tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post1356104418073825633..comments2024-01-12T10:42:23.401-05:00Comments on The Legacy of Henry Corbin: Literalizing the ImaginalTom Cheethamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12985087642903754121noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post-29930654717961152212019-12-16T13:04:27.743-05:002019-12-16T13:04:27.743-05:00send me an email Sharon... thanks for your comment...send me an email Sharon... thanks for your comment<br />Tom Cheethamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12985087642903754121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post-49945344662661883962019-12-15T18:46:10.627-05:002019-12-15T18:46:10.627-05:00I have found Corbin's explicit descriptions of...I have found Corbin's explicit descriptions of metaphysical realms to be so helpful. I always found Jung confusing in that sense. For example, Corbin's description of the archetypes has a clarity I have never found in Jung. Do you happen to know if plants were ever used by Iranian mystics to effect shifts in vehicles of consciousness?Sharonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08909511541903492279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post-4719733849645842022019-12-15T18:43:17.209-05:002019-12-15T18:43:17.209-05:00Wonderful piece Tom. What I find so refreshing in...Wonderful piece Tom. What I find so refreshing in Corbin is that he lays out metaphysical dimensions explicitly. This lack of clarity in Jung has always been confusing to me. Do you happen to know if plants were used in Iran to help access shifts in vehicles of consciousness?Sharonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08909511541903492279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post-51459302155387550912009-06-12T21:26:28.022-04:002009-06-12T21:26:28.022-04:00Jonathan said...
What you express here Tom is cru...Jonathan said...<br /><br />What you express here Tom is crucial not only to one's understanding Corbin, but to all sincere experience of the imaginal. One thing that Corbin placed great emphasis on, and this I found also in Buber, is the need to transcend the desire for a Truth that is "once-and-for-all," beyond which lies the "forever-anew," and this is central to the encounter the imaginal. Without this shift (from truth as possession to truth as responsibility), any "forced" experience of the imaginal is a recipe for insanity. To want a literal Truth once and for all, wanting to own it, betrays a will to power that is potentially devastating psychologically (this is, I believe, where the "fear of God" has its rightful place in religion). To walk on the path of interiority, one needs to live in the "forever-anew," always returning to humility, sincerity and self-awareness, because without it, the face of the Angel would be too much of a temptation for hubris. Humility is not finite. It can always expand, and deepen. Emerson expresses this very beautifully: "In the sublimest flights of the soul, rectitude is never surmounted, love is never outgrown." I am also reminded of a verse in the Old Testament, "The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find the grace of the Lord." And Blake, "He never rises too high who flies with his own wings." On this matter Jacob Boehme's treatise "On True Resignation" is very helpful, in that it imaginally expresses the dangers of hubris and the grace of humility. In one passage, he writes:<br /><br />"When the outward Reason or self riseth up and triumpheth in the Light, saying, I have the true Child, then the Will of the Desire must bow itself down to the Earth, and bring itself into the deepest Humility and most simple Ignorance, and say, Thou art foolish, and hast nothing but the Grace of God. Thou must wrap thyself up in that Belief with great Humility, and become nothing at all in thyself, and neither know nor love thy self. All that thou hast, or is in thee, must esteem itself as nothing but a mere Instrument of God; and thou must bring thy Desire only into God's Mercy, and go forth from all thy own Knowing and Willing; and esteem it as nothing at all, nor ever entertain any Will to enter into it again."<br /><br />In our time, we tend to believe that life is about what "I" want, and that spirituality is about "my" perfection and spiritual growth. It is "my" path to God, "my" anticipated triumph. But there is something more, much deeper, which I believe is central to Corbin's work: listening to the Angel, whose invisible presence is never grasped, never possessed. I have myself searched far and wide for the figure of Sophia in mystical literature. She is very fleeting, and never lets herself be possessed. She asks to be courted forever.<br /><br />"Car il ne faut pas se promener comme un vainqueur, et vouloir donner un nom aux choses, à toutes les choses; c'est elles qui te diront qui elles sont, si tu écoutes soumis comme un amant..." - Henry Corbin, 1932Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post-49141610562479547102009-06-12T09:25:11.094-04:002009-06-12T09:25:11.094-04:00Thanks Tom - I appreciate it. I was hesitant to po...Thanks Tom - I appreciate it. I was hesitant to post this - its such a complex and thorny issue - but very important - I'll to write something more careful & extensive elsewhere.Tom Cheethamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12985087642903754121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post-71057357839601126752009-06-12T09:19:08.993-04:002009-06-12T09:19:08.993-04:00An excellent post Tom, I really enjoy your diligen...An excellent post Tom, I really enjoy your diligence in exploring what these imaginal musings have for life on/ in earth, all the while maintaining your respect for the spirit of the material and your individual academic voice. This blog is a pleasure to readTom Hullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08217570947524991614noreply@blogger.com