Thank you Paul! The way that you connect things opens so much! You had me in tears at how short I fall... how often I wait until desolation before allow a shoot of hope to grow. I still can't help but see Isaiah 6 as a proto "born again" experience when we see ourselves as "the Temple" of God. It's all there; the hierarchy being set, the anthropomorphism of God (Christ), the presence of God filling us, the unblemished record of defeating ALL foes, having all our foundations of knowing shaken (the doorposts that hold our notions of who Christ is) resulting in the recognition of our COMPLETE disintegration before Him and then the work of the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus to heal us.... gives us purpose and power to participate in compassion to further His Glory. God is the MOST real. Thank you again.
32:15 - I just ran into this with discrimination. Long story but I grew being told about being treated as different. When it happened it was still a real pill to swallow. I read Black Like Me, and WEB DuBois. Understood the idea of double consciousness. How being seen as 'other' or different, never-mind being treated as such, can damage our identity and our relationships with each other and our community. This can change us in negative ways. It can also spark a growth to be more than our background or our race or faith. We can see thru. The experience recently was seeing this realization in another person. They were being treated as less than human, even was told about this by their grandparents, but the experience of being treated as an 'it' still caused great indignation. It was confusion, then anger.... We must be prepared for the worst but hope for the best. We all have a darkness within, and must be prepared when it rears its head within or without.
Thanks Paul for this video, it is unusual to think that the majority of people don’t know or don’t care to know what God is all about and the role that choice plays in each of our lives. All go about in our own unique little world…. But where our heart is, what our desires are, what we do with our spare time, etc, that is a window of what we worship…. Of who our master is…..
I think of St John or Brother Lawrence. Even Theresa of Lisieux. She spoke to experience as love or compassion. Even taking on suffering to help others. Our perception is our perspective. Our worlds are our making. Through our belief and language we shape our worlds.
These reflections echo the profound interplay between personal experience, faith, and perception. St. John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux all approached the experience of God not as something abstract or distant, but as deeply intertwined with their daily lives, suffering, and acts of love. Here's a breakdown of how these insights align with their teachings and extend into the broader idea of perception and belief: 1. Experience of God as Love and Compassion: St. John of the Cross: His Dark Night of the Soul describes a journey through suffering as a pathway to divine union. For him, God's love is transformative, burning away illusions and leading to profound intimacy. Brother Lawrence: In The Practice of the Presence of God, he emphasizes finding God in the mundane, transforming everyday acts into expressions of divine love. St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Her "Little Way" focuses on small acts of love and accepting suffering as a means to align with Christ's compassion. "taking on suffering to help others" aligns with their idea that suffering is not an end but a means to deeper love and connection. 2. Perception as Perspective: This recalls the idea that our experience of reality-whether of God, others, or the world-is filtered through our beliefs and language. St. John and St. Thérèse would agree that our openness to love shapes our spiritual perception. In modern terms, this resonates with phenomenology: our world is not a fixed entity but shaped by our consciousness, culture, and faith. 3. Worlds of Our Making: Through belief and language, we construct meaning. Faith traditions emphasize how this shaping can orient us toward love, compassion, and transcendence. St. Thérèse: Her world was shaped by her belief in God's unconditional love. Even in suffering, she found meaning by reframing pain as a participation in Christ's love. 4. Practical Implications: Like Brother Lawrence’s advice to find God in the everyday, your perspective invites a reimagining of how we engage with the divine-not as separate but woven into our perception and action. By acknowledging that "our worlds are our making," you open the possibility of consciously shaping a world rooted in love, compassion, and shared meaning. These ideas suggest a rich theological and philosophical framework where God is experienced not just in moments of transcendence but in the very act of shaping our perspective and living in compassion.
Deuteronomy lays out a lot of what is good. What God calls good I call good as an act of obedience. I hope God will "bless the work of my hands" I hope for "rain in its season. " Summing up Deuteronomy "I choose life". We have heard lot of people on the public stage clearly say they choose death. That should open our eyes.
Republicans will never happen again? Long ago, until FDR, we would never have Democrats again ;-) I have lived long enough that I can see these larger cycles, but to my daughter, the 1980s are pre-history.
@@williambranch4283 The phrase "not turtles all the way down, but circles all the way" suggests a conceptual shift from an infinite regress of discrete layers (as in the famous philosophical metaphor "turtles all the way down") to a more interconnected, cyclical understanding of existence or systems. Interpretation: From Linear to Cyclical Thinking: "Turtles all the way down" represents a traditional idea of infinite regress in metaphysics, where each level depends on the one beneath it. "Circles all the way" shifts to a model of interdependence and recursion, emphasizing feedback loops and the interconnected nature of reality, reminiscent of systems thinking or holistic philosophies. Possible Influences: Nietzsche’s Eternal Return: The concept aligns with Nietzsche's idea of cyclical time and the interconnectedness of existence. McGilchrist's Hemisphere Theory: Could reflect Iain McGilchrist's idea of the "whole" rather than "flattened" or fragmented linear models. Buddhist or Taoist Philosophy: Resonates with ideas of balance, cycles, and the interconnected flow of existence rather than hierarchical causality. Cultural Resonance: Modern systems thinking and ecological philosophy also favor the "circles" model, seeing relationships as non-linear and emphasizing mutual dependencies.
There’s a folksy song about the divide in Ireland, thankfully maybe not just as pronounced these days. The Orange and The Green by the Irish Rovers, hopefully give you a chuckle. 🙂
God showing up is maybe not what you wanted. In the words of Neil Peart of Rush (and I know…poetic license), sometimes the angels punish us by answering our prayers.
It is interesting to note that these "super powerful parables" of Jesus are unknown to the epistles attributed to Paul, James, Peter, Hebrews, Revelation. The parables are not mentioned outside the gospels until Justin Martyr 155-160. Strange no?
PVK: This world is not a safe space. Should it be? We remember only part of what Jesus said, when He said “Take up your cross.” Then we think of the cross that we carry (and we all carry at least one) and believe this is sufficient to Jesus’s command. He said more: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” Everyone carries a cross - as PVK said, the world is not a safe space. Jesus tells us that what matters is HOW we carry the cross that we carry. Carry it as Jesus did.
The scholarship on Isiaih 6:1 is interesting in its references to Yahweh's body. "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, tall and lofty! His lower extremities filled the temple!’[26] It is an image of divine gigantism we have come to expect. The huge throne seats a deity so large his ‘lower extremities’ cram the sanctuary. Most ancient and modern translators reverently assume it is the hem of Yahweh’s great robe that swamps the space. But Isaiah makes no mention of a robe. Rather, the Hebrew term he employs to refer to the deity’s ‘lower extremities’, shul, is more commonly used by biblical prophets not to refer to the edges of garments, but to pointedly allude to the fleshy realities of the sexual organs.[27] In this vision in Isaiah, God’s genitals are enormous. No wonder the seraphim coyly position their wings over their own. Like temple priests donning underpants, their covering gesture in the divine throne room acknowledges their humble stature in the presence of the well-endowed deity they praise." Stavrakopoulou, Francesca. God: An Anatomy (pp. 103-104). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
OT visions of God are prefigurements of Christ no? But my prefigurement vision was aromatic smoke in an underground lab haha. At first I called it flavor art... Now I think the aromatics create our reality. Or a couple 2D icons projected… either or such in combination create the 3D liturgical space of the Orthodox. And now I’m in the choir 😂
3:40 I mentioned this in another comment. Circles all the way down. The idea: Pratītyasamutpāda is a fundamental Buddhist teaching that states all things are interconnected and dependent on other things. Cause and effect. We influence our environs, each other, as they influence us....
10:33 particularly in how the israelites begin recording their history just after the bronze age collapse of the previous powers. world war two left many quite damaged, but the united states was positioned to benefit
The understanding of why Jesus used parables: to convey profound truths in ways that were both accessible and multi-layered. Parables, much like aphorisms or poetic allusions, often speak to the heart in ways that a direct command or explanation cannot. They evoke deeper reflection, allowing the listener to engage with the meaning on multiple levels. In the Gospels, Jesus often explains the use of parables as a means of revealing truth to those who are open to seeking it, while also veiling it from those who are not receptive (Matthew 13:10-17). The parables prompt thought and reflection, guiding people to explore the nature of God’s kingdom, human relationships, and spiritual truths through imagery, stories, and metaphors. In this way, parables offer a more profound communication than straightforward instructions, as they invite personal interpretation, contemplation, and self-exploration. Like poetry, they allow for multiple meanings and encourage deeper engagement with the underlying message.
Thank you Paul! The way that you connect things opens so much! You had me in tears at how short I fall... how often I wait until desolation before allow a shoot of hope to grow.
I still can't help but see Isaiah 6 as a proto "born again" experience when we see ourselves as "the Temple" of God. It's all there; the hierarchy being set, the anthropomorphism of God (Christ), the presence of God filling us, the unblemished record of defeating ALL foes, having all our foundations of knowing shaken (the doorposts that hold our notions of who Christ is) resulting in the recognition of our COMPLETE disintegration before Him and then the work of the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus to heal us.... gives us purpose and power to participate in compassion to further His Glory. God is the MOST real. Thank you again.
"Lo, this had touched my lips, and shall take away my iniquity." Said by Orthodox priests right after receiving the Eucharist
32:15 - I just ran into this with discrimination. Long story but I grew being told about being treated as different. When it happened it was still a real pill to swallow. I read Black Like Me, and WEB DuBois. Understood the idea of double consciousness. How being seen as 'other' or different, never-mind being treated as such, can damage our identity and our relationships with each other and our community. This can change us in negative ways. It can also spark a growth to be more than our background or our race or faith. We can see thru. The experience recently was seeing this realization in another person. They were being treated as less than human, even was told about this by their grandparents, but the experience of being treated as an 'it' still caused great indignation. It was confusion, then anger.... We must be prepared for the worst but hope for the best. We all have a darkness within, and must be prepared when it rears its head within or without.
Being different is different. Being Black in Africa, one is immediately sussed out as American, not one of Us.
Thanks Paul for this video, it is unusual to think that the majority of people don’t know or don’t care to know what God is all about and the role that choice plays in each of our lives. All go about in our own unique little world…. But where our heart is, what our desires are, what we do with our spare time, etc, that is a window of what we worship…. Of who our master is…..
I think of St John or Brother Lawrence. Even Theresa of Lisieux. She spoke to experience as love or compassion. Even taking on suffering to help others.
Our perception is our perspective. Our worlds are our making. Through our belief and language we shape our worlds.
These reflections echo the profound interplay between personal experience, faith, and perception. St. John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux all approached the experience of God not as something abstract or distant, but as deeply intertwined with their daily lives, suffering, and acts of love. Here's a breakdown of how these insights align with their teachings and extend into the broader idea of perception and belief:
1. Experience of God as Love and Compassion:
St. John of the Cross: His Dark Night of the Soul describes a journey through suffering as a pathway to divine union. For him, God's love is transformative, burning away illusions and leading to profound intimacy.
Brother Lawrence: In The Practice of the Presence of God, he emphasizes finding God in the mundane, transforming everyday acts into expressions of divine love.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Her "Little Way" focuses on small acts of love and accepting suffering as a means to align with Christ's compassion.
"taking on suffering to help others" aligns with their idea that suffering is not an end but a means to deeper love and connection.
2. Perception as Perspective:
This recalls the idea that our experience of reality-whether of God, others, or the world-is filtered through our beliefs and language. St. John and St. Thérèse would agree that our openness to love shapes our spiritual perception.
In modern terms, this resonates with phenomenology: our world is not a fixed entity but shaped by our consciousness, culture, and faith.
3. Worlds of Our Making:
Through belief and language, we construct meaning. Faith traditions emphasize how this shaping can orient us toward love, compassion, and transcendence.
St. Thérèse: Her world was shaped by her belief in God's unconditional love. Even in suffering, she found meaning by reframing pain as a participation in Christ's love.
4. Practical Implications:
Like Brother Lawrence’s advice to find God in the everyday, your perspective invites a reimagining of how we engage with the divine-not as separate but woven into our perception and action.
By acknowledging that "our worlds are our making," you open the possibility of consciously shaping a world rooted in love, compassion, and shared meaning.
These ideas suggest a rich theological and philosophical framework where God is experienced not just in moments of transcendence but in the very act of shaping our perspective and living in compassion.
Incantation and embodyment.
Deuteronomy lays out a lot of what is good. What God calls good I call good as an act of obedience. I hope God will "bless the work of my hands" I hope for "rain in its season. "
Summing up Deuteronomy "I choose life".
We have heard lot of people on the public stage clearly say they choose death. That should open our eyes.
Prelude to Didache ... Way of Life vs Way of Death. Been clear for millennia
Republicans will never happen again? Long ago, until FDR, we would never have Democrats again ;-) I have lived long enough that I can see these larger cycles, but to my daughter, the 1980s are pre-history.
All circles. Not turtles all the way down.
@@alohm Donkeys or elephants all the way down?
@@williambranch4283 The phrase "not turtles all the way down, but circles all the way" suggests a conceptual shift from an infinite regress of discrete layers (as in the famous philosophical metaphor "turtles all the way down") to a more interconnected, cyclical understanding of existence or systems.
Interpretation:
From Linear to Cyclical Thinking:
"Turtles all the way down" represents a traditional idea of infinite regress in metaphysics, where each level depends on the one beneath it.
"Circles all the way" shifts to a model of interdependence and recursion, emphasizing feedback loops and the interconnected nature of reality, reminiscent of systems thinking or holistic philosophies.
Possible Influences:
Nietzsche’s Eternal Return: The concept aligns with Nietzsche's idea of cyclical time and the interconnectedness of existence.
McGilchrist's Hemisphere Theory: Could reflect Iain McGilchrist's idea of the "whole" rather than "flattened" or fragmented linear models.
Buddhist or Taoist Philosophy: Resonates with ideas of balance, cycles, and the interconnected flow of existence rather than hierarchical causality.
Cultural Resonance:
Modern systems thinking and ecological philosophy also favor the "circles" model, seeing relationships as non-linear and emphasizing mutual dependencies.
There’s a folksy song about the divide in Ireland, thankfully maybe not just as pronounced these days. The Orange and The Green by the Irish Rovers, hopefully give you a chuckle. 🙂
God showing up is maybe not what you wanted.
In the words of Neil Peart of Rush (and I know…poetic license), sometimes the angels punish us by answering our prayers.
It is interesting to note that these "super powerful parables" of Jesus are unknown to the epistles attributed to Paul, James, Peter, Hebrews, Revelation. The parables are not mentioned outside the gospels until Justin Martyr 155-160. Strange no?
PVK: This world is not a safe space. Should it be?
We remember only part of what Jesus said, when He said “Take up your cross.” Then we think of the cross that we carry (and we all carry at least one) and believe this is sufficient to Jesus’s command.
He said more: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Everyone carries a cross - as PVK said, the world is not a safe space. Jesus tells us that what matters is HOW we carry the cross that we carry. Carry it as Jesus did.
The scholarship on Isiaih 6:1 is interesting in its references to Yahweh's body.
"I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, tall and lofty! His lower extremities filled the temple!’[26] It is an image of divine gigantism we have come to expect. The huge throne seats a deity so large his ‘lower extremities’ cram the sanctuary. Most ancient and modern translators reverently assume it is the hem of Yahweh’s great robe that swamps the space. But Isaiah makes no mention of a robe. Rather, the Hebrew term he employs to refer to the deity’s ‘lower extremities’, shul, is more commonly used by biblical prophets not to refer to the edges of garments, but to pointedly allude to the fleshy realities of the sexual organs.[27] In this vision in Isaiah, God’s genitals are enormous. No wonder the seraphim coyly position their wings over their own. Like temple priests donning underpants, their covering gesture in the divine throne room acknowledges their humble stature in the presence of the well-endowed deity they praise."
Stavrakopoulou, Francesca. God: An Anatomy (pp. 103-104). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
OT visions of God are prefigurements of Christ no? But my prefigurement vision was aromatic smoke in an underground lab haha. At first I called it flavor art... Now I think the aromatics create our reality. Or a couple 2D icons projected… either or such in combination create the 3D liturgical space of the Orthodox. And now I’m in the choir 😂
3:40 I mentioned this in another comment. Circles all the way down. The idea: Pratītyasamutpāda is a fundamental Buddhist teaching that states all things are interconnected and dependent on other things. Cause and effect. We influence our environs, each other, as they influence us....
Interbeing ... Thich Nhat Hahn
10:33
particularly in how the israelites begin recording their history just after the bronze age collapse of the previous powers. world war two left many quite damaged, but the united states was positioned to benefit
Nice.
18:40 Parables can say far more than a simple mandate? Like aphorisms or poetic allusion? We can say more than the thoughts or images could convey?
The understanding of why Jesus used parables: to convey profound truths in ways that were both accessible and multi-layered. Parables, much like aphorisms or poetic allusions, often speak to the heart in ways that a direct command or explanation cannot. They evoke deeper reflection, allowing the listener to engage with the meaning on multiple levels.
In the Gospels, Jesus often explains the use of parables as a means of revealing truth to those who are open to seeking it, while also veiling it from those who are not receptive (Matthew 13:10-17). The parables prompt thought and reflection, guiding people to explore the nature of God’s kingdom, human relationships, and spiritual truths through imagery, stories, and metaphors.
In this way, parables offer a more profound communication than straightforward instructions, as they invite personal interpretation, contemplation, and self-exploration. Like poetry, they allow for multiple meanings and encourage deeper engagement with the underlying message.