Beyond Our Control....
Gentle Readers, yours truly is being assaulted by the mould alternaria, which is in full bore (and it is boring) due to the absolutely horrid weather we've been having: weeks of it. Damp, gloom, freezing temps, bitter wind have left me a sniveling, coughing wreck. I hope to be better in a few days but right now I can barely put fingers on keyboard, much less write something coherent! Bear with me, please . . . .
posted by Maggie Ross at 7:15 pm
12 Comments:
Hope you get better soon.
Thanks, Daisy!
Dear Maggie -
I hope you get well soon. I'll send few Buddhist prayers in your direction - and a note of general encouragement related to your last post: even one voice keeps an idea alive. Generations into the future will know the things you write about because you wrote, and spoke about them. And even better, your voice is not the only one ....
Susan
Thanks, Susan!
Maggie,
Go easy! get well soon.
Theo
Thanks, Theo.
I, an ardent reader, would be thrilled to have you sunny up and dry out right here in Northern California, by Mt. Lassen. We would take very good care of you!
Deborah
Thank you, Deborah, but I fear my traveling days are over. I know the Lassen area well and it is beautiful.
=) As you yourself say, "the faith is in the silence".
Does God ever "relinquish all claim to experience to wait in the silence and unknowing of attentive receptivity"?
If God is total outpouring (kenosis), the divine model of the shared human/divine image that you describe, then God's knowledge is direct and has no need for interpretation; also not reflexive in the sense that human beings are reflexive (self-conscious mind) and therefore there is no 'experience' (interpretation) as humans have; also no need to 'claim'. Attentive receptivity? Always both and something more, I would guess... but far beyond our ken or language...while closer to us than the marrow of our bones.
For my Lenten Journey I’ve been trying to strip away the “the chains of fear”. To this end I’ve incorporated the Orthodox Lenten tradition of taking a personal inventory leading up to reconciliation. This process has focused my attention on the significance of Jesus' rising with his wounds and the fact that it is God who has been injured and therefore has the capacity to forgive. I’ve read incredibly moving illustrations of the intimacy and immensity of God’s love for us. Also, I’ve taken to heart your previous post about being receptive to paradoxes. In the process of reconciliation, we all inevitably ‘relive’ painful periods of our lives so as to identify and correct destructive behavior(s). One paradox I’ve encountered is that I feel God does not want me to fear those painful periods of my life anymore, but rather to embrace them. This reminded me of Siddhartha’s version of enlightenment, when he likens time to the river and notices that all of us in all periods of our lives make the same sound. It seems being free from one’s self-consciousness does not mean being free from suffering but rather the opposite – Jesus seems to perpetually have one foot in each world.
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