Evola distinguishes two types of anonymity, one inferior and the other superior. The first is a function of reduction - the individual is reduced to a unit, and becomes indistinguishable from other units in a generalised mass. In the second, the individual becomes anonymous by living up to a role or type.
[...] anonymity is "the greatest symbol of self-sacrifice that we know."
It must be understood that anonymity means much more in AA thinking and theology than the mere protection of members from exposure and shame [...] the twelfth of the "Twelve Traditions" states that
"anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."
To this we may add that anonymity is also a profound statement of the systemic relation, part-to-whole.
[...] the single purpose of AA is directed outward and is aimed at a noncompetitive relationship to the larger world.
The variable to be maximized is a complementarity and is of the nature of "service" rather than dominance.
[Gregory Bateson]
Steps to an Ecology of Mind ('The Cybernetics of "Self": A Theory of Alcoholism'), p.333-5
So long as man does not by his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him.
Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.
[Gandhi]
The Story of My Experiments With Truth, p.454
If the sage refuses to be proud
Then people won't compete for his attention:
If the sage does not buy treasures
Then the people won't want to steal them:
If the sage governs with vision
Then his people won't go wrong.
So in his wisdom, he restrains himself:
- by not being greedy for food
- by not dominating the State
- by keeping himself healthy and fit.
The sage always makes sure
that the people don't know what he's done,
so they never want to take control -
and are never driven by ambition.
He keeps them in truth like this acting invisibly.
You see, if there is nothing to fight for
then there is nothing that can break the flow.
[Lao Tzu]
Tao Te Ching, Chapter Three
By virtue of the Far Eastern saying, “The absolute Name is no longer a name,” he is likewise anonymous. Traditionality in the higher sense is a type of confirmation of such anonymity, or an approach to it within a particular field of action.
As a result, two concepts of impersonality exist, related through analogy and at the same time through opposition: on the personal level, one is inferior, the other superior. One has for a limit the individual, in the formlessness of a numerical and undifferentiated unity that through multiplication produces the anonymous mass; the other is the culmination typical of a sovereign being, the absolute person.
The latter possibility rests on a foundation of active anonymity that appears in traditional civilizations, defining a position opposed to every activity, creativity, or affirmation based merely on the I.
One could speak of a “civilization of anonymous heroes”; but the style of anonymity is also realized in the speculative domain, where it goes without saying that what is thought according to the truth cannot be signed with the name of an individual. One also recalls the custom of abandoning one's own name and taking another that no longer refers to the individual, to the man, but to the function or superior vocation, where the personality is summoned to a higher obligation (for instance, royalty and pontificate, monastic orders, and so on).
[Julius Evola]
Ride the Tiger, p. 111
Women dancing in support of the Mountain Gods produce no sound. Even noisy jewelry is removed before they dance. Their dance steps, in contrast to those of the Mountain Gods and the girls, are executed in silence.
Women make their statement through their presence and their participation. In the realm of ritual sound/silence, the place of humans is to be silent while Power's is to invoke sound.
The most holy ones present, save the clowns, are the girls impersonating White Painted Woman. Even when they are not dancing, their slightest movement produces organized sounds perceived almost as music. But again the sound is holy sound; the girls themselves speak little in public. The Power filling them is responsible for the noise; they, as humans, remain almost completely silent, as is proper when a human confronts Power.
[Claire R. Farrer]
‘Singing for Life: The Mescalero Apache Girls’ Puberty Ceremony’, Betwixt and Between, p.257
Related posts:-
Sell Out
Walter
Positive Space
Masked Hero
Rights and Responsibilities
Negative Space
Everything and Nothing
Buddhism and Psychoanalysis
Forget Your Self
Part of a System
Structural Integrity
Self-preservation
Assume a Position
Empty Container
Maturity
Then people won't compete for his attention:
If the sage does not buy treasures
Then the people won't want to steal them:
If the sage governs with vision
Then his people won't go wrong.
So in his wisdom, he restrains himself:
- by not being greedy for food
- by not dominating the State
- by keeping himself healthy and fit.
The sage always makes sure
that the people don't know what he's done,
so they never want to take control -
and are never driven by ambition.
He keeps them in truth like this acting invisibly.
You see, if there is nothing to fight for
then there is nothing that can break the flow.
[Lao Tzu]
Tao Te Ching, Chapter Three
By virtue of the Far Eastern saying, “The absolute Name is no longer a name,” he is likewise anonymous. Traditionality in the higher sense is a type of confirmation of such anonymity, or an approach to it within a particular field of action.
As a result, two concepts of impersonality exist, related through analogy and at the same time through opposition: on the personal level, one is inferior, the other superior. One has for a limit the individual, in the formlessness of a numerical and undifferentiated unity that through multiplication produces the anonymous mass; the other is the culmination typical of a sovereign being, the absolute person.
The latter possibility rests on a foundation of active anonymity that appears in traditional civilizations, defining a position opposed to every activity, creativity, or affirmation based merely on the I.
One could speak of a “civilization of anonymous heroes”; but the style of anonymity is also realized in the speculative domain, where it goes without saying that what is thought according to the truth cannot be signed with the name of an individual. One also recalls the custom of abandoning one's own name and taking another that no longer refers to the individual, to the man, but to the function or superior vocation, where the personality is summoned to a higher obligation (for instance, royalty and pontificate, monastic orders, and so on).
[Julius Evola]
Ride the Tiger, p. 111
Women dancing in support of the Mountain Gods produce no sound. Even noisy jewelry is removed before they dance. Their dance steps, in contrast to those of the Mountain Gods and the girls, are executed in silence.
Women make their statement through their presence and their participation. In the realm of ritual sound/silence, the place of humans is to be silent while Power's is to invoke sound.
The most holy ones present, save the clowns, are the girls impersonating White Painted Woman. Even when they are not dancing, their slightest movement produces organized sounds perceived almost as music. But again the sound is holy sound; the girls themselves speak little in public. The Power filling them is responsible for the noise; they, as humans, remain almost completely silent, as is proper when a human confronts Power.
[Claire R. Farrer]
‘Singing for Life: The Mescalero Apache Girls’ Puberty Ceremony’, Betwixt and Between, p.257
Related posts:-
Sell Out
Walter
Positive Space
Masked Hero
Rights and Responsibilities
Negative Space
Everything and Nothing
Buddhism and Psychoanalysis
Forget Your Self
Part of a System
Structural Integrity
Self-preservation
Assume a Position
Empty Container
Maturity
