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

purely individual point of view. It is my pleasure that I seek and it is the concern that the suffering of others gives me. But the individual is essentially an abstraction. Ultimately, I am only myself in relationship with other selves. Pleasure, as I hope has been demonstrated, only makes sense within this broader context.

Cahoone’s third dichotomy is about our dealing with the wider world of nature. Again, it might appear not to relate to our two questions — of desire and of need. However, Chapter 14 — The Soul Seeks Beauty First, and Chapter 15 — Start with Awe, remind us of how intimately connected are our relationships with nature and our relationship with each other and with ourselves. Matthew Fox, amongst others, reminds us of our need for silence and for solitude and often these are sought within nature. Our relationship to the natural world is not one of standing outside it and trying to control it. Rather, wild nature resides right within us. Note how Simon Parke describes the essence of each of us as ‘wonderful and wild’. When he speaks of our soul, it is of a ‘… cascading waterfall of experience, all power and fluidity, all change and force, all energy and life, a crashing vastness of possibility and engaged at every level of our physical and psychological well-being.’ The conclusion is surely that our inner essence is linked with the wider world of nature just as much as with our own bodies.

Images and Ideals

The long-standing tendency to create perfect forms out of earthly virtues has been noted. It

197