Here we go ...

otherbrother said:
I’ll tell you about one miracle. My wife has stayed with this weird egghead for 49 years. It’s about time I unlock that room in the basement, and let her out!
On a panenthiestic note, in her (in the love I have of her and feel from her) I see God rather clearly. Also in my two grandchildren that came by way of the son I thought was dead in a hospital (after a bad car accident) when they told us to wait in a room until the social worker arrived. Not only did he survive head trauma, and coma, and stop breathing (at scene of accident), but he thrived with a full recovery. Miracles that unfold in a creation that allows for both happy and sad things, but enough happy to make life seem worthwhile. And of course the greatest source of happy is love. Love is some sort of wonderful quantum entanglement that makes us so much wholer than we otherwise would be. The stuff of miracles.
What is TOE? An acronym I missed?
Click to expand...
I’m assuming everyone has seen the Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life.

After seeing a play version of the story, I wrote the poem below. It zooms in on seeing the miracles all around us.

We have discussed how some degree of divinity or quantum coherence survives physical existence, and mentioned Matthew Fox’s (author of Creation Spiritually) Supranatural notion of panentheism on several occasions. This poem reimagines how the main character of story came to open his eyes to the miraculous qualities of life. The poems suggests we need a break in our normal consciousness, that tends towards myopia. in order to sense the divine all around us.:

Lifefullofwonder



Like George Bailey’s life compressed

by responsibility and dreams squashed,

the word “wonderful” conceals

the wonder and fullness of life.

Two meanings are lost in a familiar word.

“Wonderful” is quite nice, even excitedly so,

but whatever happened to the stopped-still awe of “wonder”?

What became of the beyond-words riches of “full”?



George Bailey was trying (and that may have been the problem)

to have a wonderful life.

What did he see in those far off lands he hoped to explore?

Wonders of the world?

What did he not see there in Bedford Falls?

In the small office of his father’s Building and Loan company?

In Mary’s embracing arms?

In the old haunted house turned into his home?



Couldn’t he see the wonders whirling all about,

like the ghosts hidden in his ramshackle mansion?

Did his dreams dim his inner vision?

Keep him from seeing the spirit woven into his life?

Did the fact that he was barely making ends meet

keep him from seeing the circles of love?





Dreams that collapsed into despair

made him look past his daughter’s adoring eyes

as he tucked her in bed on Christmas Eve.

It was just a cold winter night to him.

He felt the falling of snow —

not the soft landings of snowflakes,

his children’s kisses

melting magically on his face.

He couldn’t feel the wonder.



Had he let Potter get under his skin,

that old parasite of power and greed,

like a warble’s lump under a cow’s hide in Spring?

Is that what numbed him to the snowflake kisses?

To the grace touching him in small ways?

Did his face turn into Potter’s field?

A hopeless place to bury the poor?



Even the word “wonderful” needed a break,

a dark silent gap to stand in,

a lancing to let out the parasite,

a space between wonder and full,

between distant wonders of the world

and the fullness of George Bailey’s everyday life.



Broken and empty, he thought of throwing himself away.

Suddenly, someone needed to be saved.

He plunged into deep waters.

Near death, he saw how life might have been if his hadn't—

saw the wondrously abundant little snowflake touches

that he left on the cheeks of the townsfolk.



Clarence brought clarity, a word heard differently.

“Wonderful” was “wonder, full.”

Then a sizable breath, exhaled freely into the cold night air,

rolled off George’s tongue like a whole new word.

He lifted up his arms to celebrate the snow falling.







© 2005 Darrell Moneyhon
 
Thomas,
I really liked what you said (somewhere on this thread) about the Pope shifting to horizontal relationships instead of vertical hierarchy, Yes, that would correspond to an evolution towards interdependence, beyond traditional dependency and modern era independence. He has the advantage of his followers having also participated in the modern world so they could experience independence enough to sense the need for the higher stage of interdependence. Otherwise, they would have been stuck in the dependency of the church’s traditionalism.
 
And the horizontal-ness helps us see those miracles all around us, instead of following the dictates of higher ups (God in the sky).
 
And the worldwide struggle to save democracy is smack dab in the middle of the transition to interdependence, up against the temptation to regress back to dependence for a false sense of safety.
 
otherbrother said:
And the worldwide struggle to save democracy is smack dab in the middle of the transition to interdependence, up against the temptation to regress back to dependence for a false sense of safety.
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And a false sense of belonging (via conditional love of one’s tribe)
 
otherbrother said:
And the worldwide struggle to save democracy is smack dab in the middle of the transition to interdependence, up against the temptation to regress back to dependence for a false sense of safety.
Click to expand...
I have news for you: most of the world today seeks religion to provide a sense of community and comfort (safety) because they are Sheeple, unable to be Individuals, and stand against what Nature throws at them. They must follow what they believe to be something greater than themselves (Sheeple).

Interdependence is a little like Tribalism. True Dependence is just that (on yourself) and is the lonely walk down the Western Left Hand Path.
 
otherbrother said:
What is TOE? An acronym I missed?
Click to expand...
Theory of Everything?

Big fleas have little fleas
Upon their backs to bite 'em
And little fleas have lesser fleas
So on, ad infinitum
 
wil said:
Yet in reality...not infinitum.
Click to expand...
Is infinity a problem of time and space extended infinitely into the past and future -- or is it a condition outside, beyond and not subject to time and space?
 
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'Amir Alzzalam said:
I have news for you: most of the world today seeks religion to provide a sense of community and comfort (safety) because they are Sheeple, unable to be Individuals, and stand against what Nature throws at them. They must follow what they believe to be something greater than themselves (Sheeple).

Interdependence is a little like Tribalism. True Dependence is just that (on yourself) and is the lonely walk down the Western Left Hand Path.
Click to expand...
Amir, I agree with the first part you said, which is that people rush to a false sense of safety and comfort instead of valuing the challenge of growth.
But I think interdependence is based on a realization of a True (Deep) Self that is in such a convergent reality that it transcends duality and dichotomy. So True Self doesn’t have to practice empathy per se, because it understands how it is reflected in others and vice versa. At a deeper level, that is. In a way, I am you, and you are me. This consciousness becomes the basis of effective cooperation and love, we are all parts of a Whole.
You might prefer the functional aspect of what people call “God”; it seems to be wholeness. If we grow towards wholeness, we are following “God.” In other words, wholeness could be an operational definition of God.
 
otherbrother said:
Amir, I agree with the first part you said, which is that people rush to a false sense of safety and comfort instead of valuing the challenge of growth.
But I think interdependence is based on a realization of a True (Deep) Self that is in such a convergent reality that it transcends duality and dichotomy. So True Self doesn’t have to practice empathy per se, because it understands how it is reflected in others and vice versa. At a deeper level, that is. In a way, I am you, and you are me. This consciousness becomes the basis of effective cooperation and love, we are all parts of a Whole.
You might prefer the functional aspect of what people call “God”; it seems to be wholeness. If we grow towards wholeness, we are following “God.” In other words, wholeness could be an operational definition of God.
Click to expand...
I agree with some of your reply however, I do not buy into the One Consciousness and we are all tributaries of this Consciousness, which kind of negates the True Self (Greater Self/GodSelf).
 
Amir,
I posted this (below) in response to RJM’s question “why?” (talk about “Growth Christianity.”
It fits in well with your sensibilities about “sheeple”, too much dependency.
It dawned on me that there are two main types of “need”:
have-to-have (dependency)

in-order-to (grow, be better)

The latter type would be the need involved in interdependence. In order to compliment each other’s independent gifts.
———————————-


I think some fear-based belief crept into Christianity as Paul was organizing the movement. Similar to the observer effect postulated in quantum physics, in which normal human consciousness tends to cause wave function collapse and make a quanta act more like a particle than a wave, as Christianity tried to adapt to the world around it in order to fit in well enough to “take,” it accidentally became like a business, bottom line, ego defense, mentality. Inevitable consequence of being “in the world.” And despite Paul’s concepts such as the wonderful discernments about Love (Corenthians 14?), that attempted to keep Christianity’s followers “not OF the world,”
“In” can so easily gradually slip into “of.”
When a being, system. or movement, focuses on defending itself and/ or fitting in so as not to bring on problems, it is leaning towards fear-based motivation.
The good news of the gospel turns into something less inspiring, even as it hides behind the good news.

Growth Christianity is an attempt to focus on lovingly nurturing the highest, whole-ist, potential of the loved objects called human beings. When “God”’so loved the world “, it wasn’t for its chariots and automobiles and skyscrapers—it was the PEOPLE that make up the “world.” And even if God as a separate being is but a meaningful myth, it creates a positive self-fulfilling prophecy of loving and nurturing human potential.
Sin theology goes beyond the acknowledgment that we are all broken and not fully integrated, and lapses into an identity that becomes a negative self fulfilling prophecy and sets up an addictive-like dependency and disempowerment, like keeping a woman barefoot and pregnant so the man of the house can lord over her.
Growth Christianity seeks to liberate Christians from that fear-based trap/cage.
 
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