readoldthings

Two selections from Manly P. Hall's book Self Unfoldment by Disciplines of Realization. No link, because it's out of print and hard to find.

There are many metaphysicians who can look a fact in the face and then deny it with a series of affirmations. Many of us have seen an individual sneezing violently whose philosophy of life taught that bodily ills were an illusion; but he had not learned not to sit in a draft. Also to be remembered is the elderly lady suffering from caffeine poisoning who persisted in trying to “deny” the caffeine right out of the several cups of coffee that she drank for breakfast every morning. There was also “God’s perfect child” who had been brought up in an environment of platitudes, and yet was the pest of the neighborhood.

A philosophy of evasion is just as bad as running away yourself. There are many pseudo-metaphysicians who could live a thousand years without experiencing anything because their philosophy has taken away the privilege of experience. When metaphysics teaches you that divine law pervades all things, you must be extremely careful not to resolve this fact into a platitude. Do not start affirming that everything is all right when it evidently is not. Such a process is autohypnosis. When a small mind takes hold of a big idea, chaos is inevitable. Philosophy does not make wrong right, but it helps you to see the universal reality that circumscribes and orders all existence.

But:

The philosopher is attempting to attain an eternal existence. He is striving for release from impermanent attitudes, beliefs, and habits. It is very necessary, therefore, that he achieve a detachment from all transitory matters such as politics, customs, and most of all, fads. This does not mean taking no interest in social progress, for all great philosophers have been sociologists. But he must stop fuming and fussing over this candidate and that party, and get to the place where he can perceive that all the varied and often contradictory procedures of mankind are contributing to an eternal pattern. Growth, integrity, and ultimate perfection are inevitable. There is nothing more disheartening to see than a group fretting itself into a frenzy determining whether a certain political party is going to overthrow civilization.

That which is real can never be destroyed, and that which is unreal can never be preserved. The wise man detaches himself from inconsequential controversies.

These two ideas seem to contradict one another. They occur in the same chapter of the same book, so we should probably assume that any contradiction is only apparent, and see what we can make of them. Let us not fret that a certain political party is going to overthrow civilization (it can't, since this has already been accomplished.) But let us not affirm that everything is all right, when it manifestly is not-- and in the America of BLM riots, mask mandates, lockdowns, contact tracing, suppression of free speech by technologists, suppression of information by the news media, and mandatory "critical race theory" trainings, everything is manifestly not all right. But that's no reason to give in to despair. "That which is real can never be destroyed, and that which is unreal can never be preserved." Now we have the chance to test ourselves, our courage, our commitment to the path, under conditions we have never seen before. Don't worry, it's only the end of the world.