Theodicy,
Truth Scale, & 2 kinds of "In-effable"
To enliven
a review of useful ACRONYMs that sketch out
a "Truth Scale" we can use the much-avoided issue of Theodicy to illustrate a broad comparison between the items. The subtler topic: "2 kinds of In-effable" is a more central purpose here, even though it marks
the distinction between only 2 categories.
Those 2 categories also happen to be those most important to us, &
the distinction between those 2 categories is itself the distinction most
important to us as well.
Simply summarized,
the enigma of Theodicy, is a mystery of Evil in the World,
specifically in regard to the question: "How can a loving God let such bad
things happen ?"
To a number
of viewpoints questioned, various first answers to the Theodicy question could be offered. ACRONYM abbreviations sketch out
a "Truth Scale" as follows:
1) UQD un-qualified
duality practitioners of
exoteric, organized, Dualistic religions ["un-qualified"
as in not modified or "toned down" at all], these live in denial about how
mean-spirited God would have to be to have eternal Hell, to leave the vast
majority excluded from Calvin’s Predestination–Rapture, or whatever other Last Days
elitist clubhouse. Pushing all that Theodicy
under the rug first,
they attempt to console themselves with “God’s will” & his “mysterious
ways.” But when their young daughter is stricken with painful & fatal
disease, or raped & tortured by a child molester, some understandably turn
their backs on that God when their blind faith has thus been too sorely tested.
War & evil of all sorts easily overwhelm the UQD practitioner, without any
good answer or explanation.
[In a circular mutually modeling cycle, Crime &
Punishment Legal systems mirror & inspire Crime & Punishment
Theological systems, & vice versa. Venial Sin – Misdemeanors land one in Purgatory – County
Jail; Mortal Sin – Felonies land one in Hell – with Last Judgment
court dramas in either case. Whatever "divine justice" is supposed to
accomplish, Civil Law provides only the crudest deterrent to crime. The grim
enjoyment of revenge & retribution supposedly satisfy the grief of victim’s
loved ones, & these offer precious little balm to innocent victims who
suffer, & less to those who die. Karma, though similar, is more of an
unconscious self-inflicted "learning experience" system.]
2) QD qualified-duality adherents back off some of the more
Fundamentalist dogmas & may introduce Deist [no personal Big Man in the Sky – God], Naturalistic [most
extreme as "tree-huggers"], or New Age [theosophical.
etc.] themes. They are "soft
on hell" but more rationally still find mystery in Theodicy, God’s dictates or justice, which includes the existence of
Evil.
QND schemes for the Individual
get complex in QND
3) QND qualified-non-duality adherents include some who take a
subtler but also weak position on Theodicy, & this QND subset itself can
be well divided into 2 groups for clarity.
a) One still retains some metaphysical version of
a RWOT real-world-out-there ranging from Spinozan Deism-to-Panentheism
to all kinds of Gnostic & Theosophical hierarchies of planes & levels
with many hierarchies of beings. Exoteric
Buddhism & Hinduism, for instance, retain almost biblical heavenly hosts &
demonic hosts, armies at war with each other like angels & demons. Levels
of heaven & hell [though never
eternal hell – resurrected from Zoroaster by Eusebius] & astral planes of all
description are the scene for elaborate delineations of karma. Hopefully, mysteries of Theodicy get lost or forgotten in all the
confusion. In a sense this strategy, at best, results in a plan of not getting
distracted, dealing with what karmicly comes your way. One’s real job is primarily
striving for union with God, the Buddha-Mind, or the Tao, but all in a less
absolute sense.
b) The other QND sub-category approaches the next
UQND category with a more cosmic theology but still maintains separate,
Individual Souls created by a God, Saguna
Brahman who Panentheistically constitutes the Universe as well. This other QND sub-category
approaches the next UQND category but still stands distinct from UQND along lines of 2 Vedanta theories of Brahman:
i) Saguna
Brahman or [Absolute Reality with Form] is the more objective aspect of or God which projects, dreams, or “like a spider extruding its web” somehow manifests a Universe out
of its own substance. God’s Dream or Lila
Sport, or Maya web of Illusion contains all of us as evanescent characters playing
out multi-lifetime karma–learning. Karma dishes out rehabilitative sentences
& R & R rewards on various heavenly, hellish, & other planes are
determined by our thoughts, words & deeds that obscure the reality of God
in & as it all. In this still QND category,
Evil describes the wrong turns that we dream-characters take in our winding
path. Victims of their own self-inflicted karma thereby fulfill retributive
punishment from former transgressions recorded in the Akashic records or their own Mindstuff. But no matter how horrible, their suffering is
expiative, like Purgatory on the fly. Ultimately, as generalized above, Union
with God is the destiny of all these dream characters or projection/sparks with immortal souls, even if
thousands or millions of lifetimes are required.
ii) Nirguna
Brahman or [Absolute Reality without Form] is the Buddha-Mind, Dharmakaya, most absolute Tao, is UQND un-qualified
non-duality,
mis-understood if we have a “Counting Problem” in that “there is only One even
if it can seem that we are many.” Life & the Universe are illusions from
which we awaken to rediscover that we are One all along. How this can happened remains a mystery as it
must because the only resolution lies in the context of UQND non-qualified-non-duality where it just plain never happened.
Evil, Suffering, & Theodicy are branded with the status of
Illusion but this can still be weak solace to one who is suffering or who is or
knows an innocent victim of Evil. Progressively,
from the furthest advanced edge of QD through QND there is growing recognition
that Ego is the selfish fount of misguided, ignorant Evil. Therefore, seeking
Liberation, “erasing the Ego” is the only solution. Further into QND toward UQND, the surprise is
no longer in the perverse depths of consummate Evil whenever it appears.
Rather, in contemplating the inversion that is Ego, the seeker becomes
surprised that with Ego at the “helm” that Evil is not even worse. Rather than feeling betrayed by God for
“allowing” Ego, this seeker is grateful for the Grace that holds Ego Evil at
bay, limits it, admits Goodness, & redeems in the end, all from Evil–Ego.
4) UQND un-qualified-non-duality alone has an answer for Theodicy, Evil, Ego, & all Suffering. Knowledge alone liberates, that is: Knowledge
of the Self as Brahman, “1- without – a -
2nd.” Words cannot express UQND. Looking back across this brief Outline, we metaphorically
see that needless suffering, Ego, Evil & such are the “fly in the ointment”
for UQD, QD, & QND, the fatal flaw on the part of any one of them that
belies UQD, QD, & QND posing as a complete understanding.
0) SPAM scientism-physicalism-atheism-materialism, needless
to say, can only face Evil & Suffering with “fear & loathing” enough to
inspire suicide in an adherent not living in Denial. In this “last” or “first” properly numbered,
but listed-out-of-order entry, there is no God, so no Theodicy, no Divine
Mystery or answer to Evil. Instead, Evil
is trumpeted as a salient proof against the existence of God. Taking the
lamest & least appropriate spokesmen for spirituality, the most obdurate
Fundamentalists within UQD & their Bibles, all at face value, they see no
answer forthcoming response at all to their question: "How can there be a God if he
allows Evil & Suffering in the World ?" [Even Nature validates this SPAM in the screw-blow-fly,
the guinea-worm, & a certain nasty fungus.]
Typically,
the “allow” term in: "How can there be a God if He allows Evil & Suffering
in the World ?" Objection carries a context of complete micro-management
by special creations & miracles at all times, & a Legal Justice system
context. The God of UQD has His fingers in every pie, all the time, or else He
doesn’t exist, they would say. Any undesired outcome is “God’s will” & He
is mean-spirited for intending & dictating the nasty ones. There “should” be
no disease, no Evil, no Death, but only great family planning. God could not exist if He fails the criteria
for fair play, good intentions, & support of life, liberty, & justice, &
the American way, the pursuit if never finding of Happiness, & generally a
good GDP & low unemployment rate for all. Then the fact that some of us are born weak,
fat, sick, ugly, & impoverished is another issue but we’ll take that up
another day. All goes to show that God is not very nice, even without the
unspeakably insane Eternal Hell, so therefore He could not exist, so say SPAM adherents.
Thus for SPAM, Evil proves no-God. So again. the contradiction of Evil Theodicy is
resolved only in the “all Form is unreal” absolute resolution of UQND just previously reviewed.
Less general a distinction than the Theodicy, our real
point here is to compare QND & UQND around the issue of Reality being "In-effable". Within the context of QND, Reality is "In-effable"
because no attempted description can ever be quite good enough. Within the context of UQND, Reality is "In-effable"
in principle because there is no verbal or mental
description for the Absolute, Formless, Nirguna
Brahman .
