On Authorities

Letter from Rashine, or an innerlog turned into a longer text…

Greetings my dear,

As you are aware, the one known as Marguerite Yourcenar once said that she was inspired to write her brilliant work¹ when she was reading a quote². It was said that, as there was no longer the Gods of the Ancient Times, and as the era of Christ was yet to come, there was a unique moment, where man alone was.

The feelings you have been experiencing now for a continued time framework are not, for that matter, extrinsic to this very subject.

Let us say that it is —though you may be reluctant to relay it— such a time now. Long enough you, as well as many of your contemporaries have been struggling and clinging to the old ways of thinking, the old too familiar patterns.

And as you know from your experiences, time is now forcibly asking for a change. It is obvious in all facets of your societies, at more or less ripe stages. It is evidenced in your sciences, which are in dire need of the genius of men such as your Einstein to hustle and jostle your all too comfortable views of your realities, and the pontiffs of this new religion. It is evidenced in your religions, ensconced in dusty dogmas no longer fit to your current evolution, which continues to perpetuate and deepen your uncomfortableness as [they] refuse to accompany the global movement.

It is evidenced in all the aspects of your life where there is friction, and uneasiness. These [frictions] are messages, of course, but not of the dire state of your world, though it may seem an easy panacea to think so, while belittling your own influence —yet you shall soon find that it is the worst of all nostrums. For these messages are yours and yours only, and your own dark areas where fascination is still being exerted and played, over and over, as a broken record.

That is, unless you release [them], and allow for change.

One of the most obvious things that influence heavily your actions is that of authority. We encourage you to investigate on the one known as Emerson³, for there is significant information related to this subject.

In that, what would be beneficial to recognize in many, many of your actions [is] how they are influenced by this question of authority, and how it is not questioned.

For we see this as highly amusing that your quest as a society for an ultimate and absolute truth would have only led you to such rigidity in your movements.

As we see it, if you allow us to divulge this secret, most of the seekers of ultimate truths are bound by their own limited beliefs, and thus move like trappers trapped in their own pits.

We remind you also of these three Chinese characters 井 开 升; you may elaborate further on them if you will, the meaning⁴ shall be obvious [to you].

We would like you to ask yourself: What are the areas in your life that you accept without even thinking of it, what is your chain of authorities?

Like Matryoshka dolls, they cover broader and broader aspects of yourself. And while they were intended to provide you with guidelines, sadly for most of you, the doorkeeper has become a warden, and your mind a prison.

When you peel away the layers of authorities, you will discover that they are only camouflaging yourself.

The tricky area is when an authority that you assume is fighting rather than allowing.

For some, authority in the area of their employment is supposed to provide them with a safe environment, against poverty. But it has ceased to be a provider of prosperity. For some, authority in the area of religion is supposed to provide them with a safe net against their dread of death, and no longer as a reminder of the gloriousness of their lives and beings.

We are amused, once more, to see that most people reaction to this is a new search, of a miraculous remedy to their predicament, as a red pill⁵ that could change the world instantaneously in an flash of revelation. There seems to be only two ways out within your grasp: to fight or to flee, black and white, or blue and red, in that case. Thus, ignoring not only the various shades of grey, but perhaps also of the evergreens, and heathers, pansy violets and marigolds and all other tints that exist only in your buoyant imaginations.

The failure to recognize that prolix diversity of your minds is what have brought your society at that current state, where the black of one is the white of another, and each sees his own philosophy as absolute and true sharing is denied.

There is tremendous potential of a harmonious growth, would you allow a nurturing environment for a true sharing, and where your differences are acknowledged and seen as an opportunity rather than as a threat. And here, we speak not only of the most obvious differences, but [also of] the much buried ones that you do not allow yourself to think about.

With this encouragement to listen to your reluctances, and even more, to your own thrusts, we will leave you to the joy of your explorations, whether you recognize them now as joyful or not.

Sore dewa mata.

羅針

Footnotes and commentaries

• NB: interestingly enough, Rashine (or らしん) means needle of compass in Japanese.

• ¹ Memoirs of Hadrian is a critically acclaimed novel, written as an autobiography, where author Marguerite Yourcenar explores the life and death of Emperor Hadrian.

• ² From Flaubert’s correspondances, in French: « Les dieux n’étant plus et le Christ n’étant pas encore, il y a eu, de Cicéron à Marc Aurèle, un moment unique où l’homme seul a été. »

• ³ Consequently, I found this interesting quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American writer, poet, essayist:

  Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.

Ralph Waldo Emerson – Volume I – Nature, Addresses & Lectures (Nature, 1836)

• ⁴ These Chinese characters are indeed very interesting, especially when they are displayed in this sequence.

  The first one, with the four strokes overlapping is drawing the image of the “well”. There is a saying in Chinese, about the frog at the bottom of the well, only able to see a part of the world, similar to Plato’s cave metaphor.

  The second one, where the top stroke is on the brink of opening the central square, is the character meaning “to open”. In Chinese, “to open the heart” is to be happy.

  The third one, where the top stroke has left the central square opened means “to ascent”, “to succeed”.

• ⁵ A reference to the movie Matrix where Neo is proposed to choose between a red and a blue pill, the first one offering him only the naked truth, the other leaving him into blissful oblivion.