[Dialogue] I like the way he said that

[Jim Rippey]

Bravo Karen, 

 

This is exactly what I believe.  Years ago, J.B. Rhine of Duke University, a
prominent investigator of psychic phenomena including telepathy, captured my
attention.  And either he or some like-minded thinker posited the idea of a
Master Stream of Consciousness which certain gifted individuals were able to
tap into, at least in a limited way, some of them we call prophets.

 

And in college, I learned about Edgar Sheffield Brightman's concept of a
"finite God," powerful, benevolent but limited by the Given in his nature or
in the universe.  So, in spite of the imperfections evolution has visited
upon us, our job is to be the hands and voice of God in striving toward a
better world.  William James also had a poignant treatise on this general
idea:  Would you prefer to be in a universe where everything is unfolding
according to a master plan, or would you like to be in a universe where you
were challenged to help eliminate its imperfections.

 

If anyone knows where to find that James quote, I would love to read it
again.  It was a chapter in one of my college books back in the 1940s.  

 

So Thanks, Karen.  

 

  _____  

From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of KarenBueno at aol.com
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 6:26 PM
To: OE at wedgeblade.net; dialogue at wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Dialogue] I like the way he said that

 

This book, written in 2000, was Oprah's book of the month.

 

The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier  P. 196ff.

 

I believe that there's a very organic, immeasurable consciousness of which
we're a part.  I believe that this consciousness is a force so powerful that
I'm incapable of comprehending its power through the puny instrument of my
human mind.  And yet I believe that this consciousness is so unimaginably
calibrated in its sensitivity that not one leaf falls in the deepest of
forests on the darkest of nights unnoticed.

 

No, give the immensity of this immeasurable power that I'm talking about,
and given its pervasiveness through the universe (extending from distant
galaxies to the tip of my nose), I choose not to engage in what I consider
to be the useless effort of giving it a name, and by naming it, suggesting
that I in any way understand it, though I'm enriched by the language and
imagery of both traditional Christianity and old island culture.  Many of my
fellow human beings do give it a name, and do purport to understand it in a
more precise way than I would ever attempt.  I just give it respect, and I
think of it as living in me as well as everywhere else.

 

The grand consciousness I perceive allows me great breadth and scope of
choices, none of which are correct or incorrect except on the basis of my
own perception.  This means that the responsibility for me rests with me.

 

I have obligations to be in service to this me, to shape it, to encourage
its growth, to nurture it toward becoming a better and better me day by day,
to be conversant with all its good qualities, such as they are, and to be
aware of all its bad qualities, such as they are.  When the living space
between the two sets of qualities becomes so uncomfortable that choices have
to be made, I try to come down on the side of what I feel is right.

 

I'll say that I believe in God, if you press me to the wall, but then I'm
going to come right back at you and give you the above definition of God.
You follow?  And that's the only definition of God that I'll defend, because
I don't think it's possible for me to embrace any other.

*****

Copied without permission by Karen Bueno





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