Guest guest Posted September 20, 1999 Report Share Posted September 20, 1999 In a message dated 9/20/1999 1:12:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time, max_harris writes: << so too just because our images of God are constructed doesn't mean God doesn't exist. >> I love this! And I agree that God pulls us (God) into God. My experience is not non-dualism vs. dualism but non-dualism/dualism all inside a big Something Else. Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 1999 Report Share Posted September 20, 1999 Max: ...This type of experience has convinced me that God's heart is always broken as well as full of joy; and I have little patience for notions of an impersonal impassible God. I read once, but can't remember if it was Aurobindo or someone else, that a proper sense of "ananda" is not bliss, but rather deep "feeling" which includes all bliss and all sorrow, ecstatic joy and tearing agony, a feeling which embraces and contains all these. If God is interested in life and deeply knows it, surely this is what ananda should mean. Dan: Are we not each constructing God and reality through the lens of our experiencing? Is there one set thing that ananda should mean (in fact, your post suggests that there might not be)? Is there one universal reality to be understood, explained, and experienced one way? >From here, I see many ways of viewing, many constructions. Some seemingly more personal, some seemingly more impersonal. I thank you for yours, as you have expressed it sincerely and clearly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 1999 Report Share Posted September 20, 1999 Dan Berkow wrote: > Are we not each constructing God and reality through the lens > of our experiencing? Is there one set thing that ananda should > mean (in fact, your post suggests that there might not be)? Is there one >universal reality to be understood, explained, and experienced one way? >From here, I see many ways of viewing, many constructions. Some > seemingly more personal, some seemingly more impersonal. Yes, it is inescapable that our understanding of God and reality is constructed out of our experiences. And yes, we shouldn't expect to be able to limit the meaning of the word "ananda" to one person's understanding. And yes, we shouldn't expect to be able to experience the one reality in the same way. I view the Brahman concept of God to be true but not complete. I view the Jewish mystic's concept of God to be true but not complete. I view most concepts of the Absolute to be true but incomplete. I don't believe any concept of the Absolute can be complete. A lover of the Divine knows God just as clearly as we know anyone we're infatuated with. We build around the reality in itself our personal experience of that reality; an image is constructed through which we gain access to the reality, without fully capturing it or fathoming it. Even the sense of merging with the reality is in part a construction. But just as the fact that we construct an image around the one we love doesn't mean the beloved doesn't exist, so too just because our images of God are constructed doesn't mean God doesn't exist. The constructed image is our mode of access to the reality, and with repeated intimacy it is to be hoped that the internal distances between the image and the reality continually decrease. But there is a richness in the reality which will prevent any exhaustion of the internal distances, and an element of mystery will forever remain as an endless allure. Namste, -- Max --------------------------- FREE - yourname - Visit http://www.philosophers.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 1999 Report Share Posted September 20, 1999 In a message dated 09/20/1999 4:53:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time, dorf01 writes: << On Mon, 20 Sep 1999 Hbarrett47 wrote: > > I love this! And I agree that God pulls us (God) into God. My experience is > not non-dualism vs. dualism but non-dualism/dualism all inside a big > Something Else. Holly > but isnt 'something else' creating another dualism? --janpa >> Received this from a friend today, I love it, is like the reception of energy and the giving of energies: Humility and Love met in a grove long ago. Love brought fruit and wine. Humility brought hunger, appreciation, and acceptance. To say it was Love or Humility that drew them together would be to limit God. These two were created for each other. They lived in and gave to each other. In the grove today are rocks and apples, deer and lion. The world has turned many times, always in the same direction. Love and Humility have grown so alike the G*ds cannot tell them apart. Who knows where they will throw their blanket? This meeting, this kneeling before each other is a sacred grove. I will meet you there, at the still point nexus, the mist of beginning, where we cannot tell who is who. Love*Light*Laughter, RainboLily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 1999 Report Share Posted September 20, 1999 On Mon, 20 Sep 1999 Hbarrett47 wrote: > > I love this! And I agree that God pulls us (God) into God. My experience is > not non-dualism vs. dualism but non-dualism/dualism all inside a big > Something Else. Holly > but isnt 'something else' creating another dualism? --janpa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 1999 Report Share Posted September 21, 1999 In a message dated 9/20/1999 4:53:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time, dorf01 writes: << but isnt 'something else' creating another dualism? >> Absolutely (no pun intended!). I wasn't trying to talk about Truth, rather my constantly shifting experience of it. No matter how much I see God, know I am God, etc., I'm never going to figure out how I managed the Big Bang. Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 1999 Report Share Posted September 21, 1999 On 9/20/99 at 2:39 PM Hbarrett47 wrote: >In a message dated 9/20/1999 1:12:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time, >max_harris writes: > ><< so too just because our images of God are constructed > doesn't mean God doesn't exist. >> > >I love this! And I agree that God pulls us (God) into God. My experience is >not non-dualism vs. dualism but non-dualism/dualism all inside a big >Something Else. Holly Don't worry Holly. It has been my experience that nonduality (Being without support) will come naturally, even if one hasn't heard of it before. If it wouldn't be that way, nonduality would be just another mental construct. Jan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 1999 Report Share Posted September 21, 1999 Hbarrett47 wrote: > << but isnt 'something else' creating another dualism? >> > > Absolutely (no pun intended!). I wasn't trying to talk about Truth, rather > my constantly shifting experience of it. No matter how much I see God, know > I am God, etc., I'm never going to figure out how I managed the Big Bang. > Holly Hello Holly, "Some spirits with lack of respect pretend that man was created in a laughter. YHWH would be the sound of this laughter." Denis Labouré Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 1999 Report Share Posted September 21, 1999 Hbarrett47 wrote: > << but isnt 'something else' creating another dualism? >> > > Absolutely (no pun intended!). I wasn't trying to talk about Truth, rather > my constantly shifting experience of it. No matter how much I see God, know > I am God, etc., I'm never going to figure out how I managed the Big Bang. > Holly ivan:Yes. There is the unknown, and the unknowable. We, as humans at least, can not even dream of finding that out. It is sweetly unknowable!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 22, 1999 Report Share Posted September 22, 1999 In a message dated 9/21/99 8:06:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time, Hbarrett47 writes: << Absolutely (no pun intended!). I wasn't trying to talk about Truth, rather my constantly shifting experience of it. No matter how much I see God, know I am God, etc., I'm never going to figure out how I managed the Big Bang. >> Dear Holly: My dear Holly, if you had figured out how you "did the Big Bang" you would never have done it and we would not be here now. It's like figuring out exactly how one walks across a room. You don't figure it out, you simply "do it." Blessings Zenbob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 22, 1999 Report Share Posted September 22, 1999 In a message dated 9/22/1999 3:39:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ZEN2WRK writes: << My dear Holly, if you had figured out how you "did the Big Bang" you would never have done it and we would not be here now. It's like figuring out exactly how one walks across a room. You don't figure it out, you simply "do it." >> Thanks for this! As they say, God is a verb. Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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