nightmare new religion

Praise him, praise him, let his praises fill the air!

Now that the republican chorus sings four part harmony the alternate hymn of the season lauding the occupant of the Oval Office, titled Meshugana (in Yiddish): משוגנה

.

Ah one, ah two, ah three...

The bubble machine spews empty accoladic refrains to the Meshugana and his Merry Apostates on a curving staircase in parody of manger tableau newly christened “The First Dough-Nald” and “O Come-on All Ye Failed Full-of-it”. “

The new coup has gotten the child out of Christmas and substituted a swarmy sycophantism, a dangerous and fawning haruspication of a coming messy ire.

this, no other, truth

In prison the heart sutra was recited.

In it the sentence: “This is no other than the truth.”

It caused 90 minutes of exquisite conversation.

These few days before Christmas.

must love Merton, must love universe

Night (solstice)

Posted: 20 Dec 2017 07:12 AM PST

Day 13 of the 2015 Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar. A pair of one-half light-year long interstellar “twisters”—eerie funnels and twisted-rope structures—in the heart of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8) which lies 5,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. (Special thanks to RPT) (A. Caulet (ST-ECF, ESA) and NASA)

The shadows fall. The stars appear. The birds begin to sleep. Night embraces the silent half of the earth. A vagrant, a destitute wanderer with dusty feet, finds his way down a new road. A homeless God, lost in the night, without papers, without identification, without even a number, a frail expendable exile lies down in desolation under the sweet stars of the world and entrusts Himself to sleep.

- Thomas Merton

(—from louie, louie blog) http://fatherlouie.blogspot.com/?m=1

this is true

I liked Dan Berrigan.

Poet, prophet, priest. Pain in the ass to those posturing as good guys but sly and devious and full of deceit underneath.

Here’s his Advent Credo:

“It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—
This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. 

It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction—
This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly. 

It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever—
This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace. 

It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world—
This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world. 

It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers—
This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams. 

It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history—
This is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth. 

So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love and peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ—the life of the world.”
– Daniel Berrigan, Testimony: The Word Made Flesh (Orbis Books, 2004).
 http://fatherlouie.blogspot.com/?m=1. 

placed in the future

It was just after hearing for first time Fleet Foxes’ White Winter Hymnal , being captivated by it, its poetry and melodic invitation to investigate, that I happened on Ulisse de Corpo’s “The Theorem of Love” a 21 minute presentation at Science and Nonduality.

Both enchanted.

Then another piece, an article by Marco Galloni. Sort of a pre-Christmas visit by the ghost of Christmas Future.

It was the creation from the future notion that attracted.

Life originates from the future 

Studying the properties of syntropy Fantappié found the mysterious qualities of living systems, namely the increase in organization, structure, order and complexity and arrived to the suggestive hypothesis that the origin of life needs to be searched in the future and not in the past. In other words, causality in life would not precede but be ahead. The academic world did not like the idea of introducing finalism in science and Fantappié was deeply religious. He repeatedly stated that the theory of syntropy had made him understand the basic mysteries of faith, the meaning of which appeared to him suddenly clear. Also the religious world did not like Fantappiè’s conclusions which were considered a sin not easy to forgive. The convergence of faith and science was not accepted in the scientific and religious community. The following passage from a letter written by Fantappié to a friend describes the implications of his theory:Mainstream physics is based on the dogma that causes must always precede effects. Fantappié was instead showing that causes can lie in the future and retroact on the present and that living systems would react to this backward causation. This was considered heresy both by the academic and religious world, and syntropy soon fell into oblivion, degraded into a philosophical idea of an eccentric mathematician, who had certainly been a genius, but, at some point of his career, had swerved dramatically. The echo of this negative attitude can be found in the sharp and hasty judgments which are found in the documents of the academic world. For example, the MATEpristem site of the Bocconi University write that: “Luigi Fantappiè left a hundred works of which the most notable is a large memory on analytic functionals, based on an ingenious transportation of the basic formula of Cauchy in the calculation of functions of complex variables to the functional. In his last years he also worked on scientific/philosophical issues, but with questionable results. 

"In the days just before Christmas 1941, as a consequence of conversations with two colleagues, a physicist and a biologist, I was suddenly projected in a new panorama, which radically changed the vision of science and of the Universe which I had inherited from my teachers, and which I had always considered the strong and certain ground on which to base my scientific investigations. Suddenly I saw the possibility of interpreting a wide range of solutions (the anticipated potentials) of the wave equation which can be considered the fundamental law of the Universe. These solutions had been always rejected as “impossible”, but suddenly they appeared “possible”, and they explained a new category of phenomena which I later named “syntropic”, totally different from the entropic ones, of the mechanical, physical and chemical laws, which obey only the principle of classical causation and the law of entropy. Syntropic phenomena, which are instead represented by those strange solutions of the “anticipated potentials”, should obey two opposite principles of finality (moved by a final cause placed in the future, and not by a cause which is placed in the past) and differentiation, and also non-causable in a laboratory. This last characteristic explains why this type of phenomena has never been reproduced in a laboratory, and its finalistic properties justified the refusal among scientists, who accepted without any doubt the assumption that finalism is a “metaphysical” principle, outside Science and Nature. This assumption obstructed the way to a calm investigation of the real existence of this second type of phenomena; an investigation which I accepted to carry out, even though I felt as if I were falling in a abyss, with incredible consequences and conclusions. It suddenly seemed as if the sky were falling apart, or at least the certainties on which mechanical science had based its assumptions. It appeared to me clear that these “syntropic”, finalistic phenomena which lead to differentiation and could not be reproduced in a laboratory, were real, and existed in nature, as I could recognize them in the living systems. The properties of this new law, opened consequences which were just incredible and which could deeply change the biological, medical, psychological, and social sciences.”  

"Mainstream physics is based on the dogma that causes must always precede effects. Fantappié was instead showing that causes can lie in the future and retroact on the present and that living systems would react to this backward causation. This was considered heresy both by the academic and religious world, and syntropy soon fell into oblivion, degraded into a philosophical idea of an eccentric mathematician, who had certainly been a genius, but, at some point of his career, had swerved dramatically. The echo of this negative attitude can be found in the sharp and hasty judgments which are found in the documents of the academic world. For example, the MATEpristem site of the Bocconi University write that: "Luigi Fantappiè left a hundred works of which the most notable is a large memory on analytic functionals, based on an ingenious transportation of the basic formula of Cauchy in the calculation of functions of complex variables to the functional. In his last years he also worked on scientific/philosophical issues, but with questionable results." 

The God of Iron of Teilhard de Chardin 

This opinion is not shared by Professor Di Corpo and his wife Antonella Vannini, who have chosen to devote most of their studies and their energies to these questionable results. The PhD thesis of Antonella Vannini was based on the following hypothesis: “if life draws its nourishment from syntropy, then the systems that support vital processes, such as the autonomic nervous system, must show pre stimuli activations. If this is true, the parameters of the autonomic nervous system, such as
the heart rate and skin conductance, should react before stimuli.” The experiments conducted by Vannini for her PhD thesis show that the heart rate reacts before the onset of stimuli. These pre- stimuli activations are strong and easy to replicate. It is worthwhile saying that heart rate values change significantly in advance to emotional stimuli and this suggests that syntropy is perceived in the form of emotions. We would perceive our future only at the emotional level.

Starting from this past-future duality another mathematician, the New Zealander Chris King, has developed a model of consciousness in which free will would arise from our being immersed in a dual stream of information travelling in opposite directions of time: on the one hand information from the past in the form of memories and experiences, on the other hand information from the future in the form of emotions. We must constantly choose between what our head reminds and tells us and what our heart points us to. The perfect balance of the negative and positive solutions would explain the symmetry between rational and emotional hemispheres 

From a cosmological point of view, the syntropy model states that there is a starting point, from which energy diverged and a final point towards which energy converges. The starting point is the big bang, whereas the end point is the big crunch. Teilhard named the big bang the Alfa [sic. cf Alpha] point and the big crunch the Omega point. These two diverging and converging polarities work together, but in opposite time directions. In the big bang, energy explodes and diverges forward in time, but converging forces brings energy to condensate, to become matter, atoms, stars, galaxies, and lead the universe to increase its degree of complexity. Teilhard said that, as a child, one of the mysteries that fascinated him most was how matter could hold together. Speaking of a metal toy as a god of iron, Teilhard said: "I just cannot understand how matter can stay together." In fact this is one of the most difficult problems of classical physics: converging forces, like gravity, are described and studied, but they are not explained. The theory of syntropy, on the contrary, provides an explanation of converging forces: matter is cohesive because of attractors that act from the future and lead energy and matter to converge. Somehow the future already exists. The Omega point towards which we are evolving is already here, but the paths to get there can be the most different. The dual solution of the fundamental equations endows us with free will and we constantly have to choose our path, and the evolution to the Omega point and syntropy is not linear. 

Di Corpo goes further: if the theory of syntropy is correct, three levels of time must exist. The sequential time to which we are accustomed to, in which energy is divergent and entropy prevails, would be typical of expanding systems, such as our universe. On the contrary, in a converging system the flow of time would be reversed as it happens in black holes. There are also systems in which diverging and converging forces are balanced, such as atoms. At this level time is unitary and past, present and future coexist. 

(--from, The heresy of Fantappié and Teilhard and the converging evolution, in Syntropy 2012 by Marco Galloni)  http://www.lifeenergyscience.it/english/2012-eng-1-3.pdf 

And the perceiving our future only at the emotional level.

And does the future already exist?

Something to sit and feel about. 

matins

in dark

white dog

on foot of bed

crowds feet

in silence

where else

Stop

Just stop

the world

I want to

get off

(Here)

who is jesus today

no more

greed

is good

stones to stone him

Before Abraham was, I am.

Or,

58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (John 8:58)

Like zen koan inviting us to show our original face, the one we had before our parents were born, Jesus seems to be seeing through the illusions of time and separation.

If we come to see that we are    where we are    what we are    as we are    --    and let go of all judgment opinion we have about all this -- we begin to rest quietly in a reality beyond control or worry.

We are.

As God is. 

With each and all.

More than two centuries before the Reformation, a theological debate broke out that pitted theologian Thomas Aquinas against an upstart from Britain, John Duns Scotus. In essence, the debate circled around the question, "Would Christmas have occurred if humanity had not sinned?" 

Whereas Aquinas viewed the Incarnation as God's remedy for a fallen planet, his contemporary saw much more at stake. For Duns Scotus, the Word becoming flesh as described in the prologue to John's Gospel must surely represent the Creator's primary design, not some kind of afterthought or Plan B. Aquinas pointed to passages emphasizing the Cross as God's redemptive response to a broken relationship. Duns Scotus cited passages from Ephesians and Colossians on the cosmic Christ, in whom all things have their origin, hold together, and move toward consummation. 

Did Jesus visit this planet as an accommodation to human failure or as the center point of all creation? Duns Scotus and his school suggested that Incarnation was the underlying motive for Creation, not merely a correction to it. Perhaps God spun off this vast universe for the singular purpose of sharing life and love, intending all along to join its very substance. "Eternity is in love with the inventions of time," wrote the poet William Blake. 

Ultimately the church decided that both approaches had biblical support and could be accepted as orthodox. Though most theologians tended to follow Aquinas, in recent years prominent Catholics such as Karl Rahner have taken a closer look at Duns Scotus. Perhaps evangelicals should, too.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/january/20.72.html 

I'm beginning to understand what the Trappist monk meant when he told me to cheer up because things are only going to get worse. It is difficult to see any relenting of the seeming stupidity of ideological blowhards trying to frighten people with screeds that a coup d’etat is taking place against the sitting US president by the FBI and left wing sympathizers. Blood will flow due to their shrill insanity riling up the desolate and unhinged correctors of evil in our midst.

In the words of my beloved (deceased Republican) grandmother, who called ‘em as she saw ‘em, “Stupid is as stupid does!” She would have poured kidney beans on the tv if Fox were on when she was alive.

Here it is Monday, it is snowing, and mere anarchy seems loosed on the world.

The monk is right. There’s no end to the corrections foisted on us by craven and besotted souls.

dark days seen through

Original face koan?

57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.          New International Version (NIV) John 8

 Those with big sins are throwing big stones at everything standing in their way.

Illusions die hard!