From: barry@calmasd.Prime.COM (Barry Hynum)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Re: Blindness & Justice (A Course In Miracles)
Date: 9 Oct 92 16:51:45 GMT
Organization: Computervision, San Diego, CA

First off, thx u Paul for finally putting something interesting on
t.r.na. I haven't been tempted to post anything in at least a year.

Paul writes:

>We also dealt with the man who was blind from birth. They couldn't answer my 
>question of "*why* the apostles imagined that the man could sin before he was 
>born. 

I would carefully rethink the short sighted version that blindness is 
caused by sin in any way, shape or form. One perspective is that the
chosen one is to feel more in this lifetime than see. I do not regard that
as bad or the result of sinning. I offer this as an alternative view,
not as a criticism.

John writes:

>   >This is more of a New Age interpretation of Jesus which conveniently    
>   >remembers the loving aspect of God but ignores His justice.  

Paul writes:

>Pity they just don't go along with his main message of love and 
>forgiveness. 

>   "What can it be but arrogance to think your little errors cannot be    
>   undone by Heaven's justice?"

What we commonly think of as evil is God's messenger standing across our
path. Where we should not go, that we persist in pursuing, envokes God's
wrath. I'm not sure I'd call that justice. 

Winnicott might have called that the Holding Environment, I use caps to
refer to God's versus parental holding environment. Often affliction has
to do with God's intervention with regards to our destiny. But there are
cases like Job wherein "justice" and "guidance" don't fit, IMHO.

Paul writes:

>   "Our course is not concerned with any concept that is not acceptable to 
>   anyone, regardless of his formal beliefs. His ego will be enough for him 
>   to cope with, and it is not the part of wisdom to add sectarian       
>   controversies to his burdens."

One of the concepts that took me the longest time to really get is that
beliefs like Christian, as modified by the Course, or any other set of
religiously based beliefs constitute the mental constructs that a person
or people build to contain their fears. Each set of beliefs has a
protective quality that is somewhat unique and affords a special kind of
protection from that which is feared. To have a religion that truly
encompasses all of what everyone fears or avoids is like dividing any
number by zero. The probability of success is 1 over the population of
the world. 

To think that one's religion is the one religion and that all others are
false, or to think that one's relligion has all the answers for everyone
(able to contain the fears of all), to me this is foolishness. I've
given up looking for the one religion or trying to convince anyone that
I know the way for them. 

It's like dreams, the symbols mean something unique to each individual.
One meaning for a symbol is ludicrous. IMHO.

Bear

BTW: I sense from Paul's postings kindness, some distance on the ego,
and genuine scriptural and self studies. I appreciate your posts, Paul.
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