Posts Tagged ‘God’
The return to the nations and the absence of the Whole
24
Apr
In a time of hypercommunication, social media
makes one feel the absence of the Whole, which Peter Sloterdijk calls the Big: “the form of the big in the industrial world insists on the well-known megalopathic stress in expanded dimensions – but then the people on the street must worry, who previously would have supported a Minister of Foreign Affairs” (Sloterdijk, 1999, p. 61), what he did not imagine was that this would have the opposite reaction: the return of patriotism.
However, only unexpected forces realized this effect, while today’s society: “suffering bouts of nausea in the face of its political class, at the moment cannot do more than grant a pause for reflection on fundamental questions” (p. 62).
The author notices the lack of “something”, the emphasis is his, but prefers to “interpret it as the spirit of the agrarian age” and the great empires (pg. 60), and in his agnostic vision, “for her came the critical moment with the “death of God” “ (idem), again the emphasis is on the author.
Thus in the absence of an eschatological figure, in a world that rejects the idea of the sacred, the divine and a human-divine God of Christians, “the form of the Great is changed, filiation pathologies of all kinds become epidemic” (pg . 66), not only in politics, but also in religion, everyone believes they have found a “great one” and heretically places him in the place of God, even in religions an imaginary god of wealth, leisure and even lust, however contradictory it may be. as it may seem.
The book from the end of the last millennium, understands the problem right but in the wrong place, under the theme of “conservative revolution” (a new highlight from the author) it is experienced “two or three generations ago in the Catholic resistance movements in central Europe and the south, probably a great intercultural career ahead – under a religious, culturalist, regionalist banner” (pg. 67).
Returns to a correct analysis: “in the Great modern – the quasi-religious state-national identities that since the 19th century have marked political forms of life in Europe and later throughout the world” (idem), remember Nazism and now in several forms of “national” wars.
The modern phenomenon of this Great One, of the great homeland whether in Israel or Russia, in China or the USA, is nothing other than the absence of a Great Greater, the divine one that leads men to break borders, to live with what is different and to understand the need for a new civilization that sees the planet as a Homeland.
For the great religious man, one may ask where God is, but the divine-historical figure of Jesus and his beyond-Abrahamic vision that surpasses that of these conflicting peoples, proclaimed a universal motto: “Whoever has seen Me has seen Him who sent Me ” (John 12:45).
A power hidden in little ones
19
Apr
Throughout history, the layers of society that had no participation in power
have been ignored, not in authoritarian regimes where this is evident, even though dictators enjoy some popularity due to their power of manipulation and use of force, the majority of society must and the The process becomes irreversible with access through social media, which can be networks.
The power of weak ties, unknown to most manipulators and authoritarians, exists and even if subjected to a harsh regime, in the shadows and in informal media it ends up manifesting itself, however, the power of propaganda and mass media in the mainstream media was immense.
It is true that part of the so-called popular opinion is also subject to traditions and cultures of oppression and manipulation, it was so before, and now it can become perverse, but when used to promote the common good, equality and respect, it can be the only asymmetric force.
Oppression always presupposes a certain consent, by persuasion, by fear or by some circumstantial or historical convenience, but over time, it may take years, a true “public” opinion will prevail and the polarization of the imperial forces at play will weaken. .
How to recognize the wolf and the lamb in this game is simple, and the biblical parable explains it (John 10:12):
“The mercenary, who is not a shepherd
and does not own the sheep,
sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf attacks and scatters them.”
The shepherd knows the sheep and they listen to his voice, says another biblical passage, and he does not act with power, but as a protector and facilitator of the sheep’s path so they don’t get lost.
Infinity is not just “believing”
11
Apr
Having moral and religious concepts does not
always mean that we overcome fear, anguish and the difficulties of life, fervent prayers and preaching can cover up the truth, this keeps many people away from believing in happiness and eternal life.
When something from the infinite touches us in life, not only do we discover the truth, not only a belief in someone (something is to reify the eternal) who is already part of our existence, this invigorates us and makes us capable of helping the world of peace, of hope and true Love.
We know in our hearts that no one can truly probe and know our soul, however, someone peers into our interior, when we love and do something good for others, for ourselves and for humanity, something good invades our being and gives us serenity.
This strength that awakens within led great sages, masters and saints to discover something new that made them progress in true asceticism, they were capable of heroic attitudes, but curiously with less weight than it would be for men who do not know this Love.
When we truly live this dimension, even a certain type of routine and bureaucratic religiosity abandons us, we want to see the Other grow, we want to listen to them and love them as they are.
This way we overcome fear with positive attitudes towards the world and other people, so that what is really True, that is, the human and divine good within us, also manifests itself outside and there is no fear, no anguish because it is a True Good.
The opposite, the constant opposition to the Other, the feeling of always highlighting the difference and the arrogance of being superior in something we do well or better than others, although it seems true, brings with it a feeling that distances us from the Other and from humanity, It is not peace.
If we look at wars, we will always see this principle, seeing others as inferior and smaller than us, so they are not worthy of living, they “deserve” all the evil that is deep down within us and not in these people, the majority of whom are innocent, even if Within each people or nation there are people who would not be worthy of our good wishes, it is not by eliminating them that we build peace.
True peace among men is born from a serene heart, which understands the infinite, and which longs, even in the distant future, for a better life for all, without injustice and wars.
Substance and the essence of Being
04
Apr
Substance is an essential concept of both
metaphysics and ontology, although modernity wants to characterize it only as that which is material, etymology says sub instance, or from Latin it literally means “what is below”, but it can also be “ derived from”.
Dualism sees everything as opposition and affirmation, a primary substance is one that does not have the opposite disposition, for example, a man, a tree or an animal, its opposite does not exist, but it is not yet what designates Being, since these change, they are born with some original form and later modifying they are the foundation of something “derived”: an accident, a sub-instance of man, tree or some animal.
In the 17th century René Descartes proposed a division between body and mind, dividing substance into two categories: res extenso, which refers to physical matter, and res cogitans which refers to mind or thought, the simplified dualism as body and mind , in this century there were opposing ideas: the “atomist” monism of Leibniz and the natural monism of Spinoza.
In the 18th century, this idea underwent two reforms: Hume’s, who criticized the substance as something essential, being just an idea created by the human mind, to give meaning to experience, and Kant’s idealism, the substance is not a thing in itself, but a category of human understanding.
Still within the limits of Kantianism, there remain two possibilities of conceiving a being or an object, the immanent sense, which remains within the scope of possible experience, but acting only through the senses (concepts or cognitive principles) and the transcendent, which admits an immanent god , which permeates all reality and is not separated from matter.
The transcendent is then what takes the subject (hence it is called subjectivity) to the object (objectivity) allowing the concept or cognitive principle.
The idea of a person, or three people in the Christian case, is one that gives being (does not separate it from the object and experience) its transcendence and thus allows spiritual ascesis.
In the Christian case, I draw attention to the Resurrected Jesus who orders and roasts a fish and eats it, not out of necessity, but out of possibility, so he does not affect the substance although he conceives it.
The passage says (Luke 24, 40-43): “And saying this, Jesus showed them his hands and feet. But they still couldn’t believe it, because they were so happy and surprised. Then Jesus said, “Do you have anything to eat here?” They gave him a piece of roasted fish. He took it and ate it before them”, if he didn’t need it because he ate it, remember the last supper.
Me, the Other and the Hidden Third
03
Apr
The principle of uncertainty that came from
physics, starting with Heisenberg, at the beginning of the last century gradually put Physics in check, putting scientific determinism, logicism also in check due to Gödel’s paradox which determined that an axiological mathematical system or it is complete or consistent, and cannot be both at the same time, but a new scientific and ontological vision was emerging, Transdisciplinary Ontology.
In the week of July 13 to 17, 2008, the 9th. The Metanexus Institute’s annual conference, held in Madrid, Spain, between philosophers, biologists, physicists, cosmologists, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, historians, educators, theologians and community leaders took place with the theme “Subject, self, and Soul: Transdisciplinary approaches to Personhood”, where Barsarab Nicolescu was invited to open the Conference.
In it Nicolescu will develop the idea of the hidden third, philosophy had already spoken of the Other through Lévinas, Ricoeur and the educator Martin Buber, who in the book “I-Thou” recognizes in the other something “divine”, but stops there as the others, stop at the edge of the concept of otherness.
Nicolescu went ahead, writes like Heisenberg a model for overcoming the subject x object dualism, characteristic of modernity: “: “We can never reach an exact and complete portrait of reality (Heisenberger, 1998, p. 258). The incompleteness of the laws of physics is present in Heisenberg, even if he makes no reference to Gödel’s theorems. For him, reality is given as “textures of different types of connections”, as an “infinite abundance”, without any ultimate foundation” (Nicolesceu, 2008)
Citing Heisenberg, Nicolescu states, citing Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer and Cassirer (whom he knew personally), that it is necessary to suppress any rigid distinction between Subject and Object.
The idea of the hidden subject in Nicolescu is beyond the threshold I and the Other, it is in the conception that comes from physics that there is a third state in nature, the Third Included beyond Being and Non-Being, he calls them the Transdisciplinary-Object and Subject-Transdisciplinary, in quantum physics it was already clear that the analysis of an Object phenomenon must be transdisciplinary due to a then unknown state in nature, now also a Transdisciplinary Subject is described by Nicolescu (calls it TD-Subject) which reveals the Hidden Third.
Although the theme talks about the soul and even talks about spirituality, for a good biblical reading it is necessary to understand the unveiling of Jesus after his death (appearance is a limited term) which reveals itself in a surprising and divine way to the disciples, the Hidden Third is Himself.
In the passage of disciples who are walking to Emmaus and a Third walker infiltrates among them, when they see the breaking of bread they will soon remember their “conversation”: “Then one said to the other: “Wasn’t our hearts burning when he spoke to us along the way, and explained the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
Quantum physics, occult third and spirituality
02
Apr
Nicolescu Barsarab, in addition to formulating
the theory of the included third, substantiating through quantum physics that Aristotle’s principle of the excluded third, there is A or non-A being exclusive, however quantum physics had already revealed a third state T, as a combination between the state of “existence” and “non-existence” as a physical state, this Being existing or not as a third state allows us to speak of a Transdisciplinary Ontology.
Succinctly, Nicolescu (2002) developed is that instead of one reality waiting to be discovered using the scientific method, there are multiple levels of Reality (he capitalizes Reality and uses the letter T for transdisciplinarity) organized into two levels.
One level concerns Subjective Reality (TD-Subject), so called because it deals with the internal flow of perspectives and consciousness. Included are individual psychology and philosophy, family, community, society, history and political ideologies. The other level concerns Objective Reality (TD-Object), so called because it deals with the external flow of information, facts, statistics and empirical evidence.
Examples include economics (business and law), technology, science and medicine, ecology and environment, planetary (worldwide and global), and cosmic and universe (Nicolescu, 2002, 2016).
Each level of Reality is different, but “each level is what it is because all levels exist at the same level”, the existence of a single level of reality, the disciplinary closure of knowledge, Edgar Morin also warns about this, creates a new type of obscurantism, of disciplinary closure in areas of knowledge.
Arrábida Transdisciplinarity Charter says in its preamble: “Considering that the contemporary rupture between an increasingly cumulative knowledge and an increasingly impoverished inner being leads to the rise of a new obscurantism, whose consequences, on the individual and social level, are incalculable ”, and says in his third article: “Transdisciplinarity is complementary to the disciplinary approach; it makes new data emerge from the confrontation of the disciplines that articulate them together; offers us a new vision of the nature of reality” (Arrábida, 2014).
The opening to the subject is not just about idealistic subjectivity, it is the opening to Being itself and what Transdisciplinary Ontology proposes is to see it in the complexity that is revealed.
Nicolescu, B. (2002) Manifesto of transdisciplinarity. New York, NY: SUNY Press.
Nicolescu, B. (2016) The Hidden Third [W. Garvin, Trans.]. New York, NY: Quantum Prose, 2016.
Freitas, L., Morin, E., Nicolescu, B. (1994) Portugal, Convento da Arrábida, november, 16, 1994.
Pain and the Palliative Society
29
Mar
By reading several authors, but mainly by
understanding precisely the “pains” of modernity, Byung Chul Han wrote the Paleative Society: pain Today (Han, 2021) in which he decrees: “Pain is now a meaningless evil, which must be combated with painkillers. As a mere bodily affliction, it falls entirely outside the symbolic order.” (HAN, 2021, p. 41).
Among several authors, it is from Paul Valéry in his book and character Monsieur Teste, who embodies the modern and sensitive man who as meaningless and pure “bodily affliction”, “monsieur Teste remains silent in the face of pain. The pain steals his speech” (HAN, 2021, p. 43).
He will place the Christian mystic Teresa D’Ávila in contrast to this character, as a kind of counterfigure, “in her the pain is extremely eloquent. With pain begins the narrative. The Christian narrative verbalizes pain and also transforms the body of the mystic into a stage… it deepens the relationship with God… it produces an intimacy, an intensity.” (p. 44).
Freud also claims, “pain is a symptom that indicates a blockage in a person’s history. The patient, because of his block, is not in a position to move forward in the story” (p. 45).
Being a mere “bodily affliction”, pain became a thing, lost an ontological and in a certain way “eschatological” meaning (because it has a history with a beginning and an end), “meaningless pain is possible only in a bare life emptied of meaning , which no longer narrates.” (p. 46).
Modern man’s denial of the cross is not just contempt for the Other, it is the misunderstanding of its eschatological aspect, pain has entered our lives and will last until we can understand its meaning of “liberation”, of “purging” our evils. that are in our history, that are our sins, war is the misunderstanding of pain, the Other is eliminated as being to blame for our pain, of which each one of us is to blame.
Injustices have their own regulatory means, but marginality, crime, which arise in the midst of poverty, social difficulties are difficulties that deal with pain, there is always a way to remake a story, to start a life over, to eliminate it it’s the opposite.
Injustices have their own regulatory means, but marginality, crime, which arise in the midst of poverty, social difficulties are difficulties that deal with pain, there is always a way to remake a story, to start a life over, to eliminate it it’s the opposite.
The cross is the deepest meaning of what ails man, and from which he can free himself, hide or run away from the problem, which generally leads to greater pain: alcoholism, drugs, prostitution and what is already an evil of modern man: corruption at various levels.
The cross, the pride of Christians and the scandal of Gentiles, is also biblical: “he who wants to follow me, take up his cross and follow me (Mc 8, 34), a metaphor for victory and not defeat.
Han, Byung-Chul. (2021) The palliative Society: Pain Today. Transl. Daniel Steuer. USA: Polity Press.
Infinity, peace and transformation
15
Mar
Ours of infinity, of even the paradox that represents the profound change that
occurs in astronomical phenomena such as black holes, where even quantum physics is questioned, leads us to a new worldview of matter and spirituality.
Edgar Morin speaks of “resistance of the spirit” due to the dramatic moment we are experiencing of civilizational crisis and the threat of escalating wars. Without a truly concrete call for peace, the risk of current conflicts escalating and new ones emerging is immense.
This resistance requires both personal and collective positioning, truly defending and living peace, practicing it in our daily relationships, alongside those who pass through our lives.
Peace depends on people who plant peace, says the biblical reading John 12:24: “truly, truly I say to you, unless the grain of wheat that falls into the earth dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but, if it dies, then it produces much fruit”, so it is necessary that those who truly desire it sow peace, but not in speech, but in everyday attitudes.
It does not mean that we do not desire changes, and that they are not necessary, also in this aspect the grain of wheat must fall into the earth and “die”, but this death seen precisely with what we desire: transformation, not disappearance or terminal death.
Looking at the infinite, the divine and the eternal is going beyond our materiality, our daily and human impulses, setting aside time for reading, contemplation, meditation and recharging our energies, a peaceful attitude depends on this human/divine balance.
Without a true and humanly reciprocated ascesis, we remain in what Peter Sloterdijk calls a “life of exercise”, we do the exercises to do so, but we do not have a human ascension (a true ascesis).
Increasing our inner life, transmitting it in relationships, this is true asceticism.
Change of route and power
25
Jan
Today is the day of the city of São Paulo, and the day
of the apostle Paul is also celebrated by most Christians, not a coincidence as the name of the city was given after the apostle, during the time of Portuguese colonization in Brazil.
His name was Saul of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia where he was born in 5 AD and was a highly educated Jew who fought Christianity as a Christian sect, being one of those responsible for the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
It happened that on the way to Damascus, through a horse falling, a figure used to this day to indicate people who change their mentality and route, he had a mystical revelation and became blind, and in this vision he was instructed to go to meet Ananias, and his view has been restored.
From then on, he is called Paul and from then on he will be responsible for taking the apostolate to the Gentiles, as those who were not Jews were called, since these were the people chosen by God, so Christianity leaves its Jewish limits and arrives even Greeks, Romans and other people who lived in the Roman Empire.
His elaboration of thought will then go beyond the limits of Jewish customs, although with some controversies such as the need for circumcision, he will be the first and important theologian of Christianity, having influenced thinkers such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, important for Christianity, but also for philosophy.
Paul will understand that this is not a fight for human power nor a fight against the domains of temporal power, but rather the fight against the earthly mentality that does not reach values beyond power, wealth and human passions.
Without Paul, Christianity probably would not have left the Jewish domains, nor would it have reached Greece, Rome and the entire Roman Empire and then the entire world, despite the persecution of local powers it expanded in the world of people and took root within cultures.
The civilizing and human route cannot aim only at taking power and submitting to the values of this power, without a solid human base, with timeless values, power is confined to the dimension of weapons and oppression.
Peace, harmony between peoples, respect for cultural diversity cannot be subjected to the power of weapons and oppression, the lack of freedom and the absence of dialogue and respect.
Globalism or Universalism, a new period
05
Jan
The current crisis clearly points to a civilizational
crisis, Eurocentric and Enlightenment visions already showed their exhaustion in previous periods, by thinkers such as Nietzsche and Shopenhauer who sought elements in Western philosophy, but quantum physics and studies on an era called “anthropocene ” such as the transdisciplinary studies of Anna Tsing, founder of AURA (Arhus University Research on the Anthropocene) and one of the editors of the Feral Atlas (feralatlas.org) published by Stanford University Press.
Thus, the theories of globalism and NWO (New World Order) are nothing more than conspiracy theories, although the political forces at play may also have influences from various political organizations that desire new forms of imperialism and population control.
Simply looking at an increasingly complex universe in which old Copernican and Newtonian paradigms, of great influence on Western thought, die, show a much more complex reality, such as string theory pointed out by Michio Kaku as one of the few alternatives to explain the universe as we now see it through megatelescopes.
Even Einstein’s idea of understanding the mind of God is very far from what a theory of Everything and the Whole really means, where it is almost impossible not to think of a Being with an unimaginable intelligence who created everything, a simple energy or chance is simplistic Too many and even theoretical physicists such as Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Michio Kaku have admitted this hypothesis.
However, it is difficult to imagine a mega-intelligent consciousness in the face of such primary reasoning that involves the majority of Christian thinkers, figures such as Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scottus and Boethius, these last two are considered saints by Catholics, seem to be overshadowed by a fundamentalist primarism that ignores the complex universe we live in and which still reveals itself to be incomprehensible within human limits.
For serious religious people, it would be enough to examine the visit of the wise (see youtube) men (people from other beliefs and cultures) who came to worship the newborn in Bethlehem to become aware that God is universal and is not limited to human dictates and customs, but there is a lot of false prophecy.
The limit of a true Christianity should be as Augustine of Hippo said: “the limit of Love is to love without limits”, this should be essential to a true God of Love.
The 3 Wise kings – Documentary Discovery Civilization l Dublado l – YouTube
