Chapter 25

Jonah Lynch – January 2023

Fatigue and Catharsis

1 The millennial development of Mesopotamian and Biblical spirituality and religion speaks to us of an immense effort with which these two civilizations wanted to understand the ways in which the perception of the absolute could affect their lives. The apex of desire was commensurable to the depth of conditioning, and so was the fatigue inherent in the effort to adapt to it.

Catharsis

2 Confronting the absolute is something that nobody can avoid. And catharsis emerges when a glimmer opens that offers a possibility of harmony with the element that conditions us. In the Mesopotamian world, the method of control lies in recognizing the essential internal fragmentation of reality, and in gradually taking over its reins. In the biblical perspective, the control of conditioning lies, paradoxically, in surrendering to one who conditions us.

3 On the Mesopotamian side, we have observed the phenomenon of fragmentation. In comparison with the relativity of human beings, the absolute slowly fades away. The final catharsis lies in the triumph of human effort. On the Biblical side, the great conditioner is in turn seen as conditioned by his desire for an answer.

Opposition

4 The two spiritualities, Mesopotamian and Biblical, represent the two sides of a binary opposition: tertium non datur.

Unity

5 The knot that unites the two moments of binary opposition is desire, the inner orientation towards what is perceived as good. In the case of the spirituality that founds religion, the good perceived is the absolute.

6 I quote a 7th century Assyrian poem: But then came death, crawling into my room, it took me away, ripping me away from my husband, it directed my feet to that land from which no one can ever return.