"Likewise, exposure to WORDS related to the elderly makes people walk more slowly, WORDS related to professors make people smarter at the game of Trivial Pursuit; and WORDS related to soccer hooligans make people dumber." The Happiness Hypothesis~Jonathan Haidt (Bargh, Chen, and Burrows, 1996--Dijksterhuis and van Knippenberg, 1998)
So, do you think the words and ideas promoted in January could make a difference in the level of intimacy you share with God?
Word on the street says it will.
Update: 2-12-15 The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have WORDS for. ~Ludwig Wittenstein
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Aspects of God
I talk in both the web and blog sections of "aspects of God." Lets view some biblical accounts to better understand what I mean. Genesis chapter 18 portrays Abraham receiving 3 visitors on the "plains of Mam-re." One is God, the other two angels. God informs Abraham he is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham begins to NEGOTIATE with God! (verse 24; "Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?) The negotiation goes on and on till Abraham whittles the Lord down to (theoretically) 10 righteous men. Talk about cheeky.
Chapter 19 provides a further insight. The two angels (having departed and arrived in Sodom) tell Lot to "...escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." (verse 17) Lot isn't entirely content with being saved--oh no!--he prefers to pick his OWN destination. (city of Zo-ar; verses 18-22) More incredible yet, God says in verse 22; "Haste thee, escape thither; for I CANNOT DO ANY THING till thou come thither." Astonishing! Lot revises God's plan (of saving HIS skin) and holds up proceedings until he can get to Zo-ar.
Genesis chapter 32, verse 24-30, allows us a remarkable look at a wrestling match between Jacob and God. (or, at the least, God's proxy) The upshot is Jacob prevails (though his thigh becomes, "out of joint") and demands not only a blessing, but to know his adversaries name. (knowing a persons name in ancient times was equal to having power over them; see, the Tetragrammaton) Instead, God changes Jacob's name to Israel, (meaning; 'struggle with God') blesses him, and goes on his way. Jacob is so moved by the encounter he renames the place Peniel (literally, 'the face of God') for he has "seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
To recap, we see it is entirely possible to: 1) negotiate with 2) alter the plans of, or 3) fight with God, and still remain in His good graces. In fact, we see it is conceivable to ask for a BLESSING while we wrestle with Him! And it matters not one whit whether we take the scripture literally or figuratively--as metaphor it still retains its instructive value.
Psalm 96:1 (as well as the 98th and 149th) suggest we "sing unto the Lord a new song." (Just a mellow old river cruising along--twisting and turning and SINGING my song--its not always happy, lively, or gay--but there's usually truth in what I say) [see, Aurora 7-20-12, 'Ol Man Grogs'] Whether it's one of negotiation, alteration, or contention, let your voice be heard. God will stoop to pick up every note.
Chapter 19 provides a further insight. The two angels (having departed and arrived in Sodom) tell Lot to "...escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." (verse 17) Lot isn't entirely content with being saved--oh no!--he prefers to pick his OWN destination. (city of Zo-ar; verses 18-22) More incredible yet, God says in verse 22; "Haste thee, escape thither; for I CANNOT DO ANY THING till thou come thither." Astonishing! Lot revises God's plan (of saving HIS skin) and holds up proceedings until he can get to Zo-ar.
Genesis chapter 32, verse 24-30, allows us a remarkable look at a wrestling match between Jacob and God. (or, at the least, God's proxy) The upshot is Jacob prevails (though his thigh becomes, "out of joint") and demands not only a blessing, but to know his adversaries name. (knowing a persons name in ancient times was equal to having power over them; see, the Tetragrammaton) Instead, God changes Jacob's name to Israel, (meaning; 'struggle with God') blesses him, and goes on his way. Jacob is so moved by the encounter he renames the place Peniel (literally, 'the face of God') for he has "seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
To recap, we see it is entirely possible to: 1) negotiate with 2) alter the plans of, or 3) fight with God, and still remain in His good graces. In fact, we see it is conceivable to ask for a BLESSING while we wrestle with Him! And it matters not one whit whether we take the scripture literally or figuratively--as metaphor it still retains its instructive value.
Psalm 96:1 (as well as the 98th and 149th) suggest we "sing unto the Lord a new song." (Just a mellow old river cruising along--twisting and turning and SINGING my song--its not always happy, lively, or gay--but there's usually truth in what I say) [see, Aurora 7-20-12, 'Ol Man Grogs'] Whether it's one of negotiation, alteration, or contention, let your voice be heard. God will stoop to pick up every note.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Incoherent
It is important to understand that no scripture, idea, concept, or person's opinion, can encompass the "totality" of what is referred to as 'God.' We simply don't know what we don't know. And unless you are God, how can you declare the extent or limitation of what is possible? Accepting our ignorance of the totality of God, we can then intellectually (and honestly) allow for individual manifestations of ASPECTS of that God. One need only study a snowflake in juxtaposition to 'snow' to glimpse the possible truth of such an idea.
Your paradoxical partner on your life's journey is your ego. On the one hand it will strife to glorify the self (look at me-me-me!). On the other, it will forever be whispering, "you're not good enough." This conflicted image of oneself can lead to a host of unwanted behaviors. While attempting to quiet the saboteur, you mimic actions contrary to self in hopes of acceptance. While desire for personal and social acceptance are powerful, if 'you' are misrepresented in the process what have you gained? Validation of the inauthentic self. This reinforces the subconscious tape, "I'm not good enough," and conflict continues. (neuroses)
Unifying contrary aspects of self begins with acceptance. Unless and until you come to terms with your behavior--be it lying, drug use, physical violence, infidelity, etc.--you give yourself 'permission' to continue said behavior. Denial and deflection are nothing more than "coping mechanisms" that allow a continuation of this false sense of self. (dichotomy) Only ownership of action can create the construct necessary for change.
The change we wish for is a cohesive demonstration of self. This must include an understanding of the spiritual component intrinsic to all human beings. Spirit is the traditional believe in a "vital principle or animating force within living beings." Spiritual then, is; "pertaining to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit or a spirit; not tangible or material." Disregard or dismissal of this fundamental part of our being leads to an incomplete, skewed view of who we are. This misunderstanding allows the ego a continued domination of interpretation regarding the events in our life.
Suppose, instead, entertaining the idea that you can manifest aspects of God--rather than your ego. Since the totality of the God we talk about is beyond our comprehension, we must allow for anything and everything being possible. Part of what is possible is tapping the unlimited potential that exists at the core of your being. You know its there. You've eyed it, whispered to it, even felt it from time to time. You've also been terrified of it because it removes all your excuses. It holds you accountable. It proclaims nothing is impossible if you apply all that you are and all that you wish to be. Truth be told, you prefer knowing its there than in putting it to the test. Because you know for a certainty that your ego will say you aren't good enough--and you'll believe that twice as fast and far easier than any silly notion about God. Which, unfortunately, answers any and all questions about the title of this post...
Your paradoxical partner on your life's journey is your ego. On the one hand it will strife to glorify the self (look at me-me-me!). On the other, it will forever be whispering, "you're not good enough." This conflicted image of oneself can lead to a host of unwanted behaviors. While attempting to quiet the saboteur, you mimic actions contrary to self in hopes of acceptance. While desire for personal and social acceptance are powerful, if 'you' are misrepresented in the process what have you gained? Validation of the inauthentic self. This reinforces the subconscious tape, "I'm not good enough," and conflict continues. (neuroses)
Unifying contrary aspects of self begins with acceptance. Unless and until you come to terms with your behavior--be it lying, drug use, physical violence, infidelity, etc.--you give yourself 'permission' to continue said behavior. Denial and deflection are nothing more than "coping mechanisms" that allow a continuation of this false sense of self. (dichotomy) Only ownership of action can create the construct necessary for change.
The change we wish for is a cohesive demonstration of self. This must include an understanding of the spiritual component intrinsic to all human beings. Spirit is the traditional believe in a "vital principle or animating force within living beings." Spiritual then, is; "pertaining to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit or a spirit; not tangible or material." Disregard or dismissal of this fundamental part of our being leads to an incomplete, skewed view of who we are. This misunderstanding allows the ego a continued domination of interpretation regarding the events in our life.
Suppose, instead, entertaining the idea that you can manifest aspects of God--rather than your ego. Since the totality of the God we talk about is beyond our comprehension, we must allow for anything and everything being possible. Part of what is possible is tapping the unlimited potential that exists at the core of your being. You know its there. You've eyed it, whispered to it, even felt it from time to time. You've also been terrified of it because it removes all your excuses. It holds you accountable. It proclaims nothing is impossible if you apply all that you are and all that you wish to be. Truth be told, you prefer knowing its there than in putting it to the test. Because you know for a certainty that your ego will say you aren't good enough--and you'll believe that twice as fast and far easier than any silly notion about God. Which, unfortunately, answers any and all questions about the title of this post...
Friday, January 23, 2015
Corrective Eye Surgery
Martin Buber tells this tale: "Rabbi Mendel once boasted to his teacher Rabbi Elimelekh that evenings he saw the angel who rolls away the light before the darkness, and mornings the angel who rolls away the darkness before the light. 'Yes,' said Rabbi Elimelekh, 'in my youth I saw that too. Later on you don't see these things any more.' "
Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization. Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won't see it. It is, as Ruskin says, "not merely unnoticed, but in the full, clear sense of the word, unseen."
But there is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go. When I see this way I sway transfixed and emptied.
But I can't go out and try to see this way. I'll fail, I'll go mad. All I can do is try to gag the commentator, to hush the noise of useless interior babble that keeps me from seeing just as surely as a newspaper before my eyes. The effort is really a discipline requiring a lifetime of dedicated struggle; it marks the literature of saints and monks of every order East and West, under every rule and no rule, discalced and shod. The world's spiritual geniuses seem to discover universally that the mind's muddy river, this ceaseless flow of trivia and trash, cannot be dammed, and that trying to dam it is a waste of effort that might lead to madness. Instead you must allow the muddy river to flow unheeded in the dim channels of consciousness; you raise your sights; you look along it, mildly, acknowledging its presence without interest and gazing beyond it into the realm of the real where subjects and objects act and rest purely, without utterance. "Launch into the deep," says Jacques Ellul, "and you shall see."
The secret of seeing is, then, the pearl of great price. If I thought he could teach me to find it and keep it forever I would stagger barefoot across a hundred deserts after any lunatic at all. But although the pearl may be found, it may not be sought. The literature of illumination reveals this above all: although it comes to those that wait for it, it is always, even to the most practiced and adept, a gift and a total surprise.
~Annie Dillard "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" Chapter II 'Seeing'
Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization. Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won't see it. It is, as Ruskin says, "not merely unnoticed, but in the full, clear sense of the word, unseen."
But there is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go. When I see this way I sway transfixed and emptied.
But I can't go out and try to see this way. I'll fail, I'll go mad. All I can do is try to gag the commentator, to hush the noise of useless interior babble that keeps me from seeing just as surely as a newspaper before my eyes. The effort is really a discipline requiring a lifetime of dedicated struggle; it marks the literature of saints and monks of every order East and West, under every rule and no rule, discalced and shod. The world's spiritual geniuses seem to discover universally that the mind's muddy river, this ceaseless flow of trivia and trash, cannot be dammed, and that trying to dam it is a waste of effort that might lead to madness. Instead you must allow the muddy river to flow unheeded in the dim channels of consciousness; you raise your sights; you look along it, mildly, acknowledging its presence without interest and gazing beyond it into the realm of the real where subjects and objects act and rest purely, without utterance. "Launch into the deep," says Jacques Ellul, "and you shall see."
The secret of seeing is, then, the pearl of great price. If I thought he could teach me to find it and keep it forever I would stagger barefoot across a hundred deserts after any lunatic at all. But although the pearl may be found, it may not be sought. The literature of illumination reveals this above all: although it comes to those that wait for it, it is always, even to the most practiced and adept, a gift and a total surprise.
~Annie Dillard "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" Chapter II 'Seeing'
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Seeing Things
It can be difficult to get our heads around a concept like the electromagnetic field. It is a complex and extensive subject. Still, we need to know that what we call 'light' is more appropriately called "visible light," and resides in the electromagnetic spectrum. It makes up a very small fraction of the entire field, which consists of: Radio waves--Microwave--Infrared--Visible Light--Ultraviolet--X-Ray--Gamma Ray.
Within visible light there is a subset of 7 parts, as there is in the electromagnetic field. (it might be of interest to know there are 7 musical notes as well) These are what we call colors. Red--Orange--Yellow--Green--Blue--Indigo--Violet. Just as in the EM field, working from left to right, red is a lower frequency than orange; as radio waves are lower in frequency (energy) than microwaves.
So what does all this mean? What you perceive as color is just energy (light) operating at a particular frequency. The frequency of color is measured in 'terahertz,' which is the number of cycles per second. (terahertz = one trillion cycles per second) So red, which vibrates at 400 to 484 terahertz, is vibrating 400 trillion + times per second. And red is the "slow" one! (violet vibrates at 700 trillion + times per second) And that rate of speed is simply incomprehensible.
Understand, I am not disputing the science. I accept it. It's just too much for me to process. I can't wrap my head around it. I find this mindset beneficial when I talk to an agnostic or atheist. I contend that 'God' is everywhere and everything. As possible explanations go, atheist's "can't see it." And that's alright. But if something as simple as color vibrates at such velocity, then maybe what we call God vibrates at the rate of a centillion. (that's 303 zeros behind a number) After all, who can say? We'll just have to wait and see.
Within visible light there is a subset of 7 parts, as there is in the electromagnetic field. (it might be of interest to know there are 7 musical notes as well) These are what we call colors. Red--Orange--Yellow--Green--Blue--Indigo--Violet. Just as in the EM field, working from left to right, red is a lower frequency than orange; as radio waves are lower in frequency (energy) than microwaves.
So what does all this mean? What you perceive as color is just energy (light) operating at a particular frequency. The frequency of color is measured in 'terahertz,' which is the number of cycles per second. (terahertz = one trillion cycles per second) So red, which vibrates at 400 to 484 terahertz, is vibrating 400 trillion + times per second. And red is the "slow" one! (violet vibrates at 700 trillion + times per second) And that rate of speed is simply incomprehensible.
Understand, I am not disputing the science. I accept it. It's just too much for me to process. I can't wrap my head around it. I find this mindset beneficial when I talk to an agnostic or atheist. I contend that 'God' is everywhere and everything. As possible explanations go, atheist's "can't see it." And that's alright. But if something as simple as color vibrates at such velocity, then maybe what we call God vibrates at the rate of a centillion. (that's 303 zeros behind a number) After all, who can say? We'll just have to wait and see.
Monday, January 12, 2015
The Man Behind The Curtain
Thomas Kuhn (author of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," [one of the most influential books of the 20th century] and Professor of Philosophy at MIT) compares the way scientists perceive (or don't perceive) the unexpected in nature. "In science, as in the playing card experiment, [see; the Red Spade Experiment.] novelty emerges only with difficulty, manifested by resistance, against a background provided by expectation. Initially, only the anticipated and the usual are experienced even under circumstances where anomaly [deviation] is later to be observed."
Like the rest of us, scientist tend to see WHAT THEY EXPECT TO SEE. Darwin once spent a whole day in a river valley and saw "nothing but water and plain rock." Eleven years later he walked in the same valley, this time looking for evidence of glaciers. "I assure you," he wrote a friend, "an extinct volcano could hardly leave more evident traces of its activity and vast powers...The valley about here must have once been covered by at least eight hundred or a thousand feet in thickness of solid ice!" Once Darwin knew what to look for, IT WAS EASY TO FIND. ~Mind Over Matter (Conversations with the Cosmos) K.C. Cole pp 217 [emphasis mine]
Those that wander to this site are looking for something. My effort is to make it easier to find. To this end, we examine what we call reality and apply the lessons we learn from the world around us. All the while, we are aware of statements from the likes of Nobel Prize winner Sir John Eccles who says: "I want you to realize that there exists no color in the natural world, and no sound--nothing of this kind; no texture, no patterns, no beauty, no scent."
What we learn is color is actually electromagnetic waves of different frequency. Sound is simply fluctuations of air pressure. Our interpretation of this phenomenon becomes our reality. We see blue, we hear trumpets, and we smell the chocolate chip cookies in the oven. That God is a construct of our mind in no way deters that He exists. Having the ability to infuse our world with texture, patterns, beauty, and scent, (though they don't exist) enhances our experience--exponentially! So, too, with God.
Like the rest of us, scientist tend to see WHAT THEY EXPECT TO SEE. Darwin once spent a whole day in a river valley and saw "nothing but water and plain rock." Eleven years later he walked in the same valley, this time looking for evidence of glaciers. "I assure you," he wrote a friend, "an extinct volcano could hardly leave more evident traces of its activity and vast powers...The valley about here must have once been covered by at least eight hundred or a thousand feet in thickness of solid ice!" Once Darwin knew what to look for, IT WAS EASY TO FIND. ~Mind Over Matter (Conversations with the Cosmos) K.C. Cole pp 217 [emphasis mine]
Those that wander to this site are looking for something. My effort is to make it easier to find. To this end, we examine what we call reality and apply the lessons we learn from the world around us. All the while, we are aware of statements from the likes of Nobel Prize winner Sir John Eccles who says: "I want you to realize that there exists no color in the natural world, and no sound--nothing of this kind; no texture, no patterns, no beauty, no scent."
What we learn is color is actually electromagnetic waves of different frequency. Sound is simply fluctuations of air pressure. Our interpretation of this phenomenon becomes our reality. We see blue, we hear trumpets, and we smell the chocolate chip cookies in the oven. That God is a construct of our mind in no way deters that He exists. Having the ability to infuse our world with texture, patterns, beauty, and scent, (though they don't exist) enhances our experience--exponentially! So, too, with God.
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