THE ASCENT TO FREEDOM AND PERSONALITY
In the previous chapter we found that man in his primitive stage is
largely a creature of the lower world. His desires are those of the
animal kingdom, his ideal is utility, and social approbation his God. At
this stage he is a mere nothing, no better than a slave to his passions
and to the opinions of his fellow-beings. He possesses neither freedom
nor personality--for he is but a tool in the hands of other impulses and
forces. There is no controlling self--he is not a lord in his own
kingdom. Some men do not get beyond this very low level, but for ever
remain mere shuttlecocks driven hither and thither by more or less
contradictory impulses.
The germ of the higher world that resides within him may sometimes make
itself felt, but "so long as there is a confused welter of higher and
lower impulses, ... so long is there an absence of anything essentially
new and lofty."
Man's aspirations for things that are higher, are at the outset very
sluggish and vague, for a being that is so much dominated by the natural
world is apt to concentrate its attention upon it and to remain
contented with it.
But there comes a time in the lives of perhaps most men when a distinct
feeling of dissatisfaction is felt with the life of natural impulse and
of convention. The man feels--perhaps in a vague way at first--that
there is something too merely animal in the sense world, or that there
is an intolerable emptiness and hypocrisy in a life of slavish devotion
to the opinions of society. Perhaps he feels that his passions govern
him, and not he his passions. The higher life stirs within him, and he
begins to question the rightness of things. He learns to appreciate for
the first time that the natural impulses may not be the noblest, and
that custom may not be an ideal guide. His soul is astir with the
problem of life--the result very largely depends upon the solutions that
are presented to him. Perhaps the naturalistic solution is made to
appeal to him, and he is taught to trust nature and it will lead him
aright. Or maybe the pantheistic theory is accepted by him, and he is
led to believe that the world as it is is entirely good, and that he has
but to live his life from day to day, and not worry himself about the
ultimate end and purpose of things. Or other optimistic theories of life
that deny the existence of evil may influence him. All these solutions
may give him temporary peace of mind, and perhaps indeed form efficient
stumbling-blocks to any further spiritual progress.
But the spiritual beginnings within us often show remarkable vitality.
They may under certain conditions lead us to appreciate the existence of
a distinct opposition in the world--the opposition between the lower
world and the higher self. Man finds that the natural is often low,
evil, and sordid, and at this stage the higher spiritual world makes a
strong appeal to him. By degrees he comes to feel the demands of the
lower world to be a personal insult to him. What is the lower material
world that it should govern him, and he a _man_? The claims of pleasure
and utility to be standards of conduct strike him as arrogant, and he
revolts against the assumption that higher aims can have no charm for
him. His previous acceptance without consideration of the moral
standard of the community he now looks upon as a sign of weakness on his
part--for is he not himself, a person with the power of independent
judgment and evaluation? It is the first great awakening of the
spiritual life in man, when his whole soul is in revolt against the low,
sordid, and conventional. What shall he do? There is only one course
that is worthy of his asserting personality--he must break with the
world. Henceforth he sees two worlds in opposition--the world of the
flesh on the one hand, the world of the spirit on the other, and he
arrays himself on the side of the higher in opposition to the lower.
When he does this the spiritual life in him makes the first substantial
movement in its onward progress--this movement Eucken calls the
_negative movement_. It does not mean that the man must leave the world
of work and retire into the seclusion of a monastery--that means
shirking the fight, and is a policy of cowardice. Neither does it mean a
wild impatience with the present condition of the world--it means rather
that man is appreciating in a profound way the oppositions that exist,
and is casting his lot on the side of right. He renounces everything
that hinders him from fighting successfully, then goes forth into the
thick of the battle. The break must be a definite one and made in a
determined manner. "Without earnestness of renunciation the new life
sinks back to the old ... and loses its power to stimulate to new
endeavour. As human beings are, this negation must always be a sharp
one."
The negative movement, then, is the first substantial step in the
progress of the spiritual life. The man's self breaks out into
discontent with nature, and this is the first step to the union of self
to the higher reality in life. The break with the world is in itself of
course but a negative process. This must attain a positive significance.
If the self breaks away from one aspect of life, it must identify itself
more intimately with another. This occurs when the individual sets out
definitely on a course of life in antagonism to the evil in the world.
When this takes place, there arises within him a _new immediacy_ of
experience. Hitherto the things that were his greatest concern, and that
appealed to him most, were the pleasures of the natural world. But these
things appeal to him no longer as urgent and immediate--but as being of
a distinctly secondary character. A new immediacy has arisen; it is the
facts of the spiritual world that now appeal to him as urgent and
immediate. "All that has hitherto been considered most immediate, as the
world of sense, or even the world of society, now takes a second place,
and has to make good its claim before this spiritual tribune.... That
which current conceptions treat as a Beyond ... is now the only world
which exists in its own right, the only true and genuine world which
neither asks nor consents to be derived from any outside source."
This new immediacy is the deepest possible immediacy, it is an immediacy
of experience where the self comes into contact with its own vital
principle--the Universal Spiritual Life--and brings about a fundamental
change in the life of the individual. The inner life is no longer
governed by sense impressions and impulses, but the outward life is
lived and viewed from the standpoint of the inward life.
But a new immediacy is not all that follows in the train of the negative
movement--on the contrary, the highest possible rewards are gained, for
freedom, personality, and immortality are all brought within the range
of possibility.
Once a human being decides for the highest he is on the highroad to
complete freedom. The freedom is not going to be won in a moment, but
must be fought for by the individual through the whole course of his
life. His body is always with him, and will at times attempt to master
him--he must fight continually to ensure conquest. Difficulties will
arise from various quarters, but he is not going to depend only upon his
own resources. All his activity involves in the first place the
recognition of the spiritual world, but more than this, he appropriates
unto himself of the spiritual world--this in itself is an act of
decision. And the more we appropriate unto ourselves of the Universal
Spiritual Life, the more we decide for the higher world, the freer we
become. Indeed, "it is this appropriation ... of the spiritual life that
first awakens within the soul an inward certitude, and makes possible
that perfect freedom ... so indispensable for every great creative
work." By continually choosing and fighting for the progress of the
Universal Spiritual Life, it comes to be our own in virtue of our deed
and decision. Hence man has attained freedom--the lower world no longer
makes successful appeal. He has become a part of the spiritual world,
and his actions are no longer dictated by anything external, but are the
direct outcome of his own self. He has freely chosen the highest, and
continually reaffirms his choice--this is perfect freedom.
Man gains for himself, too, a personality in the true sense of the term.
Eucken does not mean by personality "mere self-assertion on the part of
an individual in opposition to others." He means something far deeper
than this. "A genuine self," says Eucken, "is constituted only by the
coming to life of the infinite spiritual world in an independent
concentration in the individual." Following a life of endeavour in the
highest cause, and continual appropriation of the spiritual life, he
arrives at a state of at-one-ness with the universal life. "Man does not
merely enter into some kind of relation with the spiritual life, but
finds his own being in it." The human being is elevated to a self-life
of a universal kind, and this frees him from the ties and appeals of the
world of sense and selfishness. It is a glorious conception of human
personality, infinitely higher than the undignified conceptions of
naturalism and determinism.
And if man wins a glorious personality, he may gain immortality too.
Unfortunately, Eucken has not yet dealt fully with this question, but he
is evidently of the opinion that the spiritual personalities are
immortal. As concentration points or foci of the spiritual life, he
believes that the developed personalities are at present and in prospect
possessors of a spiritual realm. But there will be no essential or
sudden change at death. That which is immortal is involved in our
present experience. Those who have developed into spiritual
personalities, who have worked in fellowship with the great Universal
Life, and become centre-points of spirituality, have thus risen supreme
over time and pass to their inheritance. Those who have not done so, but
have lived their lives on the plane of nature, will have nothing that
can persist.
Hence it is that the negative movement leads to freedom, personality,
and immortality; the neglect to make the movement consigns the
individual to slavery, makes a real "self" impossible, and at death he
has nought that a spiritual realm can claim. The choice is an
all-important one; for, as a recent writer puts it, "In this choice, the
personality chooses or rejects itself, takes itself for its life-task,
or dies of inanition and inertia."