The One Is Indivisible
The Truth Is The Whole
My wife and I have set a standard for all American families. I will name it The Not-Two Standard.
We are not the first to set this standard, nor shall we be the last.
But we have set it, and for all American families. The standard is life-giving.
I have just expounded on The Not-Two Standard in three studies:
Christian Theology And Biblical Exegesis
Christian Churches And The Church
Christian Families And Monasteries
Decades ago we named our home Adwaitha Hermitage. Adwaitha is a Sanskrit word meaning Not-Two. Indo-European dw is the cognate for both Sanskrit dwo and English two. a in this case operates as it does in English, as a negater. An hermitage is a home for hermits, in this case husband, wife, and children, to unfold their personal destiny as flowers unfolding to the sun and preparing to appear in maturity as delicious fruits sweetening others.
There is a subtle philosophical-epistemological reason one expresses the great Monistic Principle, the Principle of Unity, as Not-Two instead of as One. It is this: any positive statement one makes regarding something, anything really, conveys and can convey only a fraction of what that something really is. Whatever it is, anything said as to what it is attenuates, and severely, its actuality. The truth is the whole, which cannot be comprehensively denoted, much less described, and far, far less defined, by any statement or concatenation of statements.
No accurate statement regarding what the truth is can be made, not for anything essential or existential. And that is the case even before one summons The Heisenberg Principle and Gödel’s Proof against any positive statement regarding reality.
However, accurate statements can be made regarding what the truth is not. Lot of them. An endless number of them, in fact, starting with negatives regarding every statement as to what the truth is. The truth is what the truth cannot be said to be. Or, the truth is what the truth can be said not to be. Nice little brain twister, that. Think about it if you do not already grasp it intuitively, which should be easy.
What the truth can be said to be not is
another matter altogether and beyond the scope of this essay.
An hermitage is its residents, not a place. Life is personal, a family is personal, a unity non-duality of subject and object. This is God’s playground.
Worship (puja) is not merely plucking a flower and placing it on top of a beautiful image of God; do not forget the gardener who toiled to nurse the plant and gave the flower – remember, he is also a worshipper. Real spiritual wisdom (jnana) is true understanding, it is not merely an intellectual accomplishment. It is only when food is given, that the body can function. Even the acts preceding a sacrifice is an offering (yajna). One utilises the world to worship the Lord, to establish peace and justice in society, and to control and coordinate the functions of the body. All action done for the sake of these three goals is sacrifice. The first is called a sacrificial ritual (yajna); the second, charity (dana); and the third, penance (tapas). All human acts, by everyone, anywhere in the world, must subserve these three needs!
Sathya Sai Baba – Prema Vahini, Chapter 12 / Daily Email, Sai Inspires: Subscription
Βασιλεία του Θεού
Update 1: The lesson [of the naval battle of Toulon, February 1744], in the judgment of the author [Mahan], is the danger of a disgraceful failure to men who have neglected to keep themselves prepared, not only in knowledge of their profession, but in the sentiment of what war requires. The average man is not a coward; but neither is he endowed by nature only with with the rare faculty of seizing intuitively the proper course at a critical moment. He gains it, some more, some less, by experience or by reflection. If both have been lacking to him, indecision will follow; either from not knowing what to do, or from failure to realize that utter self-devotion of himself and his command are required.
A. T. Mahan
The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783, page 267
Update 2: It is not possible, as Communists essay to do, to find dignity much less value in a person taken as unconnected to the vertical dimension of life, the dimension of spirit, which is reality’s (and a person’s) linkage to God. The Parable of the Good Shepherd makes no sense sans the shepherd, who embodies the divine quality of love. No government can bestow dignity or value or love. Government has a purpose, a divine purpose, but it is not in the realm of dignity, value, or love. Those qualities are innate to a person, from their divine center, or they exist not, and a person bereft of that innateness is more dangerous than an animal.
Update 3: Deny their divine center and persons have no dignity or value. That is the Socialist Way: claim to get Christian results without Christ.
Update 4: Well and good, but who did the corruption, and why? It was not the government that did these things. It was persons elected or appointed to operate the mechanisms of government who did these things. The government is not corrupt. Specific persons operating its mechanisms have been and are. The boom should be lowered on guilty crew members, not on the ship. It is personal, not structural.
Update 5: Reynolds saw on Facebook: At this point in history, is it wise to take foreign policy advice from people who walked around in broad daylight with knitted pussies on their heads? The answer is no, by the way. And not just at this point in history.