Self-consciousness is above waking sleep. Above self-consciousness is objective-consciousness. What is the material of objective-consciousness? I say (and this goes back to my Work approach of "What is practical?" and "What is on-the-mark?") if objective-consciousness is going to be what it sounds like (like something ultimate and real and mature and serious) then it has to have to do with our Creator's plan of redemption and with discernment that comes from the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Biblical doctrine. The deep history of the heavens and the earth. Biblical anthropology and all the 'loci' of systematic theology.
But what it comes down to is this: those deep, or foundational, insights that have appeared here and there over time, such as how the four states of man show how fallen man gets confused and assumes one state while missing the actual state he is in. Like, the universal thing where people naively think man is innocent (i.e. they assume man is still in the Garden, before the Fall) and not in a state of sin. That type of foundational insight is part of objective-consciousness.
Another is this: the fact that without a Mediator (and the one and only Mediator Jesus Christ) life is cruel and barren. Lands become wastelands, peoples and cultures become hellish.
Another is this: the fact that the sense of anarchic evil all around and how there is no protection from birth to death, i.e. that this feeling can overwhelm...before one realizes that there IS protection...in God. I.e. protection is possible. To the most vulnerable infant and on up.
These aren't great examples because objective-consciousness really is best seen as 'vision'. When you are able to 'see' the deep history of Revelation, or the effect of the Fall, or spiritual warfare, or the deep patterns and events of politics in the world (the fact of 'pilgrim politics' is an example of 'seeing' a deep reality that is happening, and it explains - gives understanding - of what is happening).
To become 'mighty in the Word' is a phrase that touches on objective-consciousness.
Step back from the money-making and the family responsibilities for a moment and see what is potential for developing real understanding.
There is the big area of developing understanding in self-consciousness. Then there is the big area of developing understanding in objective-consciousness.
Objective-consciousness also plays out in more immediate, personal, ways. Interactions with people, events, etc. On a foundation of self-consciousness. Using the necessary higher center energy.
4.30.2009
4.22.2009
What I crave after reading a classic novel
As I read these classic novels I find that I actually *crave* an underlying structure that is found in the hero journey or quest.
In Anna Karenina it was buried deeply in the development of the Anna character which is perhaps why I was frustrated reading it.
But after finishing AK I was actually looking for something like Quest of the Holy Grail, or even finishing my current Iliad reading and then the Odyssey again.
The Bible from this angle can be seen, ironically, from good systematic theology. When I read of justification and adoption and glorification and so on that is part of that ultimate hero quest. The reality of it.
I just realized something too with Berkhof. I had read him wrong many years back. I thought in his Systematic Theology he had said he disagreed with the republication of the Covenant of Works, but he wrote the re-*establishment*, and now I recognize that difference. I know that is technical stuff, but basically I'm saying that Berkhof guy is very on-the-mark.
Seeing this underlying quest structure or parts of it in novels is kind of the same as trying to see it in Shakespeare. Identifying it. Shakespeare may have written a single play on one aspect, one deep psychological aspect, of that ultimate, overall quest. Novels and plays as literary forms can only hit it like that.
For imaginative literature (including sacred literature) the Bible, Homer (including Greek myth in general), Shakespeare, and Grail Romance seem to be the basic influences. A little bit in pure folktale too, like Grimm's.
These are works you *just read.* You just read them to get the language. The higher language.
In different ways great classical music communicates the same as well. Not by itself, but certainly in its own powerful, unspeakable way. When you engage it in a cosmos sense. Each work a cosmos. Not just background sounds. Hear it. Get it in to memory.
Great, foundational subjects like war, wealth, government as well. von Clausewitz, Adam Smith, Montesquieu...perhaps the Republic...
The Work sources - Ouspensky - as the school knowledge.
History - great history, classical historians, world histories - seems to play a role of preparing one in a 'good householder' sense to get the ultimate from the other influences mentioned. History ideally gets you above the world in understanding. Out of the maze and opaque confusion and illusion. Seeing the nature of power and the nature of human nature and the ways of the world in a clear light and having it become real understanding so that you are able to exit, or transcend, that miasma of the vain splutterings and intellectual and emotional bondage of the world.
In Anna Karenina it was buried deeply in the development of the Anna character which is perhaps why I was frustrated reading it.
But after finishing AK I was actually looking for something like Quest of the Holy Grail, or even finishing my current Iliad reading and then the Odyssey again.
The Bible from this angle can be seen, ironically, from good systematic theology. When I read of justification and adoption and glorification and so on that is part of that ultimate hero quest. The reality of it.
I just realized something too with Berkhof. I had read him wrong many years back. I thought in his Systematic Theology he had said he disagreed with the republication of the Covenant of Works, but he wrote the re-*establishment*, and now I recognize that difference. I know that is technical stuff, but basically I'm saying that Berkhof guy is very on-the-mark.
Seeing this underlying quest structure or parts of it in novels is kind of the same as trying to see it in Shakespeare. Identifying it. Shakespeare may have written a single play on one aspect, one deep psychological aspect, of that ultimate, overall quest. Novels and plays as literary forms can only hit it like that.
For imaginative literature (including sacred literature) the Bible, Homer (including Greek myth in general), Shakespeare, and Grail Romance seem to be the basic influences. A little bit in pure folktale too, like Grimm's.
These are works you *just read.* You just read them to get the language. The higher language.
In different ways great classical music communicates the same as well. Not by itself, but certainly in its own powerful, unspeakable way. When you engage it in a cosmos sense. Each work a cosmos. Not just background sounds. Hear it. Get it in to memory.
Great, foundational subjects like war, wealth, government as well. von Clausewitz, Adam Smith, Montesquieu...perhaps the Republic...
The Work sources - Ouspensky - as the school knowledge.
History - great history, classical historians, world histories - seems to play a role of preparing one in a 'good householder' sense to get the ultimate from the other influences mentioned. History ideally gets you above the world in understanding. Out of the maze and opaque confusion and illusion. Seeing the nature of power and the nature of human nature and the ways of the world in a clear light and having it become real understanding so that you are able to exit, or transcend, that miasma of the vain splutterings and intellectual and emotional bondage of the world.
4.08.2009
A little journal I've started (not cyber)
Tonight I bought three little notebooks that each have 40 sheets or pages. A good number.
In one I've started a journal, or really just a record, of 40 Books Read Complete. Each page will have a book listed on it and the date I began and finished it.
I've started with with a few books I've read recently since 2005.
Thus far I have:
1. Vanity Fair - Thackeray
2. Holy Bible, AV1611 (5th complete reading)
3. Manual of Christian Doctrine - Berkhof
4. Pearl of Christian Comfort - Dathenus
5. Tom Jones - Fielding
6. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
7. Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
After Anna Karenina [update: Anna Karenina has been finished] 33 more. I've written at the front of the notebook 'great or interesting books.' But a defining thing is: to be read *complete.*
Here is what I wrote at the front of the notebook:
"Not a list of *all* books read from 2005 to the last entry, but the main ones read complete. An effort to reconnect with great books to keep the mind alive. A simple effort to start and *finish* 40 great or interesting books in this current time of my life."
I also plan on including some great books I've already read complete as part of the 40. That way, as the little effort commences I can rebuild, so to speak, the foundation, and also choose books for a balanced selection of categories. With a concrete number - 40 - and the amount of time involved that it will take this kind of approach can develop into something meaningful.
In one I've started a journal, or really just a record, of 40 Books Read Complete. Each page will have a book listed on it and the date I began and finished it.
I've started with with a few books I've read recently since 2005.
Thus far I have:
1. Vanity Fair - Thackeray
2. Holy Bible, AV1611 (5th complete reading)
3. Manual of Christian Doctrine - Berkhof
4. Pearl of Christian Comfort - Dathenus
5. Tom Jones - Fielding
6. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
7. Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
After Anna Karenina [update: Anna Karenina has been finished] 33 more. I've written at the front of the notebook 'great or interesting books.' But a defining thing is: to be read *complete.*
Here is what I wrote at the front of the notebook:
"Not a list of *all* books read from 2005 to the last entry, but the main ones read complete. An effort to reconnect with great books to keep the mind alive. A simple effort to start and *finish* 40 great or interesting books in this current time of my life."
I also plan on including some great books I've already read complete as part of the 40. That way, as the little effort commences I can rebuild, so to speak, the foundation, and also choose books for a balanced selection of categories. With a concrete number - 40 - and the amount of time involved that it will take this kind of approach can develop into something meaningful.
4.07.2009
6th complete Bible reading
'08 GOAL (now '09)
6th complete reading of the pure and whole received Word of God (AV1611):
Genesis1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Exodus 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Leviticus 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Deuteronomy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Joshua 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Judges 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Ruth 1 2 3 4 1 Samuel 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 2 Samuel 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1 Kings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 2 Kings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 Chronicles 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2 Chronicles 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Ezra 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Nehemiah 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Esther 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Job 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Psalms 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 Proverbs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Ecclesiastes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Song of Solomon 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Isaiah 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 Jeremiah 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 Lamentations 1 2 3 4 5 Ezekiel 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Daniel 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Hosea 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Joel 1 2 3 Amos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Obadiah 1 Jonah 1 2 3 4 Micah 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Nahum 1 2 3 Habakkuk 1 2 3 Zephaniah 1 2 3 Haggai 1 2 Zechariah 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Malachi 1 2 3 4 Matthew 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Mark 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Luke 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 John 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Acts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Romans 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1 Corinthians 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 2 Corinthians 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Galatians 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ephesians 1 2 3 4 5 6 Philippians 1 2 3 4 Colossians 1 2 3 4 1 Thessalonians 1 2 3 4 5 2 Thessalonians 1 2 3 1 Timothy 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 Timothy 1 2 3 4 Titus 1 2 3 Philemon 1 Hebrews 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 James 1 2 3 4 5 1 Peter 1 2 3 4 5 2 Peter 1 2 3 1 John 1 2 3 4 5 2 John 1 3 John 1 Jude 1 Revelation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Finished Oct. 8, 2009
6th complete reading of the pure and whole received Word of God (AV1611):
Genesis
Finished Oct. 8, 2009
4.03.2009
Ten great Russian novels
I was reading a book of literary criticism (Tolstoy or Dostoevsky - George Steiner), and the writer said casually that these ten novels are the great Russian novels of the golden era of the 19th century (golden era for Russian novels):
Dead Souls - Gogol
Fathers and Sons - Turgenev
Oblomov - Goncharov
War and Peace - Tolstoy
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
Resurrection - Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
The Possessed - Dostoevsky
The Idiot - Dostoevsky
Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
No surprises except perhaps Oblomov.
Dead Souls - Gogol
Fathers and Sons - Turgenev
Oblomov - Goncharov
War and Peace - Tolstoy
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
Resurrection - Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
The Possessed - Dostoevsky
The Idiot - Dostoevsky
Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
No surprises except perhaps Oblomov.
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