As I alluded to in my previous post, more shifting has been taking place, with my viewpoint on the world and on religion/theology significantly changing. This is partly a return to my revelatory experience of last September, eating straw with Aquinas, as well as further exploration of the finger and the moon.
As I pointed out in a previous post, science is an artificial construct we collectively use to try and understand our experiences in the natural world. Religion is ALSO an artificial construct we collectively use, with it's aim to decipher and understand our experiences in the spiritual world. Science and religion are at best only the verisimilitude of those experiences and function as a guide, not a replacement. Thus, they should never have precedence over the natural and spiritual world.
The trick here is that, although we can speak of the natural world in a non-science framework, we almost always speak of the spiritual world in religious terms, often to the point of denying the existence of that direct experience or even the possibility that anyone could have such experience in this day and age. There are a number of reasons, I am sure, and at least part of it is the danger of the immediate versus the safety of the known. Rational thought and technical vocabulary are both tools which help people to isolate and distance themselves from the raw, messy and downright unsettling which is the experiential world. It is much more comfortable to speak of the recitation of the Epiclesis or Words of Institution which causes transubstantiation of the elements than to say "The priest stretched out his hands and said some words, I felt this power surge all round the altar and the bread and wine tasted different and I feel all warm and tingly afterwards."
Anyways, the upshot of all of this is that I very well may be posting less in the near future. My journey isn't at an end, or even at an ebb. There is this door in front of me, a whole bunch of incredible things on the other side and I am finding that words are, for the time being, becoming less than useful in this situation.
Well....This post has been very good for me to read. You describe a real conundrum for those of us who have had these experiences. In my extended circle of spiritual experiencers we use quantum physics, quantum neurophysiology, and the latest theories in human consciousness as a common symbolic language. Part of this is to purposely avoid the religious conditioning which is our first and most powerful experiential language. But the truth is, there really is no system or words which adequately explain these experiences. Especially when they repeat.
ReplyDeleteLike you I am at a still place and it's why I haven't been posting much. There are new doors ahead of me and I know there are very challenging things behind them. They involve bringing Spirit into matter, which in the final analysis means incarnating love, the energy which fuels the beauty and organization of this whole matter universe.
We are all called to make a choice about this essentially binary universe. Do we serve love, or cave into fear? Peace be with you Tim and may the force be with you.
Thank you Colleen. Of those who I know occasionally read my mutterings, I was hoping that you would reply. Quantum physics, eh? So, the Dancing Wu Li Masters cavort about the halls of the experiential believer.
ReplyDeleteFor myself, my vocabulary is significantly influenced by Taoism and, to a much lesser extent, the 'new age' lexicon (do recall I live near Boulder, CO). I am loathe to coin new phrases or to 'borrow' from other, apparently non-related fields (which is a good deal of my issues with the Emergent Church group).
You are right that we are called to make a choice. "If you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him. (Sirach 15:15-17)"
The question, the REAL question, is whether you trust the Master...fully, completely, with the heart. If so, then know She, the universal and living embodiment of love, will never fail you. As the Divine-as-Coyote likes to say to me, "Trust me! this is gonna be AWESOME!"
Have faith, my dear, and understand that all manner of things will be well.
Pax.
Ah yes, dear old coyote. That is one hell of a quote from Sirach. I've really appreciated the biblical quotes you illustrate your posts with because they are so on target.
ReplyDeleteThe real question truly is do you trust the Master. The part I'm having some difficulty comprehending is the part where He teaches we are His brothers and sisters. That implies a certain equality that in all honesty I'm not sure how to receive.
RE: Coyote. That is the best explanation/description (here we're back to the limits of verbal explanation of the spiritual experience) I can give for the aspect of the Divine who speaks to me. Not the stern father or the all-loving mother. I have the wise and smart-arsed elder who reminds me to not take things overly serious.
ReplyDeleteRE: quotes. Thank you most kindly. I would put credit on my protestant upbringing, which emphasised relying upon Scriptural references.
RE: Christ as brother. Jesus was fully human, created in the image and likeness of the Divine, just like you and me. The difference is he never made a mistake (ἥμαρτον, emarton, translated from the greek as sin) and one of his primary purposes was to show us how to get back in communion with the Divine, to remember our own true nature. That's what John Scotus Eugenius was on about, pointing at the gospel of John (Jn. 1:9).
Pax