Conclusion Reflections on creating earthly immortality
Paul Marcus
Routledge eBooks March 21, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9780429473388-7 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that an "intraworldly mysticism"—engaging the Infinite within worldly life—requires reconfiguring one's subjectivity away from selfish cravings and toward a compassionate, other-directed ethical orientation. The author proposes that this spiritual sensibility involves striving for integration, wholeness, and balance, a meaningful creative life, and a sense of interdependence in one's relationships and commitments. |
Abstract
An "intraworldly mysticism" is also a part of engaging the Infinite, of glimpsing immortality. To experience in oneself the love and joy of communing with the Infinite, that is, a sense of infinite being, knowledge, and bliss, requires a state of mind that nurtures the transcendent urge through compassion. Whether one calls them selfish cravings, inordinate needs, or infantile narcissism, developing a spiritual sensibility that points to the Infinite involves reconfiguring one&s;s subjectivity, especially relating oneself to a transcendent realm with a strong ethical dimension that is fundamentally other-directed, other-regarding, and other-serving. Psychologically speaking, the spiritual sensibility includes such elements as the striving for integration, wholeness, and balance, the generation of a creative life that is saturated with meaning and significance, a capacity for unity, integration, and sense of interdependence in one&s;s self-world relationship, especially as it relates to the many relationships, commitments, and responsibilities throughout one&s;s life.