I read this yesterday, not for the first time, but it got me to thinking about what it really meant for me.
I started thinking about the truth it held for me, which is not necessarily the same for everyone else.
My interpretation is that God lives within me, God, in my belief, does not live on some far off planet, removed because of the unbearable sins of his children. I am a physical manifestation of God power and so on. God is always near, always listening, always teaching me that I have power, that I am never alone. 'The kingdom of heaven is within'.
I also apply this same idea to the whole of the Earth; plants, animals, rocks, trees, the ground, the sky, the wind. God is within, God is all around, God is everything.*
I think that this is very comforting, God, my heavenly creator, loves me so much, loves you so much, perhaps even loves the world so much, that he can't bear to be parted, and, I think, is really just not able to be parted. We; God, you, me, are a piece of the same whole; 'namaste', I recognize the god within you that is akin to the god within me. Or, as defined by
"The divinity in me bows to the divinity in you, because I know we are one",
and also as described by this website;
"The definition of Namaste (pronounced na, ma, stay) is both a physical gesture and a spoken spiritual salutation, which is the recognition of the divine spirit (or soul) in another by the divine spirit in you"
This whole thing nearly-almost leads to another subject I've been thinking on, to continue in another post.
What is your interpretation?
*There are many different facets to this idea, but I'm only addressing about two right in this article to try to simplify this enormous subject a bit.
I think you've got it Amoniel, more than most people I know. The kind of theology which you're discussing revolves around a living God, which makes Him all the more credible and much easier to love. When God is thought of as a sort of 'person' who watches things from outside the world, He's so difficult to believe in. But you put Him at the center, and you connect the entire world, and I applaud you for that.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that my interpretation strays very far from yours. I love the idea that Heaven and Hell are not places, but rather states of the heart, and we can live in the Kingdom of Heaven here and now. When I think of God, I think of a song.
I'm thinking about retiring, Amoniel.
I've thought about it long and often, I've drawn from many wells of thought, I have not really been truly indocrinated into anything very much, and I have come to realize that I don't feel comfortable with the idea of belonging to any single school of thought. (religion, whatever you want to call it.)
ReplyDeleteI believe something akin to that as well, strangely, or not so strangely, enough. I'm still rather waiting for the world to evolve to that point altogether, though.
What does the song look like?
What are you thinking of retiring from, Raven?
ReplyDeleteWe are worshipping God least when we are indoctrinated, most when we are worshipping him freely. When we draw from our wells of thought, from where does the water come? It comes from God, of course, so it is really the purest source for our faith. I do belong to a certain denomination of Christianity, but I don't let it limit me. I guess I like its traditions and that it's a body of which I can be a member.
ReplyDeleteThe song is something which can't be interpreted with logic, nor read with technicalities. It echoes through the world, always has and always will. It's soft, and moving, and beautiful, and it gives us life. Everything is a part of it, and it's a part of everything.
That's rather a large question. If you want me to answer spiritually, I will borrow a metaphor from The Alchemist. I'm thinking of retiring from shepherding in order to embark on a journey through the desert. To abandon my compulsions and my comforts in order to become myself. If you want me to answer practically, I'm thinking of retiring from the internet.
I was baptized, but I've never really felt as if I were actually a part of that religion. I guess that's just as well.
ReplyDeleteThe song that everything is singing within it's heart, whether or not if it gives voice to the music.
The world is so incredibly connected, so amazingly, beautifully, strangely connected, Raven. I shall never cease to wonder or notice or give audience to it's inter-woven network that is life and learning and love.
I would miss you, and I am certain there are others, known or unknown.
I thought of doing that once, I think I did for a little less than a week. It was a welcome respite, a rest to another less intense level of living, I suppose.
I would miss you, but you would still exist.
Part of the Christian religion, you mean? There are many ways to be baptized, I think, and not all of them are acknowledged by the Church. Whatever you choose, that IS just as well.
ReplyDeleteYes, a song from which everything was created and through which everything continues to be born, the song to which we will all return. If our hearts are humming, it matters not whether or not our other voices fly past our lips. The world is connected indeed, which is sometimes hard to remember. But it only takes nature or poetry or stories to remind us that the world is really One.
I like to think that I have a hundred followers, who honor my silence with theirs. ;) You could miss me, and I could miss you, but we wouldn't really have to do either, if the world is truly connected. Speaking of, I have three questions that I must ask you in order to discern your very soul (if you don't mind your soul being discerned):
(1)What is your patronus charm?
(2)Do you ever handwrite letters to anyone?
(3)From where does your joy and your sorrow come?
(1) I'm not perfectly sure, I rather think it would be something without shape or form.
ReplyDelete(2) Yes, though not very often, and not lately.
(3) Living.
So your happiest memory may be as easy to hold onto as a cloud, which really means that your patronus is life, and it's always enveloping you. It's a blessing to live in a cloud as it floats in the blue, so I assume that your patronus would be so bright that every dementor would cringe all over the world.
ReplyDeleteI'm torn between what was and what could be, as someone told me long ago but I couldn't understand until these past few weeks. And a newer question is caught like an acorn among the branches.