Kenosis to Gnosis

The two movies above, one from THX 1138 and the other from The Matrix, have important scenes showing important characters going against the flow of society. In THX 1138, the characters go against the flow when they are trying to escape the prison and this happens towards the end of the movie. In the Matrix, Neo is going against the flow when he is been educated about the nature of humanity when most people are asleep. That scene emphasizes that people who are asleep are just as much part of the system as the people they are struggling against.

 

As the two scenes from these movies demonstrate, it is very hard to go against the flow and to go in the direction that someone wants to. The flow itself, in the context of society, flows towards big government and big corporate control. But on a deeper level, the flow moves people towards the flesh and the animal nature. In Matthew 7:13, the passage talks about how most of humanity will move away from life and to destruction, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

 

The best way to go against the flow is to not be in it. Think of trying to get past a wave at the beach, if someone was to try to go through it, they will find it is very hard. If the wave is large enough, it will push or even tumble them back to shore. The way to deal with a wave is to go underneath it so that the wave will go past the person. Even then, if a wave is large enough, it can still pull someone forward. Diving under the wave is how surfers get through a wave to the other side.

 

Many heresies and alternative belief systems all throughout history have been underground and beneath the surface of society. It makes it easy for such groups to survive without being pushed back into line by society. In a deeper sense, religions and occult socities have always preached seperating oneself from the physical world, in order to achieve enlightment. By seperating themselves from the world, people take themselves out of the flow that relentlessly leads towards the flesh and ignorance. Like waves at the beach come indefinitely, so too does the flow of society and the flesh. That is just their nature. There is never any point in resisting the waves at the beach, trying to stop their movement, there is only not being in it, or letting it pass over. The purpose of many spiritual practices, particulary meditation, seperate the person from the senses, or the noise, of the body and of this world. When the sensations of the body start to be silenced, then the silence of the spirit become louder and over time, people can develop a stronger and stronger intuition.

 

The philosophy called Tao Te Ching, much of it is spent preaching the need to seperate oneself from the world and to resist the flow by not being in it, or better still, letting it flow past without resisting it in any way.