I have The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle) lying beside my desk. Every day I pick it up with the intention of reading a bit. The page that is folded has an opening line about the mind’s effort at understanding being the very reason why I don’t understand the core of life. So I never [...]
Posts Tagged ‘understanding’
The impeded stream
Posted in Flashes, tagged Berry, life, mind, silence, Tolle, understanding on February 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Diamonds and dust
Posted in Flashes, tagged correspondence, life, providence, reality, understanding on August 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
From the hot sheets (MIB) of current news: “Emeralds are part of North Carolina’s mineral claim to fame, though other places in the U.S. also are rich in gems. Maine mines have yielded aquamarine and amethyst, Montana bears sapphires, Idaho is known for star garnets, and Arkansas has diamonds.” (http://www.king5.com/news/Huge-emerald-pulled-from-North-Carolina-farm-101834798.html) In the Writings of Swedenborg [...]
Presence and omnipresence
Posted in The Sacred, tagged holiness, Lord, reality, Swedenborg, understanding on August 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
(A section from my dissertation on “The Sacred”) Rev. Stephen D. Cole wrote a paper (presented to the Council of the Clergy in 2003) called The Presence of the Lord and Holy Fear, in which he looked into the question of where and when the Lord can be said to be present. The main question [...]
Holy objects in the Old Testament
Posted in The Sacred, tagged holiness, mystery, understanding on August 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
(From my dissertation on The Sacred, 2010) Statement: holiness, or the presence of the Lord, comes through correspondence and is not a quality of material objects themselves. The conclusion at this point is that this is true for all physical objects to which holiness is ascribed. Bread and wine are not holy in themselves, nor [...]
Animal name: Strong Wolf
Posted in Flashes, tagged faith, mystery, providence, understanding on May 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In the Spiritual Warfare men’s group that I take part in, we were guided tonight through a process to find a new power animal name. My old name was Circling Deer. My new name is: Strong Wolf. Looking up some of the meanings of this animal totem, I find: “The Wolf is a creature with [...]
Sermon writing structure – Organic
Posted in Sermon writing and preaching, tagged church, religion, Swedenborg, Truth, understanding on May 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Title: Organic build-up Summary: a way of implementing the sermon writing process. Motivation: hearing is an organic process that is inherently not logical, no long progressions of ideas can be heard. Hearing focuses on the now moment, and then follows it as the current idea changes into another one. While this one change needs to [...]
Grand Man
Posted in Flashes, tagged God, spirit, understanding on March 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A set of words that occur regularly throughout the Writings of Swedenborg is (in Latin) maximus homo. Literally, the greatest person. Usually translated as the Grand Man. Many times paraphrased, by Swedenborg, as heaven, the universal church, as well as the Lord. “The universal church is before the Lord like a man. For before the [...]
Finding Power
Posted in Flashes, tagged attraction, God, Lord, power, reality, understanding on March 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9) I often feel my thoughts go in the direction of the reality of religion. How can religion be real, in the sense that it was real when the Lord walked on earth, in the sense that [...]
Mysteries
Posted in Flashes, tagged faith, mystery, understanding on November 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »
“Now it is permitted to enter with the understanding into the mysteries of faith.” (TCR 508) There are two ways of reading this. Either it means, now the mysteries of faith will be approachable by the understanding and will be understood, be made reasonable. They will then no longer be mysteries. Remember the New Church [...]
Fighting to understand
Posted in Flashes, tagged struggle, understanding on August 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“You see, if there is nothing to fight for then there is nothing that can break the flow.” (Tao Te Ching, 3) I am trying to understand this! Aargh, what does it mean? Don’t be in conflict? Don’t have ambitions? Don’t try to learn new things? Wait, I am fighting for understanding. Of course! That [...]
