Decoding Philosophy - Jim Morrison & The Triumph Of Poetics, Faith & Music

"Cogito Erlo Sum - I think therefore I am" 

"The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely for the acquisition of knowledge" said Rene Descartes.

Years later......Martin Heidegger writes......

"The most thought provoking thing in our thought provoking time is that we are still not thinking."

"Was heisst denken? What is called thinking?"

Thus, Philosophy yet remains an unending story, a lingering thought and an unanswered existential question.

DECODING PHILOSOPHY THROUGH HEIDEGGER

Philosophy is an essential enquiry, a quest and incessant questioning of the truth that one believes or not believes. This eternal quest of man that provokes thinking, contemplation, introspection, judgement and his final conclusion, is the core of man's philosophical existance, his thought process the birthplace of  his ideations and ideologies
Whether its the question of nature and the behaviour of a being or about the being itself.
Martin Heidegger puts it as Dasein ( the being for whom being is a question ) in his magnum opus 'Being and Time' bringing forth an old existential question but with an alternate perpective, thinking otherwise
'Being and Time' explores this primeval search of the self rather than matters surrounding the self, the very origin of the self that is the very question of - what it is to be ? The definition of a being and its experience as a being
how does it feel to be? or
what is the essential feeling of being?

"Why there is Being at all and not much rather Nothing? That is the question."

Though the above work investigates this alternate theory of 'the being itself' rather than matters concerning the being. It yet remains unfinished, as Heidegger could not complete the second part of book on the Destruktion or deconstruction of philosophy something that I am attempting now through this article to break down to that single fragment of truth that gives existence its very meaning resolves one's questioning and soothes philosophical disposition.

Away from philosophy, Heidegger now seeks through poetics in his 'Poetry, Language and Thought' emphasizing the role of art and poetics in particular. Making a doorway in the search for truth by turning towards poetry and arts as the embodiment of truth. In the seven part collective refencial study of The Thinker As The Poet, The Origin Of The Work of Art, What Are Poets For?, Building, Dwelling, Thinking, The Thing, Language and lastly "......Poetically Man Dwells......" Delving and discussing in depth the origin, nature, essence and importance of poetics as an artform, as The Thinker As A Poet Commences with the following lines

"Way and weighing
Style and saying
On a single walk are found

Go bare without halt
Question and default
On your single pathway bound.

When the early morning light grows quietly above the mountain
The world's darkening never reaches the Light of the Being
We are too late for the gods too early for the Being, Being's poem, just begun, is man
To head toward a star-this only
To think is to confine yourself to a single thought that one day stands still like star in the world's sky."


TURNING TOWARDS SCHOPENHAUER

"The world is my representation "

Turning to Schopenhauer man is born with an urge or desire an unsatiated will which he seeks to satisfy contrary to Hegel's concept of Zeitgeist ( der Geist seiner Zeit or the spirit of the time ) which reflected the idea of collective consciousness  as a driving force for the individual's choices or actions, Schopenhauer maintained on the individual consciousness or one's self will to live ( Wille zum Leben ) as the force governing his preferences and decisive actions.  In his work The World as Will And Representation, he blames the inconsistent human will as the root cause of all suffering and believes in ascetic piety and the wisdom of the Vedas and the Upanishads as the solution in search for truth similar to the sublimation process adopted by Peter Wessel Zappfe, a Norwegian philosopher & successor influenced by his ideation.

In his search for truth, Schopenhauer gives enormous importance to music as the ultimate embodiment of human will free from plagiarism in its original innate nature. Reigning  highest among other artforms, it emancipates the senses appealing to all its partakers or listeners. Hence, dissolving the outward seperatedness unfying oneself with universal consciousness merging the subject and the object into one single unified Whole, as he states the effects of music in the section 34 of  The World As Will and Representation-

"One can thus no longer seperate the perceiver from the perception."

As for Schopenhauer, music is the sole artform that is stated "Pure, will-less, timeless...". It is not subjected to the Principle of  Sufficient Grounds rather embodies the human will as individual object based on personal experiences,  emotive faculties, talent, a Catharsis, purgation through creation of a muscial composition owing to it pure, timeless, ageless and universal nature.

UNDERSTANDING KIERKEGAARD 

"Revelation is marked by mystery, eternal happiness by suffering, the certitude of faith by uncertainty, easiness by difficulty, truth by absurdity; "

Kierkegaard bases his search for truth on faith, theology and individual consciousness as he believes God comes to each individual mysteriously and that one should attempt in establishing a personal and individual relationship with God rather than following a collective faith manipulated by dogmas and dictums. For Kierkegaard truth essentially lies in an absolute unadulterated surrender to God by developing an unperturbed and unflinching faith realising Him from within one's own self as he states,

"An action in the eternal transforms the individual's existence."

Through constant study and introspection, Kierkegaard negated the Hegelian prospect of mediation and adopted his own individual inference and experience concluded that it is only love towards God which emerges higher than any mediation or logical rational reasoning . Thus, rejecting logic for ethics.

"The how of truth is precisely the truth....."

"Every human being is spirit and truth is the self-activity appropriation of it...... "

"There is no work not a single one, not even the best one about which unconditionally dare to say : The one who does it unconditionally demonstrates love by it.
It depends on how the work is done."

For Kierkegaard, its the aesthetics of poetry, beauty and most importantly love and faith which embodies the truth in its purest form.

"O, can I really believe the poets when they say that the first time one sees the beloved object he thinks he has seen her long before...
That love like all knowledge is recollection,
That love in the single individual has its prophecies, its types, its myths, its Old Testament.  "

CONCLUSION- DECODING

The poetics for Heidegger, music for Schopenhauer and the faith for Kiekegaard emerge as self embodiment of the Absolute manifesting itself into different forms expressing its eternal nature through various mediums as introspected and felt by different individuals in their own thought, their own ways in their own ideations in search of the Truth.

Jim Morrison's personal study of philosophy, his thought patterns, poetic creations, musical compositions and over all unified consciousness makes him the Ideal in the search for Truth.

Traverse the lines to reach its meaning

Lines intersect and entwine

Conjoin their meanings to retrieve the subject

The subject only reveals itself w/the pure eye...

                                                           - Monalisa

Sacrifice of The Heart And Shedding of The Blood -Jim Morrison & Tears Of The Wrath Bearing Tree

How can they deal with love if they're afraid to feel. Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they are wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. Its all in how you carry it. That's what matters.  Pain is a feeling. You're feelings are a part of you. Your own reality . If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy you're reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.

The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution unless there's a personal revolution. On an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.
         
                                                         - Jim Morrison

"Signs are taken for wonders. "We would see a sign":
A Word within a Word, unable to speak a Word
Swaddled in darkness. In the juvescence of the year
Came Christ the tiger."

The Wrathful aspect of the Divine Creator, is much alluded to the process of metamorphoses. As the peace loving divinity transfigures into a violent figurine in order re -establish faith dissolving ignorance and illusion.
A brief synopsis of the wrath bearing incarnations of the divine can be seen and felt in Hinduism through the Narasimha to the Kalki Avatara whereas in Buddhism, the Herukas and the eight Dharmapalas, representing themselves as the Guardians of Dhamma.

The mythological significance and necessity of assuming the wrathful form can be better experienced through some selected lines form T.S. Eliot's Gerontion along with few lines from Dante's Inferno.

"Through me you go to grief wracked city. Through me you go to everlasting pain. Through me you go a pass among lost souls. Justice inspired my Exalted Creator.: I am a creature of the Holiest power & of the Wisdom in the Highest and of primal Love. Nothing was made till I was made. Only eternal beings. And I endure eternally. Abandon all hope-Ye who enter here"
( Canto III :The Gate Of Hell )

"I come into a region where is nothing that can give light"
"Let us descend into the blind world"
(Canto IV: First Circle)

"Love insists the Loved ones back."
"Beauty awakens the soul to act."
(Canto V)

                                                 - Dante's Inferno

HARROWING OF HELL DESCENSUS CHRISTI ED INFEROS THE DESCENT OF CHRIST IN HELL
 AS DEPICTED IN THE PETITES HEURES DE JEAN DE BERRY 14TH CENTURY ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT COMMISIONED BY JOHN, DUKE OF BERRY

 


























The beginning six lines bears inscription to the Gate of hell- a metaphorical instance of human life's experience through the passageway of grief and suffering as Dante explains "The path to Paradise begins in hell."

T.S Eliot's explicit confessions of the decadence crept in the crevices of human society, gives an ideal imagery for the necessity of Salvation as expressed through the Coming of Christ as the tiger figure. As he makes it quiet clear, that the path to mercy and forgiveness has quite outdated itself with the onset of the modern civilization alluding to history as a proof of it. The regeneration of lost cultures and emotive senses .

"After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions
Guides us by vanities. Think now
She gives when our attension is distracted
And what she gives, gives with such supple confusions
That the giving famishes the craving. Gives too late
What's not believed in. Or still believed
In memory, reconsidered passion. Gives to soon
Into weak hands, whats thoughts can be dispensed with
Till the refusal propagates a fear. Think
 Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices
Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes."

The reference of 'she gives' is used by Eliot alluding to the Hindu concept of Yogmaya or illusion. As this apparent, make-belief world game is run by the feminine forces of illusion and equivocation where every gain or loss is pre- conceived by the forces of  maya which using confusion, contradiction and constrasts and procastination ( ref: Gives too late .......Gives to soon into weak hands ) as its tools to keep alive this world play.

"These tears are shaken from the wrath bearing tree
The tiger springs in the new year. Us he devours
Think at last.
We have not reached any conclusion
When I stiffen in a rented house. Think at last
I have not made this show purposelessly"

The most iconic and important line referring to the Wrathful aspect of a tree is significant, as a tree which is often signified as a giver of life force is shown converted to a vengeful taker, referring to a symbolical transmutation or role reversal necessary for its functioning as a benefactor to humankind. Whereas the Tears represent Catharsis or Purgatorio.

"I that was near your heart was moved therefrom
To loose beauty in terror, terror in inquistion
I have lost my passion: why should I need to keep it
Since what is kept must be adulterated
I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch.
How should I use it for your closer contact?"

                                                           -T.S. Eliot's Gerontion

The above lines conclude to the loss of  love and faith along with a subsequent hope of revival of the human emotive senses to a higher truth of existence.

Jim Morrsion's truthful confessions brings out the true nature of reality and the world along with the everlasting aspiration of human life and pure relations...what it really amounts to....

A Friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself especially to feel, or not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at any moment is fine with them. That's what real love amounts to letting a person be what he really is .

                                                          - Jim Morrison