I. The Contemporary Crisis
To clarify misunderstandings, we must first state the facts. The perspective of this text is not one of pure doctrine and ideology, but of concrete historical events.
Starting with the latter, I confess to all spirits that we must clarify a concept that is overly general and is being abused to explain any and all behavior: Rationalism. Some also call it Intellectual-centrism.
If we are to be honest with the spirits, any discussant should admit that Rationalism, in essence, tends to elucidate its own existence and interpret the greatness of intelligence by having every intelligent individual participate in anything that allows them to develop themselves. This is achieved by concentrating the spirit of the world under the spirit of intelligence—or, in the words of Chen-Ling Qiang, by expanding the spirit of intellect until it is greater than and encompasses the entire world. This requires intelligent beings to develop their reason, energy, and creativity. It also demands that they learn to use the tools and energies of the material world to achieve complete freedom. Of course, as Mage Red Stone stated in The Philosophical Foundations of Ether and its Applied Ethics, what makes intelligence intelligence is precisely its belief that "that which transcends intelligence is the very source of intelligence." This successfully forges a link for spirituality between the traditional and the modern, and reminds us that to define Rationalism by excluding divinity, the unknown, and all non-ontological factors is narrow-minded.
Thus, the shortcomings of classical Rationalism become quite clear. Its flaw is that it does not focus on the ideas of Rationalism itself, but merely worships and elevates the spirit of Reason above all other spirituality by default. As a result, the argument for the primacy of intelligence devolves into intelligence-centrism. Its greatest problem is its declaration that nature is spiritless, closed, and self-sufficient, positioning intelligence as an entity external to nature.
They—the intelligence-centrists—focus only on the spirit of intelligence and refuse to believe that spirit exists in anything else. The inevitable result is their conclusion that nature and Reason must be mutually sealed-off, exclusive, and isolated. They have forgotten the nature of intelligence and the Reason within nature, and the connection between the two. Acknowledging and diligently studying these connections should be the fundamental task of anyone who champions the primacy of intelligence.
They do not consider how intelligence and Reason ought to integrate with, explain, and develop spirituality; instead, they simply attempt to replace everything with Reason. And due to the development of intelligence itself, this phenomenon is growing ever more severe. Many things we were once traditionally familiar with have been set aside, and even declared abandoned: "Fara" (a rite of worship requiring a member of a Pan-Intelligent Species to walk across one or more metal plates heated to a molten state under identical environmental parameters, its creators believing this would help select the most devout, wise, and just individual from a group of participants); worship (referring to the simple act of stopping or suspending any ongoing work to enter a state of pure meditation—translator’s note); spirituality; rituals; miracles; the Path of Long Prostration (referring to a pilgrimage that orthodox believers must undertake at fixed intervals in the direction of Infinite Peak; it is not necessary to reach the destination, but the believer’s visual focus must remain on Infinite Peak during this time); transcendental truth; forgiveness and the eternal struggle; asceticism and self-restraint; prayer; and the Holy Trinity.
Also declared obsolete are any "irrational factors" latent within life—that is, states that cannot attain Reason, anti-rational madness, or anything incompatible with the world of Reason. Dissecting these concepts can easily lead one into semantic games. On one hand, life that adapts to and understands these worlds of consciousness is overlooked, even declared non-life. The irrational elements of the world of knowledge are similarly ignored, causing great multitudes of life to forget and no longer revere the spirit. On the other hand, the subconscious, instinct, the unconscious—and all the injustice, discrimination, evil, and chaos they engender—continue to exist in abundance throughout the world.
Gradually, groups who believed in spiritual-material separatism and purificationism emerged. They believed that all this could be changed by adopting a respected, Secret Alliance-style way of life that adhered to creed and tradition, and by constantly exposing the fanaticism and emotionalism of figures such as: Sinla-Kowen (then-speaker of the Third Month’s Top Conference, who had issued the Gold-Sealed Memorandum urging three allied near-Covenant Law technological civilizations to swiftly abandon direct trade channels with the White Tower for the sake of a "more efficient search for truth"); Wu-Fala (a scholar from Chonghong Town who proposed the Civilization Evolutionary Tree theory, positing that Covenant Law civilizations were an essentially pre-enlightened state of Rational Civilization that had taken some detours); and Exclamation!-Silver Fire (a social activist and scientist who believed Covenant Law civilizations were inherently barbaric, violated the basic rights of life, and required a violent rebellion). Yes, it was merely a means of glorifying themselves. Yes, they did indeed expose the hypocrisy and posturing of Silver Fire and others. But in doing so, they harmed themselves as well.
Since the era of the Secret of the Secret Alliance and the Pact of the Secret Alliance, with our progress and development, life has been promised a kind of happiness, tranquility, and liberation—a true, pure sense of bliss. However, contrary to expectations, as history is now showing us, the fantasy of abandoning all spirits to achieve pure self-satisfaction will inevitably result in losing one’s soul in blasphemy and becoming lost. In attempting to cast aside all spirits to find oneself in the universe, the consequence of such betrayal is to find only lies, betrayal, pretense, and the death that lies behind it.