Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The Cheshire Cat
"Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat." ~ Sir Julian Huxley
"The order of the world is always right -- such is the judgment of God. For God has departed, but he has left his judgment behind, the way the Cheshire Cat left his grin." ~ Jean Baudrillard
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it." ~ Albert Einstein
The Cheshire Cat
The Cheshire Cat grins
and that grin is the last sign
as he fades away.
He has taken guilt,
all the guilt still in the world
near your complex life
and holding it close
he winks and then he departs,
grinning, fades away.
October 1, 2009 3:51 PM
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Just now I wonder on the nature of guilt and how/why we bear it. I wonder because you suggest it might fade. But I wonder if it is what holds us human, holds us humble? I think of first sin. I don't know about the bible, but perhaps it is the best case situation for us to know that we are flawed, the we are only made of one rib, or dust.
ReplyDeletexo
erin
I stand with Joseph Campbell on this one, that the Judaeo-Christian view of inherited original sin is a truncated view of things created in a break away moment of culture and is a reflected vision of creatures desiring special central status on the planet. The entire 5% of the material cosmos at least and of which we are a less than minuscule part is in the precise same boat, carrying a mark of creation that disallows perfection, a tweak that persists all the way down to the crack in the cosmic egg. This is well known in various ways by all the great religions. It is only the Judaeo-Christian that attempts to make man the sole carrier in an otherwise perfect creation.
ReplyDeleteI am sure for myself that while it is possible to make a spiritual life in that special burden there will come a time in this life or the next or in the eternal returns that will require a new start in the wider perspective and guilt will fade indeed. It is a situation, not a burden and the solution is not found in forgiveness, not at this level (though it is essential in others) because the situation cannot be lifted in any case less than dissolving the whole thing. It is prior to life in that sense, part of the possibility of life, not a burden on it.
Erin, I see I forgot to write in love again which is not a truth of my heart and soul for you but is an easier place in the word flow, the idea flow. I am not in any way offended by your ruminations, of course but I know I should tell you so. We are all on the paths required by our deepest encounters with the movements of spirit. I love you, good friend.
ReplyDeleteI'll, of course, have to read and reread this as I am thick and slow. But what it is that I feel is not so much theological, but rather practical. I do this for myself. Hit myself with a bat into my very human condition and deflate myself over and over again. I am first sin over and over again. It is a bit of an irony, or so it seems, that that which puts us central, also undermines us. I don't by any means believe in the bible's version of this, but I do believe it is important to deflate the ego. I wish I could just keep it so, but I keep forgetting, inflating, and then I beat the crap out of myself again.
ReplyDeleteEventually, yes, when I cease and become a part of the larger energy, I will be without guilt. Then. Then. It will be a curious place for me to be.
I will come back and read and reread and probably, shit, inflate, and then beat the crap out of myself again. I learn very slowly.
and yes, i love you too. appreciate what you did here greatly. you are learning me:)
xo
erin
Let me see if I can simplify.
ReplyDeleteThis place obviously has pain and falling short built in - random, or just not quite perfect, or hints at things where we wish for direct lines. In the Buddhist world they say all life is suffering and point to it. Christians claim original sin. Hindus says there is a cycle of destruction and we are in that cycle. The Kali Yuga. Also Buddhists and Hindus speak of illusion or Maya. That points to it too. The Taoists have their own language for basically the same vision. Zoroastrians and Gnostics claim a ruler of this world, God but lower is the cause. Hindus also say that the highest God, Brahma keeps His hands off unless called. This allows stuff to spin out of control just enough to really irritate.
But really that gap between what we might call God's World and God's Permitted World is also the gap that allows us Free Will and Autonomy. If you read that at it's broadest, that means life itself is allowed in so far as life is autonomous and self contained or organized at every level. It is in this way that the tweak in things makes life in its autonomous sense possible rather than being a burden, or it certainly is a burden but not one that can be removed.
I have just said the same thing in different language.