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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2011-12-01 09:27 pm

Seminary Studies etc and ALP NatCon

The past few days I've spent a fair amount of time completing essays for my studies at The New Seminary. A complete update of my work to date, which includes Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, plus reviews of the four common dialogues of the last days of Socrates, plus reviews of the first three chapters of Felder's procedural reconstruction of the Ten Commandments, are all available on my website. Yes, that is quite a word count. Edit Neglected to mention that I've been upgraded to the accelerated program, and will complete within a year.

On related matters, caught up with a fellow seminary student who occasionally lives in Melbourne. A former liberal Baptist she is now part of a Uniting Church eco-feminist congregation that meets at CERES. It made good sense to have dinner that night at the home of the organiser of a local witches coven

I have arrived in Sydney to attend the ALP's National Conference and Fringe Conference. Staying in a rather neat and surprisingly charming backpackers dorm in Bondi. Chatted to a reporter on the 'plane over, who reckons the numbers are about 170 to the left and about 220 to the right, with a handful of independents, and with wavering factions in the larger groupings (e.g., the Ferguson Left, the NUW). Briefly attended the National Left meeting. Major issues that will come up will be marriage equality, onshoring processing of asylum seekers, uranium sales to India, and Party reform. Will be making ample use of Twitter during the conference (lev_lafayette).

Mysticism

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2011-12-15 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
In the course of this discussion I have discovered this little gem which probably explains much of dispute that we're having.


There is no law of rta. There is rta and rta is harmony; but this harmony is not subjected to any ulterior law. There is no mind behind. To live in a rtic universe represents a fundamental human experience different from that of believing [we] live in a logical world or in a universe, governed by law ... This is what the upanishads will try to qualify later. Being is free, ultimately even from thinking. No need of ethical norms at the ultimate level. No need of fear, 'Angst', anxiety, regarding ultimate questions. Rta is there, but not as a refuge. No need to control everything, to be certain of all things, to know everything.


Dr. Raimundo Pannikar, ‘Foreword’, Jeanine Miller, The Vision of Cosmic Order in the Vedas (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985), p. xix.


So because Rta proposes a harmonic order that is beyond thought it is inexplicable.

Re: Mysticism

[identity profile] pmax3.livejournal.com 2011-12-16 05:11 am (UTC)(link)
That doesn't even make sense. Rta is the governing law, but this guy says it means there is no law. Wow.

Re: Mysticism

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2011-12-16 07:26 am (UTC)(link)
Makes perfect sense to me.

Re: Mysticism

[identity profile] pmax3.livejournal.com 2011-12-16 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
That's all that matters.