Who makes the choice? This is a question of agency. A confusion enters when the term "Divine Order" is sometimes conflated and used to mean "preordained."
Do I have control over whether or not I'm late to a meeting? It's not "predestination" divine Order. If I start out two hours early and am going to arrive very early but there is a flat tire or a car accident, other peoples' choices have interceded. I am the Divine in Expression and so are They.
For me God is that ceaseless, restless presence that defies presence, order, manifests the unmanifestable. Divine Order is Mind-Idea-Expression, the creative process.
Is life governed by immutable law or does it operate freely based on probabilities and tendencies?
Both.
It is a false dichotomy to bifurcate good/bad, choice/predestination, Newton/Quantum, Immutable Law/Probability.
Paradoxes lie at the center of reality, and it is only in the transcendence of the appearance of duality that we find God. There is no such thing as theodicy. Everything is God and God is in everything.
Transcendence is Choice. We transcend "reality" through utilizing imagination. We transcend nationality by adopting a global perspective. We transcend individuality by realizing that we and the Other are One. Why else would a soldier throw himself on a grenade? We transcend difficulty by recognizing it. We see that fundamentalism and conservatism are being transcended in favor of pluralism and inclusivity.
Progress- be it individual or societal requires learning and growth- the essence of the metaphysics of birth-death-resurrection.
Newton is correct. Quantum Mechanics is correct. One does not supplant the other but enhances and deepens understanding.
3 comments:
I like your idea of both existing Anthony. I think we too often break things down into one or the other. "Paradoxes lie at the center of reality." I agree. I think that when we look through the limitation of our human minds, that we see things in terms of separation, and that is why it appears as paradox. What I continually find in my meditations is that we are trying to compare things that are existing at different levels of reality and that these phenomena overlay each other. When looked at through the lens of the mind, they seem contradictory, but if we look deeper, we see that they overlay each other, and depending on our perspective, they are both correct. As you said, "Newton is correct. Quantum Mechanics is correct. One does not supplant the other but enhances and deepens understanding." I enjoyed Mark's comment today that God simply Is.
Anthony,
Transcendence and the creative process allow for the answering of whether society is functioning through free will or fate.
To allow for transcendence, to allow for reflection, consideration, and decision is empowering. In metaphysics, Mind-Idea-Expression is that process that can meet paradox with personal power. Understanding is that means of knowing self and realizing the "lenses" being worn in the viewing of various events.
Ber
Hear! Hear!
I continue to think that the "or" language as presented in this class poses a large part of the perception problem. In my view, NOTHING is just "either/or".
I love your statement "Paradoxes lie at the center of reality, and it is only in the transcendence of the appearance of duality that we find God. There is no such thing as theodicy. Everything is God and God is in everything."
'Tis in the eye (ear/mind) of the beholder. It is to each, what they choose to call (believe) it is. "A rose by any other name..."
Post a Comment