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novapsyche"In Christendom as well as in the East, contemplatives who follow the path of devotion conceive of, and indeed directly preceive the incarnation as a constantly renewed fact of experience. Christ is for ever being begotten within the soul by the Father, and the play of Krishna is the pseudo-historical symbol of an everlasting truth of psychology and metaphysics -- the fact that, in relation to God, the personal soul is always feminine and passive." -- Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Chapter II ("The Nature of the Ground"), emphasis mine.
"The difference between Greek pessimism and the oriental and modern variety is that the Greeks had not made the discovery that the pathetic [i.e., affecting or exciting emotion, esp. the tender emotions, as pity or sorrow] mood may be idealized, and figure as a higher form of sensibility. Their spirit was still too essentially masculine for pessimism to be elaborated or lengthily dwelt on in their classic literature." -- William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, "The Sick Soul," footnote 9, emphasis mine.
"The difference between Greek pessimism and the oriental and modern variety is that the Greeks had not made the discovery that the pathetic [i.e., affecting or exciting emotion, esp. the tender emotions, as pity or sorrow] mood may be idealized, and figure as a higher form of sensibility. Their spirit was still too essentially masculine for pessimism to be elaborated or lengthily dwelt on in their classic literature." -- William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, "The Sick Soul," footnote 9, emphasis mine.
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Date: 2003-06-21 05:51 pm (UTC)