Just back from a walk through Lindsay park, where I watched some young bunnies contemplating the day ahead of them and I spotted a flotilla of geese hanging about in the crease of the Elbow in that park.

Then there were the flowers, the bushes and the new apartment building nearing completion beside the trusty old Elbow Tower. In it I shared an apartment with John for about four weeks in September 2001, before returning to Holland at that time.

While so walking and observing I was entertaining some new insights regarding Manichaeism, which I gave the name of ‘Manichaeism Redeemed’ or maybe ‘converted’ even. Not that they differ much and I even considered ‘renovated’ as I walked, thought and looked. More on this under writings below.

Walking through Lindsay park I watched some young bunnies contemplating the day ahead of them and spotted a flotilla of geese hanging about in the crease of the Elbow in that park.

My essay is progressing, because I am working on the notes and the references, which is laborious and slow, but necessary all the same. Juliet had quite a bit to add to her story yesterday, but before transcribing it we had some new cherries which I’d bought as part of her groceries.

On the way home I negotiated the road changes that are being implemented to accommodate the cyclists. Some car turns cross the bike lanes, which have separate lights. It results in an unusual situation, which gets complained about like other changes in our set human patterns.

Manichaeism still keeps me occupied with thoughts, insights and emotions. I say the latter, because there remains a sense - rare to me but not unknown - of personal involvement or concern with this teaching. It borders on a sense of ‘deja vu’ - seen before - , but not quite, because it is not forceful enough.
However that may be, my new insights are quite clear and these I aim to elaborate and express below.

Manichaeism Redeemed.

Manichaeism views existence as a battle between the powers of light and the powers of darkness. In this situation of conflict, the light and the darkness being intermingled, the Father of Greatness counters the actions of the Prince of Darkness.

This Prince is a dark creator, entrapping the light he has in his possession in the matter of the physical cosmos and the human body, which he creates for that purpose. Manichaeism teaches that ‘knowledge’ as in perception, offers a route of escape for those who chose to follow the instructions.

These consist of knowing the teachings and following certain lifestyle rules. They hold the promise of one’s inner light to be freed from this material existence, which is then followed by a state of perfection in light and understanding.

Manichaeism is considered to be pessimistic in character as a world view in the relating literature, because of its perspective on existence in general and of humanity in particular.

Manichaeism is considered to be pessimistic in character as a world view in the relating literature, because of its perspective on existence in general and of humanity in particular. The latter is sometimes described as ‘existence in cosmic exile’, meaning that human exists there, where they should not be.

Beside Manichaeism being considered pessimistic, I consider it tragic as well. This, because humankind today lives in this material world in opposition to the perceptions that Mani held of it. Not only that, I would make the claim - in Mani’s terms - that the light that was trapped within the human body has taken over - renovated the prison so to speak.

This inner light redeeming matter and overcoming darkness is not entirely unknown in the Manichaean theology.

How so you ask? Well look at the human journey and its accomplishments along the way. Instead of having the soul’s light traveling to the Moon to wax its appearance, we have humans making physical visits landing on its surface.

This inner light redeeming matter and overcoming darkness is not entirely unknown in the Manichaean theology. However, it is only referenced sparingly as potential and was definitely not taught back in its time.

Possibly this potential was sensed, but not expressed for the lack of insight for such a possibility in the Gnostic idea world of Mani. In a certain way we could say that the Christian and Muslim persecution of Mani’s followers in the end constituted this process of redemption of that light and so redeeming our material existence as a result.
<10:24am and 11:05 with coffee and edit.~