Posted by jb on September 24, 19100 at 08:48:16:
In Reply to: Re: Levels of consciousness posted by Diana on September 24, 19100 at 05:25:50:
:Phil and Jb are both great in this area but they are thinkers and process things quite differently from the way I process them.
Don't neglect the Jokes & Tales www.board where I elaborated on this just recently!
: There is not even a 'T' anywhere near my Myers Briggs typological profile. I know things intuitively. I don't know how I know them but I do know them. That doesn't mean I can't be wrong.
I've been wr
And about the correction being gifted us when the Spirit thinks we're ready ..ahem ... I mean intuits when we're ready ...scratch that ...KNOWS when we're ready ... well I LIKE that. One dynamism I am just positively sure about in the spiritual growth paradigms is that of the cosmos, of the world, of humankind, of spiritkind, of souls, of the Church ..all being "dealt" with in a developmentally-appropriate manner. It has occurred to me that some of the truths we come to know through various approaches to awareness (for we do agree there are multiple modalities) are gifted us only when we are ready, when the foundation has been prepared. Thus, even within our traditions there can be the exoteric truths, the pablum or mother's milk, and the esoteric truths, the real food of the "generally" more advanced souls. For the less advanced, it would not be developmentally-appropriate to feed anything but the pablum and, in fact, they could not properly digest the truth in that form. Relatedly, Juan de la Cruz makes good use of various metaphors, burning logs, dirty windows, etc So one can imagine telling a truth that, to the receiver, would in effect be a lie. Conversely, we can tell our stories and recite our myths which, while NOT literally true, are true in the truest sense.
However, Juan would not say we come to awareness through only subtraction processes or through only the via negativa. The Carmelites are very both/and and have a keen intuition about their sinfulness, mostly along the lines of suggesting that, once one has trod the unitive way, what miserable wretches we are, how we can be counted the greatest of all sinners for not having responded most generously to the most signal and singular spiritual favors of all!
I will say this and I may not spell the word right, but some early church fathers believed in apokatastasis. And that term basically implies universal salvation, expresses the belief that Christ's salvific action was so utterly and completely and unambiguously efficacious that all will be saved. I am fairly well certain that, while no one need believe this early teaching, that it is NOT heresy to believe it either. While the Church does make definitive claims about whom She thinks is in heaven, at times, it positively does NOT suggest that it has any knowledge whatsoever, that there is anybody in hell. The Church requires a belief in hell, best I have come to understand it, as a theological possibility, as a practical necessity, in order to convey God's Love and Mercy NOT Her wrath! The Church simply wants to leave open the necessity of our radical freedom in saying no if we want to. As I expressed in my Stranger In Paradise poem, I can not conceive, personally (due to my own experiences and intuitions) of there being a snowball's chance in hell of anyone ending up there since I can not conceive of a soul NOT eventually coming around and responding to God's prodigality, Her wasteful, wanton Love. This approach DOES suggest that what goes on in our souls is only an awakening, an eye-opening, and that, once opened, there ain't no going back. And I have belabored this in an honest attempt to see if I am at all beginning to approach what your intuitions are as regarding the existence of sin. At the very least, just like hell, it would have to remain a theoretical possibility even while your intuitions about its improbability in so very many practical situations is very, very low. At any rate, I throw this out to suggest that maybe there is a way to integrate your intuitions in an orthodox manner not heretical to your Catholic heritage. I also acknowledge that such an integration is just not an issue for some. Anyway, I had fun with this and was able to steer clear of ontological stuff like monism!
End of Homily
God's Surpassing Peace
jb