An Escape Leading Outside of God

 But the horror that's destroying me today is less noble and more corrosive. It's a longing to be free of wanting to have thoughts, a desire to never have been anything, a conscious despair in every cell of my body and soul. It's the sudden feeling of being imprisoned in an infinite cell. Where can one think of fleeing, if the cell is everything?

And then I feel an overwhelming, absurd desire for a king of Satanism before Satan, a desire that one day - a day without time or substance - an escape leading outside of God will be discovered, and our deepest selves will somehow cease participating in being and non-being.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, text 43

This may seem like an odd posting for Ramadan, but, actually, I think it makes perfect sense for how I approach the month. As I've said, too many times, I think we reduce a month that should be focusing on intense study and self-reflection, and turn it into a  competition about who can fast the most hours. It's not that the fasting isn't important, because it teaches us so many things, but if we don't tie it a period of exploration and questioning then I think we're cheapening the beauty of this time set aside from the more quotidian demands of the external world, focusing on what is quantifiable (hours fasted) as compared to what is harder to quantify (study and self-reflection). One of the things that I love about Pessoa is his internality, his quest to find beauty away from the crass, ugly, commercialism of the world that we're forced to live in. It's a world outside of God, at least our commodified vision of God in religion, and because of that it is fully inside of God, the transcendent God beyond being and non-being.

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 And here's another reread (technically, re-listen) that I routinely revisit during Ramadan: Dr. Mark Muesse's Great Courses series on "Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad." I'm afraid that too many of my co-religionists never delve into the religious thinkers and works of other faiths, which I suppose doesn't make us any different than folks in other religions, I guess. In Islam we are told repeatedly that we are Peoples of the Book with Jews and Christians, and thus I would argue that we really need to explore the holy texts and traditions of our two predecessors in the Abrahamic monotheistic tradition. this is, again in my mind, especially true since the Qur'an doesn't tell lengthy stories, but rather more routinely comments on earlier stories from Judaism and Christianity. You'd get something like, "Remember what We (that is, God) told Moses (or other earlier prophets) . . ." and then comments upon it, sometimes reaffirming that earlier revelation or commenting on it. If we're not familiar with those earlier stories - and tests - how are we supposed to understand the Quranic references and admonitions? I'd take it further than that, actually. We are told that God sends a messenger and a text to every people, and some Islamic thinkers would propose that this would also apply to thinkers such as the Buddha or maybe even Confucius. And even if we don't go that far, and only consider them as distinctive thinkers who are not part of a larger religious worldview, isn't it possible that they might have something important to say that would make us better people - and, in my mind, that's sort of the point of all this. Consequently, we really should study these thinkers as well. Is our faith so fragile that we can't expand our vision?

Endless

 Yes, I'm sure that if you simply looked at the calendar you could convince yourself that we were a third of the way through March here in Calais, Vermont.

Endless #YankeeHellhole

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 Lately I've been thinking about cutting myself off from all-things Amazon, as part of a larger process of eliminating aspects of my life that are either distracting or downright harmful. I guess this stretches back a couple years, when I first dropped off of Facebook and Instagram and Twitter - and I'm getting ready to take the same approach with YouTube. Like way too many Americans, I default to Amazon simply because it's so easy, although in my heart of hearts I know the harm it does to local businesses. That alone should have been enough to make me dump Amazon, or at least as much as I can do so. However, it wasn't until Bezos climbed in bed with Trump as part of the Oligarch Guild of Calamitous Intent that I decided enough was enough. Truthfully, if I were a better person I would have made this decision earlier - apparently simply destroying local towns and businesses wasn't enough to move my internal moral scale to outrage (which means I have a long way to go on the path to being a better person). I mainly use Amazon to order books, and I tend to not choose books that are on the shelves of my local bookstore. However, and here's why I need to call my own hypocrisy and laziness out for a public flogging, any local bookstore could order exactly the same books for me - I would just have to wait until the next day to call the bookstore and drop in on the way through town. All of this is my way of saying that I'm going to try and follow up on that resolution. It reminds me of a conversation that Janet and I had in Evora, Portugal a couple years ago. We had stopped in their branch of Livraria Bertrand, our favorite bookstore from Lisbon (which is the oldest bookstore in the world). We were talking to the nice gentleman who was helping us, and we ended up talking about our love of Portugal and bookstores and our frustration with the US. He told us, proudly, that Portugal didn't let Amazon into the country, for the reasons stated above. We were charmed by this fact, and it made us love Portugal all the more. However, it's actually only partially true, although it's true in all the ways that it could be true, if that makes any sense. There is no Amazon warehouse in Portugal, and the Portuguese don't want their to be, but it doesn't mean that you can't order from Amazon if you're living in Portugal. Apparently you'd order from one of their warehouses in a nearby European country, with your best/worst option being Spain, and it would still be delivered. So, I think Portugal is making the right decision, but I don't think they cold actually stop an Amazon delivery, so I don't think they could do more than that. How would you feasibly or legally stop a delivery? I'm still impressed by their rejection of Amazon. I remember when I lived in the UAE I ordered a copy of Murakami's 1Q84, back when it was just coming out, and, yes, they pulled it off, and my goal is to always take that approach and avoid the all too easy temptation to simply click on my Amazon app. 

However, this also made me think about those other aspects of the Evil Bezos Universe, such as Audible. With an hour drive each way to Burlington I live off books on tape and Great Courses, and I somehow don't begrudge the universe the drive if I'm learning something on the way. Now, if I'm going to be true to the better angel of my nature, I should just go ahead and dump Audible as well, right? Yes, I probably should. Our local library has books on tape, so, once again, there are other options that do not benefit the Super Rich and Evil, so I should just get over myself and go ahead and do it.

This is all a long and meandering way of introducing my latest "read," in this case a "reread", or more accurately a "relisten", to Martyn Oliver's wonderful Great Courses lectures on "Introduction to the Qur'an." I listen to them as part of my study every Ramadan. Like reading the Qur'an itself, I feel that I get something new every time. For instance, just yesterday it struck me a point that Professor Oliver was making about the use of metaphor in the Qur'an. I've always known, or at least have known since I began to study the Qur'an in more detail, that the book has more metaphor than people realize. For instance, one of the reasons why Surah 18 is one of my favorite chapters is simply because of the strong and sustained metaphoric underpinning. However, he makes the obvious point that every time the Qur'an references the face of God or the hand of God or the throne of God, God or Gabriel or Muhammad is clearly and routinely making use of metaphor. It just speaks to the complexity of the balancing act between the Qur'an as a literal or a metaphoric document, and how trying to separate out one section as metaphoric and another section as literal is more than a bit of a fool's errand, and says more about the person doing the arbitrary separating than it does about the document. And also, going back to one of my consistent points, you need to view it all as one larger whole and focus on several essential concepts, and not cherry pick specific points, especially if they're considered "literal," to back up your personal believes (and, sadly, biases).

Searching

 I know I've said this before, many times, but for me the absolute best part of Ramadan is the time that the month gives us to devote more time to study. Granted, that time is always available to us, but life always seems to have other plans. The solemnity of Ramadan helps to refocus us. It's a pity, again, as I too frequently lament, that we turn the entire month into a competition about who can fast more assiduously. Fasting is very important, obviously, but if we're doing that in isolation from devoting ourselves to a deeper dive into study the Qur'an and the Hadith and related writings then we're missing out on the essence of a transformative experience. What amazes me every year is that every time I reread the Qur'an I discover deeper and deeper meanings. Essentially, I perpetually ask myself, "How has this particular passage never jumped out at me before?" For example, this is the one that I found myself underlining and writing corresponding notes to myself in the margin: "Why should God punish you if you give thanks and believe? God is Thankful, Knowing." (4:147) When I'm asked to speaking about my faith I almost always end up pointing out that I simply can't understand why we're so determined to turn our perception of God, no matter what form it takes, into an angry, vengeful deity. The phrase I tagged above makes the point about as cleanly and simply as I can imagine - and, again, it makes me wonder why that line went unmarked the previous 124,000 times (typical number in Islam for "a whole bunch") times I read over that passage?

Blessings

 Last weekend my best, and oldest, friend, Jack, made his way up to Vermont for a visit. We were doing the math, and we've been friends for over fifty years (and that does my head in).  I often make the point that I'm blessed beyond what my meagre virtues can justify, and his extraordinary friendship is proof of that statement. Any words that I would try to fashion to explain what he means to me would pale in comparison to the depth of the love and appreciation I feel for having him in my life for all these years - and hopefully a few more.

Two distinguished gentlemen at Sarducci's in Montpelier. Or maybe it's a picture of us heckling the other Muppets on stage.

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 Last night I finished Olga Tokarczuk's The Empusium, my 22nd book of the New Year. It's also my second novel from Tokarczuk. We have a couple more lying around the house, but, truthfully, I'm not in any great hurry to jump into either of them. I appreciate her unique vision and the audacity of her choices, but I have to also say that I don't think I've cared about any character in either of the two novels I've read so far. It simply feels like (and, obviously, this could partially be a translation issue) there are major characters or themes that she simply hints at and never comes close to exploring. While there is a virtue in leaving room for the reader to bring their own experiences, emotions, and views into the reading process, the author can't provide so little that there's no there there. It didn't help that it was difficult to read this novel and not think of Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, a novel that I love, and the ways that this story simply didn't stack up.  Having said all that, I have her Drive your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead lying in my reading queue, it's just not forcing its way to the top.

My Peerless Wife

 When Janet and I talk about moving overseas, which we talk about quite a bit, one of the reasons why we sometimes cite for not following through on that dream is how much we love our odd little community here in Vermont. However, we also had to be honest with ourselves and admit that, having said that, we haven't been engaged in the community as much as we should be. That may be something as simple as making an effort to shop more at the Adamant Coop as compared to Shaws's, or taking a more leading role in organizing things where we can get the community together. For example, we're both presenting as a part of Vermont Public Philosophy Week this year, and, in fact, we're arranging a doubleheader on Saturday 5 April, with me talking at 1:00 and Janet at 2:30 (obviously, more on this later). Mainly, I'm just taking advantage of Janet's popularity to get someone to come to my talk. Another example of this goal is that Janet set up a community book group to discuss Ursula K Le Guin's The Dispossessed. We held our first chat a couple of days ago, on a very frosty Sunday morning at the Maple Corners Community Center. It was a great chat, and we have two more coming up.

I snapped this picture as we were getting things set up. Janet had to pop in around 6:00 in the morning so that she could turn the head on (yes, it's Vermont). I just liked this picture, which I sent to my friend Jack with the comment, "Janet and her peers," which lead to his response, "Peerless." And hence the title of this post. She had to pay a nominal fee to rent the space, but getting the community together was, as they say, priceless.

It was an enthusiastic crowd and people made some great points, with the exception of me, naturally.

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 I just finished the Mother of Books (not to be confused with the Qur'an, also routinely known as the "Mother of Books," which, obviously, I'm also rereading at the moment). This Mother of Books is an example of a rare category, Gnostic Islamic literature. As you know, during Ramadan I always read, in addition to the Qur'an, a number of other related books, and this year is no exception. When you think of the Gnostics you, naturally, think of Christian works such as the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of John or the Gospel of Mary, but there are a couple Islamic texts which somehow, through a cultural/intellectual sharing which is often still somewhat mysterious, reflect a Gnostic influence, an the Mother of Books is one of them. The work was written in the late eighth century in the town of Kufa, and comes, not surprisingly, out of the Shi'a tradition as compared to the Sunni. 

Some portions read very Gnostic, such as these lines which speak to the need to free humans from their body:

                              "Then the vacillators grieved

and said, 'Our lord, if only you command us, 

we will be washed and clean of sin, even 

in this, our present form.' The high lord said, 

'Atonement for such sin I won't accept 

as you are in your bodily form. Doubt hangs 

on you.' They answered him. 'What can we do 

to become pure again while in our bodies?'"

The answer is this case reads more "traditionally" Islamic, although, again, from a more Shi'a side of the fence:

"The high king said, 'You must fulfill my four 

conditions to exist closer to me.

The first is that in every each shape and form 

you see me, testify in all the tongues: 

Arabic, Farsi, Greeks, Hindi, Sindi, 

Georgian, Slavic, Syrian. And with decisions, 

prove that you are upright.

                            The second is 

you recognize the proper imams and holy 

and enlightened ones who know, and learn 

from them about my knowledge and my nature; 

witness the deity with their words and spirit.

"Third is that all of you must become brothers 

and sisters to each other, and not withhold 

your life or limb; give up possessions, wealth, 

and blood for our religion and believers.

Hold to religion and your worldly life 

in proper orders, and never choose the ways 

of evil and of violence - neither in public 

nor in your heart share food and sustenance 

or time with them. Witness the deity 

and spirit and be as friendly as you can, 

so fellowship is real because you testify. 

'Believers are brothers.' These three conditions 

are triple witness to the exalted kings: 

one to the prophets, one to right imams, 

and one to brothers and sisters who keep faith.

"The fourth is that you not live by profit 

and worldly fancy. Do not indulge desires. 

When you've fulfilled these three conditions I 

assign you, I will grant you one last pleasure: 

I'll pardon you and give you back eternal 

paradise. As it is written, 'But the believers 

who do what's right will go into gardens 

whose hollows are filled with flowing streams, and stay 

forever.' And elsewhere it says, 'He must 

behave with honor,' and elsewhere it reads, 

'those of good works.' If you keep my covenant, 

I also will. Be dutiful to me 

and I will do my duty toward you.'"

I'm not normally a huge fan of the Gnostics, although I find them interesting. Mainly, I think, they are all too often guilty of gilding the lily. You're adding a whole lot of extra complexity to something that, in its essential form, is already beautiful and profound.

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 I finished Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood yesterday morning, a book that I hadn't read in almost thirty-five years. I first read it early in my time at Georgia Perimeter College during the President's Retreat. It's a novel that I think is really good, although one that, because of the many, many racial epithets thrown around, is difficult to read today. It's strange to think that it was a book chosen by one of the professors at the retreat, and I don't remember there being any kickback at the time, and that probably says something bad about the time period. I can't imagine it being read in a similar situation today, at least not in a general meeting, although I could still see specialists reading it in a meeting. That said, I don't know if we actually benefit from simply tossing it aside without even trying to consider the contextual worlds involved, because, even considering the difficulties it presents, there's a lot more good here than bad.