Month: July 2015

1.7.15- “In order to go on living, one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism.” – Hannah Arendt, philosopher and historian (1906-1975)
– 2 sides of the same coin:

Emptiness & restlessness

Sloth & anxiety
– “To live and act in such a manner that the Guru is highly pleased with the disciple is a sure condition for the working of grace…. A true aspirant seeks always to please his Guru by molding his life in accordance with his teachings.” – Swami Ramdas
– “If a person has a sincere fervor for the Lord and is eager to follow a spiritual path, he is sure to meet a true guru through the grace of the Lord. Consequently, the spiritual aspirant should not be troubled about the coming of a guru.” – Swami Brahmananda
– “God is preparing you to receive the nectar of Ananda (Beatitude). If you get it without the proper preparation to stand it, your mind and body will be shattered to pieces. So He is gradually preparing you and when He knows that you are ready to receive Him, then He comes to you in all His glory.” – Swami Ramdas
– “And be assured also that, when the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit that ruleth in you, there will be no hard sayings in the Gospel.” – William Law
– I am shocked to know that (European institutional/liberal) Christianity was one of the reasons/causes behind the Nazi Holocaust!!!
– Movies:

“Jurassic World”

Desacralization of nature –> sacrilege (amorality) –> disaster!

Anthropocentrism needs to be tempered by the theological if it is not to deteriorate into technological idolatry & ultimately, global (even cosmic!) catastrophe.

Stewardship vs. Playing God

But how do we progress without pushing the boundaries?! How do we dominate the world & reach union with GOD, without risking total annihilation in the process? Is survival the priority for humans, as it is for other species?

Is family nothing more than mere biological/genetic/instinctive bonding?

Are natural/created limits the enemies of freedom or its protectors?

What is the difference between heroism & hubris? Is it only in the result/consequence??

What is the relative value of the other species on our planet? Are all humans of equal value? Do our own creations have rights that even we must respect?

Is it alright to play games for one’s own entertainment when it puts others’ lives at risk?

Can you imagine yourself in the place of the raptors, caught between Owen (the first Alpha) & the Indominus Rex (the new Alpha)? Are they traitors or martyrs??

Distinguish: Power & Control

Compare (& contrast) the Indominus Rex & the T. Rex. Is the latter “good”??

Who is finally responsible for the fiasco, & who is ultimately to be credited for the (relative) rescue?

Climate change/global warming as the ingenious (divine?) weaponization of Nature to stop the demonic (artificial, wild & rampaging)  juggernaut of the capitalist/industrial/military complex! Maybe there is no other way (for GOD/earth/Mother) to save us, as a race, than to kill many of us, & threaten all of us with extinction, so that we are forced to change our soul-destroying ways……

Distinguish: Scavenger cells & Cancer cells – even the T. Rex doesn’t kill for fun, because it ‘knows’ what it is!

Cf. Frankenstein
3.7.15
– Disenchantment, technologism & capitalism go together!

Humanism can be sustained only with an, at the least implicit, theological anthropology…
– Distinguish:

Promiscuity (indiscriminate/barbaric)

&

Inclusivity (critical/civilized)
– Sexual consumerism & spiritual promiscuity
– Flat-footed
– The brown below, the green canopy & the blue beyond
– Why is it always easier to, read the situation &  arrive at the best decision, only in hindsight?
– Cultivate/refine your taste by reading, listening & watching more of the great/classic stuff…
– Self-challenge
– Distinguish:

Little people

&

Retarded people

Trivial, stupid & distracted people
– “Who doesn’t want to make the world a better place… for oneself?”

Who doesn’t work on themselves in their zeal to improve the world??

Being self-interested without also seeking the common good is contradictory & self-defeating!

Why is this so hard to realize?

SIN!
– Secularity, secularism, secularization

Historical fact, philosophical ideology & political policy
4.7.15
– Unsung heroes

Dustin Brown

Heather Watson

Famous champions

Vs.

Great underdogs!
– Galatians 2:17-19, 21
– What is a Game Boy?

Nintendo, Play Station, Xbox
– Can lust or anger or anxiety be contained (neatly controlled) in a box??

Only persons can be reconciled, not powers (E.g. Flesh vs. Spirit)!

Animus vs. Anima ~ Man vs. Nature ~ Husband vs. Wife

GOD vs. Satan??
– If spousal insecurity, possessiveness & jealousy is immature/unhealthy, then looking at attractive members of the opposite sex primarily as objects for my pleasure is also morbid & wicked!
– Tactful/polite & assertive/firm
– ninny
5.7.15
– Kingdom > self + GOD + world!
– My flesh faints for, cries out to, sings to, the living GOD!

Heart & flesh ~ soul & body ~ spirit & mind
– The ecology of hospitality – the sparrow & swallow nesting in the altar of the Temple!

(Psalm 84)
– Are all these other commuters on this road, my competitors, or my fellow-pilgrims?
– Distinguish:

Jerusalem

&

Zion
– Altar ~ throne
– Are you one of those who live/stay in His house, or are you just another visitor to this Temple?

The home, the road, the office, the public square as His dwelling (& reigning) place!
– Word-study:

Temple

Sanctuary
– Why & how have I lost the immediacy of His presence? Do I even want that experience back??
– Blessed is the man who trusts in Thee ~ Blessed is the man who dwells in Thy house ~ Blessed is the man who seeks Thy Kingdom
– “Special intentions”
– “The exalted pulpit”
– It is better to make Rs. 1,000 by working as a labourer in a just & responsible institution, than to make Rs. 100,000 by working as a manager in a selfish & greedy company!

(Psalm 84)
– Is the pastor of a church, free to experiment with his faith, as someone like me (freelance ministry)?
– “The renewing & restraining influence of the Holy Spirit”
– The Name (Jesus Christ) – wholly self-referential (the person/message/work) or also a sign/pointer beyond itself (to GOD, the Kingdom, the Way, etc.)?
– What would the infant say if he/she could speak during his/her baptism/dedication ceremony?
– Revere your (self & your) neighbor
– Watch your words!
– Correction/discipline, without questioning or neglecting uniqueness.
– Work ceaselessly on your own heart!

Otherwise you will live as a wretch, & after you die, you will be completely forgotten.
– Is it possible to be a loving, unselfish person, without bending one’s knee to a personal GOD?
– Does a sermon have to be expository in order to be biblical?

Is the Bible a thoroughly evangelical text??
– Sin – what happens to something when GOD forgets it?!
– Movies:

“Jigarthanda” (Tamil)

WOW!  🙂

Are all movies ultimately about film-making??

Director – the Father,

Hero – the Son,

Holy Spirit – the acting coach,

Creation – the making of “Azhuguni Kumar”,

The Cross – first screening.

Where does the event of the final & decisive face-off between Sethu & Karthick (where they both spare each other) fit into the theological narrative? Where is Satan in all of this? Is it the heroine?!

The essential tension is not a conflict between good & evil (ethical), or pleasure & pain (aesthetic), but beyond & beneath all this, one of tragedy & comedy (religious)!

How does Hell ‘fit into’ Dante’s “Divine Comedy”?? Purgatory is absolutely vital to a properly Christian eschatology!

Compare with: “Naeram” (Tamil movie)

Which is more powerful – the camera or the gun?
6.7.15
– Was Jesus of Nazareth a ‘cultist’?

Am I?
– Someone who cannot laugh at themselves should not be taken too seriously!
– What does religion have to do with reputation?
– dobbing
– Can/should a spouse (spiritually) excommunicate his/her partner?
– Heterosexual – marriage

Gay – partnership
– I (spiritually) embrace all the people sitting in this church building along with me!

GOD BLESS.
– From trail-blazer to trend-setter
– vibrissa
– papilloma
– lurcher
– poultice
– greenhorn
– I am NOT going to give an easy shortcut for my parents (or in-laws) from the challenges of ageing & retirement, by giving them a grandchild to babysit!
– Check out the poetic/parabolic interludes in “God & the Between” (William Desmond) & “The Experience of God” (David Bentley Hart)!
– Daily health tips
– possibilize!

“Unclogging our porosity to the idiocy of the divine intimacy”

Metaphysical cantos

Speculative metaxology as the least untrue

The counterfeit double
– reflexive
– promenade
– A standing ovation
– cormorant
– pinion
– Symbolic, metaphoric, analogic, parabolic, hyperbolic indirection
– The impersonal and the transpersonal
– Equivocity and plurivocity
– To those who say that GOD did not create them Adam and Steve, I say, and GOD also did NOT place them in a city (or a jungle), but in a garden, & they wore no clothes either!
– selving
– Sucking a lemon
– minding
– pettish

petulant
– Dream-languages

Solemn circumlocutions
7.7.15
– Rebuke + encourage = exhort
– Relativity and quantum theory
– The girl who is brought up in a tight-knit family, once married, expects her husband to take the place of her homely mother & her protective father!
– Can a domestic pet and a wild animal make a home together?
– My Irritability Quotient (Novaco Anger Scale) is 56 – average
– For most women (in this society), it is their baby which actually mothers them!

True or false?

8.7.15
– From “Desiring God” (John Piper) to “Desiring the Kingdom” (James K. A. Smith)

GOD after the God(s)!

9.7.15
– theologies
Worldviews & lifeways
Intercultural perspective
theogonies
social movements
polemics
Comparative philosophy
– “The birth of Gods:  Anthropomorphic Promiscuity and Sociographic Prudery”
– seances
– Big History
– Daniel Quinn
– Theodore Dalrymple
– Dream:
I am fighting against the ?Nazis, & get wounded by a gun-shot near the groin…
– Christian esotericism & paganism!
– Try the “Theepori Chicken” from Maplai restaurant, & feel the firesparks fly in your mouth!  😉
– Ancient questions & contemporary responses
Present challenges & classic wisdom
– The pleasure of abstinence & the disciplines of indulgence
– The Grameen Bank
– Diplomatic arsenal
– NAM
– India Inc. & colonial law – hand-in-glove!