This question appeared to me this morning, as it has before, but this morning it appeared with special urgency. Why does the son of God have to be crucified? (I refer here to the Christian story, though other, and to me less powerful, examples exist.)
Crucifixion is a definition of achieving form. Coming into form is crucifixion. When the Formless becomes form, the Formless is nailed to the spot. We are talking about you here. And me. And all of us. We speak not only of one forming of the Formless. All of creation moans and groans in its birthing,
Why does the son of God, the offspring of God, have to be despised, abandoned, rejected, left for dead? And then spring forth in glorious rebirth? For the crucifixion story is a resurrection story. The Formless forms, the form feels totally abandoned by the Formless. The form discovers the Formless within itself and is resurrected, is twice born. Why does the son of God have to be crucified? Why does a seed have to fall into the ground and die?
Friday, July 29, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
when our box is opened
We know that "a thing isn't true unless there is someone to observe it is true" (a la Schrodinger and his cat). We also know that expected results produce those desired results (scientific experiments have to build in safeguards against experimenter expectancy effects).
What we may not have considered is that if we take the position of the cat in the box and we believe there is a Being that opens the box, when our box is opened (what we call death), the Being is there. If we believe there is nothing there, when our box opens, that is what we find.
The dance we dance now (or at moment of box opening) keeps on dancing. We will continue to be proven right, products of our own self-fulfilling prophecy.
(Thanks to Mary Doria Russell, Children of God, for the cat-perspective insight.)
What we may not have considered is that if we take the position of the cat in the box and we believe there is a Being that opens the box, when our box is opened (what we call death), the Being is there. If we believe there is nothing there, when our box opens, that is what we find.
The dance we dance now (or at moment of box opening) keeps on dancing. We will continue to be proven right, products of our own self-fulfilling prophecy.
(Thanks to Mary Doria Russell, Children of God, for the cat-perspective insight.)
Monday, July 25, 2011
seeing
Plato (427-347 B.C.) wrote "For there is no light of justice or temperance or any of the higher ideas which are precious to souls in the earthly copies of them: they are seen through a glass dimly."
Paul (5-67 A.D. or C.E.) wrote "For now we see through a glass darkly."
One might easily make the case that Paul, who was a learned man, knew Greek, and was immersed in the theophilosophical consciousness of the time, was influenced by Plato. Plato's apt metaphor of seeing "through a glass dimly" thus appears in the Bible.
For many, this is of no or little interest or import. For others, engaged in anti-Christian, anti-Bible polemics, this is additional fodder for their anti-canon cannons.
For me, it is a further understanding and confirmation of how ideas, once born into this world, are here to stay and to unfold in the minds of others. And more than that, it gives me even greater respect for Plato who provided great insights and vast room for those who were to come after him.
He wrote this: "For a man must have intelligence of universals, and be able to proceed from the many particulars of sense to one conception of reason, -- this is the recollection of those things which our soul once saw while following God -- when regardless of that which we now call being she raised her head up towards the true being. And therefore the mind of the philosopher alone has wings; and this is just, for he is always, according to the measure of his abilities, clinging in recollection to those things in which God abides, and in beholding which He is what He is."
"And he who employs aright these memories is ever being initiated into perfect mysteries and alone becomes truly perfect. But, as he forgets earthly interests and is rapt in the divine, the vulgar deem him mad, and rebuke him; they do not see that he is inspired."
May we all have the mind of a philosopher. May our minds have wings. May we all be continuously inspired.
Paul (5-67 A.D. or C.E.) wrote "For now we see through a glass darkly."
One might easily make the case that Paul, who was a learned man, knew Greek, and was immersed in the theophilosophical consciousness of the time, was influenced by Plato. Plato's apt metaphor of seeing "through a glass dimly" thus appears in the Bible.
For many, this is of no or little interest or import. For others, engaged in anti-Christian, anti-Bible polemics, this is additional fodder for their anti-canon cannons.
For me, it is a further understanding and confirmation of how ideas, once born into this world, are here to stay and to unfold in the minds of others. And more than that, it gives me even greater respect for Plato who provided great insights and vast room for those who were to come after him.
He wrote this: "For a man must have intelligence of universals, and be able to proceed from the many particulars of sense to one conception of reason, -- this is the recollection of those things which our soul once saw while following God -- when regardless of that which we now call being she raised her head up towards the true being. And therefore the mind of the philosopher alone has wings; and this is just, for he is always, according to the measure of his abilities, clinging in recollection to those things in which God abides, and in beholding which He is what He is."
"And he who employs aright these memories is ever being initiated into perfect mysteries and alone becomes truly perfect. But, as he forgets earthly interests and is rapt in the divine, the vulgar deem him mad, and rebuke him; they do not see that he is inspired."
May we all have the mind of a philosopher. May our minds have wings. May we all be continuously inspired.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
the cosmic pause
"When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more." Though this old hymn was written by a Methodist Sunday School teacher (in 1893), we Baptists sang it anyway. After all, the Methodists were mistaken in only a few doctrinal points.
The reference, of course, is to certain passages in the Bible, my favorite among them being "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 -- see also Matthew 24, I Thessalonians 4, and Revelations 8 and 11)
The trumpet sound and the abolition of time is not just a Christian understanding. The Islamic mystics had (have) similar insights. For example, Shaikh Ahmad Ahsa'i (1753 - 1826) wrote about "the time of the cosmic pause marking the interval between the two blasts of Seraphiel's Trumpet. When Seraphiel causes the Trumpet to vibrate with 'fiery blast,' which is the 'breath of universal reabsorption,' every Spirit is drawn in, reabsorbed in the particular 'hole' in the Trumpet which is its matrix." -- Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 198-199. (Note: Seraphiel is an angel known as "The Guardian of the Throne of God.")
Not only am I continuously struck by the common vision of mystics across cultures, religions, and countries, but by this entire line of thought about the sounding of the trumpet and the cosmic pause.
If you take the time, you will notice there is a pause between your outbreathing and your inbreathing. This is analogous to the cosmic pause. Our Source brought all into existence and continues to do so by an Outbreathing. At some point, there will be a Pause. Followed by an Inbreathing.
The sounding of the Trumpet indicates that we will be notified of this Pause rather abruptly.
(Another Note: If you don't like mythopoetic language, you might translate this scenario into the language of a hardcore materialistic worldview. All that is matter will at some point cease to matter.)
The reference, of course, is to certain passages in the Bible, my favorite among them being "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 -- see also Matthew 24, I Thessalonians 4, and Revelations 8 and 11)
The trumpet sound and the abolition of time is not just a Christian understanding. The Islamic mystics had (have) similar insights. For example, Shaikh Ahmad Ahsa'i (1753 - 1826) wrote about "the time of the cosmic pause marking the interval between the two blasts of Seraphiel's Trumpet. When Seraphiel causes the Trumpet to vibrate with 'fiery blast,' which is the 'breath of universal reabsorption,' every Spirit is drawn in, reabsorbed in the particular 'hole' in the Trumpet which is its matrix." -- Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 198-199. (Note: Seraphiel is an angel known as "The Guardian of the Throne of God.")
Not only am I continuously struck by the common vision of mystics across cultures, religions, and countries, but by this entire line of thought about the sounding of the trumpet and the cosmic pause.
If you take the time, you will notice there is a pause between your outbreathing and your inbreathing. This is analogous to the cosmic pause. Our Source brought all into existence and continues to do so by an Outbreathing. At some point, there will be a Pause. Followed by an Inbreathing.
The sounding of the Trumpet indicates that we will be notified of this Pause rather abruptly.
(Another Note: If you don't like mythopoetic language, you might translate this scenario into the language of a hardcore materialistic worldview. All that is matter will at some point cease to matter.)
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
death
As I move further along the actuarial table. a life insurance monetary scheme in which one bets how long one is to live (I have no life insurance -- I have death assurance), I become more friendly with death. I have come to realize that I am death and life is my companion. I have no "death" to die. Death is the Unborn and life is its creation. Death is the unconscious from which all creativity springs -- springs into the light of day.
Death is no foe. Death is who we are. We are the Unborn reaching into, manifesting as the Born. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (I Corinthians 15:55) Death has no sting and the grave no victory because we have no death to die. We are death.
The surface consciousness ( what I call the WalMart consciousness) will not understand this. The surface consciousness insists that it is everything, knows it is not, and seeks to continue existence. It wishes to remain a happy little separative metaphysical chunk and go on forever. Death frightens the shit out of it. And rightly so, because it does have a death to die.
Death is no foe. Death is who we are. We are the Unborn reaching into, manifesting as the Born. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (I Corinthians 15:55) Death has no sting and the grave no victory because we have no death to die. We are death.
The surface consciousness ( what I call the WalMart consciousness) will not understand this. The surface consciousness insists that it is everything, knows it is not, and seeks to continue existence. It wishes to remain a happy little separative metaphysical chunk and go on forever. Death frightens the shit out of it. And rightly so, because it does have a death to die.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
thankful
Whatever your thoughts on the matter, Jesus's suffering helped free millions from suffering. What a blessing! Stomp your feet all you want and curl your lip in derision. The fact remains.
Whatever your thoughts on the matter, Buddha's awakening helped millions to move out of stupor. What a blessing! Grind your teeth and squint your eyes all you want. The fact remains.
Whatever your thoughts on the matter, Lao Tzu's writings set millions free from rigid mindset. What a blessing! Snurl your nose and waggle your ears all you want. The fact remains.
Whatever your thoughts on the matter, Buddha's awakening helped millions to move out of stupor. What a blessing! Grind your teeth and squint your eyes all you want. The fact remains.
Whatever your thoughts on the matter, Lao Tzu's writings set millions free from rigid mindset. What a blessing! Snurl your nose and waggle your ears all you want. The fact remains.
Monday, July 18, 2011
knocking at the door of the unborn
It is interesting to me that Bonaventure (1221 - 1274), an Italian Christian scholastic mystic, and Bankei (1622 - 1693), a Japanese Zen master, advocated similar understandings of the Source of all being as the Unborn.
Bonaventure wrote and spoke of the innascibility (incapable of being born) of God and Bankei spent his Zen "career" pointing folk to awareness of the Unborn Buddha-mind. Both spoke of the Unborn as birthing all born. That which cannot assume form births that which can and does.
Each, of course, uses the language available to him and the consciousness structure of the populace to whom they speak.
Bonaventure develops the concept of the Trinity: the Father (the Unborn) births the Son (the Born) through the generative powers of the Spirit (the LifeForce). He addresses both scholastics and mystics (direct experiencers).
Bankei continuously invites Buddhist folk to open beyond ordinary consciousness to the realm of the Unborn. He does this in a characteristic Zen way by direct pointing to a crow cawing, a sparrow chirping, or the wind rustling the leaves.
I greatly appreciate the way universal truths emerge across cultures and time and spiritual pathways.
Bonaventure wrote and spoke of the innascibility (incapable of being born) of God and Bankei spent his Zen "career" pointing folk to awareness of the Unborn Buddha-mind. Both spoke of the Unborn as birthing all born. That which cannot assume form births that which can and does.
Each, of course, uses the language available to him and the consciousness structure of the populace to whom they speak.
Bonaventure develops the concept of the Trinity: the Father (the Unborn) births the Son (the Born) through the generative powers of the Spirit (the LifeForce). He addresses both scholastics and mystics (direct experiencers).
Bankei continuously invites Buddhist folk to open beyond ordinary consciousness to the realm of the Unborn. He does this in a characteristic Zen way by direct pointing to a crow cawing, a sparrow chirping, or the wind rustling the leaves.
I greatly appreciate the way universal truths emerge across cultures and time and spiritual pathways.
Friday, July 8, 2011
room
You will forever know the only Self to which you allow room. To know the Transcendent, you must be capable of the Transcendent. Capable means to have capacity, to be capacious. To know the Transcendent, you must have capacity for the Transcendent. If you only have room for your manufactured sense of self, you will not know the Transcendent. Fortunately, the Transcendent has a way of knocking at the door of the heart, hoping the door will open. Lovers and followers of the Transcendent have a wide open heart door. You will forever know the only Self to which you allow room.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
inclusion
An exclusivist stance in one's religion is where one believes that one's spiritual path is the only and true spiritual path and that all other spiritual paths are false and wrong. This is human nature. We each develop ground to stand on and then have a tendency to think that if all others stood on similar ground, their problems would be solved.
An exclusivist stance takes it a step or two further: all others SHOULD take this stance and this stance only. The richness and complexity of life SHOULD follow a single track. All eggs SHOULD be put into one basket and that basket is mine.
We all know the abuses that have followed that stance in Christianity. Lands claimed, people slaughtered, children taken from their homes and forbidden to speak their native tongue, and so on. Though the outward abuse has died down considerably, the attitude amongst exclusivists is still the same: I am going to heaven and you are going to hell.
As a cosmotheandric zen baptist, I take an inclusive stance. We are all members of the Navel Tribe. We all arise out of the Great Mystery we call by many names. Each individual is at a certain level of understanding, of awareness. Each of us is an embodying of the Mystery. The Mystery has birthed us, is birthing us, and the Mystery will take us home.
An exclusivist stance takes it a step or two further: all others SHOULD take this stance and this stance only. The richness and complexity of life SHOULD follow a single track. All eggs SHOULD be put into one basket and that basket is mine.
We all know the abuses that have followed that stance in Christianity. Lands claimed, people slaughtered, children taken from their homes and forbidden to speak their native tongue, and so on. Though the outward abuse has died down considerably, the attitude amongst exclusivists is still the same: I am going to heaven and you are going to hell.
As a cosmotheandric zen baptist, I take an inclusive stance. We are all members of the Navel Tribe. We all arise out of the Great Mystery we call by many names. Each individual is at a certain level of understanding, of awareness. Each of us is an embodying of the Mystery. The Mystery has birthed us, is birthing us, and the Mystery will take us home.
Monday, July 4, 2011
neo-zoroastrians
In founding the religion of Christianity, Paul and his followers cast it in the mold of the religion of Zoroaster (600+ BCE)-- light versus darkness, good versus evil, earthlings who are either light beings or dark beings dependent on their choice, a good god and a bad devil, a forecast end of the world or aeon by fire, the capture of the bad devil and the tossing of him and his followers into the abyss of hell, the reigning of the children of light on earth and then in heaven where they will be in bliss forever.
Either Paul was very clever or there are forces at work here beneath and beyond ordinary consciousness and continuing to pop up in different clothing. I suspect both are true.
I am amused to think that today's Christians are in one sense neo-Zoroastrians. Nothing wrong with that. Just funny. But then I seem to have a strange sense of humor.
Either Paul was very clever or there are forces at work here beneath and beyond ordinary consciousness and continuing to pop up in different clothing. I suspect both are true.
I am amused to think that today's Christians are in one sense neo-Zoroastrians. Nothing wrong with that. Just funny. But then I seem to have a strange sense of humor.
Friday, July 1, 2011
protestant
I come from a long line of protestants and am a protestant of protestantism. The protest must arise anew with each protestant. "You must be born again." And again and again. One must protest the immediately preceding protest and then protest that. Where does one stop? Where life stops. Life is reborn each moment. As far as religious dogma goes, this makes one a sort of heavenly hellion. One is "playing ball on running water."
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