Moore

1
Moores The Sacred Arts of Life

• HMXP 102
• Dr. Fike

2
Announcemets

• Your third paper is due on Monday in class.
• Bring your laptop computer on Monday.

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Todays Slide Show

• This presentation will ask you to write in your
  notebooks at several points.
• Please get out your writing materials.

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Review

• Lewis Acknowledge your spiritual bankruptcy
  (your total depravity, your inability to do
  anything good on your own). Give your troubles
  (the old man) to God allow Him to remake you in
  the image of Christ (the new man). Christianity
  is the only completely right path.
• Tillich Harmonize your reason, will, desire,
  conscious mind, and unconscious mind. Faith is an
  act of this kind of centered self. You can have
  faith in anything, but its object must be
  ultimacy otherwise, existential disappointment
  results.

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Moore

• Todays selection helps answer the question How
  can we move toward a more integrated personality,
  a more centered self such as Tillich describes?
• Surprisingly, Moores answer has nothing to do
  with Christianity or faith.

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Write for 3 Minutes

• Sum up the point that Moore is making in The
  Sacred Arts of Life.
• We will take a few minutes so that you can share
  your answers.

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Question

• According to Moore, what are some means of
  developing the everyday arts (par. 2)?
• Again, write in your notebooks please.

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Moores Answers

• Contemplation
• Arresting attention
• Pausing
• a period of nondoing (par. 5)
• taking time (par. 6)
• Stimulating the imagination (esp. in connection
  with sacred texts)
• Doing simple tasksdishes, laundry, knitting,
  weaving
• Experiencing nature
• Epiphanies
• Discovering the natural religion in all
  things (par. 14)
• Appreciating secular literature and art
• Paying attention to dreams
• Meditation

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Moores Assumptions

• Par. 15, key concepts Im suggesting that we
  consider sacredness from the point of view of
  soul rather than spirit.
• According to Moore, the ordinary arts enrich the
  soul. His point is based on the following
  assumption there is natural religion in all
  things (par. 14).
• The consequence of focusing on everyday things is
  a sense of wonder (par. 15).
• QUESTIONS
• What does he mean by soul as opposed to spirit?
• How can there be religion in all things?
• What is natural religion?
• What is wonder?

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What Soul Means

• Emotional connection, the heart
• Connection with the unconscious
• A rich inner life via the imagination
• A grasp of the meaning/significance of ordinary
  things
• A pun soul and whole soul relates to wholeness
  or psychological integration

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An Opposite Assumption

• He speaks of repression in par. 2  One of the
  most effective forms of repression is to give a
  thing excessive honor. What does he mean?
  Repression of what?
• What other things (not necessarily in Moores
  text) work against the enrichment of the soul?
  Again, write in your notebooks.

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Impediments to Soul

• Fine arts
• Museums
• Shops
• Factories (cf. Marx)
• Alienation from nature and from others
• Secular things

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Segue

• The next slides explore some of Moores ways of
  exploring the sacred in the commonplace
  experiences of everyday life.
• Imagination
• Dreams
• Meditation

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Imagination

• Consider this relationship
• Consciousness
• Imagination, dreams, meditation
• The unconscious
• Point Imagination, dreams, and meditation are
  like a bridge or elevator between consciousness
  and the unconscious.

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Active Imagination (C. G. Jung)

• You can write a dialogue between yourself and
  some part of yourself (e.g., a person you know or
  a character in one of your dreams). Suspend your
  rational disbelief and let the dialogue flow.
  Begin with fantasy and turn down your reason.
  The result may surprise you part of yourself
  that is removed from consciousness will speak
  through the medium of the imagination. You can
  try this on your own when you have 10 or more
  minutes of free time.

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Re. Dreams

• Freud said, Dreams are the royal road to the
  unconscious.  Moores section heading implies
  that they are the royal road to the soul.  (Jung,
  by the way, states that meditation . . . seems
  to be a sort of Royal Road to the unconscious
  CW 11, 827/507).
• Moore mentions that the soul is usually placed
  squarely in that place we would rather not visit
  . . . the place in ourselves that is most
  challenging, and he advises us to look straight
  into the image that gives us the most fright
  (par. 19 my emphasis). Often this image appears
  in dreams.
• In your case, what is that place?  You can use
  active imagination to explore it.  What does it
  have to say to you? Write in your notebooks. (I
  will not ask you to share.)

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A Continuum of Dreams

• Day residue
• Psychological interpretation
• Guidance from the Higher Self
• Psychice.g., precognition, clairvoyance
• Lucid dreams (you are aware that you are
  dreaming)
• (Out-of-body experiences)
• Ask for a dream if you need help with
  something.

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Transition

• Par. 16 Every issue, no matter how secular it
  appears to be, has a sacred dimension. If you
  press anything far enough, you will come up
  against either the holy or the demonic. What
  does this mean?
• Here is William Blake in Auguries of Innocence
• To see a world in a grain of sand
• And a heaven in a wild flower,
• Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
• And eternity in an hour.

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Meditation

• Does Moores text suggest the importance of
  meditation? 
• What IS meditation?  How is it different from
  prayer?
• Lets discuss these questions.

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Prayer vs. Meditation

• Prayer
• Your conscious mind is engaged.
• Your body is awake.
• You speak to God.
• POINT Thus prayer is to activity as meditation
  is to receptivity.

• Meditation
• Your conscious mind is awake but is disengaged
  and clear of thoughts.
• Your body is very deeply relaxed, even asleep.
  You concentrate on your breathing.
• You listen to
• God
• The soul
• Your Higher Self
• The unconscious
• Memory
• Guidance
• Spirits
• The pattern of All That Is that exists within
  yourself

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Analogies for Meditation

• Imagine that youre in a crowded airport.
  Everybody is talking. You cannot hear the one
  person you want to hear. Slowly, everyone except
  that person stops talking. Now you can hear that
  person.
• Imaging a crowded radio dial. You cant hear the
  weak signal from a distant station because
  nearer, stronger stations signals interfere.
  Suddenly, the power goes out in your city, and
  those strong stations go off the air. As a
  result, you can now hear the weaker station
  clearly.
• Imagine a clear sky during the day. The stars
  shine all the time, but we cannot see them when
  the sun is out. However, when the sun goes down,
  the lesser lights in the sky become visible.

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Meditation

• The CD is called Higher and is designed to
  support meditation. We will try it for 5-10
  minutes. If you do not want to try it, please
  leave quietly (do so now).
• Breathing technique
• Inhale on a slow count of 7. Do not pause.
• Exhale on a slow count of 7.
• Breathe slowly for several breaths and repeat the
  7-count technique.
• As your mind slows down, increase the interval
  between the 7-count inhale/exhale.
• Goal Awake and alert but totally still mentally.
  END