"'Mithras, where were You when Ocean brought down Ys...?'"
-Poul and Karen Anderson, The Dog And The Wolf, Chapter II, section 1, p. 44.
He reflects that the true God is wholly beyond:
"Unless none existed, only the void. But to admit that would be to give up his hold on everything he had ever loved." (ibid.)
Non sequitur. It does not follow. Gratillonius does not stop loving Dahilis if there is a void instead of a God. Living in a void does mean letting go of a firm hold on anything. But it is like swimming. We drown only if we clutch for support that is not there. In Buddhist teaching, there is a void or emptiness that is full because everything happens within it. We let go of the past and live in the present. In Buddhist mythology, the gods rise and fall on the Wheel and need to hear the Buddha Dharma.
Meanwhile, if we have gods, do we abandon them because of adversity? A Holocaust survivor suggested that God went into the concentration camps with His people and came out with them just as Christians believe that God went into a tomb and came out of that. Maeloch the Ysan fisher captain knew that his Gods gave life - and nothing more.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
By his own nature, the void between mankind and God is impossible for the former to cross. What Judaism/Christianity taught was that God Himself passed over that void to make contact with mankind. Culminated and completed by the Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection of Christ.
I don't think we can truly "let go" of our pasts. Not entirely, anyway. Our pasts necessarily continues to at least influence us. What is important is not to let the mistakes and false starts of the past foreclose all possible future options.
Sean
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