Cynthia,
Yes, God does hide until it is time for her to stop hiding.
And generally
she does hide in plain sight.
I would like to turn our 'paranoia' about God into a 'pronoia.'
This would
be the modern equivalent of turning water into wine.
I think you are
already on the verge of this, otherwise you would not
be here now.
God does 'mess' with our heads, and/or permits other folks
to do likewise.
This may be experienced in positive or negative fashion,
depending on the
source and on the target. When she is in hiding, she
keeps a low profile,
and most of the messing is being done by proxies of one
sort or another,
many of them undesirable.
However, the mere fact that God can choose to hide implies
that she can also
choose to come out of hiding. This may happen when, where
and how we least
expect it. Yet, each of us is responsible to remain vigilant
for, and open
to, this very real possibility. It is this never ending
possibility that
keeps many of us, probably most us, alive.
And one can go further than just being open to God. One
should always be
pushing the God envelope. This is where paranoia becomes
pronoia. I am one
of those in this neighborhood who is willing to do just
that. If we have
the time and inclination we should set ourselves down
and figure out how God
might wish to come out of hiding and then be there and
do that. What else
is there to do?
This is what I and some others are doing here.
Like the sign asks, 'How do you like our driving?' As
long as you choose to
frequent these environs you will be a de facto participant.
How would *you*
like to see God emerge from that tool box in the frozen
tundra? Pull up a
log and join the campfire. What would Rainer Maria Rilke
have to say about
this?
Dan
---------------------------------
Jhan,
Yes, and no.
I believe in a universal salvation. I was raised as a
Unitarian-Universalist, after all.
I have and still do toy with the possibility of a Separation
with humanity,
but if this were to occur, it would not be based on good
and bad. It would
be more along the lines of a separation into high and
low tech or into yin
and yang. I do not doubt the basic goodness of human
nature, given a
reasonable environment and an understanding of why we
are here.
And yes, we are our brothers keepers. We will be evaluated
by our influence
on others. But this evaluation also entails that we know
what we ought to
be doing.
We are still missing some basic pieces of the formula
concerning why we are
here and what we ought to be doing about it. Determining
these missing
pieces then has got to be our highest priority.
Mainly what we are missing is the knowledge of the moral/spiritual
dimension
of our sojourn on Earth.
Darwinism is a false doctrine in this regard. Darwinism
is currently the
main obstacle to our enlightenment. The only way for
us to transcend the
severe limitations of Darwinism is to transcend the limitations
of
materialism and physicalism. Absolutely nothing has a
higher spiritual or
intellectual priority.
Until the scientists and technologists face up to this
intellectual and
spiritual challenge, all their other endeavors are being
undertaken as if
they were blindfolded.
Most scientists have the excuse that no one ever challenged
their
materialism and physicalism. Those within the sound of
my voice, no longer
have this excuse, and they will be judged accordingly.
They will still be
saved in the end, despite themselves.
Dan
------------------------------------
Chris,
I have no objection to the God within, that is Her preferred
domicile, after
all.
But do you begrudge Her the occasional foray into the
Great Outdoors? Yes,
I admit that the Prophetic Tradition is an old one, and
that God uses it
sparingly, but there are times when it becomes necessary
for God to show her
face in a singular, historical fashion. There are times
when the Prophetic
Voice must be heard in an unmistakable fashion. You probably
do not doubt
that both the Maharaji and Jesus have served as special
manifestations of
God.
Many people believe that humanity has yet to fulfill its
Earthly potential.
They suppose that a dramatic divine intervention will
be necessary to
inaugurate this final, historical period of fulfillment.
Thus they look
forward to the arrival of a Messiah, Mahdi, Maitreya,
Parousia, i.e. the
Prophet for the Millennium.
It seems both callous and elitist for anyone to tell the
world that it has
nothing special to look forward to; that there is no
slution to our wordly
problems; that we should expect nothing more inspiring
than what we have
already experienced on Earth. Faith and hope are the
greatest motivators;
we would not even have gotten this far without them.
Must we jettison them
now in the home stretch?
Did Bland create the world? Is Bland our destiny in the
world? Is humanity
going to be Bored to death? Is Bland the solution to
the world's pressing
problems?
Perhaps you just look forward to a Bland technological
millennium or utopia,
and wish to keep the Spirit sequestered in the mystical
recesses of the
mind. Spirit may have other plans. Have you never been
excited or inspired
by Spirit?
A Messianic event is risky business, but do you suppose
that this is beyond
the capability of God? Are you going to try to prevent
this from happening?
Do you wish to kill the Buddha if you meet him on the
path?
Do I not serve God's purpose by anticipating and participating
in Her
messianic plan? Should you not be doing the same?
Dan
----------------
Chris,
>Actually, if masses of people directly experience the
God within, that
>will be pretty special, exciting, and inspiring. (Until
now, this has
>never happened in history.) And a lot of worldly problems
will be
>solved through new approaches inspired and based on
this inner
>consciousness and understanding.
This would not just be *special*; it is absolutely essential
to our
survival.
Spiritual awakening can no longer be the luxury of the
few. It is now the
necessity for all of us.
Does the Maharaji not realize this? It certainly would
appear that he is
moving his own operation toward this eventuality.
The Millennium is defined as the Aeon of global spiritual
wakefulness. It
is the Geist Zeit.
Why do people think that we can just continue to muddle
through in our
spiritual daze, with business as usual? Cannot people
feel the continued
quickening of the pulse of time? Don't they realize that
we are coming to a
new threshold, where it will no longer be possible for
us to drag our
spirits behind in the dust?
Surely Maharaji knows this! Is he not riding on the cusp
of this wave? Is
this not the knowledge of what it is to be alive at this
time?
Every human has always had the capability to be alive,
awake and in the
Knowledge. But until now it has been just a potentiality.
We have been
putting off the Millennium for all of our history. Now
the cosmos has
worked up its head of spiritual steam and it conspires
mightily against our
dilly dally. Our lazy days of dilly dally are gone. This
is not a test.
This is finally the reality.
With our *inward* turn comes a reciprocal *outward* turn.
That is the turn
on which I am particularly focused. That is the turn
that will involve the
fringes of science and all of the people who find themselves
gathered on
that far shore. Are you and I not among these folks?
What is our message
to them and to ourselves?
Dan
---------------------------
Cynthia,
Why would you suppose that God is an express train?
No. No. No! It is we who are the Santa Fe Express!
It is God who sits in the shack by the tracks. God is
the stillness at the
center of the storm. The eye of the cyclone.
The only ontology of Archie is God. God is never anywhere
other than where
she absolutely has to be which is exactly everywhere,
everywhen.
Even when the express train of events is high on our derailment,
there is
just that split second of stillness within that is our
only intimation of
eternity. Chris and the Maharaji speak to that split
second of stillness.
I speak to the echo of that stillness that begins to
reverberate everywhere
as the Santa Fe Express leaves the tracks for good. The
little old man in
the shack just smiles and puts down the switch. We are
all of that.
Dan
--------------------------
Don,
>No, no, no. God is an elephant, and because they are
blind,
>humans can't "see" it.
Is this the voice of resignation? Are you resigned to human blindness?
Perhaps it is you who are blind to the dawning of awareness.
Have you done
everything that you can to make straight the way for
the Dawning of the
Light?
I think that you protest the darkness too much. You seem
too much huddled
by the light of your one candle. There is a brighter
light and it comes
from the active sharing of what each of us has to offer.
That sharing is a
two way street. It is a grand, global dialog, it is not
the mumble of
monologues. Are you going to let the Living Energy pass
you by?
Dan
------------------------------
Don,
You write the fiction of the Last Miracle. I am interested
in the reality
of the Last Miracle. How will the fiction become the
reality?
Writers of fiction tend to be recluses. The outer world
never seems able to
live up to their inner world. This is partly the problem
with Chris and the
Maharaji. It is relatively easy to embrace the reality
within. It is more
difficult embrace the world. Very few are ever truly
able to do this. When
they do, it leaves an indelible imprint on the psyche
of every human.
This miracle has happened before. And it need only happen
once more before
the Eschaton. This will be the Last Miracle.
Does your fiction speak at all to this reality?
Dan
.
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rev. 6/15/00