Monday, September 08, 2008

Cosmic Evolution and the Bridge to Gnowhere

So, cosmic evolution is as easy as One-two-three: first, the involution of conscious being into material existence and infinitely divisible substance; second, the emergence of that being into living and thinking form; and third, the ascent of thinking being into the free realization of the Divine reality.

Again, it is only because of the prior involution that there are relatively sharp developmental levels, or ontological planes, in between. However, one cannot necessarily be too concrete about these, and reify what is in reality a continuum. Or, at the very least, one must adopt the complementarity of modern physics, and view the scale as simultaneously particle and wave, or continuous and discrete.

To take an obvious example, I can see that my three and a-half year old son has gone through a number of clearly defined stages on his epic journey from embryo to boy. Nevertheless, if I were asked to pinpoint them, I could not do so -- any more than one could point out the day that the paleolithic became the neolothic, the Middle Ages became the Renaissance, or the Democrat party become so barbaric, abandoning liberalism for an illiberal and atavistic and intolerant leftism. Was it at with '68 convention? Was it the McGovern nomination? The ascendence of Jimmy Carter? Their racist "southern strategy" of bribing and duping blacks into voting against their interests? The full outbreak of Bush derangement? Or the even more marked poutbreak of Palin hysteria?

One point to consider is that, from a psychohistorical standpoint, the distance between 1968 and 2008 is truly the blink of an eye. Or, perhaps we are artificially divorcing the initial symptoms of a disease process from its end state -- like saying that the patient died of pneumonia, when it was actually AIDS. We know that life begins at conception, but when does spiritual death, or pneumania, begin? It also surely begins with a conception, but what is the concept? That's actually a fairly easy question, isn't it? After all, Genesis pretty much covers it.

Anyway. Because God exists, the ladder of being extends "all the way upwards from the Inconscient to the Supreme (as first it has gone all the way downwards)" (Van Vrekhem). Or, if you prefer, the existence of the Divine is proven by the fact of this descending ontological stairway to heathens. In short, you can't have others without the One (or vice versa).

Anti-intellectuals such as Queeg would like to enforce their fantasy on the rest of us, to the effect that All This -- all of it -- is merely a temporary result of the mighty god of chance -- which is just an inglorious coverup for their own spiritual blindness. Even worse, it elevates this myopia to just another form of vision, no better or worse than the Raccoon's 20/∞ geistsight, in that we can see from twenty feet what the unredeemed person can only see from the standpoint of eternity, or technically, "when they're dead."

Now, as we were saying yesterday, as the creation "pushes" from below, something else "descends" from above. Again, it is not as if human development is built in some mechanical or linear way, brick by brick. None of us has to reinvent the wheel of karma. Rather, it is anterior to us.

Furthermore, just as we celebrate the great explorers and pioneers of the past who "opened up" the material world and extended its frontiers, we also -- normal people, I mean -- revere the spiritual pioknowers who ventured further "upward" and inward for our benefit.

Because once a spiritual trail is blazed, it sets up a morphopneumatic groove, so to speak, so that others may follow into the jungle of Spirit. Evolution is nothing more than a "realized impossibilty," if you will (Van Vrekhem). But once you get used to it, it's rather fun to live an impossible life. For example, from the standpoint of my twenty year old scrub of a self, my present life was strictly impossible, even inconceivable. This is one reason I occasionally feel sorry for the atheists, since they will never know, much less live, the Great Impossible.

Surely it is no cooncidence that the same people who denigrate the great explorers of the past as nothing more than rapacious European colonialists, do the same thing with the great explorers of Spirit. Their antagonism to both is a testimoony to their hostility to the Adventure of Consciousness, which is only our reason for being herenow.

Think of your average ACLU member and spiritual pione'er-do-well. If he had his druthers, he would wipe out both Columbus and Jesus with one fallen swoop, since for him, they are reflections of the same disease. I'm sure they'd prefer to get rid of both Christmas and Columbus Day. Not to mention Independence Day, being that independence is an insult to dependent liberals. After all, why is there no Dependence Day to celebrate Ted Kennedy, Bill Ayers, Alec Baldwin, Deepak Chopra, Mark David Chapman, Huey Newton, Erica Jong, John Reed, Jane Fonda, Fidel Castro, and so many other liberal giants?

Yesterday I mentioned that the Palin Hysteria is far from meaningless, but another "sign o' the times." Aurobindo points out that a decisive evolutionary turn is often "preceded by an apparent emphasizing and raising to their extreme of things which seem the very denial, the most uncompromising opposite of the new principle and the new creation." As a psychologist, this makes a great deal of sense to me, for it would be analogous to the ubiquitous "resistance" that flares up when the patient makes a move toward health. When a person stays within the narrow grooves dictated by their mind parasites, then the mind parasites leave them alone. But just try to grow beyond them, and these internal saboteurs begin to exert their muscle, flooding the mind with doubts, moods, and other kinds of attack, both internally and externally.

It seems that an evolutionary push "upward" will simultaneously elicit a response from "above" as well as "below." This again makes sense to me, as we want to plant our "spiritual foundation" as deeply into the Inconscient as possible. The existence of all these crazy liberals only proves that America's spiritual foundation is quite shaky at this time -- for the very reason that liberals have been so successful in eroding it.

Any spiritual person knows that you must master yourself before you should presume to master others. Liberals invert this precisely, and would like to impose a tyranny of people who cannot govern themselves, which quickly becomes a demockery. For example, this is why they are so proud of the fact that Obama attracts the young and stupid (HT Vanderleun), when this should be seen as a categorical indictment. Same with his endorsement by the international left.

To cite an example that is as fresh as this morning's news, look at what happens to a news cable network when you put a malignant narcissist with a Borderline Personality Disorder in charge. Being that the psyche of such a person is riven by primitive conflicts that exist as semi-autonomous parts split off from the core self, their subordinates will all try to adapt to one of the parts, which generates institutional chaos below. How does one adapt to a crazy person without the culture itself becoming crazy? The man at the top must be one, both internally and externally.

When Olbermann is eventually relieved of his duties, that's when the real stories of his madness will come out, for it will be like when the wicked witch dies in the Wizard of Oz. All of a sudden it is as if a spell is broken, and her minions instantly snap out of it. Instead of being angry at Dorothy, they are relieved. Trust me. Just watch what happens as Olbermann is stripped of his power to bully and intimidate others. They'll go Mussolini on his ass, and symbolically string him from the nearest lamp post with his genitals missing. As if you could tell.

Before cooncluding today's post, I'd like to jump ahead a bit and discuss the Next Stage in cosmic evolution. What will it look like? Sri Aurobindo called it the "higher mind," or "mind of light," which succeeds the rational mind (bear in mind that most humans -- even Americans -- have a long ways to go before they even stably achieve the latter). I would be particularly interested to know how many Raccoons are aware of their own mind of light, and whether or not they have noticed that it has become more developed through reading this blog on a daily basis. Don't worry, my feelings won't be hurt.

Here is how Aurobindo describes it: the higher mind is no longer a mingle of "light and obscurity or half-light, but a large clarity of the Spirit." Its basic substance is a more unified sense of being "capable of the formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge," often accompanied by awareness of "a spontaneous inherent knowledge." It is a "luminous thought-mind, a mind of Spirit-born conceptual knowledge," rooted in an awareness of the prior Oneness, before "the initiation of a separative knowledge." It is only a bridge, but a necessary one for explorers to build before others can pass over the abyss between matter and spirit.

48 comments:

Susannah said...

Former atheist talks about his newest thriller novel. Protagonist is a Christian.

http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/

Anonymous said...

Developed? Um, yeah, in a way . . . I'd say, more like. . . refined, or brought into focus. or, more focus. I've before likened this place to an afterschool study group (or, perhaps, cram school?), where a bunch of students get together with their senpai and discuss the notes taken from our various classes and homework assignments.

Also, it's a daily sort of thing, a little prod to the spiritual wheels to "keep spinning". Maybe not quickly, but at least still moving. We get the prod, the little push to the wheels without the hard dogmatism of some other programs, and as one wheel spins, it helps the other wheels spin, which in turn. . .

Others may (and likely will) disagree, but I would say that reading here is not the main base of my development, but it is an extremely helpful assist. It's not the steering mechanism, as much as it's the "power" in the "power steering." Or the AAA tryptich and guidebooks. With free towing should I get in trouble. You get the idea.

Muddle along I still would, but reading here helps the muddling be more enjoyable, and elts me know that taking the scenic route isn't a bad thing at all. Which is nice, cuz the view from here is great ^_^

Anonymous said...

Yes, my mind of light is enlarged through reading your blog. The part I liked in today's was about how the mind parasistes attack if one steps out of a certain groove of accustomed behavior.

That explains why my efforts to curb a certain behaviour always result in stronger urges to do said behaviour. Vexing, to say the least.

Anyway, I found the passage useful input for my mind of light. Thank you.

That being said, your attack on Olberman was barbaric and rough. The imagery of Mussolini was revolting. This was not helpful for my mind of light; it rather stimulated my mind of vital desires and primitive urges. Thank you? for that too. I enjoy that part of my mind, too, but I thought the idea of spiritual practice was to keep it calm.

Anyhoo...

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, I hope it goes without saying that I am not claiming any credit, except perhaps as a voice in the bewilderness or perhaps a humble sign on the side of the road with an arrow pointing up.

Gagdad Bob said...

And as always, I am merely laughing at Olbermann. The imagery is meant to be funny. To the extent that it missed the mark, it is not because it was barbaric, but because it wasn't funny.

Gagdad Bob said...

Aloysius--

If you're out there, you sent me an email that I accidentally deleted and lost. Could you resend it? Thanks.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't funny, but it was true.

It's a form of human sacrifice, isn't it?

With this blog, I'm made aware of what I lack and how far I have to go, to even catch up.

julie said...

Sehoy,
"With this blog, I'm made aware of what I lack and how far I have to go, to even catch up."

I've finally come to accept that I'll never catch up; it's like thinking that some day I'll be the same age as Bob. In other words, there's no point at which he's going to just stop learning stuff and we'll all catch up and be on the same level.

The trick is to learn from example, strive for the goals you set for yourself without worrying about your relative position, and remember that wherever you are, the people you want to learn from were probably there once, too. To me, that's reassuring.

If you see it all as a game of "catch-up," you will always be disappointed, and ultimately you may forget the real goal: to learn how to align oneself with the Good, Beautiful and True. Not with Bob, Petey and Dupree (with all due respect to the three of you).

Gagdad Bob said...

I think God "involves" for the standard reason: that it is in the nature of the Sovereign Good to radiate its goodness. In other words, the creation is completely gratuitous and unnarcissary.

Anonymous said...

Be careful, folks. Insults are fine, but excessive compliments will be subject to deletion!

vanderleun said...

From the time stamps it would seem you put in that video link before I posted it.

Magic.

julie said...

"When a person stays within the narrow grooves dictated by their mind parasites, then the mind parasites leave them alone. But just try to grow beyond them, and these internal saboteurs begin to exert their muscle, flooding the mind with doubts, moods, and other kinds of attack, both internally and externally."

I finally realized last week that while I've long been aware of my defense mechanisms keeping other people out, I had been completely oblivious of all the dangerous and pointy things that were directed just as heavily inward, which of course posed no threat so long as I stuck to the program. It was kind of shocking. Now I have to figure out how to disarm some of those frickin' booby traps.

Heh. Ignorance is bliss. But it's still ignorance. We have to be willing to shed our ignorance, even if it hurts; otherwise, what's the point of being human?

Anonymous said...

The full quote is "ignorance is bliss when 'tis folly to be wise."

julie said...

"I would be particularly interested to know how many Raccoons are aware of their own mind of light, and whether or not they have noticed that it has become more developed through reading this blog on a daily basis."

That's kind of a tough one to answer. Initially, I wanted to say "almost." But actually, just in the past couple of weeks, at the same time I became a little more self-aware, I'm becoming more energized, and it doesn't have anything at all to do with Sarah Palin.

"Its basic substance is a more unified sense of being "capable of the formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge," often accompanied by awareness of "a spontaneous inherent knowledge.""

That does describe where I'm at fairly well - all of a sudden I've got a voracious appetite for knowledge, combined with a drive to be creative that was never very well-developed before. I had the basic skills, but no ambition. I still don't have ambition, exactly, but it's turning into something I can't not do.

Weird.

Ray Ingles said...

...symbolically string him from the nearest lamp post with his genitals missing. As if you could tell.

Now, that's the prose of a luminous thought-mind! :->

NoMo said...

"MSNBC Drops Olbermann, Matthews as News Anchors (9/8/08)

MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign."

Ya think? I just hope they cut the cable before dropping the anchors.

Ray - that is supposed to be numinously funny.

julie said...

Not funny, but also not off the mark. Of course, it helps to have some understanding of human nature. When the crazy person is in charge, everyone walks on eggshells. When the crazy person is dethroned, most people don't simply relax and go about their normal business - they're really pissed off, they've been holding it together for too long, and someone (usually the crazy person) is gonna pay. Because the crazy provokes an opposing kind of madness in the people around it, the balancing act developed to cope. And when you no longer have to cope, guess what? You get unbalanced.

Via Vanderleun, here's how off-the-deep-end Olberman is. Can you imagine having to work for that guy? Yikes.

Jim said...

“I would be particularly interested to know how many Raccoons are aware of their own mind of light, and whether or not they have noticed that it has become more developed through reading this blog on a daily basis.”

The short answer is YES. Have to get some work done so if the smarter ones (almost all the regular commenters) haven’t said what I would say, I’ll try to comment later.

Susannah said...

Theology Guy and I were talking yesterday about how when the "pushing down" is met with tilled soil, the word germinates, takes root and begins to grow. It's not our job to do the growing, but it is our part to submit to the tilling so we can be better soil.

I actually find the growing part to be something of a mystery. Only the Spirit can bring it about.

How does one do that in the middle of all kinds of "crazy"? The "crazy" itself can be the tilling leading to brokenness of fallow ground. But when you are compensating with your own kinda crazy, and you hang onto it instead of submitting to the tilling, your vision gets all obscured. We've lived this, actually.

Eventually, if you keep seeking, knocking, asking, you get delivered of it, one way or another. God's merciful that way. "A bruised reed he will not break."

QP said...

Interesting. Half way through reading today's post, a bee buzzed in under my bonnet and I was prompted to remove One Cosmos from my blog's sidebar list of Risky Adventurers and make a singular gadget called Top Billing jest for One Cosmos....
but under my pic of PB16 so as to keep you 'umble and because I know you are beyond being influenced by flattery, let me spell it out: Reading OCUG and OC every day for the past two and half years has been the best educational experience of my life -> Clarity, Priceless!

NoMo said...

I'm always trying to test everything against what I know of scripture (Bible). Following along here daily (post and comments) as well as slowly reading OCUG, even with my limited comprehension, is always challenging and rewarding.

Thanks, as always, Bob!

robinstarfish said...

I would be particularly interested to know how many Raccoons are aware...

Oh yes, but not in the way I would have expected. I will forever be looking up with a telescope at the intellectual brilliance I will never attain, but fortunately that's but one facet of OC. Instead, it's my vision that has changed, from 20/20 to 20/infinite. I'm still as dumb as ever but my universe is in big bang.

Most fascinating, it's not only the light that's different; the darkness is too.

Anonymous said...

I would encourage everyone to click on Bob's link to Roger Kimball to get his take on the energy the Palin Pick has let loose on the earth.

Gagdad Bob said...

I guess the reason I ask is that my vision has improved dramatically, and I was just wondering if I was the only one....

Gagdad Bob said...

And by the way -- I never said that I wanted to symbolically dismember and sacrifice Keith Olbermann. Actually, I hope he stays on the job, because he's such a discredit to the left. Rather, I said that that is what the employees will do once the spell is broken.

julie said...

That's how I read it; I was actually a bit surprised people were responding to that observation the way they did. And like I said, I think you're right.

Oh, and what Robin said :)

walt said...

Aware of my own mind of light? Subjectively, it still feels like "a mingle of light and obscurity" -- but I must say, these days the "light" is visible every day. Along with my encounter of One Cosmos almost exactly 2 years ago, came circumstances that don't interfere too much with self-study, so I'd have to credit "everything in combination." But your blog has been a BIG influence. As I mentioned to you once, the style and quality of writing you share has become a kind of "organic need" in me, and lesser data doesn't quite make the grade these days; I guess I've been Up-Graded.

As I've stated before, the "drip...drip..." of daily reading, of repetition, can only be compared to a religious discipline, I would think. Because you do discuss "the formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge," and this requires study, and repetition. The sheer scale of the subject, mixed with the unfamiliar turf of the vertical, demands "a large clarity of the Spirit" -- and this is not my ordinary state. So the returning to it, day after day, has been a "bridge to gnowhere" for me.

I certainly see God's Hand everywhere; that's happened since coming here. I regard religion and Tradition entirely differently. The direction of everything is reversed (Top Down). I'm more convinced than ever of what I don't know.

The "effect" of One Cosmos on this Raccoon was described well by the late Karlfried Graf Durkheim:
By these means a man is led toward inner mastery. An all-encompassing attitude will thus have been achieved which will enable the process of inner growth and ripening to continue. Such a life attitude is the only one by which a man may fulfill his own law and destiny, which is to become a Person, a human being who is at once transparent to the Divine Being within him and able to express it in his life in the world.

julie said...

"the style and quality of writing you share has become a kind of "organic need" in me, and lesser data doesn't quite make the grade these days; I guess I've been Up-Graded."

Yep. The old crap I used to read just doesn't cut it anymore. This morning, I woke up at 4am and read the intro to On Awakening and Remembering, and in the first paragraph I thought,

"Cool - this guy writes like Bob!"

Without the humor, of course, but there's no way I would have sat through it a couple of years ago, unless I was trying to fall back asleep.

Dougman said...

I would be particularly interested to know how many Raccoons are aware of their own mind of light, and whether or not they have noticed that it has become more developed through reading this blog on a daily basis.

This will take me at least a couple of comments to get across.
Not because of length but lack of a block of time.

Picture this if you will:
Bob cutting and peeling all the veggies that go into the slow cooker that has mankind as the meat that was first tenderizing before his arrival to the kitchen where he gnoticed that the 'cook' was missing. (Stone soup anyone)
Coming by everyday, we smell the aroma and licking our chops just waitin for the feast
Gotta go now

Gagdad Bob said...

That is a great book. Extremely dense, with hardly a wasted word. He is a fine example of a MInd of Light. (I'm only up to p. 81.)

Gagdad Bob said...

This essay at American Thinker does a good job of describing the energy driving the current cultural turbulence, and seems consistent with Aurobindo's idea of a decisive evolutionary turn being "preceded by an apparent emphasizing and raising to their extreme of things which seem the very denial."

In other words, a shallow person sees left and right as a "polarity" on a continuum, whereas leftism is in fact the very negation of liberalism and therefore America.

Gagdad Bob said...

Classic:

"Reader, when your toilet breaks, do you wait around for some Ivy League hotshot to show up and organize a meeting so that you can use your collective strength to wring concessions from the powers that be?

Or do you call a plumber?"

Anonymous said...

Yes, I reading the blog expands my mind of light. I rate Bob as the best spiritual "commentator" I have ever encountered in print. Reading the blog becomes habitual for me and I other readers.

Bob is primarily a synthete and analyzer of other thinkers, but also deserves credit for some original work of his own, especially in the field of symbolics, such as the use of "O" and "K" terminology. I've never seen these elsewhere.

His theories tying music and art to spirit, only dimly outlined by Aurobindo and others, have recieved a fuller development on Bob's blog than I believe has been done elsewhere; this deserves note.

His unstinting effort to correlate spiritual attitudes to politics, while nothing new, are fresh in their scathing indictment of the left from a different, and probably more effective angle, than what has been heard from the fundamentalist right wing.

In short, despite flat book sales, I rate Bob a first rate writer, theologian, scholar, and political philosopher who has already made valuable contributions to human understanding.

I hope that is not laying it on too thick. Every word of it I stand by as true.

Dougman said...

Damn, I lost focus between the last post and now.
Picking up kids and just freaking doing the daily grind. Frustrating as hell!
Crucifer and Lucifer are never far apart it seems.

Anyway, this from the dictionary.com "Word of the Day"
Cosmopolite -comes from Greek kosmopolites, from kosmos, "world" + polites, "citizen," from polis, "city."

Dougman said...

Julie and Robin.
Great work over there at the U Gno Where!!!

Anonymous said...

I can tell that reading Bob’s blog is pulling me vertically toward new encounters with O, because when I don’t want to go there (internal resistance), I stop reading for a few days. Then I go back and catch up and the Compass is right. I can also feel the next step beckoning, which is to get back to Scripture and read it with Raccoon eyes. One Cosmos, the blog even more than the book, has re-attuned me to the vertical dimension. In the past, seeking this dimension was what drove me to trips around cultic and fundamentalist blocks. But I could not live in their spiritual flatlands and my spirit would be exhausted after breaking away. Here at One Cosmos, the reality of the vertical is palpable and vital. It's spiritual jazz, man.

Aloysius said...

Bob,

Resent

Anonymous said...

Could anyone else use a bit of peace that surpaseth understanding?
mind light.

JWM

Anonymous said...

"I would be particularly interested to know how many Raccoons are aware of their own mind of light, and whether or not they have noticed that it has become more developed through reading this blog on a daily basis."

I do not recall how I stumbled across Gagdad’s blogg; it may have been a link on Maggie’s Farm. In any case, I have been lurking here for over a year. I am on my second journey through the Coonifesto and it is making much more sense (light) the second time around. I try to read the blogg daily, and only miss when I am not around a computer (and miss in several ways). Both of these activities have greatly increased my awareness of the light in my mind (my mind of light), as well as parasites that do not want that to happen (getting to the light is not all sweetness and light).

Months ago I read a cOOnment that made me aware that an experience I had when I was a five year old boy was not unique and that I was not crazy for having it. In the experience, I was aware of the vastness of the universe and all its inter-relatedness, and I knew everything about the universe for the length of the experience. And I knew that I knew it, and it all made sense to me at the time and immediately after. But, I could not get it across to anyone, and I got some weird looks when I tried to describe it, so I put it aside. The cOOnment made me understand that we all MAY be able to experience that immediate knowing (if we want to). The blogg and the Coonifesto both reinforce that sense for me, and lead me to other similar experiences and understandings of the light, and my mind of light. They also help me understand why I just don’t resonate with some people, and do with others (often instantaneously). And, they help me to see why I have been drawn to different teachers and teachings along the way – moving toward and into the light (sometimes anyways).

Thanks buckets, Gagdad, petey, cousin dupree, and all the raccoons who leave cOOnments – it is all brain food, soul food, light food (except for the trolls, of course; but sometimes even they can be really good bad examples).

Anonymous said...

Stream of Life
by Rabindranath Tagore

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.


Transliteration from the song "Praan"

Bhulbona ar shohojete
Shei praan e mon uthbe mete
Mrittu majhe dhaka ache
je ontohin praan

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami
(Repeat 3X)

Shei jhor jeno shoi anonde
Chittobinar taare
Shotto-shundu dosh digonto
Nachao je jhonkare!

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan

Susannah said...

I had that version of Gaudete on my finetune player. Thanks for the video, jwm!

Magnus Itland said...

Jesus said to his disciples that the Spirit of Truth would teach them everything and remind them of everything he had said.

When the prophet Balaam failed to listen to the Spirit of Truth, God made an ass speak to him.

Somewhere in between those are Bob. Ideally I wouldn't need some guy to remind me of the things I didn't know I knew. But I do. And at least he's not a complete ass about it.

(Your ass may vary.)

julie said...

JWM, my choir has sung that one for Christmas a time or two. Interesting to hear it with the British accents.
Thanks!

Van Harvey said...

"I would be particularly interested to know how many Raccoons are aware of their own mind of light, and whether or not they have noticed that it has become more developed through reading this blog on a daily basis. "

The short answer is yes.

Prior to OC, I viewed Truth as a thing, too large to be fully known, but THE Thing which represented the massive integration of all that is, and that all that what we know as being true, are but the facts as we know them of IT, within a given context, which integrate into the whole without contradiction. Sort of a massive multifaceted diamond.

And that was fine for me. And it is still true... as far as it goes... but... reading OC has shown me that there is a switch within me, which if I turn it on, enables me to see this as not just a cold hard diamond, but a glowing source of warmth that penetrates and infuses all that IS.

THE Thing, has become I AM, and it IS fascinating to behold.

The daily integrations OC makes, and through which I internally plug in,'flip on' additional fiber optic strands on a daily basis, which I probably wouldn't have noticed, or have shown what I had taken to be a single point, to be a unity of several strands, which themselves stretch farther than I had previously suspected, and the illumination continues to grow.

Very Cool.

Van Harvey said...

Or as Baron von Fronkensteen once said,

It's Alive! IT'S Alive!!!

Ok... a little inappropriate... but I figure Olbermans missing genitals affords a little lee-way.

(BTW - Got the joke. Was Funny. Sheesh people...)

Sal said...

Bob's got a fan:
http://mliccione.blogspot.com/2008/09/hell-and-sarah-palin.html

Linked to that from somewhere else and there he was, all quoted.

Mind of light? Hmmmm- already had everything in place, so I couldn't actually be called a 'seeker'. And like Susannah, Scripture- and in my case, Church even more so- trumps Bob. Finding OC and sticking around is a mystery, but a good one. OC suppplies new lines of sight, if you like, a new way of looking at things you already gnew. And the symbolic equations are wonderful, a way to reach some who wouldn't get it otherwise.
So, yes.

Anonymous said...

Assume you will get this even though a day late...started reading stuff recommended by you maybe a couple years ago. You've awakened a serious interest in Orthodoxy and lots of other stuff; there are all sorts of things that are different to me without any particular "thinking them through," such as abortion. It has become different (and terrible) when years ago I held a thoughtless libertarian position: the woman's business, not mine or the government's.
So there have been changes that I can attribute to your site. I know I would really, really miss your words if they suddenly dried up, especially with Dr Sanity and Mark Steyn off the grid for the time-being.
I would be a little uncomfortable to say anything about my "mind of light." But I have been giving serious thought to Hell and demons (to my own surprise.) God is light when we face Him; when we turn from Him we only feel the heat and no longer see the light; that is Hell. Thus speaketh Fr. Rose.

Anonymous said...

Bob,

At its least influential, this blog suggests fresh books to read and music to listen to and at its most, it refreshes my commitment to higher ground every time I read it...and I read it daily.

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