Anthony Savari Raj | Cosmic confidence: A hope in the invisible

As we all know and painfully witnessed, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm with devastating and catastrophic consequences.

Anticipating the adversity in store for his country, Jamaican Prime Minister the Most Honourable Andrew Holness said, “I have been on my knees in prayer.”

This indeed prompts some philosophical and cross-cultural reflections on the virtue of hope, a hope not merely of the future, but a hope also in the invisible, both needed so crucially for the moment.

To begin with, from a cross-cultural point of view, if history, progress and development are the measurements of human life and hallmarks of human future, then obviously a greater part of humanity would not be able to fit into this scheme. And yet, for millennia, cultures have nourished millions of people, even when they could not “make it” according to the dominant economic, political and developmental paradigm.

Even in the hardest times and in the face of the greatest survival struggles, people could face life with joy and dignity precisely because they have been sustained by some kind of hope. This hope, however, is not merely of the future, but perhaps in the invisible dimension of life and reality.

Of course, out of necessity this virtue may not be sociologically advisable, but for the afflicted and disadvantaged, it seems to be the only way of upholding and sustaining their human dignity and resilience when human efforts do not fully fructify. It is certainly not a vice.

This hope in the invisible may represent a kind of transcendental attitude, which does not necessarily mean an explicit belief in God or transcendence. It involves an awareness accompanying every action, that life on earth is a sort of play, a re-enactment of something bigger than ourselves and yet taking place within ourselves. Karma, rebirth, transmigration, heaven, moral responsibility and so on, whatever religious or cultural underpinnings they may have, entail a firm sentiment that we are not private proprietors of our life, but actors and spectators of it.

Perhaps it is this sort of, what we may call “cosmic confidence”, that does not allow people to be totally crushed by circumstances, however catastrophic and devastating they may be.

RHYTHMIC CONFIDENCE

In a word, it is this hope and confidence in the invisible that allows humans to go beyond the perceptible dimension of reality, that is, to the depth-dimension. It is this dimension that can help to positively face life and nature’s vicissitudes with resilience, especially when humans stand helpless in the face of inexplicable tragedies and sorrows.

It is this dimension that could form the basis of optimism that everything has a meaning, though reality cannot be totally brought to human grasp or control.

However, the crucial role and significance of the hope of the future cannot be belittled or minimised and the moment indeed calls for the meeting of both dimensions of hope. If the hope of the future stands for a human confidence to take life and situations in hand, and the hope in the invisible stands for a cosmic confidence that places trust in the beyond, then the meeting and synergy between these two experiences indeed signal a rhythmic confidence. They perhaps may meet in a hope in the rhythm of reality with a sense of carefreeness.

Synergising the careful mentality of human confidence and the rather careless attitude of cosmic confidence, the rhythmic confidence evokes a carefree awakening to the dynamism of life. What is needed is a ‘synergy’ in which human beings are seen neither as designing engineers with a total human or cosmic control nor as victims of destiny and atrocities of nature. Humans are creative and active participants in the adventure, dynamism and rhythm of reality.

This transformative attitude would surely include and take into account life’s contingencies, adversities and hardships and undertake strenuous efforts to alleviate or overcome them, but it is important to realise that the uniqueness of human life has meaning, even under the weight of tragedy. And it is into this life that a synergy of hope in the rhythm of realty inserts itself in order to help discover the fleeting, but joyous meaning of naked existence.

It is this hope that can constantly remind us that the meaning of life is life itself, lived with an awareness that we are both actors and spectators at the same time in the adventure of life.

- Dr. Anthony Savari Raj is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy in the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy at The University of the West Indies, Mona. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com