Transcendence Of Suffering

Every
Social animal
And even many animals who aren't social
Are embedded in a dominance hierarchy
(Okay, let’s go)
The dominance hierarchy has a structure
Or we couldn't call it a dominance hierarchy
Dominance hierarchy A, B, C
Thousands of them across thousands of years
What's central to all of them?
That's the pyramid of value
What question do you need answered
About the pyramid of value?
What's at the top?
'Cause that's the ideal
That's the eye at the top of the pyramid
The golden Buddha in thе lotus
It's the same thing
The samе thing as the crucifix
And that has to do with something like

[Chorus]
The voluntary acceptance
And therefore, transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
The voluntary acceptance
And therefore, transcendence of suffering

These are not arbitrary ideas
They're deeply, deeply rooted in biology and culture
They're as deeply rooted in biology
As the dominance hierarchy is rooted in biology
And we already know the answer to that
The dominance hierarchy has been around
For 350 million years
It's a long time
You don't get to just brush that off
And say well, morality is some sort Of
Second order cognitive problem
It's like, no, it's not
You have a counter at the bottom of your brain
That keeps track of where you are
In terms of your status
And it bloody well regulates
The sensitivity of your emotions
So if you're at the bottom of the hierarchy
Barely clinging onto the world
Everything overwhelms you
And that's because you're damn near dead
And so everything should overwhelm you
You've got no extra resources, you're sunk
And if you're near the top
Then your serotonin levels go up
You're less sensitive to negative emotion
You're less impulsive
You live longer
Everything works in your favor
Your immune system functions better
And you're oriented at least to some degree
Towards the medium and longterm future
And you can afford that because
All hell isn't breaking loose around you all the time
And so then the question is
Is there a way of being
That increases the probability
That you're gonna move up dominance hierarchies
Well, that doesn't seem to be a
Particularly provocative proposition
The same thing as the crucifix
And that has to do with something like

[Chorus]
The voluntary acceptance
And therefore transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
Transcendence of suffering
The voluntary acceptance
And therefore, the transcendence of suffering

Okay, so back to you Jung
See, Jung believed that once we had stopped
Populating the cosmos with gods
That they went inside
Think about it this way
Archaic person looks at the sky
Uses his imagination to populate the sky
What's the sky?
Well, it's the constellations
It's the domain of the gods
Well, why?
'Cause the gods are what are out there
Beyond your understanding
Well, that's what you see
When you look up at the sky
So, you populate the night sky
With figures of your imagination
So, the gods are the things
That you broadcast out of your imagination
And see spread over the world
It's like the contents of your unconscious
Are manifesting themselves
When you encounter the unknown
It's exactly what it is
How else could it be?
You're projecting your fantasy
Onto what you don't understand
That's how you start to cope
With what you don't understand
You populate the unknown with deity
Where did they come from?
They came from your imagination
Well, what happens when you take them out of the world
Do they disappear?
No, they just go back into your imagination
That's the same motif as rescuing your dead father
From the belly of the whale
Belly of the whale, belly of the whale
Rescuing you dead father from the belly of the whale
Belly of the whale, belly of the whale
Rescuing your dead father from the belly of the whale
Belly of the whale, belly of the whale

It's the same idea
Is that the corpses of the gods inhabit your imagination
So where do you go if you need to revivify them
You go into your imagination