New Search for Ultimate Reality
9-23-07
Sylvester, in response to your 9-21-07 post I have two comments.
The following is ONE (I emphasize so it will come through on the NCRcafe format) example of what I mean by a post Axial Age faith when I say that it does not pursue the invention of life’s meaning.
The Jerome Biblical Commentary [a very large reference book which can probably be borrowed from a library] edited by Raymond Brown S.S., Joseph Fitzmyer S.J., Roland Murphy O. Carm. 1968 Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Chap. 2 Genesis Eugene H. Maly page 8 section 7 from the Pontifical Biblical Commission regarding the first 11 chapters of Genesis 1948 Cardinal Suhard of Paris “—they relate in simple and figurative language, adapted to the understanding of a less developed people --.”
Section 8 “The possibility of a faithful transmission of the narratives from primitive individuals featured in the them to the historians of Israel is even more fantastic. The many millennia between the time of the first man and that of Israel would preclude, on natural grounds, the possibility of a faithful transmission. If miraculous intervention be supposed, then a series of miracles greater than a single act of revelation would be required. THE SUPPOSITION HAS NO BASIS IN THE BIBLICAL RECORD ITSELF.
Therefore, these are inventions regarding God’s Plan. In other words, these are examples of the invention of life’s meaning.
So, on the other hand, scientific-philosophical investigation pursues the meaning of life.
We live in a new historical period for humanity; we are in a New Search for Ultimate Reality.
With all the research that has been done, my understanding is that we have moved into the post Judeo- Christian period.
The second comment, I was listening in another room when my husband had C-Span on (6-17-07). Ralph Nader. It was on corporate responsibility. My reaction is if a corporation is a legal ‘person’ then it too is a person with proportionate individual rights and responsibilities. I make this point in response to what you were saying about the corporation problem. I think one way to tackle this is for the shareholders to consider socially responsible investing since the corporation is so beholden to the shareholders. Another way is for people to boycott as a means to make the corporation more accountable.
9-25-07 Sylvester, I respond
9-25-07 Sylvester, I respond with no arrogance lest it be perceived as such. I respond with a humble spirit (a deeply held Christian value). My humble suggestion is that you might want to read and read. After awhile it begins to come together.
If you recall Discussion # 8 April 2007: Dupre asks why Sheehan or anyone should believe in and follow the God of Judaism after the alleged revelation has been so thoroughly demythologized? In addition, he asks what could the expression “the God of Judaism” “who has elected Israel to a special revelation” possibly mean? Moreover, such an “election” comes completely from Scriptures that we have discovered are not to be trusted.
This is like what my earlier example to you showed, namely, a scholar who demythologizes the scriptures. This phenomenon is a small segment of what has been going on in the revolution of the Church. For me personally, the only way that things become clearer over time is to read from a multiplicity of sources.
Discussion # 14 to be submitted next week reviews some of what I have said that is relevant to this post. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to spend more than a limited amount of time in replies beyond the discussions themselves. As I said to you or something like it, we are in an enormous intellectual revolution. It will take time and steadfastness to reap the fruit. So all of us have to ‘hang in there.’ Thank you. Marie.
This Sunday afternoon, 30
This Sunday afternoon, 30 September 2007, 4:00 P.M., Felicitas (the light of my life for 48 years and the mother of our six daughters) and I are reading in the Garden Room. I am reading the last pages of Robert Weldon Whalen’s book “Sacred Spring”. These are the words I am reading:
“'The Matrix,’ humans have engaged in ontology, in the struggle to distinguish between ‘seeming’ and ‘being,’ [is] not simply out of a some leisurely curiosity, but out of the urgent need to know how they should live, and how they should die, and whether any of it matters anyway… when we speak about ‘God’ we speak about ‘reality,’ about ‘being,’ about that which makes the ‘real’ real, that which makes ‘being’ be. ‘God,’ to use Tillich’s phrase, is the Unconditioned, that is, reality as it really is. Our awareness of the Unconditioned is a matter of ‘ultimate concern’ because meaning, purpose, and trajectory to our lives can be found only in ‘being,’ not in ‘seeming,’ only in the Unconditioned, not in the conditional…
“Therefore, to continue with Tillich, we are, or should be, ‘ultimately concerned’ about the Unconditioned. Such ‘ultimate concern’ about the Unconditioned is called faith… if telling the truth means speaking in accord with reality, then the Unconditioned is the foundation of truth… much that we claim to be true is false; much that we think real is an illusion; much that we say about God is really a human projection and distortion. God, the Unconditioned, transcends human institutions and categories, and therefore, maybe we ought to retire the word ‘God’, as Tillich suggested, and clean it up as well as we can of human accretions…
“Though an awareness of the Unconditioned involves knowledge, it is more than a kind of cognition, because it includes ultimate concern… An encounter with the Unconditioned, however, engages my ultimate concern, and this engages me intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually…
“Tillich argues that much of modern thought, from Nietzsche to Heidegger, is an effort to understand the Unconditioned. An encounter with the Unconditioned occurs, for instance… in the blink of the eye when time seems to pause, or rupture entirely, when things become terribly important… An awareness of the Unconditioned occurs in those odd times… when, through memory, time cracks and the past flows into the present.”
Even as I was reading I heard the muted warble of a house wren some distance from the house. It surprised me because I hadn’t heard or seen wrens since the first of September. Time cracked, the past flowed into the present. I was in another moment, the first week of June, 2001. Our oldest daughter, Monica, was basking in sunshine, in a reclining chair looking out the window into the Garden Refuge watching a happy pair of wrens warbling to each other.
As they warbled back and forth, she thrilled to the sound and called out, “the song of the wren is the most beautiful sound in the world!” — Only a couple days later, in the same chair, looking out the same window, the sun shining, the long dreaded moment happened, she had a seizure caused by the fast growing tumor in her brain. In the wee morning hours of the next day, June 9, a month and four days beyond her 41st birthday, she radiantly, calmly slipped away for her ultimate encounter with the Unconditioned.
Sylvester, I had not read
Sylvester, I had not read your moving meditation until I saw your reply to Frannie and Elaine.
I hesitate to add words to words, particularly when words are such a shoddy means of touching on realities that go far beyond the verbal.
And no one can match what you have written for depth and eloquence, in any case.
What I would like to say is that I admire and thank you for your courage in telling this story. Though I never knew Monica, she now is part of my own thoughts, life, and memory, and will live there, because of your story.
I believe that in the tree of life, all our roots are intertwined.
I also believe that memory demands the struggle to hold onto this belief in our ultimate interconnection, in the face of so much that conspires to try to make us forget.
This is a daily struggle for me, since forgetting is often easier. It is easier when the memory comes from an abyss out of which someone in our past has reached, and has tried to pull us into the darkness.
When we try to decipher the meaning of such experiences--when we try to remember at all cost--we run the risk of being pulled into the abyss. We run the risk of becoming mirror images of those who have tried to eradicate our lives and the meaning of our lives.
I cannot truly imagine what losing a child is like. I cannot imagine what holding onto the memory of such an event is like. I have no words that could possibly speak truly about your experience.
What I do recognize is your courage and compassion in holding onto the memory, in letting it reach you through the cracks of time--and in sharing it with us. I will cherish the tiny nugget you have given me, since I believe that it is in remembering that we hold onto our humanity, when so much tempts us to forget and just go with the flow and get on with our lives as if many of those who have gone before are gone and forgotten.
Love,
William D. Lindsey
There are days I wonder why
There are days I wonder why I bother with this site, and then there are days like today when I understand just how connected I've become to the people who share this site with me. Thank you Sylvester and Bill.
One Sunday later at 8:00p.m.
One Sunday later at 8:00p.m. after the sun has gone down and the guests have left but the day is still as warm as I remember it used to be:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It was when I said,
'There is no such thing as the truth,'
That the grapes seemed fatter.
The fox ran out of the hole.
You ... You said,
'There are many truths,
But they are not parts of a truth.'
Then the tree, at night, began to change,
Smoking through green and smoking blue.
We were two figures in a wood.
We said we stood alone.
It was when I said,
'Words are not forms of a single word.
In the sum of the sum of the parts, there are only parts.
The world must be measured by eye';
It was when you said,
'The idols have seen lots of poverty,
Snakes and gold and lice,
But not the truth';
It was at that time, that the silence was largest
And longest, the night was roundest,
The fragrance of the Autumn warmest,
Closest and strongest.
[Wallace Stevens, ON THE ROAD HOME, 1936 from THE MAN WITH THE BLUE GUITAR]
~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for the sound of time cracking; and of the heart folding all the time and sounds into an Unconditioned hymn ... on this Sunday Sabbath.
God's peace be with you+
The Rev. Dr. E. McCoy
"The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!' The Lord replied, 'If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."'" (Luke 17:5)
I rejoice for your child,
I rejoice for your child, but I ache for you. Thank you for sharing this radiant moment with me.
Frannie and Marie, Felicitas
Frannie and Marie, Felicitas and I appreciate very much your thoughtful expressions of sympathy for the "loss" we experience from our daughter's Pass Over. Monica shines on in our lives more brightly than ever. The WORD/LIGHT Trilogies, "Second Enlightenment" and "Conscious Light", are monogram testimonials to the glow of her insight and art. The fullness and pang we experience are more than can be put adequately in words. Our five living daughters and our seven grandchildren share in the amazing uplift. Thank you. [For more on the WORD/LIGHT Trilogies visit www.secondenlightenment.org]
[Moreover, such an
[Moreover, such an “election” comes completely from Scriptures that we have discovered are not to be trusted.]
What about "scripture can be trusted"? Pius XII in "divino afflante spiritu" helps us. Literary styles, the genres of writing used by the writers, the times and the writers' intent (the writing about events of God-experience mostly happened MANY generations after the "events") bear upon understanding scriptural meanings. Prior to Pius XII, popes and Church culture totally eschewed the idea of applying scientific methods to understanding scriptures. The Old Testament in total is a diverse and colorful account, of a people dialoging with the divine in culture and experience and telling stories along the way. The interpretations extrapolated onto the Old Testament, post Jesus Christ, are culturally frated with patriarchal, imperial purposes and pretenses.
As to the revolution going on in the Church — Vatican II could not have happened except for the reverse in direction taken by Pius XII from Trent/Vat-One. He seriously opened up the Church to evolution's potential of renewal from within, which is the soul and substance of Vatican II "aggiornamento".
Yes, it is necessary to consider the multiplicity of sources that lead to seminal truths, BUT at this stage of the game (the criticality of world conditions and even more impending crises), if the multitude of resources have already been discerned for their contributions to truth and if Church consciousness has already worked through them and clarified the confusion we are occupied with here, why not cut to the quick and get on with it and move forward with action? Why rehash old hash? Are we ready to talk directly and immediately about "ultimate reality" from the perspective of been-there-done-that already and deal with the "what now"?
We (Church) can do this now if we stop frustating the open insights of Vatican II by clinging to the imperial anathemas of Pius IX, Vatican I and Pius X.
Thank you. I'm trying to
Thank you. I'm trying to understand. I'll try putting it as I think it's been stated. Correct me and fill me in on what's missing.
In re opere citato, the Jerome Biblical Commentary
1. Is the issue about the transmission of the narrative and its content ("truths"?) of consciousness? of belief? of faith? from axial to post-axial, from the Judaeo-Christian era to the post Judaoe-Christian era?
2. Is it the commentary conclusion that: the supposition of faithful transmission of the narrative (and content?) of consciousness? of belief? of faith? from the axial age to the post-axial age has "no basis in the biblical record itself". Is that what the issue is? Is there no more to it (the question I raised) than that?
Conclusion (2) the supposition of reality and the search for ultimate reality in the Judaeo-Christian era are not the same supposition of reality and the same search for ultimate reality as in the post Judaeo-Christian era. (?) Does this state what this point is about?
As to the second comment, I will repeat my position: I am of the opinion that to give corporations the same ontological standing as "a person" as to rights, protections, in law, etc., is wrong, socially damaging and compounded in destructive consequences. It makes it easy for individual persons to collude corporately in mutual self interest and to the harm of the greater public interest. Because guilt of wrongdoing is attributed to the lifeless entity and not to the live entities -- in law -- the law also colludes in corporate acts of intentional public injury, and is itself corruptive. Money is too easily gotten from investors under deceptive pretexts.
When legal judgment is against the corporation the cost is on the shareholders. The corporate pursuit of money, as the corporations reason for being, fundamentally corrupts and officers too easily cheat the public.
Sylvester, "the past flowed
Sylvester, "the past flowed into the present"; therefore belated condolences I think are appropriate for you, your wife and family. When a child passes on before a parent there is an additional dimension to the grief experienced. Marie.