You know how when you say the same word over and over again it can lose its meaning? I'm betting that was part of the intention here. And yet meaninglessness and EVERYTHING, are related. Maybe emptiness is the word I'm looking for. A Buddhist concept, meaning all phenomena are empty of any characteristics that separate them from other phenomena, empty of an independent self.
Enptiness is interesting. You know that I was just reasearching the story of Cain and Abel from Genesis - you knew the one that is assumed to be about the first murder. You know what the meanings of those two names are? Cain the first born, means to possess. He is the tiller of the land, wrapped of in things of the world. Abel, the second son, which always supplants the first, means emptiness. He the shepherd. who will sacrifice anything he has knowing nothing real can ever be lost.
Both sides are in you, and the one will believe it can kill the other, but it is a false belief. Yet you will be doomed to wander in sleep, in the land of Nod, until you see that you never could!
one thing can't last alone - it becomes something - then many things?
Both onething and one thing - if you give it consideration in perspective of many things that we know first-hand are all around.
I think for me what it boils down to when I was at NC State - I think it boils down to love denied - but such is life. My heart was broken - but it healed and my heart has been reborn in a way metaphorically - I can prove it, but why should I.
We all got our stories to tell - let me tell you this.
Don't be a puppet - don't let strings pull you unaware - be your own person - own your mind - base it on principle - then let the chips fall where they will!
My favorite Catholic teaching is that all humans are made in the image of God, and, therefore, if anyone turns to another person with malice it's the same as turning toward God with malice because they are made *in his image*.
All creatures and, in fact, all of creation are affects of God, who created and permeates everything, who looked upon creation "and saw that it was good". So, we are told to see the hand of God in everything, as well: trees, animals, minerals, etc.
To really be one with that concept is to look around you and be completely lost in love, overwhelmed by its beauty.
Every mistake starts with rejecting someone or something and building up walls inside ourselves that separate us, divide us.
Grace is letting the walls fall down and just letting love permeate through everything because God is love.
Fantastic and irreverent take on the word "God" as that word is commonly understood and used today. I like how you strive to get back to the root meaning behind that word and how you arrive again at unity.
I am touched by your kind words, Jeremy. So glad you are here and that you understand deeply important things in a way very akin to how I do. Thank you for your support.
My theory is that all Gods are made in the image of humans, thereby complicating the issue of communicating about God. We humans get so hung up about which God is the "right" God or the "wrong" God when we are all just approximating what is that mysterious glue that holds us all together. I love that line you say, "To really be one with that concept is to look around you and be completely los in love, overwhelmed by its beauty." Yessss.
Many gods (but not God) are made in the image of humans, projections of what they want the universe to will for them. Solipsism feeds a lot of this, and it's a pretty narrow approach as it doesn't open the self or soul up for the experience of what is truly divine permeating, present, and obvious in all of existence.
I go by the words of Frank Lloyd Wright. " I believe in God. I just call Him ( consider the era ) Nature ".
I'm something of a Buddhist - Daoist - Deist - Pantheist, if anything. I'm sure that it REALLY wins points with my Evangelical conservative relatives. with no interest in education or progress.
And I, in a very similar spot, having come from an atheist background. Fascinating to meet in the middle! I really do think it all comes down to perspective and attitude.
Something I find interesting: atheists are typically held up (by themselves and others) as more intelligent than theists, but if you actually talk with people from both sides, you'll find that they are all bad at something in particular: epistemology.
Maybe if humans were taught epistemology we could put 50%+ of these millennia spanning problems behind us.
I also find it more than a little curious that this idea seems to have not occurred to anyone in positions of governmental power. I genuinely wonder if it is purely organic, because if I wanted to remove one cognitive capability from people I wanted to lead around by the nose, this would be the one I'd choose.
Daniel, I completely align with your ideas of "god" Pantheism is a word closest to what I adhere to as a philosophy of living. "......To see a World in a Grain of Sand--And a Heaven in a Wild Flower--Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand--And Eternity in an hour......" William Blake. (And of course Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass"....)
I'm a bit partial to Frank Lloyd Wright. He said, " I believe in God. I just call him Nature ". I think that would scan as pantheism. & FLW came from a LONG LINE of Unitarian Universalists.
I'm getting reacquainted with Rumi, Lao Dzu, Kahlil Gibran & a few others.
This is amazing, Mike, thank you. I love it. It's Mister God for me (from a delightful book by Fynn: Hello Mister God, This Is Anna!) There is also the superb sense of humour, it's kind of dry and so well timed when you can catch it, teaching us to see the funny side of things when we start taking ourselves too seriously.
My pleasure, Mike. And yes, it's an adorable book, a delightful story, I'm planning a re-read myself. It's in my Spiral Leaf bookshop! I love your work and it's wonderful to meet you.
Just for you, Pete! I think they may be on to something. More and more it’s the only genre of metaphysics that makes much sense and jives with what I know to be true, which is my own perceptions (including my perceptions of science). There are those in this comment section who would tell me that science is absolute. I know what they mean. And yet…
I would be unrecognizable to my high school self (and good thing!). Thanks for being here and making it a little less lonely being the new me.
Time moves in one direction is my "absolute presupposition" - the future.
I prefer a future where one understand - there is so much to be learned yet.
BK
Edit - ps - I think time travel is only metaphorical and not possibly physically - only ideas can travel in time a bit in the future - and ideas that resonate can travel the most forward, but uncertainty no doubt - tis part of life...
anytime the pendulum of ideas in the future get "too far out there" and others don't concur, then as a pendulum always does - it swings back in the other direction - like the click of a clock.
the best clocks don't ever let the pendulum swing to fast....
I agree that the question of whether time is fundamental is intimately linked to whether free will exists, and that such questions probably get at the very fabric of existence. I appreciate you being here!
Thankyou for your kindness. I happened upon this place - not sure how or why - but I read the poem in full and I appreciate the comments here - really - even ones I might not concur with....
Thank you, Buffalo Ken. I know exactly what you mean. God, the Universe, whatever you want to call her...she guides us in mysterious ways. I'm so glad she brought you here.
Mike - I don't read a lot of poetry because honestly it intimidates me. However, since it is National Poetry month I have been trying to test the waters a little more. I have no experience to know if something is "good" poetry or not. What is good anyway? Kind of like this whole god question.
I know when something makes me feel. I know when a word or phrase resonates with my inner soul. I was raised in a die-hard Catholic home but left those beliefs behind long ago. I don't know what god is or what god means. All I know is the connectedness of all things. Maybe together we are all god. Or maybe not.
In any case, I just wanted to say thanks for your poem. I enjoyed it and it made me feel something so in my book that makes it good.
Joy, this is so sweet. Thank you for supporting me so poetically on such a controversial poem, as I had a hunch this one would be. I think you’re gonna like Friday’s piece.
Thank you, Monica. I know this way of thinking about God is not orthodox by many religion's standards. I don't want to offend folks who find peace and meaning in their own way. But I think this is an important and useful way to think about the divine. At the end of the day, no matter what words we choose, I just want to see a world that acts more out of love and compassion, and less out of dogmatism, exclusion, or worse (and that goes for whether you call yourself an atheist or a theist or anything in-between).
You know how when you say the same word over and over again it can lose its meaning? I'm betting that was part of the intention here. And yet meaninglessness and EVERYTHING, are related. Maybe emptiness is the word I'm looking for. A Buddhist concept, meaning all phenomena are empty of any characteristics that separate them from other phenomena, empty of an independent self.
You get it, Don. What can I say? No wonder we are fast friends.
Enptiness is interesting. You know that I was just reasearching the story of Cain and Abel from Genesis - you knew the one that is assumed to be about the first murder. You know what the meanings of those two names are? Cain the first born, means to possess. He is the tiller of the land, wrapped of in things of the world. Abel, the second son, which always supplants the first, means emptiness. He the shepherd. who will sacrifice anything he has knowing nothing real can ever be lost.
Both sides are in you, and the one will believe it can kill the other, but it is a false belief. Yet you will be doomed to wander in sleep, in the land of Nod, until you see that you never could!
This is something I did not know.
When I was in college I got enamored of the thought:
Nothing is Everything
I engraved in the library somewhere at NC State - but was the engravement itself or even the act of doing said - something?
Well - maybe nothing is everything and vice versa - but there can be do denying something can there?
!!!
I didn't really think everything is nothing anymore - I think something else!
no-thing is everything - onething
one thing can't last alone - it becomes something - then many things?
Both onething and one thing - if you give it consideration in perspective of many things that we know first-hand are all around.
I think for me what it boils down to when I was at NC State - I think it boils down to love denied - but such is life. My heart was broken - but it healed and my heart has been reborn in a way metaphorically - I can prove it, but why should I.
We all got our stories to tell - let me tell you this.
Don't be a puppet - don't let strings pull you unaware - be your own person - own your mind - base it on principle - then let the chips fall where they will!
still - nothing is basically everything metaphorically...
I really can't stand and have lost all tolerance for post-modernist group-thinkers.
We have to empty ourselves out to be filled.
My favorite Catholic teaching is that all humans are made in the image of God, and, therefore, if anyone turns to another person with malice it's the same as turning toward God with malice because they are made *in his image*.
All creatures and, in fact, all of creation are affects of God, who created and permeates everything, who looked upon creation "and saw that it was good". So, we are told to see the hand of God in everything, as well: trees, animals, minerals, etc.
To really be one with that concept is to look around you and be completely lost in love, overwhelmed by its beauty.
Every mistake starts with rejecting someone or something and building up walls inside ourselves that separate us, divide us.
Grace is letting the walls fall down and just letting love permeate through everything because God is love.
Fantastic and irreverent take on the word "God" as that word is commonly understood and used today. I like how you strive to get back to the root meaning behind that word and how you arrive again at unity.
I am touched by your kind words, Jeremy. So glad you are here and that you understand deeply important things in a way very akin to how I do. Thank you for your support.
My theory is that all Gods are made in the image of humans, thereby complicating the issue of communicating about God. We humans get so hung up about which God is the "right" God or the "wrong" God when we are all just approximating what is that mysterious glue that holds us all together. I love that line you say, "To really be one with that concept is to look around you and be completely los in love, overwhelmed by its beauty." Yessss.
Many gods (but not God) are made in the image of humans, projections of what they want the universe to will for them. Solipsism feeds a lot of this, and it's a pretty narrow approach as it doesn't open the self or soul up for the experience of what is truly divine permeating, present, and obvious in all of existence.
I go by the words of Frank Lloyd Wright. " I believe in God. I just call Him ( consider the era ) Nature ".
I'm something of a Buddhist - Daoist - Deist - Pantheist, if anything. I'm sure that it REALLY wins points with my Evangelical conservative relatives. with no interest in education or progress.
And I, in a very similar spot, having come from an atheist background. Fascinating to meet in the middle! I really do think it all comes down to perspective and attitude.
Loved the post.
Something I find interesting: atheists are typically held up (by themselves and others) as more intelligent than theists, but if you actually talk with people from both sides, you'll find that they are all bad at something in particular: epistemology.
Maybe if humans were taught epistemology we could put 50%+ of these millennia spanning problems behind us.
I also find it more than a little curious that this idea seems to have not occurred to anyone in positions of governmental power. I genuinely wonder if it is purely organic, because if I wanted to remove one cognitive capability from people I wanted to lead around by the nose, this would be the one I'd choose.
I'm going to present you with a Zen koan !
There was ACTUALLY a BOOK of " correct " responses to koans, even though, by definition, a Zen koan has NO ONE CORRECT ANSWER. Hah !
Rumi, Chuang Dzu, Lao Dzu, Kahlil Gibran & Sun Dzu are my " go to " people.
Daniel, I completely align with your ideas of "god" Pantheism is a word closest to what I adhere to as a philosophy of living. "......To see a World in a Grain of Sand--And a Heaven in a Wild Flower--Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand--And Eternity in an hour......" William Blake. (And of course Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass"....)
I'm a bit partial to Frank Lloyd Wright. He said, " I believe in God. I just call him Nature ". I think that would scan as pantheism. & FLW came from a LONG LINE of Unitarian Universalists.
I'm getting reacquainted with Rumi, Lao Dzu, Kahlil Gibran & a few others.
God is no thing. And God is every thing. and in every thing.
Thanks for your attention and kind attitude, Aaron! You are appreciated.
onething. but it's not a noun it's a verb
Mike!!!! I think this is your best so far. The grandiose and the mundane, the juxtaposition, the absurdity? YES
Anagha, your transmission fills my whole body with a smile. Thank you so much.
This is amazing, Mike, thank you. I love it. It's Mister God for me (from a delightful book by Fynn: Hello Mister God, This Is Anna!) There is also the superb sense of humour, it's kind of dry and so well timed when you can catch it, teaching us to see the funny side of things when we start taking ourselves too seriously.
Thank you so much, Sue!! Your words warm my heart. And yes, there is a great cosmic joke about it all. I’ll keep my eye out for that book.
My pleasure, Mike. And yes, it's an adorable book, a delightful story, I'm planning a re-read myself. It's in my Spiral Leaf bookshop! I love your work and it's wonderful to meet you.
Love how you got panpsychism in there!
Just for you, Pete! I think they may be on to something. More and more it’s the only genre of metaphysics that makes much sense and jives with what I know to be true, which is my own perceptions (including my perceptions of science). There are those in this comment section who would tell me that science is absolute. I know what they mean. And yet…
I would be unrecognizable to my high school self (and good thing!). Thanks for being here and making it a little less lonely being the new me.
I think we may be seeing the beginnings of a paradigm shift.
Every breath taken brings you closer to be one with all. Aum.
Time moves in one direction is my "absolute presupposition" - the future.
I prefer a future where one understand - there is so much to be learned yet.
BK
Edit - ps - I think time travel is only metaphorical and not possibly physically - only ideas can travel in time a bit in the future - and ideas that resonate can travel the most forward, but uncertainty no doubt - tis part of life...
anytime the pendulum of ideas in the future get "too far out there" and others don't concur, then as a pendulum always does - it swings back in the other direction - like the click of a clock.
the best clocks don't ever let the pendulum swing to fast....
I agree that the question of whether time is fundamental is intimately linked to whether free will exists, and that such questions probably get at the very fabric of existence. I appreciate you being here!
Thankyou for your kindness. I happened upon this place - not sure how or why - but I read the poem in full and I appreciate the comments here - really - even ones I might not concur with....
Anyhow - thanks.
BK
Thank you, Buffalo Ken. I know exactly what you mean. God, the Universe, whatever you want to call her...she guides us in mysterious ways. I'm so glad she brought you here.
Yeah - it takes a she to balance the he I think!
Love the picture of God being bored by omniscience. No surprises ever? Boring indeed. You've said it all. Thanks!
God hangs out with Atum - Ra, Ahura Mazda, The Jade Emperor, Tara, Horus / Heru - er, & Odin.
Thank you, Mary!! We are here, God in mortal form, to learn and explore and be surprised. This makes sense to me!
Mike - I don't read a lot of poetry because honestly it intimidates me. However, since it is National Poetry month I have been trying to test the waters a little more. I have no experience to know if something is "good" poetry or not. What is good anyway? Kind of like this whole god question.
I know when something makes me feel. I know when a word or phrase resonates with my inner soul. I was raised in a die-hard Catholic home but left those beliefs behind long ago. I don't know what god is or what god means. All I know is the connectedness of all things. Maybe together we are all god. Or maybe not.
In any case, I just wanted to say thanks for your poem. I enjoyed it and it made me feel something so in my book that makes it good.
Don’t back down
Don’t be meek
For you are the fortuneteller
We all seek
Showing us how to be bold – fully “ME”
Keep forging ahead my friend
Unafraid to be bold
You are creation in the making
A sight to behold
A STAR BEING BORN
AN EXPLOSIVE DELIGHT
A Bethlehem excursion
ON A BRIGHT STARRY NIGHT
A journey of old
Of stories untold
A path taken by only
The true wisely and bold
A pioneer of the new
You’re blazing the trail
Like a comet across the sky
That can always mystify
New worlds being born
At the speed of a thought
A tornado of words
Funneling down
On the spot
Right to our brain
If we only look up
Transcend this plane
The one we exist in
And receive them arms opened wide
A gift of the sky
I’m here today to encourage you!
To be your Captain Picard, my sweet friend, #1
“Engage”
“Engage!”
“Engage!!!”
Any man that has Mars & Venus making love in his birth chart
At the same degree as the recent solar eclipse….
Is here to be a NEBULA!
And watch out on Friday
The conjunction of Jupiter & Uranus
Yes- You guessed it.
Exactly on your North Node of the Moon- Yowzah!
(Actually, I’m thinking, I’d hate to be you!!)
What will you do with all that ENERGY?!!!
(Thank you, by the way, for doing it for humanity)
And I love your voice overs!
I think you could read my bills out loud and I would fall in love with this world once again.
– Once upon a time……..in a land far away…..lived a me and a you.....🤟🏻💖❤🥰😘❣
Joy, this is so sweet. Thank you for supporting me so poetically on such a controversial poem, as I had a hunch this one would be. I think you’re gonna like Friday’s piece.
Well, there sure are a variety of opinions. Mike, thanks for your bravery. I’ll leave it at that.
Thank you, Monica. I know this way of thinking about God is not orthodox by many religion's standards. I don't want to offend folks who find peace and meaning in their own way. But I think this is an important and useful way to think about the divine. At the end of the day, no matter what words we choose, I just want to see a world that acts more out of love and compassion, and less out of dogmatism, exclusion, or worse (and that goes for whether you call yourself an atheist or a theist or anything in-between).
All you need is love…
When you try to define the divine, you destroy it.
If God is everything, then God is nothing.
God is not a word that holds meaning to me, it was destroyed by religion.
I hear you. The spiritual has been perverted many a time to suit the needs of mankind in his predation. It is sad indeed. Thanks for your attention!
I've come to think of religion (at its best) as cultivating an emotional experience, and helpful habits.
And spiritual as erasing the lines of separateness.
Great wrap up to an insightful piece
Thank you so much, Marjorie! Your continued support is so valued.
That picture looks strikingly similar to one I posted:
https://buffaloken.substack.com/p/the-eclipse-images
It was posted on the link above - I was there in the ribbon of it.
I'll never forget.
Awesome! Yes they are similar photos indeed. The eclipse was quite something!
So why not
make the best of it
and stop pretending
that we're separate?
Amen to that!