Space, Time, and Religion in the Making (dialogue with Roman Campolo)
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- Roman is reading Alfred North Whitehead's book "Religion in the Making." We discuss that as well as the nature of space and time in Kant and Whitehead.
“Religion is what one does with their solitude” reminds me of Rilke.
The quieter we are, the more patient and open we are in our sadnesses, the more deeply and serenely the new presence can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it becomes our fate. - Rilke
Wow I love this going to be watching now!❤️
at 48:00 that's cool}《by developing our understanding of geometry~ we can then develop our intuition>> i have been wondering about the field of scientific ontology lately~ especially because i saw a video on the amplituhedron, which is a geometrical object 'found' in 2013, where the fundamental physicists are attempting to use the geometry as a new paradigm, a new language to calculate the interactions in particle physics; so they are still measuring the same particles, such as gluons, but they have tried to dismiss both quantum mechanics and the concept/ model of spacetime::: very interesting!
Great discussion. Roman was asking some very good and honest questions. You can tell he loves the content and the quest for knowledge
Great and lowly are RELATIVE. 😉
Incidentally, are you VEGAN? 🌱
6:43 regarding ritual behaviour among animals……could this not be expanded to Earth itself as an organism……..mountains that reach for the sky, seasons that repeat themselves in a ritual like behaviour etc?
Indigenous/endogenous ecology: where the process philosophy rubber meets the road. (For whenever you're ready;)
Just to note in relation to the early part of the video concerning ritual or worship among non-human beings: Psalm 148 contains a (potential, at least) portrait of universal, cosmological consciousness of the Divine.
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his host!
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars!
4 Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he commanded and they were created.
6 He established them for ever and ever;
he fixed their order, which cannot be changed.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you sea monsters and all watery depths,
8 fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his command!
9 Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
10 Wild animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds!
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
12 Young men and women alike,
old and young together!
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his glory is above earth and heaven.
Are you a THEIST? 🤔
If so, what are the reasons for your BELIEF in God? 🤓
@@FilipinaVegana I find it interesting that you capitalized certain words just like some very enthusiastic and fundamentalist Christians do 😉
@@KingoftheJuice18, respected British anthropology professor, Dr. Edward Dutton, has demonstrated that “LEFTISM” is due to genetic mutations caused by poor breeding strategies.
🤡
To put it simply, in recent decades, those persons who exhibit leftist traits such as egalitarianism, feminism, gynocentrism, socialism, multiculturalism, transvestism, homosexuality, perverse morality, and laziness, have been reproducing at rates far exceeding the previous norm, leading to an explosion of insane, narcissistic SOCIOPATHS in (mostly) Western societies.
'Religion In The Making' is a rewarding and engrossing read; that said, one key component missing from Whitehead's account, and to which you refer in the title, is time. The temple at Karnak, the various henges and stone circles, the medicine wheels, many if not most of the archaeastronomical antiquities we find worldwide and spanning centuries, refer to the passage of time, and the four elemental tipping-points, solstitial and equinoctial, of the annual cycle. Nonetheless, Whitehead believes in an eternal order.
But when he said " ... it is as true say that the world transcends God ..." he made the stupidest of of his claims about the relation of God 'and' the world. It is a nonsense. God is externally related to the world - otherwise he is an interventionist - and the world is internally related to God, otherwise it simply perishes and is of no final account. That claim eviscerates the very meaning of 'transcendence' as synonymous with deity or 'God'. The world is what it is and it is not God; neither is God's transcendent - 'primordial - nature identical with the world. Transcendence and immanence - 'the heavens and the earth' (Genesis 1.1) are the first formulation of this theological construct in the west - are key concepts in western - i.e. Judaic, Islamic and Christian - theology, with a long legacy. This has to be acknowledged in any account which uses them.
YOGA & RELIGION DEFINED:
The English word “religion” originates from the Latin verb “religare”, meaning “to join” or “to unite”. It is the precise equivalent of the Sanskrit noun “yoga”, from the verbal root “yuj” (“to attach, harness, or yoke”). Thus, religion/yoga implies union with the Supreme Self, or, to provide a more accurate and profound definition, the understanding and realization that there is nothing BUT the Supreme Self (“Paramātmāṇ”, in Sanskrit). Other definitions include “union of the body and the mind” and “union with God”, both of which are valid in the appropriate context.
Perhaps the best definition of “yogaḥ/religion” is “the UNION of the relative and the Absolute”, suggesting one who has fully realized himself or herself to be, in essence, the very Ground of Being (“Brahman”, in Sanskrit), but knows precisely how to integrate that understanding within temporal existence, just as, for example, Rabbi Jesus Christ so admirably demonstrated during His public ministry in Israel, two millennia ago.
A similar understanding of the terms “yogaḥ” and “religion” to that given above, would be as follows: Religion/yogaḥ is the union of the external and internal worlds. This refers to an authentic, HARMONIOUS integration of a human being’s outlook of the external sphere of material objects (which includes other minds and intellects), and one’s internal way of being. This interpretation comports with the definition of “yogaḥ” found in the “Yogaḥ Sūtras” of Patañjali, who codified various schools of sāṃkhya and yoga about two thousand years ago, in India.
THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION ACCORDING TO TRADITION:
According to some sources, YOGAḤ (authentic religion) was introduced to human society over twelve thousand years ago, by the Ādiyogī (first religionist), Mahādeva Śiva, in His form known as Dakṣiṇāmūrti, in the subcontinent of Bhārata (India). Lord Śiva (pron. “Shiva”) is universally recognized to be the first Avatar (“Avatāra”, in Sanskrit). An Avatāra is a man who is a pure embodiment of the Divine, sanctified from birth, and usually devotes His life to spreading transcendental knowledge. See the Glossary entry under “Avatāra” for a far more extensive definition.
Another source claims that RELIGION (authentic yogaḥ) began when the “‘Hindu’ Demiurge”, Lord Brahmā, spoke the four “Veda” (“[Books of] Knowledge”, in Sanskrit) in the ancient Vedic Saṃskṛtam tongue of Northern Bhārata, composed of mantras, benedictions, rituals, and prayers, but the essential teachings of which are non-dualistic, that is to say, describe everything existential having the same ground of being. In other words, “All is One”, without a second. “Sarvam khalvidam brahma” (Chāndogyopaniṣad 3.14, a portion of “Sāma Veda”) teaches that “All this is verily Brahman” (“Brahman” referring to the totality of existence/non-existence). Alternatively, those who are accomplished in the study of the “Vedas”, consider the four “Vedas” to be “apauruṣeya”, meaning, “not of a man; superhuman”, and "impersonal; authorless", revelations of sacred sounds and texts heard by ancient sages after intense meditation. Read earlier chapters of “F.I.S.H” to fathom Monism (non-duality).
Whether or not these historical events REALLY occurred is irrelevant to the purposes of this chapter, and to the implications of this Scripture.
N.B. The male deity, Śrī Brahmā, referred to as the creator god within the trinity (“trimūrti”, in Sanskrit) of Supreme Divinity in Vedic religion (which includes the gods Śrī Viṣṇu and Śrī Śiva), is not to be confused with “Brahman”, which is a genderless, abstract metaphysical concept.
THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION ACCORDING TO THE WORLD TEACHER:
N.B. Before reading this section, it shall prove beneficial for the reader to study the following chapter, in order to become familiar with the concept of “spiritual awakening”, and how awakening experiences are distinguished from the quite UNRELATED notion of “enlightenment”.
In the considered opinion of this author, it is FAR more likely that religion began when we human beings evolved to the necessary degree, that we began experiencing spiritual awakenings, probably about ten-to-twenty thousand years ago. This is plausible for the following two reasons:
FIRSTLY, the most ancient recognized metaphysical position, non-duality (“advaita”, in Sanskrit), is the most common conclusion of those who have undergone a spiritually-transformative experience, commonly called “awakening”, “a peak experience”, “cosmic consciousness”, “unitive consciousness”, and far, far, far less accurately, “enlightenment”. So, when certain individuals began to experience such awakenings (either by observing some kind of contemplative practice, with drugs, or most probably, entirely spontaneously), they would ponder their experiences from an intellectual perspective, and start to formulate explanations for their strange experiences. Subsequently, these “buddhas” (a Sanskrit/ Pāli term for “an awakened being”) would most likely share their experiences with others, including those who had also experienced some kind of awakening episode, and in time, codify their realizations in the form of aphoristic verses, to be passed-on to their student disciples.
Eventually, these aphorisms would be memorized, written down and embellished by succeeding generations, and come to be known as “Holy Scriptures”. Those who have studied the two oldest extant religious traditions (Vedic dharma and Judaism) will undoubtedly acknowledge this theory to be quite credible, for upon exploring their sacred texts, the evidence is overwhelming (and consistent too with the development of secular institutions). QUALITATIVELY similar to such awakening events, are those experiences that transpire following the ingestion of mind-altering substances, and it is well-known that humans have been using psychoactive drugs for several thousand years, in order to “get high”.
In order to provide just one illustration of this phenomenon, consider the case of the Sufi MYSTICS of medieval Persia (such as the two world-famous Farsi poets, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī and Khwāje Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī) and how they came to a largely non-dualistic (Monistic) understanding of Ultimate Reality, despite being born into zealously-Islamic communities, and indeed, put their very lives at risk by composing texts that were surreptitiously antithetical to the Monotheistic system of religion predominant in their nations/countries.
Furthermore, the writings of some of these sages are taken to be veritable holy books by a significant proportion of the population of people residing in their homelands (if not in name, then definitely in the amount of honour and respect that is lavished upon their poetry). In this case, and in the case of mystics originating from various other times and places, it seems obvious that they have undergone certain “religious experiences” that point towards a thoroughly non-dual metaphysical schema, entirely independent from their cultural milieux. Even though this book was composed by someone who was indoctrinated into a number of devotional religious organizations, ultimately, it may be seen as a continuation of this mystical tradition, since this author fully-shed that indoctrination, following decades of progressive spiritual awakening.
SECONDLY, as alluded to above, it was necessary for the human species to sufficiently evolve (not only biologically, but even more importantly, socially and linguistically) to the level where we could reconcile our mystical experiences with our mundane daily lives, rather than focus our attention entirely on survival, especially before the agricultural revolution, approximately twenty thousand years ago. For the greater part of our history, we were preoccupied with gathering sufficient foodstuffs, in order to simply stay alive. A sceptic could easily dismiss religion, in general, by noting that, because religion was not instantiated at the very commencement of the Homo sapiens species, it is merely a man-made institution, and therefore, extrinsic to our psyche. Hopefully, this book, considered as a whole, will prove this assertion to be a fallacious claim. Part of such scepticism, is due to the fact that those who hold the anti-religious position grossly misunderstand the very definition of the term “religion”. If irreligious folk claim that there is no evidence for a Supreme Creator God, then obviously, they are absolutely correct. But, again, religion is not founded upon the belief in God, or gods, or any other belief system whatsoever, but on union with the self with the Self.
Rather than being a social construct, religion is simply the discovery that there is more to life than purely the observable universe, and that it is possible for we humans to live a completely harmonious existence, by uniting ourselves with a higher power (that is factually our very Self!).