In Part III, OKAWA Shumei takes out the big guns, attacking the founder of Legalism as impeding the cultivation of virtue, and by implication Western political theories which aim for the same legalistic goal. What the reader might not realize is that in denouncing Han Fei, who lived in the … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: February 2013
Death and Deliverance
Dying before dying prepares us for death, feeling oneself a cadaver before becoming one, separating before detachment, sanctifying the corpse, purifying it, making it the marble temple of the Living God. The sanctification of the body is the sanctification of life and the sanctification of the soul that only the Holy calls Holy, i.e., God in us. The divine integration, the knowledge that God alone thinks, feels, and works in us, is the most certain means to attain freedom and serenity at the transition. Continue reading
Unserious Meditations
I used to think that books like Brave New World and 1984 were intended to warn us about what may happen. Now I realize their purpose was to prepare us to welcome the brave new world with open arms and closed minds. Continue reading
Death
For the greater part of men, death is a leap, a fearful leap into a bottomless abyss, a laceration, a shout, a falling without knowing how or where one falls, the tragic epilog of a sterile life, and a life without a reason. ~ Guido De Giorgio Continue reading
The Political Philosophy of Confucianism (II)
In part II of his 1930 essay, OKAWA Shumei begins to make his departure from the basic principles of Western political thought obvious, deploying a slightly Hobbesian character from the 3rd century B.C., and demonstrating his Confucian orthodoxy. It is interesting to consider this contrast of rules vs. rulers in … Continue reading
Hebdomad
Seven is called the Virgin, Guardian, Message, Critical Time, Athena, Chance & Acropolis. It is a mean between the second Monad (ie., the Hexad, issuing into material Creation, since Dyad and Triad belong more properly to the One) and the Decad. It is perfect: it is 3 from 4 and … Continue reading
The Political Philosophy of Confucianism (I)
To aspire to Confucianism is without a doubt to make clear the Tao. And since the Tao is nothing if not a principle for individual life, Confucianism is an attempt to expound how men might live a righteous life. Continue reading
To eat of the Tree
Divine Justice means to put each and all according to their rightful place and status. When man acts according to illusory purposes, fragmenting the essential unity of creation, he operates a similar fragmentation within himself, suffering an ontological degradation, creating a sympathy bond with an inferior level of existence. God sends one to the level that one, of one’s own accord, has chosen. Continue reading
The Establishment of a Traditional Society: Priests (III)
⇐ Part II This is the third and final installment from Guido De Giorgio‘s chapter on the priestly caste from La Tradizione Romana [The Roman Tradition]. He continues the discussion on faith. He points out that when the priesthood deteriorates, it gives rise to priesthood of solitary Ascetics. Although they … Continue reading