‘I Am Not Of The World’

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

–Jesus, John 17:14-16

Jesus has this right. Great reflection is necessary in order to grasp that one is not to be of the world. Key to not being of the world is drawing into question the world’s values and thus withdrawing from the latter. All the great wisdom traditions speak in unison (albeit, at times, in sotto voce) about deviating from “the world.” 

Status, wealth, power, lust, greed, hedonic pleasure: these are but some of the values (i.e., vices) that are to be seen clearly and withdrawn from.

Yet ‘I Am In The World’

Later on, Christian religionists interpreted not being of the world not in the vein of an utter retreat but in a quite different manner. One, rather, is to be in it.

The lines, together, are strikingly wise–as wise as they are enigmatic. Not to be of the world but to be in it. 

Temptation can be read into any interpretation that underscores the first line only. Here, we find the following characters: cranks, crotchety hermits, self-righteous loners, cynics, those suffering from contemptu mundi, calcified and embittered people, and more. We should not overlook this temptation within, this very captivating tendency since a clear-eyed view of others seems, all too often, to breed greater pride and, in turn, contempt and thus, in turn, a brittle bitterness. How often has a Jeremiah, claiming to speak “truth to power,” become an embattled and embittered crank? 

On the other hand, we can’t avoid–if we care about wisdom, that is–clearly seeing others as best we can. And when we do, prima facie that seeing ain’t always pretty. Few are virtuous and far viewer, even, care about being virtuous. Few are intellectually sharp, many more caring about presenting themselves in that light without actually embodying intellectual power. One could go on, but doubtless it’s needless.

We have to wonder, then, about how it’s possible to be of the world but not in it, and we should be very honest with ourselves: the answer is not obvious.

Some ‘Wisdom Cues’

We needn’t come to a full answer to this enigma just yet, but we had better get started. Here are a couple of cues:

1. Treat people as if you were a scientist keen on studying them. Just as you study businesses to see how they actually work, so you can study human beings to understand what animates them. What, indeed, makes them tick? What gets them out of bed in the morning? Especially important, here, is not to take what they say at face value but to keenly watch how they conduct themselves. You’re trying–to change metaphors from science to art–to make some fairly nuanced literary sketches.

2. To ensure that the first cue doesn’t fall headfirst into cynicism, it needs to be balanced with, or counteracted by, the following two cues. First: as my wife Alexadnra says, take it as a heuristic that almost everyone, no matter how powerful or beautiful, is suffering. This would mean that almost everyone around you is very probably suffering.

3. Second: Without being Pollyanna-ish, try to be charitable. When you study those around you very closely (Cue #1), you’ll start to see more clearly their misgivings, vacillations, doubts, fears, and so on (Cue #2). In the case of charity, you’re making an effort, however ham-fisted it may be in the early days, to “love your neighbor as yourself.” To be charitable is to extend some modicum of care to them.

Conclusion: Ramana Maharshi

From the late Robert Wolfe on Ramana Maharshi:

In my favorite story about Ramana Maharshi, a man came into the room where Ramana held satsang, said he’d written a biography of Ramana, and asked permission to read it. Ramana smiled and nodded, and the man read his manuscript.

It was full of inaccuracies and errors: he said that Ramana was married and had children, that he’d been a socialist before his enlightenment, and on and on.

When he finished reading, Ramana smiled and nodded, and the man picked up his manuscript and left.

One of Ramana’s disciples cried out, “Master, did you hear what he read? Is any of that real?!”

Ramana waved his hand as if taking in the universe, and asked: “Is any of this real?” 

As is evident here, Ramana Maharshi was beyond praise and censure. He saw keenly “the ways of the world,” yet never did he forsake or cast aspersion upon it. He knew, and loved, That in each which was no other than That ‘in himself.’