tariki

Hopefully others here can offer their opinions. "In my Father's house are many mansions" All the best

Hi, thanks. (I actually deleted the post that you have now responded to! Decided it was rubbish!) But yes, a great distinction between "live and let live" and going around annoying people! 😀

Given our finite mind and therefore never having absolute certainty about anything, what is it that motivates us each day to continue, to live on? Some vitually unarticulated belief system? In the background do we have some sort of "conviction" about Reality that sustains us, or is there simply a vacuum? What is faith/trust?

Yes, and what if we truly faced this as our OWN fear? Not just the fear we associate with "them", but us, me, myself? What if what we think is wrong just might be right? This given our finitude and therefore lack of any absolute certainty? I can see "faith", trust, coming up over the horizon! A letting go. Genuine. Maybe!

As a non-dualist I must agree. "Soul" is simply and purely our physical existence. But I still have no time for other conclusions ! 🙂

As with Universalism. Often seen as a soft option. But it's implications for us are deep and demanding. Eventually ALL will be reconciled/restored, and the only "judgement" is Grace and Mercy. Becoming more and more "one" with Reality-as-is is therefore a constant call to interact with all others with empathy, compassion and love. VERY demanding at times!

Just a quick welcome, William. Yes, ALL shall be saved. Exactly what salvation is, or becomes, is hidden from us, but a fundamental Faith/trust that "all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well" (Mother Julian of Norwich, from her "Revelations of Divine Love") I have found to be life-giving. Such a Universalism is no modernism, but is grounded in the earliest traditions of the Christian faith. This is a quiet Forum, but often so much the better! Welcome. All the best.

Just the mention of shops tell me that things have changed! 🙂

Ah, Bali! Kuta Beach! Suspect things have changed since I was there in 1971....... Enjoy your break!

Thanks. Liked the G K Chesterton quotes. My favourite of his is:- "One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak." Its often said that the reason many can never "see" God is because they never look low enough. I happen to think that there is in fact NO theology in the Bible. Constructing one from it simply kills revelation stone dead. On quotes:- There is much to be learned from older ways of thinking about religion. We have seen that far from regarding revelation as static, fixed and unchanging, Jews, Christians and Muslims all knew that revealed truth was symbolic, that scripture could not be interpreted literally, and that sacred texts had multiple meaning and could lead to entirely fresh insights. Revelation was not an event that had happened once in the distant past, but was an ongoing, creative process that required human ingenuity. They understood that revelation did not provide us with infallible information about the divine, because this would always remain beyond our ken. (Karen Armstrong) That's enough, just very tired at the moment. Welcome back to the forum.

Not distinguishing between "this" life and any other, totally simplistically I go with "we are what we understand" (Dogen) "As we judge so shall it be unto us" (or various statements on the same theme) But as Dogen (again) says, although the present moment is the only moment, there is a movement forward. "Accepting" the present moment is, paradoxically, the way of genuine transformation. Or in theistic language, to know that we are accepted just as we are (Grace) is the heart of redemption.

So pleased that my latest load of waffle has had a readership of 3.9k 🤑

Maybe I have mentioned it elsewhere, maybe not, but I have for a long time loved butterflies. Way back when I was a lad we saw so many kinds, all colours, and took them for granted. Now we are lucky to see some tiny white kind fluttering by, almost carried by the wind, so fragile. Anyway, once again I am back in McDonalds, bolstered by my white coffee and also by just having busted level 4725 of Soda Candy Crush Saga. Yes folks! and not a penny spent on boosters! Something to be proud of! What popped into my head just as I was entering McDonalds were the words of some wag, about - I would suppose - "equality":- There are only two kinds of people in the world - those that divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don't. A good quip, and really quite profound. Paradoxical in a certain way, in that it implies a division by saying that there is none. But profound, at least for me, in that it suggests as to how we must "touch base" first, before we begin to differentiate. Grasp first that we are all fundamentally "one", that such unity is the "hidden ground of love" (a Thomas Merton phrase used in one of his letters), and from this "ground" we can then begin to differentiate. We do this all the time - judging, picking and choosing, but if we have truly surrendered to the Grace (pure gift) that is, has been, will be, given to ALL, and truly know that we are all in it together, then our "differentiation" as we live onwards will be of another order. "Another order"? To what exactly? Differentiation again, more paradox. But when was life, reality, ever logical? As John Keats once said (in a letter to Benjamin Bailey):- I have never yet been able to perceive how anything can be known for truth by consecutive reasoning. In such a way we can approach the thought of the 13th century zen master Dogen, who wrote that we must "realise duality WITHIN non-duality". Or, thinking about it, should that be "realising non-duality WITHIN duality"? Or would that be the same thing anyway? Send your answers on a postcard and I'll give a prize to the winner (that is, if I work out who it is) Well, I'm basically waffling and rambling. Feeling just a little bit better these days, but I think of the words of Winston Churchill, spoken during the Second World War, about "this is not the end, not the beginning of the end, more perhaps the end of the beginning". Something like that, Winnie had a way with words. So just perhaps "The end of the beginning", which again reminds me of the words of T. S. Eliot near the end of Little Gidding, the fourth quartet of his Four Quartets:- We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. Those few words have been a constant with me for many years. To be honest, most of the entire poem is beyond me, but I love the rhythm and cadence of all the words. Maybe sometimes it is simply best not to understand; "understanding" can be a conclusion, whereas Reality itself - healing, restoring, reconciling - is a constant advance into novelty. Why stop at any point and think "Ah! I understand. At last!" Our time for grace and mercy and healing would be put on hold. Well, I waffle. I ramble. The thoughts pour out. My coffee is finished, I have shopping to get, a bit of "retail therapy" even if it is just a couple of bananas! Sincerely, all the very best to you all, whatever your struggles. Stay strong. There is no miracle cure, no miracle pill - it is Reality-as-is that is the cure and the miracle. May true Dharma continue. Be kind. No blame. Love everything. Thank you Just to finish, a poem by R. S. Thomas, which I love:- The Kingdom It’s a long way off but inside it There are quite different things going on: Festivals at which the poor man Is king and the consumptive is Healed; mirrors in which the blind look At themselves and love looks at them Back; and industry is for mending The bent bones and the minds fractured By life. It’s a long way off, but to get There takes no time and admission Is free, if you purge yourself Of desire, and present yourself with Your need only and the simple offering Of your faith, green as a leaf.

Yes, I think being "certain" dies not really suit the human condition! 😀 History seems to tell us that much misery has been caused by those who lived "without a doubt". Thanks Paul

Thanks Paul, Yes, like labels, judging can be useful in some circumstances. Is it when we think we have made a conclusive judgement that the real trouble starts?