Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Gaining Traction in Existential Realities

I am amazed how there are individuals whom can diagnosis the problem of the age so accurately, and yet still come up with such poor half-assed solutions. Perhaps the solutions don't exist materially as much as they do spiritually. The chasm between Truth and existence will always be there as we can only approximate the Real in our lives. But often that chasm goes grand canyon on you! It's as if the lens we see things is a bit too fuzzy and there are huge blind spots that prevent the knower from seeing the known. I am speaking for myself here too. God is always gently reminding me to see Reality as it is, instead of the projections I am manifesting onto others. I want to see so-and-so and such, and kaboom!—I am thrown into a test once again to accept what is. But initially, I often find myself humbly duped!

It seems the mind likes to abstract and personalize everything at the same time. We massage our beliefs further away from the concrete, and then pride ourselves in our new mental parasitical attachment. It's only our deep intuition can discern Truth more adeptly without overlaying the desires, fears, and inadequacies of our human condition. “That is, true essence is gifted, partially, to our minds when they are in proper fellowship with the mind of God” (Tyson). This participatory ontology, when assumed, allows us to approach Truth actively, relationally, and with confidence (con fide means with faith).  

In a recent trip to Iceland, I was introduced to the country's first known sculptor Einar Jónsson. Jónsson was clearly spiritually attuned with a participatory orientation, and drawing from many influences like Christianity, Theosophy and Norse mythology.

His art does not live in abstraction, but in the existential realities of suffering and joy—and everything in between: the relational, the love, the sacral, the drama, and the tragic. With his art, we are overtaken with powerful symbols of beings enduring life's struggles while being guided by other Beings of a higher order. All great art is grounded in Truth.




Unlike the posture of Jónsson's work, we live today in a world that gets further removed from existential reality. Love is transactional. Currency is untethered to intrinsic value. Life choices are instrumental. Technology dehumanizes our relationships. Friendship is sparse and shallow. The sacred is obscured by the contingent busyness of ordinary life. Suffering is to be defeated or hidden from sight. And communication lacks nuance. 

As AI continues to evolve, it will become more apparent to understand what makes our existence unique from it. Not so much for practical purposes in that it will protect our livelihood from the encroaching functions it can do better, but to preserve what inherently makes us earn the dignity and significance from it. That can only come from virtue, character, and our relationship to Being. If we continue to be blinded by the Real, and allow our self-delusions to define who we are, we will become irrelevant to the point that our existential realities will be trivialized to a system made machine.