How Long will Humanism Stay Asleep?

August 16, 2021 Sociocultural Issues No Comments

Many global problems will only become worse if this basic philosophical issue doesn’t get resolved in most people’s minds. It’s as – immensely! – crucial as that.

Also, as simple as that.

Another tradition may explain. ‘Buddha’ literally means ‘the awakened.’ [see: “Buddha-Nature“]

In modern scientific terms, this means awakening from the dual Cartesian dream. One part of this dream is body-mind unity. [see: “Psyche and Soma, Two Sides of One Coin“] The other part is the chimera of merely conscious thinking. [see: “The Modern Subconscious“] In-depth, they are two undetachable sides of one dream.

Getting urgent.

I have written about much of the urgency in many blogs. Here are just a few straightforward examples (and repetition of what you find elsewhere in the AURELIS blog-wiki).

In methodological psychotherapy, the almost entire direction goes towards making people being asleep more comfortably. Hard-core science then shows this doesn’t work towards realistically solving real issues. Who would have thought? [see: “Psychotherapy vs. Psychotherapies“] Fortunately, psychotherapists themselves are total human beings. Still, the situation is dire.

The domain of psycho-somatics may even be further away from awakening. This domain is huge. [see: “Medically Unexplained Syndromes“] The void in this is logical. The main problem is that it gets filled with any possible kind of somatic clutter, called ‘placebo.’ Western regular and alternative medicines vie to fill this void with most fervor and efficiency. [see: “Placebo Based Medicine“] Meanwhile, in entire medicine, many problems don’t get decent answers in the midst of global active denial.

As to religion, we are witnessing an era of increasing clashes between science and obvious fairytale. The defense from organized conceptual religions is meager. Who would have thought? The main problem in this is that, in its meagerness, some religiosity becomes harder and more ‘fundamental.’ It’s like a cornered cat ― dangerous if you don’t watch out. We haven’t seen the end of this.

So, we have the whole domain of psychotherapy, probably most of present-day medicine, and the whole domain of conceptual religions. In these and many more domains, sleeping beauty stays asleep while the castle gets overgrown with giant thistle. This is one of the most severe issues one can imagine.

Historically, Western Humanism intended to awaken people, help them grow and mature, and get them out of a childlike state in need of milk and honey and anything that keeps the fairytale going.

But the fairytale was embedded deeper than that.

Responsibility not taken

Neither Buddhism, nor Humanism, nor anything else that I see presently takes its responsibility. I thought medical scientists would be more prone to it. COVID has clearly shown otherwise. There is no place for decent science about the mind in the causal whirlpool as long as both sides of the Cartesian dream prevail. [see: “Minding COVID: a Different Story“]

Meanwhile, the world is burning not only literally. We may get over a few problems – such as climate disaster – but not over all of them without awakening.

An awakened Humanism is entirely Aurelian.

AURELIS puts the human being at the center but awakened from the dual dream. [see: “Why Humanism Needs AURELIS“] [see: “Humanism with a Vengeance“] This has been written with humility, indeed. It cannot be written otherwise.

The process of awakening is a daring one. There are many pitfalls, and much support is needed. Within Humanism, the much-needed support is almost absent. This absence explains why it is so difficult for many individuals even to get near to awakening.

The sleep is comfortable. Many people choose for it as if under some kind of spell. However, the consequences are excruciatingly bad and will get worse and worse until…

We need a prince, a kiss, and a better future in which people may live as one. [see: “One Future, One World“]