The real unanimity

What we need for the future of the School is, I believe, a different kind of unanimity. Thus far we have had a unanimity not only of action, but of thought. In other words, as members of the School we assent to certain ideas which are held to be part of "The Truth" or "The Teaching", and are thus beyond question.

The yugas, the five elements, the four aspects of the antahkarana, the three gunas, the division between purusha and prakriti, the unity of atman and brahman (that all organised itself very nicely, didn't it?) ... we could go on.

The point of calling into question the yugas is not to bring the whole edifice of The Teaching down about our ears, but to say that they are just ideas. Ideas are provisional mental constructions, and are therefore fully open to question by mental means, such as reason (of which science is an aspect).

What I would like to propose is that the unanimity we require is emotional. That's to say - we can be united in our hearts, while holding different theories or opinions about the world. Indeed, if we are going to have a real conversation, we need to be strongly united if we are not to be driven apart by our ideas into factions.

We cannot limit the operation of reason; but we need faith if we are to venture along the path of reason - faith that there is something to find; faith that we can live without dogma or concepts; faith that if we disagree then we can push on further, and not fall back on a facile conceptual unity.

It is not enough to say "all concepts are just concepts" and give up on thought. We are "man" - "the being who thinks" - and until we have the answers, we must question.