The spiritual reality

The concept of 'gaping' has from the start two different meanings, a negative one under the sign of disappointment, a positive one which opens to a hereafter of hope. This one is at issue here. An exodus through a vacuum towards the fullness of a 'promised land'. It provokes humans towards elsewhere.

The naturalist intelligibility which wants to be in strict continuity with the 'same' one can be right at 99%. The astounding is the remaining 1%. A small remainder which however opens an infinite possibility. A weak prophetic voice emerges on the vast expanse where 'id' proliferates. It dares to start by saying 'I'. Little David in front of the giant Goliath.

This apparent 'nothing' of the spirit hides and reveals at the same time an 'other' fullness. Gaping is not 'nothing' right through; it comes from the hearth of being. The 'no' of the spirit is not absolute negation; it rests on a more fundamental and originating 'yes'.

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The spirit is where it is not. Through a vacuum which crosses a fullness. Spirit is gaping. It cannot be 'defined'. You can only define a substantial essence. The 'what' of spirit remains evanescent. There remains only the 'that' of the act of its sudden appearance.

It is happy that the spirit was never discovered at the point of a scalpel. The spirit comes only through a gaping of matter. Like a negation in the middle of an assertion. Like a critic within assertions. Like a question in the concert of answers. Like humour right in the middle of serious certainty. And what about if the specific human reality were something absolutely different from an 'ingredient'? The essence of humanity seems well to emerge through a 'not'. All the naturalisms of the world would like to suppress this scandalous 'not' and bring it back to the reason of a natural 'yes'.Structuralism would be very fine for that

Thought is not in the neurons nor in the synapses. It emerges between. The speech functions in the interstices of the language. It comes from tearing the textures. It escapes from the text. It speaks in the open. It is made ellipse, metaphor, allegory…

Begin looking where the spirit is not. Without doubt the spirit appears with the most relevance, by contrast, where it is not.

Against all naturalisms, the thought testifies to itself that it is less and more than just a simple vital function. It is from an other order than this one we share with the simple animality. It is also different from a simple pragmatic adjustment in the world such as it is, for its best possible utilization. Beyond its continuity with nature the thought is above all in infinite exodus from it. Towards the 'other' one.

Something in man refuses limits. Something in man requires the 'other' dimension of reality. This rupture affects the whole human possibilities. Consequently all human polarities are constituted antithetically. The looming up of man opens a space of difference for himself and for every thing he comes closer to. The human specificity has to go through difference so that a new creation can be.

Energy is a main problem just as much in the material order as in the spiritual one. Where is energy there is degradation of energy. Entropy affects time with an index of degradation, of dispersion and of death. Every material process, every effort of creation and of development is paid in entropy. Entropy is every where. Idleness… Lapses of memory… Asthenias… Cowardices… Resignations… Spiritual entropy also is every where. The human spirit functions like a system in a systemic environment. As an incarnated human reality it does not escape the natural 'necessity' which is that of any system. It is thus subjected to entropy.

Entropy is a 'natural' descent. Is there no possible 'go up'? To indicate such a counterpart of entropy was forged the concept of 'negentropy'. Where can regeneration of a degenerating system come from? It can impossibly come from 'inside' the enclosure of the system. It can only come from 'outside'. The opening of the system is thus essential. But where can you find a system infinitely open? This seems impossible inside the material order, even if you consider the whole of our universe as a closed super-system. We know since Clausius that it goes gradually disorganizing itself until its inescapable death.

'Negentropy', contrary to entropy, is not obvious. It is a hard task and hard work. In the material order it is only relatively possible, i.e. in a limited non-closed system open to a larger one from where it receives the needed energy. True 'negentropy' seems only possible in the spiritual realm as an infinite task of the human spirit OPEN to the infinite Hot Source of his spiritual energy.

Spiritual vitality emerges through a field of tension. Between indifference and difference. Between entropy and negentropy. 

 The Spirit is there before you can have the slightest idea of it. So is the sun before the first germ of life. Original 'hot source' facing 'cold wells' and producing spiritual energy. Can the Hot Source of our spiritual energy be another one than the Spirit of God? Maybe you can be unaware of your Hot Source. But it does not ignore you. Under penalty of death!

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