Graduations

Just over a week ago, we gathered to celebrate the memory of a 90-year-old matriarch who had gone to her rest.

This week, newsman and political junkie par excellence, Tim Russert, departed this life without warning. Active, happy, and about my age.

Yesterday I attended a graduation party for a young man I have known since he was six.

Nearby sat a young woman, due to give birth this month.

Next week week is the fortieth reunion of my own high school class. Who’d have imagined that the likes of me would live to see such a thing?

Life has its stages, and every one is awesome in its importance.

Philosophickal Ruminations – Mystical Musings

Philosophickal Ruminations – Mystical Musings

Dragged from the archives just because….

Some observations, in the form of parables:

One: There is general agreement among the wise of many traditions that below the root or foundation of all that is, that which gives rise to the existence of all that is cannot be named as if it were among the elements of existence that have come into being. A shorthand way of saying this is that the name of God is unknowable, and any name used is at risk of becoming a blasphemy in short order. The Hebrews protected themselves from this danger by means of a prohibition (”thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”) as well as the fact that both of those words, Lord and God, were descriptive titles and not meant to be names at all. The Pagans, or some of them, seem to assume a different tack: by naming or identifying a variety of gods and goddesses, they acknowledge that the Mystery that binds all into unity and gives rise to the diversity they celebrate, itself/himself/herself cannot be named.

Two: Everything in the Universe, and the Universe as a whole, is a manifestation or a revelation of the divine Reality that brings us into being and sustains us; each is in some sense a complete and definitive revelation and manifestation of the same, and wants nothing else; yet none can be said to be that Reality in fullness. That is to say, everything that can be said of God reveals some truth, yet at the same time falsifies that truth, if it is taken, shall we say, too seriously.