overcoming the world 77the illusion of our estrangement from one and timeless being. In the
qualifi ed versions, with their hierarchy of degrees of being and reality,
death represents an incident in an itinerary (for example, of the trans-
migration of the soul, to be embodied in other individual organisms)
that has our reunion with one and timeless being as its goal.
Th e overcomers deny groundlessness by moving toward what they
regard to be the ground of existence, concealed from us by the phan-
tasms of our mendacious experience of time, distinction, and indi-
vidual selfh ood. Communion with that ground is the ultimate source
of both insight and happiness. It is the sole trustworthy guarantee of
the serenity that we should seek and of the benevolence that we should
practice.
Th e overcomers deny insatiability by professing to teach us the
only way in which we can free ourselves from insatiable desire: to
turn aside from the source of desire in the unquiet and embodied self.
By negating both the seat and the target of desire and by dismissing
or devaluing the impermanent, we escape the ordeal of insatiability.
Our escape begins in the right understanding of the world and in the
pursuit, on the basis of such understanding, of the ideals of serenity
and of benevolence.
Th e overcomers deny the inescapability of belittlement by affi rming
our connection to the source of all reality and value: one and timeless
being, concealed under the disguise of transient and misleading phe-
nomena. Th e phenomena separating us from the real and the valuable
can also, if we understand them correctly and act according to this in-
sight, become the bridge to the hidden truth of our being. By crossing
this bridge, we can experience divinity now.
Criticism: betrayal of the past
My criticism of the overcoming of the world moves from a point of
view internal to this way of thinking and acting to a perspective exter-
nal to it. I fi rst ask whether this direction in the religious consciousness
of humanity has enabled its adepts to do justice to the concerns shared
by the religious revolutions of the past. Next, I discuss the psychological
stability of this set of enacted beliefs: its chances of success in adapting