PARADOX - Also see MYSTERY, MYSTIC, FAITH, PARABLE, NOT-TWO, OXYMORON, IRONIC, BIBLE, MYTH , DUALITY
Antonmys: BOTH, ONE, WHOLE, COMPLETE, HOLISTIC, TAO, YIN-YANG, NON-DUAL, TRINITY, TRUTH, REALITY
A paradox is a tenet contrary to received opinion or common sense, but yet is perhaps true. A Person, Situation Or Action Exhibiting Inexplicable Or Contradictory Aspects.
Heresy most commonly arises when we run with just one side of a paradoc. Jesus was fully human or fully divine. Two schools of theology called Immanence and Transcendence. Grace or good works. Both of these foci are necessary. We must accept paradox - thinking with integrity is paradoxical thinking. (Further, p206-8)
The world was created a Paradox On Purpose in order to separate out the Worldly (Spiritually Blind and Deaf) from those who are Spiritual ("with eyes to see and ears to hear"). He answered them, "To you ("The Like God-Minded") it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them... Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, and hearing, they don't hear, neither do they understand. (Matt 13:11,13) (http://www.sabbatarian.com/Content/Paradox.html)
We need to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life - to appreciate that life is complex. (Further, p14)
God's ways are paradoxical to use because of our vanity - we seem to always be looking at the wrong clues. We foolishly think of ourselves as almost equals (demigods) having been created in his iamge and likeness. Note that the moon appears the same size as the sun and emmits light like the sun, but the difference is staggering. (____)
Paradox enhances our appreciation of the mystery of God. (p166) Any statement about God had to be a paradox. Only thus could people retain a sense of his mystery and ineffability. (p254) How could God be separat from the world if he was all in all? Paradox of the divine transcendence and immanence. (p266) God embraces everything, even contradictions. (p274) (History of God).
The paradox of the cross is articulted in such apparent contradictions as dark-light, sad-glad, suffering-joy. To flee from temporary hardships that conceal an eternal weight of glory, is to fail to penetrate more deeply into the meaning these paradoxical moments convey. The truth is, renunciation is the royal road to liberation. The miracle of liberation occurs only by means of inner purgation. (Dark Night, p82,84)
The way to greater light leads through the darkness. Going ahead feels like falling back. The highest power a yielding valley. (Tao 41) (Tao Peace, p213)
The way to approach God is by the sorrows in ourselves (Randy)
A statement or proposition seemingly self-contradictory, yet true. (Dict)
First are last, and last are first. (Matt 20:16)
Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant. (Matt 20:26)
He who has more will be given; and who has not will be taken. (Mark 4:25)
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, The one who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke )
Paradox enhances our appreciation of God. (Hist, p166)
Man belongs to the physical as well as the higher world of the spirit because God had inscribed the divine image within him. (Hist, p189)
The irrational is a necessary component of a whole and balanced life. (Moon, PS 5/3/96)
We can speak about God's activity in the world, but not understand His essence which will always eludes us. If we claimed to understand God, that would mean that He was finite and imperfect. He is incomprehensible, utterly transcending our natural intellectual powers. (Hist, p191)
God is both Everything and Nothing; the two terms balance one another and are held in a creative tension to suggest the mystery which our work "God" can only symbolize. (Hist, p199)
Darkness (of the night) and Light? (Randy)
Every concept grasped by the mind becomes an obstacle in the quest to those who search." The aim of the comtemplative was to go beyond ideas and also beyond all images whatsoever, since these could only be a distraction. Then he would acquire "a certain sense of presence." (Gregory of Nyssa in Commentary on the Song of Songs, Hist, p220)
Agreed by the Greeks that any statement about God had to be a paradox. Only thus could people retain a sense of his mystery and ineffability. (Hist, p254)
Paradox of the divine transcendence and immanence. (Hist, p266)
Paradoxical nature of God, that the personalized God was balanced by the essentially transpersonal divinty. (Paul Tillich (1868-1965), Hist, p383)
To have all we must give up all. When God alone is the center of our lives, the sole purpose for our existence. No thing can replace God in our lives. We must seek God from the very first movements of our hearts. (Purif, p100)
We find ourselves by losing ourselves.
Eyes but can't see, ears but can't hear, hearts but can't love.
Jesus as being both lamb and shepherd.
Jesus as being both the high priest and the sacrifice.
Jesus as the alpha and the omega.
Jesus as both human and divine or fully human and fully divine.
The Cross (because Jesus death was his glory).
Love & Fear - takes courage to surrender yourself (love) to the unknown (fear)
Unconditional love is vulnerability (which needs free will - therefore sin)
Strength thru vulnerability.
End and start (death - birth).
Narrow/Lest Traveled Road is the Right Road.
Perfect love casts our our fears (John 14:18).
Harmony - individual sacrifices of their identity in being put together.
Beatitudes - poor are rich (spiritually).
Enter Heaven like a Child - w/ faith and obedience.
Winning is via weakness, not strength.
Pairs of Opposites - the devil sents errors to us in pairs of opposites to fool us. (Mere Christianity)
The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. For example, if one thinks their niceness is his own, it is not. If realized that it is a gift from God and then he offers it back is when it begins to be his own. (Mere Christianity)
Give up yourself and you will find yourself. Lose your life and you will save it.
Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. (Mere Christianity)
Harder for a rich man to enter Heaven.
God is a unity of multiplicity.
Prayer of St. Francis? or Instrument of Thy Peace?:
Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is offence, pardon,
Where there is discord, unity,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is error, truth,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is sadness, joy,
Where there is darkness, light.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For:
It is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. (St. Francis, Wisdom, p268)
PARADOXES and life are like a never ending mystery series on television. We may never know, but by reason and faith we can take a good guess. A mystery is a religious truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand by human reason. Reason starts the process, but faith is needed to end it. First with reason and finally via faith we can fully understand the mystery of life by coming face to face with God. The 64,000 question then is how can we come face to face with God on this of the grave and still live. The bible says that we would "die" (Ex 19:21). Like a detective we have to collect all of the facts, imagine a conclusion, and then prove it. By faith that God is good we can come to know the motive and clues. The motive is love and the clues are symbolism. To make the mystery more difficult, we seem to always be looking at the wrong clues. A PARADOX is a tenet contrary to received opinion or common sense, but yet is perhaps true. God's ways are PARADOXICAL to us because of our vanity. He created a dualism so that we can choose between easy deceptions, hard truths, nothing, or everything. And in the end it is usually a question of balance. His ways are not the same as our ways and furthermore "His ways are above our ways" (Is 55:8-9). However, since we were created in His "image and likeness" (Gen 1:26) with intelligence, therefore, we foolishly think of ourselves as almost equals (demigods). Although the moon appears the same size as the sun and emmits light like the sun, the different is staggering. We still believe the Father of all Liers, the serpent who said "your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know" (Gen 3:5). Unfortunely the rest of this half truth that we don't like to know is "of good and bad". Life/Toaism/marriage all need two pieces to be whole/complete. (Randy)
You cannot have your cake and eat it too. (The Gourmet's Paradox)
The koan (paradox) is not solved by reason - it defies all logic - but bt a process of identification. One lives the thing, forgets self, and in the end forgets the koan (paradox) also. (Zen, p57)
Paradox or absurdity of a crucified God and the absurdity of His suffering. Simply identify with it, living the anguish, living the suffering; and eventually after hours of wrestling with the crucifix, one may break through to the enlightenment of seeing sense in what looks like nonsense. Then comes resurrection. One has found unity in the terrible dispersion of a suffering Christ. Jesus is a great archetypal figure, set for the rise and the fall of many; he is the sign that is to be contradicted. By living death with him, one breaks through to resurrection and a Jesus enlightenment. Any religion demanding faith has its paradox. Christianity is one tremendous paradox that makes the mind boggle and gasp in astonishment; and faith is the break-through in to that deep realm of the soul which accepts paradox and mystery with humility. Read the Scriptures as paradox and put aside your critical faculties of reasoning and arguing. Stop asking whether Jesus did or did not walk on the waters. Stop asking what it all means; because what it means is less important than what it does to you. Then you'll find that the Scriptures are food and that they are life. IN ZEN, ONE TEST OF THE VALIDITY OF ENLIGHTENMENT IS THE ABILITY TO SOLVE THE PARADOX. In the same way, the test of an enlightened Christian could be his ability to read the Scriptures with joy, relish, and insight. SELECT FROM THE BIBLE A PARADOX THAT APPEALS AND KEEP IT CONSTANTLY WITH FAITH THAT IT CONTAINS ENLIGHTENMENT AND THAT A BREAK-THROUGH IS POSSIBLE. This paradox exercise may teach us to see into the essence of the Scriptures. (Zen, p62-7)
The Great Paradox - God can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find Him. (Islam, Wisdom, P323)