When God Dies . . .

Integration Into the Void

One of the heralding cries of our age is, "Go East, young man."  There is a sub-set of Western culture which, either consciously or unconsciously moves towards Eastern mysticism.  The theme has been running for several decades now.  

What is the appeal?

In 1919, W. B. Yeats wrote The Second Coming as a reflection upon the meaningless devastation of World War I.  What would flow from it?  How would Western civilization dance now, and to what tune?

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

Yeats had no hope--and for good reason.  When the falcon can no longer hear the falconer, things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.  Why was (and is) the West falling apart?  This is not a hard question.  It's blindingly obvious.

Vishal Mangalwadi helps us face up to the obvious, referring to Nietzsche, who was of the generation  which preceded  W. B. Yeats.

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (AD 1844-1900) realized that having killed God, Europe could not possibly save the civilizational fruits of its faith in God.  But not even Nitzsche realized that one philosophical implication of God's demise would be the death of his own self.

For fifteen hundred years prio to Nietzsche, the West had followed St Augustine (AD 354-430) in affirming every human being as a trinity of existence (being), intellect, and will.  After denying the existence of the Divine Self, it became impossible to affirm the existence of the human self.  Therefore, many intellectuals are reverting to the Buddhist idea that the self is an illusion.  As contemporary Jungian psychologist Paul Kuglar explained, in the postmodern philosophy, Nietzsche (the speaking subject) is dead--he never existed, for individuality is only an illusion created by language.  [Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book That Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization (Nashville, Tn: Thomas Nelson, 2011), p.6f.]

Kill the falconer, and the falcon cannot function.  The falcon dies.  Kill God, and human existence becomes meaningless.  The "right way", in that case, is to scrape off any vestige of significance or meaning to life and existence, and embrace the empty void.  Personhood is "only an illusion created by language".

It is of no surprise, then, that the East has begun to sing a Siren song to the West.  Give it up.  All of it.  There is no personhood.  There is no existence.  There is only the void.  This was (and remains) the great call of the Buddha.  Integration into the void is the only destination.  To resist it, or dispute it, or refuse to submit to it is both meaningless and nonsensical.

To understand this, to face up to it, and to embrace it, is The Way.  The promise of Bethlehem is a mirage, a false hope.  Now, instead, we understand what Bethlehem was really about.  Now we understand that it was a myth. Instead of one born who is the Saviour of the world, the "rough beast" is coming; it is upon us.

    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[W B Yeats, The Second Coming]

Arise, O Lord and defend your people from this slouching rough beast.