the divine nature

[Guest guest]

Greetins Vijaylakshmi,

> I am very eager to know what you mean by "all things follow

from the necessity of the divine nature".

 

I was forced to resort to this formula in an attempt to summarize Spinoza's

_Ethics_

in 10 words. I can hardly hope to do much better in 10 lines so I would urge you

to get hold of a copy of the *abridged* version of the _Ethics_ if you are

interested.

 

Spinoza (a 16th century excommunicated Dutch Jew of Spanish ancestry) is unique

among western

philosophers in that his philosophical project is to trace a path to

enlightment.

His method consists in what he calls the 'intellectual love of God'.

He shows how we can train our minds to see everything

'under the form of eternity', as being 'in God and following from the necessity

of the divine nature'. In particular we can bring ourselves to the realization

that all of our thoughts, feelings and actions

are thought, felt and acted by God through us (so you can see why I don't share

the Vedantist perspective on Karma). For Spinoza, God Nature and

Man are all the same thing (no dualist he!)

 

Regards,

 

Patrick