Hello Pei

I find the depth within this excerpt both awe inspiring and enlightening:

“The sea is not less beautiful to our eye because we know that sometimes ships sink in it. On the contrary, it is more beautiful still. If the sea modified the movement of its waves to spare a boat, it would be a being possessing discernment and choice, and not this fluid that is perfectly obedient to all external pressures. It is this perfect obedience that is its beauty.” “All the horrors that are produced in this world are like the folds imprinted on the waves by gravity. This is why they contain beauty. Sometimes a poem, like the Iliad, renders this beauty.” “Man can never escape obedience to God. A creature cannot not obey. The only choice offered to man as an intelligent and free creature, is to desire obedience or not to desire it. If he does not desire it, he perpetually obeys nevertheless, as a thing subject to mechanical necessity. If he does desire obedience, he remains subject to mechanical necessity, but a new necessity is added on, a necessity constituted by the laws that are proper to supernatural things. Certain actions become impossible for him, while others happen through him, sometimes despite him.” Excerpt from: Thoughts without order concerning the love of God, in an essay entitled L'amour de Dieu et le malheur (The Love of God and affliction). Simone Weil

Pel wrote:

Nick_A wrote:Hello Pei

I find the depth within this excerpt both awe inspiring and enlightening:

“The sea is not less beautiful to our eye because we know that sometimes ships sink in it. On the contrary, it is more beautiful still. If the sea modified the movement of its waves to spare a boat, it would be a being possessing discernment and choice, and not this fluid that is perfectly obedient to all external pressures. It is this perfect obedience that is its beauty.” “All the horrors that are produced in this world are like the folds imprinted on the waves by gravity. This is why they contain beauty. Sometimes a poem, like the Iliad, renders this beauty.” “Man can never escape obedience to God. A creature cannot not obey. The only choice offered to man as an intelligent and free creature, is to desire obedience or not to desire it. If he does not desire it, he perpetually obeys nevertheless, as a thing subject to mechanical necessity. If he does desire obedience, he remains subject to mechanical necessity, but a new necessity is added on, a necessity constituted by the laws that are proper to supernatural things. Certain actions become impossible for him, while others happen through him, sometimes despite him.” Excerpt from: Thoughts without order concerning the love of God, in an essay entitled L'amour de Dieu et le malheur (The Love of God and affliction). Simone Weil

Peace. Thats nice Nick. May I ask what philosophy or religion do you belong to or what's the closest one or a combination of them?

Thanks

I resonate with the perennial tradition of esoteric Christianity. Along with the universal skeleton offered by Panentheism, it offers answers to the questions I've always had concerning universal meaning and purpose and and Man's place within these levels of reality that comprise the skeleton. It explains to me why everything is as it is which without it, I never could understand.

http://www.hermes-press.com/esoteric_christianity.htm

Peace to you as well

Hi Pel. You asked: "Peace. So you are to Christianity what sufis are to Islam. Am I right. And how do you like my poems and quoted?

Very true IMO. I must admit I find the poetry a bit sugary but I do respect Rumi. I've learned that the word love as with the word art has become degraded so perhaps I overreact to it.

An ancestor of mine was a good artist. I remember being at an exhibition where one of his paintings was featured. As I was taking it in, two sufi's were there and noticed my interest. Since it features "light" we started speaking of the meaning of "light." After a while they suggested going to lunch in the museum cafeteria. We were able to share a great deal.

It seemed odd that we should be talking of things only a few would be interested in instead of prefering to kill each other in wars. The concept of Christianity has a different quality of meaning depending upon whether one means the exoteric, esoteric, or transcendent level of reality. But how many recognize this distinction?

Frithjof_Schuon is a Sufi who understands levels of reality and the idea that religion manifests that corresponds to each level of quality

http://www.monasticdialog.com/a.php?id=151