Posted by johnboy on September 23, 19100 at 21:38:50:
In Reply to: Re: Levels of consciousness (Johnboy-Wait!) posted by Diana on September 23, 19100 at 19:52:58:
: Johnboy, Wait!
: You're leaving before I even had a chance to get started responding to your stuff. There's no impasse. It's just a birthing process going on and you know how messy that can be. Come back, will you? I want to finish talking with you!
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I think impasse could be the wrong word. Birthing process is a much better metaphor.
I think that MUCH fruit can come from authentic interreligious dialogue. I think the birthing process coming from such dialogues as between East & West or between Protestantism and Catholicism or between Conservative and Progressive Catholicism, etc etc etc however messy, as you describe it, can be a real blessing inspired by the Spirit. I think, too, that those of us who were raised Roman Catholic and who have experienced the richness of Eastern traditions and Eastern/Western apophatic prayer/meditation/contemplation are uniquely poised to be a bridge between the traditions on the road to true solidarity.
I truly honor the experiences and intuitions shared here. I believe that primary encounters with Reality will break up into the rainbow colors of our major traditions where primary experiences of Truth will be refracted as doctrine and dogma, primary experiences of Beauty will be refracted as liturgy and ritual, primary experiences of Goodness will get refracted as moral codes and laws --as we seek to transmit the Truth, celebrate the Beauty and preserve the Goodness we have experienced in those primary encounters. I believe that our individual experiences are best discerned within a community of believers and that, no, we don't absolutize any of these aspects. Confer my postings regarding deabsolutizing manifold experiences.
I heartily affirm everyone exploiting this forum and continuing this thread (even keeping Phil electronically hopping in the Cascades).
I think I am just personally burned out with the monism debate lately because I have spent so much time in dialogue this year with non-theistic materialist monists. It is at least refreshing to witness those who, while taking monist positions, are non-materialist theists!
There is an old saying about mysticism: It starts with MY experience, places I in the middle, and then ends in SCHISM. In that regard, there is, to me, nothing new under the sun going on, when we deliberate pantheism, monism and other such matters. These are OLD heresies. I DON'T say this condescendingly or disrespectfully. I HONOR the Hindu tradition, for instance. I also honor those who were raised Catholic and who find more nourishment elsewhere, Christian or Non-Christian. I only point out, for the sake of clarity, that monism and pantheism aren't orthodox Catholic options and I don't see anyone being able to integrate them into an authentic Roman Catholic worldview except panentheistically (which might be the Matthew Foxesque route???I don't know.)
Take you time and digest my over-responses. Just be aware that I'm not really inclined to want to reinvent the wheel on ontological issues. That's just a personal preference. There are MANY other burning passions that I have that few people care to engage, so trust me, I don't judge any of you in your pursuit of this thread! I really wish to just defer to Phil, here, because he is a much better resource than I.
You go girls, indeed! If you want to go the Catholic Contemplative route, I think I'm a resource. If you want to go a Catholic-Hybrid route, I don't judge you, it is just not MY route and I'm not a resource there. Heck, I spend most of my time in dialogue with atheists on deontological ethics and I don't judge THEM! LOL!
Love and Shalom to all who come here!
johnboy