It's the principleI always thought the question was If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it -- does it make a sound?
Is the world just a reality of my own perception. Does the world cease to exist when I do?
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It's the principleI always thought the question was If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it -- does it make a sound?
I tend to agree ... it's all contextual. Without a greater explanation, or reference to Corbin's commentary, I can't say.I suspect a possible answer goes back to Shaykh Aḥmad, who flips the traditional view (e.g., matter becomes active and shapes form and form becomes receptive to the potential and influence of matter). To use an analogy, traditionally, classical metaphysicians focused on understanding the form (or the image) as the true essence of the painting. Shaykh Aḥmad seems to say we can also understand matter itself (e.g., the texture of the canvas, the way the paint is applied) as part of what makes the painting what it is. If matter is not passive but has its own potential and agency, then it can't be simply nothing waiting to be shaped by God. There's something there. The interaction between matter and form becomes a continuous process, not a one-time act of creation.
Yes.Almighty God is Eternal .. so NOT created. Creation implies a beginning.
Hmmmm ... I'd say souls are not the essence of God, else they'd be Divine and possess all the Divine attributes?I believe that souls are FROM G-d, OF G-d, and also eternal.
I was thinking more along the lines of immanence and hypostasis – of deification and Divine Union ...How do we acheive it together would most likely be the question you are asking.
No, it's there from the get-go.How is the union of soul and body to be of substance founded on scripture? Or is that a later development?
Well, Christianity begs to differ. "God vecame man than man might become God' as we say.Because there can be no direct tie between the transcendent being of God and His contingent creation ...
This sounds like a repetition of the Arian Position – that the Divine Will is of God, but not God, but before time, etc., ?"the connection between the two takes place through the divine or Primal Will, which, in turn, is the cause of all creation."
I think it's rejected by the Abrahamic Traditions as such ... it was a 'Gnostic notion ...Only under a certain theological framework. The possibility of the human soul's death only opens if it indwells the body, like a tenant in a house. This ancient concept is rejected in the Baha'i Faith.
Clearly, as the soul isn't a physical entity.Instead, there is a non-physical connection between soul and body, between this world and the other world.
I honestly don't know .. I'm not a scholar .. but even scholars vary in their opinions, I've noted.Hmmmm ... I'd say souls are not the essence of God, else they'd be Divine and possess all the Divine attributes?
I'd say souls exist in God from eternity, but as undifferentiated natures (I'm using that word a lot lately) – they have no 'act' or 'being' in God, they are brought into being, and in that sense from nothing (no previous existing substance), but God's knowledge of that soul is eternal ...
For sure...but one thing I feel sure of, is that ALL of us will experience the Day of Judgement.
The Qur'an is explicit in that, as is, I feel, the Gospel.
yep...and so death is not the end of our journey, life in some shape or form continues.
We experience existence now, and will do again after physical death.
Not in the body in the sense of literal indwelling, like a tenant in a house.Where is the soul if not in the body?
". . . it is absolutely impossible that the Holy Spirit should ascend and descend, enter, come out, or penetrate, it can only be that the Holy Spirit appears in splendour, as the sun appears in the mirror.”
-Abdu'l-Baha
A baha'i dogmas ... but notably not an Abrahamic one.
Well, Ebionites would beg to differ.Well, Christianity begs to differ. "God vecame man than man might become God' as we say.
Before God 'originated' His will ... what then?
And if there is no 'before', then how does it have an origin ... or were there always two?
I think this has everything to do with it, really.the theology was shaped by Scripture. and the philosophers were interpreted in the light ...
it's a whole other discussion and supports my point that we choose and interpret according to the scripture we prefer?The link between Christianity and Islam is James and his followers.
I'll just leave this here from the link:it's a whole other discussion and supports my point that we choose and interpret according to the scripture we prefer?
No, it's there from the get-go.
The 'substance' of the union, or the 'essence' of the union (the terms are interchangeable here) is the human person.
But Wikipedia says:Genesis 2:7 says "... and man became a living soul (nefesh) – Nefesh in Scripture can mean 'living being' or 'person' and it particularly reflects the personal dimension: The sense of 'self', of personal desire or attraction, for good or ill.
Quite ... I would agree with that, it's not the sense that we have of it.Not in the body in the sense of literal indwelling, like a tenant in a house.
OKIn another dimension or, as the Baha'i Writings say, in "the invisible realm," which is beyond both space and place.
I suppose it's the same as the idea of 'person' – that, too, transcends the material body, nevertheless is intimately associated with it.If we speak of the soul as a spiritual substance - a substance radically different from a material substance - then how can it reside in the brain or body? How can we continue to use categories like entering and exiting?
Outside of the Baha'i Faith, Henry Corbin gathered as much from recent followers of Shaykh Ahmad:
OK. There are a number of issues raised here. By way of short-hand, I'm citing an essay by Frithjof Schuon: The Two Paradises. I cannot recommend this essay enough, especially as it touches upon issues raised and answers the objections with regard to the elements of traditional Christian doctrine.