Salvation: RH'L4
The Story so Far
Quest for Pleasure-RH'L1 is self-centric and demands the discovery of what gratifies. The focus is on bodily desires.
Quest for Meaning-RH'L2 is socio-centric and demands the development of purposes and projects that feel worthwhile. The focus is on personal ideals.
Quest for Enlightenment-RH'L3 is self-centric and demands the discovery of reality in a way that could benefit others—if they choose to listen. The focus is on existential mysteries.
Mark Twain reflecting on the social consensus captured the spirit:
"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt."
If this pattern holds, the next Quest-RH'L4 will probably be socio-centric and require development.
Salvation: The Heart of Quest Country
Function: To save another from suffering or danger.
i.e. happiness depends on actively rescuing others without thought of personal gain. (Note: «Helping» is too weak a term.)
So: The purpose of life is «to do good to and for others when they are suffering acutely or at serious risk of harm».
Salvation-RH'L4 embodies active compassion. However, compassion is a universal human capacity (related to goodness) and does not in itself imply or require pursuit of a Salvation Quest-RH'L4.
NOTE: All higher Quests can also be described as providing Salvation, but they do not see happiness as rooted in just rescuing people in need.
Why is Salvation a Quest?
This Primal Quest-RH'L4 responds to an unmistakable feature of the human condition: suffering. We are all at risk of misfortune, deserved and undeserved. Like it or not, I am in pain (if I allow myself to feel), in danger (if I allow myself to notice), in need (if I allow myself to accept my dependence on others).
However, there are so many far worse off than I am. So, as with all Primal Quests, the core, here rescuing the needy, is an endless existential state. Those on this Quest must and can always find someone to save in the way that they would want to be saved. As it happens, there is no shortage of people in desperate straits who need selfless rescue and aid.
Correspondence to a Root Level: Saving others uses empathy to know that they need and want assistance. Only Experience-RHL4 can provide the necessary guide. The saver of others knows through identification-PH4L6 what the other seeks and needs. Those on this Quest seek to be sensitive to the recipient's feelings and preferences when making active efforts to rescue.
Saintliness
Where existing-for-others is a strong drive, the Salvation Quest may dominate a person's life. The person is filled with compassion and experiences intense urges to do something for others. In such cases, there is a life of devoted service for the most needy, and often those marginalized in society. When there is simultaneously a minimal regard for personal safety and few extraneous interests, others view such a life as saintly.
Offering Spiritual Salvation is a Crusade not a Quest
Salvation is commonly perfused and confused with religious spirituality: somewhat like enlightenment, but with a more pernicious effect. The World Saviour (Model Being) does indeed seek to save humanity. However, the Salvation Quest-RH'L4 is not about saving a soul, but about rescuing a fellow human being in dire need. It is never a crusade requiring mass mobilization, jihad or proselytisation. It is about inter-personal dealings. Once any person (or a religious official) claims an exclusive mandate to «save», then «salvation» has nothing at all to do with «rescuing by giving and helping». There is a dissipation of compassionate and humane acts. Conditions relating to beliefs, rituals and behaviours are set for receipt of aid, leading necessarily to a weakening of the benevolence in relationships.
Sadly, through the centuries, «saving humanity» has often been little more than a cover for exploiting and subjugating the weak, while accumulating wealth and power. «Salvation» has been used as a justification for indoctrinating, persecuting and even torturing those whose sin is nothing more than having their own thoughts and values. Any grandiosity in charitable proposals suggests that salvation is delusional: read later about mankind's primal delusions.
See a Comparison Table
| Oriented to the person. |
Oriented to the soul and God. |
| Simple acts of compassion, kindness and solicitude. |
Grandiose promises of bliss and eternal life, and threats of damnation are common. |
| Self-evident needs are responded to in a positive, direct and practical way that is positively welcomed by the recipient. |
Self-evident needs are an opportunity to establish contact and then indoctrinate as the price of being helped. |
| Focus on specific individuals who are suffering or in acute danger. |
Focus on communities, social classes or on humanity as a whole. |
| Attuned to experiences and cultural values of the recipient. |
Too often regards alien experiences and cultural values of the recipient as irrelevant, or as diabolical and requiring replacement. |
| Ultimate goal is self-reliance for the recipient with an ability to think and choose freely. |
Ultimate goal is an ideological conversion of the recipient. |
Speculation about the Salvation of Humanity
Quests are necessary for humanity and perhaps we depend on a sufficient number of people pursuing each of them, including the Salvation Quest. However, this Quest is still about individuals who focus on those with whom they become engaged, either by chance, by volunteering, or via a helping profession. In general, a person on the Quest lives their life in an otherwise ordinary fashion.
As a separate but potentially confusing issue: the conception of a World Saviour emerges from this Quest.
► Jump to how the Salvation Quest works in practice.
► Move up to the next Quest: Creation.
Originally posted: 8-Jun-2012
