This morning, before rain, walking Ragged with ensō, the three of us on meditation walk, I worked on mantra for the overcast step by step, at hosmer brook trail arriving at these words:
Blessed be you, source of all being, creating word, holy spirit
As it is in the beginning, as it is now, as it is becoming
World without end, amen.
Walking through one truth time and again.
At Friday evening conversation, this came up:
Strong's Concordancelogos: a word (as embodying an idea), a statement, a speechOriginal Word: λόγος, ου, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: logos
Phonetic Spelling: (log'-os)
Definition: a word (as embodying an idea), a statement, a speech
Usage: a word, speech, divine utterance, analogy.HELPS Word-studies3056 lógos (from 3004 /légō, "speaking to a conclusion") – a word, being the expression of a thought; a saying. 3056 /lógos("word") is preeminently used of Christ (Jn 1:1), expressing the thoughts of the Father through the Spirit.
[3056 (lógos) is a common term (used 330 times in the NT) with regards to a person sharing a message (discourse, "communication-speech"). 3056 (lógos) is a broad term meaning "reasoning expressed by words."]
https://biblehub.com/greek/3056.htm
Every word of 3056 is vital.
speaking to a conclusion
a word
being
the expression of
a thought
A saying
A Hegelian dialectic describes how we live, grow, and have our being, a never ending circle/spiral of thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Or, expressed differently:
Source
Creation
Reconciliation
The constant returning to source.
The constant experience of creation, diversity, difference, and diversion.
The constant practice of conversation, dialogue, wording/action arriving at new beginning, inchoate source.
Father, Son, Spirit.
Source, Expression, Aggiornamento.
History and Etymology for aggiornamento
borrowed from Italian, from aggiornare "to bring up to date" (from a-, verbal prefix — going back to Latin ad- AD- — + giorno "day," going back to Late Latin diurnum, from neuter of Latin diurnus "daily") + -mento -MENT — more at DIURNAL entry 1
NOTE: Italian aggiornare in the sense "postpone, defer" is attested earlier than in the sense "bring up to date" and is probably a loan from French ajourner, itself in this sense dependent on English ADJOURN; likewise aggiornamento was probably a loan from French ajournement.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aggiornamento
And if we really pay attention, perhaps the word will become flesh, and we will save the world from linear desolation, returning it to recurring and reconciling re-creation.
My word!
Or as Richard Hugo ended his poem “The Right Madness On Skye” —
“Take my word. It’s been fun.”
It has been. It is. It continues to be.
It was Martin’s birthday yesterday.
How fortunate he’d been with us.
May such births happen often!
Student:
My point of view is that no one is telling the truth, but believers of religion fall under truthfulness. They mean well and they just happen to believe the bullshit fed to them. They do not intend to mislead. But when you fall in a large class (Religion) of people and you all believe in the same thing it adds strength to what you believe in. Stories are told about Jesus Christ and people just happen to believe the stories. (per.mo)
Tutor:
Here I want to emphasize that we are ready to contemplate the very nature of “stories” as they come forward in our mythologies and histories.
A story is what we tell when trying to convey either experience or intuition. Stories have to be heard and processed according to the mind that originated them and the mind that receives them.
They are a version of a felt reality that must be contemplated with a wisdom and a skepticism available to the reader or listener.
Student:
Hatred develops in the mind because people of one religion view others as going against their beliefs and values. People not understanding that when man was free there was no religion and there was peace. (per. mo)
Tutor:
Yes, religion divides. But I would focus on this phrase you’ve made. There’s a particular structure of the mind, or consciousness, that operates on the dualistic principle that “you’re in or you’re out”. In its deficient mode, it decides to eliminate those who are ‘out.’ Hate, I suspect, is the deficient mode of the dualistic structure of consciousness.
We are not condemned to remain in that structure, but that structure has condemnation as its primary function.
Nothing holds the one and the many together.
Morning photos arrive. Her friend’s mother, they, there, doing home hospice.
The quiet grace of it.
...
Haiku
(for the vigiling)
It is that still time
when only love moves within
each gesture gazing
(wfh, 12jan2021)
First things first:
"Let us approach the Lord with praise and thasnksgiving."
(Invitatory for Monday of the 1st Week of Ordinary Time)
What if the 'Lord' were everyone and everything in existence?
Now, then, to come?
Am I to approach each and all with appreciation?
With gratitude?
Is this what is to appear first?
If reality is the elocution of numbers, then 1.11.2021 is a good beginning articulation.
Student:
It’s relatively easy to talk about how my code is prison code and because of that I would never talk to this person or group of people, but then again, that would be limiting myself. I want more out of life than this place, whereas I was once restricted to this place, my mind and spirit are now free to think as I please. My mind is on a leash, I am not strangled by the hyperbole noose that my mind used to have on me. Because of that I chose to adhere to these five virtues, amongst many others, because I know that they have pulled me away from my previous way of thinking, and that’s from being restricted in thinking and how I view the world.
Frankly, any man can call me what they please, what they don’t realize that it only goes towards furthering strengthening my stoic outlook, my love, my patience, my discipline, and my faith. Having all said and done, this class has definitely helped me in a way that I didn’t think of at the beginning of the course, and I will be taking my virtues along with me for the long haul. So, to answer estriction.my question: Is it possible to redeem the honor that I lost? Maybe not in a worldly sense…
(per.js)
Tutor:
I enjoyed your extended essay on virtues chosen and their relevance to your current thinking and life situation.
I find myself thinking at end (with your ellipsis) how the virtues you chose stand on their own, if you will, at the origin or our awareness. By that I mean that it is the cultivation and practice of virtue and particular virtues that prepare us for further choices down the road.
What if, I wonder, all the particular religions and various practices of spirituality, are, in their essence, simply the ways we enwrap virtues with containers to preserve and study according to the preferences of the container and the keeper of the container. Each religion a container. Each virtue giving itself to each and any container.
I further suspect that the person who practices and embodies these profound virtues will find themselves comfortable in any manifestation of the virtues, any spiritual practice that honors them, any faith that abides by them.
This thought gives me comfort. It also suggests how we might bridge the current divides between sects, denominations, religions, and philosophies. It recommends a wide-minded contemplation and practice.
I’ll take a virtuous person any day over a narrow-minded person jealously guarding their container at all costs.
Thanks for the prompt. I liked your meditation.
Student:
To me, hope lies in a future with my God, and the many promises thereof that I have read and have come to believe from experience. For example, I believe that I have the faith to hope in a brighter future than ever before after this brief time of incarceration (I’ll do about 7 on 10 years). My God gives me the hope to stand strong in times of trials and tribulation knowing that those who accept punishment and are trained by it, can persevere. (per.jn)
Tutor:
Some current thinking is that God is in the future, is not-yet, and that we and God are forward-moving potentialities-sive-actualities seeking one-an-other in integrity and wholeness.
Student:
From what I am gathering, the virtue of Charity becomes innate in us and we want to spread it, along with the joy that comes from knowing and loving our God when we realize or come to know and to feel the love that He has for us. When we come to grips with the truth (which I am not quite there yet), then all we will want to do is to love others. And when we do, then we shall find rest for our souls.
Good ending
I found myself reinterpreting your final sentence to read: “…we will find the rest of our soul.”
An intriguing thought – that our souls are partial until, with the virtues leading us to truth, we discover that our soul is everything and everyone in existence -- then, now, and forever.