Imagine
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today...
I do not need to imagine ALL the people living for today. I’ve seen such people both individually and en masse. They were not doing any better than the rest of us. They quickly rediscover that heaven isn't above and hell isn't below; human heart already contains heaven and hell.
Chesterton famously observed that original sin is the only Christian doctrine that is empirically provable. A moral relativist still draws a line somewhere. The bar can be set very low; it does not matter. In no time these self-imposed rules are broken and self-imposed lines are crossed. Not only do we disobey the rules imposed on us; we are equally powerless to obey our own rules. Theologians call this propensity concupiscence. This inclination is not sin, although yielding to it is sin.
What causes concupiscence? The Protestants say it is total depravity. Our nature itself became sinful after the Fall. Even if we accept such an answer (and most of denominations do not), the question remains as to what part of our heart harbors such inclinations. Flesh is weak, we all agree on that, but what is it that makes it weak?
It was nearly a 1000 years ago when an honest answer to this question was given, by Maimonides; I do not think there was ever a better answer. Precisely for this reason it has been forgotten.
According to Rambam, the seat of evil inclination is what people consider to be a wonderful and positive thing, perhaps even a divine gift; that is, their imagination.
It was imagination that was the cause of the Fall and the perdition of humankind.
...Imagination is not a "notion" to be analyzed by some "rational" methodology, either scientific or philosophical, but is itself a peculiar thinking process. This mental process represents an inferior mode of thought and a retrogression from Adam's ability to reason. Before sinning, human language consisted of names. Language was capable of predication, but it excluded syntax and therefore transference of meaning. Without transference of meaning, imagination is inoperative. Things could neither be perceived "as" something else, nor be identified with other beings and ideas. Adam's sin consisted in displacing this mental process in favor of imagination. Human imagination is capable of making syllogisms and arguments appearing to be true [=transference of meaning]-something which the imagination of other animals cannot do.... The snake (which in Hebrew sounds like “divination”) was regarded by [the Rabbis] as the imaginative faculty, as it is peculiar to diviners which leads to corruption.
... Divination represents transference of meaning, whereby a peculiar phenomenon is associated with a specific augury, and thus it is perceived not per se, but "as" a something else. In "seeing as" , the "as" is not a part of the object itself. Rather, it "represents" something which is not being perceived. This type of perception involves a fundamental process of transformation and displacement: through reflexive associations the object per se is displaced and perceived "as." This transference of meaning is at the core of the first sin. http://www.josefaurstudies.org/_Maimonides_on_Imagination_Towards_a_Theory_of_Jewish_Aesthetics_by_Jose_Faur.pdf
Reason carves objects into parts and seeks the distinctions between the particular and the universal according to their reality and cause. Imagination is associative; it links disparate and incompatible. It combines things that in reality are separate into a single facultative body. Imagination is incapable of true abstraction. It blocks intellectual perception and distorts reality. Adam fell because he abandoned the intellectual realm in which there is only truth and falsehood to the imaginative realm, in which there is good and evil.
We all share in this deficiency; the best we can do about it is to subjugate imagination to reason. Only imagination that is fully embraced by reason can receive divine emanation of wisdom. The ones in whom this ability is most advanced become prophets. Concupiscence exists because we imagine disobeying that cannot be rationalized.
There is no better way to introduce heaven and hell than to imagine a world without heaven and hell. You do not even need to do the latter part. Just -
Imagine.
Blessed be the one who does not lead evil inclination rule over us.
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today...
I do not need to imagine ALL the people living for today. I’ve seen such people both individually and en masse. They were not doing any better than the rest of us. They quickly rediscover that heaven isn't above and hell isn't below; human heart already contains heaven and hell.
Chesterton famously observed that original sin is the only Christian doctrine that is empirically provable. A moral relativist still draws a line somewhere. The bar can be set very low; it does not matter. In no time these self-imposed rules are broken and self-imposed lines are crossed. Not only do we disobey the rules imposed on us; we are equally powerless to obey our own rules. Theologians call this propensity concupiscence. This inclination is not sin, although yielding to it is sin.
What causes concupiscence? The Protestants say it is total depravity. Our nature itself became sinful after the Fall. Even if we accept such an answer (and most of denominations do not), the question remains as to what part of our heart harbors such inclinations. Flesh is weak, we all agree on that, but what is it that makes it weak?
It was nearly a 1000 years ago when an honest answer to this question was given, by Maimonides; I do not think there was ever a better answer. Precisely for this reason it has been forgotten.
According to Rambam, the seat of evil inclination is what people consider to be a wonderful and positive thing, perhaps even a divine gift; that is, their imagination.
It was imagination that was the cause of the Fall and the perdition of humankind.
...Imagination is not a "notion" to be analyzed by some "rational" methodology, either scientific or philosophical, but is itself a peculiar thinking process. This mental process represents an inferior mode of thought and a retrogression from Adam's ability to reason. Before sinning, human language consisted of names. Language was capable of predication, but it excluded syntax and therefore transference of meaning. Without transference of meaning, imagination is inoperative. Things could neither be perceived "as" something else, nor be identified with other beings and ideas. Adam's sin consisted in displacing this mental process in favor of imagination. Human imagination is capable of making syllogisms and arguments appearing to be true [=transference of meaning]-something which the imagination of other animals cannot do.... The snake (which in Hebrew sounds like “divination”) was regarded by [the Rabbis] as the imaginative faculty, as it is peculiar to diviners which leads to corruption.
... Divination represents transference of meaning, whereby a peculiar phenomenon is associated with a specific augury, and thus it is perceived not per se, but "as" a something else. In "seeing as" , the "as" is not a part of the object itself. Rather, it "represents" something which is not being perceived. This type of perception involves a fundamental process of transformation and displacement: through reflexive associations the object per se is displaced and perceived "as." This transference of meaning is at the core of the first sin. http://www.josefaurstudies.org/_Maimonides_on_Imagination_Towards_a_Theory_of_Jewish_Aesthetics_by_Jose_Faur.pdf
Reason carves objects into parts and seeks the distinctions between the particular and the universal according to their reality and cause. Imagination is associative; it links disparate and incompatible. It combines things that in reality are separate into a single facultative body. Imagination is incapable of true abstraction. It blocks intellectual perception and distorts reality. Adam fell because he abandoned the intellectual realm in which there is only truth and falsehood to the imaginative realm, in which there is good and evil.
We all share in this deficiency; the best we can do about it is to subjugate imagination to reason. Only imagination that is fully embraced by reason can receive divine emanation of wisdom. The ones in whom this ability is most advanced become prophets. Concupiscence exists because we imagine disobeying that cannot be rationalized.
There is no better way to introduce heaven and hell than to imagine a world without heaven and hell. You do not even need to do the latter part. Just -
Imagine.
Blessed be the one who does not lead evil inclination rule over us.
Click to view