21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

that goes far beyond myself. It is not the name of a lack, but the release from self-enclosure, a joy therefore, that is always in excess, and a desire that is not diminished in its fulfilment. In all this, it bears the trace of the divine... ‘Such excessive desire, such interminable yearning and fulfilment, is not, for Levinas, something which is strictly ‘spiritual’…. On the contrary, since it is a response to the face of the neighbour or stranger, and concerned with the needs they express, desire is embodied. Embodiment, for Levinas … is the very site of transcendence.

‘”The human subject is first of all an animated and inspired body, the incarnate, affective spirituality of a passion for the other…. Transcendence is no longer an ascent to a heaven of the ideal or the sublime, but humble endurance of everyday life, touched, affected, wounded, obsessed and exhausted. A human subject is an inspired body.”’

(Jantzen quotes from Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak. Emphases mine.)

The outworking of these ideas has now been traced through several chapters. Our starting point has been simply to see. In seeing, we see the more obvious beauty in the world, both in nature and in other people. This beauty inspires awe and gratitude. It welcomes us and leads us into finding more beauty. It allows us to step outside of ourselves — to take an eternal perspective. It helps us to let go of those things that we cling to at our cost — both physical things (materialism) and emotional and psychological things. In letting go, we are free to create. What we create is more beauty in the world. We become pleasure — pleasure for ourselves and pleasure for others. Beauty also

176