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Old 10-26-2011, 09:08 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by gurugeorge View Post
IOW if there's any truth in the Christ myth, it's not so much mythical (in the sense of pertaining to the origins and practices of a culture) as mystical (one might say: pertaining to the existential situation of the individual and the absolute truth of his or her relation to the cosmos).
The spiritual truth you express is conveyed by the drama of the Gospels. That is the essence of myth: a dramatic representation of an abstract truth.

I like your interpretation. I look at it this way: to live is to suffer, to suffer is reflect and to reflect is to choose. Making distinctions and choosing among them is Godlike. Choice based on a higher vision will nurture and bring life. Doing otherwise accentuates suffering. So Jesus, by maintaining that higher vision, defeats death and serves as an example. A dark and grisly example perhaps, but still an example.
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Old 10-26-2011, 09:27 AM   #12
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"Never did eye see the sun
Unless it had first become
Sun-like
And never can soul
Have the vision of
The First Beauty
Unless itself be beautiful.


~Plotinus
[CE 204/5–270]
Plotinus says it best. Thanks.

Plotinus is like poetry; sometimes it's hard for me to see that he's also considered one the best interpreters of Plato.

"Reason" in that classic sense of being in touch with the Supreme is not considered significant anymore; tho I suspect it is a powerful motivator even among those who deny its importance.
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