RE: Why does god put the needs of the few above the need of the many?
December 25, 2020 at 12:36 am
(This post was last modified: December 25, 2020 at 12:38 am by Belacqua.)
(December 24, 2020 at 2:23 pm)Greatest I am Wrote: That thinking is why Gnostic Christian Jesus taught that heaven was here and now but that most people could not see it. I can.
Yes, I think it's standard for Gnostic and esoteric Christians to hold that God is not separate from our own time and place, and that if we fail to see this, it's a problem of our perception.
So it's interesting to me that you say you can see it.
When we read accounts of spiritual vision, from Plotinus to the Irish poet A.E., it seems that anyone experiencing God directly will be overwhelmed, at least temporarily. Writing about one's experience during the experience is not possible. Nonetheless people can relate what it felt like to them, after the fact. The description will necessarily be partial and probably symbolic, and probably make use of the ineffability topos, but can still be worth reading.
When you say that you can see that heaven is here and now, is this the type of experience you are talking about? Or is this a constant perception you have, like proprioception?
Obviously the mere understanding of the fact that heaven is here and now is not the same as seeing it. No doubt many people accept the truth of the proposition without having the vision.
My main question here is how that vision changes a person. Plato, of course, thought that after someone had had the direct view, he should return to the cave -- giving up direct vision -- because he would make the best leader. And this implies that someone who has Gnosis will be a better sort of human being. This makes me wonder what a better sort of human being would be like.
My guess is that if a person had a vision of truth, and kept some effects from it, he or she would be a number of things. I'm guessing:
kind,
patient,
calm,
forgiving of others' foibles,
clear in one's explanations, as far as language allows
The other way of imagining superior people, who are in touch with higher Gnosis, would be something like the model of the Taoist immortal. Such people are generally thought to have transcended to the point where normal human concerns would be of no interest. The kind of discussion we have on this forum would be of absolutely no interest to such a person, and we could be sure that anyone demanding to be taken seriously as an immortal wouldn't be one.
So I'm curious as to how, in your view, your vision of heaven as imminently present in the world has changed your character. Do you feel it has lifted you above normal human tendencies to fly off the handle? Has it made you exceptionally good at leading?