business to prevent one man from forcibly keeping another from determining and promoting his salvation to the best of his ability. Indeed, it would be prejudicial to his majesty if he meddled in these matters and supervised the writings in which his subjects seek to bring their [religious] views into the open, even when he does this from his own highest insight, because then he exposes himself to the reproach: Caesar non est supra grammaticos.2 It is worse when he debases his sovereign power so far as to support the spiritual despotism of a few tyrants in his state over the rest of his subjects.
When we ask, Are we now living in an enlightened age? the answer is, No, but we live in an age of enlightenment. As matters now stand it is still far from true that men are already capable of using their own reason in religious matters confidently and correctly without external guidance. Still, we have some obvious indications that the field of working toward the goal [of religious truth] is now opened. What is more, the hindrances against general enlightenment or the emergence from self-imposed nonage are gradually diminishing. In this respect this is the age of the enlightenment and the century of Frederick [the Great].
A prince ought not to deem it beneath his dignity to state that he considers it his duty not to dictate anything to his subjects in religious matters, but to leave them complete freedom. If he repudiates the arrogant word “tolerant”, he is himself enlightened; he deserves to be praised by a grateful world and posterity as that man who was the first to liberate mankind from dependence, at least on the government, and let everybody use his own reason in matters of conscience. Under his reign, honorable pastors, acting as scholars and regardless of the duties of their office, can freely and openly publish their ideas to the world for inspection, although they deviate here and there from accepted doctrine. This is even more true of every person not restrained by any oath of office. This spirit of freedom is spreading beyond the boundaries [of Prussia] even where it has to struggle against the external hindrances established by a government that fails to grasp its true interest. [Frederick’s Prussia] is a shining example that freedom need not cause the least worry concerning public order or the unity of the community. When one does not deliberately attempt to keep men in barbarism, they will gradually work out of that condition by themselves.
I have emphasized the main point of the enlightenment–man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage–primarily in religious matters, because our rulers have no interest in playing the guardian to their subjects in the arts and sciences. Above all, nonage in religion is not only the most harmful but the most dishonorable. But the disposition of a sovereign ruler who favors freedom in the arts and sciences goes even further: he knows that there is no danger in permitting his subjects to make public use of their reason and to publish their ideas concerning a better constitution, as well as candid criticism of existing basic laws. We already have a striking example [of such freedom], and no monarch can match the one whom we venerate.
But only the man who is himself enlightened, who is not afraid of shadows, and who commands at the same time a well disciplined and numerous army as guarantor of public peace–only he can say what [the sovereign of] a free state cannot dare to say: “Argue as much as you like, and about what you like, but obey!” Thus we observe here as elsewhere in human affairs, in which almost everything is paradoxical, a surprising and unexpected course of events: a large degree of civic freedom appears to be of advantage to the intellectual freedom of the people, yet at the same time it establishes insurmountable barriers. A lesser degree of civic freedom, however, creates room to let that free spirit expand to the limits of its capacity. Nature, then, has carefully cultivated the seed within the hard core–namely the urge for and the vocation of free thought. And this free thought gradually reacts back on the modes of thought of the people, and men become more and more capable of acting in freedom. At last free thought acts even on the fundamentals of government and the state finds it agreeable to treat man, who is now more than a machine, in accord with his dignity.
The end of the Civil War, which meant economic and ideological ruin for the former Confederacy, meant new expectations for liberated African-Americans. The work of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the passage of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments fed the hope that African-Americans would gain equal rights. However, the sudden death of Abraham Lincoln, placed Southern Democrat and former slaveholder Andrew Johnson in the presidency. Johnson wanted to allow the South to return to its old ways. Congress, dominated by Radical Republicans, strongly disagreed. The conflict between Congress and President Johnson led to his impeachment. He retained his office by one vote.
During the decade of Congressional Reconstruction, Congress divided the South into five military districts. It required Southern states to hold conventions with both black and white delegates to rewrite their state constitutions to comply with the Constitution. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment granting African-American men the right to vote. Additional acts sought to counteract effects of white supremacy groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. During this period, the first African-American men were elected to the House of Representatives and Senate, and more than six hundred African-Americans served in state legislatures. Johnson’s successor, Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant, was an ineffective president; the corruption of his appointees immobilized his administration. In the disputed election of 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes promised to withdraw federal troops from the South. An election commission awarded him all the disputed votes and thus the presidency. Hayes made good on his promise.
Withdrawal of federal troops and marked the end of Reconstruction. African-Americans saw their nascent freedoms eradicated. Black codes severely limited the rights of African-Americans. In 1896, the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson dealt the final blow to their hopes for equality for almost a century. The Court ruled that the Constitution cannot make people color-blind and gave approval to the separate but equal concept. Only one justice dissented. Justice John Harlan wrote, “Our Constitution is color blind.” His words fell on deaf ears. A flood of Jim Crow laws followed. In the words of orator Frederick Douglass, the African-American under Jim Crow was not the slave of “the individual master, but the slave of society.”
Being Free 