About That Vase

I was pretty direct with God in Monday's post, wasn't I? You break it, you buy it. Meaning, of course, if the universe is flawed, God has to be held responsible. But what if the "template" was always for us (humanity) to integrate the spiritual with the material? If God is ONE (unified, whole) how would it be possible to observe or experience other aspects of Oneself? Fragmentation was required, division necessary. In a word, duality. So the physical world came to be. And eventually, us.

Understand that fragmentation was contingent on the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. Only this could insure an impartial, unbiased flow of information from experiences that, by their very nature, would be partial and biased. Because the One had to imagine something other than Itself, (ergo a clone) the only way possible was through a limited and seemingly separate expression of It's consciousness; with these limitations and separations becoming more pronounced as they filtered down through the diverse manifestations of the One. (think; man--dog--flower--rock)

And this is where we come in. With our understanding we can observe and experience fragmentation as a revelation of the One. The bowl pictured above is an image of kintsugi, the Japanese art of pottery repair. (see; Wabi Sabi 2-13-14) It is an invaluable aid to understanding what we do with the broken pieces of the vase. We put them back together, more beautiful than before. In this way we answer the two most vexing questions that mankind has ever posed: "who am I" and "what am I doing here."

You Break It You Buy It

"And God saw every thing he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Genesis 1:31

"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them." Genesis 6:6-7

Wow! Didn't take long for things to go to hell in a hand basket, did it? A mere 5 chapters after God declared, "it was very good," he is ready to wash his hands of the whole thing. (literally--I mean it was a flood, after all) Now man I can understand. We exercised free will in the garden and had the temerity of having daughters that were attractive to the sons of God. Who promptly came down and took the daughters of men as wife's, and started producing off-spring. (Gen. 6:2-4) Talk about your double standards! Apparently God felt it was okay for his "sons" to be reckless and carnal-driven, but the "wickedness of man was great in the earth." (verse 5) My question is, what did the animals do that they were included in the destruction? Were they wicked too?

Another question that I have is; what punishment did the "sons of God" incur? The text is silent until the New Testament. (see; 2nd Peter 2:4-5) Supposedly, "...God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved until judgement." Chained? Everything I've ever heard about them is that they are a pretty active bunch. Who was Jesus exorcising out of people in the Gospels (Mark 5:1-20 as just one example) if not for fallen angels? Did they somehow get time off for good behavior? What were they doing going around possessing people when their (supposedly) chained up?

The larger point is this: did God get it wrong when he said it was "very good." If God did create the world and everything in it, he's accountable for it. He is either omniscient or he's not, right? If he's not omniscient, then he's not really God. If he is "God," he knew what was going to happen and still declared it very good. You say, 'hold on there Pat, we had free will. Don't you know choices come with consequences.' Fair enough! So too, with God. The consequences of free will is that bad decisions are going to be made. If your child touches a hot stove when you've told them not to, do you wipe them off the face of the planet for disobeying you? How about when an adult takes hold of a child's hand and places it in a fire, do you drown the child for disobedience? (the adult being a son of God and the child a daughter of man) If you go into a store and knock an expensive vase from a table, do you blame the pieces of broken pottery on the floor? Stupid vase...it chose to break! No, you're the one who set things in motion and the consequences are your responsibility. So too, with God.

Savvy?

God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance. ~Abraham Joshua Heschel