tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post8185151963829222961..comments2024-03-28T12:10:26.197-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Sea Slugs, Crushed Ants, Talking Dogs, and the Big Teamster in the SkyGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-8206509803606678272007-07-13T08:40:00.000-07:002007-07-13T08:40:00.000-07:00"As I said, I was influenced by Wilber's adage tha..."As I said, I was influenced by Wilber's adage that one had to pick a particular path and stick with it."<BR/><BR/><BR/>given the onslaught of the professionalization of anthropology,<BR/>(Joseph Campbell,anyone??)and its<BR/>"leveling of religious practice" and behaviors,the first comment i heard circulated that reflects<BR/>Wilber's comment is:<BR/>___________________________<BR/><BR/>"One cannot *practice* <BR/>a 'comparative religion'."<BR/>___________________________<BR/><BR/>ie..."studying religions" and "practicing *a* religion"<BR/>are not the same activity at all.gumshoehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10567181585153569751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-26358982638535204832007-07-13T06:04:00.000-07:002007-07-13T06:04:00.000-07:00"However, one can never achieve the formless in th..."However, one can never achieve the formless in the absence of a form, any more than one could sail the ocean without a vessel or compose transcendent music in the absence of immanent notes."<BR/><BR/>Very true. A less poetic but rather related example is languages. I use a couple of them on a daily basis, but my recent attempts to learn a little Japanese really drives home how foreign a foreign language can be. It is not just the sounds, either. There are things that can simply not be translated from one to another, you have to think the thought over from the start of the paragraph, if not from the start of the book.<BR/><BR/>Each language is internally complete: An English-speaker does not feel a deficit because he lacks some of the structures in Japanese, or the other way around. You can think deeply and describe your world well in any language. And yet you could let loose two professional translators on the same text and get amazingly different translations.<BR/><BR/>The "formless" thought is given "form" in the language, and the listener (and usually the speaker too) is unaware that there is a difference.Magnus Itlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18445902788427523461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-64542494056689025492007-07-13T00:03:00.000-07:002007-07-13T00:03:00.000-07:00Nomo-I would say yes, in a sense. At least Juan Va...Nomo-<BR/>I would say yes, in a sense. <BR/>At least Juan Valdez, anyway.USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-52028864529051945462007-07-12T21:27:00.000-07:002007-07-12T21:27:00.000-07:00Misgivings about Mormonism? Me?But seriously, som...Misgivings about Mormonism? Me?<BR/><BR/>But seriously, something tragic happened today that, for some reason, forces me to ask the question, "Does God need us?"NoMohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01100042056270224683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-25679132104225384802007-07-12T20:31:00.000-07:002007-07-12T20:31:00.000-07:00anonymous--There's a liberal meme out there to the...anonymous--<BR/><BR/>There's a liberal meme out there to the effect that traditional Christians who have misgivings about Mormonism are religious bigots.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-28886452630679339972007-07-12T20:01:00.000-07:002007-07-12T20:01:00.000-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Joan of Argghh!https://www.blogger.com/profile/14729682908266300507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-28194951368871435512007-07-12T19:52:00.000-07:002007-07-12T19:52:00.000-07:00Walt-Hope and pray you feel better soon.Walt-<BR/>Hope and pray you feel better soon.USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-38327464726886951832007-07-12T19:51:00.000-07:002007-07-12T19:51:00.000-07:00"Anyway. What is a thoroughly ironicized, postmode..."Anyway. What is a thoroughly ironicized, postmodern, space age-au-go-go guy to do with a strong religious impulse and no clear way to channel it? All blessed up with nograce to gno?"<BR/><BR/>What you've been doin': aligning your self with Truth and wherever Truth leads.<BR/><BR/>We gno God is Absolute and we aren't, which is how the truthpaste got all over the bathroom sink to begin with.<BR/><BR/>So instead of trying to put it back, which, let's face it, isn't going to happen, we should follow the Manufacturer of the truthpaste. <BR/><BR/>A smorgasborg of Truth certainly isn't the same as New Age take whatever you want, because most times, people don't want the Truth.<BR/>It doesn't always taste good or feel good.<BR/><BR/>Not because it isn't good, but because we are used to non-nutritious junk science and junk religion.<BR/><BR/>But after awhile of eating Truth, it starts to taste better and makes us grow.<BR/><BR/>The Absolute actually grows within us if we continue to follow it, and the paradox becomes less and less important, or should I say less of a sticking point?<BR/><BR/>Like an inverted pyramid? Out through the in door?<BR/><BR/>It was clear just a minute ago, then I lost focus, so I dunno.<BR/>I'll be ponderin' this one for...well, for Eternity I suppose.<BR/><BR/>Be interesting to hear Will's thoughts on this. <BR/><BR/>Hey Will! <BR/>Hello? Where are you?USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-18160608145134598732007-07-12T19:43:00.000-07:002007-07-12T19:43:00.000-07:00Liberals defending Romney? Who?Liberals defending Romney? Who?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-21367942260927185872007-07-12T18:37:00.000-07:002007-07-12T18:37:00.000-07:00"Can the survivor grasp that the reason his buddy ..."Can the survivor grasp that the reason his buddy died was because the driver wanted a cup of coffee?"<BR/><BR/>That's a good one to tell professional "victims"!<BR/><BR/>PV: "What kind of God would do that to me?"<BR/><BR/>Skully: "A God that wanted some coffee."USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-29640144141826409922007-07-12T18:33:00.000-07:002007-07-12T18:33:00.000-07:00"You know what this reminds me of? A poor fellow w..."You know what this reminds me of? A poor fellow who has a traditional notion of gender roles and romance, and the impulse to idealize Woman. How does such a lad make his way through a contemporary landscape that so debases women as a result of feminism? One of the built-in ways for us to get over our narcissism is to fall in love with a kind of unattainable ideal that is idealized because unattainable."<BR/><BR/>Uncanny!<BR/>It's like Bob was reading my mind, or my blog, which is now connected. <BR/>Throw in some time travel through the Eternal and voila!<BR/>Uncanny!USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-51676806982317391132007-07-12T18:25:00.000-07:002007-07-12T18:25:00.000-07:00"Okay. If it works for sea slugs...."I always wond..."Okay. If it works for sea slugs...."<BR/><BR/>I always wondered what those things were for...<BR/><BR/>Bob gnos Sailor Wisdom (TM).<BR/><BR/>wv: auezd (said the sea slug)USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-56761672348031866002007-07-12T18:22:00.000-07:002007-07-12T18:22:00.000-07:00"Van said... ... and to flog the thought one step ..."Van said... <BR/>... and to flog the thought one step further, think of all the times you didn't speak up at a gathering when someone floated some moonbatty comment - and wonder how many ripples didn't get started.<BR/><BR/>Make the Ripple's people, it matters... and you will never know just how much." <BR/><BR/>Amen to that!<BR/>And even if you don't make a ripple in every moonbat meandering, ruffles are still fun.USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-51474399729774941652007-07-12T18:08:00.000-07:002007-07-12T18:08:00.000-07:00Van,"You stop to consider how many you've played '...Van,<BR/>"You stop to consider how many you've played 'David' to, who have never written back... but had their lives radically changed nonetheless?"<BR/><BR/>Funny, I was thinking along similar lines except wondering who David’s ‘David’ may have been.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-13429263210240125182007-07-12T17:13:00.000-07:002007-07-12T17:13:00.000-07:00"Or to put it another way, love is nurtured in the..."Or to put it another way, love is nurtured in the gap between desire and attainment. Eliminate that transitional space of human imagination, and we are reduced to animals."<BR/><BR/>That applies to so many other areas as well, education comes to mind, and in general expecting a standard of behavior and self control which the leftie mindset removes heaven and earth to prevent in order to make life easier - and flatter - less gap, less idealization, less more.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-59071946978468411902007-07-12T16:58:00.000-07:002007-07-12T16:58:00.000-07:00On the subject of transcendent unity: Aurobindo no...On the subject of transcendent unity: Aurobindo noted this within the various strands of Yoga. If one pursues the yoga of works ardently, then the yoga of knowledge seems to be mastered concomittantly. In other words, they articulate towards the top, where you have a melding of works and knowledge. <BR/><BR/>Aurobindo places the yoga of devotion higher than the other two legs, but they nevertheless form a tripod shape when conjoined. Works, knowledge and devotion bleed into each other and in fact you get a transcendant unity (overmind)at the point of convergence.<BR/><BR/>Therefore, pick any leg, follow it well, and you'll pick up the other two automatically.<BR/><BR/>Any religion contains these same three legs, and at some point all religions will meld into unity as well (supermind).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-21414553905561732852007-07-12T16:44:00.000-07:002007-07-12T16:44:00.000-07:00Bob, your biography is naturally of interest to us...Bob, your biography is naturally of interest to us, but your expressions today of the details of your own transformation are just excellent.<BR/><BR/>Can't say much, as I'm deeply embedded in the "good times" that go along with the stomach flu, so I'll just mention the passage that jumped off the page at me:<BR/><BR/>"...the seemingly irrational becomes rational when we truly and humbly accept it as an answer instead of a question -- i.e., that's just the way it is. The multidimensional becomes perceptually repackaged into a unified entity that the conscious mind can handle."<BR/><BR/>I see. We adapt to it, rather than vice versa. I'm O-->(k), He's O."<BR/><BR/>That describes how it has been working for me, and ooooh, <I>world's change!</I><BR/><BR/>The changes you write about are very "personal;" thank you for sharing them!walthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01388218390016612051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-36722032889882690302007-07-12T15:05:00.000-07:002007-07-12T15:05:00.000-07:00... and to flog the thought one step further, thin...... and to flog the thought one step further, think of all the times you didn't speak up at a gathering when someone floated some moonbatty comment - and wonder how many ripples <I>didn't</I> get started.<BR/><BR/>Make the Ripple's people, it matters... and you will never know just how much.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-77729231783905037642007-07-12T15:00:00.000-07:002007-07-12T15:00:00.000-07:00... or continuing that regression, consider how ma...... or continuing that regression, consider how many people 'David' affected through you, with a single thoughtful response to someone he didn't really even know - and carrying that regression into the internet age, since it only takes one good connection to make huge ripples, and wonder how many such connections 'David' might have made over his life... then consider how many (sitemeter says 4,500 visits this week so far, with an average of 2+ minutes attention) a single One Cosmos post might affect, and ripple into over the next 5 to 10 years... the touchings of the invisible hand of the 'market place' on steroids.<BR/><BR/>Quickening anybody?Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-40382935330101042222007-07-12T14:51:00.000-07:002007-07-12T14:51:00.000-07:00What Van said, me too.What Van said, me too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-43162385831021499462007-07-12T13:54:00.000-07:002007-07-12T13:54:00.000-07:00what Van said !!what Van said !!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-23253694651406684842007-07-12T13:43:00.000-07:002007-07-12T13:43:00.000-07:00"Alright. If I was understanding David correctly -..."Alright. If I was understanding David correctly -- whom I never heard from again, because time slipped away and I just never wrote back..."<BR/><BR/>You stop to consider how many you've played 'David' to, who have never written back... but had their lives radically changed nonetheless?<BR/><BR/>wv:tsuzius - tidal wave of gods?Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-85004356964258297192007-07-12T12:31:00.000-07:002007-07-12T12:31:00.000-07:00Mmmm, the gratitude you must feel for getting that...Mmmm, the gratitude you must feel for getting that guidance. <BR/>From your story it seems that the poignancy of what was written was somewhat lost on you at the time but that you had the wisdom to take it to heart.<BR/>Thanks for passing it on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-87589929697930794142007-07-12T11:08:00.000-07:002007-07-12T11:08:00.000-07:00What is a thoroughly ironicized, postmodern, space...<I>What is a thoroughly ironicized, postmodern, space age-au-go-go guy to do with a strong religious impulse and no clear way to channel it?</I><BR/><BR/>Here's how <A HREF="http://www.atroshenko.com/NSAlBuddha.html" REL="nofollow">one guy</A> did it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-19332878849099737992007-07-12T09:55:00.000-07:002007-07-12T09:55:00.000-07:00"How to put the truthpaste back in the tube?"There..."How to put the truthpaste back in the tube?"<BR/><BR/>There you go again, summing up my point-of-view in one sentence. It's interesting about the humility/ sea slug posture; earlier this year, I tried meditation. I always start with a sitting position, legs crossed, relaxed and comfortable, After a while, though, I am usually (drawn? compelled?) inclined to assume something more akin to the child's pose, knees tucked under chest, head cradled in hands, and feeling very small. From this low position, I actually feel more in touch with O than I did sitting up.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.com