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PotOnWheel
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| Posted 4/7/2010 7:08 PM (GMT -6) |   | | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 10:12 AM (GMT -6) | | Great stuff, B.
Had a thought. You know how Hopko basically says that the truth of the Scriptures (and it's testimony to Christ) is ONLY "opened" to the human mind by the Holy Spirit of Christ. Made sense. It seems like God "opens" the human mind that is seeks to be "open" to the Holy Spirit to REVEAL truth to it; God WILL give poor in spirit the "mind of Christ" by the Holy Spirit. It's really similiar to what Starkman was saying on another thread...
I Corinthians 2.
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"-- these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
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But one thing seems UTTERLY clear: To attempt to do any type of thinking about God without believing God for constant "opening" of one's mind to wisdom and knowledge in Christ by the Holy Spirit...to try to think about God without actively seeking PRAYING COMMUNION with the Father through the Son in the Spirit in that very thinking...is the height of hubris and foolishness. We need to see ourselves and our world from GOD'S PERSPECTIVE, not merely our own...and that's only possible through revelation to the human noetic and mental faculties by the Holy Spirit.
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 10:22:14 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 10:31 AM (GMT -6) | | So, again...how important...how VERY important...is acquisition of the Holy Spirit? Feel me?
Frankly, I'd say that a person cannot fully live in God's World (ie. the REAL World!!!) without having the "mind of Christ" through the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit so radically expands the horizons of awareness, of space and time, of life and death (as noted by Calvin and other in the Reformed Tradition such as Torrence and Barth), that such reductionistic notions become almost trivial. Thus, it should be stressed that the main thrust of 1 Corinthians 2 is not negative but overwhelmingly affirmative. It is not to denegrate nous or mind but to proclaim what is in the nous Christou. It is here that one sees and participates in "what eye has not seen and ear has not heard." What has not entered into the human mind, God has prepared for those who love him. This is open to those whose spirits, in agreement with the Holy Spirit, search out the deep things of creation and of God, and whose relationship to God preserves the vital relationality that marks them as bearers of the image of God. To be endowed by the Holy Spirit and with the nous Christou is not other-worldly, but it is instead to perceive and to behold this world as if for the first time because it is knowing the world through the Logos, the One through whom all things have been made. The natural order then becomes, remarkably, the creation of God in which every moment is sustained by God's Grace alone.
James Loder
The Knight's Move
Page 47
Now correspond that last sentence...with the Hesychastic "VISION" of God's Energies (God HIMSELF) at work in Creation.
The Hesychast usually experiences the contemplation of God as light, the Uncreated Light of the theology of St Gregory Palamas. The Hesychast, when he has by the mercy of God been granted such an experience, does not remain in that experience for a very long time (there are exceptions—see for example the Life of St Savas the Fool for Christ (14th Century), written by St Philotheos Kokkinos (14th Century)), but he returns 'to earth' and continues to practise the guard of the mind.
The Uncreated Light that the Hesychast experiences is identified with the Holy Spirit. Experiences of the Uncreated Light are allied to the 'acquisition of the Holy Spirit'. Notable accounts of encounters with the Holy Spirit in this fashion are found in St Symeon the New Theologian's account of the illumination of 'George' (considered a pseudonym of St Symeon himself); in the 'conversation with Motovilov' in the Life of St Seraphim of Sarov (1759 – 1833); and, more recently, in the reminiscences of Elder Porphyrios (Wounded by Love pp. 27 – 31).
Orthodox Tradition warns against seeking ecstasy as an end in itself. Hesychasm is a traditional complex of ascetical practices embedded in the doctrine and practice of the Orthodox Church and intended to purify the member of the Orthodox Church and to make him ready for an encounter with God that comes to him when and if God wants, through God's Grace. The goal is to acquire, through purification and Grace, the Holy Spirit and salvation. Any ecstatic states or other unusual phenomena which may occur in the course of Hesychast practice are considered secondary and unimportant, even quite dangerous. Moreover, seeking after unusual 'spiritual' experiences can itself cause great harm, ruining the soul and the mind of the seeker. Such a seeking after 'spiritual' experiences can lead to spiritual delusion (Ru. prelest, Gr. plani)—the antonym of sobriety—in which a person believes himself or herself to be a saint, has hallucinations in which he or she 'sees' angels, Christ, etc. This state of spiritual delusion is in a superficial, egotistical way pleasurable, but can lead to madness and suicide, and, according to the Hesychast fathers, makes salvation impossible. (OL'S Note: THIS is a REAL RISK! Hint to the Pentecostal/Charismatics!)
Yeah...
But it's ONLY made possible by REVELATION from the Holy Spirit.
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 12:39:11 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 10:43 AM (GMT -6) | | More Loder...page 186.
As T.F. Torrance has pointed out, "...a hundred years ahead of his time Kierkegaard devised a way of thinking...similar to what Einstein was to call "kinematics," but here it would be more apposite to speak of it as a kinetic mode of reason." As Torrence understands it, this means "moving along with the truth in order to understand it." This is suggestive of Einstein's famous imaginings even as a young boy in which he asked what he might be able to understand if he could travel on a beam of light at the speed of light. It was out of such early images and musings that E=mc2 was eventually generated.
Kierkegaard's kinetic mode of reasoning suggests a theological analogy. What if one were to travel, so to speak, as spirit in "the Spirit of Jesus Christ," and understand everything from the standpoint of the uncreated light of the Logos through whom all things, even created light, have been made? This analogy would take us into the apocalyptic understanding of time, because to fully participate in the light of the Logos would be to see everything that has been made all at once--in a moment which belongs to the Son of Man, "as the lightning flashes and lights us the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day."
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Yo, Tom. When the human spirit "sees" from the perspective of the uncreated light (God's Perspective)...would it perceive DISTANCE between (say) Earth and Alpha Centauri? Would it perceive "light-years"?
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 11:04:03 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 12:12 PM (GMT -6) | | Holy Spirit as the "Lord's Wisdom"...
Hear, O sons, a father's instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight,
for I give you good precepts;
do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son with my father,
tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.
Get wisdom; get insight;
do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever you get, get insight.
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
She will place on your head a graceful garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”
Hear, my son, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
When you walk, your step will not be hampered,
and if you run, you will not stumble.
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of the evil.
Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know over what they stumble.
My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.
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Does not wisdom call?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
“To you, O men, I call,
and my cry is to the children of man.
O simple ones, learn prudence;
O fools, learn sense.
Hear, for I will speak noble things,
and from my lips will come what is right,
for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth are righteous;
there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
They are all straight to him who understands,
and right to those who find knowledge.
Take my instruction instead of silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold,
for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
and I find knowledge and discretion.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
I have counsel and sound wisdom;
I have insight; I have strength.
By me kings reign,
and rulers decree what is just;
by me princes rule,
and nobles, all who govern justly.
I love those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me.
Riches and honor are with me,
enduring wealth and righteousness.
My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
and my yield than choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness,
in the paths of justice,
granting an inheritance to those who love me,
and filling their treasuries.
“The Lord possessed me at beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of old.
Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first of the dust of the world.
When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man.
“And now, O sons, listen to me:
blessed are those who keep my ways.
Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
Blessed is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the Lord,
but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.”
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 12:17:54 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 12:59 PM (GMT -6) | | One more Loder quote...Knight's Move. 273
Beyond vision, in the fourth and final phase of the journey of intensification, is the numinous, imageless passage into the absolute unity of all things. Here no-thingness (cf. Eckhart's Ohne bild) is experienced as more real that than the reality of the ordinary state, even after self-consciousness returns to phase 1. Although imageless, its impact most often leaves the after-image of radiant white light, so vivid it cannot be described except perhaps by a kind of via negativa. For this phase there is no language, only silence--favete linguis (hold your tongue), says Kierkegaard. For this phase there is still differentiated self-consciousness, but beyond that only a reaction of awe as before the Holy who both fascinates and overpowers at the same time. (OL's Note: Creaturely self-other relationality from the standpoint of the Uncreated Light of the Logos.) This corresponds to the vision of God in Augustine, Hildegaard, Teresa (of Avila), Eckhart, and several others.
The neurological foundation of this experience is the profoundly significant capacity of the brain to present to consciousness not only an ordered content but the very way in which that content is itself presented: i.e., the order itself. In this case, it is the whole or totality in itself that is communicated. Clearly this is not a reductive account, but only a claim that the human organism is made so as to support and entertain an encounter with an imageless sense of the Absolute Unity of Being. The numinous impact of this is, of course, like that of the encounter with the Holy in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. If mythic vision and cosmic consciousness were the consequences of the third phase, then here the consequence is that one may now see the cosmos from a standpoint beyond it, while still within it. (OL's Note: Seeing the "cosmos" one indwells from the standpoint of the Uncreated Light of the Logos.)
The benevolent detachment from the world which is the consequence of this experience has the effect of making the world becomes a matter of choice rather than one of defensive survival. (OL's Note: Creaturely dispassion/equanimity following seeing the World from the standpoint of the Uncreated Light of the Logos.) All that is needed for ultimate survival has been given and far more, so engagement with the world are a matter of decision in what can only be called a state of blessedness. (OL's Note: Creaturely experience of Eternal love, joy, and peace from seeing all things from the standpoint of the Uncreated Light of the Logos.)
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Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 1:13:12 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 1:13 PM (GMT -6) | | | Make sense, Tom? Bruce?
The whole "Eighth Day" thing?
We know about the kingdom of God and the ultimate destiny of this world because we know the Christ-event. Christ through the cross, resurrection, and ascension left us with historical memory of the event and liturgical memory of the kindgom. The condescension of the Logos of God into the world through the incarnation in Christ, and Christ's coming back to the kingdom through the resurrection and ascension, provide Christians with the typology of the events that will happen to human beings, in particular with the image of the end of the world and the human being, as both transfigured and united back to God, leaving behind the images of the world in its present state of flowing time.
One can imagine that when human beings reintegrate their personhood in God, so that their hypostatic constitution will no longer resemble the divisions in creation, human apprehension will change fundamentally. The vision of the universe, its articulation in space and in time, will cease to function at all, resembling more and more the hypostatic "apprehension" of the entire universe by the Logos himself, for whom the whole universe in its spatial and temporal span exists as an instant of truth, as the "eighth" boundless day, the aeon with no duration.
Alexei Nesteruk
Light from the East: Theology, Science, and the Eastern Orthodox Tradition
Pages 247-248.
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 1:27:40 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 1:30 PM (GMT -6) | | Tom, can you imagine all of humanity "seeing in the Spirit of Jesus Christ"...being "transfigured" by the Spirit of Jesus Christ?
How could that NOT be anything less than the NEW JERUSALEM in the NEW HEAVENS and NEW EARTH?
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
...
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
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And he [Jesus] was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 1:46:19 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 1:51 PM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 3:08 PM (GMT -6) | | Hmmm...when you think about it...
What is Satan, Sin, Self, and Sickness (Great terms, Starky!) up against the Uncreated Light of God?
Absolutely nothing, nada, zippo, zero.
All darkness is filled with wonderous Divine Love and Light! Natural humanity can't see it. But theandric humanity (aka "children of God" who have been "born of the Spirit" ) CAN see it!
Some analogies...
Daat (from Kabbalah Judaism)
Daat or Daas ("Knowledge", Hebrew: דעת [ˈdaʕaθ]) in Jewish mysticism, called Kabbalah, is the location (the mystical state) where all ten sephirot in the Tree of Life are united as one.
In Daat, all sefirot exist in their perfected state of infinite sharing. The three sephirot of the left column that would receive and conceal the Divine Light, instead share and reveal it. Since all sephirot radiate infinite self-giving Divine Light, it is no longer possible to distinguish one sefira from another. Thus they are one.
Properly, the Divine Light is always shining, but not all humans can see it. The concealment or revelation of the Divine Light shining through Daat does not actually happen in Daat itself. It only seems that way from the human perspective within Malkuth. The perception of change can only occur in Malkuth. Humans who become self-giving like the Light become able to see it, and for them the benefits of Daat's Light seem "revealed". However, humans who remain selfish cannot see it, and for them its benefits seem "hidden".
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From the Enneagram Institute...
Holy Idea: Holy Love
Holy Love is the recognition that all is one and that the oneness is ultimately benevolent and supportive. From this perspective we truly experience the well-known spiritual assertion that everything actually is made from Divine Love. When we truly know this, we relax our ego activity and trust Being to support us. It is almost unfathomable to the ego mind that not only could we be loved by the Divine, but that we are actually made of that love. The knowledge lets us move through our lives with deep compassion, nobility, and unshakable inner peace.
We can also see how Holy Love relates to the virtue of Action, because love itself has a dynamic affect on our souls. What transforms our lives more powerfully than love? What transforms our sense of ourselves more profoundly? Love is not static: it is living, dynamic force that melts down all barriers and boundaries, constantly working to restore our awareness to its pristine unity with Truth. In Holy Love, our sense of separateness dissolves, and we know ourselves as arising from the brilliant light of Divine Love that creates and sustains the universe.
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Prakasa (Hinduism)
Prakāśa is a concept of Kashmir Shaivism translated by various authors as "light", "splendour", "light of consciousness" (identified with Śiva)[1] (Swami Lakshman Joo), "luminous and undifferentiated consciousness" (Paul E. Murphy) or "primordial light beyond all manifestations.
Prakāśa is considered supreme, ultimate, unsurpassable, but as such it cannot be described as pure transcendence, because even though it is above all, it is still present in the manifestation, in every aspect of it. Thus prakāśa is said to be both transcendent and immanent.
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Nûr Al-Anwâr (Sufism, Islam)
(The Light of lights). This comes from the essential theophanies of absolute Truth. Ibn 'Arabi sometimes calls it "the dazzling irradiations" which provoke the annihilation of the being and cannot be perceived by him except in the most intimate secret of his heart (as-sirr). This secret of the heart is an uncreated substance, of celestial origin, by which man gains access to the superior angelic and divine world. It is the theophany of the Light of lights which reveals the absolute reality in its most transcendent aspect, and causes certainty at its highest degree to be born in the heart. Ibn 'Arabi calls this form of knowledge haqq-al-yaqîn (absolute Certainty), and it is the fruit of direct experience.
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Buddha-Nature (Buddhism)
The Mahaparinirvana Sutra specifically contrasts its doctrine of the Self with that of the Astikas in order to remove the reifying notion that the Self was a little person or homunculus, the size of a grain of rice or of one's thumb, sitting in the heart of the being, thus: "mundane [philosophers] mistakenly imagine it to be a person (puruṣa) the size of a thumb, the size of a pea or a grain of rice that dwells shining in the heart." This, the Buddha says, is a misconception of the nature of Self, for "that opinion of theirs is a mistaken opinion, one that is transmitted onwards from person to person, but it is neither beneficial nor conducive to happiness." The Self of which the Buddha speaks is said by him to be the "essential intrinsic being" (svabhava) or even "life-essence" (jivaka) of each person, and this essential being is none other than the Buddha himself - "radiantly luminous" and "as indestructible as a diamond".
Moreover, the Buddhist tantric scripture entitled Chanting the Names of Mañjusri (Mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti), as quoted by the great Tibetan Buddhist master, Dolpopa, repeatedly exalts not the non-Self but the Self and applies the following terms to this ultimate reality:
"the pervasive Lord" (vibhu)
"Buddha-Self"
"the beginningless Self" (anādi-ātman)
"the Self of Thusness" (tathatā-ātman)
"the Self of primordial purity" (śuddha-ātman)
"the Source of all"
"the Self pervading all"
"the Single Self" (eka-ātman)
"the Diamond Self" (vajra-ātman)
"the Solid Self" (ghana-ātman)
"the Holy, Immovable Self"
"the Supreme Self"
In the Ghanavyuha Sutra (as quoted by Longchenpa) this immutable, universal and salvific Buddha Essence (the True Self of the Buddha) is said to be the ground of all things, but it is viewed by fools as something changeful and impermanent, whereas in fact it is stated by the Buddha to be the very opposite of such impermanence:
"... the ultimate universal ground also has always been with the Buddha-Essence (Tathagatagarbha), and this essence in terms of the universal ground has been taught by the Tathagata. The fools who do not know it, because of their habits, see even the universal ground as (having) various happiness and suffering and actions and emotional defilements. Its nature is pure and immaculate, its qualities are as wishing-jewels; there are neither changes nor cessations. Whoever realizes it attains Liberation ..."
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 3:32:33 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 3:33 PM (GMT -6) | | | Coincidence...right?
Or could it be that the human being created in God's image (with it's brain/mind unity) is HIGH-WIRED to apprehend God Himself working in Creation to "seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." (Acts 17)...and these experiences in different religions testify to that.
Just maybe, now... 
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 3:57:15 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 4:00 PM (GMT -6) | | |
Theoria
*********************
The highest theoria, the highest consciousness, as the experience by the whole person, is the vision of God. In full nous in a state of ecstasy (ekstasis) called the 8th day, which is no internal or external world, no time, no space, the experience of God as infinite or limitless. God is beyond being (hyper-being) God is beyond nothingness. Nothingness is a gulf between God and man (God is the origin of everything including nothingness). This experience of God in hypostasis showing God's essence as incomprehensible or by definition God as uncreated. God being the origin but having no origin hence apophatic and transcendent in essence or being, cataphatic in foundationial realities, immanence and energies. This ontic or ontological Theoria being the observation of God.
...
Theoria being experience is beyond conceptual knowledge.[29] It is when the mind is placed in the heart (kardio) and the nous is focused on the immediacy or immanence of the Trinity of God rather than strictly insight or foresight (which is to face the unknown with free will and faith) and rather than hindsight (determinism and knowledge). It is much like the difference between reading about an experience and reading about an experience one has already experienced. Thus theoria is an expression of insight (noesis), and is deeply focused on the 'now', the 'immediate', the 'present'. Though theoria is akin to acting by free will and by conscious choice rather than deterministically. It holds that, one moves through time into the future without knowing, but that we proceed by faith (faith is meta-gnosis or beyond knowledge). Theoria means placing the actual experience above recollection of an experience (mnemonic) or memory, knowledge of the experience (gnosis). As it is the contemplation of the present (insight) while in the present rather than the past (knowledge) or future (unknown), it is ultimately the experience of the hypostases of God. Or in other words, Theoria means primacy of experience, observation over speculative, discursive rational analysis (Orthodox Empirical theology). This illumination as photismos, a light that permeates all things and is without source, a light that illuminates not only the physical world but also the darkness within mankind, this light is also called the Tabor light. The Trinity who, in essence is incomprehensible the Trinities' being or essence or substance is not obtainable or knowable (or it would not truly be incomprehensible). As the Trinity is the three realities of the single God at once. Each reality or hypostasis critical to the ontology of being (ousia) and or existence (hypostasis).
...
Under St Gregory Palamas (1296 - 1359AD) the different traditions of theoria were synthesized into an understanding of theoria as meaning that through baptism one receives the Holy Spirit. Through participating in the sacraments of the Church and performing works of faith one cultivates a relationship with God. If one then through willful submission to God is devotional (becomes humble) akin to the Theotokos (and saints) and proceeds in faith past the point of rational contemplation one can experience God. Palamas stated that this way was not a mechanized process as each person is unique, but that the apodictic way that one experiences the uncreated light or God was through contemplative prayer called hesychasm. Theoria is cultivated through each of the steps of the growing process of theosis. Gregory was initially asked by his fellow monks on Mount Athos to defend them from the charges of Barlaam of Calabria. Barlaam believed that philosophers had better knowledge of God than did the prophets, and valued education and learning more than contemplative prayer. It is important to note that Palamas taught that the truth is a person (Jesus Christ) which means a form of objective reality. In order for a Christian to be authentic he/she must experience the Truth i.e. Christ, as real and in person (see hypostasis). Gregory further asserted that when Peter, James and John witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, that they were in fact seeing the uncreated light of God; and that it is possible for others to be granted to see that same uncreated light of God with the help of certain spiritual disciplines and contemplative prayer. The only true way to experience Christ, according to Palamas, was the Eastern Orthodox faith. Once a person discovers Christ (through the Orthodox church) they begin the process of theosis which is the gradual submission to the Truth i.e. God (see mortification and asceticism) in order to be deified (theosis). Theoria then is seen to be the experience of God hypostatically (in person). However, since the essence of God is unknowable the essence of God is not able to be experienced. Palamas expressed theoria as an experience of God as it happens to the whole person (soul or nous) not just the mind or body, in contrast to an experience of God that is drawn from memory, the mind and or in time (recollection of an experience) i.e. gnosis. Gnosis and all knowledge are created, as they are derived or created from experience and self awareness knowledge (spiritual knowledge). Theoria here is the actual experience of the uncreated in various degrees (i.e. the vision of God or to see God). The experience of God in the 8th day or outside of time therefore beyond or transcending, self and or experience knowledge (gnosis). Gnosis here is most importantly understood as a knowledge of oneself, theoria is the experience of God, transcendent or beyond the knowledge of oneself. St. Gregory Palamas reposed on November 14, 1359. His dying words were, "To the heights! To the heights!" The reason for his commemoration on the Second Sunday of Great Lent is because Gregory's victory over Barlaam is seen as a continuation of the Triumph of Orthodoxy (i.e., the victory of the Church over heresy).
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/8/2010 4:09:11 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 4:10 PM (GMT -6) | | Beatific Vision
In Christian theology, the beatific vision is the eternal and direct visual perception of God enjoyed by those who are in Heaven, imparting supreme happiness or blessedness.
While humans' understanding of God while alive is indirect (mediation/prayer, not actually looking at Him), the beatific vision is direct (immediate, visual), or literally, seeing God. In other words, the beatific vision means a soul is actually looking at God, as is, viewing Him without any sort of censorship like that found in the book of Isaiah. Furthermore, seeing God in Beatific vision does not take the viewer's life.
Thomas Aquinas defined the beatific vision as the ultimate end of human existence after physical death. Aquinas's formulation of beholding God in Heaven parallels Plato's description of one beholding the Good in the world of knowledge.
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One Love
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| Posted 4/8/2010 4:11 PM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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Asher
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| Posted 4/8/2010 5:13 PM (GMT -6) | | Hey D,
Light, Love, and Life
swallows
darkness, hatred, and death
so they are not
and all that remains is
the uncreated Light, Love and Life | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 4/8/2010 5:29 PM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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PotOnWheel
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 4/8/2010 10:42 PM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 4/9/2010 6:54 PM (GMT -6) | | | The Uncreated Light is Christ the Logo's "Halo".
To you, Jesus...my heart sings...
Feel me on this...
Remember those walls I built
Well, baby they're tumbling down
And they didn't even put up a fight
They didn't even make up a sound
I found a way to let you in
But I never really had a doubt
Standing in the light of your halo
I got my angel now
It's like I've been awakened
Every rule I had you breakin'
It's the risk that I'm takin'
I ain't never gonna shut you out
Everywhere I'm looking now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby I can see your halo
You know you're my saving grace
You're everything I need and more
It's written all over your face
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won't fade away
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
Hit me like a ray of sun
Burning through my darkest night
You're the only one that I want
Think I'm addicted to your light
I swore I'd never fall again
But this don't even feel like falling
Gravity can't forget
To pull me back to the ground again
Feels like I've been awakened
Every rule I had you breakin'
The risk that I'm takin'
I'm never gonna shut you out
Everywhere I'm looking now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby I can see your halo
You know you're my saving grace
You're everything I need and more
It's written all over your face
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won't fade away
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
Halo, halo
Everywhere I'm looking now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby I can see your halo
You know you're my saving grace
You're everything I need and more
It's written all over your face
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won't fade away
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
© B-DAY PUBLISHING; EMI APRIL MUSIC INC.
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One Love
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| Posted 4/10/2010 2:46 AM (GMT -6) | | Thanks, Selah! Mad love, sweetie. I'll definitely be hittin' you up for the prayer. 
Post Edited (One Love) : 4/10/2010 2:54:24 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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