{"id":14102,"date":"2025-05-23T04:24:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T09:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=14102"},"modified":"2025-05-23T04:32:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T09:32:03","slug":"belief-in-this-world-begins-from-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/05\/23\/belief-in-this-world-begins-from-feeling\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Belief in this world’ begins from feeling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Belief in this world” — which we might define as faith that this world<\/em> and what we do in it is genuinely significant — was a paramount value for Gilles Deleuze, who thought that we are at risk of collectively losing such a belief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when the prospects for human flourishing are threatened from all sides (do I need to enumerate any examples?), and those for human existence itself appear to be diminishing rapidly, it seems difficult to either express or feel such a belief in this world. Beliefs in another<\/em> world — one nourished either by religious imagination or by some science-fictional faith (in artificial intelligence, space travel, et al.) — beckon, as they have in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the understanding that action can be cheap, and that right action always starts from feeling<\/a>, I sometimes ask myself a variation on the question \u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d I ask: what would Jesus feel<\/em>? What would the Buddha feel? And the answer I give myself is: boundless love for this world<\/em>. Love for every suffering, feeling being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then I wonder: was there not a certain nihilism in each of their responses to the world — in Jesus\u2019s willingness to die for a cause, a cause known only to him at the time, and that in retrospect has led to a lot of confusion; and in Siddhartha Gautama\u2019s desire to extinguish desire, to pierce its veil so as to escape it altogether? Whatever their motivations, a religion based on love of this<\/em> world, and love of this universe, requires belief<\/em> in this world, belief in the genuine sense of taking it to be real, the actual substance and (only) arena of our most deeply felt lives. And that’s, perhaps, where their followers have often failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

“This world,” “this universe”: it\u2019s clear to me that no living entity, restricted as we are in our capacity, can know the entirety of either the world or the universe, except maybe in moments of mystic expansiveness. That\u2019s why so many of the known religions distinguish between this world and another, an ideal world of our imagination, or beyond our imagination. But the feeling of boundless love <\/em>is something we can experience and cultivate, and even pass on to others. And that to me seems boundlessly worthwhile. I think some of the greatest gifts in human history — the best art and poetry, the greatest acts of compassion and bravery — have come from this feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t come up with a better term for this feeling than just that: “boundless love for this world.” For the only world we can know, live, and add to with our actions. The world we can move and be moved by. That to me is a belief, a faith, that is secular as well as sacred, immanent as well as transcendent. It is within our capacity and it takes us beyond our capacity. It calls for a radical openness to that which we cannot encompass or contain, but can feel and touch. And it is what makes life worthwhile in any circumstance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes to us more easily in situations that are unmotivatedly fulfilling. (Like the feeling I had yesterday while walking through Warsaw’s beautiful, slightly rewilded urban parks.) But it can be found anywhere if we allow it. And then it can be shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo not from Warsaw, but from a visit to the Monte Palace garden in Funchal, Madeira<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Belief in this world” — which we might define as faith that this world and what we do in it is genuinely significant — was a paramount value for Gilles Deleuze, who thought that we are at risk of collectively losing such a belief. Today, when the prospects for human flourishing are threatened from all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[691847],"tags":[711242,711244,228,692701,711243],"class_list":["post-14102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-spirituality","tag-belief-in-this-world","tag-buddha","tag-deleuze","tag-emotional-practices","tag-love-for-this-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-3Fs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2910,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/03\/14\/belief-in-expired-worlds-in-worlds-to-come\/","url_meta":{"origin":14102,"position":0},"title":"Belief in expired wor(l)ds, & in wor(l)ds to come…","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It riles me up when intelligent people whose work I respect a lot say ill-considered, if not outright indefensible, things. Jodi Dean's post arguing that communism \"worked\" strikes me as such a thing. I've provided a lengthy counter-argument on her blog, the gist of which is that the political projects\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1129,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/09\/28\/still-process-relations-all-the-way-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":14102,"position":1},"title":"still process-relations all the way down","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"September 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Keeping up with Graham Harman means continually being tempted to respond to him, and since he doesn't allow comments on his blog, for reasons I completely understand, I can only hold my tongue or flap it here. (Or I can do the respectful thing and write up a lengthier and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6468,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2013\/01\/30\/talking-in-amsterdam\/","url_meta":{"origin":14102,"position":2},"title":"Talking in Amsterdam","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be giving the following talk next Wednesday, February 6, at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. It's part of the series Where Are We Going, Walt Whitman? An Ecosophical Roadmap for Artists and Other Futurists. (The series looks incredible. I wish I could be there for all the other\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6007,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/06\/07\/nature-the-popular-imagination-keynote\/","url_meta":{"origin":14102,"position":3},"title":"Nature & the Popular Imagination keynote","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the abstract for the keynote I will be giving at Nature and the Popular Imagination in Malibu this August. It builds on my recent talk at Bucks College, but without the nod to pop-cultural interest in Avatar. THE AGE OF THE WORLD MOTION PICTURE starring the Cinematic Earth, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2668,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/02\/27\/sspeculative-rrealism-philosophy-as-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":14102,"position":4},"title":"s(S)peculative r(R)ealism & philosophy-as-life","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's nice to see Speculative Realism capturing the attention of SF writer and all-round idea impresario Bruce Sterling - see his Speculative Realism as \"philosophy fiction.\" As a long-time SF lover, the idea of \"philosophy fiction\" has always appealed to me. Some of the best writing in the genre has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1023,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/01\/23\/geophilosophy\/","url_meta":{"origin":14102,"position":5},"title":"geophilosophy","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The term \"geophilosophy\" is intended here in a nod both to Aldo Leopold's idea of \"Thinking like a mountain,\" which I take as a provocation (what, or how, does a mountain think?) rather than a declaration of identity (\"I'm the one who speaks for the mountain\") and, secondly, to Gilles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-theory"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-theory","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecophilosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14102"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14112,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14102\/revisions\/14112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}