Perhaps many people in the modern world have been formed, or have formed themselves, to be less available to the ecstatic experience. In addition to the basic meaning of "feeling overwhelming happiness or joy," ecstasy carries the sense of "mystic self-transcendence."
Some lines form Wordsworth come to mind:
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
When a culture's dominant emphasis is materialism and consumerism and things and self-absorption and banal electronic entertainment and fluff and stuff and fluff and stuff, where is there a place or possibility for the ecstatic vision?
Richard
|