Longing for Animism: Intimacy With Landscapes And Other Dreck

[tagonist]

I've suddenly started working seven days a week, which has cut into my thinking time somewhat, and I've been absent from this blog now for longer than I care to think about. I'm also frustrated by an as-yet-unfinished post on Oomoto and the concept of "mazeways"- the techniques people use to accomplish their goals which, while delineated by culture

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[amnesiadust]

Let me freeload awhile on the admiration train: While I usually like your posts, I agree with the others that this one is unusually thought-provoking. I've always been interested in deconstructing religious thought, less to be free of it than to try and discover what really is fundamental about it.

Thanks also for the link to American Gods. I like what I've read of Neil Gaiman's work, but in these days of infinite reading material it helps to have some directions pointed, and that one looks unusually good, at least from the blurb.

A few off-the-cuff thoughts:

I'm listening to Deep Forest as I type. Kind of ironic in its relevance to the authenticity question, so it's interesting to ask whence its appeal -- as contemporary electronic music which synthesizes influences from other cultural landscapes, or as "world music" which allegedly represents the people from whom samples of traditional tunes were taken? I suppose a bit of both -- the primal, poignant, and distant capture the imagination, though I'm all too aware of the danger of taking such, romanticized and sanitized for the Western ear, as representative of the "original".

Your notion that ritual should precede the systematizing thereof, and in particular that ritual is associated with geography, ties neatly into the general malaise of globalization. I can understand the modern appeal of Buddhism as "blankness" -- it is infinitely portable because, while its traditional mythology may appeal to those seeking something more exotic, the landscape of its particulars are almost totally internalized; while its message synergizes well with local folk religions, including the theme of reincarnation, it specifically does not treat cosmology directly. It is spartan and elegant in its minimalism. This is part of why it appeals so much to me personally (as one who once had designs to pursue theoretical physics I confess to having been instilled with such an aesthetic), although I agree that one needs some kind of color for the daily practice thereof in order to hold one's attention enough to, well, practice; aikido training helped as a placeholder for a while. In this last regard I'm a pretty crappy Buddhist.

Re: that the rituals be useful -- yes. I've heard it argued that one reason for the exaggerated tales of the death of "religion" (read: Christianity as well as the religions of indigenous peoples) in recent years is that modern science is starting to demonstrate, e.g., that the utility of sacrificing a goat for making your crops grow doesn't hold a candle to nitrate fertilizer made from petrochemicals. But it seems clear from the continued evolution and diversification of religious opinion in modern times that science has had a greater influence through technology, by accelerating globalization, than it has had through the attempts of some to bestow "scientific" values on the world's population.

Indeed, I've been watching with some unease and distaste at ongoing attempts to repackage Science (or French Enlightenment atheistic rationality) as the religion of the Western world in the 21st century -- see e.g. Sam Harris's attempt, and Sean Carroll's rebuttal, they're really on the same team although they disagree in particulars. There is, I suppose, a sort of cultish mythology growing up around the personalities of opinionated scientific public figures like Einstein, Feynman, and Sagan, although it seems that if you asked any of them what their religious beliefs were, they presumably would not answer "science". In that respect, the devotee of Science could hope only to try and recapture some sense of the primary experience of these figures, as Alan Watts suggested in Behold the Spirit that Christians should do for Jesus, and as Gautama himself invited any newcomer to Buddhism to do.

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[tagonist]

Two quibbly points worth noting- First, if you asked Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, and Carl Sagan what their religions were, all three would say "Jewish." Judaism is a non-proselytizing world religion, that has survived in the absence of charismatic personalities, an organized body, or anything remotely approaching pomp. There is an anecdote in Kamenetz' The Jew In The Lotus in which the Dalai Lama, concerned about the seeming permanence of his exile from Tibet, asks a council of Rabbis how the Jews have survived intact for so long without losing their identity. Their answer: the Seder, the collective meal in which the story of how the Jews escaped from slavery, is taught to children over and over again every year. I don't think science (or, Science) has anything on that kind of ritual continuity, nor is there any conflict between the two.

The second quibble is even weirder. Morihei Ueshiba, Osensei, was in fact not a Buddhist but an early follower of Oomoto which, if I ever get around to writing my entry about it, is a syncretic Buddhist-Animist peace church, the only proselytizing animist religion I have ever come across that believes in cosmopolitan disregard for nationalism.

But in general, I agree with you. Religion's capacity to "explain" the unexplained is somewhat less comforting than its ability to provide people with a social context in which to understand their lives. Science would have to eliminate anomie to pose any serious threat to religious practice; in fact, technological and capital/consumerist atomism seems to be precipitating rather than eliminating the drive to strong religions...

A

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[amnesiadust]

Yeah... Perhaps it's worthwhile following up on "Science" a bit more from a sociological perspective, if someone else hasn't done it already. While science with a small 's' doesn't really belong in this debate, capitalized Science is another beast. I tired long ago of the "Science vs. [Mostly Christianity]" thing, but I'm curious now about where the narratives on either side of the dichotomy came from and what stories people are acting on but not telling themselves. I don't know how to make more sense than that without further thought (and sleep), but perhaps it will come to me on a long walk on a beach in Queensland and then I'll write those thoughts up.

Good point about Judaism; I was aware of the common thread among those three, but the additional tie-in you gave above was cool, and I agree "Science" has nothing similar (though science with a small "s" might benefit!). And I didn't know about Oomoto vis-a-vis O-Sensei; now I really want to see this vaunted post of yours.

In the context of your assertion that animism is more tied to geography (or is that an oversimplification?), does it make sense to proselytize? What proselytizing animist religions are there? (I thought briefly of Scientology, but given how commercialized and globalized it is, it seems insulting to draw any parallels.)

Also, on further thought my earlier description of Buddhism as "spartan and elegant" probably applies most sensibly to Zen, the tradition with which I'm most familiar. Tibetan Buddhism, on the other hand, compares in complexity and orthodoxy with Roman Catholicism, from what I've read of it.

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[tagonist]

As I understand it (Peter Matthiesen's The Snow Leopard is pretty much my only source here) what we think of as Tibetan Buddhism is a syncretic collision between Mahayana (which allows great souls to return from an enlightened state as Boddhisattvas, and hence is great at post-facto incorporating heroes and spirits from other traditions, a la Catholic sainthood) and a central-Asian animist religion called Bön, which Buddhists moving in from Nepal attempted to completely wipe out. Its somebody else's question whether this constituted a genocide, but according to Matthiesen, nearly the entire Bön priest caste was killed.

Zen, on the other hand, is a Japanese form of a Chinese syncretism between Buddhism and Taoism (source here: Alan Watts) which was further changed when it reached the US. Even Tibetan Buddhism is fairly austere compared to, say, Christianity- there are Boddhisattvas and demons for this, that, and everything, but there is still no Godhead, and personal practice is still directed at... well an elegant absence of desire.

This discussion should really be referred to someone who is a practicing Buddhist, I think, or a theologist, because I definitely feel out of my depth.

A

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[amnesiadust]

Or maybe an historian...

fdmts might be interested in this discussion. He's pretty well informed about the practice of Tibetan Buddhism, but I'm not sure how much he knows about the history or the origins of the ideas.

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[amnesiadust]

wolfbird, who can't read any Russian, just passing through and saying hi Anne,

Peter Mathiessen, lovely guy, self-indulgent, didn't know nothing when he wrote that book, Alan Watts likewise, a popularizer... the real stuff is way deeper than either of them knew...

http://www.eso-garden.com/index.php?/weblog/yogis_of_tibet/

keep smiling,

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[tagonist]

You figured out the comment button, da? I've been a bit concerned about you, y'know, disappearing like that. I'm not well tuned for solitude, though, so maybe t's just me.

A

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[amnesiadust]

Aaw, I just closed my eyes and clicked and hoped for the best :-)

Concerned ? How touching, Anne... :-)

I'm totally independent from the human species, gazing down from my Nietzschean perch, my Welsh Himalayan rock shelter in the clouds... I go surfing and commenting if I'm bored, waiting for something, not because I'm a social animal... but you're right and I'm wrong, my way doesn't fix the world... but that's cold strategy and tactics...

What you said, about being able to make a difference to people when a difference really mattered... I understand that... the kindest, most compassionate buddha is only to be found when one is in the deepest, darkest hell...

I'm busy plugging zen revolution and combined heat and power, forest gardens, apples, other stuff, hahaha, see comments...

http://www.dark-mountain.net/blog/

http://www.permacultureforum.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=808

take it easy, love and rage, byeeee,

wolfbird