I liked bink's comment on Letter to a Family Member so much, I asked her if I could post it separately.
She said yes.
bink writes:
"I like how you say what compassion is not.
It matches my vision of God.
How can there be a loving God in all this mess of the world?
Because God is a god of compassion: being with us in our suffering...
and that's about it.
The all-powerful, interfering, wish-granting, string-pulling, punishing, blessing God--I don't see a lot of evidence for that God.
God is the energy that helps sustain good;
which looks pretty much like nothing happening.
I don't see much sign of God interfering to end our suffering/clean up the mess we've made of the world.
But I feel compassion, and I sense that it is bigger than me."
[end bink]
__________
Illustration of a Sufi tale from Love Got Soul. The tale is not told, but you can easily make one up yourself.
love the pix!
ReplyDeletethat is lovely.
ReplyDeleteYou may have stopped quoting TS Eliot, but I still do:
"I am moved by fancies that are curled /
around these images, and cling /
the notion of some infinitely gentle / infinitely suffering thing"
The hell with TS Eliot. I'm gonna start quoting bink.
ReplyDeleteHai!
ReplyDeleteAs far as a good story goes, I like the interfering Hebrew god; he's a creative genius! Albeit one with a jealous temper and other issues, (I suspect narcissism, manic-depression).
The Cosmic Byronic Hero.
Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.
( . . . or according to believers, dangerous not to know.)
Apart from a good story, I much prefer "God as Compassion".
BINK: I thought anything with a doglike creature would fit your words.
ReplyDeleteCLOWN: Oh, that is lovely! I actually don't know that quote. (I was really always a dilettante of an Eliot quoter.)
POODLE: bink is eminently quotable! Just last night I thought of her famous words:
"Turn off your computer during thunderstorms."
(Wasn't that some storm?)
M'RET: Welcome home! Can't wait to hear more about the Star Trek con!
Yeah, that old god is really something--as George Takei said of Shatner:
he has a big shiny ego and it needs a lot of stroking.
it´s a great complement to that post of yours, simply great and concise, thks for sharing it this way.
ReplyDelete