[Oe List ...] Salmon: MORE RESPONSES TO Requiem for Republicans

William Salmon wsalmon at cox.net
Wed Sep 17 22:33:51 EDT 2008 

Karen!
    The Way Life Is (TWLI) is No Mystery; it is just the way life is! It is REALITY. The mistake is to believe our situation is our problem; it is not. Our problem is the relationship we take to our problem. The problem is to believe this "Reality" is what defines us. No, what defines us is the REALLY REAL.of our intended creation to live the humane and gracious life working for justice and mercy.
    Do you remember the Pre-School Song:
    Oh, I don't like my situation. Oh, I don't like my situation. But that's not my problem, my problem is relating to the self that doesn't like my situation. 
    Oh, I don't like to eat my spinage. Oh, I don't like to eat my spinage. But, that's not my problem, my problem is relating to the self that doesn't like to eat my spinage. 
    One of the persistent problems with the God lecture is that we never read on into the next section. In our study, Bultmann's first point is that to live in Wish Dreams is to live a lie. We don't find The REALLY REAL in wish dreams about a kind of reality into which we can escape TWLI..  
    In other places, Tillich gives us better handles. He reminds us that God is the Ground of our Being. The Cow is TO BE a cow. The Tree is to BE a tree. The Rock is TO BE a rock. The Human is TO BE HUMANE because we are grounded in living the awakened life.
    Our old Christian Faith language is that we are defined not by our human reality, but rather we are defined by GOD who is experienced as the Really Real.  
       Applying Tillich's principles, we usually miss the mark of living the humane and gracious life working for justice and mercy. This is the antithesis of what it means to be grounded in God; i.e., to be grounded in our acceptance. Rather, we choose to be grounded in the ego, the self, and end up in the practice of narcissism and greed which is the antithesis of our intended creation. We are to live in At-One-Ment with all things. (The doctrine of the Atonement.) 
       To live in At-One--Ment is what the Niebuhr paper is all about. His paper defines the ethics of living transparently in the Divine Commandment, and working for Justice and Mercy where we "see the transgression of the Divine Commandment. We do this by providing an act of "social repenentance" on behalf for all human kind against the day when all human kind can choose to live in At-One-Ment with everyone else, and with all of creation. When this day comes-- and it always is imminent, forthcoming-- then this is what our Old Christian Faith Language identifies as the Day of the Lord, the fulfillment of the Jewish Messiah and the return of the Greek Anointed One. 
    One of the characterizations of TWLI is pain. It is true that we are victimized by pain. The human problem is that we come to believe that pain is what defines us: We are Pain, and therefore I am a victim of my circumstances. Not true! We are humans living in pain. The pain is not my enemy, rather we can choose to make it a mechanism that reminds us that we have the Freedom to use the pain to our benefit.
    Does this make the pain go away. No way, Jose! But when we do not allow the pain to define our intended creation then we are set free to be the Great Painful Ones we are created to be. Born one-legged? Be an old one-legged grouch, or choose to be the best one-legged dancer. The choice is ours to make.   
    The other characterization is Joy. However, we humans believe we have earned the right to be Joy-Full, but do not deserve to be Pain-Full. Yet both joy and pain are Just The Way Life Is! We nether deserve them, nor ask for them -- they just are. However, when we live the Awakened Life, TWLI is just another human circumstance to which we are Free to take a human and gracious relationship.  

    Perhaps this stirs the juices. 
    Inner Peace, 
    Bill Salmon
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: KarenBueno at aol.com 
  To: oe at wedgeblade.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 8:42 PM
  Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Salmon: RESPONSE TO Requiem for Republicans


  Since when is the "way life is" different from G-O-D?

  Karen Bueno

  In a message dated 9/17/2008 1:18:25 PM Mountain Standard Time, wsalmon at cox.net writes:



    However, God is not to blame, nor is SHE teaching us any lessons. The Way Life Is (TWLI -- remember) is to blame





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