My Metaphysics
I wrote this in a break during a recent zen retreat:
All is one. This lies at the root of spiritual metaphysics – of the kind i know – and in a sense the story ends there. But let’s unpack it a little. What is the nature of “One” ? Well, One is God, but anything which has all qualities yet also no divisions is (logically) without qualities – for qualities require things to contrast with – here is where we get the Buddhist “emptiness” or, if you like, the “nothing is there” which is an a-theist position (i.e. there is no god).
If all is one, that means that the universe, on the one hand and our Self (our soul, or consciousness) on the other, are also truly one and the same thing. This is the position of Advaita (Vedic non-dualism): Atman (Self) = Brahman (the universe). It is also true to say in Advaita that all is Atman or all is Brahman – which sounds a bit like “all is one”. I think though, that there might be a hint here of the fluidity that is the true nature of the one, vs. the rigid mathematical monotheisms, the wholistic philosophy of Plato, instead it is an eternally spinning coin.
Although i’m posting here for curiosity’s sake, i still firmly hold that the idea you can describe at all the ultimate reality is a kind of folly.
When meditating recently i’ve had the thought that we must just keep pushing. Don’t look back to see how things are going. I had a dream last night and got a feeling that the me in the dream had a different past. Like when you hold a bundle of sticks in the middle, all momentarily aligned are the timelines of life, in this moment, but with many different pasts, different futures.
I was hard on atheists here a few posts ago but hanging out in the ‘reformed christianity’ subreddits recently, actually i am more scared of those folks. Give me atheists any day. Give me Buddhists (who are atheists, originally). Give me tantra. Anything but reformed christians lol. Although, I do think the Quakers are ok.
Did i already post about James Nayler? He has an interesting sad story, he was there at the beginning of Quakerism. It was a wild time in England, the civil war going on. Lots of crazy new ideas about religion—about religious freedom, and freedom more generally, freedom from the oppressive church, landholders, societal norms. Nayler was one of the visionaries at the heart of these movements but he went t0o far and was punished, after much debate among the new parliament that emerged in the Kings absence. He was pilloried, had a red-hot iron bored through his tongue, and his forehead was branded with the letter “B” for Blasphemer. Released but broken, he died alone by the side of the road, trying to make his way back to his family, and his story is largely forgotten now.
Parliament spent a long time debating his case, and in deciding to punish him I feel they took a stance on suppressing the activity of revolutionary religious figures in England that has stuck to this day. It set a tone for down to earth realism vs inspired feverous holy dreams. But the reformist or puritan movement James Naylor was part of went on to have a huge influence in the new world over the other side of the Atlantic, and it is there that the figure of the religious emissary or zealot still has a large part to play in society even today.
Randomly spoke to Mick Harvey they other day after a concert and he mentioned how Mark Lanegan died on a day with a crazy date (22.2.22). This reminds me that time itself is a fiction. Like a crystal rotating in your hand, the sun glinting on it, I’m going to shine out in the wild kindness.
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