"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 | |||
|
Enlightened Hearts - 1 | |||
|
In Eastern religion and philosophy,
"enlightenment" is an awakening from greed, hate and delusion.
It is both a freeing from desire and coming to understand the true nature
of the world and the self (as illusions). The best-known form of Buddhism
in the West, Zen, teaches that enlightenment arrives through a
non-rational process of making oneself open to an unpredictable moment of
insight. Stuart C. Hackett, my old professor and author of Oriental
Philosophy: A Westerner's Guide to Eastern Thought, liked to tell
about the Buddhist text he found where a seeker receives enlightenment
upon hearing the sound of cow dung dropping. Eastern enlightenment
arrives by transcending reason and achieving a non-cognitive awareness of
reality. In the West, "enlightenment" became the term for an intellectual movement of the 18th century, when a number of scholars felt that human beings were, through proper exercise of reason, finally becoming mature. Immanuel Kant's famous essay, "What Is Enlightenment?" said, "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity." Kant's slogan, "Dare to be wise!" was a call for enlightened human beings to use reason to think for themselves in the public arena. He chastised religion and government for suppressing the free exercise of reason in all areas of public life. Western enlightenment arrives through embracing reason and applying it to all aspects of thought and behavior. In II Corinthians 4:1-6, Paul suggests that true enlightenment arrives through a light that comes to us from outside ourselves. It is not our achievement, either rationally or non-rationally. Enlightenment is neither a matter of abandoning reason, nor worshipping reason. It is the gift of God who "made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ." Both the Western and Eastern proponents of enlightenment view the human problem as a kind of ignorance or immaturity. For the East, it is ignorance of that which reason cannot discover. For the West, it is ignorance of that which reason, properly used, would clearly reveal. But for Paul and Christianity, the problem is not ignorance but sin. It is not that truth has not been discovered, it is that it has been hidden by the darkness of our hearts. Referring to Satan in verse 4, Paul writes, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ." If you like, and more positively, there is a glimmering of insight in both the East's and West's views of enlightenment. The East is correct in understanding that enlightenment is found in connecting to a reality that transcends the "boundaries of reason alone" (to use Kant's phrase). The West is correct in grasping that enlightenment involves connecting with a truth, upon which one's reason may be exercised with great delight and success. What both miss is that the reality and the truth which are the source of enlightenment is found in the person of Jesus Christ. We are enlightened as we encounter Jesus and accept His light as it both convicts us and forgives us of our sin, then transforms us into persons who now live in His light and truth. | |||
|
Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
|
Blog Posts |
Archives |
|
|
SurgeMail - Blog Server Software |
Windows Mail Server Software |
UseNet News Server Software
beth Preach it, husband! ; ) (02/19/09)