"NDP 34%"
God? What did you mean by that last night? The thought sure came from you and not from me.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
existential distinction between the presence of different members of the Trinity
This may sound controversial, as a lot of things written in this blog, but I guess I'll just say it.
I think I'm growing in the discipline of practicing the presence of God up to the point where I think I can existentially distinguish the between the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in my consciousness! Of course I knew all the fundamental doctrines of the Trinity, all 3 members being God, all being distinct in personality, yet all having the divine traits in the one substance of God. But for a lot of my life, this theology was all abstract to me. And during this journey of the Game with Minutes, I'm actually learning to rectify the centuries-old mistake of protestants of separating theological understanding with personal spiritual experience. That's why I like a lot of the medieval Catholic writers, to a lot of them, like Madame Guyon and St. Teresa of Avlia, when they write, they don't separate theological doctrine from their personal experience on their spiritual journey. To use a modern analogy, they don't research decades on a prospective romantic partner's background while they spending very little time dating him/her. They "date" and learn about that partner at the same time. Not the best analogy, but that's how it is with a lot of these Catholic mystics.
Anyways, all that to say, I think within my consciousness, I am learning to practically distinguish between directly interacting with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the Father. It's kind of cool too, rather than just vaguely knowing that all 3 of them are God and ambiguously communicating to "all 3 of them at the same time and somehow it works out".
Once again, this is extremely hard to describe as to what it actually feels like, so forgive me if I have to resort to using analogies. First of all, the presence of God has been becoming more and more real to me. Picture someone who has lived indoor all their lives and was born blind. Then picture this person constantly being told what the sun is like. The various characteristics of it, how it heats you up if you're in it's presence, how it's so bright it can make you go blind if you look at it directly for an extended period of time, how it helps your body produce vitamin D if you're exposed to it, how you can get a suntan if you're exposed to it for a long period of time. Then, picture this person finally walking out one day when he's 25 years old into the outdoor beach on a bright sunny day. He's still blind, he still can't see the sun. But something in his educated intuition feels like he's being exposed directly in the presence of it. He feels like he's being warmed up by it's heat. He feels like it's "brighter" even though he's blind and can't see properly. His friends tell him after he's been in the sun for a while that they can see a suntan on his skin. He KNOWS that he's directly in the presence of the sun even though he can't prove directly, or can't see it directly. But he knows it's there. That's how it's been with me and God's presence metaphorically.
And now, with the distinction of the different members of the Trinity in my consciousness. Picture a blind alien who has never been to planet earth before. Picture this blind alien who has never been exposed to H20 (aka water) before. But this blind alien has heard about it, all its properties, its effects, its possible states (liquid, solid [ice], gas). But one day, this blind alien gets transported to earth, and he begins to feel with his 4 senses the difference between water in liquid form, solid form, and gas form. Although he can't see the difference of these forms in his eyes, he nevertheless knows that it's all H20 and can sense the difference. That is a little like how it feels right now.
And it's pretty cool man, to be able to experience the subjective textures of first-person consciousness in interacting with different members of the Trinity. They really are distinct persons of a holy community that interact with each other, and are not clones of each other, or divine siamese triplets or something. Of course we might know this in our head. But experiencing it is a whole new universe.
I think I'm growing in the discipline of practicing the presence of God up to the point where I think I can existentially distinguish the between the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in my consciousness! Of course I knew all the fundamental doctrines of the Trinity, all 3 members being God, all being distinct in personality, yet all having the divine traits in the one substance of God. But for a lot of my life, this theology was all abstract to me. And during this journey of the Game with Minutes, I'm actually learning to rectify the centuries-old mistake of protestants of separating theological understanding with personal spiritual experience. That's why I like a lot of the medieval Catholic writers, to a lot of them, like Madame Guyon and St. Teresa of Avlia, when they write, they don't separate theological doctrine from their personal experience on their spiritual journey. To use a modern analogy, they don't research decades on a prospective romantic partner's background while they spending very little time dating him/her. They "date" and learn about that partner at the same time. Not the best analogy, but that's how it is with a lot of these Catholic mystics.
Anyways, all that to say, I think within my consciousness, I am learning to practically distinguish between directly interacting with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the Father. It's kind of cool too, rather than just vaguely knowing that all 3 of them are God and ambiguously communicating to "all 3 of them at the same time and somehow it works out".
Once again, this is extremely hard to describe as to what it actually feels like, so forgive me if I have to resort to using analogies. First of all, the presence of God has been becoming more and more real to me. Picture someone who has lived indoor all their lives and was born blind. Then picture this person constantly being told what the sun is like. The various characteristics of it, how it heats you up if you're in it's presence, how it's so bright it can make you go blind if you look at it directly for an extended period of time, how it helps your body produce vitamin D if you're exposed to it, how you can get a suntan if you're exposed to it for a long period of time. Then, picture this person finally walking out one day when he's 25 years old into the outdoor beach on a bright sunny day. He's still blind, he still can't see the sun. But something in his educated intuition feels like he's being exposed directly in the presence of it. He feels like he's being warmed up by it's heat. He feels like it's "brighter" even though he's blind and can't see properly. His friends tell him after he's been in the sun for a while that they can see a suntan on his skin. He KNOWS that he's directly in the presence of the sun even though he can't prove directly, or can't see it directly. But he knows it's there. That's how it's been with me and God's presence metaphorically.
And now, with the distinction of the different members of the Trinity in my consciousness. Picture a blind alien who has never been to planet earth before. Picture this blind alien who has never been exposed to H20 (aka water) before. But this blind alien has heard about it, all its properties, its effects, its possible states (liquid, solid [ice], gas). But one day, this blind alien gets transported to earth, and he begins to feel with his 4 senses the difference between water in liquid form, solid form, and gas form. Although he can't see the difference of these forms in his eyes, he nevertheless knows that it's all H20 and can sense the difference. That is a little like how it feels right now.
And it's pretty cool man, to be able to experience the subjective textures of first-person consciousness in interacting with different members of the Trinity. They really are distinct persons of a holy community that interact with each other, and are not clones of each other, or divine siamese triplets or something. Of course we might know this in our head. But experiencing it is a whole new universe.
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