Elizabeth B Hale
Such a poignant story, Kyle… thank you so much for sharing it! That was an awesome realization, so sudden! Wow. Thank you
Seeing Thich Nhat Hanh reminds me that his book, Going Home: Jesus and Buddha As Brothers, had a huge impact on me when I was thinking I could not bear to continue to relate to Christianity, around the turn of the century. Here’s the crucial passage — if the technology works : )
I’m so happy this beautiful program is available! … I attended her presentation and gave a copy of her Tao to my Tai Chi teacher to celebrate the Lunar New Year — I’m eager to hear what he thinks of the feminine Tao : )
And then there’s Paul Knitter’s book, Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian [2009] : ) — Knitter talks about a “double belonging.” Great perspectives, I think! Here’s his 2011 lecture on the topic at Union Presbyterian Sem, Richmond
Enjoyed your post, Scott! Thanks!
How neat, Rolla!
It’s very fun that your question tracks where I too went!! : )
Evolution of an idea — after 8 plus decades of thinking, studying, experimenting, I concluded that the only thing I could be sure of was that compassion is a good thing — here’s how it went in the blog I started in July 2017 —
“So what is a pan-compassionist freethinker?!!
“It’s what I seem to be at the moment, and it’s been holding for a few months…. It’s a miracle! No telling where I’ll end up, but it’s a good feeling to be able to maybe put a foot down somewhere — for the time being!
“Pan-compassionist: means I would like to be compassionate toward everything. Tall order, guaranteeing falling short, but good to have an aim!!!
“Freethinker: means I stay open to revising my views. My allegiances are to compassion and to fact, insofar as we can know them. I respect the traditions I come out of — Christianity, social democracy, etc — and I evaluate them by compassion and fact, to the best of my understanding.
“In September 2021 I’m adding ‘engaged’ — ‘engaged pan-compassionist freethinker’ — because I’m realizing that I don’t mean it’s good to just passively observe and sympathize — I aspire to actively do something to make things better. Wondering how to convey that, I thought of Thich Nhat Hanh’s ‘engaged Buddhism’ and think ‘engaged’ will work fine for now…. maybe eventually my own individual word will pop up : )
“….Now in June 2022 I’m subtracting ‘Freethinker’ — because my thinking isn’t really ‘free’ — it’s determined by what I’ve inherited and what I find around me to add — scientific discoveries, theology, wisdom literature, etc — then with my tweaks. So — just ‘Pancompassionist.’ : )
“This blog is for thinking about what this means in my life & thinking (besides making me — and probably everybody! — a category of one!), and for collecting and celebrating my heroes and heroines (continually added to here). It’s for conversation, if anyone wants to converse : ) !!! Enjoy!!”
I love seeing your musings… see what the trees think <3
Gratitude, Elizabeth
That is a lovely singing response, Rolla — it helps a lot! & I feel like that is one of the things that will stick with me. Deep gratitude, for less conflicted years to come!!
Hi Rolla!
Thank you so much for the “Introduction” reply! — also, for your own Introduction here & comments/poems in the Andrew Davis class. I would love to join your Friday walks! : )I’ve been wondering how to answer how I “practice” being a pancompassionist!! So far nothing has come to mind other than just consciously trying to have compassion — for all.
I must say this simple practice has been severely challenged this week, with the beating in Memphis, the misrepresentations in our governmental life, a congressman sending colleagues inert grenades. I’m just about out of the energy to try to look at things from another’s viewpoint. Have to keep reminding myself of Churchill’s “Democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others”!
You mentioned the practice of singing — a mixed experience here, since I love trying to sing — but in this congregation it’s often horrific theology, tho meant well. The new pastor is introducing more process-theology-friendly hymns — so hopefully all will be better!! & maybe as issues come up I can put in what I hope would be a helpful view….
The pandemic happened at a time in my life when I could retreat — being one of the very lucky ones — and I’m slow to add things back… Daily I walk the neighborhood a couple of miles; do tai chi form (plus form & pushhands class once a week outdoors, rain, shine, snow); read; enjoy Cobb Institute & Homebrewed Christianity classes. (There was a fascinating HBC series with Crossan on the Christmas stories, and they plan to do another with the Easter ones!) Earlier read Thich Nhat Hanh’s life of the Buddha, translation of major sutras, and early journal. Rabbi Michael Lerner is amazing. Feels like I’m in an interlude of back to school & in the middle of a big step forward in my own personal theology & philosophy — and I am super thankful for that!!!!!!!
Compassion for fellow creepy-crawly creatures reminds me of the recent story of the guy who said his wife asked him to take a spider out, which he did, telling her they had a drink together, had a nice time, nice guy, said he was a web designer.
Keep writing comments, Rolla!!! They are great!!!!!!
Elizabeth
I forgot to mention, Lu Wei-dong, how much I appreciated too your lifting up the social reformer aspect of Iqbal’s work — and your own work. They both are very inspiring, and such a hopeful sign for our planet! Deep gratitude!
And thank you, Charles, for noting differences in Iqbal’s and Whitehead’s descriptions of the power of God… very intriguing!
I love these quotations from Farhan Shaw! Thank you so much, Lu Wei-dong!! I’ve started reading Shaw’s articles on Open Horizons too, but I hadn’t seen this one… As Leslie says, beautiful ideas! Thank you!!
Thank you so much, Dr. Kling!
Creativity and God’s primordial nature are much more enmeshed than I have been thinking!!!
Going back to Process and Reality, I am seeing that “The non-temporal act of all-inclusive, unfettered valuation [“God”] is at once a creature of creativity and a condition for creativity” [31], and that that valuation is called “God” because contemplation of it “acquires that ‘subjective form’ of refreshment and companionship at which religions aim.” [32]
It’s going to be fun to use the P&R index for “creativity” from time to time to try to let that soak in, get my head around it — if possible!!
A very special thank you for inviting Farhan Shaw as Islam introducer last night! I am delighted to meet him and look forward to reading much of his writing, on Open Horizons and elsewhere. A real treasure — I know we all wish him very well in his own quest…. He surely helps many in the way!
Very deep gratitude!
Elizabeth
Happy New Year, Lu Wei-dong!!! Wishing you much happiness and prosperity in this new year!!!
Tripp Fuller’s classes can be pretty free wheeling! and boundary-pushing! — but they are almost always interesting to me, and include many diverse viewpoints. I’m especially looking forward to the “Science and Spiritual Experience” broadcast January 25, 2:30pm Eastern Standard Time — probably not a good time for you to interact live! but it’s so good that people can comment & discuss as they watch later.
It will be great to have your perspectives in the creative mix!!
Thanks so much, Lu Wei-dong! I have been having thoughts like this too, over the past several years, as I’ve seen the huge response to Tripp Fuller’s process classes on FaceBook –several thousand participants at a time! It reminds me of “the Great Awakening” in the United States back in the 1730s and ’40s — this time so much more wide-spread thanks to technology. Tripp has participants from all around the world — I’ve noticed at least one from Kazakhstan — though I don’t remember seeing anyone from China…. You may have been in a class and I didn’t see your name : ) This is the current one: https://theonlygodordainedsurvey.com/expgodpage/
I think the lure is strong… I’m intrigued with the creative directions everything may take — and I love that you are focusing on the process!!! Wonderful! Gratitude!
Wow, Kyle, it’s fun to meet you! — tho we’ve likely shared some groups in the Time of Zoom. What a neat set of interests and work! …and thanks so much for the intro to the Christian Universalist Association — great to know about. One resource you might want to add (I didn’t notice it on the site) is former missionary to Japan, Arch Taylor’s, God For All: The Biblical Foundation of Universal Grace [2013]. I virtually met Dr. Taylor in the earliest days of the interwebs (as Tripp says), on a Presbyterian email group, and he mailed me a copy of his collection of texts like “As all die in Adam, so shall all be made alive in Christ.” That was great support for a fellow “universal reconciliation” traveler, as you put it, and I love having the full argument now.
And Sheri, thanks so much too for the “Presence” tip — it looks wonderful, and I’ve been curious to learn what integral theology and spiral dynamics are!
What a wonderful opportunity here to continue to expand our understandings… more glimpses into the wisdom of the ages….
It’s very fun to have an idea of the lively, interesting person behind the zoom name, Kyle! Thanks so much!!!
and Gratitude, all!!
Thank you, Michael — you are right! Reviewing Cobb’s Whitehead Word Book, I see that I have forgotten that Wh thinks of the ultimate as creativity, and God as a creature of creativity – big omission for me!!!! God then can be thought of as having a character that’s good — and creativity as neither good nor evil — just creative. Thus I take it, creativity is the source of what we think of as evil.
A little more from the Word Book:
“Whitehead identifies creativity as ‘the ultimate.’ It is that of which every actual entity is an instance. It plays the role in Whitehead that ‘being itself’ plays in the Thomistic tradition. In that tradition to be is to be an instance of being. In Whitehead to be actual is to be an instance of creativity. In Thomism being itself is beyond all attributes or characteristics. In Whitehead, likewise, creativity has no character of its own, in the sense that it is open equally to any and all eternal objects and is in itself characterized by none….
“It may be that the discussion of what is ultimate has played a lager [sic] role in India than in the West. Brahman is the traditional Hindu ultimate and is very much like being itself. Buddhists found the understanding of Brahman to be substantialist, and they rejected it. In one important form of Buddhism, they affirmed instead that everything is an instance of pratitya samutpada or dependent origination. The similarity to Whitehead’s creativity is striking.” [66]
“God’s ordering of eternal objects thus functions as the basis of regularity in the world, the basis of novelty, and the basis of purposiveness. Whitehead believes that this ordering is the work of an actual entity. This actual entity evokes worship from human beings, and this justifies naming it ‘God.’ However, Whitehead is emphatic that some of the characteristics attributed to God in some theistic traditions are not justified by this account. For example, God is not the ‘ultimate.’ God is an instance of creativity. God does not control what happens. There are many ‘reasons’ for what happens in every event, of which God is always only one; that is God never unilaterally determines what happens. Still God is always one of these reasons, the one who calls for the realization of optimum value and makes that realization possible. We noted above that creativity is the ultimate. God does not appear in Whitehead’s categoreal scheme. He declares ‘God’ to be a ‘derivative notion.’ Also, he describes God as a ‘creature’ or even an ‘accident’ of creativity. This seems to differentiate what he calls ‘God’ radically from what has usually been understood as ‘God’ in the Abrahamic traditions.” [68]
“Although Whitehead does not describe God as ‘ultimate,’ attributing that status to creativity, he does assert that God primordially provides a ‘character’ to creativity. Without that character no actual occasion can come into being, and, of course, apart from actual occasions, there is no creativity. Accordingly, God is as metaphysically necessary for creativity as creativity is metaphysically necessary for God. The importance of the apparently belittling language is to emphasize that God is not the unilateral cause of any actual occasion, much less of the world as a whole. In Science and the Modern World, Whitehead emphasizes that if God were the ultimate, God would be as responsible for the terrible evils in the world as for the good. For Whitehead such a God would not evoke worship.” [69]
I got into big trouble forgetting a big point!!!! and I’m really happy to have this important reminder!!!!!
Thank you again!!
Elizabeth
Thank you, Thomas! Our reading group gets to the final section of P&R in a week or so — “Final Interpretation” and “God and the World” — hopefully that will help!
A fascinating way of conceiving life, the universe, and everything — I love how Whitehead weaves everything together, from what we think of as matter to experience of emotions. Adventures for sure! — Well wishes to you and all as our pathways continue weaving the good, the beautiful, and true…..