Re: Off-topic: cultures and mysticism (was: Promoting Lojban)

[Robin Turner <robin@bilkent.edu.tr>]

la kris. cusku di'e
[cut]

> But my question is, could there even exist a 'culturally-neutral
> mysticism' ? From what I understand, systems of mysticisms (heh love the
> way that sounds) depend very much on extremely culture-specific elements.
> Without a culture to support it and to feed back into, mysticism would
> have no psychological 'hooks' and levers for the mystic to use, and
> mysticism would be greatly reduced in its purpose.
>

{.a'u.ienaisai}  Cultural "hooks and levers" are {li'a} very useful, but not
much help to people outside the culture - in fact they can be
counter-productive.  I've been interested in mysticism since childhood, but
always get put off by the cultural/ideological baggage, and by people who
swallow it uncritically ("Like wow man, those Eastern cultures are sooo
spiritually evolved, I gotta get me some beads and joss sticks right away").
{.i'a} you often need some kind of symbol/myth/archetype system to give
emotive power to whatever practices you're experimenting with {ku'i} they
don't have to be the same as the culture from which the said practices
originate.  It's often better to work with your own, and Lojban can aid this
process of internal world-creation, while avoiding the trap of uncritical
cultural assumptions.  Apart from anything else, it forces you to think about
what you really mean {mu'a} if I'm designing a Lojban
prayer/meditation/affirmation, it makes a difference as to whether I start
something with {.a'o} {.e'o} {ju'o} {se'o} etc. etc.  {ta'o} I posted an
example of this some time back.

>
> > Looking at the extreme variety of people on this list, a common culture
> > would be pretty problematic!  We've got right-wing libertarians,
> > left-wing libertarians, scientists, mystics, poets .... you name it!
> > The only common theme seems to be the Vulcan motto "infinite diversity
> > in infinite combinations".
>
> Indeed. (And you forgot anarchists.) :^)

Well, "libertarian" includes that, doesn't it?  All anarchists are
libertarians, though not all libertarians are anarchists ... I think.
Another area where Lojban might be able to clarify things.

co'o mi'e robin.