[Dialogue] Secret

[James Wiegel]

Well, I have been recalling, I think it was Paul Tillich's History of Christian Thought, that was studied years ago, and I recall that, in the christian tradition, there had been difficulty actually defining what this was all about in a positive sense, but that through history, the community had declared stuff that was not in accord with the way life is.  One of those was gnosticism in the sense that if you came at life from the perspective that there was some hidden secret knowledge you could get access to and , if you did, your life would be on the right track from then on, and anyone who did not get hold of that secret knowledge was lost.  I remember those little pictures which were drawn at the beginning of some course session that were trying to contrast different understandings about life -- classically heresies -- in a practical sense.
   
  re:  Ken Wilber and mysticism:  this from long ago, also Sociable God, 2 points I recall -- there was a page in the book that had a chart of his levels of consciousness and he made the point that the ultimate level was like the paper that the page was written on -- I liked that.
   
  Another thing I recall was the statement (on levels of consciousness) that higher is better than lower -- making decisions using my head alone is better than making decisions using my gonads alone -- but he also said all is better than higher -- making decisions using my head and my gonads and my better self and my mythological consciousness and, and, is better than doing it with my head (or mystical sense) by itself.  I liked that.

Karl Hess <khess at apk.net> wrote:
  Marshall - HERESY!!! As though there were some truth to deviate 
from. Haven't heard this word on Dialogue for a very long time.

Karl

>It would be interesting to see this and take it apart. To me it 
>sounds like the latest version of the Gnostic heresy, which would be 
>very attractive if you're looking for a secret escape hatch from the 
>way life is.
>Marshall


_______________________________________________
Dialogue mailing list
Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net



401 North Beverly Way   
Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401
+1  623-936-8671
+1  623-363-3277
   jfwiegel at yahoo.com

Now and then it's good to pause in the pursuit of happiness and just be happy.  Guillaume Apollinaire
       
---------------------------------
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
 Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20070414/0a94d80c/attachment.html