Forgiveness as the Guiding Principle for Individual Rebirth and Modern Universal Renaissance
In this paper, I first create new frameworks for a reflection on "human" and "humanism" in the time of globalization. As our intellectual perception of the world is becoming more universal and all-inclusive, so should also our hearts. The heart is the inner most core of being hum...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
David Publishing Company
2017
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| In: |
Cultural and religious studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 5, Issue: 9, Pages: 525-535 |
| Further subjects: | B
kleshas
B Forgiveness B Patañjali B Globalization B Reconciliation B Humanism |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this paper, I first create new frameworks for a reflection on "human" and "humanism" in the time of globalization. As our intellectual perception of the world is becoming more universal and all-inclusive, so should also our hearts. The heart is the inner most core of being human, to become able to expand in unprecedented dimensions of human existence. In this context, I propose forgiveness as the guiding principle of expansion and inclusion, and consequently of becoming more human. If memory helps us to survive, forgetting allows us to go on living. The practice of forgetting, and consequently of reconciliation, is the distinctive and complex moment of human existence, when the human agent makes him/herself open and available to the present moment, and lives fully in the present moment. Once doing so, the present moment becomes the space in which s/he can reconcile with his/her past and shape his/her future. In the second part, I check possible impediments on our way to expansion and inclusion, as well as in our process of forgiveness and reconciliation. Patañjali, in his instructions to yogis talks about kleshas, i.e. impediments or afflictions, which are weakening our way of thinking and acting. These kleshas include ignorance, ego, attachment, aversion, and the clinging to life. I take these kleshas also as afflictions on our way to becoming more human, or as impediments in our process of forgiveness and reconciliation. Finally, I reflect on the human urge to become more human. In our time of globalization, we are challenged to look at this urge from a universal perspective. This urge, bound with an inevitable process of forgiveness and reconciliation, challenges each religion and its dogmatic teaching, and represents the evaluative criterion. The spirituality, or religion, that which promulgates and lives forgiveness and reconciliation will automatically excel because it will succeed, without losing its own identity, to integrate and include otherness of the other. |
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| ISSN: | 2328-2177 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Cultural and religious studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17265/2328-2177/2017.09.001 |