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Monday, November 13, 2006

Piercing the barrier

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 1:1-4


Without the Word, or logos, the exterior world would forever be separated from the interior. Interesting that the plasma membrane separates the interior of a cell from the outside environment, yet is porous, in that certain essentials are allowed through this barrier. Just so, words are the essentials that bridge our outer and inner world. It is as though one catches a falling leaf, and could ingest it, yet that would destroy the leaf, so one stares as an animal would at this leaf, but being human we can do more than just stare, we can transform this leaf into 'logos' and the words pass through the 'plasma membrane' and into the mind does now the leaf dwells! So too we can gather stars and mountains and oceans and tiny tadpoles, and with the logos of God, they all can enter and fit and dwell within our mind, with room left over for the rest of creation. Amazing!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would suggest the we "live" in a virtual reality "world" of words--literally a tower of babel-- and that the only way to truly see the world (whatever it is altogether) is to transcend (pierce if you will) the compulsive never ending fear based always separative "thinking" mind.

Your use of language is revealing.
Who is going to "pierce" the barrier?
Pierce is a very aggressive word. Very much a product of a mind that is commited to separativeness or otherness.
There is a saying in one of the Upanishads:
"Whenever there is another, fear (inevitably) arises"

Is there a barrier? Or is it a presumtion in mind?

Also once one has "fallen" into the mind based trap of separativeness it is impossible to get out of it via any act of volition.
Divine Grace being the only possible "remedy".

Bro. Bartleby said...

"Pierce" is an apt and descriptive word for those of us who dwell in the desert, for we are surrounded by cacti which are covered with either thorns or needles, and we humans with but a paper-thick shield of skin often are "pierced" by a needle, which gets our immediate attention, but it is amazing that we can dwell among the cactus and for the most part keep just enough distance and avoid getting stuck. As for the "cell" analogy, I admit that it is but an analogy, but one that paints a picture in my mind in such a way that I still like it. As for "pierce" the barrier, that too I find descriptive, in the sense that (as the analogy goes) all humans are cells, and all animals are cells, yet animals without language (in the sense of communicating abstract ideas) are "locked" in their cells (bodies), whereas humans can break through or pierce the cell barrier with language, the words freely moving "through" the cell barrier, just as your words typed into symbols are now serving the same purpose. Your thoughts and beliefs were formulated in your mind as words, words that could be typed on a keyboard, these "packets of thoughts" were sent through space and arrived on my monitor. These words awaited my eyes to "read" them, and then my mind translated these alphabetic symbols into our agreed upon meaning (thanks to Webster) and in my mind I more or less read your thoughts.