Infinite Peace!
Last June 5, we welcomed back to the Tuesday Inner Work Circle Marites who returned from her trip to “Middle Earth” (New Zealand!) with inspiring stories and insights from her experience during the Waitangi Asia-Pacific Interfaith Dialogue conference.
After Marites shared her experiences, we then heard from our assigned speaker—our resident ex-atheist—who talked about his personal journey as an atheist for 21 years grappling with “God Concepts.”
Mentioned were some insights about the story of the tower of Babel from the Bible and how the plurality of languages and diversification came about and along with it the different references and names of God as well as the varied religions. The theme on form and essence came into play as another reference to the Bible was mentioned-- the Pentecost-- where the Holy Spirit worked as the spirit/essence that unified the “form” as people talked in different languages but understood each other.
From this topic shared from the perspective of one who lost–and–found God, the discussions went through various dimensions and levels—“in depth, width, and height”—as we heard other sharings from the perspective of the different faiths.
From “form and essence” to “oneness and diversity” or “unification and differentiation,” the interplay, cycle, or “dance” between these opposite poles was reflected on. From the mitotic division of one cell into many parts, up to how these small parts end up forming a bigger whole that is one complete organism—the process works up to the infinite levels and systems. From one to many and then back to one.
One God, one source, one essence… Many concepts, many names, many qualities… Then we continuously seek to realize the unity in diversity, oneness in plurality, and transcend the boundaries of forms towards one spirit.
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