Yes, I would love to hear more of your deep dive into D.B. Hart's meditations so I hope you will carry on with " What Is Freedom ". Great question to meditate upon in our times ! I'm finding you offer a lot of clarity with Hart's writing and the comparisons with some the of the Tripartite Tractate are fascinating. I was raised in the church but by my teen years, most of the teachings stopped resonating with me. So much hypocrisy, melded in with plenty of dogma and rules without any true spark of love or soul. I don't mean to sound disrespectful of anyone's religious leanings or path of spiritual searching, because the act of choosing a path to search regardless of what "flavour " , is a good step to knowing one's true self. Like John Lennon said in song " whatever gets you through your life , it's alright , it's alright ", so I am simply sharing MY personal experience with MY church. Although your comment sections sometimes has only a few sharing their thoughts, rest assured Cyd that there are many who may be reading and exploring these posts that you are gifting, without offering feedback, so I hope you stay inspired to carry on. Amen, and onward and upward.
I have also had ups and downs with various churches. But I think the thing that keeps me going is that I do not confuse the churches here on earth with the heavenly home above. No amount of human hypocrisy or institutional heresies and evils can touch the beauty and clarity of the Father and Son, and we should never throw out the baby with the bath water. I'm an idealist, and so I tend to see things as they are meant to be, rather than fixate on the crap that people dish out, at least when it has to do with God. That's not say I don't fixate on crap from time to time but that's only about me and my ego and other people and their egos; it's not God's fault.
Thank you for your continued appreciation and encouragement. The technical hoops are hard to jump through, but the inspiration never fades...
I was raised in fundamentalist Christianity, and read the whole Bible mostly within that contextual framework, though I could never accept the eternal damnation of those who had not known of Jesus.
Free Will?
It clearly SEEMS to exist, and if it is completely an illusion, it might be a bit cruel, no?
There is uncertainty at a small, fundamental level, described in physics, which appears to me to allow for both karma and free will. That uncertainty principle adds a jittery factor to a mechanistic universe, making it not-deterministic, effectively excluding strict mechanical determinism, as I understand it.
It is difficult to prove free-will, but impossible to disprove it, and the fact that it clearly seems and feels like the case makes it the default position.
Yes. In the Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything theory, it's precisely that uncertainty principle that gives room for free will to exercise itself, much to the consternation of the Demiurge.
Cyd, have you ever thought of holding (Zoom?) realtime discussion groups on practicing or studying gnosis/gnosticism in our daily lives with readers? Maybe invite Adrian Smith becuz he's great as well. Thank you so much for what you do here. My partner and I are also starting a Substack and we know nothing (and really want to know nothing) about SEO and the ways to reach more people but maybe we can explore that in discussion as well? Just a thought.
Good suggestion, Thea. I haven't thought about that. Need to look into how one does that. There are so many technical hurdles to vault over--one after another. Now that you've suggested this, I'll let my subconscious roll it around.
May your inspiration never fade dear Cyd. Yes, the " bath water " has become pretty murky through the ages , but there's no question that the Baby is always beautiful and pure and shall remain ever so ...:-)
Yes, I would love to hear more of your deep dive into D.B. Hart's meditations so I hope you will carry on with " What Is Freedom ". Great question to meditate upon in our times ! I'm finding you offer a lot of clarity with Hart's writing and the comparisons with some the of the Tripartite Tractate are fascinating. I was raised in the church but by my teen years, most of the teachings stopped resonating with me. So much hypocrisy, melded in with plenty of dogma and rules without any true spark of love or soul. I don't mean to sound disrespectful of anyone's religious leanings or path of spiritual searching, because the act of choosing a path to search regardless of what "flavour " , is a good step to knowing one's true self. Like John Lennon said in song " whatever gets you through your life , it's alright , it's alright ", so I am simply sharing MY personal experience with MY church. Although your comment sections sometimes has only a few sharing their thoughts, rest assured Cyd that there are many who may be reading and exploring these posts that you are gifting, without offering feedback, so I hope you stay inspired to carry on. Amen, and onward and upward.
;-)
I have also had ups and downs with various churches. But I think the thing that keeps me going is that I do not confuse the churches here on earth with the heavenly home above. No amount of human hypocrisy or institutional heresies and evils can touch the beauty and clarity of the Father and Son, and we should never throw out the baby with the bath water. I'm an idealist, and so I tend to see things as they are meant to be, rather than fixate on the crap that people dish out, at least when it has to do with God. That's not say I don't fixate on crap from time to time but that's only about me and my ego and other people and their egos; it's not God's fault.
Thank you for your continued appreciation and encouragement. The technical hoops are hard to jump through, but the inspiration never fades...
Thank You again, Cyd.
I was raised in fundamentalist Christianity, and read the whole Bible mostly within that contextual framework, though I could never accept the eternal damnation of those who had not known of Jesus.
Free Will?
It clearly SEEMS to exist, and if it is completely an illusion, it might be a bit cruel, no?
There is uncertainty at a small, fundamental level, described in physics, which appears to me to allow for both karma and free will. That uncertainty principle adds a jittery factor to a mechanistic universe, making it not-deterministic, effectively excluding strict mechanical determinism, as I understand it.
It is difficult to prove free-will, but impossible to disprove it, and the fact that it clearly seems and feels like the case makes it the default position.
All philosophies seem to struggle with it.
I kind of like that.
;-)
Yes. In the Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything theory, it's precisely that uncertainty principle that gives room for free will to exercise itself, much to the consternation of the Demiurge.
Cyd, have you ever thought of holding (Zoom?) realtime discussion groups on practicing or studying gnosis/gnosticism in our daily lives with readers? Maybe invite Adrian Smith becuz he's great as well. Thank you so much for what you do here. My partner and I are also starting a Substack and we know nothing (and really want to know nothing) about SEO and the ways to reach more people but maybe we can explore that in discussion as well? Just a thought.
Good suggestion, Thea. I haven't thought about that. Need to look into how one does that. There are so many technical hurdles to vault over--one after another. Now that you've suggested this, I'll let my subconscious roll it around.
May your inspiration never fade dear Cyd. Yes, the " bath water " has become pretty murky through the ages , but there's no question that the Baby is always beautiful and pure and shall remain ever so ...:-)