The Philosophy Of A Forthguide

Poul Anderson, The Winter Of The World, XII.

Krona, a Forthguide among the Rogaviki, explains that:

some unwed women who do not remain at home "'...seek knowledge beyond nature...'" (p. 12);

some such seekers become Forthguides;

Krona herself searches into the inhuman and therefore must become inhuman like a stone, a star, a river or the Ice;

Forthguides live for their own enlightenment which requires oneness of body and mind;

body and mind are like bird and flight, not like horse and rider;

oneness comes through effort and austerities;

possessions and attachments would be too great a burden;

Forthguides aim at a powerful self-command impossible in ordinary life;

they travel, receive hospitality and give instruction;

self-command is only the first step toward enlightenment;

ideas of God or of oneness with the all do not make sense to her;

existence moves toward infinite differentiation;

enlightenment is the growth of the self, maybe its assimilation of everything else;

the self is neither a monad nor immortal but dynamically integral with an ever-evolving universe;

knowledge, discovery, intuition, logic and emotion are equally valid and essential to insight and completion.

Comments
Understanding the inhuman does not mean becoming inhuman.
I agree that selves are neither monadic nor immortal.
Reality is both one and differentiated: two sides of a coin.
I accept the Buddha's teaching of a Middle Way between asceticism and hedonism.