Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

The point I’m trying to make here is – not whether or not such an experience is ‘genuine’ or not – but instead, just the plain fact that we could, any of us, at any time, find ourselves sat on that mountain, looking out at the world as a glorious and harmonious timeless reality, where that crucial paradox of perfection is resolved.

So now, where are the alternative truths, the alternative meanings, the alternative ethics and moralities? Nowhere really, as we already know that they must be incomplete. We are just common humanity, sat on the mountaintop. That is the ultimate common ground! The mountaintop reminds us that no-one can ever be right about truth. Only in eternity (or, if you don’t mind it, only with God’s eye view) can the fundamental paradox of the universe be resolved. In the meantime, all our ideas are compromises. Better to contemplate the paradox than pretend that we have found the truth!

Perhaps then what is needed is to reconcile these two things — the personal worries and the peace the mountaintop experience seems to promise. We can never be entirely free of our parochial concerns. But at times we can assume the perspective of the mountaintop. And this pertains especially to our dealings with others. It is especially helpful, I think, to consider all of our fellow human beings being in that place of peace — on the mountaintop. This is more than just a fancy way to describe our being compassionate to others. It is to sit on the mountaintop as often as we can and to sit on the mountain with others. Everyone else, after all, is potentially sitting on that mountain,

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