Acrostic Gnostic

It makes sense when one has been raised in the belief in ole' papa grump pants and then rejected him for atheism or agnosticism. That's what I did anyway.

The challenge with this scenario for many is that the baby was never recognized in the bathwater until much later if at all. I'm still trying to figure out how much baby is actually in the bathwater of my birth religion. That the term 'God' can even point to something meaningful has become apparent to me in the last few years. Beyond that, God, the universe, consciousness and what it all has to do with my little life presents a big puzzle to me.

The problem in even having a conversation about God, I believe, has a lot to do with semantics. I believe a lot of atheists and agnostics have some understanding of God except that they're just not calling it that. The difficulty is in pointing it out because it can be so insanely difficult if not impossible to point to.

Divinity as I understand it is more likely to be found in the quiet still places and unexpected places too. It has more to do with the mysteries of life pointed to through the metaphors of myth, ritual and poetry. Curiosity and the continual awe and wonder of life can draw one nearer to this transcendental reality than a set of obedience tricks we're supposed to turn for ole papa grump pants

It is said that everything rests within divinity and divinity is within everything and divinity is everything.

It is in a teacup
a sneeze
a child's grin
a clock radio
and smelly arm pits too.

If you haven't noticed this, that's OK. Perhaps someday you will. In the meantime...

Atheism and agnosticism are not really problems at all if they are not adopted rigidly as exclusive lenses by which to view the world; but instead as potentially temporary way-stations which allow for the changes of one's views when and if new data or experiences are realized.

I think the crux of the matter comes down to 'description' versus 'prescription' of a world view. If one describes themselves as agnostic, objectivist or whatever, this is just an honest assessment of where one is at in their understanding at that moment in time.

Things become non-useful when this way of seeing things is then prescribed for others as the "correct" view. It assumes that no-one else could possibly be working from a different set of experiences or reasoning that would nullify the "correct" worldview or turn it on it's head.

How many "correct" views have been held in the past with a high degree of certainty only to be found wrong? How many more times will this have to happen before we realize just how puzzling things really are. The universe is a mystery in all of its aspects.

My brother-in-law, Randy, posted this George Carlin quote on facebook the other day.

"I'm not an atheist and I'm not an agnostic. I'm an acrostic. The whole thing puzzles me."

Yeah. I get that. Totally.

BTW - A wonderful post on this subject by Father Stratford+ can be found here.

Saint Julian of Norwich

From Saint Andrew's

For here we are so blind and foolish that we never seek God until he, of his goodness, shows himself to us. It is when we do see something of him by his grace that we are stirred by that same grace to seek him, and with earnest longing to see still more of his blessedness. So I saw him and sought him; I had him and wanted him. It seems to me that this is and should be an experience common to us all.

-Julian of Norwich

The Word of the Silence

A bare impersonal hush is now my mind,
A world of sight clear and inimitable,
A volume of silence by a Godhead signed,
A greatness pure, virgin of will.

Once on its pages Ignorance could write
In a scribble of intellect the blind guess of Time
And cast gleam-messages of ephemeral light,
A food for souls that wander on Nature's rim.

But now I listen to a greater Word
Born from the mute unseen omniscient Ray:
The Voice that only Silence' ear has heard
Leaps missioned from an eternal glory of Day.

All turns from a wideness and unbroken peace
To a tumult of joy in a sea of wide release.

-Sri Aurobindo

Why on Earth?

"But why on earth," you may ask, "should it be necessary for man to achieve, by hook or by crook, a higher level of consciousness?" This is truly the crucial question, and I do not find the answer easy. Instead of a real answer I can only make a confession of faith: 1 believe that, after thousands and millions of years, someone had to realize that this wonderful world of mountains and oceans, suns and moons, galaxies and nebulae, plants and animals, exists. From a low hill in the Athi plains of East Africa I once watched the vast herds of wild animals grazing in soundless stillness, as they had done from time immemorial, touched only by the breath of a primeval world. I felt then as if I were the first man, the first creature, to know that all this is. The entire world round me was still in its primeval state; it did not know that it was. And then, in that one moment in which I came to know, the world sprang into being; without that moment it would never have been. All Nature seeks this goal and finds it fulfilled in man, but only in the most highly developed and most fully conscious man.

CG Jung - "Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype" (1939). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P. 177

Moon Poem

From Sesame Street

Diversity and the Machine

I've been thinking recently regarding how diversity and abundance arise spontaneously in the universe and the existence of an opposing force which exists for the sake of control and manageability. I'm thinking of the apparent duality that is seen in the world between these two forces.

On one side there is quality (Think Amish quilts) and the other quantity (Think McDonalds).

On one side there is concrete reality here and present. You can touch it, feel it, be in it and be it. There is nothing outside it. It's as real as it gets.

On the other side are to-do-lists, the countless "hurry ups", "Can't stop now, I got this deadline you see.", "What were you thinking?.", etc etc.

When we get so caught up in the franticness of maximizing whatever it is we're maximizing, where are the moments that we actually bask in the abundance that is already there. How often can we look at another person and instead of seeing a human resource, project, wife, or student, we see an angel?

Well, I'm going to go back to trying my darndest to be internally silent and present. Here is a youtube post by bbbleaver I just ran across which seemed to resonate with these thoughts.

Make Art not War

Artwork by Shepard Fairey

I recently found this manifesto by Mary Anne Davis here.

The current differentiation between art, architecture, craft, and design is false, it is a false schism promoted by the art world. This unnatural taxonomy has crippled the artists and turned those who participate or attempt to participate into victims of fashion. Walter Gropius said in his manifesto of the Bauhaus, “There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsperson. The artist is an exalted craftsperson.” (sic)

The conscious cooperation and collaboration of artists and craftspeople must be reintroduced to rise above the current constriction and strangulation extant in the art world.

This artistic differentiation and intolerance, based on prejudice and fear of commerce, must stop. We must take matters back into our own hands and return to the idealism of our youth. Art schools filled us with impossible dreams and gave us no concrete way of supporting ourselves except through teaching, working at odd or related jobs
or that most coveted and jealously desired possibility, hitting it big.

It is time to take back the power inherent in our decision to become artists and to work at a grass roots level to create objects for use and contemplation that uplift the spirit. Participate in craft fairs. Make Xerox art. Sell art cheaply. Explore unexpected venues. Embrace commerce. The most important artists throughout history were
adroit business people.

When Albert Einstein discovered the theory of relativity, he wanted to explain it so that a school child could understand it. Let our work become that clear. Our ideas can be challenged and clarified by a direct experience with the public.

Make useful, beautiful, interesting, and or challenging objects. Use your talent and intelligence to educate an inquisitive public. Make a living doing what you love to do. Be irreverent. Get up. Get going.

There is a revolution going on in science, math, economics, sociology and psychology that is recognizing the parallel experiences of all the disciplines. Conciliance. Synthesis. Invite the public. Make art. Not war.