"Naming the Real"
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Skeptics doubt the reality of the spiritual world; Marianne Williamson, an author of spiritual self-help books and a minister, has doubts about "the real world." She holds up a mirror in her essay to the scientific materialist view that physical reality is the only reality, that matter is all that matters. She teaches that the spiritual is real, and the material--our mundane existence--is an illusion that can shrivel the soul. An Easatern view and not that of Tilden Edwards, a priest who sees the material world as "Just full of God." Marianne Williamson: "I believe there is a realm of thought, basically shallow thought, "like your tie," " the blue in your eyes is quite lovely, " "love the wave in your hair," which is part of the delight of life. But it is part of the twisted nature of modern life that we spend practically all our time there. I think there is another dimension of thought in which it's not my physical eyes that reveal you to me. There is an inner ear that seeks to hear what you are really trying to say, rather than just your words. Those are the domains of spirit, and to many of us, that's the real world. It is the world that is not seen through the physical senses, but through the vision of the Holy Spirit in the Christian religion, and all religions describe this in their own way." (to be continued)
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^^ I would love to read some of Marianne Williamson's books. Although we all love physical beauty I find much more comfort in something spiritual I can hold onto. Thanks.
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Williams opines God placed love in you which is "your only true eternal reality." The truth is our oneness, like waves in the ocean and sunbeams to the sun, and the physical world is one of illusion while true reality is within, in inner spirit, oneness and love. "In every moment we have a choice between an open hearted and closed hearted response to each other. And every moment when I choose to bless, rather than condemn, a child of God, I am bringing the world closer to the point it will reflect on earth what is in heaven." Father Tilden Edwards: I suppose you can say we have three choices. One is that it's all material. Another kind of rejects the material, and sees it as "God isn't involved with that. If you want to go to God, you get out of the material." He subscribes to a "third way" which echoes Eastern orthodox theology--that everything is permeated by the energies of God. The material world is "an expression of God's being." Nothing is ultimately separate. "And I think today there's more of a sense of this larger presence, even if you believe something is more material than spiritual, and you don't know how the spiritual connects with the other. People who were once very secular are saying, 'well, I can call that spiritual. I can't call it God, maybe, but I can call it spiritual. And maybe what God is about is in this.'" (Even my simple life feels so chaotic at times the following thoughts appeal--certainly the universe is awesomely planned and executed, showing intelligent design, yet redolent of randomness, spontaneity and ever-changing creativity.) The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor asserts that" God is all over the place. God is up there, down here, inside my skin and outside. God is energy, space, light, not captured in them but revealed in them. God is the connection, the glue, the air between the molecules...I am so reluctant to talk about God, and what God thinks, and how God acts. I go there, but when I do, I feel like an oyster trying to explain ballerinas. So I'm not much of a theologian. I'm much happier with the evidence." "Chaos theory favors the concept of life with God as a dance instead of blueprint. There are boundaries to the chaos...if randomness is the way things work, and I believe in a God who created things the way they are, then that's my problem (being troubled by chaos), not God's. However chaotic my life and the life of the world seems, there may be a boundary beyond in which the chaos won't go...I won't fly off the planet. I can stay here awhile. And I think there is an absolute, Divine Being so vast, so beyond comprehension that all of the cosmos can be attributed to that Deity's power. "--From the book "The Life of Meaning" compiled by Bob Abernathy and William Bole and the contributors to PBS's Religion and Ethics newsweekly
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^^ I have been reading about Marianne Williamson. Going to read one her books that grabbed my attention. Such great work. Thanks for turning me onto her.
Peace and Love.
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