Golden Seat – Lengthy Story
Dr. Earnest Holmes, founder of Religious Science (a New Thought ‘religion’) felt that Science, Religion and Philosophy could be
brought together. Science and religion are often viewed as antagonists in the quest for truth. A
conflict with origins in as far as antiquity: tension between Athens, ancient well-spring of secular
philosophy, and Jerusalem, symbol of revealed religious truth.
The Golden Seat’s purpose, besides being a pleasurable piece of art, is to harmonize Science, Religion and
Philosophy and to seek a grounding in the quest for Truth,
Beauty and Goodness.
In Part II of Bird by Bird - Some Instructions of Writing and Life, author
Anne Lamont opens the discussion on ‘The Writing Frame of Mind’:
“Writing is about learning to pay attention and to communicate what is going on. Now, if you ask me,
what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at
each other. Otherwise we’d all just be barking away like Pekingese: “Ah! Stuck in the shit! And
it’s your fault, you did this…” Writing involves seeing people suffer and, as Robert Stone once put it,
finding some meaning therein. But you can’t do that if you’re not respectful. If you look at people and
just see sloppy clothes or rich clothes, you’re going to get them wrong.”
Spiritual Discovery
The
Golden Seat’s ‘Frame of Mind’ is spiritual. The ‘Archimedean Point’, where we choose to stand, or to sit on a Golden Seat, in order to form the idea of the totality of
meaning, is Spiritual Discovery.
There are two grand movements in Religious/Philosophical matters:
Ascend: Matter to Spirit. The Many to One.
Transcendent. The path of wisdom.
Descend: Spirit to Matter. The One to Many. Immanence. The path of
compassion.
Transcendent philosophy takes its standpoint within eternal reality,
whereas Immanence philosophy takes its standpoint within temporal reality. In a broad sense this is
God and Goddess – as Eros, and Agape, Wisdom and Compassion, Ascent and Descent. Ascending Eros and
descending Agape, transcendence and immanence, the love that reaches up and the love that reaches
down.
In the secular philosophical view, we see the two grand movements depicted in
Raphael’s painting (1510), The School of
Athens. Plato (left) is pointing up
representing the ‘generalities’ and his belief in the The Forms (Ideals). This is the ascendant drive: matter
to spirit. On the right, Aristotle is pointing down, representing the ‘particulars’ and his belief in
knowledge through empirical observation and
experience. This is the descendant drive: spirit to matter.
In A Brief History of Everything, Ken Wilber, eminent American Philosopher, summarizes the
religious-spiritual view of the two grand movements:
“The war between Ascenders and the Descenders has been one of the central and defining conflicts in the Western
mind. Beginning with Augustine, the Ascenders and
the Descenders were in relentless and often brutal conflict, and this saddled the West with two completely
incompatible Gods.
…The God of the Ascenders was otherworldly to the core – my kingdom is not of this world. It was puritanical,
usually monastic and ascetic, and it saw the body, the flesh, and especially sex, as archetypal sins. It
sought always to flee the Many and find the One. It was purely transcendental, and was always pessimistic
about finding happiness in the world. It shunned time in favor of eternity, and hid its face in shame from
the shadows of the world.
…The God of the Descenders counseled exactly the opposite. It fled from the One into the embrace of the
Many. It was love with the visible, sensible God, and sometimes Goddess. It was a God of pure
immanence. Greater variety was the goal of this God, glory in the celebration of this diversity. It
celebrated the sense, and the body, and sexuality, and earth. And delighted in a creation-centered
spirituality that saw each sunrise, each moonrise and the visible blessing of the Divine.”
Mr. Wilber elaborates the “Father-Mother God” principle:
“If we ignore for the moment the more provincial and stage-specific notions of the horticultural Great Mother
as farming protectress, and the agrarian images of God the Father as a Big Daddy in the Sky – these mythic images
are not very useful for an overall picture – and if you look instead to the broad understanding of God and Goddess
(Father-Mother God) then the balanced picture that emerges is something like this:
The Masculine Face of Spirit (Father God) is preeminently Eros, the Ascending and transcendental current of the
Kosmos, ever-striving to find greater wholeness and wider unions, to break the limits and reach for the sky, to
rise to unending revelations of greater Good and Glory, always rejecting the shallower in search of the deeper,
rejecting the lower in search of the higher.
The Feminine Face of Spirit (Mother God) is preeminently Agape, or Compassion, the Descending and immanent and
manifesting current of the Kosmos, the principle of embodiment, and bodily incarnation, and relationship, and
relational and manifest embrace, touching each and every being with perfect and equal grace, rejecting nothing,
embracing all.
Where Father God strives for the Good of the One transcendental wisdom, Mother God embraces the Many with Goodness
and immanent care.”
The Golden Seat seeks to harmonize both the Ascending and the Descending
movements. To embrace the healthy and heal the unhealthy. To not be repressive and at the same
time not being regressive (ie, to go back to the ‘acorn’ – some imagined ‘pristine’ state of nature; that
the ‘oak tree is somehow a horrible violation the acorn’).
When our Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, said, “Seek and you shall
find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7), He was explicitly speaking of Spiritual
Discovery. All the major spiritual leaders, Jesus,
Buddha, Muhammad, were aware that humankind is engaged in a process that leads us toward higher
understanding of ourselves, the world and God. Taking a higher understanding of our Lord, we reexamine
his major themes:
1) Redemption. Free from the consequences of sin – ‘missing the mark’. The greatest tragedy of
institutional religion is when it says to fear God, that vengeful god. Those that purport so are separate
from God and are dark. The one ‘sin’ to watch out for is the despair – that is what darkness lives off
of.
2) Healer. The most important thing to know as a healer is the mind. The power of the mind can create
illnesses, but it also can cure illnesses. "Physician, heal thyself" (Luke 4:23).
3) Savior. To save oneself not from a subterranean 'hell' but from the hell on Earth; to perfect and not come
back. The word salvation means “salve” or “balm to the soul” To remain whole, to be in good
health. And everyone, atheist, agnostic, skeptic and believer alike, is trying to stay in good mental health,
to keep their psyche or spirit (or whatever they call it) intact, to keep body and soul together. They’re
trying to avert chaos at the individual level.
4) Forgiveness. Our Lord forgave the Romans who crucified him because they, too, were ‘sons’ of God and that
within each of us is the spark of the Divine.
5) Christian message: Love. Love your brother and help the poor (it's a philosophy).
Caution: be very careful not to pick up somebody else’s Karma while they are living – you don’t want to get
caught in the ‘Dome’ of someone else. It is a very spiritual thing to ask yourself what is good for
you. That is not being selfish. “What am I getting out of it?” It you keep coming up with big
zeros, do not do it anymore. Helping the ‘poor’ has limitations; even they have lessons to learn.
In his book, I Love Jesus, I hate Christianity, author Kim Michaels tells us:
“Because we have greater understanding of the material world and human psychology today that was the case 2,000 years
ago, we also have the foundation for receiving a deeper understanding of the spiritual side of life.
When our Lord said ‘I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now’ (John, 16:12), his
purpose was to come to the people of his time to overcome their spiritual blindness. Some Christians
will say that the leadership of their church is in communion with Christ and is constantly being led by
him. However, for the past 2,000 years no mainstream Christian church has been willing to
recognize any new revelations (truths) from Jesus. The vast majority of Christian churches affirm the
belief that Jesus has had not to say to humanity beyond what he said in the official scriptures…I believe
Jesus came to this planet partly to call us to change our view of God so that we could develop a more mature
and sophisticated relationship to God. Human beings have an element in psyches that resists change, and
this element cause us to be blind to the necessity for change. When we suffer from this spiritual
blindness, we tend to reject the messengers of change that God sends to us. It is through understanding
and knowledge that will empower us to overcome the resistance to change.”
At the conclusion of her book, Beyond Belief, Elaine Pagels, Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion,
Princeton University, writes:
“We have also seen the hazards—even terrible harm—that sometimes result from unquestioning acceptance of
religious authority. Most of us, sooner or later, fine that, at critical points in our lives, we must strike
out on our own to make a path where none exists. What I have come to love in the wealth and diversity of our
religious traditions—and the communities that sustain them—is that they offer the testimony of innumerable people
to spiritual discovery. Thus they encourage those who endeavor, in Jesus’ words, to ‘seek and you shall
find.’ “
Higher Knowledge
The Golden
Seat is all about knowledge. What is
spirituality? Knowledge, and more knowledge (mystical knowledge is another word, but people typically take
that as something that is beyond grasp, or above God’s law, so ‘Metaphysical’ Knowledge is the better word). Metaphysical knowledge is a curative;
people are brought to their own level of salvation. To save oneself from the possessions of ignorance, of
pain, of sorrow, of stubbornness, of stupidity, of addiction. Fighting ignorance is the good fight,
where ignorance means separation from Light and Enlightenment. If there is any darkness in the world that
abounds, if there is any evil that creeps, it is ignorance. Enlightenment is when we learn not get too
earthbound (Lower Mind); to not reside in the body, but above the body (Higher Mind). To realize
that the world is full of deception (it has to be that way or we would not perfect). The goal is to keep
oneself elevated enough so that you get through the muck and to at least try to help others.
It is uncomfortable to be guilty of ignorance, but looking at that positivity, that guilt helps us to hone our
senses. We are all human. It is a terrible strain to set ourselves to be perfect. It is a
terrible burden to be always right, always wonderful, always great, always perfect. And we do get audited –
for that makes us an example for others. Tenacity is a great trait, for if you do not give up you will
succeed. You keep on going regardless of personalities, who you like or don’t like, you will win. When
we rise above ignorance, we have less pettiness to deal with.
The truths in ‘rising above ignorance’ is also found in the ancient text of
the Buddhist:
The noble truth deals with the cause of all suffering, which is
clinging or grasping. It is a futile grasping of life based on the wrong point of view, which is called
ignorance. Out of this ignorance we divide the perceived world into individual and separate things and thus
attempt to combine all the reality into fixed categories created by the mind. As long as this view prevails,
we are bound to experience frustration after frustration, trying to cling to things and people which we see as firm
and persistent, but which, in fact, are transient and every changing.
We are thus trapped in a vicious circle where every action generates further action, and the answer to each
question poses a new question. This vicious circle is known as the round of birth and death and is driven by
karma, the never ending chain of cause and effect. This suffering and frustration can be ended when we know
that all things are transient. It is possible then to transcend or to ascend from this vicious circle to free
one’s self from the bondage of our lessons and to reach a state of total liberation.
Sources of Knowledge
Mr.
Michaels informs that ‘we have the foundation for receiving a deeper understanding the spiritual side of
life’. In discussing knowledge it is important to address the Sources of Knowledge.
The figures within The Golden Seat are people and Angles. And
its key proposition is that ‘Angels Exist’. If you ask people who truly believe in angels “how do you know
they exist?” They’ll confidently say, “I don’t have to prove it, I just believe”.
Institutional philosophers will use the classic Theories of Truth to argue the question of
belief.
In his integral-style book ‘The Good, the True and the Beautiful – A Quest
for Meaning’, Mr. Michael Boylan, professor of philosophy (Marymount University, VA), discusses the limits of
rational analysis:
‘…rationality seeks to demonstrably to prove all propositions [eg,”the
sum of the interior angles of a triangle is 180 degrees” to “God Exists”]. In cases in which there is no
empirical test for verifying a principle, all the best reason can do is to offer various plausible
alternatives. The resolution can only come about through appeal to the personal worldview
imperative.”
The institutional philosopher’s arguments are based from a Source of
Knowledge from an immanence standpoint (temporal reality – memory, observation, perception). Because “St.
Patrick said so”, the institutional theist and his flock took it on blind faith that there are three persons in the Trinity. Modern Metaphysical Spirituality takes a transcendent standpoint to the
divine. It is almost a knowing that angels exist (or, for that matter, that God exist).
In Ken Wilber’s lexicon, ‘personal worldview imperative’ is the Upper Left
Quad – that of the individual and his or her’s interior awareness – the ‘intentional’ of AQAL. Interior awareness is the home of intuitive
knowledge: ‘vibrations’; ‘ to feel in one’s ‘bones’; ‘gut feeling’; ‘ a hunch’ – BELIEF.
The highest source of knowledge transcends propositional philosophy which
seeks to understand by exploration and investigation and to reach conclusions by reason rather than by intuition. With intuition it is difficult to communicate
what is or an inner knowing because it is internal to oneself. Interpretation of
experiences and thoughts is required - “you know what I mean?” is often said when were faced with the difficulty of
interpretation.
All the pure externalists (the empirical-rational deductive camp) will object
to the intuitive stance. Intellectuals insist on logical deductions to prove something. However,
in regards to Belief, the logical thinker must acknowledge that ‘to grasp the basis of phenomena through logical
thought may be impossible since logical thought is itself a part of the phenomena and wholly involved in
them.’
Sometimes the use of an image or picture is better than a rational
explanation (even though its ‘fitness’ cannot be strictly proven). Going back to Belief, an endearing picture
would be the lovable grandmotherish ‘Oracle’ of the movie The
Matrix and asking her, “do angels exist?”. Our ‘heart of hearts’, would expect her to reply,
“of course my dear, and when you leave this room you’ll feel right as rain”.
Of course, there are non-believers who don’t believe that angels
exist. And that is all perfectly well, for one can still enjoy the beauty of a Chagall painting and yet
not believe in ‘flying angles’.
A ‘Win-Win’ Philosophy
"You're always going to
fall down and you got to get up. That's the key to life.”
Bill 'Spaceman' Lee, Boston Red Sox Pitcher (1969-1978)
Besides Spiritual Discovery and Higher Knowledge, another ‘Frame of Mind’ of
the Golden Seat is the belief in a ‘Win-Win’ philosophy.
In his ground-breaking book, Nonzero, author Robert Wright discusses the
overall benefits non-zero-sum solutions:
“Non-zero-sumgames, unlike zero-sumgames,
can have “win-win” outcomes. People sometimes think of them as orgies of amiability, they can be, but they
usually are not. Almost always, with a non-zero-sum game, there is a dimension of zero-sumness – a conflict of
interest.
For example, when you buy a new car, there is a range of prices that make the purchase worthwhile from you point of
view (say, anything under $28K) and a range of prices that make the sale profitable for the dealer (say, anything
over $27K). Since there is overlap of those ranges – the possibility of an outcome that improves the
fortunes of both players – the game is non-zero-sum. But there is still a conflict of interest, because the
closer the price is to $27K the better for you, and the closer it is to $28K the better for the dealer.
Movement along the spectrum between $27K and $28K is entirely zero-sum, because it lowers the fortunes of one
player exactly as it raises the fortunes of the other player. Hence bargaining, which can sometimes lead to
deception, suspicion, buyer’s remorse, and so on. The bargaining can also lead to the deal’s falling through
– a lose-lose outcome, since each player has missed out on the gain that a deal would have brought.
But a lose-lose outcome makes a game a non-zero-sum. An outcome that’s negative for both parties doesn’t add
up to zero; there is a correlation of fortunes between the players, even if it’s for the worst. Besides,
avoiding a double loss is, in relative terms a least, a kind of double win. The decades-long nuclear standoff
during the Cold War was thus nonzero-sum – not because each year of successfully avoided nuclear war brought
mutual, tangible gain, but because, if the game had been played differently, it could have brought mutual, tangible
loss. The non-zero-sum dynamic brought a kind of tolerance; though East and West considered each other more
or less evil, neither tried to wipe out the other.”
The ‘non-zero-sum’ philosophy can be applied to religious tolerance in that
tolerance is more likely when you see yourself as losing from intolerance, regardless of whether the situation
seems zero-sum or non-zero-sum. When the situation is seen as non-zero-sum, when both sides see themselves
losing, then mutual tolerance makes sense. Throughout the ages history has shown that people with other
world-views had to come together for mutual gain. A principle in motion since antiquity: the championing
inter-faith tolerance and mutual respect.
When people face win-win situations and think they can work together, they
are open to one another’s worldview, not to mention one another’s continued existence. To share a stake in
the success. An economic example of a ‘lose-lose’ mentality is when labor leaders view markets as closed -
someone’s got to lose for another to win.
In his presidency, Bill Clinton commented on the value of holding a Win-Win
philosophy:
“But in game theory, a zero-sum game is one where, in order for one
person to win, somebody has to lose. A non-zero-sum game is a game in which you can win and the person you're
playing with can win, as well. And the argument of the book is that, notwithstanding all the terrible things that
happened in the 20th century--the abuses of science by the Nazis, the abuses of organization by the communists, all
the things that continue to be done in the name of religious or political purity--essentially, as societies grow
more and more connected, and we become more interdependent, one with the other, we are forced to find more and more
non-zero-sum solutions. That is, ways in which we can all win".
"And that's basically the message I've been trying to preach for eight
years here...We have to have an expanding idea of who is in our family. And we in the United States, because we're
so blessed, have particular responsibilities to people not only within our borders who have been left behind, but
beyond our borders who otherwise will never catch up if we don't do our part. Because we are all part of the same
human family, and because, actually, life is more and more a non-zero-sum game, so that the better they do, the
better we'll do.” (Applause)
Nonzero is a sort of a reverse social Darwinism: the more complex societies
get and the more complex the networks of interdependence within and beyond community and national borders get, the
more people are forced in their own interests to find non-zero-sum solutions. The pressing goal for a healthy
future is to find win-win solutions instead of win-lose solutions.
President Clinton continues to discuss the argument for a non-zero
outlook:
“…to succeed, even in positions of leadership, where there is a competition for the
position, the measure of success is not so much whether you won at somebody else's expense, but whether you got
what you wanted because you enabled other people to achieve their dreams and to do what they want.”
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