{"id":11551,"date":"2020-01-23T23:22:09","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T04:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=11551"},"modified":"2022-01-23T00:27:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T05:27:05","slug":"god-and-lifes-participation-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=11551","title":{"rendered":"God and Life\u2019s Participation Trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conversations about matters other than religion or art are always trivial and vain. ~ Joris-Karl Huysmans<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Life\u2019s Participation Trophy<\/h2>\n

Aaron Rodgers<\/strong>, who is a major star in American football, was raised in an evangelical family. Lately, he has caused some consternation through his public admission that he cannot believe in a God who would send people to everlasting hell. Of course, no one should consult an athlete on theological issues. So a theologian like David Bentley Hart came to a different conclusion: he believes in God but not in hell, if that sounds better to you.<\/p>\n

It solves the problem of hell, but brings in a more subtle issue. If heaven is everyone\u2019s ultimate destination, doesn\u2019t that trivialize life? In American youth sports, saturated with egalitarianism, in lieu of giving out trophies to the best teams, every player gets a \u201cparticipation trophy\u201d. That seems to be the mindset of Rodgers and Hart<\/a>. They can only believe in a God who gives out participation trophies for having lived.<\/p>\n

Sudden Conversion<\/h2>\n

Someone recently asked me if I had a conversion or a deeper understanding of life after my recent surgery. As though I\u2019m going to appear on a TV show with tales of discovering God or finally understanding the meaning of life. No, I don\u2019t trust anyone who has such a conversion, although, I suppose, one conversion would be acceptable.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve lived the life I want; I have no bucket list. I\u2019ve gone on my adventures when I was young. I\u2019ve met a lot of people, some rich and powerful, so I understand how they think and act. Not at all like you. Also many on different spiritual paths. In my work, I\u2019ve learned about many commercial sectors: telecommunications, electronics, finance, manufacturing, banking, and so on.<\/p>\n

Most readers here are young. Do what you want now, don\u2019t put it off.<\/p>\n

True Esoterism<\/h2>\n

Before you decide to embark on an esoteric way, consider seriously Boris Mouravieff<\/strong>\u2019s warning;<\/p>\n

The more man progresses on the Way, the more his feeling of being a stranger is intensified. Soon he will become boring: later still he will become unbearable, and finally, odious. That is why ‘the prophet is despised in his country, among his close relations and in his own house.’ That indication is precise and leaves no room for doubt. He who wants to start esoteric studies is invited to think it over twice, and weigh it all, before he rushes to cross the moat-threshold. We repeat that it will not be possible for him to return to exterior life and to find his place, his pleasures and his satisfaction there as in the past.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other hand, there are benefits and you will make new connections:<\/p>\n

However, as well as the difficulties which are the first results of his evolution, such a man will receive comforting impressions, especially in his human relations. He will be surprised to perceive one day that certain faces which only yesterday appeared to him ordinary, today shine in his eyes with a bright beauty. It is because his sight, sharpened by esoteric work, has acquired the faculty of penetrating beyond the external crust. It is amongst these brighter beings that he will find his new friends. Their society will welcome him as one of their own. He will be understood among them, and their community of common aims and interests will be a stimulus and a help for all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read this short poem The Threshold by Turgenev<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Toxic Esoterism<\/h2>\n

There are dangers in pursuing esoterism, especially without a guide. Valentin Tomberg warns against specific dangers, some of which are described below. The first danger of misunderstanding is relying solely on intellectual arguments without the mystical experience to validate it. The second danger is to desire wonderful experiences. The third is to confuse one\u2019s own stream of consciousness with higher knowledge. The fourth is to presume to have reached the highest possible state of being.<\/p>\n

Misunderstanding<\/strong>: There is no authentic and sincere religious life without faith, hope and love; but there is no faith, hope and love without mystical experience or, what is the same thing, without grace. No intellectual argument can awaken faith; what it can do, at best, is to eliminate obstacles, misunderstandings and prejudices, and thus help to establish the state of interior silence necessary for the experience of the divine breath. But faith itself is the divine breath whose origin is found neither in logical reasoning, nor in aesthetic impression, nor in human moral action.<\/p>\n

Spiritual drunkard<\/strong>: Passing on to mysticism which has not given birth to gnosis, magic and Hermetic philosophy \u2014such a mysticism must, sooner or later, necessarily degenerate into spiritual enjoyment” or “intoxication”. The mystic who wants only the experience of mystical states without understanding them, without drawing practical conclusions from them for life, and without wanting to be useful to others, who forgets everyone and everything in order to enjoy the mystical experience, can be compared to a spiritual drunkard.<\/p>\n

Charlatanism<\/strong>: This is why anyone who confuses lack of concentration with concentration without effort, and streams of simple mental associations with the vision without effort of correspondences by analogy, will necessarily become a charlatan.<\/p>\n

Megalomania<\/strong>: It is not thought as such which allows the desire for personal greatness or the tendency towards megalomania, but rather the will which makes use of the head and which can take hold of thought and reduce it to the role of its instrument. Mystical megalomania, where one deifies the regulating centre of one’s own being, one’s ego, and where one sees the divine only within oneself and becomes blind to the divine above and outside of oneself. The “higher Self is then experienced as the supreme and unique Self of t h e world, although it is only higher in relation to the ordinary, empirical self, and it is fat from the supreme and unique being… far from being God.<\/p>\n

Esoteric Writing<\/h2>\n

There are a few different understandings of what esoteric writing means.<\/p>\n

Theosophical<\/strong>: New Age systems based on Theosophy assume that esoteric writing is the \u201creal\u201d teaching, so that the exoteric teaching can be ignored. The effect of this, in practice, is that the esoteric teaching just becomes a new dogma, replacing the exoteric dogma. That is the error of misunderstangind.<\/p>\n

Leo Strauss<\/strong>: Strauss made the idea of esoteric writing acceptable in some academic circles. He understands it in a political sense. His premise is that philosophers faced dangers if they wrote too plainly about their views. Hence, they disguised their real intentions by writing in various ways (we can\u2019t go into those ways right now.) For example, Thomas Aquinas did not explicitly deny any exoteric teachings, but he wrote esoterically. His real views, seemingly quite different from those of simple believers, are in his philosophy.<\/p>\n

Strauss subjected the writings of several philosophers to his theories. There are some Straussian tricks even on Gornahoor, such as obscure allusions. They will probably die with me.<\/p>\n

Rene Guenon<\/strong>: Guenon claimed that the exoteric teachings include rites, rituals, dogmas, and moral teaching. However, a valid exoteric teaching must be fertilised with a living esoteric tradition. Unlike the multiplicity of exoteric teachings, there is but one esoteric teaching common to them all. Nevertheless, the esoteric teaching does not exist in a vacuum so that the esoterist must also follow the exoteric teaching.<\/p>\n

Valentin Tomberg<\/strong>: Tomberg regarded the esoteric teaching as a deeper understanding of the exoteric teaching. Hence, he does not reject the exoteric teaching, but expresses them in deeper, more subtle, ways.<\/p>\n

Negative Critiques<\/h2>\n

There is no end of the gnashing of teeth and the wringing of hands. There is criticism of everything, if you are impressed by such things. Few of those professional criticisers, however, are able to provide a convincing positive alternative.<\/p>\n

Atheism<\/h2>\n

Atheism is not a defensible intellectual position, rather it is a moral flaw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The more man progresses on the Way, the more his feeling of being a stranger is intensified. Soon he will become boring: later still he will become unbearable, and finally, odious. That is why \u2018the prophet is despised in his country, among his close relations and in his own house.\u2019 Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11551"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15631,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11551\/revisions\/15631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}