Tuesday, June 10, 2008

And God Said, "Let There be Atheists!"

The entire Universe is condensed in the body, and the entire body in the heart. Thus the heart is the nucleus of the whole Universe. --Sri Ramana Maharshi

As we were saying yesterday, the cosmos is within the soul, not vice versa. This is another way of saying that the soul is the final cause of the cosmos, or that the cosmos is structured vertically from the top down. "In the formula 'I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,' alpha is the symbol of the divine man, or Divinity, before his fall into matter; and omega is the symbol of the perfected man" who has regained spiritual consciousness. Thus, as Boehme wrote, "The seventh day of creation is the origin and beginning of the first."

When we say that the world is created, we -- at least Jake and I, and probably Will -- mean that it is a vertical emanation of the sovereign Good, which is what it means to to say that the sun and stars are allegheirically moved by love, or that evil is a deprivation of the Good, or that beauty is an echo of the creation, etc. Nothing quintessentially human can be understood "from the bottom up," for there is no unity there, only diversity, and man is fundamentally a little unity-in-diversity capable of mirroring the great diversity-in-Unity. Or, man is woven of diversity and unity at that intersection of the Cross we were discussing yesterday, as he gathers all of existence into the heart -- which is ultimately His heart. This is both a collection and re-collection, or a joyful reunion of Father and Son. Which is also why this Cross is a Throne.

To quote Eckhart, "When I saw into myself I saw God in me and everything God ever made in earth and heaven.... The narrowest of the powers of my soul is more than heaven wide. To say nothing of the intellect wherein there is measureless space..." Again, the scientific atheist believes this no less than the theist, i.e., that his mind is a mirror of reality. If he didn't believe in this mirrorcle, then why would he even bother to listen to his own babbling and take it seriously? Obviously he believes that he may know reality. It is just that, for whatever reason, he severely delimits the nature of reality, including the subject who is central to knowing it. Only man gets to name the animals, even if he is a Darwinian who will never know how he does it. Every plane of manifestation is a plane of Intellect, and knowing total truth requires participation of man's total being, including, body, mind and spirit -- or will, sentiment, and intellect.

The "beyond-comprehension" is the foundation of truth, before the one Truth bifurcates into a knower and known. This is inverted by scientific atheists, who also root truth in ignorance, except that it is a total ignorance from below instead of a blinding light from above. The gap between matter and Truth is infinite if one tries to get there from the bottom up. But if we look at existence from the right side up, then the truth -- and divine life and conscious light -- embedded in matter are not only comprehensible, but necessary and inevitable. Indeed, Truth is true because it is inevitable, or it would not be truth but relativity. Conscious Truth must be, or there could be no manifested cosmos.

This conscious truth is a paradoxical (but not really) combination of total freedom and absolute necessity: "In the Godhead itself, the most perfect freedom and the most absolute necessity are joined together in a Marriage, to which the whole Heavens and Earth, with unutterable joy [ananda-bliss], sing eternal Marriage Songs." (Which is why we say that the matterimanyall gift of existence was totally unnarcissary on God's part.)

Here comes the bride, all dressed in white! She is pure sophia-wisdom, waiting to be impregnated by the word-light of eternal truth. Or, you could say that existence is the marriage-play of Absolute (1) and Infinite (0), or Purusha and Prakriti-maya, or form and substance, or wave and particle, or sun and moon, or cats & chicks, or Adam & Evolution.

Let us further confound the unworthy, and throw them off the trail! Brahma, when purusha comes to shiva with an unmentionable demiurge (the unspoken Word), how Lo can He go? How about all the way inside-out and upside down, a vidy long descent indeed to the farthest reaches of sorrow and ignorance?

So never ask why people are sad and stupid, for such a realm "must needs be" in a cosmos made of intelligence and joy, just as bitter and envious liberals must exist in the most affluent nation in the history of the world. The Divine Ray does not arbitrarily stop, but, like the man said, descends all the way down. As Will has mentioned a number of times, thank God we have the coagulation of matter to keep most of us from plunging all the way to the bottom! Indeed, this is what keeps most, but not all, atheists out of real trouble, i.e., the Eternal Church of Dumb and Blind Matter.

It is true, O ringtailed ones! I don't want to get sidetracked, but one of the reasons borderline or psychotic people burn cigarets into the arms, or slash themselves, or bang their heads, or become Celtic fans, is to try to prevent themselves from slipping down into the Formless Infinite Void, which is Dread Itself, by focussing on the finite pain of the material body, as it is preferable to the Infinite pain of the Void. Problem is -- as I mentioned in the book -- this is an inverse mirror of the Infinite Void above, and it is the Human Duty to conquer this lower void in the name of the upper. This is why, don't you know, Jesus descends into hell after the Crucifixion. In other words, his descent into man did not merely cease at our material situation, but went all the way to the bottom, to the infinite hell of total divine abandonment. Which is why he even saves atheists!

There is obviously a lesson there. As Mouravieff writes, most men cannot generally "turn things around" until they have reached a condition of "spiritual bankruptcy," sort of like the Lakers last Sunday (don't be like them and wait too long, for there are only "seven games" of creation, with sudden death).

Metanoia -- which is to say, re-pentance -- literally means to "turn around," and this is what it refers to. The more of the "minus space" of the psyche you can domesticate and colonize, the more of the upper vertical you can stably inhabit. The deeper the plunge, the higher the ascent. This is expressed in some form or fashion in every venerable tradition, from the Upanishads to Spiderman.

Now, Where Was I? I have No Idea. I'm just here Swimming in the Void, waiting for a Current to Take me Up.

Oh, There's One. Ooh! It Tickles!

Now, the moment of metanoia is an ontological discontinuity, a caesura, a rubicon, a leap of faith. However, it only looks like a discontinuity from the "dark side" of things. Once you make the leap, then you see that the continuity was there all along -- that there are secure "lines of communication" between God and man that were always there operating in silence. It is only for us to grab one and hold on tight. Let Perry explain:

"This moment -- absolutely unique in character -- is when there occurs, through the action of the 'Celestial Ray' operating on a plane of reflection, the vibration which corresponds to the cosmogonic Fiat Lux ["let there be light"], and which illuminates through its irradiation the whole chaos of possibilities. Starting from this moment, order replaces chaos, light replaces darkness, act replaces potentiality, and reality replaces virtuality." You become someOne!

Where have I heard this before? Oh yes, Tomberg: "The fiat lux of the first day of creation and the fiat lux of the awakening of faith in the soul are of the same essence. In both cases it is a question of the creative act of 'Let there be Light!'"

So.... What have we learned today? I'll just leave off with a cryptic but wise crack by Petey, and let you figure it out:

A little metaphysical diddling between a cabbala opposites, and Mamamaya! baby makes Trinity, so all the world's an allusion (that's the key to His fiat, if you know how to derive). Viveka la revelation!

51 comments:

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

When light strikes the unlit, there is produced a shadow.

julie said...

(For anyone wondering where the party went, the debate on yesterday's post is ongoing)

Anonymous said...

"I am not so foolish as to enter a controversy with one who denies first principles." --Michael Sendivogius

julie said...

Yeah, I know - I keep hitting the post button, thus proving what a fool I am.

Storm-Rider said...

“If God does not exist, then everything is permitted” Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Van Harvey said...

Julie said "thus proving what a fool I am"

Heh. "Tell me whyyyyy.... Why do fools falll in Love...?!"

Anonymous said...

And if some things aren't permitted, then God exists.

Storm-Rider said...

Petey: "And if some things aren't permitted, then God exists."

Exactly!

Anonymous said...

“If God does not exist, then everything is permitted” Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Is that true? If not then any premise based off it would be without actual conclusion. Technically permission doesn't need to even go as far as God. If I give no permissions to others, that would automatically equate me to a God of some level, assuming I'm the authority on the issue.

To reverse the paradox God could permit himself without bounds, so then has God defeated himself by removing the proof of his own existence? Playing on words is rather inconclusive, because anybody can basically say, "I believe this; this is why," and really not have to answer for it.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

I think you're smearing your thoughts over it too much. Dostoyevsky is simply pointing out that when God is denied, all things eventually become permissible so long as one is actually able to do them.

NoMo said...

Everyone knows there is a God. The problem is believing it.

mushroom said...

I prefer "what kind of fool am I, who never fell in love".

Anonymous said...

If God is permitted, then everything exists, even nothing.

mushroom said...

Whatsoever you bind on earth is bound in heaven. Whatsoever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. ... seems like I heard that some place.

Storm-Rider said...

Anonymous: "Technically permission doesn't need to even go as far as God. If I give no permissions to others, that would automatically equate me to a God of some level, assuming I'm the authority on the issue."

There is no paradox. God restrains us by miraculously placing His Holy Spirit with the human heart and mind; and He, the Spirit, is there even in the heart of some atheists.

When the Spirit of God dies in a man's heart and mind, the restrains are removed; and the man becomes only an animal, albeit intelligent; and all is permitted under the rules of the jungle.

Remember in Exodus, Pharaoh hardened his heart against God three times; and then God hardened the heart of Pharaoh - the Spirit died inside Pharaoh - and then all was permitted. This is a metaphor for Adolph Hitler, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Osama bin-Laden; and ultimately for every man and woman.

Keep the spirit alive, and all is not permitted.

Ray Ingles said...

"Permitted" and "wise" are two different things. Funny how many things that are alleged to be impermissible turn out to also be unwise.

Anonymous said...

That's why I don't eat shrimp.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

"Permitted" and "wise" are two different things. Funny how many things that are alleged to be impermissible turn out to also be unwise.

Because that's the Way.

Ray Ingles said...

River - And if you stick with the wise, you don't need permission.

NoMo said...

Hey Storm-Rider - Re your view on the indwelling Spirit, you might check out what John wrote before and after.

Not sure where you're coming from, but the orthodox position, supported by a multitude of scripture, is more like: unbeliever=no indwelling Spirit, believer=indwelling Spirit.

I'm not looking to argue the point, but it's an important distinction worth some study.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

River - And if you stick with the wise, you don't need permission.

"All things are permissible for me, but not all things are beneficial." Or so says St. Paul.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Storm-Rider's position would probably be backed up by the Fathers, as the Holy Spirit works through anyone he pleases. Especially the description of God hardening Pharoah's heart.

Anonymous said...

>>. . . thank God we have the coagulation of matter to keep most of us from plunging all the way to the bottom!<<

For a time anyway. Then - good luck, happy landings! And who knows, the day may be coming when matter is no longer matter-as-we-now-know-it, at which point we'd better have developed our wings.

>>one of the reasons borderline or psychotic people burn cigarets into the arms, or slash themselves, or bang their heads, or become Celtic fans, is to try to prevent themselves from slipping down into the Formless Infinite Void, which is Dread Itself . . . <<

Now this is interesting and may shed some esoterically exlanatory light on the tattoo/body piercing culture, not that all the practitioners are psychos. But - there does seem to be some kind of counter-evolutionary mindset, one that harkens back to the misty recesses of time when folks had to undergo pain initiations/rituals to help anchor themselves in materiality. You don't get much more devolutionary than that.

So what's up with that? A collective presentiment of s coming Change in which the floors give way?

"I hurt myself today/to see if I still feel . . . " T. Reznor, but really brought to scarifying life by J. Cash.

Hiya Van - been dodging tornadoes and stuff.

Storm-Rider said...

Nomo,

I'm not completely orthodox, but I love God and I thirst for His Spirit; and I cling to His Son, and I pray for His grace and forgiveness.

Romans 2:13-16

"For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified: (for when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves; in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them); in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ."

The Trinity is a great mystery to me, but I believe the Spirit can lead a man to the Father and then to the Son; or conversely to the Son and then the Father. I believe it is possible for the Father, through His Word, to lead a man to the Son and then the Spirit, or to the Spirit and then to the Son.

A mystery, but a lovely one; and a mystery full of life.

NoMo said...

Riv - Work through, influence, etc. - yes. But indwelling distinguishes believers from unbelievers. It's a nothing or foreverthing (oops, my Calvinism is showing).

Storm - A lovely mystery indeed!

mushroom said...

River says, "All things are permissible for me, but not all things are beneficial." Or so says St. Paul.

That's a good one, man. And I would add, "Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death."

QP said...

. . . as the Holy Spirit works through anyone he pleases."

For River.
Umptillion Monks

Van Harvey said...

Will said "Hiya Van - been dodging tornadoes and stuff."

Wise. Very wise.

;-)

Van Harvey said...

anonymous said "“If God does not exist, then everything is permitted” Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Is that true? If not then any premise based off it would be without actual conclusion. Technically permission doesn't need to even go as far as God. If I give no permissions to oth..."

For the poetically challenged and those prone to the jesuswillies, without Truth, there is no standard of Right and Wrong, and all behavior would technically be permissible and possible, as long as you go 'reasonably' slow enough to get the natives acquainted with each more gradually outlandish step. See hollywood for examples... and tattoos’... and metal modern art sculptures thrust through various body parts as decoration (perhaps also in hopes that such sparklies will fool others into thinking that, what they know to be worthless and barren, will somehow seem attractive).

Of course if there really was no Truth, then there'd not only be no standards of any kind, no Right, no Wrong, but also no things at all and no way to discuss it - but being that that requires more than two or three conceptual steps into the pool, that usually takes thinkers of such thoughts too close to the Vertical deep end, and then they start panicking and dog paddling and splashing about... kind of annoying to the adults lounging, floating and swimming peacefully in the waters.

Kids.

Sheesh.

Bob's Blog said...

Deepak Chopra yinged and yanged his way onto Dennis Miller's radio show yesterday to sell his latest book. This one asserts that God is laughing at us. Dennis kept trying to engage him in honest conversation, but Deepak kept trying to hypnotize Dennis and divert him into new age mumbo jumbo. What a complete fraud.

Gagdad Bob said...

Wicked man.

Gagdad Bob said...

The latest from this supercilious ignoramus:

"By any serious measure, Barack Obama holds an enormous advantage over John McCain. His poise, intelligence, and charisma are undeniable, as is the utter ruin of the right-wing agenda with which McCain has many ties.

"Republicans turned... the smiling vacuousness of a Ronald Reagan into a prime key for electoral success.

"McCain's "No surrender" approach to the Iraq war appeals to the cherished illusion that America can never be anything but a winner. This attitude covers over the disastrous reality of how the U.S. destroyed another country without provocation

"The atmosphere would have been far different if America had led the way in dealing with global warming, among other positive issues, and letting the UN lead a united front against Saddam.

"The second reason for today's bad news is an addiction to unreality. This includes more than the administration's blind faith in the free market and its denial of climate change. Obstructing stem cell research was born in an equally blind faith in fundamentalist Christian ideology, and a programmed dismissal of all progressive ideas.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Is he more stupid or evil?

Dougman said...

Anon
"To reverse the paradox God could permit himself without bounds, so then has God defeated himself by removing the proof of his own existence?"

He's been resting.
Maybe even nodded off for a time.
That'll change soon enough I feel.

Just my opinion.

Storm-Rider said...

"To reverse the paradox God could permit himself without bounds, so then has God defeated himself by removing the proof of his own existence?"

It requires double-think to hold two ideas at the same time which are contradictory, i.e.: an oxymoron.

God, Creator of the universe, cannot defeat Himself; but rather He made us capable of defeating ourselves by rejecting Him. Alas, we are free to do so.

When God reveals Himself in power it will be the end of faith and the beginning of the world to come; for now there is faith.

Anonymous said...

Based on his childlike blogging, I am quite sure that Deepak doesn't write his own books.

mushroom said...

Credit where credit is due: Pak-it-deep has done something I doubted was possible. He has managed to make me feel good about voting for Captain Queeg.

Anyone who characterizes Reagan as "vacuous" is definitely projecting.

NoMo said...

If you keep this up, Bob, before long there will be no walls, only windows.

And - who is Jake?

Gagdad Bob said...

Sorry. Jakob Boehme.

Anonymous said...

"...the smiling vacuousness of a Ronald Reagan..."

Ronald Reagan, along with the Founders = America Incarnate. The Ultimate Progressives.

I heard the tail end of the Dennis Miller interview with Deeprock Chakra. His stuff is beginning to sound soooooo last century.

Stephen Macdonald said...

gagdad bob:

I am -- relatively speaking -- a frivolous person. Far better men than me (at half my age) have repositioned history in Mesopotamia.

This I stipulate, for it is obvious.

I feel that I no longer speak the same language known to the majority.

Rick said...

RE Deepak and the Dennis Miller show, with all due respect to Dennis (love ya, Babe, cha-cha) this caller should have made it by the screener:

“Mister Deecaf, that’s a lot of bummer stickers, when does your sacred art show up?”

Fido, please set the wayback machine to 2 weeks ago…don’t know how long this Deecaf for Veep World Tour will last. Print up a mess of these, will ya? We’ll make a bundle:

Obama Deecaf 2008

So many bummer stinkers, so little rear end. Funny isn’t it how the left has so much to re-beat but so small a car to stick it to. Once again, they didn’t think this through.

Deepak really let the cat out of the bag with this blurt:

“Obstructing stem cell research was born in an equally blind faith in fundamentalist Christian ideology, and a programmed dismissal of all progressive ideas.”

Hey man, you called it a “progressive idea”. Maybe you should stop doing that. You won’t get a foot in the door anymore with that pitch.

GB, have you noticed how sometimes they just can’t hold it in?

Deepak, while you’re out there, don’t forget the “Halliburton!”

Fido, for our car:

“Halliburton 08”

Magnus Itland said...

Well, not everyone can enlist the help of a garden-of-Eden gnome for their blog.

Van Harvey said...

Smoov said "I feel that I no longer speak the same language known to the majority. "

Yeah... seems like one of the interesting effects (and benefits) of learning a new spiritualized language, is that you lose the meaning of the original lingo. Things no longer have the same meaning. Think of former friends who never grew up, and they want to go out doing X, which no longer seems even interesting to you. They're all excited to go do it, trying to entice you into going, explaining in detail how you're all going to do x, and x and of course X! and you no longer have any interest in doing it, it doesn't sound interesting, it doesn't sound fun, you don't want to go do it and can't picture forcing yourself to go do it - it literaly has no meaning for you anymore. Your understanding of fun, exciting, enjoyable, worthwhile no longer attaches to the same references - you are speaking a different language.

(of course... by 'do it' , I didn't mean that 'do it'... at least not in that way... I mean... the xX... that was just a randomly chosen variable, having no relatio... [somewhere Freud is laughing. Hard. eh... I didn't mean anything by that... I... sheesh. shutting up now])

Anonymous said...

A man in great passion once said to a crowd of us

"Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake, but this is NOT (shouting here) God's world...This is the world God permits...BIIIIGG DIFFERENCE!!

All this talk of permission reminded me. It is one of the visions that I live by, residing here by permission in a world that exists by permission.

I am only passing through no matter how coagulated I feel. Fall or fly, no matter, the journey ends the same way, in the lap of God. I am assured unless I insist on having it some other way.

Even then, I suspect it only postpones things because my energy for resistance is limited within the limitless expanse of God's welcome. But hey, this is just me wondering along minding the business infrontofme. It's better than a lobotomy.

Stephen Macdonald said...

I've been reading the Spiritual Ascent as well. I didn't (have not yet anyhow) discern the structure that Bob sees. Instead, my better half and I have been savoring morsels while curled up in bed (sorry, I know, too much information).

It is a well-chosen collection of spiritual wisdom for me, at this point. Even if I can't grasp the fuller intent of the author, I've gotten a lot out of it.

Stephen Macdonald said...

So what is Bob's role?

For me Bob is a man who dives deep into uncharted waters and returns with what I guardedly consider to be Truth.

Bob is a facilliator somewhat analogous to those extremely talnented technical virtuosos I am compelled to enlist ($45,000 for 6 billable days for the guy that did Visa-level security for us last week -- 27 years old).

Bob is free, though.

Stephen Macdonald said...

I just read what I posted above.

It lacks -- fundamentaally -- humility. Humility is one of those Chirstian concepts which is almost universally misunderstood today. If it arises in thought at all, it is equated with self-abasement.


I have been psychically wounded in this life. In 1988 my beloved brother took his own life. I feel that One Cosmos is allowing me to reconnect with Christian Love. No, I'm not some smiling face at the airport.

I do believe however that Love is fundamental -- more real than 100 experiments that show neutrinos have no mass.

I am humble -- or at least I understand the concept. I am worth tens of millions of dollars in this world, but I am just a man in the eye of the Lord.

Stephen Macdonald said...

A bit of social observation:

Kelis (hip-hop, 2003) Milkshake

versus Martha Reeves and the Vandellas from roughly 1976.

It isn't just a matter of taste -- I can listen to Kanye West and other rappers who have some of the soul intact from their forebears.

It is a matter of gut feeling. Does music serve God, or not?

Someone made a remarkably effective observation here the other day: good music is automatically Christian

Only in the sense that music serves to convey Love we feel for life, which implys love for the Creator.

Stephen Macdonald said...

I'd lie to see Bob delve into the concept of Love -- Love of the created by the Creator, but also how we can heal and love our neighbors. I know that sounds corny. But guess what? I learned as much from my better half about love (she is an administator for a program that helps kids in the third world) as I've learned about rational structure here.

Love is reflected all around us. We can't just respond to trolls. We have to let the essays sing, which they most certainly do, from Bob.

Stephen Macdonald said...

BTW,

I'm in Toronto on July 7th for Van Morrison. I bought a block of tickets ($900 per seat -- ouch!) and have distributed them to my various friends and acquaintences who are moved by his music.

Listening to "By His Grace", followed by "Carrying a Torch" as I write this.

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