Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Spirituality and Philosophy
Hyper-Cosmic Metaphysics
What I call the “hyper-cosmos” is everything: It includes the material universe; and also all the permutations of both recognized physical forms and also psychic and spiritual forms of “energy” in the not-so-material universe; plus all permutations of mind in the pretty-much-non-material universe; and beyond that, the spiritual dimensions that are quite immaterial; plus, finally, […]
I Found God (Sort-of)
At least I think it’s God. Or, more likely, a projection of Her/His/Its shadow. The Ground of Being itself can’t be directly perceived with either senses or even intuition. Anyway, as I get ready to turn eighty, I do believe there’s something that gives rise to our reality “Higher Power” is the wrong word. It […]
I Found God! (Finally!)
I’ve been playing with dimensionality as a tool for exploring mind, and have been making mind the basis of a philosophical scale. So that mind that thinks about mind is the 6th dimension. Working back: Mind that thinks at all is the 5th dimension. Time is the 4th (according to Albert Einstein), ordinary reality is […]
Iconoclasm Revisited
My wife and I were chatting and I murmured, “I guess I’m a bit of an iconoclast.” She erupted vehemently—the word has very negative connotations to her, shallow, destructive rather than constructive, close to the sense of mere anarchy. Aha, here is another instance of certain words being nested in associations that are sometimes emotionally […]
Idiosyncratic Mind
Idiosyncrasy is the quality of being one-of-a-kind. In spite of many institutions in the 20th century—school, business, church—treating us as if we were interchangeable units in a big machine, in fact we are quite unique. In this present century we’re only beginning to catch up to the awareness that, first, everything is far more complex […]
If Not Resurrection or Reincarnation, What?
A respected acquaintance noted his belief in reincarnation. Got me thinking: First, what about several other scenarios?: One, dissolve into the Great Becoming-ness, having contributed your life to that process, adding a little creativity here, posing a bit of a problem there, perhaps giving to the becoming-ness of children and grandchildren, directly or indirectly. Weeds […]
If Not Resurrection or Reincarnation, What?
A friend of mine wrote about “past lives” and this stimulated my thinking about other possibilities: One possibility—this is of course rank speculation—is that “we” dissolve into the Great Becoming-ness, having contributed our lives to that process, adding a little creativity here, posing a bit of a problem there, perhaps giving to the becoming-ness of […]
If You Can Change The Way You Look At Things…
… the things you look at change. This was sent to me as part of another email-blog from Chuck & Karen Robison at www.whatifitreallyworks.com Wow. And of course I like mandalas so…
Imperfect Creativity
Okay, these are estimates I’ve just made up out of the blue, but the point is to wonder about how the creative process operates in the world. So, consider that creativity generates 2,409 new breakthroughs or generative ideas per minute (or second?) on this planet: 48% on re-thinking are either absurd or face overwhelming obstacles. […]
Implications of Science on Theology
I contemplated God today and took a turn for the apophatic in contrast to the cataphatic way to appreciate divinity. While cataphatic speaks of the positive qualities of God, the apophatic speaks of what God is not, how God must transcend all notions that can be conceptualized by humanity. In supporting my thinking, I considered […]
Improvisational Theology
I disrupt the tradition of theology in several ways: I am not a member of any school of theology, much less even a member of the clergy. I am not building on anyone else’s theology, and indeed, I am somewhere between apophatic—which means I acknowledge that we cannot know much if anything about God—and improvisa-tional. […]
Improvisational Theology
In 1979 Elaine Pagels wrote a book titled The Gnostic Gospels (Vintage Books), in which she noted that for the Gnostics, being considered “spiritually mature” or “initiated” was to write something that is stimulatingly original. That’s how I understood it. We have been living through millennia of quasi-worship of those who presume to know enough […]
Inanition
This word is defined as a loss of vitality. It can be from malnutrition, perhaps mixed with physical exhaustion, but the term also speaks to a state of vitality—or the loss of momentum thereof—of an individual, group, organization, or even political dynasty. The word seems fit as I notice trends in culture, certain fashions dying […]
Inter-Spirituality Issues
I read a column by Eileen Flynn recently about the problem of interspirituality. A recent book by Stephen Prothero, God is Not One, challenges the idea of unity in religion, and of course he’s right on one level, but mistaken on another level. It has to do with levels of abstraction, essence. And what is […]
Interspirituality
I was just reminded of the movement towards “inter-spirituality.” The late Brother Wayne Teasdale was a pioneer, among many others. Kurt Johnson, and others lead a trend—or at least a part of a trend towards this on this website: https://unity.earth/ which is a workshop that weaves together a number of related endeavors! Other new endeavors […]
Interspirituality (Cultural Trends Part 3)
Interspirituality is a few steps beyond tolerance, which evolved into inter-faith dialogue. My understanding of this term is that it refers to a search for or at least an opening to an appreciation of those elements in all religions that speak to the same psychological and communal-ethical spirit. (This builds on a blog of July […]
Interspirituality: The Next Step
I’ve just been reading a book, The coming interspiritual age, by Kurt Johnson & David Robert Ord (Vancouver: Namaste, 2012—just published!) It explains at length—delightfully!—just why now’s the time! I do sense a shift from spirituality based on content to spirituality based on process—but more about that anon. The books was a Christmas present from […]
Intra-cellular Dynamics Illustrated
Here is a video my son found this on the internet and passed along. He wrote, "I understood 1% of the text, but the visualization of what’s going on inside our cells is astonishing. Check it out: A must see! … And I agreed. To this I would add the following comments: Yes! And what’s […]
It’s All Mush: A Co-Creative Metaphysics
Around 25 years ago I was sitting with my sweet wife, Allee, in Black’s Barbecue in Lockhart, Texas, and I asked her, “What’s it all about?” She answered, “It’s all mush. You can do anything you want with it.” It was a playful remark, but at a deep level I experienced a certain core of […]
Jung & Dimensionality
I like the work of Carl G. Jung, and want to note that his "thing" wasn’t really therapy so much as self-discovery. That this would help people was a side-benefit. The human mind is capable of mysticism, and maybe more. The mind taps into the 8th dimension, which is to the human mind as the […]
Junior Prophet?
Well, what should I call this status role? It’s significantly less than a full-blown prophet, but it points out or explains what a real prophet might have been alluding to. Prophet-ette? Maybe. There is the phenomenon of people tending to say they’re true followers while in fact deviating in certain ways from the prophet’s intended […]
Last Day of Life
I’ll go with dignity, I expect. But I giggle when I think of my Shadow complex, as illustrated by the Charles Schutz’ character of Lucy in the 1973 Peanuts cartoon: Another variation of Dylan Thomas: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night ?
Later-in-Life Learning
There’s a lot about early and even mid-childhood development and the many things that go on during these phases. But I’ve been impressed recently, on reflection, how much still there are lessons to learn, new integrations, continued healing of past stresses, traumas, neuroses, and relationships. We realized also that this continued learning is part of […]
Leprechaun Power
Here’s a little thought for St. Patrick’s Day: Please take it as seriously or as playfully as you like. At this point in history, most reputable people don’t yet believe in elves. (And by elves I mean anthropomorphic representations of semi-cosmic resonant energy fields.) It’s interesting, because belief in cosmic resonant energy fields such as […]
Let Flow
Instead of Let Go, this inner rule is still not absolute. Let flow 89% plus or minus. There’s still a need to exercise discrimination, judgment, responsibility. Maybe that rises from 11% to 32.5%, because becoming to slack, secretly or unconsciously hoping God or the Angels or Providence will do it for you is folly. They […]