tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post6272624035102580818..comments2023-09-28T10:08:44.827+02:00Comments on Gwynt: The Nativity RevisitedUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-13041587180282087292014-01-05T22:11:24.345+01:002014-01-05T22:11:24.345+01:00Ellena and Marja-Leena; Thank you for 'listen...Ellena and Marja-Leena; Thank you for 'listening in.'Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-9961909482165641542014-01-05T21:20:36.998+01:002014-01-05T21:20:36.998+01:00Tom, I continue to read and dwell on all that you ...Tom, I continue to read and dwell on all that you write - so much food for thought here!marja-leenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634791656471132347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-1503088803947588742014-01-04T17:50:07.525+01:002014-01-04T17:50:07.525+01:00As always, your writing becomes a welcomed think-t...As always, your writing becomes a welcomed think-task for my brain.Ellenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14965850008354379369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-5462647248907411402014-01-03T22:54:44.882+01:002014-01-03T22:54:44.882+01:00Vincent; This is just a quick note to say that I ...Vincent; This is just a quick note to say that I will spend some time considering your comment before answering in more depth. I am at a crossroads at the moment and am trying to see what choices and options are available. Thank you; I will get back to you.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-48635910688084543812014-01-03T22:38:04.337+01:002014-01-03T22:38:04.337+01:00I was planning to comment on your previous post, a...I was planning to comment on your previous post, and even wrote down some notes. Basically I supported your previous hypothesis, the one you expressed in the last paragraph of that post, beginning “The pain arises ...” and ending “I fear that it is going to demand a great deal of faith on my part, and I do not do faith very well. But we shall see what we see.”<br /><br />Now, in your latest, you seem to have pulled back from that position, as too scary.<br /><br />Your first commenter Halle said “As much as we might like to believe that the realm of spirit is populated by good, you seem to have found malevolence.” You responded that western culture sees the ultimate triumph of good over evil, but that you were drawn to something beyond those opposites, or in your words, to “solving the paradox that lies between them”.<br /><br />I thought you were on to something there. And it seemed to me that this quest for the Good actually <i>creates</i> the concept of Evil as its antithesis. Why can’t we achieve the desired Good, and manifest it in the world? Because something stands in its way, to which we give the name Evil. It must be powerful because the Good has not yet succeeded in overthrowing it.<br /><br />You said, in that last para mentioned above, “my path may take me beyond the outer rim of logic, rationality and reason into the outer darkness of sheer intuition, a natural but largely unexplored part of my Self, a faculty that has become alienated perhaps.” That seemed exactly right, from where I stand. You’ve sketched out a possible path which you are frightened to take.<br /><br />This brings to mind a phenomenon which appears to be universal: the fear of apostasy, of being cast into the outer darkness. There are millions of people who don’t go to church but revere Jesus as a god-like human being, not exclusively but in some vague manner. They may or may not call themselves Christian. This phenomenon, of course, is what keeps millions more within the protection of the church and shudder at the idea of blasphemy, from a superstitious dread.<br /><br />That’s what your fantasy journey sounded like to me: a graphic illustration of this deep dread. I was in a meditation cult (as I now think of it) for thirty years partly because of that feeling you so precisely expressed, a fear of following a path that would lead out to outer darkness, where I’d be at the mercy of other forces, such as “worldliness”—the state of all those people in the world who had not been initiated into the ultimate truth which I possessed.<br /><br />May you solve the paradox that lies between good and evil. We can be in a place where we can perceive both intellectually and in sensual experience that there is One Thing only. We are part of it, and it is part of us. It does not die. Our ego-existence is a bubble which inflated at birth and bursts at death: ultimately an illusion through which we struggle (as we must) and enjoy (as we can). <br /><br />From my perspective, your later post is a retreat from the clear self-awareness expressed in the earlier one. Only your own heart can know which is nearer to what it was trying to express in that pathworking exercise.<br /><br />Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-52400927054787016942014-01-03T21:09:25.992+01:002014-01-03T21:09:25.992+01:00Susan; I fear I do not have, "Jung and the Lo...Susan; I fear I do not have, "Jung and the Lost Gospels." That title has come to my notice two or three times of late, so perhaps I'd best buy it.<br /><br />Thank you for bringing it to my attention.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-5049146257046000402014-01-03T19:43:10.361+01:002014-01-03T19:43:10.361+01:00I wonder if you also have a copy of Jung and the L...I wonder if you also have a copy of Jung and the Lost Gospels? One story contained therein called 'Traveler From Heaven - the Myth of Song of the Pearl', is essentially a version of the Gnostic myth you've described here - the one about the soul's alienation in the dark material world away from its true home in lightness and glory.<br /><br />As it's one of the most beautiful stories I've come across, one you'll likely remember if you've read it, I'll hope it's on a shelf just a few steps away from where you are. <br />susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16747450215034568033noreply@blogger.com