9 Years Ago

Darin Stevenson updated his status.

Apr 17, 2016 1:17:30 pm

We are wrong to speak of ancient peoples as ‘having beliefs’. What they had were enactions of experience — that to us would be ‘explanations’. They did not have explanations. So they had experiences, and they formed ceremonies to both commemorate and nourish the seeds and relationships that were born in these experiences. These are not beliefs. Nor are they merely descriptions of direct experiences that were as obvious to them as white on clouds is to us. They are enactions of relationships. Just as when you give me food or I tend your wounds. As someone with long and direct experience of these matters, I assure you, what they had was experiences. What we call ‘their beliefs’ were not beliefs at all, they were methods of relating with and continuing the relationships that are the foundations of our humanity and minds. You do not ‘believe’ that you have mental experience, but you have the word ‘thoughts’ to describe it. Same thing here. “The ancient Romans believed that every human baby is born with what they called his or her “genius,” a guardian spirit assigned at birth. Roman birthday parties were held not so much to honor an individual as to honor that person’s genius, the divine being that came into the world with him or her. The Romans knew that it was not the man’s Ego that was the source of his music, his art, his statecraft, or his courageous deeds. It was the Divine Child, an aspect of the Self within him.” — infraheard