GOD-WHO-SEES is, in spite of titling a music video, also a fairly accurate descriptor of the non-dual mindstate: “All is seen, but No-thing is seen,” as one seeker-after-the-Divine put it. The Hebrew version, “El Roi” (lit.: “G?d Who sees me“) comes from Genesis 16:13; it’s what Abraham’s concubine Hagar said during her first Divine encounter — after Abraham’s wife Sarah kicks Hagar out of the family tent, and before she gives birth to Abraham’s son Ishmael. Per that, it’s also a nice reminder that just because we may feel far from the Mystery, the Mystery is not far from us. Something to keep in mind as these strange, strange days continue their origami-like unfolding.
Tag: It.
… can’t really be named, only experienced.
365 Names: The Nameless One
THE NAMELESS ONE was invented by me (unless I unrememberingly wheelered it from somewhere) to express, ironically, that the whole “365 Names of God” project (and similar efforts) is doomed to fail. As Lao-tze said more than a thousand years ago, “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.” By this I think he means that to name something is to limit it; and that-which-some-call-God cannot be limited. TWSCG is bigger than thought, bigger than speech, bigger than any experience. Does that mean we should stop thinking or speaking about It? Emphatically not! Because with every G?dward motion, we come a bit closer in our understanding — despite that we’ll never arrive. Here’s to the voyage. And the voyagers!
Basic Training
Hatch ’em, match ’em, dispatch ’em.”
— My friend, the Rev. JT, deconstructing pastors’ duty toward their flock
5 Thoughts: Pattern Matching
1. THERE ARE TWO TORAH STORIES which have troubled me for some time.
2. The first is about the giving of the Ten Statements (AKA the “Ten Commandments,” but “statements” is closer to the actual Hebrew). What should have been a joyful event was marred by the incident of the Golden Calf — epiphany ruined by idolatry.
3. The second has to do with the consecration of the Tabernacle: the portable God-tent containing, among other things, the Ark of the Covenant (which itself contained the aforementioned Statements). Continue reading “5 Thoughts: Pattern Matching”
365 Names: God*
GOD* came about after I saw someone refer in like manner to the current president (at this writing, in early December 2019) and some sports figures. Although it’s meant to indicate someone whose office or standing is shot through with controversy (hence requiring a footnote for fuller understanding), its Divine usage is meant to express that the simple monosyllable “God” likewise requires a footnote — the word doesn’t adequately convey the depth and breadth of What one is attempting to express. (It just doesn’t, that’s all.) Continue reading “365 Names: God*”
On the Other Hand…
My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.”
— John Dominic Crossan
365 Names: “God”
“GOD” (quotation marks deliberate) is a more concise statement of Intent than “that-which-some-call-God” or even “that-which-passes-for-God.” (Or even The Metaphorager’s own working definition.) The shorter, the sweeter.
Once upon a time, in 2011 in fact, The Metaphorager aspired each day to feature a different name for that-which-passes-for-God. Some were creative, others traditional, each unique; so we’re going to attempt that project again (though not every day) until we run out of the names we’ve collected so far. If you want to see your favorite here, but haven’t, send it along with the subject line “365 Names” and let us know whether or not you want to be credited.
The Brotherhood of Blood
SOMETHING ELSE THAT HASN’T SURVIVED into adulthood is the kid-concept of “blood brotherhood.”
It works like this: Two boys (did girls ever do this?) make an incision or a pinprick on their thumbs, then rub the wounds together. “Now we are blood brothers,” they will intone (if they intone anything at all, which they also may not). It’s an expression of intimate friendship; a ritual of bonding with what’s-today-called one’s BFF. And not to be entered into lightly.
I don’t know how old is this gesture is, or even if, in this hazardous fluids-aware world of ours, it is still practiced. Continue reading “The Brotherhood of Blood”
365 Names: “The Unseen Seer”
THE UNSEEN SEER Google this, and you’ll find a bunch of links describing a Dungeons & Dragons character class. But I recently saw this Name in an (unremembered, alas) online Torah publication, and I like it because of the image it provokes: a Presence invisible yet omniscient; an Observer which uses our eyes, but lives just outside our own perception; a Witness to all that transpires. Spooky-but-cool, isn’t it? Continue reading “365 Names: “The Unseen Seer””
“Strangers Stopping Strangers, Just to Shake Their Hand…”
Well, I ain’t often right, but I’ve never been wrong —
It seldom turns out the way it does in the song.
Once in a while, you get shown the light
In the strangest of places, if you look at it right…”
— Robert Hunter, a”h
A Universe Full Of “Learn Here” Stickers
There was a time when every brief saying one heard was regarded as a ‘Torah’ (teaching, guidance), and everything one saw was perceived as an instruction in his Avoda (worship, service) and conduct.”
–Daily Hayom Yom newsletter
365 Names: “Love”
LOVE is defined here in its Divine sense as “That which attracts and unifies.” Similar in principle to the Great Magnet, but different in its connotation of intimacy. The Greeks have specified this Name’s essential qualities as “eros,” or sexuality, and “agape,” a more selfless emotion and one better suited for our analytic purposes. (The latter sense is Christian in origin, but why should we let only one religion have all the fun?) Continue reading “365 Names: “Love””