"...went forth together onto the verandah, sought its eastern end, lifted arms and voices to Mithras as the sun rose. It stirred Gaius more than rites in a temple commonly did."
-Poul and Karen Anderson, Roma Mater (London, 1989), p. 48.
I have taken to hailing the Sun in the morning. It is the source of light and life and the agency by which the One knows itself. By "the One," I mean all that is, which knows itself through us. Accordingly, I have devised the mantra: "One Sun Now."
Zen meditation can be combined with any prayer or invocation, not necessarily Buddhist. An Upanishadic verse appropriate in the morning is:
"We meditate on the lovely light of the god, Savitri. May it stimulate our thoughts."
And in the evening, adapted from an Upanishad:
"From delusion, lead us to truth.
"From darkness, lead us to light."
I feel kinship with Gratillonius. Our temple is Earth and sky.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But the Sun is merely a giant blazing ball of hot plasma composed largely of hydrogen and helium (and much smaller amounts of other elements). It's merely an object, not a god. A creature ultimately created by God. But that is how a monotheist Catholic believing in science thinks!
That said, I can see how and why so many peoples in the past worshiped the Sun as a god.
Sean
Sean,
The Sun is cosmic energy giving life without which there would be no cosmic self-knowledge: the agent of the God if we call the One a God. That's how I see it. I have become a pantheist.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Well, pantheism is at least better than nothing! But I can't agree that, say, the chair I'm sitting on is a part of God.
Sean
Sean,
The chair is mass. Mass is energy. Energy-void interaction is reality. Bread and wine are the Body of God. They always are to a pantheist.
THE BURNING EYE has arrived.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I forgot about that, that anything "material" like a chair is mass, which is energy. And that energy interacting with a void is reality. Granted. But, given all that, I still have to say, as a Catholic, that God ultimately created that mass and energy, etc. Which means I still have to argue that the chair and table I use for writing this note is not a part of God.
And I will be very interested to know what you think of THE BURNING EYE, esp. Poul Anderson's contribution "The Deserter." And if my memory of the rest of the book is accurate, quite a few of the other stories are well worth reading and thinking about.
Sean
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