The 'School of Life' within a Greater Reality

 

To note well: Atheism; Existential Questions and some examples; life as a mystery; limit situation; “religious-spiritual attitude” to life; trust in the goodness of life; a “Greater Reality”; the Enlightenment

(Before reading, please view first the "Eight Rules" of the School of Life. A text version of the "Eight Rules" with my extensive annotations-comments can be found here.)

[#1] The School of Life’s Wisdom and Its Atheistic Presupposition

We are about to engage in a study of different “perplexing issues” that come with life. These issues are also known as “ultimate questions” (they ask about the ultimate, most important things in life) or “existential questions” (deep questions that arise by the very fact that we exist as humans in this world). 

I think that the School ofLife (SOL) has many valid messages and deep insights about the different perplexing issues of life. However, I’ll point out clearly here at the beginning of this course of study that the SOL is explicitly atheistic (It does not believe in anything ‘beyond the natural world’), and it assumes this position just "as a matter of fact," without really examining well the question of whether atheism is the best philosophical stance to approach life. At the same time, it also maintains that we can still learn many practical and useful things from religions (apart from their false mythological claims).

In this course of study regarding different “perplexing issues” of life, I will use many of the insights of the SOL but will, at the same time, make important “additions” (or “annotations” – extra “notes”) of things that I (as a scholar of religion & spirituality) consider to be necessary if someone wants to respond more adequately to life’s most perplexing issues.

My (jkk's) First Annotations to the “Rules of the School of Life”

[#2] Life is a Great and Precious Mystery  

Let's begin with this first and foundational principle: We live in a big and vast universe full of mystery.

Even in our so-called scientifically and technologically "advanced" age in which humanity has reached a high level of knowledge about the scientific principles that govern how the material world works, the questions (perplexing issues) that matter most to us, humans, are so-called “existential questions.” These are questions that come from the very fact of existing or having a human life. Some examples of these are: 'What's the meaning of it all?', 'What are the values that we should have, uphold, and defend?', 'Why is it important to be compassionate rather than hateful?', 'Why is it better to be on the side of the good rather than evil?', and such questions that touch humanity's deepest core and encourage us all to go "beyond ourselves" and overcome our egoism. These more important existential questions cannot be answered by the advanced science and technology that we humans have achieved. (This is only my opinion…) They can be faced more adequately (although never answered conclusively) only when we have an open-minded attitude to--what I shall call--a "religious" or "spiritual" disposition or outlook on life. 

[#3] A “Religious-Spiritual” Attitude.  So, what precisely is a "religious" or "spiritual" approach/attitude to life? The following things—I think—are important components of it: It is basically an attitude of standing in front of the big and vast mystery that is life (some consider that "vast mystery" as “God”) ... and then ...

·         Humble ourselves by acknowledging that I am (or we are) so small and puny in front of this big mystery of life. (This is also called awareness of a “limit situation” – a situation in which we realize that life is so vast and we humans are so “limited” because we cannot understand many things about it. More on that later.) [optional: The SOL version of this attitude is in this clip entitled "Don't worry; no one cares"]

·         Accept this great mystery in its multiple dimensions --both its beautiful aspects as well as its ugly sides; its many joys as well as its many sufferings; its dazzling lights as well as its deep shadows-- yet through it all ...

·         Continue to trust that this mystery called "life" or "existence" is still worth living, treasuring, continuing, defending and, if need be, worth fighting for.

·         A “religious-spiritual” attitude then is, first and foremost, a kind of TRUST first of all in the goodness and worth of LIFE, not because one knows everything but because one deeply feels the worth of life and MAKES the optimistic DECISION to trust in the goodness of life. When one commits oneself to trust in the fundamental graciousness of life (reality, existence), then MEANING is born. Life begins to have a reason, a meaning. One knows why one gets up in the morning to begin one's day. (I get this from Catholic theologian Hans Küng)

·         In line with one's trust in the fundamental goodness and graciousness of life, one engages with life. This is the "dancing and wrestling" with life that is born because one trusts that life is worth living. 

·         Many (explicitly) religious believers give a name to the ultimate reason for why they trust in the goodness of life. In the Western religious traditions, it is usually known as "God." In the Eastern religious traditions, the names can be more impersonal such as “the Way” (道), “Heaven” (天), or “Nirvana”, etc.

[#4] A Bigger or Greater Reality.  To explain further, a "religious or spiritual attitude" to life includes an openness to the possibility that: REALITY (in the total sense) might be a lot bigger than "material reality" (the things that conventional science can verify or what we can access with our five senses); Reality might even be bigger than entities that have life (the Biosphere) or even animal and human minds (the Noosphere).  (below figure 1)

In other words, a religious or spiritual outlook in life is fundamentally an openness to the possibility that what the world’s religious-spiritual traditions claim might be true – namely, that there is some kind of “ultimate reality” which:

·         is the ground of everything;

·         is present in everything yet is bigger than any single thing; 

·         envelops and embraces everything as the biggest and most total reality of all (see figure 1) 

For the time being, let’s call this bigger/greater dimension – the dimension of SPIRIT (monotheistic religions call it “God”). It is a level that is not directly accessible at this point even to our advanced science or technology. But, in history, religious-spiritual practitioners (sages, saints, shamans, etc.) have claimed that they have experienced this Greater Reality by having a religious-spiritual openness which led to “religious-spiritual experiences” or “mystical experiences”. 

Of course, we cannot conclusively prove the existence of this realm. At this point, there has not been any way to conclusively prove the existence of this realm. But for most of humanity's history, humans have believed that this realm exists and that this realm is the most important reality of all. 

It is only with the European Enlightenment (from the 1600-1700s onward) and the rise of the scientific method that humans began to grow disenchanted with religious and spiritual things and have turned to material reality as the most important of all.

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When the above-mentioned principles are in place, when we have this “greater” or “bigger” framework in place, then we can add other gems of wisdom (such as the different rules of the School of Life) and find that we will be better prepared—again, just my opinion—to face the different perplexing issues of life and respond more adequately to them.