Theos-Talk Archives (April 1995 Message tl00130)

PG: <I also wish to avoid Personification -- but suspect that
Consciousness (i.e.  Purusha in relation to Mulaprakriti) is
responsible for the existence of Order, and also guides evolution
(and of course involution -- I didn't forget it.)>

Agreed.

PG:<But even chaos seems to have pattern, in terms of following
laws.>

Agreed so long as we recognize that there is no causal
relationship between the laws of order and the laws of chaos (the
relationship is strickly acausal).

PG:< my intuition suggests that we shouldn't limit the ability to
conceptualize a plan to just the human kingdom.  If you accept
the possibility of higher (and lower) intelligences according to
the law of Correspondences, then perhaps "meaning" is abstracted
at levels that to us are relatively (but not absolutely) Divine,
e.g.  the Solar Logos.>

I agree that the Solar Logos probably has a plan (as do the
Cosmocratores and Manus, etc).  But it is doubtful that we humans
understand it.  In most cases, we try to perceive the Plan, but
humanize it (distort it) in various ways.  In other words, what
has meaning to us, may not have meaning to other beings.  But
what I was objecting to is Divinity, which I don't believe has
any Plan other than the general urge toward self-expression.  I
just didn't like your phrase "Divine Plan" but Spiritual Plan or
Mahatmic Plan or any other name would be fine.

JS
>> Now I tend to agree with Meister Echkart, who taught that the
>> world needs no purpose or plan, life is for living.
PG
>In doing so, surely he was acknowledging the existence of
>a loving God?

Let me give you a quote which has always affected me deeply:

"For if Life were questioned a thousand years and asked: "Why
live?" and if there were an answer, it could be no more than
this: "I live only to live!" And that is because Life is its own
reason for being, springs from its own Source, and goes on and
on, without ever asking why--just because it is life.  Thus, if
you ask a genuine person, that is, one who acts [uncalculatingly]
from his heart: "Why are you doing that?"--he will reply in the
only possible way: "I do it because I do it!"" (trans.  by
Raymond B.  Blakney)

And yes, Meister Echkart does talk a lot about God, some of it
sounding typically Christian.  But once in awhile he will say
something that will make you stand up and take notice.  For
example, in the same sermon as above (in fact, later on the same
page) he says: "When both [God and you] have forsaken self, what
remains [between you] is an indivisible union." And in another
sermon, he writes "nothing is as near to me as God is.  God is
nearer to me than I am to myself" which is pure Christian
mysticism.

Another of my favorites is: "When I return to the core, the soil,
the river, the source which is the Godhead, no one will ask me
whence I came or where I have been.  No one will have missed
me--for even God passes away!"

Now this last quote is a true gem, but I suspect that one has to
have been there onself to understand it.  This highly mystical
teaching will fly right over the heads of most Christians and
theosophists.  I dare say, he could get himself flamed for saying
such things here on theos-l.  :-)

 Jerry S.