Is ecstasy enlightenment? Is enlightenment ecstasy?

Ecstasy is more than enlightenment.

Enlightenment is more than ecstasy.

Inside a pinched and contracted person everything is boundless.

There is a Light of lights, and when one sees it no questions remain.

There is nothing more beautiful.

One feels secure, trust.

One is satisfied in the Light’s presence, whatever death is.

Whether one lives on in some form or other, goes through hell, purgatory, heaven or nothing, or never lives again – one lives forever now.

One asks nothing of the Light, no more than just to be.

Who shall I say sends me, asks Moses. Tell them Just Is sends you.

I do not know if the Light heals illness, makes for longevity or success, or does anything except bring a smile in your heart.

Truth is, I may not be aware of smiling or not. Just a kind of seeing and feeling.

(from Michael Eigen, ‘Ecstasy’)

Non-violence as the Practice of Agape love

The following text is excerpted from Martin Luther King Jr.'s book "Strive Towards Freedom" (1958). In this section, King articulates six principles of non-violence which he believes reflect the political and moral embodiment of AGAPE love, as first practiced by Gandhi.


"First, it must be emphasized that nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist. If one used this method because he is afraid, he is not truly nonviolent. That is why Gandhi often said that if cowardice is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight. He made this statement conscious of the fact that there is always another alternative: no individual or group need ever submit to any wrong, nor need they use violence to right the wrong; there is the way of nonviolent resistance. This is ultimately the way for the strong man. It is not a method of stagnant passivity. The phrase "passive resistance" often gives the false impression that this is a sort of "do-nothing method" in which the resister quietly and passively accepts evil. But nothing is further from the truth. For while the nonviolent resister is passive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent, his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade his opponents that he is wrong. The method is passive physically, but strongly active spiritually. It is not passive resistance to evil, it is active nonviolent resistant to evil.

"A second basic fact that characterizes nonviolence is that is does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding. The nonviolent resister may often express his protest through noncooperation or boycotts, but he realizes that these are not ends in themselves; they are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The end is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.

"A third characteristic of this method is that the attack is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil. It is evil that the nonviolent resister seeks to defeat, not the person victimized by the evil. If he is opposing racial injustice, the nonviolent resister has the vision to see that the basic tension is not between races. As I like to say to the people in Montgomery: "The tension in the city is not between white people and Negro people. The tension is, at bottom, between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. And if there is a victory, it will be a victory not merely for 50,000 Negroes, but a victory for justice and the forces of light. We are out there to defeat injustice and not white persons who may be unjust."

"A fourth point that characterizes nonviolent resistance is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation, to accept blows from the opponent without striking back. "Rivers of blood may have to flow before we gain our freedom, but is must be our blood," Gandhi said to his countrymen. The nonviolent resister is willing to accept violence if necessary, but never to inflict it. He does not seek to dodge jail. If going to jail is necessary, he enters it "as a bridegroom enters the bride's chamber."

"One may well ask: "What is the nonviolent resister's justification for this ordeal to which he invites men, for this mass political application of the ancient doctrine of turning the other cheek?" The answer is found in the realization that unearned suffering is redemptive. Suffering, the nonviolent resister realizes, has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities. "Things of fundamental importance to people are not secured by reason alone, but have to be purchased with their suffering," said Gandhi. He continued: "Suffering is infinitely more powerful than the law of the jungle for converting the opponent and opening his ears which are otherwise shut to the voice of reason."

"A fifth point concerning nonviolent resistance is that it avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him. At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. The nonviolent resister would contend that in the struggle for human dignity, the oppressed people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of lour lives.

"In speaking of love at this point, we are not referring to some sentimental or affectionate emotion. It would be nonsense to urge men to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense. Love in this connection means understanding, redemptive good will. Here the Greek language comes to our aid. There are three words for love in the Greek New testament. First, there is eros. In Platonic philosophy eros meant the yearning of the soul for the realm of the divine. It has come now to mean a sort of aesthetic or romantic love. Second, there is philia which means intimate affection between personal friends. Philia denotes a sort of reciprocal love; the person loves because he is loved. When we speak of loving those who oppose us, we refer to neither eros nor philia; we speak of love which is expressed in the Greek word Agape. Agape means understanding, redeeming good will for all men. It is an overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless, and creative. It is not set in motion by any quality or function of its object. It is the love of God operating in the human heart.

"Agape is disinterested love. It is a love in which the individual seeks not his own good, but the good of his neighbor (1 Cor. 10-24). 'Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people, or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes. It is an entirely "neighbor-regarding concern for others," which discovers the neighbor in every man it meets. Therefore, agape makes no distinction between friend and enemy; it is directed toward both. If one loves an individual merely on account of his friendliness, he loves him for the sake of benefits to be gained from the friendship, rather than for the friend's sake. Consequently, the best way to assure oneself that love is disinterested is to have love for the enemy-neighbor from whom you can expect no good in return, but only hostility and persecution.

"Another basic point about agape is that it springs from the need of the other person - his need for belonging to the best of the human family. The Samaritan who helped the Jew in the Jericho Road was "good" because he responded to the human need that he was presented with. God's love is eternal and fails not because man needs his love. St. Paul assures us that the loving act of redemption was done "while we were yet sinners" - that is, at the point of our greatest need for love. Since the white man's personality is greatly distorted by segregation, and his soul is greatly scarred, he needs the love of the Negro. The Negro must love the white man, because the white man needs his love to remove his tensions, insecurities and fears. Agape is not a weak, passive love. It is love in action. Agape is love seeking to preserve and create community. It is insistence on community even when one seeks to break it. Agape is a willingness to sacrifice in the interest of mutuality. Agape is a willingness to go to any length to restore community. It doesn't stop at the first mile, but goes the second mile to restore community. The cross is the eternal expression of the length to which God will go in order to restore broken community. The resurrection is a symbol of God's triumph over all the forces that that seek to block community. The Holy Spirit is the continuing community creating reality that moves through history. He who works against community is working against the whole of creation. Therefore, if I respond to hate with a reciprocal hate I do nothing but intensify the cleavage in broken community. I can only close the gap in broken community by meeting hate with love. If I meet hate with hate, I become depersonalized, because creation is so designed that my personality can only be fulfilled in the context of community. Booker T. Washington was right:"Let no man pull you so low that he makes you hate him." When he pulls you that low he brings you to the point of working against community; he drags you to the point of defying creation, and thereby becoming depersonalized.

"In the final analysis, agape means recognition of the fact that all life is interrelated. All humanity is involved in a single process, and all men are brothers. To the degree that I harm my brother, no matter what he is doing to me, to that extent I am harming myself. For example, white men often refuse federal aid to education in order to avoid giving the Negro his rights; but because all men are brothers they cannot deny Negro children without harming their own. They end, all efforts to the contrary, by hurting themselves. Why is this? Because men are brothers. If you harm me, you harm yourself.

"Love, agape, is the only cement that can hold this broken community together. When I am commanded to love, I am commanded to restore community, to resist injustice, to meet the needs of my brothers.

"A sixth basic fact about nonviolent resistance is that it is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice. Consequently, the believer in nonviolence has deep faith in the future. This faith is another reason why the nonviolent resister can accept suffering without retaliation. For he knows that in his struggle for justice he has cosmic companionship. It is true that there are devout believers in nonviolence who find it difficult to believe in a personal God. But even these persons believe in the existence of some creative force that works for universal wholeness. Whether we call it an unconscious process, an impersonal Brahman, or a Personal Being of matchless power and infinite love, there is a creative force in this universe that works to bring the disconnected aspects of reality into a harmonious whole."

Philosophy 114 Syllabus

Wesleyan University
Fall 2006
PHIL 114: Philosophy of Love
Mon-Wed 2:40-4 pm
SCIE 109

Dr. Justin Good
vood@cummings-good.com


Course Description

This class offers an introduction to the interdisciplinary study of a classic humanistic subject and topic of instinctive human concern: the rich cosmos of phenomena we oversimplify with the word love. In the course, we shall work individually and collectively to understand and articulate the vast web of meanings, cultural experiences and psycho-biological processes concealed within this mystifying, yet perpetually expressive, unitary sign. Our study will begin with classical political philosophy and theology, passing on to consider romanticism in the mythic tradition of the love story, and then on to classical and neo-Freudian psychology, evolutionary biology and systems theory, ecoanarchofeminism, ecological economics, and finally Buddhist psychology.

Our researches will reveal at least ten concepts (or aspects of the concept) of love, including:

1. Eros
2. Agape
3. Amour
4. Libido
5. Adaptation
6. Tantra
7. Limbic Resonance
8. Amargi
9. Cupiditas
10. Karuna.

Required Texts

1. Plato, Symposium

2. Joseph Bedier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult

3. Stephen Mitchell, Can Love Last? The Fate of Romance Through Time

4. Toru Sato, The Ever-Transcending Spirit: The Psychology of Human Relationships, Consciousness, and Development

5. Lewis Hyde, The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property

6. Thich Nhat Hanh, Teachings on Love

There will be additional readings online.


Course Requirements

1. Two short papers and two medium papers (70%)
2. Class participation (30%)
3. Mandatory attendance. After three unexcused absences, your grade will be impacted by one-half letter grade for each unexcused absence after that. After a total of six unexcused absences, the student will receive an incomplete for the course.

Schedule

9/6 Introduction to the Philosophy of Love

Part One: Love as Revolution (the absolute)

Classical political philosophy, theology and love ethics
How can love make you a better person?

9/11-9/20 (Eros) Socrates and Erotic Ascent
What does the satisfaction of desire promise?

Req. Plato, Symposium

9/25 (Agape) Jesus and Kierkegaard on God and Love
Why is the neighbor lovable?

Req.

1. Old Testament, Genesis

2. New Testament, Gospel of Matthew

3. 1 Corinthians 13

Recommended.

1. Soren Kierkegaard, Selection from Works of Love


9/27 FIRST PAPER DUE

Part Two: Romanticism and its Discontents (individuality)

Individuality, neurosis and the metaphysics of sexual passion
Is passion compatible with happiness?

9/27-10/4 (Amour) Archetypes of the romantic love story
Why must the lovers always overcome obstructions?

Req. Joseph Bedier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult

10/9-10/11 (Libido) Freud’s hydraulic theory of sexual energy

How is sexual neurosis possible and how is it overcome?

Req:

1. Sigmund Freud, ‘Case History of Anna O.’

2. Sigmund Freud, ‘On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the
Sphere of Love.’ handout
Rec. Sigmund Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex

No class 10/16.

Part Three: Love’s Place in the Natural World (systems)

Strange loops, selfish genes and the evolution of relatedness

What are the evolutionary possibilities of love?

10/18 (Adaptation) Entropy, natural selection and the logic of mating

Who do your genes want you to date?

Required reading:

1. Outline of evolutionary psychology

2. Outline of the evolutionary psychology of sex

3. PBS Video clip on sexual selection


10/23-11/1 (Tantra) Romantic intimacy as the fusion of familiarity and otherness

How do we love romantically without clinging?

Req. Stephen Mitchell, Can Love Last?


11/1 SECOND PAPER DUE


11/6-11/13 (Limbic resonance) Systems-theory and thermodynamics of attention

How do we steal energy from each other?

Req. Toru Sato, The Ever-Transcending Spirit: The Psychology of Human Relationships, Consciousness, and Development

Part Four: Erotic Life of Things (the biotic community)

Patriarchy, market society and the Buddhist economics of abundance

11/15 (Amargi) Ecofeminism and spiritual hermaphroditism

How do we overcome patriarchy?

Special Visiting Lecturer: Philosopher Xena Taylor

Req. bell hooks, ‘Understanding patriarchy’


11/27 THIRD PAPER DUE


11/20-12/4 (Cupiditas) Gift economics, ownership and the nature of community

What does market society do to love?

Req. Lewis Hyde, The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property

Special Visiting Lecturer: Artist/Photographer/Journalist Caryn Davis


12/6-12/11 (Karuna) Mindfulness, biophilia and ahimsa

How is the ego transcended?

Req. Thich Nhat Hanh, Teachings on Love

12/20 FOURTH PAPER DUE