The GOD PARADOX - Brian Muraresku & Karen Armstrong

foreign welcome back to after skool I'm Brian Muraresku  author of The immortality key and today we'll   be exploring the work of Karen Armstrong she is  one of the world's best known living writers on   religion and also a heroine of mine and together  we'll be talking about the mysticism of antiquity   and what that all means for us today so  without further Ado let's Dive In foreign if you think you've understood God that ain't God  these words were penned by Saint Augustine roughly   1600 years ago now whether you're a person of  Faith No Faith at all or somewhere in between it   matters how we Define God as a species strange as  it sounds the fate of the planet could very well   depend on our definition of God again even if that  word means nothing to you or it conjures vague   images of an elderly man with a beard sitting in  the clouds or maybe it's synonymous with organized   religion institutions Traditions beliefs which  for you might be the compass of your existence   or just utterly irrelevant for all of us the  definition of God matters it says everything   about how we understand ourselves how we treat  each other in the Earth with its abundance of life   and how we grapple with the mystery of the cosmos  I always turn to Joseph Campbell to help explain   God is a thought God is an idea but its  reference is to something that transcends   all thinking so there's a paradox  and that's kind of the whole point God whatever that means is not something  to be understood by the rational mind no   institution can claim ownership  in fact the words meaningless   following up on Augustine the Jesuit Carl Rahner  one of the most influential theologians of the   20th century was no fan of God said we shouldn't  use the word for 50 years it confused his notion   of God as the holy mystery incomprehensible and  impenetrable above us around us but also within us   despite the Paradox there can be no defining  god without us in the ancient world that Carl   Rahner definition could be found across  the world's religions from east to west   in Confucianism Chi was the essence of being a  force the Chinese regarded as unknowable recondite   for a Taoist this sacred force was at the heart of  mundane existence and yet this vital energy flows   through Us in some mysterious way in Hinduism  god isn't a dude in the clouds it's Brahman   the foundation of all reality the beingness on  which all things depend on the other hand is our   individual soul in the advice School of Hinduism  that Atman is identical to Brahman the Ultimate   Reality in other words Divinity resides in  US in Buddhism there's no personal God but   that compassionate mystery could be called  the essence of the entire Cosmos and eternal   permanent immutable pure and self-sufficient force  that unites all beings draws them into a coherent   whole and universally illumines the human mind  enabling us to cultivate a capacity for goodness   now these Eastern definitions of God come from the  preeminent scholar Karen Armstrong the author of   a couple dozen books translated into 45 languages  Armstrong has been described as the world's best   known living writer on religion before becoming a  lover of comparative theology she was a Catholic   nun for about seven years until she realized  she was bad at praying and wanted nothing to   do with God so Armstrong began looking to  the sages Mystics and Prophets of antiquity   her Focus was the axial age that period between  the 8th and 3rd centuries BC when many of our   religions came into being not just Confucianism  and taoism in East Asia or Hinduism and Buddhism   in South Asia but the mysteries of the Greco-Roman  world at the root of Western civilization and the   rise of the abrahamic faiths Judaism what would  later become Christianity and eventually Islam   it's called axial because so much of our  cultural history turns on this ancient age   in fact if you just add up the Christians  Muslims Hindus and Buddhists of today and   big round numbers that's about six  of the planet's eight billion people   at their core Armstrong sees more similarity  than difference after years of devouring her   books I finally reached out for a conversation the  incomprehensible god of the East that sacred Force   could also be found in the west she reminded me  once upon a time before the Scientific Revolution   of the 16th and 17th centuries confined God to  the sky the monotheistic face had the same idea   as the East don't forget about Thomas Aquinas said  Armstrong perhaps the most influential Christian   thinker of the medieval period he had the right  idea about God uh he said uh God is everywhere   and wherever God is God is there there holy so God  is in every single leaf every single tree ever is   everywhere it's it's transfuses nature and that  was exactly the way the peoples of the world uh   had always cultivated their sense of the natural  world as sacred and divine as a full notice as a   god stuck up in the heavens but as a force a  sacred force that imbues the whole of reality   that reality includes us God is Not separate  from us agree the traditions of the axial Age We   participate in Divinity we carry a Divine Spark  but it's tough to find that spark or experience   that incomprehensible God until we stand outside  ourselves as Armstrong herself came to realize it   wasn't about praying to or worshiping the external  God of her youth or engaging in cold research   merely thinking and writing about all things  holy her encounter with the mystery occurred   when scholarship became ecstasy by dwelling  on each text each idea each spirituality she   imagined herself actually feeling the Rapture  of these ancient sages Mystics and Prophets   and there were moments in my uh study when  I would occasionally feel touched by some   form of awe or wonder or Delight I realized  my work was becoming a kind of meditation   the kind of meditation that I've been able unable  to do in the convent there's that Paradox again   the rational discursive mind engaged in  scholarship spontaneously interrupted by   an experience of awe that transcends thinking a  mystery on paper becomes a mystery of the heart   the personal God that Armstrong could never find  becomes the impersonal Brahman of the east or the   god of Thomas Aquinas that imbues the whole of  reality interestingly it's this definition of God   that also captivated Albert Einstein referring to  the 17th century Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza   Einstein once wrote I believe in Spinoza's God who  reveals himself in the lawful Harmony of the world   in a separate letter dated February 12 1950  Einstein went further a human being is a part of   the whole called by us Universe a part Limited in  time and space he experiences himself his thoughts   and feelings as something separated from the rest  a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness   the striving to free oneself from this  delusion is the one issue of True Religion   that freeing oneself from the confines of the ego  that moment of ecstasy that experience of Eternity   right here and now which Joseph Campbell called  the function of life seems to be the answer for   Scholars like Armstrong scientists like Einstein  and the mystics in the footnotes of History   the esoteric traditions of each abrahamic Faith  Embrace this paradoxical definition of God at the   root of our true self pass the optical delusion  maybe we're all gods and goddesses in disguise   in the immortality key I included a few examples  the sufis the mystics of Islam have been called   the impatient ones rather than wait until their  actual physical death the spiritual Experts of   the world's second biggest religion seek the  recovery of one's full identity in this lifetime   Rumi the 13th century Sufi Master put it this  way if you could get rid of yourself just once   the secret of Secrets would open to you the face  of the unknown hidden beyond the universe would   appear on the mirror of your perception likewise  the kabbalists the mystics of Judaism pursue   self-annihilation to reach the world of the Divine  nothingness ayin in Hebrew Rabbi Lawrence Kushner   a modern day scholar says just as the death of  each creature is in turn a rehearsal for the   death of a species and a Galaxy and a cosmos the  great rhythm of going out and returning now this   kind of death is not an end but only the beginning  of a transformation that will generate a rebirth   you cannot be reborn until you are willing  to die the German Theologian Meister Eckhart   lived a generation after Rumi he was the Mystic  par Excellence of medieval Christianity like   the sufis and the kabbalists Meister Eckhart  emphasized the practice of self nullification   if you could not yourself for an instant indeed  I say less than an instant you would possess all   in her new book sacred nature Karen Armstrong  highlights this self-emptying as the potential   answer to the survival of our species and the  planet there's a word for it in Greek kenosis   without it there is no Transcendence of the  self which means there's no real compassion   for others for plant and animal life for the  Earth herself people are just annoying things   and everything else an object a resource a world  devoid of meaning where no one and nothing carries   that Divine Spark While most of the world is  focused on global emissions and carbon neutrality   Armstrong is asking us to seriously reconsider  our definition of God as the dude in the clouds   and to practice the self-annihilation the  self-nullification of kenosis to actually   experience that mystical God of Einstein and the  contemplatives Gus Beth founder of the national   resource defense Council might tend to agree  I used to think the top environmental problems   facing the world were global warming environmental  degradation and ecosystem collapse and that we   scientists could fix those problems with enough  science but I was wrong the real problem is not   those three items but greed selfishness and apathy  and for that we need a spiritual and cultural   transformation and we scientists don't know how  to do that but the Buddha did enter the science   of compassion before we turned yoga into sexy  exercise and meditation into a great way to relax   this was the origin of contemplative practice  but the whole point of getting Enlightenment is   to get rid of the self as it was to subdue the ego  and the Buddha it it happened to him as a little   boy first the story is that one day he was taken  out to watch the ceremony of the first plowing   of the fields and he looked and he saw that the  plowing had uh killed a lot of little insects   and wild animals and plants which are all lying  dying and dead and a great sorrow built his heart   and it took him it took him completely out of  himself and it said that he sat immediately at   the yogic tradition and achieved a yogi for  trance we often see him then we with a sort   of inward looking peaceful and almost looking  down within himself not at all uh the texts   tell us that he spent his time sending his  thoughts out to every corner of the world   and not leaving it until he had adopted a sense of  equanimity respect and love what every single one   of these creatures whether they were pleasant  or unpleasant whether they were beautiful or   ugly even if they seemed evil and that was how  he achieved enlightenment that's pretty good   kenosis a high bar but we're not all called to  be Buddhas instead Armstrong suggests a little   death every day hour by hour whether that's the  Confucian practice of quiet sitting just getting   off social media and being present in nature  for a few minutes or a simple act of kindness   what did Mother Teresa say not all of us can do  great things but small things with great love   then there's the spiritual disciplines of the  contemplatives they chant pray and fast their   way to kenosis sometimes seclude themselves in  caves wander in labyrinths Whirl and ecstasy   in the pre-history of our species the  more archaic techniques had the same   goal drumming scarification perhaps the  ingestion of visionary plants or fungi   nowadays that kenosis has been reported and  carefully controlled scientific experiments   where a growing body of literature is charting  the relationship between psychedelic occasion   mystical experience and nature connectedness  a potential antidote to Einstein's optical   delusion where Mother Earth is no longer just a  metaphor but part of that same holy mystery we   once called God above us all around us and within  us in The Eternity of the Here and Now where the   one and the many coexist where the past and the  future Collide where to be empty is to be full   where death is Awakening where everything and  nothing matters and as RAM Dawson said it's all   perfect and it's unbearable imperfection kind of  a paradox then again Si comprehendis non est Deus thanks for tuning in to this episode of after  school if you enjoyed the information in this   video and want to dive deeper I would highly  recommend Karen Armstrong's new book sacred   nature right now you can log on to audible.com  after school or text after school to 500 500 to   listen to Sacred nature for free as a matter of  fact you can start listening with a free 30-day   audible trial and get full access to thousands  and thousands of all you can listen audiobooks   original entertainment and podcasts including  the plus catalog and if for some reason we've   got an extra 15 hours and want to listen  to this voice talk about the ritual use   of psychedelics among the ancient Greeks and  Romans and potentially the earliest Christians   you can also listen to the immortality key  the secret history of the religion with no   name just log on to audible.com after school or  text after school to 500 500. thanks for watching foreign

Channel: After Skool

Views: 355,859

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Id: PTkRIpR4gAc

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 11 2022