“But
I do not lay down that this is equal in all beings. Heavenly and divine beings
have with them a judgment of great insight, an imperturbable will, and a power which
can effect their desires.
“But
human spirits must be more free when they keep themselves safe in the
contemplation of the mind of God; but less free when they sink into bodies, and
less still when they are bound by their earthly members.
“The
last stage is mere slavery, when the spirit is given over to vices and has
fallen away from the possession of its reason. For when the mind turns its eyes
from the light of truth on high to lower darkness, soon they are dimmed by the
clouds of ignorance, and become turbid through ruinous passions; by yielding to
these passions and consenting to them, men increase the slavery which they have
brought upon themselves, and their true liberty is lost in captivity.
“But
God, looking upon all out of the infinite, perceives the views of Providence,
and disposes each as its destiny has already fated for it according to its
merits: ‘He looketh over all and heareth all.’”
—from
Book 5, Prose 2
Perhaps
it was simply my eccentric interest in all things medieval, but I was
immediately taken by the concept of the “Great Chain of Being”. I had a college
professor, a scholar of the old school, who described it with such brilliance
and beauty that I could not help but come across it wherever I went. I deeply miss
that man; you won’t find ones like that anymore.
I would
look at all the scenes that passed before me in life, and I would suddenly no
longer see a messy hodgepodge. I noticed how things fit together, both in the
horizontal and in the vertical, each part playing a role, each part in the
service of the whole.
Who
needs all those fancy drugs when you can start thinking like that?
I could
blow my own mind by watching a dog chase a cat, or a man mow a lawn, or
hundreds of people milling about their business. There was actually an order, a
pattern to it all, even when the pieces did not necessarily understand what they
were doing.
From the
boundless and immovable center, that which alone can properly be called Being,
there are many emanations. They differ in the degrees of their perfection, some
containing this, and other containing that, and yet they are all intended for a
reason.
Go
closer to the source, and creatures become more complete. Go further from the
source, and they become less complete. A rock is not a fern, and a fern is not
a slug, and a slug is not man. In the end, a man is most certainly not a god.
“How
dare you say that a man is better than a slug!”
Nothing
that is meant to be is, strictly speaking, any better than anything else, for
the simple reason that is meant to be, by its own nature. No, in the way these
things exist they are either more or less independent, and therefore more or
less free.
The rock
does not think at all, and it is only moved by other things. The fern has life,
though it only grows and reproduces. The slug has sensation, but it has no
consciousness. A man, however, possesses reason, and so he also possesses
choice.
Does
this make man the pinnacle of creation? Hardly. Above him, think of creatures
of pure intellect and will, not bound to a body as we understand it, and so not limited by mortality.
Now think of what is even above that, and there you will find God, the ultimate
principle and measure, that by which all other things exist.
Where there
is more self-sufficient being, there is also greater freedom.
Human
nature fits in a wonderful place, and also a frightening place, a sort of point
in the middle. My mind can rise to the highest highs, if only I allow myself to
do so. My mind can also fall to the lowest lows, if only I allow myself to do
so.
Sometimes
I will feel called to greatness by my soul, and at other times I will feel
dragged down by the weakness of my body. These two aspects of myself should
work together, but I will often get the priorities confused.
The irony
of it all is that I am the one who actually chooses whether I am free or a
slave, at least in the ways that matter. My own judgements and decisions will determine
that. Which part of myself will I allow to rule me?
Am I
miserable because of my circumstances? Yes, I am beholden to them, but that was
my choice to begin with. I could have chosen very differently.
I can
still choose very differently now, while it remains in my power. I am sharing and
participating in my fate.
Written in 1/2016
IMAGE: The Chain of Being
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