Transcendence

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

This is a continuation of the last post, with quotes from Campbell. 

Campbell: ...We want to think about God. God is a thought. God is a name. God is an idea. But its reference is to something that transcends all thinking.

Campbell:  The word "God" properly refers to what transcends all thinking, but the word "God" itself is something thought about.

Such a simple thought... What we think of God, is nothing compared to what he actually is. But, as hard as we try, we cannot know something that is infinite. It is only by His revelation to us that we can know him.

Campbell: In the Old Testament story, God points out the one forbidden thing. Now, God must have known very well that man was going to eat the forbidden fruit. But is was by doing that that man became the initiator of his own life. Life really began with that act of disobedience.

What does Campbell mean by this? What I think is meant is that our God-given free will wasn't shown until we did that; until we took the forbidden fruit. That was when we became the 'initiator' of our lives. 

Campbell: Ramakrishna once said that if all you think of are your sins, then you are a sinner.

To rephrase: If all you think of is your sin and failings, then where is Christ going to enter? While we must understand our sin and what it has done to us, it pales in comparison to what Christ did on the Cross, freeing us of it. Our sin can no longer hold us down, BUT, it can if you focus on it and not on Christ.

Campbell: Religions are addressing social problems and ethics instead of the mystical experience.

What is this world's actions to you if you do not have Christ? You can be a 'good person' and fight for the things that are Godly, but for the wrong reason; to satisfy yourself. I stuggle with this all the time. Our relationship with Christ isn't about what we should oppress the world with: dogmatic rules, slander to atheists, homosexuals, pro-choice supporters. What our relationship, our 'religion', with Christ should be is focusing on our relationship with him, and doing what he tells us. "This is my command: Love one another" -John 15:17

Campbell: So Jesus says, "Judge not that you may not be judged." That is to say, put yourself back in the position of Paradise (Eden) before you thought in terms of good and evil. You don't hear this much from the pulpits. But one of the great challenges of life is to say "yea" to that person or that act or that condition which in your mind is most abominable.

Seriously...how hard is this? How often do we see a friend do something that isn't 'good', and we judge them. I don't know how to do this, and I guess that is the Power of the Spirit. 

Campbell: Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't even a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now that all thinking in temporal terms cuts off... The problem with heaven is that you will be having such a good time there, you won't even think of eternity. You'll just have this unending delight in the beatific vision of God. But the experience of eternity right here and now, in all things, whether thought of as good or as evil, is the function of life.

Hmm... Eternity can't be grasped, but I believe this to be true. When we aren't worried or concerned with the happenings of this world, which is trapped in space and time, then that is what Eternity is: No Time. But this is a hard teaching, as Christ would say. I will not achieve perfect harmony with Christ in this world, but those moments where it is possible to get a 'clear' glimpse it is amazing.

My first session of summer staff at Saranac, the speaker, Gary Wilmer us a term to describe the times and places where we feel most attuned to God. These 'thin places', are they the same as eternity? Who knows.