We have looked into the conditions of the souls cast into this becoming world from the viewpoint of social relationship before. Here, we are to examine how they struggle their way to purify themselves in such conditions filled with absurdity.
As we have studied in CHAPTER 3, it is our each own material desire that makes our societies poor. That is, because we scramble for all the things in this world represented as objects of desire, though which come to be amplified in the reflective functions, there comes forth the relation of mutual control with others as a result of taking them as a mere means to satisfy each own material desire.
Therefore, even though we each try to create a superior society, as long as we stick to its appearance, we cannot bring a substantial change in it.
The question is how to break down the material desire that our societies are based upon, that is, the desire of the members in our societies. And for the solution of the issue, we have to begin on our each own desire. We ourselves have to change first of all.
In this chapter, however, we are allowed to draw only the process of each own purification theoretically, because, for its own change, each has to struggle its way in the real life which imposes so many different conditions on each of souls.
Here, we are to look at what each of souls comes to be regarded as and how it is controlled in our societies first, then, let me show the sacred nature of the resistance against it.
α. The Way of Control
As for those souls located under lower animals, they come to be regarded as useful means which are to be controlled and exploited directly under the material desire.
Well, as long as the way of the control is not so contradictory to the will of the souls without destroying the natural order, it will be fruitful. But, once we neglect the will and hurt the natural order on account of our own material desire, it will become certain that they resist us and the existential base of our human world itself comes to collapse. It is because, at the same time that they try to regain their proper development which has been warped by our control, they bring the ruin into our human world which has been spoiled because of the insatiable desire.
Next, as for higher animals and human being, since they act on the real external world given in its representation with the help of intellectual light, we need to examine the way of control according to the gradational development of their intellect.
In the first stage, the control begins with engraving pleasant sense and unpleasant one on their mind.
Although both have the nature of the play of the intellectual light, we control them by pressing them to seek after the pleasant play and avoid the unpleasant one.
That is, in the sense of touch, we try to control a soul by tempting it to run after the pleasant touch and keep away from the unpleasant one. As is the same with the other senses.
In the sense of taste, as the proverb says, "Hunger is the best sauce" or "A good appetite is a good sauce," either of which signifies that the taste is to be determined by whether we have a strong desire or not. Therefore, in this case, we feel satisfied with the taste in its emotion.
But, as the intellect develops higher, the sense of taste becomes so refined that we can control it by tempting it to run after pleasant taste and avoid unpleasant one. Chemical condiment is an example of the above case.
Although the taste of a dish will become also refined by a cook of high intellect, as long as it remains apart from the substantial basis, that is, the desire itself, it cannot but come to a deadlock.
In the sense of smell also, we control it by tempting it to run after pleasant smell.
In the sense of hearing, since its intellectual ability becomes so high as to represent the operations of nature from various sounds or melodies, we come to control it by showing it those convenient for us, or by making it run after pleasant ones.
Lastly, in the sense of sight, since its intellectual ability becomes also so high as to represent the operations of nature, we usually take advantage of the ability in order to control it. That is, we show it only those convenient for us and harmless keeping those inconvenient for us secret, and tempt it to run after pleasant color and shape so that it is misled to neglect what it really want.
In the second stage, that is, in the whole intuitive world which has its own basis on the above senses, manners and behaviors of surroundings come to determine its own development.
That is, the manners and behaviors represented in its intuition show it social power and authority, moral standard, positive values and negative ones, and so on. As a result, it is forced to obey the power and those values unconsciously.
Well, in the third stage when it develops the reflective functions, since it comes to be able to act on the reflective world, we try to take advantage of the ability in order to control it.
That is, we usually invent such thought and dogma as enable us to justify the power and authority of us in order that we can make it believe in them and control it in the fiction.
In that case, as long as its survival, sexual, and material desires are satisfied to some extent, we will be able to achieve the control over the masses with ease without using force directly. Thus, in such a society, those thinking deeply and holding a question about the control system are laughed at or hated.
In this way, trying to take advantage of the ability which enables a soul to act on thought, dogma, and so on, that is, the products of the reflective functions, we come to manipulate the information which is to lead the soul to proper judgment and conceal inconvenient one in order to control it. Thus, the society chained to the material desire is to control the masses making them idiot and the society itself poor.
But, the control system cannot be achieved only by the dominating power in the society. That is, even though each of us could know the state of the control system exactly, as long as chained to the same material desire that develops the poor society, each cannot but connive at the control system, which turning out to promote and accomplish it in the long run.
Even though we could break down the control system by acting on new thought against it, as long as each of us who could carry out the revolution is chained to the insatiable material desire, we would come to produce again the same control system as the former before long, and keep struggling for power in the system.
Therefore, we have to return to that question noted at the head of this chapter. That is, the first thing we have to do is breaking down each own material desire and purifying ourselves in the process of our development.
In this way, the "Ideal" world will be realized for the first time in this world by those struggling their each own way to purify themselves.
β. Resistance of Souls
Well, even in such a society as spoils the proper development of souls, a healthy soul with strong will would come to resist it trying to maintain his own way.
Once he experience the state of his own virtue, he cannot but keep running after the virtue all the more. Although the chains of daily life becomes unsatisfactory and hateful for those who experienced the virtue, that is, the love tearing his own phypocrisy into pieces or the sky it could fly up into as a pure subject free from all the chains, yet he continues to struggle his own way with his internal eye fixed on the very virtue, waiting for the moment to come again in the chains.
He will not be spoiled by some mere pleasant sense, and will go through even unpleasant one willingly if he thinks it necessary. As the result, it will sometimes happen that he comes to deny all the sense by means of his own virtue.
By the way, if we try to grow a soul in prosperity and a germless condition, it will turn out to be the most stupid thing. The important thing for him is not his state free from blemish but maintaining his own way even though he has to accept various sufferings in the struggle. Thus, the most important thing for us is demanding him to do that sternly and keep watching warmly.
He has to overcome those appearing in the form of the five senses and coming to threaten or tempt him. He can now hear the answer to the question of what he really needs and what he should do now from his own internal abyss.
The healthy and pure soul would doubt social power, authority, moral standard, positive values, and so on which he is forced to believe in and would resist such a society as spoils his proper development.
Altough the collapse of the established world view will bring a strong feeling of anxiety on his mind, yet the "self" which is to die in the collapse is nothing but a mere illusion produced in the society. That is, it is the moment he breaks down the illusion into pieces in the death that he can become free from all the chains.
Well, after achieving the death, he may come to construct a new world view with new values under his own desire. He may struggle his own way to seek after all the things in this world on account of his strong desire.
But, as long as he is chained to the same material desire as the above spoiled society has, whatever views and values he may invent, we never fail to see him seeking after various ends and objects of his own insatiable desire.
But, he certainly cannot but desire.
He has to know the illusional nature of the objects when all his desire is shattered at its summit. In the destruction leading to the total freedom, realizing the meaninglessness of this world, he comes to know the eternal joy of satisfaction which only those dying the glorious death can attain.
From then on, even though he becomes chained to the external objects as physical phenomena and keeps desiring them again, he will not adhere to them any longer allowing them to disappear like a blast of wind. He will struggle his own way to realize the "Real Self" with the help of the internal eye enlightened in the "death." Although he knows the true nature of things in this world, he will continue to risk his own life in the struggle leading to his own purification. In this way, he will try to realize the "Ideal" world in this becoming world.
The above will be carried out not by those who have not awakened to the "Real Self" although dressing up with decorative words and deeds but by those who keep struggling in spite of various sufferings.
Making an excuse by giving our disadvantageous conditions proves nothing but our own incapacity. As long as we think there exists something dependable, we cannot be considered to begin our own struggle for the "Real Self." When such illusion disappears betraying the confidence of us, we may begin the struggle for the first time.
Such relationships as family, lovers, friends, and so on have to be denied thoroughly for once. Before putting forward those relationships, we have to be the comrades in the struggle for the "Real Self" in a basic sense. The universal solidarity transcending "time" and "space" will be formed for the first time among those comrades.
By the way, the healthy and pure soul could sense that the trouble of all the souls in this world is nothing but that of himself and would keep struggling for the sake of their freedom. Thus, the struggle will be directed to his surroundings, a society, a State, or lastly the fate of all the souls itself according as his knowledge becomes deeper.
But, as far as the struggle is concerned, it is directed to the external phenomena, which are liable to make us lose the "Real Self." As long as our attention is directed to the phenomena, we cannot but discuss victory or defeat of the struggle, and always the defeat in the last place.
But, as for those who see through the struggle from their each own internal eye, they can win the victory over the fate itself. As long as we keep struggling our way to attain the "Real Self," we never bow to the fate. On the contrary, we win the glorious victory at the climax of the struggle, that is, in the "death" where we can attain the total freedom.
γ. Resistance and Revolution
Now, let us have a look at the resistance of souls from the very viewpoint of social relation at the end of this chapter.
As we have studied before, this poor human society has been developed thus far by our own insatiable desire.
Taking advantage of the things regarded as useful to ourselves is nothing but taking them as so many slaves and binding them with the chains of utility. In other words, the state of ourselves binding them with the chains shows nothing but our slavish condition developed by the material desire.
Therefore, breaking down the insatiable desire and emancipating them by way of undefinable things from the chains is nothing but freeing ourselves and recovering an undefinable state as we are.
The festival which sacrifices daily utilities by putting them into fire suggests that we should allow them to become the undefinable state as they are in the sacrifice though they have been used as useful things, and that we ourselves, the subject of the use, should also recover the undefinable state through the liberation at the same time.
By the way, whatever structure some power comes to establish, that is, either in slavery or in feudalism, or either in capitalism or in communism, what we call "power" is to preserve its structure and strengthen its influence by taking each soul as useful and binding it with the chains. And the enslavement is to cover not only human beings but also all the souls in this world, which possibly come to be chained to the insatiable desire of the power.
Therefore, in such a case, we are obliged to break down its material desire. That is, in that struggle, we all slaves of it have to free ourselves from the enslavement by sacrificing ourselves in the purifying fire and at the same time the master of us should be also freed from its slavish condition developed under its material desire.
In this case, the real subject of the liberation has to be those trying to deny themselves the insatiable material desire in the process of their purification. It is by the resistance of them that the poor society developed under the material desire has to be broken down.
Thus, if our proper development is spoiled by surroundings, a society, and a State, we have to resist them thoroughly. Even though the resistance comes to be carried out against the fate that we can never overcome, as long as we continue to struggle at the risk of our life, we will never bow to it. On the contrary, those destined to tread a throny path in their life would resist and love it at the same time.
Jumping into the whirlpool of the fate because of the love, they allow themselves to ruin in it. Then is the time the love for the fate becomes that for the "Real Self."
The thorough resistance of each soul has to bring about a social revolution causing our poor society to change into a wonderful one. We have to realize in this world the "Ideal" transparent world full of the merciful spirit of the "Supreme Being." For that purpose, each has to struggle its way to realize the "Ideal" world around itself.
Such "revolution" as denies proper development of each soul for the sake of a mere change of social structure is not revolutionary but anti-revolutionary. Therefore, our revolution should have its own basis on the resistance of each soul carried out to secure each own proper development.
In that sense, those revolutionaries who struggle their way to realize the "Real Self" in this world can be considered true artists. His whole life itself is a work of art. But, he has to allow it to disappear behind. Because he is an arrow shot into this becoming world and his eyes are always directed toward the front.
The most important thing for us is the will of soul to develop into what each ought to be. Whatever structure we may establish, it cannot but end in anti-revolutionary the moment we suppress the will.
But, since each soul is destined to keep struggling for its development in this world, the artists are always appearing and creating their way through their life. In whatever structure they may be born, they will struggle their way for their proper development, And the contradictions caused by the resistance are never blameworthy. Because they must be a good chance to enter on a new phase free from the depressing conditions in this poor society.
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CONTENTS
HOMEPAGE