What does it mean? I would be wise and kind.
I would sing songs of Beauty, Goodness too.
Yet blowers of leaves bring murder to mind.
The noise is hurting me and I must do
what do I must. What may a man resolve?
What Goodness might a soul all-gently will
that painful nagging whirring won’t dissolve?
We wisdom seek, but still the spleen o’er-spills.
We would discover general insight
and clarity like fire widely spread.
We open shoulders, turn inside-out — that Light
divine might fill our conscious space. But dread
and violent musings set goodwill to flight.
A world of nicks and tears perturb our thought.
Destroy please the vice where our hearts get caught.

Author: BW
Editor: AW
Copyright: AMW

In summer when the breeze is easy we
who live where light lines shadow’s curving blade
do wander wide; our talk and song bounce free
and merry through the river-splashing glade.

In winter when the cold winds blow against
our faces shorn of memory, we set
our careful eyes upon the hidden sense
that shines and whistles with all we’ve ever met.

In fall we light the candles long and wise
In spring we snuff them out to let the sun
be all. These roles we living realize
are mists and fade into the dark when a day is done.

Can we all creatures ever born and ever dead
admit we love each other and are forever wed?
And in this wedding perish like sparks within the fire
that burns beyond all hope and fear, all madness and desire?

I love you my darling one.
I’ll marry you and then
not ever harm this gentle fun
not once, no never once again.

Authors: The Usual Suspects
Editors: It must be Bartleby Willard & Amble Whistletown, if they get around to it.
Copyright: Andy Watson, such as I remember him before he forgot himself and us and the long grass meadows where grasshopper thwacked in artless, unstirred flights; where bees hummed and bent wild flowers to their eager, almost-mindless wills; where ants beetles rolypolies and other silent travelers found the dirt hidden between the sharp strong stalks; where butterflies skimmed and birds chattered sang danced and wondered.

Monday, July 18, 2023

Well, we’re still at it.
Trying to create a meme so effective that it makes us all wise as individuals and together in groups. In this way we can aid the cause of democracy in the US and beyond.

We were thinking that the best wisdom meme is still probably the one from the Bible.
Somebody asks Jesus what’s the most important commandment. The answer varies slightly from Gospel to Gospel, but basically: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” [Luke 10:27 New Revised Standard Version Bible]

The only version that includes “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one” is Mark, but Mark is the oldest Gospel. So here’s Mark 12:28-31 [also NRSVB]:

28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

And then of course in Luke there’s also the story of the Good Samaritan. But get this: In Luke (and not in any of the other Gospels), the one who answers the question is not Jesus, but the same person who asked the question.

Here is Luke 10:25-37 [World English Bible]:

Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”

He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.”

He said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

Jesus answered, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he travelled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the host, and said to him, ‘Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.’ Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?”

He said, “He who showed mercy on him.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

So there you have it.

Best wisdom meme ever!

Except it clearly didn’t work.
Because that genie was let out of the bottle over 2000 years ago, and we humans are still not very wise.

So what’s to be done?

But then we got to thinking that maybe it is too long. But then, well, this part isn’t:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.”

And that’s the gist of it.
The second part of Luke, the story of the Good Samaritan: that seems like someone asking an obviously dumb question, like a kid whose clearly more interested in showing off how clever he is than in learning anything new or satisfying any abiding curiosity; and Jesus being like, “hmmm, let me think, what could the answer be? Let’s think … ”

So why hasn’t “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” enlightened us all?

It’s had 2000 years to hatch.

The wisdom meme is supposed to slip right in and get to work IMMEDIATELY.

As in: You hear the wisdom meme, it captivates your attention, you get enlightened. Plus: The wisdom meme has the same effect on everyone else, so now we’re all enlightened and we all share a common language of enlightenment. But like real fast. In the Information Age, the whole process should take a few days — maybe a week tops to get to remote villages and such.

Where did Jesus go wrong?

Maybe the problem is that his answer is set within a religious context, and that shuts peoples brains and hearts right off. They just think either, “Oh, this is my side, this is what we believe, so I definitely believe this and you better believe it too!” OR, “Oh, this is the other side, this is not what we believe, so I definitely don’t believe this and you better not either!” OR (in a more enlightened age), “well, yeah, sure, that’s how spiritual people think, and you know what: they may be onto something! In any case, I find a lot to admire here!” In short, people know Jesus is a religious figure and (at least for like the last 1800 years) they categorize everything he says as Christianity, which they further categorize as “True!” or “False!” or “Not without its merits!” or etc.

What if we took the Buddha’s best wisdom meme and smooshed it together with Jesus’s, and then let the essence of their commingling drizzle out? Maybe then we could move past religious prejudices to the heart of the matter.

Also, there’s perhaps a nuance to be got at by colliding two different angles on the same story. Christianity spreads salvation through active love for God and other, while Buddhism spreads enlightenment through the cessation of attachment and the realization of non-self. Christianity puts all its stock in God and God’s Love. But Buddhism has not self, so no God either. Christianity says God’s in charge — sometimes Christians suppose God preordains everything; other times they suppose we’re free to choose to follow God or not. Buddhism says dharma we all arise in interdependence of one another and there’s no great Self to help us (also without any self, great or small) choose, but still we can choose.

Well, shoot, let’s come back to this

Friday, July 21, 2023

Threads we are considering weaving together: Jesus’s famous discussion of the most important commandments, a wisdom meme that registered with Jesus’s first century Jewish interlocutors and billions of people since those early heady days of his stroll through human history and the hearts and minds embedded therein; the heart sutra, but improved by Thitch Nhat Hanh in 2014, when he (old now at 88 and not far from his die-down at 95 when 2022 began) clarifying that it isn’t that in emptiness there’s no form (after all, earlier in the sutra it is stated “form is emptiness; emptiness is form”), but that emptiness and form and everything else “are not separate self entities”; our spiritual notions and their antecedents in the Western philosophical tradition; and a cute little hiccup in the history of human thought when the Academics (students at the Academy, founded by Plato in 387 BC and lasting until 83 BC), during the school’s long and ironic (if one believes its founder took his own the dogmas seriously) skeptical period — a cute little hiccup where men devoted to suspending judgement on all things were surprised by a sense of infinite blessedness. Oh, and Camus, our other old friend — Camus’s Myth of Sisyphus.

We think the process of harmonizing these apparently discordant threads into a coherent melody will reveal the common underbelly of wisdom.

The project as above sketched sounds like a daunting scholarly undertaking. However, we are not scholars, and we are not daunted. We’ll just go from memory, with the occasional google search to fill in particularly glaring holes in our admittedly spotty knowledge. The point here is not scholarly perfection, but merely a decent gist of things — from which foundation we hope to create not a matchless philosophical doctrine, but merely a decent gist of the path that takes us to the other shore.

We are seeking a wisdom meme that works as a larking giggle does: with an enchanting infectiousness, overtaking and synthesizing every heart, mind, and soul — bringing each individual into accord with the Light/Love within, and every combination of individuals into agreement on the need to prioritize this Light of Purest Love, and giving us all a shared language for keeping this commitment in all possible settings (remembering that while in groupings of different sizes and shapes, we need different key principles to keep our shared focus on the prize).

God grant us the serenity to accept the limitations of our knowledge, wisdom, and language; the kind joy to speak what can be said of this life and the Love that makes it wonderful; and the wisdom, humility, and patience to know, accept, and, where possible, communicate the difference.

The most important commandment
We outlined this thread above.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And everyone who needs your smile is your neighbor; and that’s everyone.
A dual motion inward and outward. With complete trust, affection, and commitment to the Love that chooses us all; and an active compassionate recognition of that Love animating us and everyone else, binding us together as equal children of the Love that is enough for all with infinite Love left over (the water of life overflowing).
A dual motion inward and outward. With a complete Yes to the Pure Love shining through your conscious moment; and the recognition that this Love shines through everyone else as well — this Love is who we all most fundamentally are, and It binds us all together forever in Its infinite Kind Joy.

Saturday, July 22

Help us God to find the way forward for everyone together.
The only sustainable path.
The reason why liberal democracy is a spiritual good.
Because we can evolve our shared culture along with our shared government and thus together protect, prioritize, and explore the universal values and Love that animates them — this Love that chooses everyone together always and forever.

It was a funny twist.
You wanted to be loved and respected, though you didn’t want to say it.
Everyone already loved and respected you — but for who you really were, not who you pretended to be.
You were proud of your excess, but it was the limits that defined your life and gave it meaning.
You asked for her love, but didn’t tell her why.

Broken where your gut and sex run together.
How to heal that kind of a wound?
Barf it out?
Stand up straight within yourself, and push out from within?
Let the Love in at all sides and beam it out through every crevice twist wrinkle and turn?

I want to talk to you.
To be good for you, good to you, listen to you, know you, serve you, delight in you.
Everywhere the ceremony of innocence is open.
Everywhere the creature scurries, free to be a clueless impulse, desperately darting, propelled hither and thither by waves of fear and hope.
Everywhere the laughter remembers and grows quiet, contemplative, and slowly less sure — not of the mirth, but of its ownership.

The Heart Sutra

Sunday, July 23

The Heart Sutra discusses Prajñāpāramitā, a Sanskrit word that means “the perfection of wisdom” or “transcendental knowledge”. It is seeing reality as it really is.

It does not seem that the Heart Sutra goes back to the Buddha. Its exact origin are a matter of scholarly debate, but many think it was composed in China. The first surviving text is 7th Century Chinese monk Xuanzang’s 649 CE translation of the Heart Sutra.

In his discussion of his translation of the Heart Sutra, Thích Nhất Hạnh explains:

The insight of prajñāpāramitā is the most liberating insight that helps us overcome all pairs of opposites such as birth and death, being and non-being, defilement and immaculacy, increasing and decreasing, subject and object, and so on, and helps us to get in touch with the true nature of no birth/no death, no being/no non-being etc… which is the true nature of all phenomena. This is a state of coolness, peace, and non-fear that can be experienced in this very life, in your own body and in your own five skandhas. It is nirvana. Just as the birds enjoy the sky, and the deer enjoy the meadow, so do the wise enjoy dwelling in nirvana. This is a very beautiful sentence in the Nirvana Chapter of the Chinese Dharmapada.

[https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/letters/thich-nhat-hanh-new-heart-sutra-translation]

Here’s a translation without TNH’s interference:

When Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound Prajñāpāramitā, he illuminated the Five Skandhas and saw that they were all empty, and crossed over all suffering and affliction.

“Śāriputra, form is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from form. Form itself is emptiness, and emptiness itself is form. Sensation, conception, synthesis, and discrimination are also such as this. Śāriputra, all dharmas are empty — they are neither created nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, and they neither increase nor diminish. This is because in emptiness there is no form, sensation, conception, synthesis, or discrimination. There are no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or thoughts. There are no forms, sounds, scents, tastes, sensations, or dharmas. There is no field of vision and there is no realm of thoughts. There is no ignorance nor elimination of ignorance, even up to and including no old age and death, nor elimination of old age and death. There is no suffering, its accumulation, its elimination, or a path. There is no understanding and no attaining.

“Because there is no attainment, bodhisattvas rely on Prajñāpāramitā, and their minds have no obstructions. Since there are no obstructions, they have no fears. Because they are detached from backwards dream-thinking, their final result is Nirvāṇa. Because all buddhas of the past, present, and future rely on Prajñāpāramitā, they attain Anuttarā Samyaksaṃbodhi. Therefore, know that Prajñāpāramitā is a great spiritual mantra, a great brilliant mantra, an unsurpassed mantra, and an unequalled mantra. The Prajñāpāramitā Mantra is spoken because it can truly remove all afflictions. The mantra is spoken thusly:

gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā

[https://lapislazulitexts.com/tripitaka/T0251-LL-prajnaparamita-hrdaya/]

Notice that the Heart Sutra is mostly a big introduction to the perfect mantra, and then concludes with the mantra itself:

gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā

That’s sometimes called “The Heart Calming Mantra”. It also doesn’t seem to go back to the Buddha. I was not able to figure out just now if it is older than the Heart Sutra. In the known literature, that mantra seems to arrive with that sutra.

It is Sanskrit, and is not translated. I guess by a logic akin to how you can’t perfectly translate poetry.

Here are some possible translations:

“Gone, gone, gone to the other shore beyond. O what an awakening, all hail!”. A shorter, more concise translation is: “gone beyond the beyond to enlightenment”. Another perspective on this mantra is, “Gone, gone, gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other shore, enlightenment, hail!”

[https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/10866/gate-gate-para-gate-para-sum-gate-bodhi-swaha]

TNH explains why and where he intervenes:

The problem begins with the line: ‘Listen Shariputra, because in emptiness, there is no form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness’ (in Sanskrit: TasmācŚāriputraśūnyatayāmnarūpamnavedanānasamjñānasamskārānavijñānam). How funny! It was previously stated that emptiness is form, and form is emptiness, but now you say the opposite: there is only emptiness, there is no body. This line of the sutra can lead to many damaging misunderstandings. It removes all phenomena from the category ‘being’ and places them into the category of ‘non-being’ (no form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations or consciousness…). Yet the true nature of all phenomena is the nature of no being nor non-being, no birth and no death. The view of ‘being’ is one extreme view and the view of ‘non-being’ is another extreme view.

[https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/letters/thich-nhat-hanh-new-heart-sutra-translation]

So THN duly corrects the error:

…

“Listen Sariputra,
this Body itself is Emptiness
and Emptiness itself is this Body.
This Body is not other than Emptiness
and Emptiness is not other than this Body.
The same is true of Feelings,
Perceptions, Mental Formations,
and Consciousness.

“Listen Sariputra,
all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;
their true nature is the nature of
no Birth no Death,
no Being no Non-being,
no Defilement no Purity,
no Increasing no Decreasing.

[intervention starting here:]

“That is why in Emptiness,
Body, Feelings, Perceptions,
Mental Formations and Consciousness
are not separate self entities.

The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena
which are the six Sense Organs,
the six Sense Objects,
and the six Consciousnesses
are also not separate self entities.

The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising
and their Extinction
are also not separate self entities.
Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being,
the End of Ill-being, the Path,
insight and attainment,
are also not separate self entities
…

[https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/letters/thich-nhat-hanh-new-heart-sutra-translation]

Which to his mind brings the text back into accord with the preponderance of Buddhist literature, and with the highest wisdom.

A final clarification from TNH

The Heart Sutra was intended to help the Sarvāstivādins relinquish the view of no self and no dharma. The deepest teaching of Prājñāpāramitā is the emptiness of self (ātmaśūnyatā) and the emptiness of dharma (dharmanairātmya) and not the non-being of self and dharma. The Buddha has taught in the Kātyāyana sutra that most people in the world are caught either in the view of being and non-being [I think “or non-being” is what was meant]. Therefore, the sentence ‘in emptiness there is no form, feelings…’ is obviously still caught in the view of non-being. That is why this sentence does not correspond to the Ultimate Truth. Emptiness of self only means the emptiness of self, not the non-being of self, just as a balloon that is empty inside does not mean that the balloon does not exist. The same is true with the emptiness of dharma: it only means the emptiness of all phenomena and not the non-existence of phenomena. It is like a flower that is made only of non-flower elements. The flower is empty of a separate existence, but that doesn’t mean that the flower is not there.

[https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/letters/thich-nhat-hanh-new-heart-sutra-translation]

The “emptiness” here discussed comes from the Sanskrit Śūnyatā, which is often translated as “emptiness”, or sometimes as “voidness” or “vacuity”.

In Theravāda Buddhism, Pali: suññatā often refers to the non-self (Pāli: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman) nature of the five aggregates of experience and the six sense spheres. Pali: Suññatā is also often used to refer to a meditative state or experience.

In Mahāyāna Buddhism, śūnyatā refers to the tenet that “all things are empty of intrinsic existence and nature (svabhava)”, but may also refer to the Buddha-nature teachings and primordial or empty awareness, as in Dzogchen, Shentong, or Chan.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Śūnyatā]

TNH’s training was in Thiền Buddhism, which is the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist tradition. Zen is in the Mahāyāna Buddhism tradition.

Wisdom is of one piece within the practitioner. Let us drift a moment, insofar as limited knowledge and insight allow, into TNH’s wisdom. He’s not the Buddha, but he’s a better interpreter of Buddhism than are your poor authors. Here again from above:

“The insight of prajñāpāramitā is the most liberating insight that helps us overcome all pairs of opposites such as birth and death, being and non-being, defilement and immaculacy, increasing and decreasing, subject and object, and so on, and helps us to get in touch with the true nature of no birth/no death, no being/no non-being etc… which is the true nature of all phenomena. This is a state of coolness, peace, and non-fear that can be experienced in this very life, in your own body and in your own five skandhas. It is nirvana. Just as the birds enjoy the sky, and the deer enjoy the meadow, so do the wise enjoy dwelling in nirvana. This is a very beautiful sentence in the Nirvana Chapter of the Chinese Dharmapada.”

…

“The problem begins with the line: ‘Listen Shariputra, because in emptiness, there is no form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness’ (in Sanskrit: TasmācŚāriputraśūnyatayāmnarūpamnavedanānasamjñānasamskārānavijñānam). How funny! It was previously stated that emptiness is form, and form is emptiness, but now you say the opposite: there is only emptiness, there is no body. This line of the sutra can lead to many damaging misunderstandings. It removes all phenomena from the category ‘being’ and places them into the category of ‘non-being’ (no form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations or consciousness…). Yet the true nature of all phenomena is the nature of no being nor non-being, no birth and no death. The view of ‘being’ is one extreme view and the view of ‘non-being’ is another extreme view.”

…

“The Heart Sutra was intended to help the Sarvāstivādins relinquish the view of no self and no dharma. The deepest teaching of Prājñāpāramitā is the emptiness of self (ātmaśūnyatā) and the emptiness of dharma (dharmanairātmya) and not the non-being of self and dharma. The Buddha has taught in the Kātyāyana sutra that most people in the world are caught either in the view of being and non-being. Therefore, the sentence ‘in emptiness there is no form, feelings…’ is obviously still caught in the view of non-being. That is why this sentence does not correspond to the Ultimate Truth. Emptiness of self only means the emptiness of self, not the non-being of self, just as a balloon that is empty inside does not mean that the balloon does not exist. The same is true with the emptiness of dharma: it only means the emptiness of all phenomena and not the non-existence of phenomena. It is like a flower that is made only of non-flower elements. The flower is empty of a separate existence, but that doesn’t mean that the flower is not there.”

And here again from his revamped Heart Sutra:

…

“Listen Sariputra,
this Body itself is Emptiness
and Emptiness itself is this Body.
This Body is not other than Emptiness
and Emptiness is not other than this Body.
The same is true of Feelings,
Perceptions, Mental Formations,
and Consciousness.

“Listen Sariputra,
all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;
their true nature is the nature of
no Birth no Death,
no Being no Non-being,
no Defilement no Purity,
no Increasing no Decreasing.

[intervention starting here:]

“That is why in Emptiness,
Body, Feelings, Perceptions,
Mental Formations and Consciousness
are not separate self entities.

…

So what can we say?

There is no separate self existence. And ultimately, what Is is beyond being and non-being. Wisdom is this insight, and the wise rest upon this insight. But it is an “insight” that is prior to subject and object, and thus not to be attained/grasped, but rather to be flowed-with/oned-into.

“The insight of prajñāpāramitā is the most liberating insight that helps us overcome all pairs of opposites such as birth and death, being and non-being, defilement and immaculacy, increasing and decreasing, subject and object, and so on, and helps us to get in touch with the true nature of no birth/no death, no being/no non-being etc… which is the true nature of all phenomena. This is a state of coolness, peace, and non-fear that can be experienced in this very life, in your own body and in your own five skandhas. It is nirvana. Just as the birds enjoy the sky, and the deer enjoy the meadow, so do the wise enjoy dwelling in nirvana. …”

Notice he says, “which is the true nature of all phenomena”. What does that mean? Does that mean it is not the true nature of the noumena? Or just that there is no noumena to discuss? Notice that both “being and non-being” he classes with “phenomena”. So for TNH, if the thing-in-itself exists, it is neither being nor non-being.

TNH does believe in an Ultimate Reality. What I don’t understand is if he thinks the Ultimate Reality is nothing more interdependent flowing-together of phenomena without any separate self-entity; or if the Ultimate Reality is something beyond self and no-self and being and non-being that we fully experience only to the degree we stop forcing these categories onto our experience of each conscious moment.

What exactly do the wise rest upon? What provides true rest and nourishment to any human except a Love beyond all bounds of feeling, thought, mind, matter, shape and void?

Do the wise rest upon Pure Love exploding through and ultimately being the interdependent, ultimately-undifferentiated flowing-together of all phenomena?

Or is that interdependent, selfless explosion of all phenomena somehow Pure Love?

We know from other discussions here and there that the Bodhisattva generates infinite compassion for everyone as she attains the perfect wisdom.

But why? Because the Ultimate Reality is that we are all interdependent and ultimately one? Or because we are all interdependent, ultimately one, and are all together bound in and through a Reality that can be summed up as something along the lines of “infinite, eternal, selfless Love”?

Considering the wisdom meme

We’ve been thinking about the different strands.

Let’s suppose there is an Ultimate Reality and It shines through everything, including each conscious moment (as per our standard dogma of Pure Love).

Then it seems reasonable that by suspending all judgement (as per the Academic Skeptics), one could suspend all interference from our explaining/conceptualizing and feeling/reacting and thus perceive things as they really are, and thus perceive the Ultimate Reality (even if that’s not one’s goal, as it does not seem to have been the goal of the Academic Skeptics — they seemed mostly concerned about avoiding error [as if missing the Truth were not the gravest error of all!]).

However, the Ultimate Reality would be prior to our ideas and feelings about It (again, as per our standard dogma), so the perception we are seeking would need to go beyond subject/object duality (as per TNH et al).

We add in concepts, but we have no logical or scientific proof that x starts here and y ends there. So it seems reasonable that a skeptical suspension of judgement could give rise to a nirvana in which the observer and observed know themselves as one and as lacking any self — either in parts or in aggregate. This state of nirvana is beyond assent and dissent, and so by withholding judgement, one could conceivably enter it. That is to say, the skeptical suspension of all judgement could create a state similar to a meditation upon the ultimate emptiness (lack of individual self-identity) of the interdependent tumbling together or all phenomena. In both cases, the meditation is a sort of “what if we stop naming, categorizing, organizing, explaining, reacting to, and otherwise conceptually and emotionally ‘understanding’ our moments of conscious experience” thought experiment.

And there, when we stop cutting phenomena into being (x starts here and continues along … ) and non-being (x ends here, and there’s a pause before y begins), why couldn’t what’s really the case stand out better?

But why all this talk of a Love that chooses everyone? How does that fit in? And what about God? Because lots of wise people experience God, just as lots of wise people experience a nirvana without any self to be found — including God.

Julian of Norwich said

Monday, July 24

Julian of Norwich Book of Shewings

[Note: She’s writing in Middle-English. Words are sometimes used a little differently than nowadays. For example, “a kind soul” means something like a “living” or “creatural” soul.

Chapter Five

In this same time our Lord shewed me a spiritual sight of His homely loving.
I saw that He is to us everything that is good and comfortable for us: He is our clothing that for love wrappeth us, claspeth us, and all encloseth us for tender love, that He may never leave us; being to us all-thing that is good, as to mine understanding.

Also in this He shewed me a little thing, the quantity of an hazel-nut, in the palm of my hand; and it was as round as a ball. I looked thereupon with eye of my understanding, and thought: What may this be? And it was answered generally thus: it is all that is made. I marvelled how it might last, for methought it might suddenly have fallen to naught for little[ness]. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasteth, and ever shall [last] for that God loveth it. And so All-thing hath the Being by the love of God.

In this Little Thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loveth it, the third, that God keepeth it. But what is to me verily the Maker, the Keeper, and the Lover,—I cannot tell; for till I am Substantially oned to Him, I may never have full rest nor very bliss: that is to say, till I be so fastened to Him, that there is right nought that is made betwixt my God and me.

It needeth us to have knowing of the littleness of creatures and to hold as nought all-thing that is made, for to love and have God that is unmade. For this is the cause why we be not all in ease of heart and soul: that we seek here rest in those things that are so little, wherein is no rest, and know not our God that is All-mighty, All-wise, All-good. For He is the Very Rest. God willeth to be known, and it pleaseth Him that we rest in Him; for all that is beneath Him sufficeth not us. And this is the cause why that no soul is rested till it is made nought as to all things that are made. When it is willingly made nought, for love, to have Him that is all, then is it able to receive spiritual rest.

…

Chapter Nine

And after this I saw God in a Point, that is to say, in mine understanding, — by which sight I saw that He is in all things.

I beheld and considered, seeing and knowing in sight, with a soft dread, and thought: What is sin?

For I saw truly that God doeth all-thing, be it never so little. And I saw truly that nothing is done by hap nor by adventure, but all things by the foreseeing wisdom of God: if it be hap or adventure in the sight of man, our blindness and our unforesight is the cause. For the things that are in the foreseeing wisdom of God from without beginning, (which rightfully and worshipfully and continually He leadeth to the best end,) as they come about fall to us suddenly, ourselves unwitting; and thus by our blindness and our unforesight we say: these be haps and adventures. But to our Lord God they be not so.

…

And all this shewed He full blissfully, signifying thus: See! I am God: see! I am in all thing: see! I do all thing: see! I lift never mine hands off my works, nor ever shall, without end: see! I lead all thing to the end I ordained it to from without beginning, by the same Might, Wisdom and Love whereby I made it. How should any thing be amiss?

Thus mightily, wisely, and lovingly was the soul examined in this Vision. Then saw I soothly that me behoved, of need, to assent, with great reverence enjoying in God.

Chapter Thirteen

And after this, ere God shewed any words, He suffered me for a convenient time to give heed unto Him and all that I had seen, and all intellect that was therein, as the simplicity of the soul might take it. Then He, without voice and opening of lips, formed in my soul these words: Herewith is the Fiend overcome. These words said our Lord, meaning His blessed Passion as He shewed it afore.

On this shewed our Lord that the Passion of Him is the overcoming of the Fiend. God shewed that the Fiend hath now the same malice that he had afore the Incarnation. And as sore he travaileth, and as continually he seeth that all souls of salvation escape him, worshipfully, by the virtue of Christ’s precious Passion. And that is his sorrow, and full evil is he ashamed: for all that God suffereth him to do turneth [for] us to joy and [for] him to shame and woe. And he hath as much sorrow when God giveth him leave to work, as when he worketh not: and that is for that he may never do as ill as he would: for his might is all taken into God’s hand.

…

Chapter Thirty-Five

And when God Almighty had shewed so plenteously and joyfully of His Goodness, I desired to learn assuredly as to a certain creature that I loved, if it should continue in good living, which I hoped by the grace of God was begun. And in this desire for a singular Shewing, it seemed that I hindered myself: for I was not taught in this time. And then was I answered in my reason, as it were by a friendly intervenor: Take it generally, and behold the graciousness of the Lord God as He sheweth to thee: for it is more worship to God to behold Him in all than in any special thing. And therewith I learned that it is more worship to God to know all-thing in general, than to take pleasure in any special thing. And if I should do wisely according to this teaching, I should not only be glad for nothing in special, but I should not be greatly distressed for no manner of thing: for All shall be well. For the fulness of joy is to behold God in all: for by the same blessed Might, Wisdom, and Love, that He made all-thing, to the same end our good Lord leadeth it continually, and thereto Himself shall bring it; and when it is time we shall see it. And the ground of this was shewed in the First [Revelation], and more openly in the Third, where it saith: I saw God in a point.

…

Chapter Thirty-Seven

God brought to my mind that I should sin. And for pleasance that I had in beholding of Him, I attended not readily to that shewing; and our Lord full mercifully abode [I think here this is the past tense of abide!], and gave me grace to attend. And this shewing I took singularly to myself; but by all the gracious comfort that followeth, as ye shall see, I was learned to take it for all mine even-Christians: all in general and nothing in special: though our Lord shewed me that I should sin, by me alone is understood all.

And therein I conceived a soft dread. And to this our Lord answered: I keep thee full surely. This word was said with more love and secureness and spiritual keeping than I can or may tell. For as it was shewed that [I] should sin, right so was the comfort shewed: secureness and keeping for all mine even-Christians.

What may make me more to love mine even-Christians than to see in God that He loveth all that shall be saved as it were all one soul?

For in every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to sin, nor ever shall. Right as there is a beastly will in the lower part that may will no good, right so there is a Godly Will in the higher part, which will is so good that it may never will evil, but ever good. And therefore we are that which He loveth and endlessly we do that which Him pleaseth.

This shewed our Lord in [shewing] the wholeness of love that we stand in, in His sight: yea, that He loveth us now as well while we are here, as He shall do while we are there afore His blessed face. But for failing of love on our part, therefore is all our travail.

…

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Also God shewed that sin shall be no shame to man, but worship. For right as to every sin is answering a pain by truth, right so for every sin, to the same soul is given a bliss by love: right as diverse sins are punished with diverse pains according as they be grievous, right so shall they be rewarded with diverse joys in Heaven according as they have been painful and sorrowful to the soul in earth. For the soul that shall come to Heaven is precious to God, and the place so worshipful that the goodness of God suffereth never that soul to sin that shall come there without that the which sin shall be rewarded; and it is made known without end, and blissfully restored by overpassing worship.

…

Chapter Thirty-Nine

…

Full preciously our Lord keepeth us when it seemeth to us that we are near forsaken and cast away for our sin and because we have deserved it. And because of meekness that we get hereby, we are raised well-high in God’s sight by His grace, with so great contrition, and also compassion, and true longing to God. Then they be suddenly delivered from sin and from pain, and taken up to bliss, and made even high saints.

By contrition we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready, and by true longing toward God we are made worthy. These are three means, as I understand, whereby that all souls come to heaven: that is to say, that have been sinners in earth and shall be saved: for by these three medicines it behoveth that every soul be healed. Though the soul be healed, his wounds are seen afore God,—not as wounds but as worships. And so on the contrary-wise, as we be punished here with sorrow and penance, we shall be rewarded in heaven by the courteous love of our Lord God Almighty, who willeth that none that come there lose his travail in any degree. For He [be]holdeth sin as sorrow and pain to His lovers, to whom He assigneth no blame, for love. The meed that we shall receive shall not be little, but it shall be high, glorious, and worshipful. And so shall shame be turned to worship and more joy.

…

Chapter Forty

This is a sovereign friendship of our courteous Lord that He keepeth us so tenderly while we be in sin; and furthermore He toucheth us full privily and sheweth us our sin by the sweet light of mercy and grace. But when we see our self so foul, then ween we that God were wroth with us for our sin, and then are we stirred of the Holy Ghost by contrition unto prayer and desire for the amending of our life with all our mights, to slacken the wrath of God, unto the time we find a rest in soul and a softness in conscience. Then hope we that God hath forgiven us our sins: and it is truth. And then sheweth our courteous Lord Himself to the soul—well-merrily and with glad cheer—with friendly welcoming as if it had been in pain and in prison, saying sweetly thus: My darling I am glad thou art come to me: in all thy wo I have ever been with thee; and now seest thou my loving and we be oned in bliss. Thus are sins forgiven by mercy and grace, and our soul is worshipfully received in joy like as it shall be when it cometh to Heaven, as oftentimes as it cometh by the gracious working of the Holy Ghost and the virtue of Christ’s Passion.

Here understand I in truth that all manner of things are made ready for us by the great goodness of God, so far forth that what time we be ourselves in peace and charity, we be verily saved. But because we may not have this in fulness while we are here, therefore it falleth to us evermore to live in sweet prayer and lovely longing with our Lord Jesus. For He longeth ever to bring us to the fulness of joy; as it is aforesaid, where He sheweth the Spiritual Thirst.

But now if any man or woman because of all this spiritual comfort that is aforesaid, be stirred by folly to say or to think: If this be true, then were it good to sin [so as] to have the more meed,—or else to charge the less [guilt] to sin,—beware of this stirring: for verily if it come it is untrue, and of the enemy of the same true love that teacheth us that we should hate sin only for love. I am sure by mine own feeling, the more that any kind soul seeth this in the courteous love of our Lord God, the lother he is to sin and the more he is ashamed. For if afore us were laid [together] all the pains in Hell and in Purgatory and in Earth—death and other—, and [by itself] sin, we should rather choose all that pain than sin. For sin is so vile and so greatly to be hated that it may be likened to no pain which is not sin. And to me was shewed no harder hell than sin. For a kind soul hath no hell but sin.

And [when] we give our intent to love and meekness, by the working of mercy and grace we are made all fair and clean. As mighty and as wise as God is to save men, so willing He is. For Christ Himself is [the] ground of all the laws of Christian men, and He taught us to do good against ill: here may we see that He is Himself this charity, and doeth to us as He teacheth us to do. For He willeth that we be like Him in wholeness of endless love to ourself and to our even-Christians: no more than His love is broken to us for our sin, no more willeth He that our love be broken to ourself and to our even-Christians: but [that we] endlessly hate the sin and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth it. Then shall we hate sin like as God hateth it, and love the soul as God loveth it. And this word that He said is an endless comfort: I keep thee securely.

[https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/52958/pg52958-images.html]

Tuesday, July 24

What’s going on?

How can it be, God, that Julian of Norwich finds you everywhere, and you tell her that you love her and everyone, and you thank her and everyone for our suffering, and you promise to one us to you and save you and hold you in your love forever? And yet wise, compassionate, loving Buddhist practitioners find no great god, but only impermanence, interdependence, dependent-arising, and ultimately emptiness: a lack of separate self-entities that itself lacks a separate self-entity, no being and no nonbeing?

TNH says

Evil exists. God exists also. Evil and God are two sides of ourselves. God is that great understanding, that great love within us. That is what we call Buddha also, the enlightened mind that is able to see through all ignorance.

What is evil? It is when the face of God, the face of the Buddha within us has become hidden. It is up to us to choose whether the evil side becomes more important, or whether the side of God and the Buddha shines out. Although the side of great ignorance, of evil, may be manifesting so strongly at one time that does not mean that God is not there.

It is said clearly in the Bible, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” This means that an act of evil is an act of great ignorance and misunderstanding. Perhaps many wrong perceptions are behind an act of evil; we have to see that ignorance and misunderstanding is the root of the evil. Every human being contains within him or herself all the elements of great understanding, great compassion, and also ignorance, hatred, and violence.

[https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/interviews-with-thich-nhat-hanh/message-to-osama-bin-laden-interview-with-thich-nhat-hanh#filter=.types-article]

And he said:

our practice has to respond to the suffering of modern people. That’s why teachings on communication and reconciliation are important. These teachings are easier for people to understand, even children. But that does not mean these teachings do not have a strong Buddhist base. Their foundation is in no-self, impermanence, interbeing.

We have to be intelligent followers of the Buddha. We have to make good use of the teachings. We have to present the teachings and the practice in such a way that people can make use of them and transform themselves.

As I said, Vietnamese Buddhism is very close to original Buddhism, but we make good use of the spirit of Mahayana. There are a lot of wonderful things in Mahayana Buddhism. For instance, in original Buddhism the Buddha’s body is the nirmanakaya, his human form. But in Mahayana, the Buddha’s real body is the dharmakaya, the body of ultimate truth, and that body never dies.

So if you know how to listen mindfully, the Buddha never stops teaching. The earth is a beautiful expression of his teachings. The wind, flowers, and trees continue to teach impermanence and no-self. That is the body of the Buddha —the body of truth that never dies. So if you have mindful eyes and ears, you continue to see the Buddha. This corresponds to the notion that the kingdom of god is available in the here and the now. We could even help Christians change the notion of the kingdom of god. god can be the dharmakaya, the true body of the Buddha.

[https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/interviews-with-thich-nhat-hanh/shambhala-sun-january-2014#filter=.types-pdf.topics-buddhism]

What does this mean? When Julian hears God’s voice, what is she hearing? When Thich does not hear God’s voice, what is he not hearing? He says, “God is that great understanding, that great love within us. That is what we call Buddha also, the enlightened mind that is able to see through all ignorance.”

God is Love, but does Love need to be able to know us and care for us to be Love?

What is going on?

And where is our wisdom meme?

Is the best we can do a riddle?

Why is it that the suspension of all judgement reveals an infinite explosion of love?
And devotion to God also reveals an infinite explosion of love?
And awareness of the impermanence, interdependence, complete lack of separate self-entities, and absence of either being nor nonbeing also reveals an infinite explosion of love?
What is this Love that chooses everyone, that is infinitely larger than we are and yet that is also us?

What is going on, and what should we do about it?

How do the universal values of aware, clear, honest, accurate, competent, compassionate, loving kind and joyfully-sharing keep us on the path to the Truth of the Love that chooses everyone?
And how can we humans all together accept this situation and work together to prioritize the universal values and the Love they lead to and which they depend upon for their fullest motivation, justification, and explication?

How can we, in different settings, with different levels of personal intimacy and oversight, best protect the soul’s search to attain, grow with, and share the Love that chooses everyone?

In democracy, we seek to collectively simultaneously select for workable compromises in our cultures and our governments. By together growing culture and government together, we create a sustainable path forward for everyone and thus a sustainable path forward for our democracy.

Democracy requires first and foremost a commitment to the democratic process: fair elections, freedom of speech, separation of and checks on powers, a competent and independent bureaucy, an independent media, open government, anti-corruption rules. Why all this? It is because people need to safety and trust in order to be decent. If people think the system is no fair and their only option is to either figure out how to manipulate it to look out for themselves and their loved ones, they justify no end of evil.

The point of democracy is to together safeguard, prioritize, and work within those values without which none of our worldviews/paths can mean anything to any of us. In this way, we grow our cultures and governments sustainably by creating the safety and space to be both good and successful. Success is good if it is predicated upon the understanding that my success is your success: that we are all in this together and must therefore create and sustain systems of self-organization that allow us all together to find more safety, thriving, and most of all wisdom. A good politician is one who follows the universal values with others to find better ways forward for everyone. A good business person is one who follows the universal values with others to create products and procedures that are helpful and not hurtful.

We know the way forward, but how can we find the space in ourselves, our communities, and in our governments and other organizational structures to keep first things first: the Love that chooses everyone and those values that lead to and from it?

We separate church and state, but not because we believe that religion doesn’t matter. We separate church and state because combining them tempts people to lie to themselves and others about the most sacred things, and to corrupt both religion and government.

We don’t reject authoritarianism because strength doesn’t matter. We reject it because strength is not the thuggery of might-makes-right; strength is the wisdom of cultures and systems that recognize we are all in this together, and that we can only act meaningfully as individuals or groups to the degree that we hold to the universal values and the Love that animates them.

Where is the wisdom meme?
Where is the meme that sinks into each conscious space and goes to work until that conscious space is turned ever-more towards the Love that chooses all?
Where is the meme that sinks into us all and goes to work building a shared understanding until we are all turned ever-more towards that Love in ourselves and in each other?
Where is the meme that reveals an infinite explosion of Love while opening us up to an insight into how to sustain, grow, and share this Love in ourselves and in our many overlapping communities, systems, and organizations?
Where is the wisdom meme?

Tuesday Evening

Tired.

Is the only difference between the theists and the Buddhists that the former find an individual self in the Love that is All, from which all springs and that sustains and shines through and ultimately is everything; and the latter find no individual self in the Love that is All, from which all springs and that sustains and shines through and ultimately is everything?

But then there’s also the quibble over pre-determination. Julian of Norwich says God has preordained everything to the last detail. But the Buddhists (and lots of Christians too) maintain freewill exists.

How do we Something Deeperist dogmatists resolve these issues? Well, we maintain that Pure Love is all that really exists, and It shines through everything, including each conscious moment, and It is the only aspect of experience that is not caused by some prior cause in a causal chain.

From which it follows that we are our true selves and free only to the degree our feeling/thinking/acting is arranged around the Pure Love shining through each conscious moment, and flows cleanly off of the Pure Love — poetically interpreting (imperfectly, but not therefore necessarily inadequately, pointing towards) Pure Love into feeling/thinking/acting. Therefore, it is possible to maintain both that everything is predestined and that we are free: we are free insofar as we are the Pure Love that alone Knows what is Best.

So we are free to the degree we are oned to God. And it seems also likely that God is the ultimate cause for all causal chains, since God is the only self-caused aspect of reality (everything finite is jostled about with other finite causers). So only God (aka: Pure Love or Buddha Nature) truly chooses anything, but we are most essentially God and so when we are our truest selves, we are also free like God is: free to follow our true nature and choose what is kindest and best. The question would then just be whether God is making this up as God goes along, or God set it all in motion before we began to exist; except that No: because God is acting from prior to timespace, so even if God was making it up as God goes along, that would all happen prior to timespace and thus the sense of deciding in real time what to do would still have to be illusory. [On second thought: No, I don’t think so: We can slip into timelessness to the degree we are oned to God.] So we are free in the way we feel ourselves to be: when we are wise and clear, we are free to follow wisdom and clarity, and move in accord with God’s perfect will. Are we free to become wise and clear? Well, Godlight is the yeast that works through all the dough; so God’s freedom will ultimately win out. Right?

Anyway, on the one hand Julian says that God does everything and all is well; but then later she says, at the close of the 34th chapter, “All this that I have now told, and more that I shall tell after, is comforting against sin. For in the Third Shewing when I saw that God doeth all that is done, I saw no sin: and then I saw that all is well. But when God shewed me for sin, then said He: All shall be well.” [Chapter 34]

But what is this God? Does God know us? Is God Atman: the True Self? Or is God without any separate self-existence?

Wait! Could God be part of the impermanent interdependent flow? Well, that’s what TNH seems to be getting at when saying that God is our capacity to truly love. But then who is this God who seems to speak to, hold, and guide Julian? A conscious flow of love that encompasses all possible selves and is yet free of all selves?

Why not assume that beyond being and nonbeing such questions can be resolved, but for here and now it’s not the end all or be all: different wise people have different metaphysics due to different experiences and proclivities; it is enough to know that we are loved and are called to love in and through and for the Love that chooses everyone always over and over forever. The mark of wisdom is not belief in specific metaphysical dogmas, but insight into Love: into kind delight, shared joy, and the peace that passes but still relates meaningfully to human understanding. We can together stay within the bounds of personal and shared meaning by together prioritizing the universal values and the oh-so-gentle Love that motivates, justifies, and explicates them.

Still, the wisdom meme eludes us.

It needs to sink in and capture our interest and guide us to individual and shared wisdom.

A spark of wisdom that catches fire in us as individuals and groups.

We already have shared wisdom tools. Democracy is one. How do we stop the GOP’s assault on democracy? How do we stop this mistake from destroying this important tool?

Hmm

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Dear God,

What is the poetry that helps?
What is the poetry that heals?
What is the poetry we write together?
What is the song that carries us all together to what is best for all?
What is the poetry of the heart, of the Love that chooses everyone?

gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā
gone beyond the beyond to enlightenment

And how does this poetry soak through our lives individual and collective?
How does this poetry guide our cultures, organizations, governments?

A winged insect long and frantic flits through an open window and crashes again and again, wings beating in vain, against a closed window across the way.

A dirty T-shirt thrown over its terrifying curving length, stilling its mile-long thickly transparent but black-framed and -laced wings. A table moved and a window loosed, revealing cobwebs in the never-budged corners. The T-shirt, crinkle-crumpled and almost soggy from humid summer life, is lifted and the creature — whose strange bug-eyes, worn on top like an aviator’s cap, cut life into a thousand prisms — dashes in flight out the window, back into the city.

Now what?

Thursday Evening

What would you have us do, God of our understanding?
The wisdom meme is impossible.
Now what?

The most important commandment is Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

The wise rest on impermanence, interdependence, and empty-of-selfedness.
Like a seagull rests on a gusting wind or a sloshing sea.

The philosophers refrain from assent and dissent and find themselves fortuitously free of disturbances.

The Great God loves us all infinitely and the Great God chooses and does all things.
There is no personal God and we are free to change the paths we’re on.

Evil is what humans do to the degree they’re turned away from the God = Love that shines through everything and everyone.
Evil can be increased to the degree circumstances allow humans to harm themselves and others.
Good is what humans do to the they’re organized around and flow cleanly off of God = Love.
Good can be increased to the degree circumstances allow humans to help themselves and others.
Democracy is a spiritual good because it allows citizens to protect and prioritize the universal values while acting as a final check on madness and corruption and working together to evolve their shared culture and government.
The sustainable way forward for all is for us all to evolve culture and power together, while always prioritizing those values without which none of our worldviews are meaningful and those systems required for us to continue our honest exchange and good-willed collaboration.

What are we to do?

Friday, July 28

A hurt so deep inside the gut.
Arch the back and stretch out the arms,
trying to let it leave, let it melt or bleed or radiate out
And it does all that, but it also stays forever so loud and hurtful inside and all through
Child abuse, a guess
Sexual abuse, a guess
The gut and sex flow together
The hurt
For so many years now
trying to deal

What would you God have me do?
What would be any good?
I’m tired

How to make things better for anyone?

I love you
I want to be a man for you
be good for you, be good to you
How can I talk to you in a good way?

The country wobbles
Evil babbles forward, proud to hurt
A strong man, a farce, rub their bellies right
Why do they like that?
Why do they squirm and coo around your careless fingers like that?

please tell me
how to sing the songs that help that heal that open heart and mind
that speak clear, honest, true, of what is and is not loving, helpful, kind, competent
that speak gently enough for us all to hear our own thoughts relax enough to self-correct

round and round
empty circles
in the workaday
or at the writings no one needs to read
round and round
going nowhere
rubbing one’s own belly
with promises of eternal satisfaction

I can say I can’t do this anymore
I can say this doesn’t work for me
I can say I don’t know what to do

Suspend judgement to let things as they really are reveal themselves as best they can?
Open up to how all is empty of being, nonbeing, or anything but the kind joy beyond being and nonbeing?
Love God with your all and let God completely enclose you in and explode you through with God’s Love?

How to together step away from the edge and begin to share wisely?

Dear God,

We tried to find a wisdom meme
To infect ourselves and others with the spark that catches and burns away all falsehood and folly
But words are just words
And people are as they always are
And wiser souls than we have spoken wiser words than we’ll find, and still all is not well

We tried to hit a home run
To find a few lines that would make us wise alone and together
Give us a shared hold on the essential path
That we might share Reality enough to share reality enough to share culture and government and a way forward as individuals, groups, and all together in this nation and the others.
To loose ourselves from the cruelty that seeks power rather than kind resolve.

We tried desperately
over and over again

Now what?

Now what, God?

What to do now?

except where noted as quoted, writing and editing BW and AW and copyrighting AMW

So I say to You, Should I send this email?

And You say, Yes

And then I say, Are You sure?

And You say, Send it.

Then I say, OK, this right, right?

And You’re like, Yes.

But almost immediately it revealed itself to be a terrible idea!

So, I mean, what kind of divine guidance is this anyway?

Or what?

Am I just talking to myself here?

How can I know what to do if I ask my inner self and the God shining through all things, including that inner self, a very simple and straightforward Yay or Nay question, and I push out from within and feel no particular corruption, and then I get a sense of Yay or Nay, and I go through this process three times, and each time get the same response, and then I act on that action, and then it’s like actually a very bad idea, as I learn really soon after it’s much too late to stop — ?!?

How can I make decisions? I can’t use my own ideas and feelings, since I’m a mortal and my ideas and feelings are meaningless animal hoots and hollers unless founded upon the bedrock of divine wisdom. So then I try to connect my feeling and thinking to You, and — well, it didn’t go well! So what now? What kind of system for deciding things would work? And what about things already done?

What is going on here? I ask You.

knock knock

who’s there?

banana

banana who?

knock knock

who’s there?

banana

banana who?

knock knock

who’s there?

orange

orange who?

Orange you glad I didn’t say banana!

oh

What?

I’m not glad

Not glad what?

I’m not glad you didn’t say banana

No?

No, I was enjoying the back and forth. I felt we were building connection and synergy and it was so nice to have you pay that kind of attention to me. To be willing to go over and over it with me like that. Even if the topic in and of itself didn’t require that much consideration, I felt like what there is between us did require some extra care and time and energy.

knock knock

who’s there?

banana

knock knock

who’s there?

lettuce

lettuce who?

lettuce try again

okay

knock knock

who’s there?

banana

banana who?

knock knock

who’s there

apricot

apricot who?

knock knock

who’s there?

watermelon

watermelon who?

knock knock

who’s there?

cabbage

cabbage who?

knock knock

.
.
.

knock knock

who’s there?

brussel sprouts

brussel sprouts who?

knock knock

who’s there?

orange

orange who?

Orange you glad I dragged this joke out through over one hundred and fifty of the most popular fruits and vegetables in North America!?

Yes

Author: BW/AW
Copyright: AMW

What should I do?
I want to leave.
I want to go now.
I want to leave now.
What good could I do?
I want to go now.
I give

The country is falling to the evil.

I don’t have the wisdom

to help

or the money

to leave this clanging port for a quieter haven

And of course, you can’t flee the world’s superpowers — together they fill the globe and dance the jig.

What should I do?

Julian of Norwich says sin was nothing — too insignificant in relationship to God’s love to worry about (or something like that); and that everything comes from God and is in accordance with God’s eternal plan and is done by God and that all is well, and all will be well and all shall be well
Then, later in the book, she says that sin is not done by God, but is allowed by God to happen — but still all is in God’s hands and is and will and shall be well.
Which feels like a contradiction from her earlier statement, where I thought we were agreeing that God does everything.
Oh, but look at this: earlier she calls sin “no thing”; later she says God isn’t doing sin. Now let’s say God is all, and yet sin happens, but not done by God or claimed by God as his own. That can only mean that nothing is doing the sin and that the sin doesn’t exist. Sin is an illusion? What is real is God = Love, and everything is illusionary to the degree it strays from this Love that is All?

The evil destroying our democracy — which, like all liberal democracies, is a tool whereby humans non-violently nudge their shared governments away from corruption and madness, and thus away from systems that reward and follow folly and punish and undermine wisdom; and which therefore constitutes a spiritual good — is mostly the fault of Republican politicians, media, and voters. They should say NO to Trump and to the kinds of autocracy that he and Ron DeSantis are packing. But they’re not doing that. They are woefuly failing in their fundamental duty of acting as a final check against madness and corruption in government. Instead, they’re doubling down on the evil.

Trump is leading in the polls. DeSantis is number 2.

Republican politicians are carrying on about Adam Schiff claiming Trump colluded with Russia and that Trump tried to get Zelensky to dig up and dump dirt on Biden, while skipping past how Russia did interfere in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump, Trump’s campaign knew about this and was glad of it, not all questions surrounding meetings between members of the Trump team and people connected to Russia were resolved, and there is a lot of evidence suggesting Trump obstructed Mueller’s investigation into these matters (all of this in the Mueller Report, and not discredited elsewhere); and also skipping past the fact that there is plenty of evidence that Trump went so far as to withhold Federal funds to pressure Zelensky into digging up dirt and dumping it on his political rival; and that, most to the point, Trump worked to undermine democracy for four years and then when he lost a fair election, he employed the classic dictator tools of calling the election unfair while pressuring election officials to cheat for him, and then reveled in an unlawful, dangerous, and potentially catastrophic storming of the Federal government by suckers for his bogus claims of a stolen election.

Should Adam Schiff have been more careful in his characterization of the relationship between Russia’s interference in the 2016 election towards Trump and the Trump campaign? Should he know, after much though not all dust is cleared, revise his position?

Perhaps, but there is a giant log in the Republican eyes when it comes to truth, good government, and democratic rules and norms. This log is threatening to destroy the nation, and they trying to obscure that reality by making a crime out of Schiff’s imperfect, but typical-politician slant-reasoning.

What Trump has been doing and DeSantis threatening is not typical-politician slant-reasoning; it is straight-up falsehoods (well, that’s Trump; DeSantis is elevating election-deniers while refraining from discussing their claims — that amounts to sheltering and using lies to your advantage; but it is not the same as lying publicly — DeSantis is more thoughtful and subtle than Trump; but Ahab’s outward competence allowed his inward madness to fool the ship owners into letting him steer it, and it helped him destroy it) us-vs-them, winner-take-all, tilt-the-system-itself words and deeds.

Here’s Schiff in a January 2023 interview:

“If you read the Mueller report, he makes clear even in the first few pages of the report that he states no conclusion on whether Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with the Russians.

“But what he does reveal in his report, what we found in our investigation is that Donald Trump’s campaign manager was sharing internal campaign polling data and a strategy for key battleground states with an agent of Russian intelligence, while that same unit of Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign, both with the hacking-and-dumping operation, as well as a social media operation to elect Donald Trump.

“To most Americans, that is collusion. Now, whether it’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime of conspiracy — that’s what Bob Mueller was talking about — I have always distinguished between the two.”

[Everything except the part about “sharing internal campaign polling … with an agent of Russian intelligence” is in the Executive Summary of the Mueller Report. We need to look for the other claim. And this line is “the same unit of Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign” is — at least on my understanding of the proven facts of the matter — potentially misleading. Yes, Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign by trying to interfere in the election in his behalf, but that’s not the same as “helping” the campaign in the sense of “coordinating with them on a shared goal”.]

Now we have the Durham report, which accused the FBI of “confirmation bias”, but stopped short of making a case for “partisan bias”.

Here’s Anna Paulina Luna, who introduced a bill to formally censure Schiff and fine him $16 million for falsely claiming the Trump campaign colluded with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election:

Schiff “lied to the American people. He used his position on House intelligence to push a lie that cost American taxpayers millions of dollars and abused the trust placed in him as chairman. He is a dishonour to the House of Representatives.

“The Durham report makes clear that the Russian collusion was a lie from day one and Schiff knowingly used his position in an attempt to divide our country.”

[How can she use the Durham report to make the claim? The Durham report accuses the FBI of procedural errors and confirmation bias; it does not corroborate Trump’s claim that the concern over Russian collusion was a lie. It doesn’t even go so far as to accuse the agency of partisan bias. We know (as we did prior to the Durham report) that some lies were given to the FBI, but that is not the same as knowing that either the FBI or Schiff knowingly pawned off lies as facts. We will have to figure out what exactly she means to refer to in the report, but it seems likely that she is conflating the fact that dishonest statements were made to the FBI with a claim that Schiff knowingly mislead the American people.]

Only 20 of the 222 Republican members of the House voted against the completely nihilistic, democracy-bleeding $16 million censure of Adam Schiff for arguing that the evidence outlined in the Mueller Report — there for all to see, and far from clearly exonerating Trump or equating a lacks of proof with confirmations of disproof — points to collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. A $16 million fine is for many a sentence to a lifetime of monetary hardship (not for Schiff, but once the precedent is established, will the House first ascertain each member’s financial situation before fining them? Schiff’s net worth was not mentioned in the proposed bill, nor was any particular reasoning given for the amount of $16 million). How will there be meaningful conversation between the parties if the party with the majority starts fining members of the other parties into poverty over disagreements? (And Schiff is not a billionaire, or even a hundred-millionaire; $16 million he would feel.) In the name of protecting democracy, the Republicans in the House fiddle around with tunes that, fully realized, would burn Washington down; and this distracts from the reality that they are accepting and (here and elsewhere) aiding a candidate with no moral compass and with a proven track record for attacking the foundations of our democratic order. What they are doing here is evil.

Trump has no interest in or insight into making things better for everyone. And DeSantis’s record in Florida (promoting election-deniers while remaining silent about Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election were stolen; financially punishing Disney for daring to publicly disagree with his policies; etc) and statements such as his intent to clean out career bureaucrats and replace them with partisans also encourage the conclusion that he also lacks interest in and insight into how a leader can make things better for everyone by working gently and carefully within democratic rules and norms.

Trump would burn all for pride and power. DeSantis would more systematically exploit and twist the rules to crush the libs — whatever those are. We know how far Trump would go to gain and keep power. With DeSantis, we are more guessing, but electing him President seems like a foolish risk — especially since what we do know is that he seeks to hold even more power than the executive branch already has.

What are libs? They are not these strange caricatures that desire only to force sex-change operations on kids and demand white people take oaths of guilt for stealing everything good. You are dismembering the republic in the name of the strawiest of men.

What the Republican are doing is evil. They are my fellow Americans. What should I do? A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.

What is the relationship between individual sin and group evil? And at what point does incompetent politics shade into political evil? What the Republicans are doing is evil; but that does not mean that they are being evil. They are lost in some mixture of accidental and willful incompetence, but that is true of everyone. The distinction here is that the set of circumstances they are playing into are affecting political evil. This is because they are playing into the hands of and even encouraging the authoritarian directions chosen by Trump and, to a less-established but still clearly disquieting degree, DeSantis. At some point, if they continue to side with forces that choose power over process and victory over helping, they will break our democracy. Because this is a two-party system. It’s a two-party system, people! So if one party keeps doubling down on anti-democratic jams, the whole thing will collapse sooner or later.

What can I do that would do any good?
And how can I get enough money to go someplace quiet?
And how can I ever talk to you again and talk to you in a good way?; and if all that is impossible, what do I do?

The way forward is the way forward for everyone.
The Republicans are going down a zero-sum scorched-democracy path.
This is bad for everyone.
Once democracy is gone, thuggery reigns and thuggery just keeps grabbing for more power — it has neither interest in nor aptitude for competently leading everyone towards what is best for all. Thuggery is inherently incompetent because it wants power, not Beauty.

What does God want me to do here and now?

A million billion miles of only-lonely.
What for?
What now?

I’m tired and my knuckles are as white as Show White’s.

You see the above was not perfectly fair, not entirely adequately researched; and this is the trouble: who can hold it all together? The Republicans are on the whole headed in the wrong direction, and the Democrats are on the whole more on the side of a sustainable democracy. But every little detail; every little cut; every little twist and turn, with humans always at the rudders: it is too hard to deal with. And yet we must; we must be info-warriors for an adequate sketch of relative truth, as well as wisdom-warriors for an adequate sketch of Truth and Its general relationship to relative truth. OH, heavy burden! OH, scary dance! God, grant us all the light touch, the song that holds, the tune that lifts; grant us gentle hands, open eyes, tender hearts, and careful minds.

This is driving me crazy. There’s no perfection, and part of the toolkit of autocrats is to find imperfections on the other side and blow them out of proportion. So how to arbitrate fairly? We want to put the breaks on madness and corruption; not catch every little flaw. We want to help the Republican Party return to a basic acceptance of the rules and norms of a functioning representative democracy — a functioning republic. But they are working against us at every turn. Choosing Trump as #1: clamoring for evil. Choosing DeSantis as #2: needlessly risking evil. Coming up with witch-hunts over alleged voter frauds that never pan but that are used to disenfranchise millions of voters: evil, or at least evil-ish.

What am I to do? We’ll make no straight thing out of the crooked timber of humanity, but we can have a functioning republic, if we collectively agree to prioritize good government, clarity, honesty, and good will.

What is the way forward here?

Are Republicans sinning? If not, we can only conclude that people can support evil without sinning. This is perhaps plausible in cases where people have no idea about what is going on, but that’s not this situation:

This situation is that there’s too much information, too many conflicting interpretations, and too much opportunity to escape into group-think bubbles — as well as too much motivation to do so (since talking to people from the other party has become so completely demoralizing, disorientating, and lonely-ifying).

In this situation, people can still find their way to truer accounts; but that requires considerable intellectual and emotional effort — particularly for Republicans, as their party-center has slid away from facts and competence: The Republican center-of-weight is choosing Trump’s dishonest incompetence, DeSantis’s competent undermining of democratic norms (and thus ultimate incompetence: being good at forcing laws into existence and punishing political rivals is a competent manipulation of the system, but competent government is competently using the system to work with everyone to together find what is best for all: it requires conversation and compromise, not “Fuck you!” and “Take this!”), and the Republican leadership’s implicit and explicit acceptance of undemocratic norms as the party’s norms.

What is to be done? Partisanship is out of control. Both parties are susceptible to it and it’s reality-twisting effects. But the Republicans really have completely lost their minds and souls. Some more their minds than their souls; others more their souls than their minds; but together, in the stew of group-think, the end result is the same: corruption and madness, and unless unchecked within the party itself, this will lead to the destruction of democracy in the USA, which will be bad for its citizens and the wider world.

But how to help? I’m not a Republican. How could I be? They are not resisting Trump and DeSantis and their empty lie of us-vs-them. The country cannot survive if half the country thinks they are at war with the other half. You can’t be president for only half the country — that’s not a president, and such a one cannot hope to get and maintain power within a functioning republic. And that’s the concern: that Trump and DeSantis know this and are still planning on getting and maintaining power while serving only “their side”. Or so it seems. Certainly with Trump. And DeSantis probably; anyway, I can’t see the wisdom of wagering on giving him four years to prove himself more pro-democracy and pro-one-nation than he seems. One nation under God: The nature of God is an eternal mystery, but “One nation” is a clear concept: In a coherent nation, communicating with and doing what is right for the whole nation is more important than partisan victories. Our nation is increasingly incoherent. As internal incoherence grows, so does corruption and madness: without wisdom steering, what logic remains but power, greed, pride, and all the other caprices of the human animal?

I don’t know what to do.

Author: UHGH!
Editors: BW/AW
Copyright: AMW
Solace: Julian of Norwich

Notes

From our Let’s Make a Deal:

Update 6/12/2023: Ron DeSantis thinks Trump didn’t go far enough / DeSantis finds a new set of laws to ignore / DeSantis privately elevates election deniers while publicly staying mum on 2020 / DeSantis would kill Democracy Slowly and Methodically

Oh, hmmm. What has happened? Republican voters seem leaning towards a clearly established would-be tyrant; but their number two guy is arguably also a serious threat to our democracy. He has bent Florida and its legislature to his will, punished politicians and organizations that disagree with him, flouted campaign laws, exerted pressure on the legislature to pass a partisan gerrymander of his own making, and “Two months before he was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pick to oversee Florida voting, Cord Byrd was a featured speaker at a seminar for people who falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen and wanted training to stop it from happening again.” [that quote is from “DeSantis privately elevates election deniers while publicly staying mum on 2020” linked to above.]

[End of extract from “Let’s Make a Deal”]

– – – – – – –

In October 2020, Trump signed an executive order establishing a new Schedule F job classification within the federal government’s excepted service for federal workers in policy-related jobs that would exempt their positions from most civil service rules. The edict ordered agencies to identify positions that would qualify for the new job category and convert employees in those jobs to Schedule F, effectively making them at-will employees.

….

“Well, there was a proposal that I think a lot of us wanted to see under the prior administration to do a Schedule F,” DeSantis responded. “So anyone who has any policy role is classified as a Schedule F, and they can be removed by the president. The left would litigate that, but I honestly think we would win on that in the Supreme Court.”

….

“I also think that it’s one thing to have some type of job rules for the bowels of the bureaucracy like your supervisor and what they can do,” he said. “But the president has Article 2 power. Who controls the executive branch: is it the elected president, or is it some bureaucrat in the bowels of the bureaucracy who can’t be fired? So I think that push needs to come to shove on this, but whoever gets a majority in the electoral college has the right to impose their agenda through the executive branch. …Re-constitutionalizing government starts with re-constitutionalizing the executive branch under Article 2.”

[DeSantis & Schedule F]

I think a professional bureaucracy guards against corruption in government. We need more research here.

——

From a January 2023 Interview of Schiff:

DANA BASH, CNN: I know that there’s a lot to talk about in terms of the politics of what’s happening here, but I want to air out some of the substance of the Republican allegations.

And, Congressman, I will start with you.

You said that there was direct evidence of the fact that Donald Trump colluded with Russia back in 2016. Special counsel Robert Mueller said in his report — quote — “The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.”

Republicans argue that’s proof that you used your position on the Intelligence Committee to intentionally mislead Americans, which is why you should not be on that committee.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): If you read the Mueller report, he makes clear even in the first few pages of the report that he states no conclusion on whether Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with the Russians.

But what he does reveal in his report, what we found in our investigation is that Donald Trump’s campaign manager was sharing internal campaign polling data and a strategy for key battleground states with an agent of Russian intelligence, while that same unit of Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign, both with the hacking-and-dumping operation, as well as a social media operation to elect Donald Trump.

To most Americans, that is collusion. Now, whether it’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime of conspiracy — that’s what Bob Mueller was talking about — I have always distinguished between the two.

We need to find the parts of the Mueller report that relate to what Schiff claims above. The final three claims are mentioned in the Executive Summary, but what about Trump’s campaign manager sharing polling data and battleground-state strategy with “an agent of Russian intelligence”?

[Schiff on CNN]

– – – – –

Here is Luna, who introduced the bill:

Schiff “lied to the American people. He used his position on House intelligence to push a lie that cost American taxpayers millions of dollars and abused the trust placed in him as chairman. He is a dishonour to the House of Representatives.

“The Durham report makes clear that the Russian collusion was a lie from day one and Schiff knowingly used his position in an attempt to divide our country.”

What part of the Durham report is she alluding to in that second statement?

But to me, here is the deeper problem: The Durham Report does not prove what Luna said it “makes clear” anymore than the Mueller report proves that there was collusion. In either case, charges would’ve been brought. But Luna is trying to fine Schiff $16 million for his interpretation of the facts inside the Mueller report. What is to prevent a Democratic-majority House from fining Luna $16 million for her interpretation of the facts inside the Durham Report? And further, politicians often don’t tell the complete truth all the time. Would fining Schiff $16 million scare everyone into finding only the most perfect statements, or would it just be a way to frighten people into submitting to whatever reality those with power, or perceived as being destined to gain power, were pushing? And also: This is an effective side-show to confuse US Americans about the relative nature of truth and fair play. Trump doesn’t just slightly confuse or exaggerate facts, he throws them out the window. That is the problem. And Trump doesn’t just bend situations and rules a little his way; he blatantly tried to pressure foreign governments into digging up dirt on his rivals and US election officials into cheating for him — as just a couple of samples (maybe here we link to the list of Trump’s anti-democratic activities that we were working on prior to the 2020 election).

– – – – – –

We are worried because Donald Trump could win the presidential election in 2024, and this could seriously damage, perhaps even past the point of repair, US American democracy. Liberal democracy is a spiritual good, because it allows the people to nonviolently serve as a final check on madness and corruption in government.

We’ve long thought that Something Deeperism will fix all the little philosophical misunderstandings between the left and the right, allowing us to meaningfully share culture, society, and government. Any day now!

Which reminds one of some jab Kierkegaard made at the systematizers of his day (the Hegelians), some jab about how any day now the system will be complete and all will be well forever.

But that’s not fair! Because Something Deeperism is not a complicated system that claims to sum up and explain everything. Something Deeperism is a minimal metaphysics that everyone can share without sacrificing any meaningful part of their particular worldviews.

Something Deeperism accomplishes this by pointing out that none of our worldviews make sense to any of us except to the degree that they help us think/feel/act aware, clear, honest, accurate, competent, compassionate, loving kind, and joyfully sharing/collaborating — grounded in the spiritual Love (a Pure Love that chooses everyone) without which nothing is okay and with which all is well; and which is, of course, wider and deeper than our hearts and minds, and thus amenable to poetic, rather than literal interpretations (ie: to organizing one’s feeling/thinking/acting around the Love shining through each moment, and interpreting that Love in word and deed, in a manner that always remembers that that Love is wider and deeper than words and deeds; ie: to living Love as best one can by standing up straight within oneself, pushing out from within, and seeking always to ground oneself in spiritual Love while living gentle kind resolve).

Here we’ve summarized the system of Something Deeperism, thereby proving it’s not so much a system as a tip.

Here it is even shorter/sweeter:

None of our worldviews make sense to any of us except to the degree that they help us to follow the universal values (aware … joyfully sharing/collaborating) and grow an active insight into that and in what way it is True to say, “We’re all in this together”. So let’s agree to keep first things first: let’s agree to put the universal values and sense of universal brotherhood ahead of all political, cultural, and financial expediencies.

We could add that liberal representative democracy is a spiritual good because it is a workable framework for sharing Something Deeperism: for sharing meaning by sharing those fundamental values that all our worldviews require to be meaningful to any of us.

By prioritizing fair elections, open and competent government, and fair debate; we agree to first and foremost protect our ability to serve as a final check on madness and corruption in government, and to nudge (rather than slam) our collective government towards rewarding good behavior (honesty, clarity, fairness, competency, serving the public good) and punishing bad behavior (dishonesty, confusion, unfairness, incompetence, theft, violence, corruption/thuggery/the-rule-of-crime).

The more our politics is a meaningful and actionable conversation about how to together find a way forward for everyone, the more we live in a place where one can be both decent and happy — both good and safe/thriving (a nice place to grow up). That is the fundamental goal of government. Otherwise, what are we asking for, working for? And the foundation of such a conversation is together prioritizing those values without which none of our thoughts or actions are meaningful to any of us.

Liberal representative democracy at its best is an agreement to prioritize awareness, honesty, accuracy, competence, kindness, and shared joy; and this is an implicit agreement to prioritize the Love that motivates and explicates living by these universal values.

There it is! In the world. Now it can’t be stopped. So there’s nothing left but to sit back and let it soak in and provide a workable foundation for sharing culture, society, democracy, maybe even the occasional friendly chat.

Authors: Society for the Advancement of Something Deeperism
Bartleby Willard and Amble Whistletown, presiding.
Andrew Mackenzie Watson, copyrighting
The entire matter QEDing nicely

Let us sing a song of six-pence, pockets full
of fear. The God is in his counting rooms.
Outside, sheep writhe as shepherds shear their wool.
Inside, four and twenty naughty boys entombed
and baked inside a savory pie burst forth
to flutter bob and strut as mourning doves
about the dining hall. They coo remorse.
God chuckles, shattering shallow show-loves.
Let us sing a song of six-pence, shoulders bowed
in shame. The God is in her parlour, stretched
on velvet sofa soft and damp as cloud.
Whose honey drips along whose chin? Who fetched
the maid out hanging clothes? Who snipped her nose?
Who flew it off? Who says where a nose goes
when thieved for whimsy, rhyme and salvation?
Please God remove harness, belt, and underclothes.
Please God forgive hard hearts cruel impatience.

I heard You to do everything possible forever.
I heard we only bear witness — faithful or unfaithful.

To the degree we bear witness faithfully; we are one with Love, one with You.
And You, being the first cause (caused only by Yourself, and not influenced by anything else), are free.
Nothing is free to not follow its nature. You follow your own nature a hundred percent and are perfectly free. The rest follows the push and pull of the tumble — which is either You at the outset (as first, indwelling cause and sustenance) or You (insofar as we are wise / oned to You) as the inward-dwelling free-choice.

But how can it be that the nature of Love could give rise to and ultimately be this world, where so much is awful?
I heard human sin is as nothing, so little in comparison to the majesty of Love.
And so we’re off the hook and are free to relax and rejoice in Your grace, which is an infinite eternal overflowing joy.

But then I also heard we are interconnected and freedom lies in taking responsibility for all we say and do and how our actions affect ourselves, others, and the whole flowing-together life-and-death.

How to square these two rumors, both of which seem wiser than the listener, whoever he or she may be?
God is all; we’re off the hook and free to sit back and enjoy the ride.
We are all interconnected and must take responsibility for our actions.

How? How both?
God is Love. Love is infinite joyful giving/supporting/nurturing. God is All. God’s nature is Love and God’s freedom is to follow Love perfectly.

Human minds and bodies and outer-souls flow along with creation; the cores of their souls are one with God. Humans are their truest selves to the degree they think, feel, and act in accordance with the cores of their souls. Human nature’s essence is God’s nature. Humans are free to the degree they sync up their feeling/thinking/acting with the Love that shines through everything — with the cores of their souls, which are oned to God. Human freedom makes themselves, their actions, interactions, neighbors, communities, organizations, and the interconnected whole more connected to the immediate will of God and thus more holy: this insofar as humans live their freedom.

How does Love create this imperfect world?
How can we speak of human freedom when God does everything (either as the creator and sustainer of the tumbling-together of all creation; or as the inward-dwelling free-choice of creatures insofar as they are wise / oned-to-God) and we can’t choose whether or not we follow Love better or worse (ie: whether or not and to what degree we are wise)?

Human freedom is a seed hatching growing spreading overtaking, turning our hearts and minds towards the Love that we most essentially are. Human freedom is the ever-overtaking victory of life-overflowing, of God overflowing all creation.

But, well, of course, you hear such funny rumors down here, vaporing in the groggeries and in the dispensaries of Pure Love tainted with wild hopes and desperate fears. And woeful-mishearing is a common problem among us sinners.
Still, let us turn away from drunken folly of youthful nihilistic ambition (“Give me an immediate and infinitely sexy and immaculately cool salvation, or give me death!”) Let us try to open our hearts and minds to the Way of the Light that shines in and through everything — including each conscious moment.

I don’t know how to play it.
Can we plead to our outer souls to heed our inner souls?
Perhaps we cannot ultimately choose what our outer souls do, but if that is so, there is a nuance here that we as quickened creatures will never catch; and so we’re best off not pretending we catch it — we’re best off pressing on towards the Love with which all is well and without which nothing is.

And yet, what are we really to make of Julian’s claim that God has predestined everything and all is and always will be well? How are we to digest that in this world where we’ve seen man and nature alike commit such horrible cruelties and wanton wastes?

If we try to grab a nuance we do not have the fingers for, we will just fall and snag the Christmas lights on our impatient forward-falling shoulder, bringing the whole down, breaking ornaments and spilling the water in the rounded metal base with those screws twisted into the innocent soft flesh, through the flaking skin-like bark.

But if we ignore a fundamental insight of Julian’s shewings, we miss out on a chance to get a little jumpstart on wisdom.

I don’t now.
I can’t say.
Let us waltz together, up and down, round and round the Christmas tree, in time with the pompous, plodding, all-too-human beat. We’ll keep it in our gaze even as we catch and cherish each other’s eyes. What shall we do? The sun is climbing. The summer solstice must break the yolk once again. What should we say? Time is sprinting and we’re tied behind like the slain Hector to the chariot of the vaunting Achilles — himself fated soon to die.

Why didn’t Achilles just stay home?
He wouldn’t have had to die.
The Greeks would’ve spent a little while breaking their heads against the Trojan walls and then gone home.
Hector and many more men would’ve been allowed to live on into a full adulthood, seen their children grow up and found families of their own.
Julian says in all this we should praise God, rather than blame Achilles.
Right?
Isn’t that what she is saying?
No.
How not?
What is she saying?
And next time, Achilles, please give us all a break and keep your violent majesty from full bloom. Some gifts are better off left aside, that we might all seek a newer world — one where creation outpaces destruction, where shared collaborative joy displaces trouble.

Author: BW/AW
Editor: AW/BW
Copyright: AM Watson