Uroboric incest
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 3 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Woke Mind Virus,’ and it follows on from the section on taking offence. Uroboric incest This desire for white liberals to ‘disappear’ and abase themselves when faced with the accusation of ‘white privilege’ is an aspect of being drawn down into unconsciousness: it reminds me of the concept of uroboric incest[1] which Erich Neumann explores in The Origin and History of Consciousness,[2] where he says: ‘Many forms of nostalgia and longing signify no more than a return to uroboric incest and self-dissolution, from the unio mystica of the saint to the drunkard’s craving for unconsciousness and the “death-romanticism” of the Germanic races.’ ‘Uroboric incest is a form of entry into the mother, of union with her, and it stands in sharp contrast to other and later forms of incest. In uroboric incest, the emphasis upon pleasure and love is in no sense active, it is more a desire to be dissolved and absorbed; passively one lets oneself be taken, sinks into the pleroma [the totality of divine powers], melts away in the ocean of pleasure—a Libestod [love death]. The Great Mother takes the little child back into herself.’ The uroboros is and ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.[3] In a blog post by eirboe entitled ‘Alcoholism and the Urorobos, a reason to drink?’[4] the author says how the very numbness in his body when drunk brought Neumann’s description of uroboric incest to mind, ‘As well as [Jordan] Peterson’s lectures on Adam and Eve, as uroboric incest is basically what he describes the Fall was from. Getting drunk is becoming unconscious of your own “nakedness” and vulnerability, becoming unconscious of your own struggle between right and wrong. It’s not until the next morning, with a terrible hangover, that you realize what you did the night before was probably both dangerous and wrong. But the freedom of not knowing that for a few hours!’ Uroboric incest is an unhealthy and sometimes pathological relationship that a person has to their unconscious; it is a refusing to take on the burden of consciousness and instead desiring to remain unconscious. Uroboric incest can be understood as a love of the unconscious; refusing to take on a higher level of consciousness when demands are placed upon us can be a natural reaction, as consciousness can be an onerous obligation. But consequences can emerge if person refuses to enter into life consciously and instead remains unconscious: remaining unconscious may be easier than facing conscious realization...
The Perfect Storm
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 5 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Safetyism,’ and explores an unfortunate combination of factors prevailant today. The Perfect Storm Most of the symptoms of mass formation that surfaced around the time of the pandemic have largely abated, but the seeds are still present for further chaos and dystopia. We could yet face a truly perfect storm. A perfect storm is created out of frighteningly few interacting conditions: in my calculation just three. When two people are playing pool, it is theoretically possible to predict — and therefore control — where the object ball will go from the angle it is struck. However, suppose we are dealing with a collision between three pool balls. There is no way that we can predict what will happen. This is known in physics as the ‘three-body problem,’ and it is mathematically insoluble. In the pandemic we experienced the collision of three irreconcilable forces, in other words, a Perfect Storm: Condition 1 – Neo-liberal economics, resulting in mass free-floating anxiety (Pressure from ‘the Right.’) What we saw during the pandemic were insecure and fragile employment scenarios playing into the problem of attempts to solve the pandemic. Neo-liberal economic pressures led to the prevalence of conformist narratives and individual risk aversion, with few risking losing their jobs by speaking out when harms were being perpetrated. For instance it became dangerous — career-wise — for a doctor to promote any Covid-19 treatment regime that was not within the mainstream narrative. Even to resist the pressure to conform within one’s workplace and refuse vaccination could mean losing your livelihood: against their better judgment, many people bowed to the pressure to be vaccinated. But all that got in the way of the real science and so meant the problem was never effectively solved. Mass formation stoked fear, which stoked self-protection among those who had a responsibility to protect the public; which stoked the public’s unresponsiveness to the real issues in the pandemic leading to ineffective solutions, which further stoked the cycle of fear. This ‘neo-liberal anxiety’ extended to the Internet, where insecure and fragile social scenarios led to a pressure to conform with one’s peer group or lose one’s social standing. Condition 2 – Cultural imposition of political correctness, excessive safeguarding and Woke culture, resulting in mass free-floating resentment (Pressure from ‘the Left.’) In its reaction to the real and imagined excesses of the Trump era, the Left went to the only place it knew well: protest. But once in power, protest became uberprotest: as if nothing...
The Buddha of fearlessness
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 8 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Safetyism,’ and explores its remedy in the fearless qualities of the dark green Buddha Amoghasiddhi (‘Unobstructed Success.’) Fearlessness So, what is the remedy for Safetyism? Obviously, fearlessness: a quality that the Buddha was known for. Vessantara: ‘On another occasion the Buddha’s cousin, Devadatta, in a fit of jealousy, bribed someone to let loose a wild elephant against the Buddha. We can imagine the scene: people scattering in all directions; Devadatta perhaps hidden somewhere out of harm’s way where he could watch events; the great beast rushing, maddened, towards the one still figure in a mud-dyed yellow robe. It is an extraordinary contrast. The elephant out of control, head tossing, trunk waving, furious; the Buddha still, erect, serene. … As the beast came towards him, the Buddha suffused it with maitri, loving-kindness. Nothing could have entered that enchanted circle of love around the Buddha and maintained thoughts of violence. The mad elephant discovered it was bearing down on the best friend it had in the world. Gradually its charge slowed to a walk, and it reached the Buddha docile and friendly. In this incident we could say that elephant met elephant, for the Buddha was often described as being like a great elephant because of his calm dignity and steady gaze. Perhaps elephant met elephant in a deeper sense too. The Buddha, having gone far beyond dualistic modes of thought, did not feel himself a separate, threatened identity opposed by the huge creature bearing down upon him. His maitri (love) came from a total feeling for, and identification with, the charging animal.’[1] Fear is not overcome by bravado: ‘… ultimately (fearlessness) can come only from insight into Reality. At that point we realize the illusoriness of the ego which we feel for. In particular, fear of dying, the primary fear of which all other are reflections, disappears. … The double vajra reminds us that fearlessness comes from a full and balanced development of all sides of ourselves. Without that, we shall always have a weak side, a vulnerability that we fear for, and keep having to protect. Even more, we shall have an unexplored aspect, an area of uncharted terrain within, whose characteristics we may experience, projected onto the outside world, as people and situations that are unpredictable and threatening. … It is all too easy to keep developing one’s strengths, and to try to make use of them in all situations. Some people even manage to become totally identified with a single talent or a powerful position. From the spiritual point of view...
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