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Author Topic:   Gravity and Grace
Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake

Posts: 1525
From: north of Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004

posted June 23, 2005 12:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Heart--Shaped Cross     Edit/Delete Message
1. Why God is hiding?
"God could only create by hiding himself. Otherwise there would be nothing but himself."

-- Gravity and Grace

2. Waiting for God

"To believe in God is not a decision we can make. All we can do is decide not to give our love to false gods. In the first place, we can decide not to believe that the future contains for us an all-sufficient good. The future is made of the same stuff as the present....

"...It is not for man to seek, or even to believe in God. He has only to refuse to believe in everything that is not God. This refusal does not presuppose belief. It is enough to recognize, what is obvious to any mind, that all the goods of this world, past, present, or future, real or imaginary, are finite and limited and radically incapable of satisfying the desire which burns perpetually with in us for an infinite and perfect good... It is not a matter of self-questioning or searching. A man has only to persist in his refusal, and one day or another God will come to him."
-- Weil, Simone, ON SCIENCE, NECESSITY, AND THE LOVE OF GOD, edited by Richard Rees, London, Oxford University Press, 1968.- ©

3. How a little imagination protects us from God
"Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it We must continually suspend the work of the imagination in filling the void within ourselves."
"In no matter what circumstances, if the imagination is stopped from pouring itself out, we have a void (the poor in spirit). In no matter what circumstances... imagination can fill the void. This is why the average human beings can become prisoners, slaves, prostitutes, and pass thru no matter what suffering without being purified."

"That is why we fly from the inner void, since God might steal into it. It is not the pursuit of pleasure and the aversion for effort which causes sin, but fear of God. We know that we cannot see him face to face without dying, and we do not want to die."
-- Gravity and Grace

4. Evil is bad because it is boring
"Monotony of evil: never anything new, everything about it is equivalent. Never anything real, everything about it is imaginary. It is because of this monotony that quantity plays so great a part. A host of women (Don Juan) or of men (Celimene) etc. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself."
-- Gravity and Grace

5. What is real
"A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams."
-- Gravity and Grace


excerpts as noted from GRAVITY AND GRACE by Simone Weil, New York, G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1952. edited and arranged by Gustave Thibon, translated by Emma Craufurd

French © Libraire Plon 1947
English © G.P.Putnam's & Sons 1956
All Rights Reserved


Introspection

"Introspection is a psychological state incompatible with other states.

"1. Thinking about things of the world precludes introspection.

"2. Very strong emotion precludes introspection.

"3. All actions which require attention preclude introspection.


"To sum up, thought, action and emotion exclude examination of oneself.


"[therefore] introspection results in one's taking notice, for the most part, of what is passive in human thought. By the very fact that one keeps a watch on oneself, one changes: and the change is for the worse since we prevent that which is of greatest value in us from playing its part."
– Lectures on Philosophy


Education

Weil lamented that education had become no more than "an instrument manipulated by teachers for manufacturing more teachers, who in their turn will manufacture more teachers." rather than a guide to getting out of the cave.
not due to a lack of intelligence

"The difference between more or less intelligent men is like the difference between criminals condemned to life imprisonment in smaller or larger cells. The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like a condemned man who is proud of his large cell.


"... All that matters is that is if he has come to the end of its intelligence, such as it was, and has passed beyond it. A village idiot is as close to truth as a child prodigy. ..."
- Human Personality
http://rivertext.com/weil3.html

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juniperb
Knowflake

Posts: 5650
From: Big Dipper
Registered: Mar 2002

posted June 23, 2005 03:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for juniperb     Edit/Delete Message
Much to ponder here

A question comes to mind.

quote:
"To believe in God is not a decision we can make. All we can do is decide not to give our love to false gods.

If we do not have a working model of God (belief) then how does one know or recognize a "false God"?

Allah/God said "I was a hidden treasure and wanted to be Known."

quote:
It is not for man to seek, or even to believe in God

I then wonder why Jesus the Christ said "seek and ye shall find" or "follow me, and I am the Way, the Truth and the Light.

Blessings,

------------------
If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans. ~James Herriot

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Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake

Posts: 1525
From: north of Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004

posted June 24, 2005 11:19 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Heart--Shaped Cross     Edit/Delete Message
Hi Juniperb,


*If we do not have a working model of God (belief) then how does one know or recognize a "false God"?*

Your question would appear to answer itself.
When we find what seems to be "a working model for God", let us recognize in that model a false God.


*I then wonder why Jesus the Christ said "seek and ye shall find" or "follow me, and I am the Way, the Truth and the Light.*

I do not know to what extent it is good to discuss these things, as, it seems to me, that each person will find in the words of Christ what is intended for them.

"One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

"He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks."

There are many things in scripture that appear contradictory, and one quote can just as easily be dismissed by the sighting of another. "For we know in part, and we prophecy in part.." But, it seems to me, that this is the nature of religious terminology; that it is symbolic, and we cannot speak of God in our language with any true semblence of precision. I would say that truth is not in the teachings, but in between them. "When that which is whole is come, then that which is in part shall be done away".

The few words we have here spoken by Simone Weil and the words of Christ which you bring to our attention, if they seem to contradict each other, may actually point to a higher understanding, and a deeper reading of both.

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sesame
Moderator

Posts: 877
From: Oz
Registered: Nov 2003

posted June 29, 2005 01:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for sesame     Edit/Delete Message
I dunno. Is it just me, or were those quotes pretty negative? I think it boils down to our relative understanding of God. To perceive a loving God is to worship one. To view a God that only meets you half way is to always strive for that God - never understanding her. She is here now, yours to worship as you see fit. I don't think it's necessarilly something to strive for. This might seem out of left field, but it's what I picked up on after reading the quotes. I don't believe God is hiding. I believe WE are hiding. How could God not exist when creating everything that IS God?

Dean.

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sue g
Knowflake

Posts: 1242
From: ireland
Registered: Sep 2004

posted June 29, 2005 01:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for sue g     Edit/Delete Message
God is definately not hiding from me, can feel him/her frequently, if I didnt I would begin to worry!!! When people say how do you gain faith, well I would answer that you dont, its just there. My 78 year old Dad still hasnt found it and he says he never will, interesting that he produces a kid who lives on a prayer...........Love and hugs to all xxx

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