<3 David Bohm. This essay reminded delicately of emergence - the implicate order in action. It also brought to mind the Jewish Prayer of Shema - which traditionally Jews say many times a day, and on their deathbed - in many ways it's the seminal prayer for being Jewish. Many have deracinating this prayer to simply be the forebearing of Monotheism as an oppressive force on the world - and it's easy to see why with the prayer being translated commonly as: "Hear o Israel, The Lord is our God, the Lord is One." However, after practicing the Shema as a daily bedtime ritual - I feel a far deeper resonance where the prayer is actually saying - "Hey, God is everything, even the dark thoughts, the malice, the shame, the mean people - you are never outside God, no matter how shitty you feel or how horrible the world seems." In that sense, the Shema is a deep expression of our inter-relationality. The word "Lord" in the Shema is the Tettragramaton - the ineffable name for God - so "Lord" is a vain approximation. What if that ineffable name for God was actually closer to Love? Then this prayer, which can seem oppressive, through some composting by the fungal gods of my mind, has flowered forth as, "Hey every-body - Love is our God, Love is One".
It still is hard to reconcile for me what Love actually is - perhaps why it is akin to the ineffable name of God. And it is hard to constellate Love, and any inherent oneness, in my cognition when we live in a world where the Holocast occurred, and various genocides and ecocides continue to occur daily - and yet - .... "
<3 David Bohm. This essay reminded delicately of emergence - the implicate order in action. It also brought to mind the Jewish Prayer of Shema - which traditionally Jews say many times a day, and on their deathbed - in many ways it's the seminal prayer for being Jewish. Many have deracinating this prayer to simply be the forebearing of Monotheism as an oppressive force on the world - and it's easy to see why with the prayer being translated commonly as: "Hear o Israel, The Lord is our God, the Lord is One." However, after practicing the Shema as a daily bedtime ritual - I feel a far deeper resonance where the prayer is actually saying - "Hey, God is everything, even the dark thoughts, the malice, the shame, the mean people - you are never outside God, no matter how shitty you feel or how horrible the world seems." In that sense, the Shema is a deep expression of our inter-relationality. The word "Lord" in the Shema is the Tettragramaton - the ineffable name for God - so "Lord" is a vain approximation. What if that ineffable name for God was actually closer to Love? Then this prayer, which can seem oppressive, through some composting by the fungal gods of my mind, has flowered forth as, "Hey every-body - Love is our God, Love is One".
It still is hard to reconcile for me what Love actually is - perhaps why it is akin to the ineffable name of God. And it is hard to constellate Love, and any inherent oneness, in my cognition when we live in a world where the Holocast occurred, and various genocides and ecocides continue to occur daily - and yet - .... "
This essay brought me a great sense of peacefulness. Thanks, Rach ❤️