perhaps the iceberg has a tale to tell?

hmm, … yes, good sound reasoning applied in the video …
however, near the end the narrative suggests that the case against there being a purpose in the universe is extremely strong to anyone “who sees the universe as it is rather than as they wish it to be.”…
… this causes me to reflect that perhaps if we are willing and able to be as objective and “empirical” as we possibly can we would need to reconsider that in all our so-called advanced cognitive abilities and developed observational and deductive/reasoning faculties we see an extremely minute percentage of the data that is “out there”
also, to “see” vast chunks of that which we regard as scientific knowledge we are presently utilising and operating “empirically” with devices (technological and deductive) that we have created and developed for ourselves in order to “see” the things we cannot see with our own eyes
as a result we conclude causes, events and structures that together serve to build our “empirical” scientific world view….

… is this not exactly what the “religious” or “spiritual” mind does in attempting to make sense of it all … specifically, operating on sensory intuitive techniques and some other devices we have created for ourselves (belief systems, theologies, mythology, metaphor, etc.) in order to “see” and explain the things we cannot fully understand or ‘prove’ empirically? …  thereby concluding about events causes and structures that actively build our “spiritual” worldvview?
… call me a skeptic if you will, but there is many a time where I personally cannot shake the idea that even the most empirically educated and enthusiastically outspoken scientist is as driven and filled by “faith” and hopeful blinkered subjective passion as the most voluminously raving faith filled fundamentalist evangelist out there…

… and for us as participants on both sides of the great divide perhaps it may be wise to consider that to measure only the visible superficially discernible bits of the iceberg is profoundly foolish and very possibly perilous as well?

sticks and stones

when I was very, very young I had this crazy idea that “outer space” was so big and kept getting bigger and bigger because our words, thoughts and ideas never died and never stopped, they just got bumped around and spread out and mixed with all the other people’s words, thoughts and ideas…
… that it was all like a huge balloon that keeps on filling up with more and more air as we all breath out the breath of our lives…

more sense please

we are equipped with 5 senses and we are pretty proud of that.

with these 5 senses we believe we can understand the universe in all it’s glory.

well, maybe the universe has more sense than that…

the race is not to the swift

There has been an unusually high rainfall in our area of late.

The other day I drove past a massive tree perhaps more than 12 – 14 meters high that had simply fallen over across the road and workers had hacked away at it in order to move it out of the way of the oncoming traffic.

It was a strange sight to see.  The tree still looked very healthy and the leaves were lush and full.  The cross section of the cuts revealed a perfect trunk with no blemishes visible anywhere.  It was wonderfully healthy … except that it was fallen and now dead.

What had caused the tree to fall and die was neither weakness nor old age but in fact, health, vitality, success and significant stature.

This once majestic tree now lay with the bulk of its glorious trunk cut up in smaller ugly chunks, thrown together into heaps waiting to be unceremoniously hauled away probably for firewood or maybe even just to be dumped on some smelly refuse heap.

What had happened was that the rain was so unusually heavy that the ground had become totally saturated and could no longer support the weight of the huge tree with its strong root system that had held it secure and upright for decades.

In the heavy rains it had simply lost grip and it toppled over with luminously healthy grass still lush and abundant clinging to the base where the tree had once broken through the soil.

Water is a life giver and a life sustainer but under these conditions it was the agent of death to a seasoned and majestic life form.

The tree had done everything right.  It was a triumphant survivor, a perfect specimen of life and abundant health.  But now it seemed that it was exactly this great prosperity and the weight of this undisputed glory that had caused it to fall.

I couldn’t help thinking that if it were not so large and healthy it might have still be standing today.

 

The race is not to the swift, nor does the battle always go to the strong.

Bread doesn’t always go to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding.

Favour does not always come to men of skill, but circumstance, time and chance happens to all.

 

mastering freedom

_______________

can one have a master who is able to show the way to be free?

is it possible for the free to have a master?

_______________

 

 

 

mind the gap

… we read in the ancient texts of how the creation is the handiwork of the Lord and that even the heavens reflect the glory and the wonders of the creator

… and I agree… without hesitation

like most I am indeed overwhelmed

and with intense awe I sample the wonders of it all

… the wonder of supreme design expressed in every facet of what I see

… even in the suggestive echoes of that which I cannot see

 

a most intriguing mystery for me is the disproportionate spatial dimensions of ‘space’

specifically the minuscule amount of solid matter that seems to float so precariously isolated amidst the vastness of it all …

the basic math of it is staggering…

… perhaps significantly far less than 10% of all the universe is solid matter (planets, stars, moons, suns, meteorites, clumps of rock, whatever…)

… just hanging there somehow… no hooks or pulleys, no platforms or solid scaffold substructures are visible and most seems to be moving silently and apparently effortlessly in gravitationally negotiated orbits…

all locked together and balanced by a kind of mystically ethereal, invisible glue

but all this matter simply hanging there in space is far less mysterious to me than the apparent reality that it is surrounded from every angle with …

 

… nothing

 

and even more amazing to me is that this nothing seems to be a staggering 90% + of everything

… and from what we can tell, this disproportionate amount of nothing is made up of ever expanding ‘space’

… ever expanding distance that is filled mostly with vast stretches of space

extreme emptiness

huge vacuous gaps of almost endless separation…

… there is significantly more nothing out there than there is something

… and this, believe it or not

is our reality

… and to throw another spanner in the works, the quantum physicists seem to suggest that it is equally as spacious and vast “in” there as it is unimaginably spacious and vast “out” there

… as eternally infinite “inwardly” as we can attempt to conceive of it being eternally infinite “outwardly”…

 

for me this is a truly amazing set ideas

 

a wonder that comes to mind almost immediately for me is

… if the heavens declare the fingerprint or footprint, even the glory of God

what might this suggest about the creator?

or the very nature and character of God?

what might this be saying about God’s relationship to us?

and his own relationship within himself?

why all this space?

maybe the space is very necessary?

 

and seeing that we are created in God’s image

… what might this be suggesting about our relationships with each other?

 

 

stuff happens

stuff happens

stuff happens now

other stuff happens after

also before

stuff happens now

so that other stuff can happen later

 

either way

stuff happens

and it’s happenng now

 

in fact stuff that happens is neither good nor bad

it just feels that way

especially when it’s us who pay

and there is no bad

until the good doesn’t seem to come

 

and there is no good

until time has spoken

but time is silent

for now

 

and only time really has a view

and only time will tell

but usually not now

and time has no feelings

just like the stuff that happens

 

but we have now

it’s all we have

and we can make stuff happen

we can make stuff happen now

 

there are no surprises

the creator is at rest

the universes strive for nothing

all motion is balanced

what was started will flow

 

there are no surprises

except for those who will not see

but they are blind

and will not know

for they cannot

 

what is happening

will happen anyway

and either way

they will not know

 

we are the ones who judge

we who rage

who strive to be more

because we are empty

yet those who are empty and strive for more

can only be more empty

 

but the creator is at rest

the universes strive for nothing

all motion is balanced

and what was started will flow

 

but we judge ourselves

and we deserve what we get

and we

will get

what we deserve

 

but if we stop

and listen

for longer than we’ve been shouting

even then the silence will begin to sing

the noise too will cease

and we will know fully

just as we are fully known

 

then we will get what we deserve

and deserve what we get

 

 

hang name tag here

A good friend recently wrote a blog entry on entitlement (http://sevencitys.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/entitlement/) and it got me thinking of the word “entitle.” – It means ‘to furnish with a right or claim to something’ but it also means ‘to give a name or title to…’

I was thinking how we seem to need to put things in a box, to sum them up, to define them, to measure them and give them a definition, a tag, a name …

Perhaps we do this to try overcome our insecurity? We seem to need to have things all measured up and sorted out.  We seem to need to be in control.

So maybe the opposite of entitlement could be seen as letting go and like a child, being a perpetual explorer.  Like one who holds things lightly yet respectfully, with awe and also with a great deal of fun and playfulness as well, allowing our horizons to shift and change as each new experience challenges and changes the shape and texture of our playing field.  A position of humility as we acknowledge that we are only little and there is so much to grow into and to discover.  As a result we would then perhaps tend to refrain from closing things down too quickly … maybe even not allow things to be closed down at all … even though everything inside of us screams for stability and definition, measurability and full understanding.

A title is a very formal thing.  It can tend to say too much and too little about what something is all at the same time.

We live in a vast place of space and from every angle, the scientific as well as the theological, it seems to be as best we can tell, infinite.  Whether we like it or not there is no measurable end or beginning in any direction.

So why start closing things down now?

whom should we comfort first?

And the wise teacher looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place.

He heard the cries and saw the tears of the oppressed.

He saw that they had no comforter.

 

And he saw that power was on the side of the oppressors.

 

And the wise teacher looked at the oppressors and he saw that they too had no comforter.

 

So he sat down and he asked, “Whom should we comfort first?”