Saturday 30 December 2017

Messianism In Fiction

Fictional expressions of Christianity include:

Aslan telling the children that he has a different name in their world;

Poul Anderson's Father Axor telling Diana Crowfeather that he seeks evidence of the Universal Incarnation.

Anderson also transposes a familiar historical situation to a science fictional context in The Day Of Their Return:

the Terran Empire imposes direct rule on the planet Aeneas;
some Aeneans plan a military rebellion;
many expect the Return of the Ancients.

Reading about the religious and political situation in Judaea at the time of Jesus, I am reminded of how well Anderson conveyed this sense of Messianic expectation and social/political volatility.

Friday 29 December 2017

"Mind Has Mountains"

See Hopkins.

A material mountain is visible in its entirety only from a spatial distance.

A karmic consequence is a mental mountain, visible in its entirety only from a temporal distance.

Its foothills are fears and realizations.

Every new presentation to consciousness is the One appearing to Itself although an illusory separate self intervenes.

What comes up at each moment?
What is the least harmful response?
Is it possible to step back from imagined dialogues?
What is within apart from words?