12.20.2009

How's this for a simple effort

Here's a simple Work effort: self-remembering/non-identifying while reading the Bible complete.

That would guarantee x number of hours of self-remembering effort anyway. 100 hours? I don't know. Havn't figured it out. Doesn't matter. The value is being in the third state while taking in the words of the Old and New Testaments.

A really very simple and easy-to-remember goal. (No falling into waking sleep while reading though. You'd have to be honest. Mark out a section and do it. If you don't have an end point for each session you'd just drift into mechanical-ness. Chapters are obvious and would work, but probably aren't ideal; but if you have a Bible with section headings that might be more helpful in identifying complete sections.)

6 comments:

+ said...

I'm doing much the same thing with Stanley Lombardo's Iliad. I can't handle pre set divisions right now so I chose to read aloud(ish). It works because it introduces an unusual element to reading. Doesn't matter how much or how little I read.

The Puritan said...

Now you're going to make me want to read Homer! (I'm very impressionable.)

Shakespeare seems like another possibility. Maybe.

If I read a great novel it would just be an exercise in sheer curiosity. Like if I said I was going to plow through Joyce's Ulysses.

The Bible is it though. My 7th reading. In the third state of consciousness. Not looking for anything, just doing it.

+ said...

I understand. And a 7th complete reading is a significant milestone. More to that than merely a seventh reading.

As for me, I'm probably doing something more than simply reading. Though that is it as far as my intent is committed. I just have some half baked ideas that appear attractive at the moment but need more work to be something. But the bottom line which is the primary position is being in the 3rd state.

The Puritan said...

Two bloggers I've attacked before have been diagnosed with cancer. Mike may be avoiding me because of the face eating bacteria episode.

But these episodes (I won't say death episodes because the two people may very well be cured completely) remind me of death, and how the Bible really does teach believers to disdain this world and to be ready for the moment: death or the second coming.

I really do, also, see these times we are in as end times in a unique way. Global tyranny is upon us. It seems to be God-ordained since it is happening against so many people's wishes. It is the end of the devil's kingdom, ironically. Just as he and his children are having their greatest triumph they get crushed.

Homer as a high, deep language of spiritual warfare is worth taking in. I will finish my goal of 7 complete readings.

The Puritan said...

Beware that land of the Lotus-Eaters...

The Puritan said...

Good article on the movie Avatar:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/opinion/21douthat1.html?_r=2&th&emc=th

Really, this guy sees the foundational points. Unusual for the New York Times.