VIE DE L'ESPRIT ET RELIGIONS

I found this book in a hotel in Montsegur frequented by my friend Lars Muhl, author of The O Manuscript, reviewed in these pages three years ago. The title referring to the life of the spirit in relation to religions appealed to me, living as I do in the Cathar region of France ravaged by the genocidal Albigensian Crusade in the 13th century, and representing what Dupre calls a metaphysical amputation. The term 'esprit' has a dual meaning in French as both spirit and mind and in this book represents spirit and higher mind. The author was a friend and collaborator of Deodat Roche (1877-1978), originator of Etudes Cathares, and published a book about him and his work representing a Cathar of the 20th century. He has written two other books on Catharism and its relationship to Christianity, as well as a biography of Rudolf Steiner. As I indicated in my review of The Gospel of the Beloved Companion two issues ago, there is a tension between spirit on the one hand and letter and the law on the other, between the prophet and priest. In the course of reading this book, I came to realise that the Spirit as a source of life/love and force of renewal is always heretical. Jesus was heretical in relation to the Pharisees of his time (as was Peter Deunov to the Bulgarian Orthodox Bishops), and it is a supreme irony that his views were translated into what the author characterises as a power structure of theocratic totalitarianism. As CS Lewis put it in a conversation between a senior and junior devil, the latter is concerned about this new religion of the spirit, while the former observes dryly 'we'll help them organise it.' Which they did.

The mediaeval Cathars were heretical in relation to the Catholic Church, and all the more dangerous for claiming to be a genuine expression of the original Christian impulse, a Church of the Holy Spirit with its own ritual and scriptures, including, I believe, the Gnostic Gospel of the Beloved Companion. The Inquisition was specifically established in order to combat the Cathar heresy, initially in a temporary form in 1184 and permanently in 1229. Theologically, Cathars were criticised for believing in two fundamental principles representing light and darkness rather than in one supreme God identified in the Old Testament as Yahweh. Dupre advances a subtle dualistic metaphysic by postulating an original Being, which, as soon as it is manifest in duality, gives rise to Counter-Being, which, morally speaking, represents evil, and metaphysically, death. This is one approach to the riddle of theodicy and evil, a phenomenon that can never be fully resolved given the limits of our human understanding. Dupre takes the view that the human condition is tragic rather than absurd. History is only too replete with cruelty and inhumanity in every era, including our own, inflicted only too frequently in the name of ideology, whether sacred or secular. As Montaigne said, 'it is putting a very high value on your opinions to roast men on account of them.'

For Dupre, the divine spirit is the immanent centre within, and the human spiritual journey is a metaphorically vertical quest for truth, coming to realise then embody and express the unity and universality of being, becoming an authentic, free spiritual being. He argues that the most advanced humans are dedicated to the life of the spirit and are progressively more aware of their soul activity, this essential being within, hence their inner orientation and emphasis on meditation, contemplation and prayer. The whole process is one of overcoming an original sense of separation towards realising unity, remembering our core identity, an awakening to the light and love that we essentially are. From an evolutionary point of view this is a progression from homo sapiens to human being, from self to Self, moi to Soi: this is gnosis, an ontological/ontic and cognitive experience of unity expressed in an ethic of love and compassion.

Dupre traces the origins of monotheism and describes its historical influence and implications. It becomes associated with monolithic institutional structures and what we would now call monocultures, insisting on an exclusive possession of truth and a right to impose this by persuasion and if necessary force on other people, naturally for their own good. These become power structures of control and manipulation based on fear, guilt and shame (original sin). He characterises the sacrificial crucifix as a totem of Christianity, only making a widespread appearance in the fifth century, while for Protestants the Bible later becomes a totem. The development of Christianity incorporated many mythical structures into the Jesus story ('enrobage fabuleux'). Mystics and freethinking bearers of the spirit are persecuted and even put to death by self-righteous representatives of the letter and the law. However, truly free person is not subject to what the author calls 'suivisme' (followership) and in this respect Dupre's argument reminded me of Jung's essay on the Undiscovered Self, where he emphasises the crucial importance of truly individual and independent beings as a bulwark against collective sectarian insanity. The greatest awakened sages as supreme expressions of human potential emanate a palpable ontic presence, fully realising and lovingly radiating their universality of being. As the author puts it, they have interiorised the cosmic intensity of being in a human presence.

As humans it is our privilege to ask three essential questions: What? How? Why? Modern science has answered the first two questions in mechanistic and material terms, maintaining that there is no answer to the third question and no overall purpose to life. Institutionally, scientism has almost become a new form of epistemological and even ontological totalitarianism, tacitly imposing a strict orthodoxy on mainstream scientists and claiming that their approach is metaphysically complete. Unfortunately, science has inherited the dogmatic notions of orthodoxy and heresy, and while modern heretics are not burned at the stake, they live in fear of losing their reputations and funding. If science represents an outer 'horizontal' form of knowing, then we as humans also need an inner 'vertical' dimension of knowing represented by the spiritual quest and gnosis. These can be mutually enriching rather than mutually exclusive, adding the depth dimension and affirming the ontological reality of transcendent and immanent Being. We are each responsible for bringing this awakening to birth in our own lives - even if ever so gradually and slowly - and lighting one more candle in the darkness.