Man cannot violate the laws of nature, or they wouldn't be laws. But he can steer them, and in so doing transcend them. He can similarly steer his own nature, which means he has free will. Our nature itself can't be absolutely free -- i.e., without the limitation of form -- otherwise there would be nothing to steer and nowhere to go anyway.
In short, form is always a constraint on possibility, even while the existence of so many forms is a consequence of the all-possibility of God, which is to say, his inexhaustible creativity. For what is creativity, exactly? It must be an orthoparadoxical combination of form and formlessness; or, to be precisely precise, it is the essence in existence, or substance in form, or perhaps "bounded freedom."
Come to think of it, Schuon describes art in exactly this way: its essential function
is to transfer Substance, which is both one and inexhaustible, into the world of accident and to bring the accidental consciousness back to Substance.
This explains why man is compelled to create art on the one hand and attracted to it on the other, and indeed why it is so central to what man is. For art
transposes Being to the world of existence... it transposes in a certain way the Infinite to the world of the finite, or Essence to the world of forms; it thereby suggests a continuity proceeding from the one to the other, a way starting from appearance or accident and opening onto Substance or its celestial reverberations.
As to the complementarity of creation-exteriorization and attraction-interiorization, Schuon points out that this function
is both magical and spiritual: magical, it renders present principles, powers and also things that it attracts by virtue of a “sympathetic magic”; spiritual, it exteriorizes truths and beauties in view of our interiorization, of our return to the “kingdom of God that is within you.”
The Principle becomes manifestation so that manifestation might rebecome the Principle, or so that the “I” might return to the Self; or simply, so that the human soul might, through given phenomena, make contact with the heavenly archetypes, and thereby with its own archetype.
I don't want to get sidetracked into a discussion of art. The bottom line is that man is a form; the top line is that this form is an image of the Creator, and the Creator is -- obviously -- beyond form.
Therefore, if you're following me, man, alone among creatures, is an orthoparadoxical -- no joke! I always mean this term literally -- complementarity of form and formlessness. Which is why we can -- and must -- grow and develop. We are created for purposes of transcendence or even transfiguration, AKA theosis.
All of this no doubt sounds more than a bit abstract, and it is, and yet, the consequences could scarcely be more concrete. If they're not, then to hell with it.
"Man," writes Schuon "is as if suspended between animality and divinity." As Life Itself clamors up the biological teloscape from veggies to insects to reptiles to mammals, there's more wiggle room at the top, but not much. Only in man is there a real breakthrough of form into the Great Wide Open of the formless, and vice versa.
I was thinking about this ladder just yesterday. Every science has its proper object, and an object is -- duh -- a form, otherwise we'd be unable to study it. Now, what is the form of theology? Correct: it is God. And God is? Correct: beyond form. Therefore, theology is the formal study of the formless.
Now, one reason, and maybe even the biggest reason, God is formless is that he's a person. In other words, there is an irreducible complementarity in persons qua personhood between form and formlessness, and now we're getting somewhere, because this again goes to the Trinity, since the Son is the engendered form of the "non-engendered" but engendering Father.
We'll no doubt return to this principle as we proceed, but to en-gender is to give form, AKA to in-form. That being the case, a little gratitude is in order: thanks for the information!
But I'm running short on time this morning, so TBC.
15 comments:
Blackbyrds Matter:
There will be a song after all.
The song is smooth and positive.
Soulful and light Life-size music that doesn't cheat with tech.
As is truly funk, truly soul.
Amazing parentheses are good.
:D
It all makes perfect sense until that last line. Amazing Parentheses might be a good name for a band, though.
Who knew Nancy Pelosi does Japanese poetry?
So we are getting some bird and privilege.
I think mostly we’re getting privileged scrub.
‘Cuz privileged scrub is deadless to a bill.
Bird, nah, is important, but you have to take it out.
But privilege violation can take you out.
We want to be sure that what we send is not birdable,
or bird bath or privileged scrub.
Exercises we’re getting bathing
exercises we’re engaged in. And
we’re getting a good response.
There’s no bad answer.
Or, she does her own bad lip reading videos.
We're in the very best of hands.
Since freedom means picking and choosing pathologies, at least these days, if you can get the insatiably wealthy to quit buying government, then I'll get the insatiably transsexual to quit dressing weird. Seems like a mismatched exchange, but what the hell.
Biden has long been into Japanese poetry:
Why is the price of agricultural products,
when I go to the store, why is it higher? What, like for example.
if I had, if we were all going out and having lunch together
and I said let’s ask whoever’s at the next table
no matter how, whatever restaurant we’re in,
have them explain the supply chain to us.
You think they’d understand what we’re talking about. They’re smart people.
The supply chain. But why’s everything backed up?
Well, it’s backed up because the people’s supplies or materials
that end up being on our kitchen table or in our, in, in, in our,
our fam, our, our life.
Guess what?
There close those plants because they have COVID.
Ironically, I'm pretty sure that almost anyone sitting in a restaurant who isn't a raving leftist understands supply chain issues pretty well.
The thought of sharing any restaurant space with Fartin' Joe Biden is rather stomach turning, though...
A clip of Morricone in concert, with cooperation from the wind.
The Dude may hate the Eagles, but not the Asians:
so those who are interested in this “planning board”
are already in the Eagles
The “goodness” “greatness”, “greatness”, etc., enough, you know.
it is, of course, “Ali!” I will affirmate.
The recording situation is also good, and the performance is good.
For example, if you want to enjoy the aftertaste
it's the last recording that you can listen to
Regarding the outtake,
well, there is no meaningful thing, but it will not be able to help.
"Unusually so fucking serious American band” Eagles,
such as good quality outtake, does not exist.
They were “craftsmanship” rather than “pioneering” bands,
so when I thought that “this song is likely to be a thing”,
it is a haz who thoroughly pushed the song.
But if you listen to a little “play”
just as it was “fucking serious”, I feel purely happy (laughs).
Write down Bill Simzik (rare!)and the
writing of Glenn Fly, and the
shape of the box itself is also the atmosphere.
Re. the Morricone concert, that was a beautifully-timed breeze :)
Supply Chain Issues 101. When China shuts down, so does America. And all that “just in time” corporate austerity doesn’t help when China opens back up.
Good God that was leftist.
Regarding supply chain issues:
When shortages occur, turn to the home garden for produce. If you do not have a home garden, foraging can be done on public lands but these are kind of picked over already.
Hunting for game is always an option, with the caveat that with ammunition prices being what they are, take careful shots.
When ordinary prey animals cannot be found, one may harvest and consume many varieties of insects. These can be seared in a pan. Many contain enough oil so you don't need to add any. Crunchy, nutritious insects can be a god-send.
Cannibalism should be left as a last resort, or not resorted to at all.
For shelter, power, medicine, transportation, and other non-food items, stockpile now while you can. Otherwise you will be forced to rob others to get what your family needs and that is just sad.
grow and develop...
Yes, a tough adversity does encourage growth whenever it doesn’t demoralize or destroy. Take my nephew. His father is a physician who benefitted greatly from his nepotistic connections, who then passed on that influence to employ his son my nephew. I understand that this economic philosophy is called “blessings”.
I employed that nephew once. Sure, he’d do what he was told and go through the motions. But he had no fire, no ambition, no eagerness to please, no need to prove to his uncle Drew what he was really made of. I quickly grew tired of his lazy attitude and never hired him again. His father of course hired him into his company which he didn’t own, and he's worked there to this day. He bought a brand new house, all brand new things, and has grown obese with an obese wife and two obese kids.
I’ll have to brag a bit now. A child of extreme adversity, I now do everything myself. Plumbing, building construction, auto repairs, and even sex. I doubt my nephew has sex, as his bed would likely collapse. My point is that he and his father have little respect for the self-reliant hands-on guy, probably seen as being at the same level as masturbators. When I show them around my place they're disinterested. Probably think I’m crazy. Why do all that work when you could be making some other poor dumb bastard do the work? They're staunch Christian conservatives by the way.
Yet in places like this I’m called a leftist. Amazing. Or maybe I just have a hard time keeping up with the current trends I dunno.
As for cannibalism, we just had a thousand Qanons gather to witness JFK and JFKjr appear to claim victory over whatever. It's amazing to me what groups of people can come to make themselves believe, to think is right. With supply chain issues being what they are, I see cannibalism as being just around the corner.
"That being the case, a little gratitude is in order: thanks for the information!"
;-) [insert Curly, Larry, & Moe, I poking gag here]
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