Bringing God Down to Earth
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“The vision of an incomplete (and even broken) world is documented by a verse in Isaiah 45:7 which describes God as the ‘Producer of light and Creator of darkness, the One who makes peace and Creates evil–I am the Eternal who makes all of them”
(Shlomo Riskin in an essay entitled ” Sanctity of Time, Sancity of Place, and Sanctity of the Human Being” in David Birnbaum’s and Benjamin Blech’s book entitled “Sanctification”.)
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What follows are a brief series of quotes appearing totally unexpectedly as a philosophical side bar in Gregory David Robert’s fast moving action packed gangster themed novel taking place in Bombay, India.
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“At the Big Bang, some characteristics were imparted to the born universe: Space, Time, Matter, and Gravity are examples along with the Tendency Field which drives the Tendency toward complexity. I also want to say that a set of Positive Characteristics was imparted to every particle of matter at the time of the Big Bang.”
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“The Tendency Field operates on a very simple program of IF-THIS THEN-THAT which runs everything everywhere.”
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“If you get in tune with the Tendency Field, through expanding and exploring the set of positive characteristics within yourself, the Tendency Field will respond with constant energy and affirmations.”
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“If, on the other hand, you work against the Tendency Field, by being negative, unfair, unloving and unconscious of the truth, you weaken your connection to theTendency Field, and you experience existential dread no matter how rich or famous or powerful you are.”
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“If you remain connected to the Tendency Field, you have serenity”.
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“Life is connection, the world is connection and both are always impoverished by dislocation”.
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“Nothing is a part of the human condition, but our common humanity.”
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“Long ago early human beings learned through cooperation and love to fear no creature, and no place on land or sea. We are magnificent and we are malignant. But we can be anything we want ourselves to be, from killers of neighbors, to saviors of distant neighbors in our galaxy. We can shape our destiny”
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What follows are more words from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin from the same article quoted above with some additional commentary in parentheses.
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Here is Shlomo Riskin discussing the thoughts of Rabbi Aharon Soloveitchik as to how tradational Judaism teaches us to connect to the positive characteristics within ourselves and with the universe as quoted above by Gregory David Roberts and which connects us to Isaiah’s vision of the “Producer of Light…and the One who makes Peace” (unless we through our ignorance and greed, selfishness and overall lack of mindfulness create an IF-THEN situation which triggers an automatic response from the Universe which brings about conditions of “Darkness and Evil”)
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“A person who has not yet recited a blessing (or does not recite a blessing at all) sees two separate worlds–heaven, which belongs to God, and earth, which belongs to human beings.”
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“Never, do the two worlds meet. However, a person who is immersed in the world of blessings is able (through constant practice and the right Kavanah (Hebrew word for “Intention”) to perceive the sublime within the mundane, the godly within the earthly, the transcendent nature of God within the immanent universe.”
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“The food he or she is about to eat becomes a bridge between this world and God. Through the blessings, (over the food) a person (and a community) is able to bring God down into this world.”
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“Therefore, AFTER–and as a result of eating the fruit with the blessings having been said, an individual can truly feel that “the entire world belongs to God” (of which he or she as the eater of the food, and the maker of the blessing is connected to in an immediate and meaningful way).”
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“Indeed (with the proper attitude) a person (any person and potentially all people) can bring God into the material world by means of an object as mundane as an apple or a piece of bread (IF eaten and appreciated with gratitude and with awareness of ecological, social justice and health issues) “
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And so we see a growing consensus between an ancient Prophet of Israel with two modern day Orthodox rabbis, and a modern day novelist related to the big existential questions of life…all of them pointing to David Birnbaum’s three volume masterpiece entitled “Summa Metaphysica 1, 2 and 3” in which he spells out in great detail his Potentialism Theory that encompasses all parts of the Universe as well as the Universe itself as everything that was, is and will be is on an “Infinite Quest for Potential”
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