tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post6567773900016158085..comments2024-03-28T20:04:20.286-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: The Whole Point of this Living CosmosGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-28673217702909768772009-02-24T05:16:00.000-08:002009-02-24T05:16:00.000-08:00Thanks for the plug, John.(wall socket joke :-)Thanks for the plug, John.<BR/><BR/>(wall socket joke :-)Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-39484939827159332612009-02-24T00:27:00.000-08:002009-02-24T00:27:00.000-08:00I hated the introduction to the DeKoninck book. It...I hated the introduction to the DeKoninck book. It didn't bring out the mystical, ecstatic, foundation that lies under all CDK's work. <BR/><BR/>The first reading I had of CDK was overwhelming. I felt like the guy was a thousand miles over my head. And that was about "The Hollow Universe"! <BR/><BR/>I'd skip the intro of the big book and read p. 116- 118; 185-192; 270 on and off to 278; 292; 390-396 (ignore the latin terms- why didn't McInerny translate them?) pp424, etc. Those give you the major themes in CDK's work. Those are the sorts of passages where I thought you had the most natural affinity with CDK. <BR/><BR/>CDK set his whole life against mere jargon for the sake of jargon. His language is precise, but he only departs from common language when necessary. But he certainly isn't a fast read, even though I know of no one, not even Schoun, who is as good at propelling a careful reader towards ecstatic things. <BR/><BR/>James ChastekJames Chastekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02644201728110481871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-59148029221366643072009-02-23T23:07:00.000-08:002009-02-23T23:07:00.000-08:00Julie:I get exactly what you are trying to say. ...Julie:<BR/><BR/>I get exactly what you are trying to say. The prescence of O is around us and in us, and is in fact intensely personal. O knows you, hits you sometimes inside your mind, alters things in your environment, tweaks your circumstances, and not in any abstract way. Concretely and just for you...O is managing you on a daily basis. <BR/><BR/>Yet...and this is the problem...if you get hung up on trying to catch 0 in the act, and get too clever for your own good, your going to get delusional. You will see and feel things that aren't there.<BR/><BR/>It is an excruciating balancing act to remaain rational and yet detect the subtle fingers of 0 massaging your mind and synchronizing your happenstances. You have to allow a parcel of uncertainty to enter. Was it 0 or wasn't it? It is paradoxically best NOT to be 100% sure of when 0 has you in its palps.<BR/><BR/>Why? If a being gets too solid in 0, can spot 0, feel 0, gets 100% certainty, then the game of life is over. You are unfazable. Therefore, you will learn nothing new because you will fear nothing and you will make no mistakes.<BR/><BR/>YOU MUST MAKE MISTAKES IF YOU ARE TO PROGRESS.<BR/><BR/>You might as well not have come here...you could have stayed unmanifested. <BR/><BR/>Therefore enjoy the nebulous tappings of 0, never bringing him into too sharp a focus (at least in that particular way). Let the puppet master stay behing the veil to some extent, or you overween the play.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-21646684468678889832009-02-23T21:57:00.000-08:002009-02-23T21:57:00.000-08:00Bob, so whaqt happened?http://www.youtube.com/watc...Bob, so whaqt happened?<BR/><BR/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-5JvACzGp8Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-53045030015324750852009-02-23T21:43:00.000-08:002009-02-23T21:43:00.000-08:00Miracles. The biggest, of course, is our own exist...Miracles. The biggest, of course, is our own existence but we don't see it because we're inside it. And I might point out that the existence of the coonosphere is no small miracle either. In one of my earlier posts at the wfb I was musing about metaphsical transmission via the internet. But holy cow, if you want to get peoples' eyeballs rolling just try telling someone that Holy Spirit is currently using Verizon, or Charter Cable as a vector of transmission. And yet look at what is happening in our dens each day that we sign on and trade notes across the DSL connection. Consider that whatever Bob communicates from The Attractor has struck like a thunderbolt in some of the centers, and acted like a polar magnet in all of the individual centers of this small and far flung collection of people. I stuck my finger in the wall outlet of Ricky Raccoon's story, The War, and it knocked me flat on my ass. And there is other stuff going on that is not so easy to write off as accident, or happenstance, or random meaningless collisions. But I think it takes a far greater leap of faith to try to believe that there is no pattern here, and no purpose underlying the pattern than it does to acknowledge what we all know:<I> Somethin' is happenin here and you know just what it is- don't you, Mr Jones?</I><BR/><BR/>JWMJWMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05564732483476859555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-47208880571467032462009-02-23T20:35:00.000-08:002009-02-23T20:35:00.000-08:00lol, I meant *snork,* but a snor will suffice when...lol, I meant *snork,* but a snor will suffice when he's talking, anyway.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-23155874400795722362009-02-23T20:33:00.000-08:002009-02-23T20:33:00.000-08:00Weird cravings? Nope, not that I can think of. Asi...Weird cravings? Nope, not that I can think of. Aside from reading preferences, anyway :) It'll be a few months yet before I have any other reason to have weird cravings.<BR/><BR/>On a different note, *<A HREF="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/apeyser/2009/02/23/slumdog-maher-celebutard-of-the-week-x2/#more-64462" REL="nofollow">snor</A>*juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-40825068549823412152009-02-23T20:24:00.001-08:002009-02-23T20:24:00.001-08:00Do you have any weird cravings?My wife had to have...Do you have any weird cravings?<BR/>My wife had to have oranges. Lots of oranges..<BR/>Oh..and Del’s Lemonade. That’s a Rhode Island thing…so like…double weird.<BR/>:-)Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-32319116516118104152009-02-23T20:24:00.000-08:002009-02-23T20:24:00.000-08:00Ricky - I am inclined to think it's a failure of t...Ricky - <BR/><BR/>I am inclined to think it's a failure of the eye.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-9658891020772024182009-02-23T20:13:00.000-08:002009-02-23T20:13:00.000-08:00I don't think we disagree, Ricky; I'm just ponderi...I don't think we disagree, Ricky; I'm just pondering my ability both to hear the whispers and to believe my lyin' ears ;)juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-21935281656522558042009-02-23T20:09:00.000-08:002009-02-23T20:09:00.000-08:00Julie, Mushroom,RE miracles, does God need to shou...Julie, Mushroom,<BR/>RE miracles, does God need to shout anymore? Or will only the subtle forms suffice. I wonder if humanity receives the same proportional impact from miracles today as they ever did. Certainly people didn’t listen well at all back then. Has that changed? Can we help but look at the miracles in the Old Testament or New Testament with today’s eyes. Should we? My point is, did a more hardened heart in an ancient time require a greater blow to upset it? And today we are so easily moved by so many subtle things that God may feel inclined to only whisper.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-154572004696424852009-02-23T19:22:00.000-08:002009-02-23T19:22:00.000-08:00Mushroom,"I may be cheating but I consider our adv...Mushroom,<BR/>"I may be cheating but I consider our advanced technology part of the miracle and a sign of the kingdom."<BR/><BR/>Actually, I agree with you in that regard. What I have in mind is more about the kind of things that people experience when they're on The Way; not so much the syncoonistic (for instance, last night I really was trying to come up with my point, but too tired to even comprehend what I was quoting much less what <I>I</I> meant. Then finally I shrugged, thought "he's going to touch on this tomorrow anyway, it can wait," and deleted the comment. Just another pink fairy), but rather physical symptoms, so to speak, that can easily be passed off as something completely mundane if slightly odd.<BR/><BR/>And what I'm mulling over has to do also with Walt's post today (and yours, too), about awareness and finding holiness in the ordinary workings of everyday life. Nothing that I'm thinking about is new or revolutionary, it's more along the lines of <I>real</I>izing these things as opposed to intellectualizing about them. Doing/ being as opposed to simple knowledge. <BR/><BR/>We all know by now the saying about how God is closer to us than our own skin (didn't it come up in the coonversation somewhere recently?).<BR/><BR/>But how many of us <I>really</I> know it?<BR/><BR/><I>I want to know</I>. Maybe that's the gist of my point; with everything that's been discovered about human biology and neurology, it's damnably difficult to know if what you experience is Real or just chemistry. The rub is, if it's Real there's no reason it can't be both. <BR/><BR/>A hundred years ago, someone experiencing euphoria during meditation would have probably considered it a religious experience without much question. These days, someone experiencing the same thing might question every aspect of it (what caused that? Hunger? Medications? Exhaustion? Oxygen deprivation? Might not be Real, then...). I do. I have an explanation for everything, when it comes to the physical. <BR/><BR/>So as I said before, I wonder what I'm missing.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-56586545541773218512009-02-23T18:38:00.000-08:002009-02-23T18:38:00.000-08:00I have to relate this to you, Bob.Whatever I am, I...I have to relate this to you, Bob.<BR/><BR/>Whatever I am, I'm not totally nuts. I woke up in Frankfurt, snd sure enough there was a Bible. I cracked it, Timothy 1. The amazing thing is that I was just in Ephesus (Turkey). <BR/><BR/>I am not making this up, man.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-88497090320043926362009-02-23T18:03:00.000-08:002009-02-23T18:03:00.000-08:00I've heard that put forth before, Julie, that our ...I've heard that put forth before, Julie, that our advanced technology precludes the necessity of miracles. I may be cheating but I consider our advanced technology part of the miracle and a sign of the kingdom. <BR/><BR/>As someone has said, maybe you, the modern materialist/liberal zombie is not really aware of how much they owe Western Civilization, the culture and Christianity. They can get away with some of their crap precisely because the old culture "made the world safe" for lightweights like Dawkins and Obama. <BR/><BR/>The same is true of technology. Science does not recognize how much it owes Christianity in terms of building on the foundations of the kingdom. <BR/><BR/>But I also believe, as you're saying, miracles occur, and we give them a naturalistic explanation or pass them off as coincidence, and go on.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-14038079170609500522009-02-23T17:11:00.000-08:002009-02-23T17:11:00.000-08:00Woke up in a five-star hotel instead of a Euro-jai...Woke up in a five-star hotel instead of a Euro-jail for a change.<BR/><BR/>Dupree should be envious.bAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-87663563211039782512009-02-23T16:24:00.000-08:002009-02-23T16:24:00.000-08:00For your listening enjoyment. I am looking very m...For your listening enjoyment. I am looking very much toward Pascha this year.<BR/><BR/>http://andreaelizabeth.vox.com/library/audio/6a00c22524135a549d00d4142d135c685e.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-53566130889267231642009-02-23T16:07:00.000-08:002009-02-23T16:07:00.000-08:00I’ll tell you Julie, the cells on the bottoms of m...I’ll tell you Julie, the cells on the bottoms of my feet may have more faith than I do. I mean, they’ve done nothing but listen to me the past 40 something years. When I think of all those stubbed toes…why don’t they just say, “seeya-laytuh-bye” Honestly, what’s in it for them. Shouldn’t they just stay on the ground when the rest of me says ‘go’?<BR/><BR/>It may be that the external “size” of miracles can’t change but at an inversed proportion to scientific knowledge. In that sense, it never changes by this permanent “fixture”.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-12330727209797364272009-02-23T15:08:00.000-08:002009-02-23T15:08:00.000-08:00(Sorry if I start to flog here; I feel like I'm da...(Sorry if I start to flog here; I feel like I'm dancing around the edge of a realization, one that may take a few days to properly knock me on my ass, assuming I can hold on to it long enough. I think there's an elephant in here somewhere - I keep tripping over bits of trunk, ear and tail, but am not yet sure which end is which and how all the parts go together. Or maybe they don't. This could all just be going nowhere, or maybe it's just so painfully obvious that it's not worth anyone talking about, but that doesn't usually stop me...<BR/><BR/>Also, I started this comment a couple hours ago, but couldn't quite see my point. Now it seems more relevant to the conversation, though; maybe someone else can see where I'm going. I still don't know what my point is...)<BR/><BR/><I>...the answer is the disease that kills curiosity.<BR/><BR/>The fundamental problem with scientism is that it takes its abstractions as more real than the reality they describe...</I><BR/><BR/>Miracles (on a big scale) just don't happen anymore. Or rather, they do, <I>all the time</I> and everywhere if you're paying attention, but even when we're getting eyes to see it, I wonder how often <I>we don't see it</I>, because "there's a simple and obvious explanation for that." Or even if it's neither simple or obvious, we (if this doesn't apply to you, just pretend I'm using the "Royal" We) <I>assume</I> there's a mechanistic explanation. We trust in concrete explanations so much we listen to "experts" who will often shrug their shoulders and admit they don't really know, but we should take their advice (or treatment, as the case may be) anyway. And we do. And we assume, experts and laymen alike, that even though we don't know why, the explanation can be revealed by science, and probably will, sooner or later. (I'm not knocking this process, by the way, being a firm believer in better living through chemistry/ modern medicine/ modern technology.) But in thinking this way, we leave no <I>physical</I> room for the Presence of O.<BR/><BR/>I'm not suggesting, by any stretch, that man would be well-served by returning to the dark ages of ignorance, where blood-letting was good medicine and illness was caused by bathing more than once a year. What I'm tiptoeing round, maybe, is that syncoonicities aside my default setting for <I>anything</I> that happens to or within my physical corpus is to assume it is solely material phenomena. But of course it can't be, or I wouldn't be typing this.<BR/><BR/>*sigh*<BR/>Maybe by the end of the week I'll know what I'm talking about, but I suspect it meanders back to theosis. Some days, I feel like a total crackpot.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-21040490506227619342009-02-23T14:42:00.000-08:002009-02-23T14:42:00.000-08:00Will,I agree, RE “the matter of a religious pursui...Will,<BR/>I agree, RE “the matter of a religious pursuit reducing itself to a kind of scientism that bleaches the life out that which it attempts to convey.”<BR/>I wonder the same thing reading, Arnot's:<BR/><A HREF="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21328/21328-h/21328-h.htm" REL="nofollow">Parables of Our Lord</A><BR/>I believe the bleaching is possible, but also not inevitable. The “results” of this Arnot book, the “written report” so to speak, as I’ve mentioned to Bob, is beautifully written, strikingly so at times. In other words, if you can tell the writer is profoundly moved to write the way he does, as if he can’t help it, recognizing that he doesn’t have to, then it must be work well done. If that beauty were lacking, the Raccoon couldn’t not notice this critical missing ingredient. That’s today’s assessment, anyway. I should also add within the same assessment, that I believe “the material” (in this case a full body of Scripture – say such as the NT) should “hold up” to this, if not any, kind of examination. If scripture can speak to the “full spectrum” of human development, as Bob implies, should it not also speak to the needs of the scientifically-inclined. In other words, if scripture seems to fail on a logical level, is it really a failure of the scripture to speak in this way, or a failure of the eye that searches it?Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-14236293904595125812009-02-23T14:36:00.000-08:002009-02-23T14:36:00.000-08:00As Will alludes, there may be a larger schemata wh...As Will alludes, there may be a larger schemata wherein seemingly perverse movements like scientism or unlovely beings like Bill Maher serve useful purposes.<BR/><BR/>When looking at things one can go "deep," get quiet, and ask "Now why would this be here doing that?" The attitude to develop is a trust that outcomes are under some sort of Divine supervision. If that attitude becomes set then the perverseness of the world doesn't cause so much alarm.<BR/><BR/>This attitude doesn't negate one's mission here or even impact it. Just ask yourself the same question: "Why would I be here doing this?" Keep your eyes on the ball--that is, the one pitched to you and not someone else.<BR/><BR/>"Problems" or bad things are where the action is, so that's where to focus. The bad is needed for progress to the good. <BR/><BR/>And, if you look at the world carefully you will note that abrogations of "ordinary" reality are popping all around you; most actions occur in your mind like when you visualize something that later happens, find something by a hunch, pick out the precise book you need at the precise moment you need it, etc. Divine supervision. Everyone without exception can testify to these experiences. They are the nudging fingertips of the Master Himself reaching out to rock your world.<BR/><BR/>Even material happenstance occasionally gets tweaked; these are rarer occurences. I've observed only one that seemed irrefutable. Divine material supervision in detail is going on too, occurring on a rare occasional basis.<BR/><BR/>So, this being the case, what can one say about our world now? It is where the action is; we are here to "throw down." Scary, but there is a referee, never fear. So, Play Ball!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-78880251766228006892009-02-23T14:35:00.000-08:002009-02-23T14:35:00.000-08:00As a matter of fact DeKoninck was quite the mariol...As a matter of fact DeKoninck was quite the mariologist -- as was Schuon, for that mater -- showing that sometimes even intellectually gifted people are capable of transcending their handicap.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-11021161968157505502009-02-23T14:26:00.000-08:002009-02-23T14:26:00.000-08:00"Religion is at a profound disadvantage here, beca..."Religion is at a profound disadvantage here, because it is not primarily about intellectual debate, but about saving souls."<BR/><BR/>I've been surprised lately to find myself drawn to the Blessed Mother, who I used to regard during my (rather long) stupid phase as just another Catholic embarrassment, along with saints and miracles. Mary is the Silent One of the Scriptures, with little to say to the wise men and smart asses of any time. She has lots to say to simple people, like Mexico's Juan Diego, and children, such as at Fatima.<BR/><BR/>Either you accept Marian apparitions as true, or you do not; for those who do, Mary has appeared many times, and has an obvious preference for the poor, the oppressed, the afflicted. <BR/><BR/>Mary thought it appropriate to send a poor Amerindian peasant to the bishop of Mexico to tell him that Mary wanted a chapel erected on a nearby hillside; the bishop did not think it appropriate and wanted proof, which Mary graciously provided. Over 450 years later the Image of the Mother of God hangs in a church in Mexico City, imprinted by unknown means onto a crude cloth made of cactus fibers and seemingly impervious to time or aging.<BR/><BR/>We live in an age which sees miracles as only fit for the simple-minded, which in a way is true. If only we can achieve the simplicity of a Juan Diego and free outselves from the word-bound world of lost souls like Bill Maher.<BR/><BR/>I enjoy reading worthwhile books, but more and more I find myself looking at images, the ultimate icons of the Shroud of Turin and the Virgin of Guadalupe, and finding something essential there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-39877698056297798042009-02-23T13:31:00.000-08:002009-02-23T13:31:00.000-08:00Now, it would be easy enough to form a religion on...<I>Now, it would be easy enough to form a religion only for people capable of understanding DeKoninck, or Schuon, or Balthasar -- or more precisely, to present it only in their highly sophisticated terms. But for starters, that would be a grave disservice to the billions of people for whom the realm of pure metaphysics is more or less of a closed book. Besides, anyone who wants to pursue a religion to it metaphysical summit is free to do so.</I><BR/><BR/>Christianity is the lazy man's way to salvation. Almost anyone (except the tenured) is able to grasp and convey the essential elements of the Gospel. <A HREF="http://bobagard.blogspot.com/2009/02/bible-teachings-childrens-edition.html" REL="nofollow">Come as a little child</A>, Jesus says. If I had to be an intelluctual or a spiritual superman, I wouldn't make it. I'd have more luck trying to make the cut for the SEALs at my age.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-38411594882378039562009-02-23T10:18:00.000-08:002009-02-23T10:18:00.000-08:00That Bill Maher is one nauseating guy.One good tak...That Bill Maher is one nauseating guy.<BR/><BR/>One good take-away commentary on our culture from the AA last night -><BR/><BR/>Film clip from "Happy-Go-Lucky".<BR/><BR/>Girl enters bookstore.<BR/><BR/>Looks around; picks out a book entitled "The Road to Reality".<BR/><BR/>(Pauses)<BR/><BR/>Returns book to shelf thinking "Don't want to go there".QPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15827536245376441948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-10468389198707000042009-02-23T10:11:00.000-08:002009-02-23T10:11:00.000-08:00While hoping that I'm not pasting too much of a sm...While hoping that I'm not pasting too much of a smiley face on the issue, I sometimes wonder if the march of scientism vis a vis religion doesn't serve a divine purpose in the long run - ie., they provide enough skepticism as to keep a lid on the religious passions that can lead to mindless cultism. I'm remembering the 70's w/ the Moonies, the Process Church, Jim Jones, and a host of other feverish religious pursuits. I admit that this is taking the really long view.<BR/><BR/>Then there is the matter of a religious pursuit reducing itself to a kind of scientism that bleaches the life out that which it attempts to convey. I'm thinking Ken Wilbur and his color-coded rankings of consciousness, but it could also be said of folks like Gurdjieff and his teachings wherein mystical realization is reduced to a kind of clinical exercise.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com