Let us focus now on the problem of how religious people reconcile themselves to the experience of the alien or the strange. The phenomenon of own or proper on one hand and of alien or strange on the other hand is familiar to all people. If something is radically alien, it appears to us mostly as threatening and dangerous, because it threatens our certainty, although sometimes we meet it as an attraction and a challenge. Nevertheless, the radically alien often causes disquiet. Therefore, people want to release themselves from a storm of the alien so that they try to get it under control. And they often succeed in this; unfortunately, sometimes at the price of a violent subjugation of the alien. 8 Sensitivity towards the strangeness of the strange In spite of the fact that horror alieni is deeply rooted in us, it is possible not to surrender to it and take alien as alien. In Buddhism this is taught by means of koans – short puzzlestories that contain contradictions. They have no logical solution, but teach the necessity of bearing the tension of mystery in pursuit of enlightenment. From this point of view enlightenment can be characterized as sensitivity for the strangeness of the strange. The strange or alien points to the fact that my world is not complete, and that there is something that transcends me, and my perception of the order of universe. Those who bear up the strangeness of the strange can experience a peculiar paradox that the alien one after some time will emit the warmth of home. Such an experience of alien as the Holy can deeply touch an individual. Probably religions are sediments of various ways to understand, express, and hand over these experiences. This is done in their sacred texts, rituals, and social structures. But it again creates a new paradox. Tradition offers the warmth of home and so within it all references to transcendence are something familiar, proper and possessed. Then also the absolute, if it is God, gods, Tao, Brahma or Nirvana, is only some pattern in good accustomed Logos. Yet religions are the best soil in which first of all seeds of sensitivity for the strangeness of the strange, seeds of genuine transcendence bud. 9 Experience of the Holy Remaining alien as alien is the essence of religious experience. Radically expressed, it means thewishing of otherness. Yet as historical phenomena religions brought only sediments of such experiences. The importance of religious experience shows that membership in a religious community, the use of religious language and symbols, and participation in worship are only external expressions of something more essential which is, however, inner. These expressions do not form the essence of religion. They rather build conditions in which the process of spiritual maturing can be – but not necessarily is – successful. 118 (6) Adrián Slavkovský
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=