Theology - Achieving Balance
I want to comment a little, regarding the nature and character of deity...
I think anyone would be lying to themself to deny that a "higher power" exists. I believe in at least two such powers. One of them is impersonal, it is a spiritual force, and although it has a mind, and a body in the sense that it is comprised of everything residing within it, and those thingscontain intelligence and substance. This is what I personally call "The Universe". Some people take this same force and call it God. I believe that The Universe is both spiritual and physical, in fact, I believe there is no difference between these two things, except that the physical is more crude, and able to be discerned by our human intellect with the greatest ease. Spiritual is one of our words for anything so miniscule, or so complex that we cannot perceive the way in which it works. Prayer, for example, works by way of physical means, although it is such an amazingly miniscule process that we cannot (as yet) build machines to manipulate it, although I think science has admitted now that it does cause bodily changes and is healthful to engage in (although they would often prefer to attribute this process to other ideas, to a non-religious terminology.) I also believe in a God who is a personal being, with whom it is possible for us to communicate, who watches over us, guides and blesses us by manipulating The Universe in ways that we OFTEN cannot do (but that Jesus could do, and which he suggested we all could do if we had Faith enough). The reason we pray to this personal God, (for I think anyone praying, even if they acknowledge The Universe as God, are probably leaning towards the concept of a personal God any time they speak a prayer.) is because we relate to this personal God in a way that we cannot totally relate to The Universe. Quite simply, we are persons, we are not universes, although some of our parts resemble them, and so dwelling on The Universe although mind opening, can also become a way to lose our mind, if we fall too deeply into, to the point that we are excluding the personal God.
This is actually a relatively small part of the theology which I accept, but I think it is a profound part, and wanted to share it, but -- more importantly, I wanted to share this idea:
There is a Truth (with a capital T). Often we (the left side of religion or whatever "we" are) may use words which seem to deny it, and some of us may in actuality deny it, but to do so is an error - an overcompensation. It is a tendency which comes from rejecting what the orthodox, dogmatic religionists have propogated for years. I think we need to acknowledge this Truth, however, or else we are being less than honest. Let me defend my case here: If The Universe is "real", which I assert, and if all other "real" things reside in it, including physical and spiritual things, which I also assert (possibly expanding the meaning of the word Universe to be a little larger than the popular definition, to do so), those real things exist as an undisputable fact, whether or not we as imperfect humans, have a capability to perceive or document them. They are simply there. For the sake of simplicity (and this is oversimplicity -- not implying that this metaphor is part of my theology) let me call them pixels. If two people are examining the same pixel, The Universe is well aware of the color of that particular pixel, a human may perceive the pixel, or they may not. We perceive only a few that are around us. But, say two humans do perceive the same pixel. One may call it Aqua, and another may call it Light Blue, Sky Blue, or Teal. All of these humans may be seeing the same pixel. One trained in color may give it a more precise name. The Universe alone holds the numerical Red/Green/Blue value to it -- not because it is all knowing, but because it actually Contains that Pixel, it is part of it. Thus it
belongs to The Universe in that way. The Universe cannot "think" about it, beyond the thinking all other rational beings do to try to identify that Pixel's color. Ok, but all who see the pixel may disagree, and a colorblind person may even call it red. But, nonetheless, it is there, and it is a discrete, particular color. That is the Truth (capital). There is only one way things actually are. That way might not be a narrow pathway of a particular creed in the style of the old Catholic tradition, but there simply is a way that it really is. We can't throw that out the window just because we embrace the idea of Freedom of Religion, Free Thought, and Free Speech. It should be our constant hope to come closer to that Truth so that we have a real understanding and not something skewed by our own tunnel vision.
By acknowledging this, we are faced with some difficulties:
First, we must admit that it is possible for us to be outright wrong. I have been wrong on several things in the past, and I've tried to adapt as new information reaches me from any source (sometimes divine revelation). To admit this and to be willing to accept correction is Humility.
Second, we must recognize that each Truth-seeker has a different piece or pieces of the puzzle figured out, and that they deserve deep respect for the portion of it which they do have, the offering that they bring to the table. Sometimes it is hard for us to acknowledge what they have, because we become blinded by the error that they carry along with it. To see them for what they are, and to overcome our prejudice is to Love.
Third, (and it is really just the logical result of the other two ideas) we must not be afraid when others do point out our errors, (or what they imagine to be our errors.) These are actually opportunities for both parties to grow, to enable them to come closer to the truth.
Fourth, for the sake of others on the same road, we should never be afraid to boldly proclaim those things that we do have. Being afraid to share because of fear that we might offend others (who are really just like ourselves) only slows everyone down. Trying to share a piece of the Truth, isn't creating Dogma (of the bad variety), unless you let weaker recipients of your teachings believe it without somehow "earning it" along the way, and they begin to cling to it as though it is the Truth itself instead of a mere description of the Truth.
Divine revelation always has a little baggage attached, because it filters and expands as it passes through a human being (be it ourself, or someone else) before it is written down or otherwise communicated. Filtering, meaning that the person was not able to fully express it, and thus part of it was lost on the way. Expanding, meaning that the person embellished it with additions due to their own cultural and philosophical ideas in order to best express things in the words that make sense to them.
Every piece of revelation that ever has been recorded passes through this scenario with, I believe, the sole possible exception of real and actual voices heard and written down (because it *is* within fairly common human capacity to simply scribe what has been heard.)
by Jeff @ 11:43 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I read the blog. Very good. Here is my bit on the subject:
People's reality of their awakening is tinted by their subconscious. ie. Hindu nirvana, Taoist cosmic body, Baptist born again, near death experiences?, alien abduction, Kabbalah climbing the tree of life. Remember Glenn Morris when his subconscious took him to the forest.
An interesting debate ensued as to who owned what. The id had now emerged and proceeded to show the learned personality which I still perceived as me what was what. "You think what you see is real, try this."
The back porch became a forest, my meditating pillow a rock. I could hear birds singing as the wind moved the branches of the trees. The sun was going down. "I'm your body," the voice said, "I process everything that you see, hear, feel, or do. You don't know what's real. I do." I was back on the pillow facing into the kitchen, considerably shaken. (—Glenn Morris)
The particular version of awakening which each person experiences is programmed into the subconscious by the imagery used in meditation to arrive at the awakening. ie. by envisioning the paths of the Tree you will see the paths during the awakening; the mixing of energies in the caldrons by the Taoist causes them to actually see and feel the energy baby being born inside them. Other examples are the Jesus image of the Christians, a person's belief in aliens, NDE imagery and so forth. What is the real reality?? I have come to a point where I doubt everything. I must let go and just follow the guide into the darkness.
On further contemplation, I realize that they are all having a real experience. It just happens to be something real that their conscious mind can't comprehend directly, so their subconscious mind has to interpret it into something that can be understood.
—Brother Nicholas
It is almost frightening that not only do these awakening experiences derive directly from people's subconscious programming, but even their very afterlife does, if I understand things rightly. Everyone's thoughts ultimately become their things. May yours be extremely lofty.
~Brother Jeff
This is from a journal of a boy who could see auras and spirits, etc. Here is a conversation with his dead grandpa about heaven that applies to this conversation.
Old grandpa is ever so polite when he talks to the P's, and is always calling them my dear sir and my dear madam, which makes me want to laugh. But I wish he didn't have to use such long words sometimes, because I can't remember them properly when I want to write them down, which is a blithering nuisance. I asked him why grandmamma never came to see us too? And he said something about spirits getting thoughtbound like birds getting egg-bound, and made us all laugh because it seemed such a funny thing to say. He told us that while the grandmater was still on earth, she reckoned, same as a lot of people do, that she and a few others who thought exactly like she did, were the only people what were going to be saved. "And now," said grandpa, " she lives in a world of thoughts which she and others have created by their own fallacious convictions. In our Father's house are many mansions." I got this out of Mr. P. who had written it down. And he has helped me with the next bit too. When we asked Grandpa what about him? He said, though he (had) believed in God and all that, he'd never made up his mind too much what the other world was going to be like, so now he didn't spend his life singing hymns round an imaginary throne of God like grandma does. Grandpa doesn't mind saying naughty things. He told us grandma had been an obstinate old woman, and she was still obstinate now, and nothing he could say was going to change her (outlook) till she got sick of it and began looking round for something better. He told us it was a great mistake to have preconceived notions like my late lamented grandmother; but seeing as I didn't quite know what he meant, I asked Mr. Patmore, who says it's if people are too cock sure of a thing when they've nothing proper to go on. I'm tired now and want to leave off. (from "The Boy who Saw True" by Cyril Scott)
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