Romeo and Juliet

Balcony of Romeo and Juliet: -JvL-

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare (1595-6).

Romeo and Juliet outlines the brief lives of two “star crossed lovers” who come from families, the Capulets and Montagues, that have been engaged in a longstanding feud.

In 1938 The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote a ballet after the story.

The theme of rival families is found throughout Greek and Indian mythology.

In Greece, for instance, the father of the Gods, Zeus, challenges the power of his own father Cronus and lives in an uneasy tension with his wife and sister, Hera, as well as with the Giants.

And in India, the Mahabharata epic tells of a feud that leads to full-scale, bloody war between kith and kin, this being the plot line of the Hindu holy book, The Bhagavad Gita. » Projection, Radha

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Rome

Burning Rome: cuellar / Jose Maria Cuellar

Rome is the vibrant capital of Italy which has a long and complicated history, dating back to the 8^th century BCE.

Pre-Christian Rome fell in the 5^th century to Germanic invaders. In the 6^th century it became an important center for the Christian Church, with Vatican City on the West bank of the Tiber river.

In 1871 Rome became the capital of modern Italy.

When it was the center of the old Roman Empire, Rome was a symbol of worldly power and also of the cruel persecution of the early Christians. Ironically, the center for the persecution of Christians was to become the center for Christianity and later, as the Protestant revolution arose, for Catholicism.

The historian Arnold Toynbee and several others note that as soon as the Christian Romans gained power, they began persecuting individuals just as the pagan Romans had previously persecuted Christians.

Toynbee believes it was mostly power – and the greed and arrogance that often goes with it – that was responsible for this exceedingly cruel behavior among human beings.

» Acts of the Apostles, Aeneas, Aeneid, Caesar (Julius), Church Fathers,  Mythic Inflation, Romulus and Remus, Vestal Virgin

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Rishis

Traditionally, rishis are primal Hindu seers mentioned in the Vedas as their authors.

The rishis belonged to an elite class of holy persons said to have received the Veda through revelation. That is, they ‘heard’ and then passed on the sacred Vedic hymns (through oral repetition) to disciples for centuries until the verses were eventually recorded in writing.

For this reason any mention of authorship of the Veda is problematic because no one really knows when the Vedas were orally composed.

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Revealed Knowledge

Revelations: Walt Jabsco / Steve

This is also called ‘revelation,’ an idea found in most religious traditions.

One definition points to knowledge disclosed or uncovered about God’s plan of Salvation or the Divine essence; this knowledge could influence a person’s interpretation of observable events.

General revelation is often differentiated from special revelation.  General revelation asserts that God’s existence and attributes may be partly understood through observation of God’s creation.

Specific revelation points to the belief that individuals receive divine communications.

In Catholicism revelation is understood as a truth communicated to a person by God; this revealed knowledge initially bypasses but does not contradict the intellect and differs from inspiration–although the recipient may subsequently think about and be inspired by a revelation.

From the study of mystics it seems that revealed knowledge is often initially misunderstood. Mystics are only human and seem to interpret revelations according to their limited perspectives. Over time the full meaning of a true communication should become apparent while a false communication – e.g. from the devil -  would prove to be a sham.

This idea is closely linked to the notion of true and false prophets, as we read in the New Testament:

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them (Matthew 15-20, New International Version).

A potential problem arises here, of course, in that some genuine prophets could appear ‘false’ because not enough time has passed to adequately test the revelation given to them by God. And by the same token, some false prophets could be regarded as ‘true’ by believers claiming that more time is needed to verify the revelation apparently given by God.

Clearly, this is not an easy area and many mistakes could be made by overly zealous, wish-fulling individuals and groups.

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Religion

is flickr a religion? by the|G|™ / Paul G

Definitions of religion vary widely.

Some contend that almost any belief or activity that ‘moves the soul,’ ‘activates,’ ‘energizes’ or ‘inspires’ is a religion. For example, Marxism, Scientism and Athleticism may loosely be taken as religions.

Some scholars even say that the TV program Star Trek is a religion. And The Economist published an article suggesting that Google is like a religion.¹

Others suggest that a religion must make some kind of reference ideas like God, gods, goddesses, spirit beings, the numinous and the afterlife.

Still, others insist that a religion must refer to a group, not just an individual.

Western jurisprudence stipulates that a religious group must exhibit some degree of organization and be legally registered to be recognized as a legitimate institution.

And then there are those who insist that religion requires scripture, rites, ritual obligations, representatives and leaders, as well as a route to transcendental liberation or salvation.

William James, Max Weber, Rudolf Otto and several other scholars of religion suggest, each in their own way, that religion differs from magic.

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¹ http://www.ipdemocracy.com/archives/001018google_as_religion.php

At Earthpages.org

• Many items about religion at earthpages.org. Here’s a site search using keyword religion.

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Reincarnation

Second hand reincarnation: shaggy359

Also known as metempsychosis and transmigration, reincarnation is a manmade theory based on beliefs found in different philosophical systems and religions, including ancient Greek, Egyptian, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Jain, African and New Age perspectives.

Reincarnation usually involves ideas of karma and grace. It’s believed that after the death of the physical body, the soul (or in some schools, temporary personality attributes) returns for another birth.

In most traditions the self is on an evolutionary path from unconsciousness to consciousness–that is, from lower to higher, or gross to subtle forms of consciousness.

In some branches of contemplative Hinduism, the soul is said to begin in the mineral world and then move upward to the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Eventually it takes birth as a human being. After learning about and practicing good ethics from innumerable human incarnations, the soul may reincarnate in astral and heavenly realms before reaching ultimate liberation, awareness and bliss.

But bad ethical choices send the evolutionary process into reverse. If a human being abuses their freedom, they may reincarnate backwards into the animal kingdom or possibly further down into one of various temporary hells.

According to popular wisdom it’s often said that God provides perfect punishments and rewards for one’s deeds. So generally speaking, if one makes good ethical choices in an embodied life, one gains merit and reincarnates into a more auspicious life the next time around.

However, if one makes bad ethical choices, one returns to a less auspicious life. Again, the alleged purpose of reincarnation is to instruct the soul, preparing it for an ultimately perfect, eternal existence. The exact nature of this perfection is described differently among various schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Taoism.

Once complete liberation is achieved, the soul (or temporary personality attributes) no longer returns to a body, gross or subtle. This idea is expressed in an old Taoist tale, paraphrased as follows:

A man had led a dissolute life and reincarnates as a horse. After a few years the horse grows weary of being whipped by his masters, refuses to eat and dies. He then returns as a dog. Despising this incarnation the dog bites his master’s leg who has him destroyed. He returns as a snake. By now he’s finally learned his lesson. One must play out the hand one is dealt, patiently seeing it through to learn how to be virtuous. As a reformed soul, the snake avoids doing harm to other animals by eating berries and tries to keep itself out of danger. But one day the snake mistakenly dies under the wheel of a cart. Pleading his case before the King of Purgatory, he finds himself reborn a man—a reward for his good intentions (Raymond Van Over, ed. Taoist Tales, New York: Meridian Classic, 1973, pp. 52-53).

According to this view, suicide is like ‘skipping school’ (in the cosmic sense) and causes regression to a less desirable birth.

But not all believers in reincarnation would take this attitude. Some believe that the very same kind of life situation would arise again, as if the suicide is forced to repeat the same cosmic classroom he or she didn’t pass the first time around.

Meanwhile some New Age thinkers say that every life is consciously chosen prior to birth.

In most Asian religions God’s grace can mitigate or even erase the effects of bad karma, a fact often overlooked in specious critiques of reincarnation.

African pre-colonial tribal beliefs about reincarnation differ from Asian variants. African ancestors are believed to reincarnate into one or several descendents to give a particular family more power. Somewhat similar to the Asian idea, however, the African Ibo believe that one chooses between two bundles before birth – one bundle holds auspicious fortune, the other inauspicious. While the spirit tries its best to choose a favorable incarnation, a formerly evil person undergoes a difficult incarnation as a human or animal.

More variants of reincarnation are found within ancestor cults. And in The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare’s character Gratiano suggests that Shylock is a reincarnated wolf.

In contrast to the belief in reincarnation, the Old Testament says that evil actions are repaid with evil, but not through reincarnation. Evil begets evil through one’s offspring:

The Lord…a God merciful and gracious…forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:7).

In Catholicism, St. Thomas Aquinas refutes reincarnation on the basis of Romans 9: 11-12:

For when they were not yet born, nor had done any good or evil…not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said to her: The elder shall serve the younger.

The Christian New Testament view of the body and its relation to the afterlife is expressed in I Corinthians 15; 51-52; 2 Corinthians 5:1; I Thessalonians 4:14; John 3: 4-7.

Some suggest that the Catholic notion of purgatory was created as a Christian counterpart to the temporary process of punishment and purification as found in non-Christian theories of reincarnation.

At Earthpages.org:

• Articles about reincarnation and karma.

» Anatman, Anthroposophy, Avatar, Cayce (Edgar), Chinmoy (Sri), Deva, Fenris, Free-John (Da), Gawain (Shakti), Hell, Hermes Trismegistus, Karma, Meno, Origen, Ram Dass, Parvati, Plato,  Ramacharaka (Swami), Republic, Roberts (Jane), Samsara, Skandhas, Theosophy, Transmigration, Werewolf, Pythagoras

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Reductio ad Absurdum

356/365... Absurd room #3 Balance and serenity: Desirée Delgado

[Latin: "reduce to the absurd"]

A method of philosophical argumentation said to prove a conclusion to be true by demonstrating the contradiction, absurdity and therefore impossibility that would result if it were false.

Consider Descartes‘: “I think, therefore I am.” And its falsification: “I think, therefore I am not.” Here the question arises: If one thinks that one does not exist, then who is doing the thinking?

By falsifying the original statement, the resultant absurdity apparently proves the original statement to be true.

C. G. Jung used a form of reductio ad absurdum to try to refute the Buddhist notion of no-self. Basically, Jung asked: Who experiences the bliss of Nirvana if no self is present to experience it?

Buddhists, however, could reply that the locus of consciousness merely changes from an illusory individualism to an actual totality, a stance which theists, in turn, would question.

» Anatman, Theism

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Reason and Revelation

Listen To Reason: jaredchapman

In philosophy and also in theology a distinction is made between knowledge obtained through reason and knowledge obtained through revelation.

This distinction could be questioned. For instance, it’s conceivable that concepts and their arrangement in a logical argument could be revealed to a person from God.

However, traditional Catholic theologians usually call this “inspiration” as a result of “illumination,” suggesting that it somehow differs from a revelation communicated directly by God.

» Aquinas (St. Thomas), Duns Scotus, Revealed Knowledge

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Rastafarianism

coffeeshop free adam: Shira Golding

A religious movement popular in Jamaica that in its extreme form sees blacks as the chosen people and which elevates Haile Selassie (1891-1975), the former Emperor of Ethiopia, as God or a manifestation of God (Jah from the Hebrew YHWH).

Although some parts of the Bible are used, much of the Biblical text is said to have been corrupted by “Babylon” (i.e.  the dominant white establishment and power structures).

Despite the unhealthy effects linked with cannabis use on the mouth, throat, lungs and brain, this is not frowned on but rather, viewed as a spiritual act.

For Rastas, smoking cannabis, usually known as “herb”, “weed”, or “ganja” (from the Sanskrit word, “Ganjika”, created by the Hindus of India), is a spiritual act, often accompanied by Bible study; they consider it a sacrament that cleans the body and mind, heals the soul, exalts the consciousness, facilitates peacefulness, brings pleasure, and brings them closer to Jah.¹

Softer forms of Rastafarianism respect every person as a potentially unique “flower within the Garden of Eden,” as reggae artist Peter Tosh once put it.

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¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafari_movement

» Marely (Bob)

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Radha

Radha Krishna: bbjee / B Balaji

Radha

In Hinduism, an incarnation of the Goddess Lakshmi and female ghopi (cowherdess and milkmaid) who left her husband to become the playmate of the Hindu god Krishna.

Their loving and playful relationship has become an integral part of the Indian popular imagination, comparable to Romeo and Juliet had Shakespeare not written a tragedy.

Radha is also interpreted on a higher, mystical level, symbolizing the soul’s loving surrender to God.

Contemporary Vaishnava religion in W. Bengal regards Radha as the ultimate female principle, the Goddess or Shakti.

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