Disenchantment

 
     "We see the world not as it is but as we are."        Anais Nin

     “The great religions consider our usual mindless meandering through life to be a tragedy. They also worry that we are blind to the sacred – in the world, in others, and in ourselves.

     This blindness is particularly dramatic in the modern Western world, largely due to the power of science. So potent is the impact of science on our lives, so often are we bombarded by its descriptions of the universe as a great, meaningless machine, that this view can easily seem the natural and only way to look at things.

     The result is that we look out on what philosophers call a ‘disenchanted world’: a world seemingly stripped of meaning, significance, and spirit, and we see ourselves as equally barren. No wonder our society seems adrift, without a higher goal or vision. No wonder so many people feel their lives are meaningless and hunger for something more sustaining. This something more is freely available to us all. The problem is that very few people see it, since it requires cultivating a different way of knowing.

     Science is a superb method – the best humankind has ever found – for learning about physical objects and their properties. But it can see and say nothing of nonphysical things, such as meaning and purpose, values and spirit.” Roger Walsh MD, PhD

       Walsh R. “Essential spirituality. The 7 central practices to awaken heart and mind.” John Wiley & Sons Inc, NY, 1999.

Photo: Andre Gallant   http://www.andregallant.com/