Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Three and Threeness

In Professor Commentbox’s brief compilation of pithy cosmic sayings, he quotes Voegelin to the effect that the quest -- that would be our quest and every quest -- has no external 'object,' but is reality itself becoming luminous for its movement from the ineffable, through the Cosmos, to the ineffable

Our mountain metaphor is still moving, or at least twitching, so we’re not yet finished beating it. But if Voegelin is correct, it implies that this mountain we're staring at is not external to us, but rather, internal. Thus, it is the projection or externalization of a fundamentally spiritual or vertical reality.

However, this is not to say the mountain is unreal, because Voegelin says that it is reality, precisely; or rather, bestwecando is regard life as midway between two effing ineffabilities. There is progress, because there is a top, even though it’s always up ahead, like a mirage in the road on the way to Vegas.

Transposing the image of the mountain from the exterior-horizontal to interior-vertical, we are always between the top and the bottom. No one reaches the top in this life, although your mohelage may vary, depending upon your rabbi. 

Some would argue that it is indeed possible to reach the top, but this is not something to which I give a great deal of thought, since I am not a Boddisattva shining in Japan or sparkling your China, let alone a black diamond Godman skiing down to basecamp!

Rather, just a midlevel slackpacker looking for a vertical break from folks above my praygrade -- or who loiters on the threshold of the transdimensional doorway, looking for handouts from Petey or anyone else. All I do, and all I can do, is stare at this screen while remurmuring a little help?   

Anyway, translighting Voegelin’s quote, we might say that the climb is a luminous moment between downhere and upthere, or between immanence and transcendence. It’s this light. Shining in the darkness. 

Now, although I am a metacosmic trinitarian, I often wonder which comes first, the principle or the expression, or in this case, the Trinity or “the trinity.” In other words, is this ultimate truth of Christianity but the form of an even higher and deeper substance? I go back and forth. 

Which may be the point, because this tension between form and substance is for me a generative one. Fruitful. 

Meaning what, Bob? Well, for starters, three is both a number and not a number at all; rather, we might say it is fundamentally a quality expressed quantitatively, in part because it is much easier for man to count his fingers than to wrap his hand around “the quality of threeness,” so to speak. But if God is a mathematician, it is because every mathematician is a person who transcends math.  

Analogously, it is much easier for a man to see life as a climb up the mountain than to understand it as reality itself becoming luminous for its movement from the ineffable, through the Cosmos, to the ineffable. Otherwise, Voegelin and I would have more readers. 

Going back to Schuons assertion that it is necessary to start from the idea that the Supreme Reality is absolute, and that being absolute it is infinite, we see that this implies a kind of twoness in the One: Absolute + Infinite, even though this does not in any way depart from a strict monotheism -- unless it is a “trans-monotheism,” more on which as things become more luminous on this trail.

It is not difficult to think of Absolute-Infinite as One-Many, or perhaps even Creator-Creation. Nor is it difficult for me to imagine that the Creator cannot not create, because otherwise he wouldn’t be the Creator, now would he? And what is the “first” creation, bearing in mind that we are again not talking about numbers but qualities? 

Little help?

The Son!

I’ll continue up this path tomorrow, but frankly, sometimes I feel like I’m just an irritant to readers.  

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of midlevel slackpackers looking for a vertical break from folks above their praygrades, my in-law and nephew told me that only landowners should vote on land taxes.

We all own land, so it made sense. But then I thought about it for a while. Didn’t feudalism operate the same way? Seems a Burkean concept: freedom for thee but power for me. Still, I didn’t have problems with the idea.

But then I started thinking it odd that my in-law and son, lazy asses who’ve benefitted from nepotism and cronyism their whole lives, are going around acting like they’ve achieved some kind of respectful competency in their lives. They’re just a couple fat, drunk and stupid screwups. Seems a mental illness is involved.

Shouldn’t there also be a mental health examination when determining which landowners get to vote or not?

Anyhoo… I’ll shut up now and go meditate on our Cosmos. I’m wondering if God lets all kinds of fat, drunk and stupid into heaven, even if they don’t play by his prescribed rules. “Uh, I never repented let alone prayed. But I know St. Pete.”

Gagdad Bob said...

This tweet makes sense, what with the constant gaslighting:

"The lies aren't aimed at you. They've already dismissed you as a domestic extremist. They're aimed at their own people. Yes, they think their own people are stupid enough to believe it."

So, they don't even bother lying to us, only in order keep their own morons in thrall.

julie said...

Have to agree with that. The people who see aren't going to believe them no matter what they say. Those who don't see require a constant drip of disinformation in order to keep it that way. To wake them up wouldn't even require a counter-infusion of truth, it would simply take a cessation of the lies, which is why they can never stop.

Irene said...

"...but frankly, sometimes I feel like I’m just an irritant to readers"

You're not irritating this reader, Bob. Your posts are the highlight of my reading on the web every. single. day. you post.

All the best.

Gagdad Bob said...

Thank you, Irene. I tend to waver on the razor's edge between megalomania and self-pity.

David St. Hubbins said...

It’s such a fine line between stupid... and clever.

Anonymous said...

"The lies aren't aimed at you. They've already dismissed you as a domestic extremist. They're aimed at their own people. Yes, they think their own people are stupid enough to believe it."

Coming from a guy who proclaimed belief that Trump won the election just because some guy said so. Or that an all-powerful all-loving God never shows up in any kind of meaningful way, because of some mysterious X-factor.

It’s such a fine line between stupid... and clever.

Uh, no. It's not such a fine line. But I guess there is that metaphysical philosophy world where anything is possible.

Seriously people, you need to make Christianity more Christ-like. Just like Jesus suggested. All these mental gymnastics are coming across as gaslighting.

Cousin Dupree said...

Behind his back we call it geistlighting. So irritating.

Anonymous said...

Bob’s top 5 reasons why trolls keep popping up around here:

They’re bored.
They’ve been indoctrinated by the most vile of atheist Marxists, the Democrats.
They’re demonically possessed.
They’re stupid and/or insane.
They’re seeking some Real Truth which they sense is missing from their lives.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous’ top 5 reasons why trolls keep popping up around here:

Christian churches in America are closing at the rate of 4000 per year more than new ones are opening. And that rate is increasing. We see the many benefits which Christian faith can have for anybody struggling with the trevails of a sin filled daily life. We think there are reasons for this decline which may have nothing to do with Christianity and that this needs to be discussed.

The sharp decline in Christianity is about to reach a tipping point, after which Christianity will be unpopular with the masses and difficult to re-energize. Think Egypt. Or Spain. A once great religion would then be replaced by more secular and/or alien spiritual “solutions”.

We don’t think that Christian nationalism is what the founders intended. We think that this separation of church and state is what helped keep America a profoundly Christion nation for the better part of two centuries. We don’t think that going back to a kind of medieval Christian feudalism where everything is dysfunctional for all but the plutocratic elite, will help strengthen our religion in our modern technological world.

The American Dream and moral culture is also in sharp decline. We believe there are reasons why and wish to at least try to discuss solutions which have nothing to do with pop boogiemen and far more to do with Christ’s teachings.

We’re deeply disturbed by this new anomaly of being utterly judgmental and unwilling discuss any of the above with “outsiders”, to grasp onto pop demagogues and obviously false prophets. This seems a cultist mindset. And no thinking anybody likes a cultist.

julie said...

And yet here you are. Weird.

Clearly, this blog doesn’t serve the purpose you think it does. There are any number of other places which do so. Perhaps you would be happier reading one of those.

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