Just One Point

Our conception of God as a patriarchal figure in white with flowing robes has nothing to do with reality. Perhaps it may owe much to the art of Michaelangelo for an example. But is it a true image? It isn’t. No man has seen God and yet we create an image which is cunningly devised to give art its due.
Similarly we find many cunningly devised fables’ (2 Pe 1:16) associated with the birth of Christ. What is the worth of celebrating Christmas if the spirit of Christ is missing?
benny
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Truth Paraphrased

Do we know that those who are unbelievers and scoffers of the holy things also might be caught within the nets of grace even as we were, and they might also turn out to be our friends. (A touch of suspicion can sour up friendships and a touch of goodwill makes our enemies into friends.)
Love of God is Truth expressed in human terms. Jesus is a symbol and Representational Man. Symbol in the sense he makes our love transcend its human level to touch the heavens. Our love freely given however limited, can multiply as loaves and fishes and spread out to feed many.’first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.’ (St. Mk4:28) Our growth is gradual and to which we are helped by what we may catch of the highest in our soul.
‘I am the Way’, he said. Jesus is the pinion on which our finite nature revolves so love we have shown to our brethren and unbelievers alike can broaden out to a higher plane.
We love those who love us. Jesus showed us another example. ‘ Whosoever shall smite thee..’ (St. Matt 5. 39-40) Turn the other cheek is love on a higher plane than the truth of nature underlying in verse’ iron sharpeneth iron.’(Pro.27:17).
benny

The Stranger Among Us

The Man in Red and Blue Robe©
The Man from En-Gedi was among the elders and while they discussed the day’s events a strange figure in red and blue robe also entered the tent and sat among them. The Chaldean saw how he put himself at ease among those bearded wights. He again saw him in the palace of the king who wanted to honor those who were strangers in his realm. The Chaldean being curious asked in whisper to another, “ That man in red and blue, who he might be, a foreigner? ” The man couldn’t answer him. Later he saw him again at a banquet. Strangely he was set down next to him. The Chaldean asked before he downed the last cup of friendship,” The party is about to break up. Each of us shall soon wend his own ways. I am curious. Who you might be?”
The stranger in red and blue robe didn’t answer. The Chaldean asked,” I see you wherever I turn. It seems by fate decreed that you and I have certain business to settle.”
“ You said it,” the stranger replied,” I am Truth.”
My soul is like the stranger. So close and yet I do not care to know what it really is. Instead of relying on Truth that it represents I would rather settle for the opinions of others and pay lip-service to customs that have by repetition lost its meaning.
benny

Soul And Conscience

What is crucial for our understanding the concept of God is to fix on His Absolute value. God is Truth. Did that value become any the less because He breathed into the nostrils of Adam? From our rational point of view He can only retain that Absoluteness if the ‘living soul’ has also an absolute value. Truth cannot be halved and yet retain its purity. It is like a flame. A candle whenever it is lit has the same value as the flame that went before. Truth is that light radiating from the candle.
Soul is Absolute in terms of Truth. Conscience of man every time attests to the fact. We read how King David spared the life of the one who had chased him to the wilderness. He took a few items from the bolster of King Saul while he lay in deep sleep. (1 Sam.26:23) The fact that his implacable foe was still the Lord’s anointed deterred David from killing him. He could have succumbed to the truth of nature and made his way to the throne secure. No he didn’t yield to the temptation. He was not Saul.
David could rise above the truth his nature held out. He indeed waited for a higher Truth that God held out.
He had respect unto his soul.
benny

Faith, Truth And Other Matters

As a practising Christian what I believe of life after life is my own. After all if I didn’t believe in a life beyond I shall be making a mockery of my faith and Truth. (When I read the Scriptures I read it for my edification. Never have I felt any opinion of others however high and accepted by every one else should be allowed to come in between my God and myself.)
We read in the gospels how Jesus didn’t condemn the woman taken in adultery. Was he condoning her act? No. He exemplified Life and he could therefore understand the compulsions, or her lust for life (whatever her motives were) while her accusers could only see from a narrow range of their supposedly righteousness according to Law. Does Law express what is everything to be said of a life? It only touches man or woman superficially. Life is much more: it redeems every life form from circumstances that the life on earth circumscribes.
Tailpiece: Truth is the only scale on which actions or errors of our ways can be quantified.
Whatever we as finite beings speak of Truth in Absolute terms shall be less than what it really is.
benny

Is There Life After Life?

Is there life after life? Life as I said in one of my early posts is indescribable. It also has no dimension. Life forms express motions of Life, each species after their fashion and in a corporeal sense. We see them and form our opinions, which do not fully delineate them. Who can vouch for what I think or my soul is alike?
But by the same yardstick of Truth we are all interconnected. We can relate to others at different levels. But no one may plumb the depths of another to decipher his or her soul.
Truth shall endure since life cannot be expressed in any other term than Life which is dimensionless. When we say one is dead we actually mean that the being has passed from one dimension to another. Death is a line to be crossed. Where I go past that line is not my concern. So I shall not speculate on what is unknowable.
benny

Stories For Dudes

Betwixt and Between ©

Zeus was once traveling accompanied by his daughter Athena. He was struck by the beauty of a sculpture and asked whose work it was. The goddess of Wisdom said,” Phidias.” Admiring it for a while he asked his daughter,” You are perfection in wisdom. Why can’t you then do some thing like that- a work of beauty?”
Athena laughed,” I, a goddess- work? Why waste my time?” The eagle which always accompanied the goddess whispered in Zeus’ ear,” If she were to work it would mean her godly wisdom lacked something.”
“ Oh?”
“ That means she wouldn’t be perfect. Would it not?” the winged bird asked. Zeus could understand.
The sculptor was after all a mortal trying to achieve perfection in some area as best as he could. The bird looked at the sculpture with a critical eye and said,” Look at that index finger of the discuss-thrower. Shorter by a hairbreadth, - it would have been just perfect!”
Zeus snapped,” Phidias made it for his kind and for the praise of gods!”
Our smell is not as good as that of dogs; neither is our sense of sight anywhere near that of an eagle. Man is neither god nor a beast. From that middle state what we say for Truth has a hollow ring. So many religions; so many belief-systems. If you are entitled to claim your religion as the true one so shall others. There is no way to settle the matter given our middle state.
In a World of Illusions we may err on the safe side by giving other belief-systems the benefit of doubt.
benny

Truth Unchained

My Self or conscious self, must put every feature of my nature in terms of others in its place.
To be drawn into my self is a prison as well as a way of escape.
Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection; had he taken his eyes off for a moment to see the changing skies shown on the same pool he would have seen he was as changing as every cloud or as the light that fell on him. That would have sobered him if he cared to. Truth for him stopped with his own image.
benny

A Body of Distractions

Life is a matrix, a non-dimensional envelope for matter to express itself.
Life is one way we take measure of Life and we call it Truth.
It is like Columbus' venture: he set out to the Indies by sailing along the west on the assumption that the Earth was a sphere. Our search for Truth is somewhat similar. We get always distracted by the landmass we encounter on the way: truth of human condition.
benny

Truth Of Imagination

Ficus sycomorus grows to 20 m tall and 6 m wide with a dense round crown of spreading branches. The leaves are heart-shaped with a round apex, 14 cm long by 10 cm wide, and arranged spirally around the twig. (wikipedia)
Because the shadow cast by the tree is extensive any seed falling within the shade will not get enough sunlight to germinate. So it makes sense if the tree can send its seeds farther from its shade.
The incomparable Renaissance man, Leonardo daVinci observing the way seeds are cast out hit upon a flying machine that we know as helicopters. In his day technology being what it was his sketch remained merely a fantasy. A figment of man’s imagination. Come five centries man has learnt to design choppers and his drawing remains a milestone in the history of aviation.
What was the force of his imagination? His mind could assimilate the experience of the tree.
Imagination is that curious ability of the mind to crytallize experience from anywhere in Cosmos and set out new uses. He made the past serve the present and future. DaVinci in a manner of speaking compressed the age-old wisdom of a tree and turned it upside down. By his imagination he brought a time lapse of some five centuries to serve his needs.
Let me draw attention to another :
H. G Wells, along with Hugo Gernsback and Jules Verne, is sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".
Truth of Imagination
“An Experiment in Prophecy" is considered his most explicitly futuristic work. Anticipating what the world would be like in the year 2000, the book is interesting both for its hits (trains and cars resulting in the dispersion of population from cities to suburbs; moral restrictions declining as men and women seek greater sexual freedom; the defeat of German militarism, and the existence of a European Union) and its misses (he did not expect successful aircraft before 1950, and averred that "my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocate its crew and founder at sea").(ack: wikipedia)
Imagination is the quality of mind to compress time and space in real time of a life form to establish new framework for experience.
Thus Adam could design the priestly dress for Aaron though he intended it for himself. Weaving and materials needed for such a design to be reality would come later. ( According to scholars Moses lived somewhere around 1200 BC,. Whatever time lapsed from Adam till Moses was reconciled in his imgination.)
benny

A Point To Ponder

The problem of being earthy is in the way our perspective is altered: things of soul, me-factor somewhat tend to vanish to the point as in the case of a perspective drawing. The result? Our appetites and creature comforts loom larger and obfuscate the vista beyond: Truth is less than what we can grasp being in body.
According to St.Paul we shall be spiritual beings in the hereafter. Will it not then indicate a reverse process? Truth cannot be diminished or added to. Since we shall never be outside our bodies, spiritual or otherwise, hereafter must be a slow learning process. Like the many cycles of birth as Hinduism expound. Our avatars must bear less and less of the previous manifestation and each serve a purpose: where we test our pet theories spliced out of experience and nature and actions till we have reached the end point.
Truth: for a Christian it shall be seeing God as He is. Oneness of Things in terms of soul must mean that we shall be of the same essence as He is.”
The biggest misconception of a Christian must be to think heaven is where he will simply do nothing and be at rest. As long as Truth remains incomplete or less clear you and I shall have things to do.
benny

W13 D7- My Mentor

Because I have a soul a Me-factor is necessary for me to cut through every confusion that cause and effect may create or when us and them degenerate into haves and haves-not over dollars and cents. “I was one among them,” and as Lord Byron says,” but not one of them.”
Whether we live or die we have something ineffable within ourselves that still bears witness to us. Me- factor is the mentor with regards to my Soul. Because I trust in my own identity, I do not need another to show how I may attain excellence in my life here and beyond.
How good is a spiritual mentor?
It was said of Alcibiades that his faults were held in check as long as Socrates was at hand. Socrates who realized that he had a natural inclination for virtue checked his perverse and impetuous traits to some extent. But removed from his restraining influence Alcibiades took up a course of action that was doomed. It is impossible for any one to live another one’s life. Even the greatest teacher must allow his pupils only what is patently their own. If their naturalness still can come through despite of corrections of experience and wisdom of others it both reflects the teacher and the pupil. Me- factor allows me to keep my wits about and keep focus of my soul.(2 B Cont'd)
benny