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Transcendence
Transcendence
By
Cognitive Dissonance
It’s a simple enough word and one that should be familiar. A quick check of an online dictionary reveals an obvious definition, especially when we consider the root word ‘transcend’. “Exceeding or surpassing in degree or excellence” and “to triumph over the negative or restrictive aspects of; to overcome”. Simple……right?
From the very beginning, well before I selected Cognitive Dissonance to represent my online personality and certainly before Tyler plucked me from the Zero Hedge peanut gallery (aka the comment section) and offered me the opportunity to become a ZH contributor, my one and only desire when I wrote was to add perspective, to offer up what I thought was a bigger picture point of view. That purpose remains just as pronounced today as it ever was. But I feel stronger headwinds than normal buffeting me and the collective anger and loathing is rising, dangerously in my view.
But please don’t be mistaken. Not for one moment do I consider myself the Oracle from Delphi, nor some wise and giving man here to shower you with wisdom and healing. Not in the least. What I’m actually doing is simple and in many ways self serving. I’m faking it until I make it with the hope that if I give away something that I don’t really feel is fully within me, that I may further develop my empathy, compassion and perspective muscles, that I may grow stronger by offering to others what I feel lacking in myself.
This concept, my method, isn’t as counter intuitive as it might seem at first blush. Of course I am quite capable of empathy and perspective. The problem isn’t necessarily a lack of ability, but rather at times a lack of desire. You see……I was, and can still be, a very angry man. A very, very angry man. And it was slowly killing me. It wasn’t an epiphany that compelled me to begin to look within, but rather raw unbridled desperation to find something, anything, that would relieve my inner anguish and pain.
The thing was that at first I didn’t realize how much pain I was in. All I saw was my all consuming anger and indignation, righteous indignation in fact, the worst kind because it ‘allowed’ me to wallow in my own self pity while nursing my hurt ego. How dare those bastards ……… fill in the blank, there are plenty of outrages to choose from. ‘They’ were subverting the American Dream and hurting me and my own in the process. It was horrible and glorious at the same time. No critical thinking needed, just point and shoot both barrels at once. But over time it was eating me alive from the inside, and I didn’t know what to do about it. Or even if I should.
The best analogy I can find of the damage done to myself by my slow burn anger is that it was similar to eating every meal at McDonalds. While our belly is full, it’s never really satisfying and we wind up feeling more and more out of sorts with each subsequent meal, somewhat sick to the stomach and bloated. Over time we grow fat and distorted on all those empty calories while simultaneously wasting away from the lack of quality nutrition. Keep it up long enough and we will degrade both physically and mentally, resulting in a shorter life span and a marked decrease in quality of life on the way to our early grave.
I could go on describing the fallout from my lingering dysfunction (yup, still there, though less so each day) but that’s not the purpose of this article. The point is to explain the measures I continue to embrace to overcome my issues and to warn my loyal readers that I am recognizing the same dysfunction in you. Zero Hedge has always been about letting go, of speaking truth to power and venting frustrations, of finding comfort when huddled with like minded others who share a common goal, to oust the corruption and return to a more fair and equitable social order.
The thing is that the longer the social order remains……well, disorderly……the more intense our inner personal dysfunction can become. But rather than believe that society is coming unglued because of the creeping (rushing is more like it) political and financial corruption, consider that the process is actually reversed, that as we personally come apart at the seams, so does our society which in turn pushes society’s dredges (aka sociopaths) to the top of the heap in the form of thieving bankers, abusive multinational corporations and too-numerous-to-count hanger-on’s, enablers and sycophants.
Regardless of whether you agree with my analysis of the source of the cancerous lesions or not, the purpose of this train of thought is not to be ‘right’, but to (re)gain our mental and emotional health and to make this our number one priority now and forever. Regardless of whether we feel we must ‘do’ something now (anything for God’s sake) or that it’s hopeless and futile (or more likely something in between) if our inner self, our essence, is not centered and at peace, at best we will be ineffective and at worst just a miserable person.
As well there is no going back, no unlearning or forgetting what we know, no return to blissful ignorance. In fact any attempt to go back to before, to forget all we know, will only feed our dysfunction and anger that much more. We cannot be plugged back into the Matrix, at least not without a frontal lobotomy. So let us acknowledge our inner madman and begin the process of self help and healing, then move forward individually and collectively.
02-17-2014
Cognitive Dissonance
Introducing a new portal into the mind of Cognitive Dissonance www.TwoIceFloes.com
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Beautifully said Cog, concur.
EDIT:
Cog I want to add a story I've mentioned in part a few times but this is a good place to put it in some more detail.
I was camping in the bush one night in karst country (sharp cathedral-like limestone erosion formations), a geo with some archaeologists and two biologists when these aboriginals turned-up late one night in a Toyota Landcruiser troop-carrier. About eight or nine of them got out and they had brought with them a nylon string guitar and a didje. That night I heard the most awesome didje I've ever heard. We were in a large open cave mouth and the sound of it went through me like nothing I've ever heard. I had no idea it was going to happen either. I had my back to the player and when it started the effect was beyond description. I stopped moving, what I was doing whatever it was just ended, I was shocked but more interested in this incredibly penetrating sound which was all of a sudden phase-changing through me in the way only a didje can do. It was startlingly loud too. No warm up, just out of the blue this loud buitify sound started. We all froze in place, not another sound or movement, and not out of respect even, nothing contrived like that, it had just made us stop. I think my breathing even stopped, my eyes automatically closed simply due to the ecstatic intense beauty of it.
It didn't go for long, but it was enough, when it stopped we all began to move again, like nothing had even happened, but we didn't say one word about it or even talk. No one said, "gee, wow, that was great, do it again!", nothing like that. We had all apparently felt the same thing, and I didn't even see the didje, I didn't even know they had it until then. And they didn't play it again either, except briefly the last night. It maybe went for 30 seconds, started without warning and ended, then was immediately taken away. I didn't even see it until the last night. It was not for entertainment. It was meant to have an effect, and it did. I'm sure we were all just as shocked, it was beyond beautiful. I had heard lots of gimmicky didjeridu playing by hacks but this was something entirely different, I had no idea it could do that. It could put an orchestra and the greatest composer to shame in seconds. It did something to us all.
I had no doubt they did it for a good reason, apparently this was a sort of "Honey, I'm Home!" to the land, it was like bringing everyone to attention like maybe a bugle call would for an army, just nothing like that. They did it soon after arriving and the timing was perfect.
We had been waiting for them in their land, but we had no idea who we were waiting for, we just knew they had not turned up when we were expecting them. And they had no idea who we were either, only that we would be waiting for them there. But we were instantly at home with each other, from that point on.
Maybe some are reading this and thinking its wishy-washy BS, well that's OK, but this is what happened.
The cave and all the surrounding area was a place that it turned out they knew extremely well. I was surprised that they really knew this place because it was a bit of a maze. It was the aboriginal equivalent of a block of apartments. Lots of caves, ledges, clefts, painting galleries and big chambers with collapsed roofs, with the light streaming in, with an Indiana Jones type movie look to it. Humans had lived here for a very veeerry long time.
Until recently in fact. the Crown State had removed them from there and put them into Christian run aboriginal communities who wanted to tame and convert these savages. Well they are finally free of that, and this was all before land rights were taken seriously in law and land 'title' was finally given from the British Royal "Crown" back to them again. It was and is without any question at all their land. It made me realize that it had been a terrible crime to have taken it off them, and them off the land, then treated them so badly.
I'm so glad I met these guys. They really did deserve the belated apology from the State, but frankly, I think the British Royal Family is the next who has to apologize properly and humbly to them.
Anyway, the archaeologists had showed me around earlier that day their meticulous excavation. It had taken so long to do not very much really as they were so determined to be respectful and make sure that it was done right, that nothing was missed, or not documented and preserved. They were both born in Europe, but had lived in Australia for many years. The 'living floor' deposits were so old. They were digging through layers of ancient bushfire ashes between the dust layers containing animal bones and fresh water crayfish shells and many old fire places. As I remember one of them that was dated was at least 12 thousand years old and there was much more below that, which hadn't been dated yet.
We saw layers of volcanic dust in the floor layers at the opening of the cave. Many people don't know that Australia has many dormant fissures and crater volcanoes, as these just don't erupt very often (never since European history), but when they do they do they typically produce quite epic scale basaltic lava flows and ash layers. I expect this is where the myth of the 'Rainbow Serpent' really came from, watching low viscosity lava flowing down river bed channels.
Aboriginals had been in these caves for a long time and had seen several very large eruptions. There were paintings all around the area in the rock overhangs, and even deep into the caves, in some places. I won't say where this is but the Yarrabah community elders know, it's a long way inland, well away from the coastal plains. An old Elder named "Charlie" was there with us so the community will know who he was and what I'm saying is true and accurate.
That afternoon I had found that many of the upper surfaces of the Karst rocks contained easily visible 400 million year old Rugosa corals. They looked much like this, but better, and in large towers of rock.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--foc1bqFvX8/UUIj9Fr4arI/AAAAAAAABeE/H6J73DHG8J...
So the limestone of the caves had been formed by a ~400 million year old coral reef, since thrust up and welded-in to become a part of the continent and buried, finally uncovered more recently, and then weathered out slowly by the weak acidity of rain eating the limestone to form the caves and towers.
I showed the corals and some other fossils to the guys the next day and told them what they were, showed them the details and told them about how old they were. It was my turn to stun them like they had to me with the didje. You could see their faces, they were glad to have learned something new they'd not known about their country. They had of course seen these patterns in the rock before, but had no idea what they were. I was honored to be able to tell them.
Anyway the didje had set the tone that first night and we got on great after that. They were from a small aboriginal settlement called Yarrabah, near Cairns, and this was their country that we were camping in, all that week. We were in their actual home. They were OK with this though as they trusted us to do the right thing, and we certainly did.
The next night myself only and these guys made a big fire out in an open area. 'Charlie' was never around, he was off somewhere, never saw him until he was actually needed, then he showed up, then went off again). They sang a bit and played the guitar and I was in a band at the time and played a few songs the next night, but that night the guys wanted to know more about the coral, and the reef, and how it got here. They asked if it meant the ocean had been all the way inland, and I tried to explain basic tectonic ideas but they couldn't follow that. Almost no one can understand that for the first few years, and no one can grasp how long 400 million years really is but a geo. Big dark karst towers were all around us that night so I simplified how we knew what it was, and how old it was and that went a lot better. They had many questions but they listened to the answers. I eventually told them at some length how isotopic dating methods worked, and they actually listened without interrupting of getting distracted all the way to the end. They seemed to understand it a bit and I really did knew the detail well back then.
So the older ones then they told me how their society had operated before Europeans showed up. Many stories about of how they had lived and the laws they had. One of the more significant examples was the following. They pointed out that they had seasons for eating every type of food. They never ate a food outside of its allowed time and if anyone was caught eating it secretly, say a fish, they would be brought before the elders and a spear thrown at them by one of the hunters. It was probably fatal most of the time.
The reason was simple, the food was rarely abundant enough, and misuse, waste or overindulgence was out of the question. If there was not enough for everyone, all could starve to death.
So greed was a deadly sin - a real one, not a salacious mythical one, the punishment was the same as for a murder.
Deadly sins do exist. They are real. They are the result of doing the things that will destroy everyone.
Greed and overindulgence limit the nutrition and life of others. It's unacceptable and when a thing is unacceptable, it's not like our version of 'unacceptable'.
I had always basically known this, in part, but the way they said it to me, was so personal, so direct, they wanted me to understand what they were saying. It was perfectly clear. There were no police but there was law and punishment. Pretty good deterrent too. But the point is:
Self-control was what kept you and everyone else alive. Selfish behavior was destructive, you could not survive it.
I recounted this here because when we look around the world today the deadly sins are not only occasionally occurring, they are in fact widespread, they actually form the very underpinning's of the cultural milieu that we also inhabit. They are the very sinew of all prime-time 'entertainment'. We are in some way doing all of it.
It is impossible to respond sanely and rationally nor maintain full mental health is such a destructive system of greed and multifaceted abuse of the core things that should matter to us. When unacceptable is acceptable we're in for real trouble, even if we don't recognize why.
It is important for us to not unrealistically expect good or solutions to emerge from this.
But we must remain sane in it, and understand why we struggle with it, like the lack of any 'spearing' of the 'deadly sinners', and how we'll never manage to self-regulate anything in this way.
Never.
This will end.
There is no surviving this, we will starve out, that's the lesson they were telling me. What happened in there country when people broke the food laws and used more than they should, and used deception to cheat others out of what they need to live, everyone starts to wither and die.
This story doesn't change anything, but it helps me to remain in touch with this, and come to terms with how wayward humanity is, and how distasteful it is to see this within my own country, and how we have spread this incredible degeneracy everywhere.
We cherish and celebrate the very thing that do the most damage. We protect and allow rights, honor, deference and status to the deadliest of sinners and then we be-grudge and detest the impoverished, for not having enough, or being able to get what they need.
UNACCEPTABLE.
We are thus also breaking this deeper law, and thus made subject to it, via not only doing nothing, but being such weak cowards as to celebrate it, as the culture of a proud and great country and heritage.
I'm not going to get all morose and condemning here as it's just the case that this is what we have been deluded enough, to do.
And the greatest sin of all is, we, and they, can not even see it, we don't even realize there are real rules, and that this is what's actually going on.
'Sin' always stems from selfishly harming others. It's not even an especially religious concept, it's just been turned into that.
This is what's driving us to mad reactions and extreme ideals. I don't expect a happy outcome, or for sanity to linger within this state of affairs. But I'm better adjusted because I can at least understand that now. I can see what we're doing wrong and refusing culturally, to EVER do right.
I'm so glad I met those guys, I'll never forget it. They invited me to come to Yarrabah at any time that I wanted, said I'd always be welcome, but I've never done so. I'd love to hear what an old 'Charlie' makes of what we're doing in the world though. He will be gone now, but some of the guys I spoke to may become the new Elders one day, I sure hope so, because they had it straight. They intend to survive again on that land, and they're keeping the knowledge and law ready, as it will may save them when the time comes, and it will come, and I wish them luck. For if any humans can survive this insanity that we're a part of it will be them.
Anyway Cog, all the best to you and Mrs Cog, and to your new life adventure on the 'mountain', I wish you all the best of luck.
http://www.indiginet.com.au/yarrabah/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarrabah,_Queensland
@Element - That was an awesome story. I got goose bumps reading it.
Perhaps part of the "grand" purpose that you met these guys and had such a revealing and cool experience is so you could share the wisdom you gained from it. Thanks so much for taking the time.
Hi Mrs C, My pleasure, kind of you to say. You should now have the submission. :D
Got it. Thank you! Wonderful of you to let us help share this with others.
We'll be in touch soon. :-)
What a wonderful story. Beautiful. Bravo!
I have created a corner of our new website called "Your Turn" where I invite members and non members to submit their stories to us for posting on our website. Would you be interested in being our first contributor and submit possibly an expanded version of this story?
Here is the link to the page. Take a look and let me know.
Thanks Cog, That's very kind, I'd be pleased and honored to do that.
Don't know if I'll expand on it much but will go over it.
Feel free to clean up any gremlins after I post it, as I'll be away for a while again soon.
Cheers
Element,
You don't actually post it on the website. You submit it for publication by first contacting me via the contact form on that web page. I needed some way to filter submissions. I explain the process on that page link I gave you above.
You are welcome to send it directly to me at zhcognitivedissonance at gmail dot com, but I suggest you spend a moment and visit the page. Thanks. Great story.
Ah yes cog, I read that page linked and submitted as directed. :)
"Your message was sent successfully. Thanks."
CD, I think I differ a little from your view on anger. Anger is only destructive when it is imbalanced, irrational, bordering on hostility. I lived in anger most of my life, rarely being able to feel other emotions except superficially. However, when focused properly, it can point you to revelation. Instead of trying to not be angry at my boss for piling on tasks for me to do, I would explore it. What is truly under this anger? Many times I found the anger truly was misplaced and there were deep issues I needed to wrestle and my boss really had nothing to do with it, she was just a trigger.
The trick is being mindful and present during your day. Ten times a day I would ask myself how was I feeling. At first, 99% of the time I would get the answer " I don't have a damn clue". Then I'd have glimmers of small amounts of anger over little things all day. I started dealing with this as it happened, not allowing it to build up to an irrational fevered pitch. I started to notice people weren't walking on egg shells around me anymore. When you are consumed with anger you don't realize how hard it is for those around you.
People tend to run from their feelings. Because feelings never stop and will be provoked at every turn, you always have your jogging shoes on. Real change happens when you stop running ( or numbing out with various things like drugs, tv, shopping, food) and face your demons. This is an extremely difficult path as I can attest.
Miffed;-)
Miffed, the thing we are most lacking is grace. Anger, in and of itself, is no more, or less evil than envy, or sloth. We're each guilty of all, in varying degree. The thing we deny is that which is most lacking- grace.
Anger, coupled with grace, can accomplish great things. Alone, anger is quite destructive.
I spoke too broadly about anger. I was talking about the corrosive unbridled self destructive anger.
Anger, like any and all emotions, can either be used as tools of destruction or paths to growth.
Hey CD good stuff man. I'll be sure to check out your new site.
"As well there is no going back, no unlearning or forgetting what we know, no return to blissful ignorance."
Yeah, I think we all think about that from time to time. Who are really the happier among us, the blissfully ignorant or the ones who know things they wished they had never learned?
Personally, I think we're all better off to know...but at the sametime...wish we didn't.
As someone who once was " blissfully ignorant" I will say personally it was worse in the sense of a nagging nebulous feeling " things just aren't right" and no amount of numbing out could make that go completely away. Almost walking in a fog and hoping you don't bump into something.
There is wonderful clarity being awake and aware though the stress increases because knowledge demands action. Perhaps if one is very lazy there is no point to leave the land of the blissfully ignorant.
Miffed;-)
I did a whole write up on my bellyache and what Cog touched on...(it was longer than his...lol)...the hatred, it was too personal, so I wiped it out and you now see only what I left behind to see, someone might recognize me for it and I value my anonymity.
But I can tell you this, it will eat you from the inside out if you let it. Been there, done that.
He's right.
I'm not going to be forced to hate those I live with, my hatred is focused squarely on the ones who try and force me to hate my brothers & sisters. We can all recognize the enemy within, if we just focus.
It is the same one as it ever was.
"There is wonderful clarity being awake and aware though the stress increases because knowledge demands action."
I felt, and still feel, this way. Unfortunately I made several mistakes early on when taking 'action'. Luckily I survived my mistakes and learned from them.
"Perhaps if one is very lazy there is no point to leave the land of the blissfully ignorant."
What an interesting point of view. Sounds like an article in there somewhere. :)
A plea? What are you afraid of?
Thank you
Link posted on ZH by Radical Marijuana recently:
Climbing the Ladder of Awareness
If you have a couple of hours to spare, you may like this film:
Unveiled and Lifted - YouTube
(1.49.20)
@ Aquarius - what a great blog, and you have the "No one is smarter than you are" video on it - brilliant
Using sound to increase positivity - try it and see:
98.7% Proven Meditation Technique: Open Your Third Eye in 15 Minutes (Requiem) - YouTube
A continued process and promotion of thought. Good to see.
Cheers,
Pens,
I don't tend to trust much of those who claim to be "off the matrix". Most of the times, they're still plugged.
Who is claiming to be "off the matrix"? Certainly not I nor Mrs. Cog. We are withdrawing to some extent, but there is simply no way one can completely withdraw. We know this and aren't even attempting to do so nor to claim so.
We are withdrawing. It is a process that is never complete because it can't be completed and still have.......say the Internet and utility power and banking and grocery stores and manufactured clothes etc.
In fact that is the point of our new website TwoIceFloes. We are attempting to find a sane way to live in both worlds, on two ice floes, only with much less dependency upon the insanity.
@CD
You are differentiating normally; a process entitled the "awful Grace of God".
And, you will find much profit in reading the works by Fabre d'Olivet (an incredibly amazing Author in the time of Napoleon; his enemy):
Start with "the Intellectual and Metaphysical Constitution of Man" (actually, an Introduction to a much larger work),
and then "The Golden verses of Pythagoras". From here you will find that you are dynamically within a natural but rare process of Life,
as fully outlined and detailed in the Sepher of Beraeseth, by the same Author, and more popularly known as the first 10 Books of Genesis.
I will repeat for emphasis, in this work you will find precisely the processes that rage within in. If you need more explanation please contact me via my Blog, http://verbewarp.blogspot.com/2005/08/mares-that-carry-me-as-far-as-long... which constitutes my shorthand notes of my personal trip.
You will also find in this Journey of the Hero, as so beautifully defined by the late Joseph Campbell, RIP, that there were others who have gone before you and that you are not alone. Whatever truth that you find, is yours, upon your consideration, through your meditation, of your findings, and yours alone. And you will be in the company of Sir Francis Bacon, Victor Hugo, et al.
The ancient mysteries are alive and well and are no more than unknown "Principles".
Ho hum
Thank you for your reading suggestions. I shall sample when I have make time. :)
Dear CD and Mrs Cog,
You are people who made ZH what it is (was)
Please keep posting. If you ever plan to go to europe, you will be my guest.
Happy to see Mrs. Cog is with you, it is not easy for them to understand us.
Mrs. Cog is truly one in a million. Before I met her (here in the ZH threads by the way) I had all but given up hope that I would find someone whom I would not have to battle with to get her to see the all consuming nature of the system. Then Mrs Cog walked into my life and is showing me a thing or three. :)
I feel very the same, although I am from completely different part of world - central eastern europe... Now 42y.
I used to live 22 years in real socialism and so called " totality"
I have to say, it was not so bad after all... Strange. People took care after each other.
I find music and good classical literature very helpfull to keep up and healthy mentally. We are obliged to keep our fight, because of others.
l hope you find the music helpfull... I can send you an original CD. It is based on old (100 yr) village song.
http://m.youtube.com/?gl=CZ&hl=cs#/watch?v=TW4XWLUGsy4
Thank you CD for being here. True ZHs are really brothers.
Cognitive dissonance is setting up a web site to profit from the distress caused by the collapse of biological over-shoot and then claiming the fee is to ensure everyone that participates cares about the community.
But don't worry, you are in good company, Nicole Foss is selling permaculture in Belize.
+1 for the stoneleigh belize permacourse dig, only cuz she preaches that the #1 thing to do to survive the "oncoming collapse" is to cut one's personal energy consumption down 90%. (if she organized a sailboat going down there, i'd consider it tho, just cuz the guy she's teaching with knows his shit and doesn't write much.)
at least Geoff Lawton is doing his course online so you can take it in your jimmies next to the wood stove.
LOL
If my intention was to profit from the collapse I would have charged a hell of a lot more than $50 a year. There will still be plenty of free stuff for you to munch on though, so don't forget to drop by and say Hi.
Bon Appetit! :)
"The point is to explain the measures I continue to embrace to overcome my issues and to warn my loyal readers that I am recognizing the same dysfunction in you." Stop peeking, besides my dysfunction is different. I'm bi-dysfunctional.
"Stop peeking, besides my dysfunction is different. I'm bi-dysfunctional."
Too funny.
I always try to remind myself of that silly saying "When you point a finger at someone four fingers are pointing back at you." I try to always include myself when I point my finger. That's why I almost always say me, we or us instead of you. Other times I just can't avoid using the 'you'.
I win no converts by pointing out the problems of others. I have plenty enough to share mine with everyone else. Attraction through example, rather than by accusation.
Matthew 7: 1“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
One of the lessons I take from this is that judgement is not absolutely forbidden but must be under authority, ie used for reconciliation not condemnation. If I am going to call a spade a spade in your life, I first have to recognize it as one in my own. The problem is that we need a transcendent ethic which identifies those spades as objective and true. That ethic is found in a person who came down that we might be taken up, anti-transcendent. The title of your article leaves me wanting for the answer and the closest you get to one is "So let us acknowledge our inner madman and begin the process of self help and healing, then move forward individually and collectively." There is no escape velocity we're still in the land of broken toys. Here is the solution to the anger we all feel 2 Corinthians 5:
16From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.b The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
If I am going to call a spade a spade in your life, I first have to recognize it as one in my own.
Re-read the parable, esp. v. 5. Once you recognize the "log" in your own eye, you will see clear to help your brother remove the one in his. So self-examination brings you not to a place where you are free to condemn your brother, but rather to help him. That is the most important lesson in the parable.
Discovery of the truth brings with it a desire to lead others to it, not berate them in their wandering.
Re-read my post.
One of the lessons I take from this is that judgement is not absolutely forbidden but must be under authority, ie used for reconciliation not condemnation.
My point is that we tend to be harder on others than we are on ourselves in response to Cog and was not suggesting we berate anyone, your inference was unwarranted.
I have understood Matthew 7 as to not be too concerned with the flaws of others but to concentrate upon removing my own flaws.
I have no authority to condemn as through doing so I cast judgment upon myself.
The only authority which I was given is that to forgive.
But I continually fail.
Perhaps it is my understanding which is lacking and deficient. So I will continue to work on removing the beam from my eye because it still remains.
It wasn't an inference. It is what you said. For shame that the beauty of the parable might be lost over such a thing...
A parable may teach multiple lessons, I agree with your your point " ....brother, but rather to help him. That is the most important lesson in the parable. " I was making a separate point. It then is a question of how we help. "" So self-examination brings you not to a place where you are free to condemn" I am talking about objective behavior another wrong inference. The law convicts us of sin the Gospel lifts the burden of guilt it's a continuous process. We can't ignore sin in ourselves or others. Love for God is expressed in holiness and holiness is an expression of love, there is a tension there because we ARE sinners by nature.
Luke 17 3Pay attention to yourselves! (as a body) If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
I welcome your able elucidation of the parable to cover my shame (without inference). But I must think that you missed the meat of my response to Cog and the transition back to his thesis of transcendence I was attempting to make. Mayhem, I think you major on the minors and provide more heat than light.
Mayhem, I think you major on the minors and provide more heat than light.
I try to be a steward of the Word as I understand it. So I am not bashful to zero in on it - even out of the "core" context in which it is used - to try to safeguard its message, which is so easily twisted, especially here among so many unbelievers. So I don't care a whole lot about the "meat" of your response to Cog - it is of lesser consequence in my view.
The parable you quoted is one of many, many Scripture passages that get taken out of context, fueling the accuser's agenda.
Although you proport to be a big picture thinker, I believe you have missed the point.
I have commented many times that the folks who frequent ZH are but a subset, and beneficiary, of the larger central banking scheme which they frequently rail against. FX/currency speculators, day traders, commodity speculators win some and lose some, but generally speaking they add no economic value to the equation. Yet the complain bitterly about the "visible" scum a step or two above them. ZH's own, BANZAI7, attempts to earn his daily bread by flogging the masses with "inflammatory" rhetoric ad nauseum...which, more often than not, misses the real point. It is common knowledge that those truly in control seldom show their faces.
In my local area, the remaining manufacturing base (70%+ anyway) are manufacturing products for the MILITARY. These god-fearing folk are typically self-identified as REPUBLICANS and frequently speak out against welfare recipients, illegal immegrants and others of their ilk. They object to what they see as government largesse but do not make the connection that they nurse off of the same teat.
The issue, it seems to me, is what truly defines the character of man. Are we noble creatures striving for enlightenment and the greater good, or ape-like simians operating within the paper thin veneer of civility? You appear to believe the former and I suggest the latter.
Once we fully embrace our true nature, we can better understand our behavior and can modify our expectations accordingly. It is easy to have lofty ideals when thigs are comfortable and bellies are full. I believe we are on the cusp of a full blown demonstration of the reality when the opposite is true.
In the meantime, hang on to your illusions...I believe they are in for a rocky ride.
@Shibumi2
Forget the labels. Republicans, immegrants (sic), etc. At our core, we are all persons; we are all tormented; and the truth is the only sustainable basis of overcoming that torment.
Your "true nature", like everyone else's, is one of deceit and lies. The sooner you fully embrace that reality, the sooner you will seek the truth.
@Shibumy2
"The issue, it seems to me, is what truly defines the character of man. Are we noble creatures striving for enlightenment and the greater good, or ape-like simians operating within the paper thin veneer of civility? You appear to believe the former and I suggest the latter."
if we take your thought a step further, perhaps, you should not put everyone in the same box. God made people different, however, it is important who rules the society, it kind of creates an image of its own at least as long as it rules. These periods btw last for many many centuries. We do not have to many forms as you said either noble creatures or ape-like similians.
the blessing (as well as the curse) of the neocortex is that it allows us noble apes to see both the prison and the paradise and, even better/worse yet, allows us to choose which costumes to wear passing through...
Cog's skin seems thick, his mind seems open. This is quite the rare combination.
Up until about 1990, I was one of 'those' people you describe. I worked for one of 'the bigs' in defense and aero. Got numerous awards, and made my way into middle management. Then, one day, my higher-ups decided they didn't need me anymore.
For the longest time, I was bitter. How could these assholes not appreciate all I'd done for them?
I don't to this day know exactly what I did, or said, but I am thankful to have been spat from the belly of the beast.
It is not an honor to be accepted by the inmates of the Insane Asylum. Though they will certainly tell you that it is.
<On the other hand we all live in the Insane Asylum as both guards and inmates.> :)
Certainly. It is my desire to be neither guard nor inmate. I have been both. Am I wrong?
"both guards and inmates"
That's the part that always amazes me. That each of us individually (and all of us collectively) is the prisoner, the prison, the prison guard, the warden and the crude justice system that incarcerates us. As long as we are willing to carry all that on our backs and do their dirty work, we'll never be free.
" I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER".
Julius Henry Marx
1) What's a 'thig'?
2) Apes are an advanced evolutionary species. To compare them to human beans is an insult to Apery.
3) Dead on about the nature of most of us. There are no doubt some few---Cog Dis and Ms. Dis may well be on a higher plane----but the other 7,999,999,999 of us are little more than Venus Fly trap stomachs with a veneer of---in some cases----very very attractive accoutrements like arms, legs, breasts, and such to make us appear benign. Nobility is somewhere in Masloff's last attainment of what motivates us, after the first four, and most have never received the genetic gift of Intelligence, energy, and ambition to strive beyond the first two. That is not their fault, but lousy breeding habits of their ancestors, which they have perpetuated.
4) You can not put all government supported recipients under one tent. There is a vast difference in doing something for the money you get and not doing something. Unfortunately, the republicans (and democrats---try closing an air base in Allegheny County, a left wing unionized stronghold owned by a cozy democratic party machine that rivals Tammany Hall) have seen that they too can create the appearance of doing something for their pelf while ripping off the people, but the welfare recipient makes no such pretense, so is to my mind more honest in his thievery.
5) It's "purport" nor Proport. (Deputized member of the Word police)
Write yourpelf a ticket, officer. I liked the comment but that purvoked <sarc> a chuckle.