Sunday, and I grind coffee beans, sprinkle a little cinnamon in the Bodum, put the kettle on to boil. I enjoy the hiss-click-whoosh of the gas flame.I return to the laptop, kids, Monsters Inc. in the background. The kettle's whistle gets my attention, and I return to the stove - only to grab the teapot, dump the old teabag, insert a new teabag, and make a pot of tea. Completely on auto-pilot.
I don't even realize this until I go to press the coffee down five minutes later.
Sin is a fascinating idea, that still dominates our superficially secular culture. At its root, it denotes lack, a shortfall or insufficiency. The Greek idea of sin literally means "missing the mark", like in archery, aiming for the bull's eye and hitting instead an adjacent circle, or the green turf below. It's not a particularly judgmental idea, and actually rather forgiving. Oops, I missed, try again.
So my sin is that I missed, just then with the coffee. It's not about the coffee, of course, but rather my aim, which is to live in a state of mindfulness.
"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." - Henry Miller
It's not enough for me, as a Gnostic, to seek gnosis. I got my gnosis, thank you very much. It was very nice, really. Perception into the infinite. Stripping away the veils of dokos. Whammo. Enlightenment. Right, check. Nobody tells you that hanging on to it will be the tricky part. Staying awake.
Gnosis is by no means the last stop on the Gnostic train. We're called Gnostics, rather than Pistics (although that's a great name for a band, when you think about it) because of our views on soterology, not because gnosis is something we actually worship. No, gnosis just shows us what the map looks like, it doesn't actually get us anywhere. But it's a necessary start.
Where I choose to get to, with my illuminated map, is to Her - Sophia, who is the Person of Wisdom, the only face we can put on the Divine, that I can become one with Her. For this, I need gnosis not as an intermittent epiphany, but as a residing Charis, a state of Grace. That's the tricky part. That's what I'm aiming for.
5 comments:
That all ties in quite nicely with the 'buddhist on the inside' comments about gnostics - namely, the emphasis on mindfulness. It is not enought to just be, we ought to pay attentiont to what are being. To do anything else is to live in ignorance.
you spilled the coffee didn't you?
from davin
Of all the great posts on your site, this is one of my favorites. I just thought you should know.
It may be the coffee reference. But I suspect it's much more than that too.
I was just re-reading this post, and this part struck me:
Nobody tells you that hanging on to it will be the tricky part. Staying awake.
Jesus did. He did it with Peter, on the Mount of Olives.
"Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter."
Matthew 26:40 all the way to 45 goes into that theme, as does Mark 14 and Luke 9. It's hard for us who have not renounced everything to remain aware of it while we go about our daily business. That's why I think the Cathars had the Perfect and the Credentes. The Credentes could stay in and care about the world of forms, while the Perfect simply contemplated God.
A fascinating post.
Post a Comment