Guidances | Prelude
The | Prelude
Verses
1
We begin by acknowledging what we have
come to know of the nature of practice
and study in subject, field, discipline,
4 religion and spirituality — namely, that our knowledge
5of beings and environs is continually surpassed by
6the limits of our understanding, what we learn we
7can, do or will not know, of the creation of beings, or
8the physical and spiritual intent, physical and spiritual
9manifestation, physical and spiritual meaning, and
10physical and spiritual purpose such creation entails.
11This nature remains; however much we try to alter it.
2
What follows from the above is the nature
of humility, acceptance and respect. For
honoring knowledge gained, knowledge
4yet to be gained, as well as the unknown and the
5unknowable, especially where creation is concerned,
6calls for a deep humility before, moral acceptance of,
7and respect for beings and environs as sacred as-is
8— as borne of and imbued with the physical and
9spiritual intent, manifestation, meaning and purpose
10their creation entails, aspects of which we may know,
11never entirely; however much we seek such knowledge.
3
What ensues from the above is the nature
of reverence, sanctity, veneration and
worship. For acknowledging the sanctity
4of being and creation is the subject of belief, faith,
5religion and spirituality; taken up in duties and tasks,
6perennially renewed, of accepting and respecting the
7sacred as innate as-is — borne and imbued with the
8intent, manifestation, meaning and purpose that being
9and creation entail, knowledge of which surpasses
10our knowing, however much we seek it, yet warrants
11our reverence and attending, caring, sanctifying rites.
4
And we come from above to the nature of
attention, care and obligation. For, our
limits notwithstanding, the duties of
4accepting and respecting our sacredness as-is do
5compel us, move us and require us to commit daily
6to our own selves and each every other, via perennially
7renewed tasks that constitute a practice of attending
8and caring for being and creation, which when done
9dutifully does much to accept and honor the sanctity
10of humans and environs as innate as-is — as borne
11and imbued with humanity that is common, good, just.
5
And we return from above to the nature
of practice and study — in trials laid in
fields, disciplines, religions, spiritualities.
4For, our limits notwithstanding, the needs to know our
5sacredness as-is do compel us, move us and require us
6to deeply study our selves and each every other, via
7perennially renewed inquiries that constitute a way or
8practice of acknowledging being and creation, which
9when done with duty and rigor does honor the innate
10sanctity of humans and environs as-is — as bearing
11a respect that is attentive, caring, cognizant, just.
6
And we arrive from above at the nature
of the Guidances — to be experienced
and formed as a quest and questioning.
4For, our limits thus seen alongside our duties, needs
5and trials, we are left with humbler tasks of moving to
6and perceiving sanctities of being and creation; each
7made manifest in humans and environs and the paths
8they imprint on the perceivable spheres, knowledge of
9which we apprehend partially and perennially via ways
10or praxes of proposition and response, possibility and
11probability, and approximation to a knowledge akin to
13epiphanic or epistemic truth, mediated as it may be
14via experience honed to understanding by the duty
15and rigor of contemplation that is ethical, formed, just.
16Such is the nature of guidance to come in verses to be
17provided, offered as a flourishing, each leaf unblanked
18by a print distilled from millennia of inspirations and
19visitations upon matters physical and spiritual, some
20seen and rendered divine, via visions that elude the
21palms and psalms of prayer. Still, be not timid in your
22own turning; for our reading shall be accompanied.
7
You among others shall enter the Main
Way of the Guidances — adjoined to the
Entrance to make of your beginnings a
4single conduit for questionings, a central path through
5propositions whose answers — though as yet and
6 continually unwritten — shall nevertheless lead each
7quester toward an acceptance, knowledge and respect
8commensurate with the innate sanctity of being and
9creation, and with the innate sacredness of humans
10and environs, as-is — as borne and imbued with the
11capacities for a humanity that is common, good, just.
8
You among others shall come to the Ways
of Direction — the first significations of
the Guidances’ lines — that lead all good
4and dutiful readers of verse, all those who thus wish to
5be sincere questers of the humane, first, Further Inside,
6then via the inquiries of the ethically and justly lived or
7given life, as such inquiries are signed along paths to
8be found and followed at our East and West, roads to
9be forged and footed at our North and South, and
10trails to be remembered at our Above and Below, so
11our reading to further know shall remain accompanied.
9
You among others shall also come to the
Way of Profundity and of Resonance
— the first resting and synthesis of
4the Guidances — that lead all readers good and
5dutiful and sincerely seeking the humane, first, Further Inside,
6then via the inquiries of the ethically and justly lived or
7given life, as such inquiries are signed along paths to
8be found and followed at our East and West, roads to
9be forged and footed at our North and South, and
10trails to be remembered at our Above and Below, so
11our reading to further know shall remain accompanied.
10
Into the Ways of Sensing you shall enter
among others — the second significations of
the Guidances’ lines — that lead all good
4and dutiful readers of verse, all those who thus wish to
5be sincere questers of the humane, first, Further Inside,
6then via the inquiries of the ethically and justly lived or
7given life, as such inquiries are signed along paths to
8be found and followed at our East and West, roads to
9be forged and footed at our North and South, and
10trails to be remembered at our Above and Below, so
11our reading to further know shall remain accompanied.
11
Into the Way of Knowing you shall arrive,
among others — the second resting and synthesis of
the Guidances’ lines — that lead all good
4and dutiful readers of verse, all those who thus wish to
5be sincere questers of the humane, first, Further Inside,
6then via the inquiries of the ethically and justly lived or
7given life, as such inquiries are signed along paths to
8be found and followed at our East and West, roads to
9be forged and footed at our North and South, and
10trails to be remembered at our Above and Below, so
11our reading to further know shall remain accompanied.
…
Citation
— to always endeavor to treat humans, including the self as well as others, humanely and respectfully, as they are meant to exist as well as co-exist in communities, polities and societies, forming and developing in continual contemporaneity.*
On the Verse
Introduction
The word offering is employed in Sancthụmanism in a specified sense, derived in part from its etymology — namely the bestowing, bringing or carrying before, the putting forward or presenting to a person or people that which forms the basis for learning, practice, teaching and spirituality. Such meaning and use of offering — and its specific importance, here, to Sancthụmanism — therefore entails the following commitments:
With Respect to Guidance
It is, by now, evident to most who have been attentive and empathetic to present-day social and spiritual matters the complexities of co-existence in contemporary societies. Not just how fulfilling but also how difficult it can be to craft, live and maintain essential forms of co-existence in our contemporary life — namely, an ethical co-existence between self and various others; in communities constituted via difference as well as sameness; and in societies that, by nature, are porous and connected to local and global peoples. It can be said that to live ethically in the contemporary present — and to ascertain how to do so — is to deeply discern, protect and respect what is basic and common to all peoples one may encounter, and thus be both human and humane. So presented here, over a series of pages and panels, displayed at The Ikoku Center, will be The Guidances of Sancthụmanism.
It is hoped that The Guidances will prove an illuminating distillation of a set of principles — those essential to the discernment, recognition and respect of a sacred and shared humanity that does, one proposes, exist in each human being, as-is, and by extension in the communities and societies they ethically form.
The Guidances of Sancthụmanism shall therefore take a particular form, and offer to all who would read them 11 sets of propositions. These propositions are followed by 11 practices and 11 studies. Listed below, the ensuing sections are to be called:
…
With Respect to Elaboration
The Guidances of Sancthụmanism are conceived and offered in the form of propositions. And in keeping with several known and studied liturgical materials, such Guidances shall develop an interpretative practice and tradition, eventually producing their attendant offerings in writing. The main purpose of these writings is to further elucidate the propositions of The Guidances — concepts, principles, tenets and sanctities; their underpinnings and implications; in the form of argument, history and theory, and dramatic art, narration and verse — with the result of such elaboration being a more capacious understanding of the basic scenes and substances of a life lived to meet — or at least contemplate — The Guidances.
Thus, also developed and offered for perusal will be The Literatures of Sancthụmanism. The Founder proposes the following to be its corpus:
…
With Respect to Equanimity
Also evident, by now, is the importance of place and space in one’s ability to apprehend, contemplate and meet the basic principles of co-existence in contemporary societies. The Guidances propose that fulfilling this form of ethics — including its attendant duties and obligations to the self and others — is not possible without equanimity. Nor is equanimity — centrally placed in The Guidances — possible without fulfillment of the principles above and below it. How necessary, then, how urgent one would say, is access to and protection of a sanctuary. A place and space where one can expect to have protected, or safeguard oneself, the necessities of equanimity, of a central element of ethics, and by extension, the capacity for co-existence that is to be human and humane.
The Founder shall therefore endeavor to provide The Sanctuaries of Sancthụmanism, at first, primarily via means that The Ikoku Center affords, but eventually, resolutely, also in geographic and physical form, in private property that he shall acquire and dedicate.
Also at Humana
Introduction
The word offering is employed in Sancthụmanism in a specified sense, derived in part from its etymology — namely the bestowing, bringing or carrying before, the putting forward or presenting to a person or people that which forms the basis for learning, practice, teaching and spirituality. Such meaning and use of offering — and its specific importance, here, to Sancthụmanism — therefore entails the following commitments:
With Respect to Guidance
It is, by now, evident to most who have been attentive and empathetic to present-day social and spiritual matters the complexities of co-existence in contemporary societies. Not just how fulfilling but also how difficult it can be to craft, live and maintain essential forms of co-existence in our contemporary life — namely, an ethical co-existence between self and various others; in communities constituted via difference as well as sameness; and in societies that, by nature, are porous and connected to local and global peoples. It can be said that to live ethically in the contemporary present — and to ascertain how to do so — is to deeply discern, protect and respect what is basic and common to all peoples one may encounter, and thus be both human and humane. So presented here, over a series of pages and panels, displayed at The Ikoku Center, will be The Guidances of Sancthụmanism.
It is hoped that The Guidances will prove an illuminating distillation of a set of principles — those essential to the discernment, recognition and respect of a sacred and shared humanity that does, one proposes, exist in each human being, as-is, and by extension in the communities and societies they ethically form.
The Guidances of Sancthụmanism shall therefore take a particular form, and offer to all who would read them 11 sets of propositions. These propositions are followed by 11 practices and 11 studies. Listed below, the ensuing sections are to be called:
…
With Respect to Elaboration
The Guidances of Sancthụmanism are conceived and offered in the form of propositions. And in keeping with several known and studied liturgical materials, such Guidances shall develop an interpretative practice and tradition, eventually producing their attendant offerings in writing. The main purpose of these writings is to further elucidate the propositions of The Guidances — concepts, principles, tenets and sanctities; their underpinnings and implications; in the form of argument, history and theory, and dramatic art, narration and verse — with the result of such elaboration being a more capacious understanding of the basic scenes and substances of a life lived to meet — or at least contemplate — The Guidances.
Thus, also developed and offered for perusal will be The Literatures of Sancthụmanism. The Founder proposes the following to be its corpus:
…
With Respect to Equanimity
Also evident, by now, is the importance of place and space in one’s ability to apprehend, contemplate and meet the basic principles of co-existence in contemporary societies. The Guidances propose that fulfilling this form of ethics — including its attendant duties and obligations to the self and others — is not possible without equanimity. Nor is equanimity — centrally placed in The Guidances — possible without fulfillment of the principles above and below it. How necessary, then, how urgent one would say, is access to and protection of a sanctuary. A place and space where one can expect to have protected, or safeguard oneself, the necessities of equanimity, of a central element of ethics, and by extension, the capacity for co-existence that is to be human and humane.
The Founder shall therefore endeavor to provide The Sanctuaries of Sancthụmanism, at first, primarily via means that The Ikoku Center affords, but eventually, resolutely, also in geographic and physical form, in private property that he shall acquire and dedicate.
Guidances | Prelude
Guidances of Sancthụmanism
Section
Prelude of the Guidances
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Date
April 27, 2022
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Author
Alvan Azinna Ikoku
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Host
Humana Sancta
