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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
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Posted 12/13/2007 7:56 AM (GMT -6)

Question:

What are the relationships between the Logos (the Divine Center in all human beings) and the Imago Dei (also in all human beings?)

Bruce?

"For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in Spirit.

"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."

Corey
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Date Joined Feb 2003
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Posted 12/13/2007 8:24 AM (GMT -6)

I don't even understand the premises of the question. As much as I've been trying to "get it", the technical language still doesn't convey much meaning for me. I'm not feelin' what's meant by "the Logos (the Divine Center in all human beings)". Divine Center? Huh?

I've got Loder's 'Logic of the Spirit' and I'm trying to read through that to get more background.

That being said, in simple terms, I think 'Imago Dei' is about our fittedness to be the Bride of Christ. Just as Adam exclaimed "Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh!" about Eve as his counterpart, likewise our Groom exclaims satisfaction over us. The 'Logos', if I'm understanding the use of the term, is whatever is essential to that fittedness, whatever it was that made this intimacy possible. Eve had a way of knowing Adam that no other creature could. Likewise, we can know God as no other creature can.

Just as Adam and Eve were intended to become "one flesh", I believe we are intended to become one in spirit with God. Although there is indeed a oneness, there nonetheless remains individual identities.

I have a real problem with the suggestion that we may lose our identities as our oneness with God consumates. Rather I strongly intuit that there is a paradoxical aspect of simultaneous perfect individuality.

I think marriage was given us as a concrete metaphor of relating with God. It's so clearly a both-and to me in regards to individuality and unity.

Post Edited (Corey) : 12/13/2007 8:00:50 AM (GMT-6)

One Love
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Posted 12/13/2007 3:24 PM (GMT -6)

Corey:
As much as I've been trying to "get it", the technical language still doesn't convey much meaning for me. I'm not feelin' what's meant by "the Logos (the Divine Center in all human beings)". Divine Center? Huh?

I've got Loder's 'Logic of the Spirit' and I'm trying to read through that to get more background.

In Loder, Chapters 3, 5, 12, and 13. After you've scanned those...then a feedback loop may be more helpful.

2) Here's something shorter...and hopefully, helpful. Speaking of how the Divine Center is related to individual hypostatic agencies, the Divine Center is Merton's "point of nothingness" from whence our non-divine constitutive dispositions and conscrescence is disposed. It is the "logos" within us, the seat of God's subjective aims for each individual hypostatic agency. It is God himself in us in his energies. And from what Maximos says "The One Logos are the logoi and the many logoi are the One Logos."

Is that helpful?

**********************************

Corey:
That being said, in simple terms, I think 'Imago Dei' is about our fittedness to be the Bride of Christ. Just as Adam exclaimed "Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh!" about Eve as his counterpart, likewise our Groom exclaims satisfaction over us. The 'Logos', if I'm understanding the use of the term, is whatever is essential to that fittedness, whatever it was that made this intimacy possible. Eve had a way of knowing Adam that no other creature could. Likewise, we can know God as no other creature can.

Just as Adam and Eve were intended to become "one flesh", I believe we are intended to become one in spirit with God. Although there is indeed a oneness, there nonetheless remains individual identities.

....

I think marriage was given us as a concrete metaphor to relate to God. It's so clearly a both-and to me in regards to individuality and unity.

Lovely example.

Everything in creation is to somehow "image" represent Reality, that is, the self-relationality of the One Triune God, which I'm convinced (by Loder) is the source of the bi-polar assymetrical relational unity (complementarity) that we see everywhere in Creation. There is an undeniable unity-inidiversity in Reality itself. So it seems evident that Creation, if it is to be a self-revelation (even non-ontologically so), it will have this tendency.

Marriage (particularly between males and females) does this extremely well. Great bi-polar assymetrical relational unity. (The whole "mutual submission" thing!) There is mutually understood uniqueness that provides natural individuality for all parties...AND a mutually understood mutuality that provides natural communion for all parties. The relationship ends up being CREATIVELY SUSTAINED by perichoretic indwelling of one "person" in the other.

What's interesting about the Adam/Eve story that I see is this: Adam is by himself. Not "born". Later, Eve "proceeds" from Adam's side being literally made from Adam's own genetic material (the rib). Common DNA. This would imply that Eve is not just some other human...but is TRULY "of" Adam! Bone OF his bones. Flesh OF his flesh. For Eve to know herself...was to know Adam in his depths. Eve is definitely Adam in a real way...just like a separated embyro from an original zygote would be "of" that original zygote's genetic makeup. Just like twins are two individual hypostatic agencies, so would Adam and Eve be. One would be a differing gendered version of the other, so to speak. Eve would know herself as differentially unified with Adam...and vice versa. Moreover, Eve is the "mother of life". Without her, Adam would not have been able to bring forth someone "in his own image" (Gen. 5:3) She was the procreative matrix from whence a new image could be brought forth. Taken another way, Eve is Adam's "power" to create another self-image...an originated self-image, NOT a "procession" of Adam like Eve. Eve is "of" Adam, remember?) When Adam "knows" Eve...and Eve "knows" Adam...a Child is "begotten". And this Child is Adam's self-image...which has genetic components from Adam and Eve (who has genetic components of Adam). During gestation, the Child is differentiatedly unified with Eve, such that though the mother and the embryo are two distinct organisms, they are yet one. If we look at things at this point, we see that the Child is undoubtedly it's own individual being...but the Child would undeniably have Adam "in" him (via Adam's AND Eve's makeup) while being constantly sustained and empowered by his dwelling within Eve. Adam will see himself (and Eve, who's also "himself" ) in the Child. All three "persons" would have would be "of" essentially ONE DNA makeup, that which was in Adam originally. Adam in Eve, Eve in Adam. Adam/Eve in Child, Child in Adam/Eve. Adam is the lynchpin of all three.

Could this be analogical to the relationship of the Father, the Father's Spirit, and the Father's Image? Maybe? Just a thought...

I'd say this. I agree with you, Corey, that we can see irreducible unity-in-diversity in the "one flesh" idea.

***************************************************

Corey:
I have a real problem with the suggestion that we may lose our identities as our oneness with God consumates. Rather I strongly intuit that there is a paradoxical aspect of simultaneous perfect individuality.

It's losing your "life" to gaining true life. We all find our lives in the One Logos. We do not lose any of the particularity of our embodied human individuality by recentering our subjective identification to God the Logos. There is still a self-differentiating "I" as a singular, overarching self-relational unity in the human being, not a amorphous non-being. And as we go to the depths of our individuality, that's WHERE we find our universality: IN the Logos! We will see particularity and universality within one another. (See Loder on that!)

"For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in Spirit.

Post Edited ("I Am Spirit") : 12/13/2007 2:56:10 PM (GMT-6)

One Love
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Posted 12/13/2007 3:54 PM (GMT -6)

From... The Whole Human Person: Body, Spirit and Soul by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

-----------------

...

We read in the Old Testament that in the beginning man (meaning human being) was created. Certain Fathers of the Church say that Adam, who was taken from the soil, made of the earth, the basic, the essential substance of the created world, contained within himself all the potential of a human being. He was neither male nor female, he was 'total man' and it is gradually, as he was developing to maturity, from innocence towards saintliness, from being a child into becoming an adult human being, that gradually there was within him a polarisation that required the separation of the two elements. And the moment came when God divided that unique human being into two beings, but two who were still totally one. In the Old Testament we find this moment when God divided in the primeval human, man from woman.

Neither the English nor the Church Slavonic translation is very satisfactory. We read of God taking a rib. A rabbi was once asked by one of his people, "Why did God take a rib and not a head, which would have been so useful, or the arms could have been so useful as well?" And the rabbi answered, "Because the rib is that part of man which is nearest to his heart". So, according to this terminology, woman was created from the part nearest to the heart of man — I do not think this is a very brilliant and unique explanation! Very often in ancient languages, certainly in Church Slavonic, 'rib' or 'ribcage' was used to denote the side, and God was perceived as dividing into two the original total being by dividing one side from another. Those who know French will appreciate that one can speak of cфte and cфtй, cфte meaning a rib, cфtй meaning a side. And when Adam saw Eve face to face, he exclaimed, "She is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh". And the English text says, "I am man, she shall be called woman", which is not very clear, but the Hebrew text uses a word which shows that the one is the masculine and the other the feminine of the same being - 'ish' and 'ishshah'. "I am ish, she is ishshah. She is the feminine of me, I am the masculine of her".

At that moment it is one undivided being in two persons, because the Fall has not yet divided mankind from God and one human being from another. And it is only after the Fall that Adam and Eve look at one another and see themselves divided and different one from another. There is a passage in the works of Saint Methodius of Patara which, in the Latin translation, sounds like this: Adam looks at Eve and says, "She is my alter ego, the other myself", indicating thereby total, radical otherness and yet the fact that she is himself at the same time. Speaking of the Fall and the dividedness of Adam and Eve, Methodius says that when they fell away from God they lost the binding power between the two: Adam looked at Eve and Eve looked at Adam and said, "I am ego, I; he is alter, he is the other." They have become a broken couple, and the notion of the individual is apparent. It will grow and become deeper. It will become more destructive with time, but at that moment it has already happened. They are no longer two persons being one unit that is a human being. They are two persons into which individuality has entered. It is the moment of tragedy, because the two will somehow have to be kept together, because if they are not kept together then they will be separated for ever. Dividedness always grows, dividedness does not alter spontaneously.

So God establishes between them a mutual attraction. They are attracted to one another both psychologically and physically. They long for one another, because deep down in themselves they know that they are one and belong together, although experientially they know that something has happened to separate them. One of the spiritual writers says that the world could not have subsisted without a sacrament, a sacrament being a binding power that links beings with God and beings with one another. So, from the very beginning of the world God established marriage: not marriage as we know it now as an ecclesiastical, liturgical celebration, but as an event which brings two beings, otherwise separated, into oneness, into a degree of oneness accessible to both of them. It may be total, it may be partial, it may be full of crisis, it may be a glorious growth into oneness. But marriage is the only sacrament which subsisted in the world of the Bible and in the pagan world, preventing individuals from breaking away from one another and the human race from being finally destroyed.

-------------------------------------------------------
Read the rest...

"For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in Spirit.

PotOnWheel
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 12/13/2007 5:39 PM (GMT -6)

I also find your question too technical to follow easily. I'm doubt I'm up to speed to answer it ("What are the relationships between the Logos (the Divine Center in all human beings) and the Imago Dei (also in all human beings?)".)

I run for cover to the part of my brain that reminds me that ONLY the Son is actually the image of the Father; we, on the other hand, are fashioned in HIS image -- the image of the image. I'm not sure how that overlays your question. I'm not up to speed yet.

As to the Maximus quote, HERE is a LINK:

On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings from St. ... - Google Books Result

by Maximus,, Paul M. Blowers, Robert Louis Wilken - 2003 - Religion - 183 pages
Through these logoi they find their denning ... nevertheless we affirm that the one Logos is many logoi and the many logoi are One. ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=088141249X...

THE LINK WORKS!

(This spanned the end of page 57 and the beginning of 58. Its a great book, with two sections each of a different sort. Browse it a bit. -B)

I think it is both inaccurate and possibly terribly misleading to say "The One Logos are the logoi and the many logoi are the One Logos." In the quote from the Maximus book (above) -- I'm got two (2) copies in a box upstairs -- Maximus ACTUALLY SAYS "Nevertheless we affirm that the one Logos is many logoi and the many logoi are One. Because the One goes forth out of goodness into individual being, creating and preserving them, the One is many. Moreover the many are directed toward the One and are proivdentially guided in that direction. It is as though they were drawn to an all-powerful center that had built into it the beginnings of the lines that go out from it and that gghers them all together. In this way the many are one. Therfore "we are dalled" a "portion of God" because the logoi of our being pre-existed in God. Further, we are said "to have slipped down from above" because we do not move in accord with the Logos (who preexisted in God_ through whom we came to be.

D., YOUR statement read to my weak mind to be something like a=b and b=a. Maximus does not say such a thing.

(o)

Post Edited (PotOnWheel) : 12/13/2007 6:59:04 PM (GMT-6)

PotOnWheel
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 12/13/2007 5:45 PM (GMT -6)

"I Am Spirit" said...
by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Anthony Bloom has a wonderful little book on prayer:

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Pray-Anthony-Bloom/dp/0809115093/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197585887&sr=1-1

Beginning to Pray (Paperback)
by Anthony Bloom (Author) "AS WE START learning to pray, I would like to make it clear that what I mean by 'learning to pray' is not an attempt..." (more)

List Price: $7.95

(o)

PotOnWheel
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 12/13/2007 5:55 PM (GMT -6)

I ussually do equally as bad as this upon first reply. Sorry.

I'll have to read better later.

(o)

One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888

Posted 12/13/2007 6:16 PM (GMT -6)

Bruce:
D., YOUR statement read to my weak mind to be something like a=b and b=a. Maximus does not say such a thing.

Maximus calls us a "portion of God". How about that?

Anyways...a quote from Bruce's stuff...

One who has learned to think devoutly about the logoi of existing things can explain this matter in another way. There can be no doubt that the one Word of God is the substance of virtue in each person. For our Lord Jesus Christ himself is the substance of all the virtues, as it is written: This one God made our wisdom, our justice, our sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). These things of course are said about his absolutely, since he is wisdom and righteousness and sanctification itself. They are not, as in our case, simply attributed to him, as for example, in the expression, as "wise man" or a "just man." It is evident that every person who participates in virtue as a matter of habit unquestionably participates in God, the substance of the virtues.

--------------------------

Ok. As I see things, the "substance of virtue" that Maximus speaks of...is analogous to the "eschatological essence" of each hypostatic agent, which is also the divine ground of it's being; the divine "ought" for everyone's lives that people can self-dispose against. The God-given, God-sustained dispositional subjective aims for a person's becoming. Now, if Maximus is right about the ONE WORD OF GOD (The Logos) being the "substance of virtue" for all human beings...then...you have the Logos (in divine energy) being the ground and telos for all hypostatic beings. Moreover, the fullness of God is in God's energies, so the fullness of the Logos is in the "substance of virtue" (logos) which grounds human hypostatic development. (The essence/energies difference is still in effect)

Does this not make sense?

"For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in Spirit.

PotOnWheel
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 12/13/2007 6:31 PM (GMT -6)

(o)

PotOnWheel
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 12/13/2007 6:32 PM (GMT -6)

Nice reading books free on Google, right?

(Good book too.)

(o)

One Love
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Posted 12/13/2007 8:25 PM (GMT -6)

Bruce:
I run for cover to the part of my brain that reminds me that ONLY the Son is actually the image of the Father; we, on the other hand, are fashioned in HIS image -- the image of the image.

We are "sons in the Son", "children in the Child"

Perhaps even..."portions" of the Logos? (Hey, Maximus said it...

)

"For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in Spirit.

PotOnWheel
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 12/13/2007 10:37 PM (GMT -6)

"I Am Spirit" said...
We are "sons in the Son", "children in the Child"

St. Romanos Nativity Kontakon

Posted Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Don't miss this rich and inspiring reading by Frederica of the entire Nativity Kontakion written by St. Romanos the Melodist and translated by Fr. Ephrem Nash. It was taken from the book On the Life of Christ: Kontakia, published in 1994 and available from Eighth Day Books.

(o)

One Love
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Total Posts : 13888

Posted 12/14/2007 9:27 AM (GMT -6)

The mystery of the ages is revealed: Immanuel. Christ the Logos IN US.

Surely, the Universe (obviously including humanity) has always been the Abode of God...and we did not know it.

*****************************************************************

Romans 16:25-27
Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to faith and obedience— to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

*****************************************************************

Ephesians 3:1-12
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

*****************************************************************

Colossians 1:24-29
Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

*****************************************************************

Colossians 2:1-5
I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

"For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in Spirit.

Post Edited ("I Am Spirit") : 12/14/2007 8:37:25 AM (GMT-6)

One Love
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Posted 12/14/2007 11:42 AM (GMT -6)

A thought...

Insofar as "I" live epicletically, that is, as "I" perichoretically indwell the uncreated, eternal virtue within me (logos, "eschatological essence" ), "I" truly am Uncreated, Eternal Virtue (Logos) in energetic expression.

The univocal causality of Eckhart.

http://www.opentheismboard.org/pr.aspx?f=10&m=94825

"Why do you call me good? No one is good--except God alone."

"Before Abraham was, I am."

Make sense?

"For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in Spirit.

Post Edited ("I Am Spirit") : 12/14/2007 10:53:32 AM (GMT-6)

One Love
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Total Posts : 13888

Posted 12/14/2007 12:34 PM (GMT -6)

Maximus said...

One who has learned to think devoutly about the logoi of existing things can explain this matter in another way. There can be no doubt that the one Word of God (Spirit's Note: The Logos) is the substance of virtue in each person. For our Lord Jesus Christ himself is the substance of all the virtues, as it is written: This one God made our wisdom, our justice, our sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). These things of course are said about his absolutely, since he is wisdom and righteousness and sanctification itself. They are not, as in our case, simply attributed to him, as for example, in the expression, as "wise man" or a "just man." It is evident that every person who participates in virtue as a matter of habit unquestionably participates in God, the substance of the virtues.

And guess what? What Christians like Maximus would call the eternal "virtue" in all human beings...Buddhists would call...

The Buddha-Nature or Buddha Principle

----------------------

Buddha-nature (originally in Sanskrit, Buddha-dhatu - "Buddha Element", "Buddha-Principle", Chinese: 佛性 pinyin fó xìng) is a doctrine important for many schools of Mahayana Buddhism. The Buddha Nature or Buddha Principle (Buddha-dhatu) is taught to be a truly real, but internally hidden, eternal potency or immortal element within the purest depths of the mind (Spirit's Note: Remember Merton's "point of nothingness" ), present in all sentient beings, for awakening and becoming a Buddha. In some Mahayana sutras it is equated with the eternal Buddhic Self, the Essence (svabhava) or Soul (atman) which is nothing less than the uncreated and deathless Buddha himself. Nagarjuna, the founder of Madhyamaka, presents a view that states that Buddha-nature is Shunyata (empty).[citation needed] The primary sutras on Buddha-nature maintain that what the Buddha-nature is empty of is not its own ever-enduring reality but impermanence, impurity, moral defects, and suffering - in other words, the painful constrictions and imperfections of samsara.

.....

The teaching on the Self which is attributed to the Buddha in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra insists upon the True Self's ultimacy, sovereignty and immortality. The Buddha states (in the Tibetan version of the Sutra): "all phenomena (dharmas) are not non-Self: the Self is Reality (tattva), the Self is eternal (nitya), the Self is virtue (guna), the Self is everlasting (shasvata), the Self is unshakeable (dhruva), and the Self is peace (siva)."[22] In the Chinese versions of the Sutra, the Self is also characterised as autonomous or sovereign (aishvarya).

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) (Spirit's Note: How about "eschatological essence"? ) of each person, and this essential being is none other than the Buddha himself - "radiantly luminous" and "as indestructible as a diamond".[23]

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:[24]

"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"

-----------------------------------------------

From Brahmaviharā

In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the Buddha teaches that the Brahmaviharā are characteristic qualities of the Buddha-dhatu (Buddha-nature or Buddha-Principle, the all-pervading essence of the Buddha). He states:

“Great Benevolence [or “Loving-kindness”] and Great Compassion are the Buddha-dhatu (Buddha-nature). Great Sympathetic Joy and Great Equanimity are the Buddha-dhatu. The Buddha-dhatu is at once the Tathagata [ = Buddha]" (Nirvana Sutra, Vol. 9, p. 59).

The Buddha is himself (as the embodiment of the Buddha-dhatu and Nirvanic Liberation) replete with the Brahmaviharic qualities. He says:

“The Tathagata is Benevolence, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity. Benevolence, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity are Liberation [moksha]. Liberation is Nirvana, and Nirvana is Benevolence, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity.” (Yamamoto/Page, Vol. 10, p. 50).

In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra (as in other Mahayana sutras), a particularly high place is accorded to the Brahmaviharas of benevolence and compassion. Benevolence/ friendliness/ loving-kindness (maitri) is especially viewed in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra as the root of all good qualities (Spirit's Note: "Virtue", right? God IS love, after all...) , the very heart and inner soul (atman) of what the Buddha and Mahayana ultimately are. The Buddha declares:

“All the roots of goodness of all … Bodhisattvas and all Tathagatas [= Buddhas] have as their foundation Loving-kindness (maitri)… If any person asks about the root of any aspect of good, say that it is Loving-kindness … Loving-kindness is Mahayana. Mahayana is Loving-kindness. Loving-kindness is the Tathagata. The Tathagata is Loving-kindness … Loving-kindness is the Buddha-dhatu (Buddha-nature) of all beings…. Loving-kindness is the Self (atman). The Self is Dharma. Dharma is the Sangha. The Sangha is Loving-kindness. Loving-kindness is the Tathagata…. Loving-kindness is the Immortal (amrta). The Immortal is Loving-kindness…. Loving-kindness is the Supreme Way of all Bodhisattvas. The Way is Loving-kindness. Loving-kindness is the Tathagata …. Loving-kindness is the limitless world of the Blessed Buddha. The limitless world is Loving-kindness. Know that Loving-kindness is the Tathagata.” (Yamamoto/Page, Vol. 5, pp. 16-18).

--------------------

The Truth is one. reading

"For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in Spirit.

Post Edited ("I Am Spirit") : 12/14/2007 11:59:51 AM (GMT-6)

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