The Final Finale!

Introductory Unit:

Karen Armstrong, in our introductory packet, speaks of myth and its connection with early civilizations and peoples. She explains that humans were born myth-makers, for our ideas have always transcended that of everyday reality into something more fanciful, yet something more real than our own reality. In the human experience, myth acts not only to explain our existence, but the purpose of our existence as well. Myth draws upon the archetypal characteristics of humankind in order to develop universally accepted stories of the past and the creation of people. It is through myth that humans first crafted themselves and their future generations. Leonard Schlain depicts the duality of human nature in his writings, especially those of the left and right brains and how as a people we have shifted from one half to the other due to society. Schlain explains the rigid and logical processes of the left brain and the emotional, gestalt experiences of the right brain. The human experience is crafted through the usage of our minds, and in modern society, with its influx of text, the left dominant brain becomes the lens through which we begin to understand the world. However, both brains are required in equal amounts as I like to believe in order to truly understand what it is to be human, and what experiences make us human. David Abram also brings up a point about the progression of the left brain, but he is mainly concerned with the advent of writing, script, and text and all of its effect on humans. Abram brings about a point of modern, left-brained culture has destroyed its ties with the past, with the connection to nature. In the human experience, nature is key to our understanding of the world and ourselves, as well as others around us.

Nature, Human Beings, and Sacred Space:

Australian Aborigines were one of the first topics studied in the Nature and Sacred Space Unit, and understandably so. Aborigines’ sacred spaces were those places of rock shelters filled with paintings which conjured up images of dreamtime; a primordial state where their ancestors remain that provides a stable backdrop to life. Sacred spaces play a role of connection within the human experience: they provide a connection between the past, nature, and the human mind and spirit. Shakespeare’s The Tempest deals primarily with human interaction with nature: Prospero controls natures to his own wishes while Caliban lives in relative harmony and camaraderie with nature. The Tempest presents the influence and importance nature has in the experience of being human, whether it is submissive to modern culture or flourishing within “primal” culture. The Tempest clearly shows that nature’s role in life can be a guiding force, whether it slowly affects Prospero through spirits such as Ariel or directly such as Prospero’s magic manipulating nature to wash Ferdinand’s ship ashore. Michel de Montaigne’s essay “Of Cannibals” brings about a role of nature that is considerably more bound to humans than anything in The Tempest. Montaigne speaks of cannibals and their communal connection with nature that makes modern society seem barbarous. Montaigne shows that the role of nature in being human is that nature has become a provider of food, drink, victory, defeat, joy, and sadness. Such cannibals love their wives, enjoy their daily food and drink, and lead a relatively simple life, but, as Montaigne mentions, “'tis rare to hear of a sick person, and they moreover assure me, that they never saw any of the natives, either paralytic, bleareyed, toothless, or crooked with age.” Nature’s importance to being human, it seems, is that it is the most ancient and primal organism that can live alongside humans and both may flourish.

Love and Beauty:

The Picture of Dorian Gray not only shows the importance of beauty in the experience of being human, but also the flaws undeniably associated with being human. Beauty provides for Dorian, as well as the human race, a glimmer of perfection all people strive for. Beauty, in a natural sense, is what makes life full of wonder and awe; beauty, such as the mere shape and hue of a flower, does not necessarily mean perfection, but is rather a characteristic all people can look and comment on. The Shape of Things, however, brings about the flaws of beauty and love and how it can manipulate the human experience from a personal, fulfilling journey to a narcissistic shifting of morals to make one’s own experience more pleasurable to the experiences of others. In this sense, beauty can play a corrupting role in the human experience and consciousness as one sacrifices one’s self image and personal beauty to mimic the supposed view of beauty by others so that the beautiful can be accepted as a person, which is another part of the human experience: a want of being needed, a want of being noticed and not going unknown into the abysmal and lonely pit that is death. While on the subject of love and death, I feel it is critical to bring up the movie “All the Mornings of the World,” for it depicts everlasting love, love that stretches beyond the boundaries of human existence into the next world, and how love, with its ability to crush and to uplift, plays a vital role in what it means to be human. Love is not so much an emotion, but rather an intrinsic state that humans naturally have and can be brought to different levels of intensity. Love is incredibly important to being human because it is a connection a person can have with another person that cannot be found anywhere else in life. No fleeting bond between friends or coworkers could ever measure up to the stronger than steel connection of respect and admiration that is love.

Ethics, Law, Power, and Human Frailty:

Ethics have guided humans to “goodness” since the moment the first laws were created, yet, the question of whether a universal ethical and moral code among all people has persisted. The Hebrew Bible and its passages “The Ten Commandments” and “The Holiness Code” have offered a “jumping off” point that has been the inspiration for past and modern morals. Such explicit acts like murder, theft, lying, and adultery are brought about in “The Ten Commandments” and reinforced in “The Holiness Code.” In its essence, the basic ethics brought about in these texts have served to preserve the sanctity of the human experience and the goodness of human life. The Buddhist Precepts are similar to the ethical acts spoken of in the Hebrew Bible, and it is through this connection that perhaps a universal ethical code can be constructed to deny people the actions that may infringe upon the human experience of others. The Buddhist Precepts work alongside the Hebrew Bible as an affirmation (but not necessarily inferior to) to implant the ideas of wrong and right into the human mind, allowing a sense of justice and guidance to evolve along with humans in order to maintain a “homeostasis” of pleasure, fulfillment, and enlightenment. Woody Allen’s movie “Crimes and Misdemeanors” show the consequences, or rather the lack thereof, of committing terrible crimes and living with what follows. In the film, Judah has his mistress murdered after realizing she wished to make known his affair. Judah struggles with the moral and ethical dilemmas placed into him as a child as he attempts to justify his own actions. Though crime may be a part of the human experience, it is not as fundamental and basic as are the morals that drive our daily decisions and thoughts in life.

The Inner Journey and the Meaning of Human Reality:

Waking Life presents many ideas on what human reality consists of and whether the reality we experience is truly reality. The idea of human reality plays a key role in what we believe is real, what is important to us, and what it is that we cherish in life. If one goes through a day believing that everything one encounters is not reality, then how would it shape their actions and thoughts? Knowing what is reality is critical to the human ability to enjoy life and to glean as much experience and thought from life as possible. Without a foothold in reality, there would be no telling how people may react. Shakespeare’s Hamlet offers an interesting take on the human journey, for it seems that through most of the play, Hamlet does not have just one singular driving force behind his actions, but rather multiple facets of his life that impact his actions. Hamlet’s father’s death, his love for Ophelia, his wish of revenge against Claudius, and his disgust towards his mother’s promiscuity assault him from all sides as he attempts to sort through what is most important to him. Hamlet’s inner journey is marked with decisions, which play perhaps one of the greatest roles in the human experience. Decisions and the following actions are what make people who they are, and it is through these actions that one’s life path is determined, be it pleasant or untimely. The Epic of Gilgamesh presents the idea of an inner journey, a journey that leads one to understand his own reality and his role within it. For Gilgamesh, his adventures with Enkidu were his reality until Enkidu’s untimely death. His reality shattered, Gilgamesh quested to find to immortality and the escape from mortal woes. Upon failing this quest, Gilgamesh finds that his legend stands as a form of immortality and that it is the closest thing to living forever that he could achieve. The inner journey’s role in the human experience is interconnected with the meaning of life. Completion of such a journey is what is required to live one’s life, yet it is the journey itself that is life in all of its ups and downs. The inner journey is a final step towards accepting what it is to be mortal and what it is to truly be human.