Many Russians grew up on stories and tales from the Ancient Greek mythology. There were many Soviet cartoons made about Heracles (known in the West under his Roman name Hercules) and his Twelve Labors, about Prometeus who brought fire of knowledge, about smart Odysseus, Argonauts, and so many others. Perhaps, one of the most mysterious stories of all is the tale of King Midas.
The way I am interpreting this myth is quite optimistic. In fact, gold and the color of gold has always been a symbol of Spirit. When Midas receives a gift from Dionysus to turn everything into gold, what he receives is the power of transmutation and transfiguration: of discovering Spirit beneath each and every occasion. Everything he touches turns into gold, that is every phenomenon in the universe that he spontaneously selects with his awareness shows its true Divine essence. In the end he realizes that everything around him is Spirit's, and there is nothing he, Midas, could personally own or have. This leads to the agony and transformational death of his egoistic self. Then he asks Dionysus to retract the gift. But what has actually happened is that he makes one step further: by washing himself in the river he has undone the last barrier before the realization of Spirit as Spirit. In some spiritual traditions this move is called realization of the Nondual. Then the world becomes as simple as it has ever been. The source of gold, of spiritual energy is not ego but God. There is nothing to turn into gold because everything is always already gold—everything is always already Divine.
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Sometimes I think that when we are kids, we see the world as non-dual (we don't know what it's like to see the world in a different way)and Spirit is all around us and we are the Spirit, but as we become older we become coated with the "mud" that makes as blind and makes us forget what we used to know and feel. I guess, in order to return to the state of awareness of non-duality we have to learn how to "turn things into gold" and only after that realize that this in not we want.
ReplyDeleteYes, Yana, there is a big grain of truth in what you are saying.
ReplyDeleteWhen we are children, especially infants, we haven't developed a coherent personality structure yet and are often acting as pure openness for Spirit's radiance (we are unconsciously floating "in the trailing clouds of glory"). This is what such authors as A. H. Almaas argue (I recommend to read some of his books, too).
However it should be noted that other authors, such as Ken Wilber, my personal favorite, argue that there is profound sense in the fact that we as conscious beings go through a process of development and maturation, develop personality, and adapt to the world. Wilber points out that, according to the data from developmental psychologists, the child's self-sense is extremely narcissistic and egocentric (they can't take a perspective of another person), even though through his or her, I would say, energy body something radiant can be often brought forth and transmitted. This egocentricity is why Wilber criticizes the view of Romanticism which says that what we have to do is to return to our child state (which is actually full of suffering, crying, and sobbing, too) whence it is more probable that, pragmatically speaking, what we have to do is to move forward, toward greater maturation, responsibility, awareness of the self and others.
The last sentence that you wrote in the comment brilliantly summarizes one of the possible perspectives on the meaning of the Midas tale. I would just add that after we learn to (or, rather, receive the gift of being capable to) "turn things into gold" it is more like that what we want and what we don't want simply dissolves in the humming reality of simple and light all-pervading being and there is no subject that wants and no object that is being wanted because subject and object are closely interweaved and already are available to each other.
Loved your comment!
Hey Eugene & Yana! Nice thread. Here's what I think might be relevant, the example is from Vedanta I believe:
ReplyDeleteNon-dual awareness occurs in 3 stages:
1. Disillusionment: The world is an illusion, we presuppose the world is real, we misidentify as the thing seen and not with the seer. So accordingly, Midas set the satyr free upon recognizing this presupposition. Dionysus being the trickster, 'rewards' him with: 2.
2. Witnessing Realization: Spirit is what is real, it is ubiquitous, like Midas' gold it becomes visible or manifest with his touch as the power given by Dionysus ironically intended, so that he'd have to learn 3. to continue in developing the power to witness...
3. Non-Dual realization: The World and Spirit are not separate. They are seen as a single entity or non-dual. So, not 2 things together, and not nothing, but a union of both into a whole that is felt as full freedom, and seen freely so fullness can best be prepared for.
Every retelling of the Midas story that I have heard always ends with his understanding that he can't live on gold alone - a lesson about avarice. I'd never heard about the bathing in the river and thus the much greater implications of the tale. Thanks, Eugene.
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