The greatest hazard of all, losing the self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss – an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. – is sure to be noticed…”
Søren Kierkegaard
Advertisement
These words from Soren Kierkeguaard, lead me to think along the lines of how silently we can lose the way, become lost in life, disorientated, overwhelmed, thus separated from love, and develop a ‘heart of stone’…….and stray onto an unintended path.
from there I have been pondering the true meaning of the Greek word ‘metanoia’:
Metanoia is most often translated in the New Testament as ‘repentance’.
But the definition and subtle meaning of METANOIA is to do with a transformative change of heart;
or very often a spiritual conversion
The words ‘Repentance’ and ‘sin’ carry with them by now a very black and white impression. Particularly the word ‘sin’.
Somehow their meanings have lost the loving forbearance and positive possibilities which are implicit in the original meanings.
The literal translation of metanoia denotes a turning around,
a coming back onto the path, after having missed the mark, or strayed.
So the meaning indicates a change of heart;
a reorientation;
a change of focus;
a fundamental transformation of outlook,
a turning or change in vision of the world and of himself,
or the embracing of a new way of loving God and others ourselves and the Universe.
In the words of a second-century text, The Shepherd of Hermas, it implies “great understanding,”…….. discernment.
Metanoia therefore involves not mere regret of past evil, but a recognition by man of a darker vision of his own condition.
That is, the condition in which ‘sin’, by separating him from love,and from God, has reduced him to a divided, autonomous existence, depriving him of both his natural glory and freedom.
The Greek for sin is also more subtle than our common understanding of it, it literally suggests a pulling, or falling away from the right course.
From Wikipedia:
the psychologicall understanding of metanoia:
The term metanoia in Carl Jung’s psychology, indicates a spontaneous attempt of the psyche to heal itself of unbearable conflict by melting down and then being reborn in a more adaptive form.
Jung believed that psychotic episodes in particular could be understood as existential crises which were sometimes attempts at self-reparation.
Jung’s concept of metanoia influenced R. D. Laing and the therapeutic community movement which aimed, ideally, to support people whilst they broke down and went through spontaneous healing, rather than thwarting such efforts at self-repair by strengthening their existing character defences and thereby maintaining the underlying conflict.