taijasi
Gnōthi seauton
This was a very interesting read for me just now ... an article from the Vancouver Sun entitled "God" Needs a Name Change.
The connection I make this morning is with Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. We find Heroes and Heroines all around and among us, in every walk of life, serving in every capacity imaginable ... in every station, in every country, in every calling. We also find them manifest through our popular media, from television and movies to video games, across the Internet and in U.S. comic books since the 1930s.
From Superman, Batman, Spiderman and the Green Hornet, to Luke Skywalker, Ben Kenobi, Bilbo & Frodo Baggins and Galdalf the wizard, they surround us, fill our hearts and minds and inspire us to reach beyond who we already are ... to Become -- more. Children's fables & fairy stories, fantasy and science fiction literature, even mystery and romance novels are replete with both Heroes and villians, but we know the theme of Good always prevailing over evil. A more mature perspective may reveal to us that even Heroes experience temporary setbacks, but the wise approach is alway a cautious optimism, and this we have found will always triumph even in the face of the severest obstacles.
These are my thoughts this Sunday morning ... on the presence of but one of these qualities, aspects or expressions of the Indescribable. If every one of the monikers, epithets and appellations mentioned (see article) can be imagined as applying to the Manifest portion of this Indescribable (`G*d'), our understanding might just be stretched a little bit. It's a bit like juggling. We must become used to the rhythm and regularity of having a certain number of objects moving in sequence ... then consider adding additional objects once we've got the pattern. If it isn't a challenge at first, it will become so. If there is no challenge, we know what happens. Stagnation means no further growth ...
Monism, Monotheism, Panentheism and Animism ... even the much misunderstood Polytheism of traditions such as the Hindu & Hawaiian, or the high magic of Ancient Egypt become a great deal more meaningful when we can open ourselves to the idea of One Truth, Many Paths. One may even point out that for every person, there is a window right into the very Heart of the Divine. The question is, how open are we to the current lessons and the immediate set of Responsibilities before us? This is largely what determines our rate of progress, and our degree of success.
Necessarily some ideas will remain untested and some invitations will seem impractical. There seems to be some resistance when we look to apply Kant's Categorical Imperative. How honest are we with ourselves? And just how much growing is reasonable for us? This is a difficult question, since if we bite off more than we can chew, failure becomes inevitable. Thus we must not swing too far from comfort and composure, since there is a proper balance required for all types of growth: personal, Spiritual, psychological, biological, etc.
Setting reasonable goals and having reasonable expectations of both self and others ... seems an admirable charge for at least some of us. It's been my experience that when we Keep the Faith, we are never given more than it is our capacity to shoulder ... instead we are always given just what we need in order to grow, expand, and overcome our present obstacles. This phrase, `Keep the Faith,' like the title of the article and even like the title of this thread (Roll with it), could probably be restated dozens, maybe hundreds more ways ... each somewhat nuanced but expressive of the same or similar human experience - Universal, Timeless, Unperishing.
Namaskar/Blessed Be
The connection I make this morning is with Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. We find Heroes and Heroines all around and among us, in every walk of life, serving in every capacity imaginable ... in every station, in every country, in every calling. We also find them manifest through our popular media, from television and movies to video games, across the Internet and in U.S. comic books since the 1930s.
From Superman, Batman, Spiderman and the Green Hornet, to Luke Skywalker, Ben Kenobi, Bilbo & Frodo Baggins and Galdalf the wizard, they surround us, fill our hearts and minds and inspire us to reach beyond who we already are ... to Become -- more. Children's fables & fairy stories, fantasy and science fiction literature, even mystery and romance novels are replete with both Heroes and villians, but we know the theme of Good always prevailing over evil. A more mature perspective may reveal to us that even Heroes experience temporary setbacks, but the wise approach is alway a cautious optimism, and this we have found will always triumph even in the face of the severest obstacles.
These are my thoughts this Sunday morning ... on the presence of but one of these qualities, aspects or expressions of the Indescribable. If every one of the monikers, epithets and appellations mentioned (see article) can be imagined as applying to the Manifest portion of this Indescribable (`G*d'), our understanding might just be stretched a little bit. It's a bit like juggling. We must become used to the rhythm and regularity of having a certain number of objects moving in sequence ... then consider adding additional objects once we've got the pattern. If it isn't a challenge at first, it will become so. If there is no challenge, we know what happens. Stagnation means no further growth ...
Monism, Monotheism, Panentheism and Animism ... even the much misunderstood Polytheism of traditions such as the Hindu & Hawaiian, or the high magic of Ancient Egypt become a great deal more meaningful when we can open ourselves to the idea of One Truth, Many Paths. One may even point out that for every person, there is a window right into the very Heart of the Divine. The question is, how open are we to the current lessons and the immediate set of Responsibilities before us? This is largely what determines our rate of progress, and our degree of success.
Necessarily some ideas will remain untested and some invitations will seem impractical. There seems to be some resistance when we look to apply Kant's Categorical Imperative. How honest are we with ourselves? And just how much growing is reasonable for us? This is a difficult question, since if we bite off more than we can chew, failure becomes inevitable. Thus we must not swing too far from comfort and composure, since there is a proper balance required for all types of growth: personal, Spiritual, psychological, biological, etc.
Setting reasonable goals and having reasonable expectations of both self and others ... seems an admirable charge for at least some of us. It's been my experience that when we Keep the Faith, we are never given more than it is our capacity to shoulder ... instead we are always given just what we need in order to grow, expand, and overcome our present obstacles. This phrase, `Keep the Faith,' like the title of the article and even like the title of this thread (Roll with it), could probably be restated dozens, maybe hundreds more ways ... each somewhat nuanced but expressive of the same or similar human experience - Universal, Timeless, Unperishing.
Namaskar/Blessed Be
