Making Sense (hell, verse)

[Rolling_Stone]

Originally Posted by Hema

Although creation came from that ONE, creation is still in it and it is still in creation. All is still ONE. Well, according to my beliefs anyway.

Different phases of One Substance undiminished thereby is one way of putting it. I think our perspectives are very similar.

[Somkid]

I can kind of see what you are saying or rather I think I understand what you are trying to say in a Zen kind of way???

[Rolling_Stone]

Originally Posted by Somkid

I can kind of see what you are saying or rather I think I understand what you are trying to say in a Zen kind of way???

When referring to the ONE the answer is "yes" because the ONE cannot be approached through intellections. It is the highest principle: no thing or being, no relativity or actuality exists except in direct or indirect relation to, and dependence on, the primacy of its reality--which, properly speaking, is the source of reality. When I affirm the existence of the ONE, I mean only that "it" does not fall into the category of nonexistence or Being. Yet, there is no notion of creatio ex nihilo. It is, rather, emanation ex deo (out of God). It is not pantheism or (upon reflection) panentheism because it confirms the absolute transcendence of the ONE over and above its emanations.

However, this explanation was not the purpose of this thread. I just wanted to point out that, in my experience, life makes sense only if growth is a process of the One entering into my life as an individual for these reasons:

1. Nothing transitory has true reality (as a Buddhist I'm sure you understand).
2. "Hell," for human beings, is the endless continuity of existing conditions (unending sameness).
3. Human aspiration cannot be realized within the bounds of the phenomenal world, the world of physical sensation.

Nothing in life (at least, my life) makes sense unless there is permanence of self (#1), change through personal growth (#2), and purpose beyond the physical (#3).

The horror of death and limitation is just as spiritual as the victory over it. Men rage against death and limitation in the name of some kind of immortality or to wipe it from his awareness. The immortality of the soul, reincarnation, mergence with the Divine the way a drop of water merges with the ocean, the immortality of ideals, the resurrection of the whole person, fusion with the collective life on earth and the earthly pursuit of happiness are all teachings to take the edge off death and limitation.

As I learn to touch upon the Infinite, eternity enters into my life, not the other way around; in me, the transcendent becomes localized and the mortal immortal.

In all this, you might be able to see the influence of Plotinus and The URANTIA Book, but I am the final authority.