Contemplations Regarding “The Courage to Be, Right Here and Right Now” *UPDATED (w/a note)* August 20, 2024

Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone observing the Dormition (Theotokos) Fast and/or exploring friendship, peace, freedom, and wisdom — especially when it gets hot (inside and outside).

Stay hydrated & be kind, y’all!

NOTE: This post and practice reference the concepts of death and dying.

“The courage to be is the courage to affirm one’s own reasonable nature over against what is accidental in us. It is obvious that reason in this sense points to the person in his center and includes all mental functions. Reasoning as a limited cognitive function, detached from the personal center, never could create courage. One cannot remove anxiety by arguing it away. This is not a recent psychoanalytical discovery; the Stoics, when glorifying reason, knew it as well. They knew that anxiety can be overcome only through the power of universal reason which prevails in the wise man over desires and fears. Stoic courage presupposes the surrender of the personal center to the Logos of being; it is participation in the divine power of reason, transcending the realm of passions and anxieties. The courage to be is the courage to affirm our own rational nature, in spite of everything in us that conflicts with its union with the rational nature of being-itself.”

— quoted from “Chapter 1. Being and Courage – Courage and Wisdom: The Stoics” in The Courage To Be by Paul Tillich

So, there’s this thing that we work hard to avoid. In fact, some work harder than others. Some folks work so hard to avoid this thing that it becomes their whole life, their whole reason for being. As I mentioned exactly a week ago, it is something a lot of people fear. We resist it, almost from the moment we are born. Yet, it is something we are all going to experience at some point or another. It is the ultimate change. The ultimate loss. The last appointment. Death.

And, for all the work we put into avoiding it, we experience it constantly. Because we not only experience it when the seasons change and at the end of every day — and will experience it at the end of all our days — we experience it when it happens to someone else. In other words, when we lose something… or someone.

Many philosophies, including Yoga and Buddhism, encourage us to meditate on the temporal nature of things in general. Then, there are specific meditations related to death. These contemplations do not mean that we skip over the stages of grief — just like the knowledge that someone is going to pass away is not an express train to Acceptance. However, this type of practice can help us navigate the journey with a little more grace and a little less suffering. In fact, that is the subtext to the passages I quoted last week from the Yoga Sūtras (2.3 & 2.9) and the Ashtavakra Gita (11.5). Even the quote from the Bhagavad Gita (2.47) brings us back to this: this present moment and the courage to be right here, right now.

It also brings us back to another quote from last week; a quote from the German-American Christian existentialist philosopher, Christian socialist, and Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich, who was born today in 1886, in Starzeddel, Province of Brandenburg, Prussia, German Empire (in what is now modern-day Starosiedle, Poland).

“What conflicts with the courage of wisdom is desires and fears. The Stoics developed a profound doctrine of anxiety which also reminds us of recent analyses. They discovered that the object of fear is fear itself. ‘Nothing,’ says Seneca, ‘is terrible in things except fear itself.’ And Epictetus says, ‘For it is not death or hardship that is a fearful thing, but the fear of death and hardship.’ Our anxiety puts frightening masks over all men and things. If we strip them of these masks their own countenance appears and the fear they produce disappears. This is true even of death. Since every day a little of our life is taken from us–since we are dying every day–the final hour when we cease to exist does not itself bring death; merely completes the death process. The horrors connected with it are a matter of imagination. They vanish when the mask is taken from the image of death.”

— quoted from “Chapter 1. Being and Courage – Courage and Wisdom: The Stoics” in The Courage To Be by Paul Tillich

Considered one of the most influential theologians and philosophers of the twentieth century, Dr. Tillich was the author of The Socialist Decision (1933), which was censored in German due to its criticism of Nazism; The Interpretation of History (1936); The Courage to Be (1952), Dynamics of Faith (1957), and the three-volume series Systematic Theology (1951–1963). During his lifetime, he influenced people like Karl Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, George Lindbeck, Erich Przywara, James Luther Adams, Avery Cardinal Dulles, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sallie McFague, Richard John Neuhaus, David Novak, Thomas Merton, Michael Novak, and Martin Luther King Jr. His work is still studied in schools around the world and reflects his explorations of religion and faith, as well as of politics and society. His books and sermons include emotions and experiences he had very early in life: his doubts and fears and experiences with death.

Dr. Tillich grew up with a conservative Lutheran father — who was pastor of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia’s older Provinces — and a mother who was more liberal (and possibly less nationalistic). His father’s job meant that the family relocated when Paul Tillich (and possibly one of his two younger sisters) was fairly young. While he started school in Poland (and German-occupied Poland) and even attended a boarding school for a bit, he eventually transferred to Berlin. Not long after his 17th birthday, his mother died and then, the following year, he graduated. In quick succession he attended the University of Berlin, the University of Tübingen, and the University of Halle-Wittenberg (where he studied for about two years). In 1911, he earned his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Breslau and, the following year, received a Licentiate of Theology at Halle-Wittenberg and was ordained as a Lutheran minister in the Province of Brandenburg.

Throughout his youth and young adulthood, Paul Tillich explored religion, as well as his own faith in God and in humanity. He read the Bible when he missed his family (while attending boarding school) and, while attending the different universities, he joined the Wingolf (Christian) fraternities. When he wrote his dissertation, it was on the history of religion and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling — which meant he was also (theologically and metaphorically) running into Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. After university, Dr. Tillich got married, served as a chaplain in the Imperial German Army during World War I — where experienced great and extreme loss during the war, and got a divorce when it turned out his wife was pregnant by another man. After the first world war, the Iron Cross recipient remarried (Hannah Werner-Gottschow, who was married and pregnant when they initially met, and who would write about their relationship in From Time to Time) — had a long lasting open marriage — and started teaching at universities. He also kept up professional relationships with other religious scholars, sociologists, and Christian contemplatives.

He was a rising star. But, as had happened previously, the star was in for a fall.

“The anxiety about death is met in two ways. The reality of death is excluded from daily life to the highest possible degree. The dead are not allowed to show that they are dead; they are transformed into a mask of the living. The other and more important way of dealing with death is the belief in a continuation of life after death, called the immortality of the soul. This is not a Christian and hardly a Platonic doctrine. Christianity speaks of resurrection and eternal life, Platonism of a participation of the soul in the transtemporal sphere of essences. But the modern idea of immortality means a continuous participation in the productive process— ‘time and world without end.’ It is not the eternal rest of the individual in God but his unlimited contribution to the dynamics of the universe that gives him courage to face death.”

— quoted from “Chapter 4. Courage and Participation – The Courage to Be as a Part: The Courage to Be as a Part in Democratic Conformism” in The Courage To Be by Paul Tillich

The next big catastrophic change/loss in Paul Tillich’s life occurred with the rise of the Nazi Party. On April 13, 1933, soon after Adolf Hitler became Germany’s Chancellor, Dr. Tillich became one of the first academics declared “enemies of the Reich” and fired from a tenured position. Like the others on the list, he was a professor in good standing (again, with tenure) who was dismissed because of ideological and/or racial reasons.

Paul Tillich’s teachings had already (and continue to) greatly inspire and influence people — including Reinhold Niebuhr, who encouraged Dr. Tillich to relocate to the United States and join the faculty at New York City’s Union Theological Seminary, and other members of the seminary’s faculty (who agreed to a pay cut in order to pay for his salary). Paul Tillich and his family relocated in 1933… and started learning English. Despite the language barriers, he was able to start as a Visiting Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Union Theological Seminary and as a Visiting Lecturer in Philosophy at Columbia University. Within four years, he had earned tenure. Seven years after relocating to the United States, he was promoted to Professor of Philosophical Theology. He also became an American citizen. In addition to supplementing his income with lectures, speaking engagements, articles, and books, he also taught at Harvard Divinity School and the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Through it all, he kept his faith. But he did not fear the changes in his faith.

“There is a saying by Sri Ramakrishna that one needs to continue fanning oneself on hot days, but that it becomes unnecessary when the spring breeze blows. When a man attains illumination, the breeze of grace is continually felt and the fanning (the constant practice of [discernment] is no longer needed.”

— quoted from How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (4:25 – 4.28), translated and with commentary by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood

Please join me today (Tuesday, August 20^th) at 12:00 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “10272021 Another Appointment EVE”]

Extreme heat (and a lot of changes) can not only make people lethargic and unmotivated, they can also lead to extreme agitation and anxiety-based fear. We may find it hard to think, hard to feel (or process our feelings), and/or hard to control our impulses. If you are struggling in the US, help is available just by dialing 988.

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is a new app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es).

Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

A PENULTIMATE NOTE: When he died today in 2014, B. K. S. Iyengar was quoted as saying, “I always tell people, ‘Live happily and die majestically.”’

### BE Fearless & PLAY, LIVE, LOVE & Keep Breathing.###