tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post114209412067390903..comments2024-03-28T12:10:26.197-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Watch, Pray, and Don't Mention My Book to the Rank and FoulGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142289056433056252006-03-13T14:30:00.000-08:002006-03-13T14:30:00.000-08:00Bob:Issues with your definition of atheism as 'tho...Bob:<BR/><BR/>Issues with your definition of atheism as 'those who do not or cannot know.'<BR/><BR/>Atheists in my experience DO know. What they know, however, is 180 degrees away from our point of view. To say they do not know God exists is incorrect, because inaccurate. Would be more correct to say they "know" that He does NOT exist.<BR/><BR/>Offer here a paraphrase of Penn Jillette's formation: "I will not say that I do not believe there is a God. I will say that I believe there is no God."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142134952158292792006-03-11T19:42:00.000-08:002006-03-11T19:42:00.000-08:00Bob,With your permission.I went for a walk today a...Bob,<BR/><BR/>With your permission.<BR/><BR/>I went for a walk today after reading your piece. It was a beautiful, though somewhat warm, late winter day. There was a mountain laurel on the path. I can't fathom why it is called that for there are no mountains within a thousand miles of here. But this laurel was in full bloom and literally humming with life. There were thirty or fourty butterflies of several varieties, honey bees, bumble bees, and a delectably tiny, no larger than the end of my little finger, hummingbird. It was black with a yellow band across it's abdomen. All were feasting on the deliciously smelling nectar of the divinely blue flowers of this plant. Bye the bye, in times past I have had the distinct pleasure of having hummingbirds fly up to my face and hover there. Also, last year, a bird landed on my head. It was a finch of some sort. Astonishing! I need to move more frequently, you think?<BR/><BR/>Anyhow I gave the creatures and the plant plenty of room as I passed, and pondered bringing out my camera for some close up photos. Maybe later.<BR/><BR/>A quick aside speaking of close encounters. You have heard perhaps of Ram Bomjon the 15 year old "new" Buddha. He has been bitten by two snakes as he sat under his pipal tree in Nepal (reportedly for 10 months sans food). If I was meditating and a snake crawled on me....Well, that's it, I'm sorry. End of quest. I CAN take a hint.<BR/><BR/>Back to my walk. A stiff wind was blowing out of the southwest with gusts of maybe 20 miles per hour so it was not without effort that I trudged up the hill towards the front of the property. Keeping an eye out for rattlers, allusion to environs of Bro. Bartleby, I nonetheless ran over in my mind the recent encounters with the dialougues, or should I say coliloquies or even "blogiloquies", of Gagdad Bob. The idea of the horizontal versus the vertical regions continue to pull at my mind among many other points touched on in the stream of consciousness approach of Bob and readers to the pursuit of answers to age old questions aimed at finding meaning or salvation.<BR/><BR/>I had been reading Plato's Republic besides Bob's Blog. Socrates is there expounding to Glacon, "the owl eyed one", and comes to relate the parable of the cave in which we see man chained to a perspective in which he can only observe the shadows of experience with the unaccessible light source coming from behind through the mouth of the cave. Were the chains to be broken one could turn and go towards the light, "vertically" ascending from the horizontal bondage of mundane experience. <BR/><BR/>OK, get to the point! Well, simple. The parable of the cave is "fractaled" into christian salvation, into Buddha's enlightenment, into Bob's horizontal versus vertical juxtaposition of consciousness.<BR/><BR/>My heart swells with joy as I ponder that the touchstone of truth can be rubbed so many times over so many millenia and yet there it is shining forth in all the glory of a beauty which should mortal man have the great fortune to be brought suddenly and without proper spiritual preparation face to face with the underlying diety thereof he would surely die for mortal man cannot look directly on the face of God for that beauty reflected in the frost white felicity of a simple rose is of such a terrible, terrible magnitude that to look on it one would surely, surely die. So, in a sense, to wish to see God is to wish for annihilation. Better to love him through worship and wait for the day that he bestows on you an eye capable of beholding his glory.<BR/><BR/>The focusing of the mind is the sine qua non in godwardness endeavor. A mantra, a ritual prayer, the bringing to the mind again and again a certain sound; likewise a yantra, the bringing to the mind again and again a certain image. These are some tools with which one can cultivate "watchfulness" and suppress the modifications of the mind. In the ensuing stillness....well, discovery is the action of the unknown, as everybody knows.<BR/><BR/>Respectfully,<BR/><BR/>John HindsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142134910629610292006-03-11T19:41:00.000-08:002006-03-11T19:41:00.000-08:00Did you guys see this?A DePaul University graduate...Did you guys see this?<BR/><BR/>A DePaul University graduate student sold his soul to the highest bidder on eBay. Hemant Mehta calls himself an atheist. <BR/><BR/>He posted an unusual item on eBay: a chance to save his soul for a price. <BR/><BR/>The winning bid was $504. <BR/><BR/>The man who bought Mehta's soul has invited him to attend 10 to 15 different church services and then write about it. <BR/><BR/>So far, Mehta has concluded that church is "not such a bad place to be." <BR/><BR/>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11767733/LiquidLifeHackerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01949269503629475002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142130704811039492006-03-11T18:31:00.000-08:002006-03-11T18:31:00.000-08:00I found your blog through one of the usual suspect...I found your blog through one of the usual suspects (either Shrinkwrapped or Dr Sanity, can't remember which) and liked your take on things political. Having not really given the spiritual world more than a glancing thought thus far in my life (I'm an engineers kid), I was surprised to find myself returning to your site more and more often seeking what I find to be your unique insights into the "vertical" world as you so interestingly put it. I read your book and was left with the feeling that maybe I've been missing something in plain sight. My spiritual gears are pretty rusty but your ideas and the way you present them make me want to apply a little cosmic grease. Maybe.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142130248901013832006-03-11T18:24:00.000-08:002006-03-11T18:24:00.000-08:00A little off topic, but since politics got mention...A little off topic, but since politics got mentioned, I'd be interested someday to hear your thoughts on the proper place of politics in the life of a spiritual seeker. I studied with a Hindu Tantric guru for a while who advised us, "Ignore the world, and practice Sadhana," which at the time seemed to me good advice, but he frequently offered his opinion about current events, so he wasn't following his own advice, which didn't motivate us to follow his advice on that point, either.<BR/><BR/>Still, though, it often seems like good advice, because I find a tendency in myself that when I pay too much attention to politics, it tends to stir up a lot of feelings of anger or anxiety or vindictiveness, which spiritual practice tends to reduce. So I was wondering what you thought about that.<BR/><BR/>Off topic, but just thought I'd ask.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142119671538559822006-03-11T15:27:00.000-08:002006-03-11T15:27:00.000-08:00Dear Robert, You're not listening to some of thos...Dear Robert,<BR/> You're not listening to some of those calling upon you and needing you.<BR/><BR/> When you and Petey apply your esteemed POV to matters or events "political", the very originality of your work, the meshing of the "spiratual" into the "political" allows we fans to present links to those essays on sites far and wide.<BR/><BR/> If 30 have looked in due to the "Liberal Ghost Dancers" or 50 for "THE PATHETIC LAST CHILDREN OF NIETZCHE'S PITIABLE MAN" and<BR/>only 1 stays with you and begins a true spiritual journey, you have accomplished much.<BR/><BR/> Please do not throw us aside so easily. I appreciate knowing why I know that certain issues in the political arena are tied to my "spiritual knowing" even tho I would be considered a "fallen away Catholic". <BR/><BR/>In the lyrics of Tim Rice copyrighted in 1969:<BR/><BR/><B>"<EM>If you'd come today you would have reached a whole nation<BR/><BR/>Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication</B>"</EM><BR/><BR/>Robert, you have the Internet, give us a few bones to throw out there a few times a months. <BR/><BR/>Bet Petey will agree with me!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142116715586292762006-03-11T14:38:00.000-08:002006-03-11T14:38:00.000-08:00Bob, I,for one, hope you don't stop writng occasio...Bob, I,for one, hope you don't stop writng occasionally about politics. You don't need me to tell you that you will continue to do so,if and when the Spirit moves you. In any event, I suspect there's people out there, some, feel a spiritual call and who, for the time being, can only relate to it in terms of politics. That is, they have s spiritual inclination, they just don't know it as yet. Same with many who are attracted to various forms of art - they may also hear the spiritual call and don't know how to relate it to anything but art. Of course, there are those who are attracted to art only because of the aesthetics, the sensuality of it all; and there are those who dote on politics simply because of the mind-play - which is also a form of sensuality. For those who flee at the first breath of the esoteric, ah well, you know, shake the dust off, right?`Anyway, Dr Sanity likes it when you post political.<BR/><BR/>Me, I see everything in meta-terms. Everything dovetails, down to the fine print. For example: Ever notice how much`Iran's Ahmadinejad actually looks like a demon? Have to factor everything in here, you know.<BR/><BR/>thnx```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142111930328763642006-03-11T13:18:00.000-08:002006-03-11T13:18:00.000-08:00Do not despair of the conventionally religious, th...Do not despair of the conventionally religious, they too have their place. Many is the time, while I was in the religion business, that I was brought up short by being forcibly reminded of the value of each of these souls. It never fails that as I bemoan the state of the world it is made clear to me that there is more going on than I know of. And just occasionally some word forks lightning for an unwary hearer, and for that individual all is changed. Not everyone will gyre in the heights, very often it is a victory when a face is raised from the dust.Tamquam Leo Rugienshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16787355506097686659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142111102672675732006-03-11T13:05:00.000-08:002006-03-11T13:05:00.000-08:00Well Mr Bob, I purchased your book yesterday, (I p...Well Mr Bob, I purchased your book yesterday, (I paid the full price because Petey wants his cut)and I do want to add, that when the book was tossed onto the counter while the purchase was ka-chinging, I smiled over at the bookcover. The way the light was bouncing off it made the gold have a twinkled shimmer to it and at first glance I thought (without touching it) that it seemed to have a transparent layer added to the cover; an overlay with the actual type... so I thought, "Wow...Nicer than the visual via the net" Then when I picked the book up and I really liked the quality of paper that you chose for the cover itself and that's when I realised that it was the "light" that had tricked my eye concerning the type and it wasn't an added transparency. I was impressed with the look and feel. I am glad that you didn't go with the spiral edged binding concept, as it would have been annoying to the hands when holding to read it, because, although I haven't read the book yet, I did lay back and thumb through it all to get a "feel" for what is to come from the inside. I was being all superficial soaking in the outside first! (Ha Ha)<BR/>In my hands, it had that "manual" feeling. I was actually thinking how cool it would have been had you attached a dvd/cd inside the book so that the reader could "load up" the "software" <BR/>(Ha Ha) Oh well...maybe the next book huh?<BR/><BR/>As for the "Don't mention my book" <BR/>From someone that can't actually give a review of it as of yet, but has had the advantage of reading your words here via your blog...<BR/>Once people become familiar with Finnegan's Wake, they will truly "get it" and start to understand what dock you leaped off and how you are sharing your "roundtrip" discoveries with all of us! Remember...waking up from a deep sleep can put one initially into a "groggy state" but pretty soon we all become more alert and attentive with the motivation of hunger!LiquidLifeHackerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01949269503629475002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142109286406818872006-03-11T12:34:00.000-08:002006-03-11T12:34:00.000-08:00The lady who calls herself "finding fair hope" sen...The lady who calls herself "finding fair hope" sent me your way. I'm that mendacious mouse fellow. She says we are a lot alike. Perhaps. I'm a Spinozist and am convinced -- more or less not at all -- that everything makes sense at some level. We're make more sense of objects that obey physical laws, but since "without God nothing can be or be conceived," the spiritual world must also make just as much sense. The apparatus we have for processing the signals sent by physical objects work so well at doing what they do, we're lured into believing that the inner world of intuition is of only secondary importance. But as my main man says, "the order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things," so if there's an order in "things" there must also be an order in ideas.<BR/><BR/>But nowhere and no way do the same sorts of relationships that exist among things apply verbatim to the relationships among ideas. There is no Rosetta Stone containing ideas and their physical counterparts. The world of associations and inferences cannot be translated from even a complete knowledge of the connections and causal relationships among dendrites and axons. Your adventures in the esoteric must certainly relate to some "thing" about you and your experiences, but because we are all parts of what passes for an infinite One, we participate with and behave as its integral parts. So-called religious experiences happen to people everywhere, even thos atheists you spoke of. Those experineces may not reveal the details of the the infinite, but at least, when wee return from "over the rainbow," we'll no longer doubt that there is a meaningful difference between the objects of sense and the objects of deep knowing.<BR/><BR/>Keep up the struggle. But please, don't it out that it's the ultimate high. There just may not be enough to go around.Benedict S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/18319073770437347659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142109162048004372006-03-11T12:32:00.000-08:002006-03-11T12:32:00.000-08:00You don't know about Petey? Around these parts he'...You don't know about Petey? Around these parts he's a household gnome.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142107930329937592006-03-11T12:12:00.000-08:002006-03-11T12:12:00.000-08:00Good afty, Bob - Hey, re your vortex/torus matter,...Good afty, Bob - <BR/><BR/>Hey, re your vortex/torus matter, certainly you are original,just as Yeats was being original when he intuited the same thing. You discern a certain Universal Truth (the Oneness) and you then describe it in your own terms, with your own individual colorings(the Multiplicity). That's the astonishing beauty of it all. Each part of the crystal reflects/refracts the One Light in its own way. <BR/><BR/>And speaking of synchronitiy - even as I picked up on your blog as you began your discourse on evil - and even as your blog is now experiencing an apparent influx of like-minded readers/pilgrims (dare I say that we all feel a bit of the quickening in the wind in the past week or so?) - I had my own little illuminating encounter with evil. An acquiantance of mine, a woman who is obviously very psychologically disturbed, revealed herself to be chillingly, cold-bloodedly,self-obsessed. No suprise there but I think there is always a tendency - in my case anyway - to lead with the heart, to try and help, to hope, if not expect, that such a person will see their way to grasp at a helping hand before they go under. With this, I suppose, comes the notion that perhaps the person really is a victim of circumstance, that perhaps some long-ago trauma or some present-day hyper-sensitivity has indeed "victimized" the person. In any event, what was revealed to me was that which I already really knew, of course - that the ultimate source of this person's problems, that which presented itself in such a jarring array of pitiable behaviors, was ego,utter self-love. I'm talking Black Hole here. Gravitational field deluxe, no light escapes. Done deal, signed, sealed, delivered. This is the kind of person many of the American Indian tribes would have, without too much contemplation, exiled.<BR/><BR/>No biggie here, pretty obvious stuff. But for me, it was thrillingly liberating. Sometimes we need the obvious staged right in front of us in full theatrical colors. Time to shake off the dust and move on. Let the dead bury their dead.<BR/><BR/>BTW, who is "Petey" Is he anything like "Lopez"?<BR/><BR/>thnxAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142107576224744492006-03-11T12:06:00.000-08:002006-03-11T12:06:00.000-08:00An obvious case of sockronicity.An obvious case of sockronicity.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142106998042237072006-03-11T11:56:00.000-08:002006-03-11T11:56:00.000-08:00Bro. Bob,I am now putting my socks back on, for yo...Bro. Bob,<BR/><BR/>I am now putting my socks back on, for you knocked them off! Many years ago my son, then a university student, went to some sort of event that included John Cage seated outside behind a card table signing books. My son, with book in hand, got in line, and upon arriving at the front, Mr. Cage asked to whom he should sign the book for. My son threw a curve (if it is possible to throw a curve to John Cage) and simply asked, "Could you write your favorite word?" Whereupon Mr. Cage turned to a friend seated nearby and a quick exchange of words were made, then Mr. Cage quickly turned his attention to the book and printed the following: <BR/>HACLEP<BR/>With that he smiled and returned the book and my puzzled son thanked him. It was only later that I was able to decipher the enigma for my son.Bro. Bartlebyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15980379263844521557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142105719677231932006-03-11T11:35:00.000-08:002006-03-11T11:35:00.000-08:00I'm going to link to your blog from mine. I just s...I'm going to link to your blog from mine. I just stumbled on it. I'm not even sure how I got here.<BR/><BR/>I'm like you in one clear way: I'm a seeker, wanting to solve this big riddle. Unlike you, it seems, in that I haven't picked a clear path yet, and I don't know if I want or need to. For the moment, I am content to keep exploring. <BR/><BR/>As Homer simpson said, "Facts schmacts. You can prove anything you want with facts." I'm not sold on the idea that one consistent theory is necessary. I get the whole science approach and it's nice to have a beautiful theory, but I wonder if a messy hypothesis without neat equations might not be more accurate. Maybe we just can't ever totally get it. But it is nice to find such theories and such thinkers to contemplate.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142102286065814852006-03-11T10:38:00.000-08:002006-03-11T10:38:00.000-08:00Bob,Thanks for having this blog as a place to come...Bob,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for having this blog as a place to come daily to take focus off the world and a as reminder of what's truly important.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1142101646672042492006-03-11T10:27:00.000-08:002006-03-11T10:27:00.000-08:00Yes - didn't mean to suggest that these states too...Yes - didn't mean to suggest that these states took place only one at a time. They're all happening at once, but one state is usually more to the fore than the others. That's what I meant to say.<BR/><BR/>I consider myself conventionally religious. I run whatever is posted here thru my theology filter and either discard it or use it as a starter point for further thought. More often than you might think, I go "Oh,yes. He's talking about _____, but he's describing it as _______." <BR/><BR/>So, don't sell your appeal short.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com