I am starting a post shortly before going to eat with Aileen and Yossi during Sheila's women's musical evening. I will probably not complete my line of thought this time so might serialize it. The line of thought is inspired by the symbolism of the river in Poul Anderson's The Day Of Their Return.
The chaplain of the riverboat, the Jade Gate, explains Riverfolk symbolism -
The River (capitalized): "ongoingness, fate" (13, p. 174);
The Sun: life;
Moons and Stars: the transhuman.
He says that the Riverfolk seek unity and harmony through rites and symbols:
"'We know they are only rites and symbols. But they say to the opened mind what words cannot.'" (pp. 173-174)
That is said of ceremonies in our meditation group. In Poul and Karen Anderson's legendary city of Ys:
" '...we who are educated, do not take ancestral myths for literal truth, as if we were Christians. They are symbols.
-copied from here.
I envisage a universal religion whose adherents not only value every expression of the perennial death and resurrection myth but also recognize Christianity as an important expression of that myth despite the Christians' mistakenly literal interpretation of it.
I am running out of time so will publish this post now.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't understand what you mean by this amorphous "universal religion" you seem to desire. One that incorporates everything but affirms nothing as flatly, precisely, an literally true. Such a vague faith will not appeal to many.
My view and belief is that Christianity, ESP. Catholic Christianity is precisely and exactly that universal religion. And Christianity can only make sense if its fierce affirmations of the literal truth of God Triune, the Incarnation of Christ, His Passion and Resurrection from the dead, etc., are accepted. Not mere symbols, allegories, myths, etc.
We see St. Paul touching on precisely that point in 1 Corinthians 15.14ff, where he declared that if Our Lord had not actually risen from the dead, then vain and useless was their faith. The Apostle also took pains to list some of the witnesses who had literally seen the risen Christ.
And the sacraments, or mysteries, of the Church are not mere rites. Rather, they are the physical means used by Christ for pouring out his graces and gifts among mankind.
Ad astra and Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean,
To me, what matters is practice of meditation, not agreement about doctrines.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I have nothing against meditation as such, but meditation to what end, or about what, or directed to Whom?
Ad astra and Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean,
Awareness of what is, with no end or direction.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I can't agree with the "...no end or direction" bit.
Ad astra and Merry Christmas! Sean
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