Arlo, > > [Arlo] > I'm not sure exactly what you're saying. <snip>But, to reiterate, > my point is that the "god pattern" (as you call it) is but one > resultant pattern deriving from human experience. And > as such it is one finger pointing towards the Void. It should not be > (as it often is) conflated or confused with the Void itself. >
mel: I read (or misread) your earlier comments to mean that God is an occidental 'pathology', as it were. But I see 'godness' as more universal than just western religion and as the faiths of people are 'living relationships' and not (to them) just abstractions reification is not precisely accurate. Belief to them is more dynamic than just abstraction. The god-pattern is, I agree, one finger pointing towards the Void. However, the mechanisms-of-mythology give people in these 'living relationships' the tools to relate to this 'pointing towards the Void.' Our understanding is not theirs, nor are our allegories, but if they find Quality in their tradition, then they may indeed find a seam that aims them towards the Dynamic. At the risk of considerable dead ends, though. [The problem we can all see and agree as bad is the cleric of any tradition who seeks to crush the Dynamic under Static. He / She isn't worth the contents of the outhouse.] On another note you said: (you don't see many fundamentalist Buddhists or "radical Pagans") My understanding from some accounts of China today is that there is a resurgence of faiths, including a sort of re-buddha-fication that has an almost evangelical nature. Maybe any of our list members can comment if they've observed or heard of such a thing, for details. Also, there has been a Pagan resurgence that does have a radicalized feel to it. I do not know if it is merely a reaction against the faith of their upbringing that generates the 'heat' or some other importance they have invested in it. To conclude... You've no doubt heard the statement: "Sometimes the words tell you more about the speaker than the subject." I wonder if, at times, it doesn't seem a similar thing with religion. The actions of the faithful tell you more about the worshiper than the worshiped. thanks--mel Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
