just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of Being —Plato, Republic The story of Job is at once ancient and immediate to us. Thousands of years interpose themselves between us and the primeval setting of this story, and yet we encounter its strange protagonist with a sense of intimate familiarity. We may even see our own likeness in Job and his trials—who has not had his faith tested in the furnaces of hardship? Unlike the brawny and heroic figures that Homer presents in the likes of Achilles and Odysseus, The Book of Job puts on display all of the frailty of the human condition.
Thanks Max! I’m so inspired by your essay on Job. We need a warmer, friendlier understanding of the dreaded Job- that looming Saturnian archetype who seems to show up just when we feel we are doing everything ‘right’! What ? I’m doing such great works, why do I not deserve great favor in the eye of our Lord?
Instead we find ourselves encountering harsh trials and one thing after another going upside down. We confusedly feel ourselves as Job, crushed and cursed by fate. What else to do but to grumble or rail against God’s mistake, and shoulder a seemingly unjust hardship to test our faith and endurance. That is a miserably hard pill to swallow.
But as you now suggest, this is really a key nodal point for the soul!!! This is the moment of a new birth.
Job showing up in our biography represents a crucible we are about to enter. All our former and admirable efforts and strivings must now be submitted to the fire on the altar as a burnt offering. Like Job, Parcival too was misled by mistaking the outer conventions of chivalry for the mark of inner knighthood and found himself flailing like Job. Everything outer had to be sacrificed until he burned his way through to the indomitable core of “I Am’ consciousness soul awareness, where he then could stand in converse with the spiritual world. Job is a forerunner, and presents a portal into the mystery of the birth of consciousness soul that is repeated and continues further in Parcival. The soul cannot remained encapsulated in itself. The hard husk of false identity can only be cracked and shed in the fires of Gods love which feels like woe until we realize our selfhood in the light of the Holy Spirit.
Meister Eckhart says that we must enter ann incomprehensible poverty of spirit. When we strip ourselves of everything we possess, that is almost nothing. But when we strip ourselves of ourselves and cease to will on our behalf, then that is something. For when we go out of ourselves and cease to will for ourselves, then God must enter us and will on his behalf; he has no choice in the matter, as it were. “Wherever you find yourself, take leave of yourself,” he says. Then you will find that you have become more; you have become God. God wants to know himself in us and act in us but everything we call “ourselves” prevents him from realizing his wish and prevents us from seeing that this is his wish and that it would be ours too if our hearts were right and our understanding correct.
Simply brilliant exegesis! At the beginning, I was thinking, aha! but he hasn't thought about X. But then you covered X too, as well as Y and Z, better than I could. Nothing else to add!
Max has that inclusively incisive mind, and wherein he embraces even what others have said in his commentaries. Thus, he reinforces his own plethora, which equates to, "my cup runneth over", which he expresses with more aplomb as an academic. Very much appreciated, as you regard yourself in seeing. He gets help in his way.
So, you see, we have to do better, and be better than we are. Raising the quaternium of spiritual logistics to a new level. That is what is being described. Bing Crosby did a great song here:
Thank you, Max, this was a compelling contemplation of the Job narrative, as an intimate story of metanoia and initiation. It is a story that accords very well with concrete experience. I am generally only prompted to look 'under the hood' of my car when it stops running smoothly, likewise I am only prompted to intimately understand the Divine movements within me when my inner rhythms are out of alignment and need to be attuned to something greather than my personal knowledge, emotions, and will. There is no need to prematurely and hastily ascribe this misalignment to 'Divine judgment' or 'personal karma', but rather I can grow experientially into the fact that these are One and the same.
Thanks Max! I’m so inspired by your essay on Job. We need a warmer, friendlier understanding of the dreaded Job- that looming Saturnian archetype who seems to show up just when we feel we are doing everything ‘right’! What ? I’m doing such great works, why do I not deserve great favor in the eye of our Lord?
Instead we find ourselves encountering harsh trials and one thing after another going upside down. We confusedly feel ourselves as Job, crushed and cursed by fate. What else to do but to grumble or rail against God’s mistake, and shoulder a seemingly unjust hardship to test our faith and endurance. That is a miserably hard pill to swallow.
But as you now suggest, this is really a key nodal point for the soul!!! This is the moment of a new birth.
Job showing up in our biography represents a crucible we are about to enter. All our former and admirable efforts and strivings must now be submitted to the fire on the altar as a burnt offering. Like Job, Parcival too was misled by mistaking the outer conventions of chivalry for the mark of inner knighthood and found himself flailing like Job. Everything outer had to be sacrificed until he burned his way through to the indomitable core of “I Am’ consciousness soul awareness, where he then could stand in converse with the spiritual world. Job is a forerunner, and presents a portal into the mystery of the birth of consciousness soul that is repeated and continues further in Parcival. The soul cannot remained encapsulated in itself. The hard husk of false identity can only be cracked and shed in the fires of Gods love which feels like woe until we realize our selfhood in the light of the Holy Spirit.
“Job as forerunner”: very synchronistic comment 😊
Meister Eckhart says that we must enter ann incomprehensible poverty of spirit. When we strip ourselves of everything we possess, that is almost nothing. But when we strip ourselves of ourselves and cease to will on our behalf, then that is something. For when we go out of ourselves and cease to will for ourselves, then God must enter us and will on his behalf; he has no choice in the matter, as it were. “Wherever you find yourself, take leave of yourself,” he says. Then you will find that you have become more; you have become God. God wants to know himself in us and act in us but everything we call “ourselves” prevents him from realizing his wish and prevents us from seeing that this is his wish and that it would be ours too if our hearts were right and our understanding correct.
Grail Arts and Max make a great team today. I love it.
Simply brilliant exegesis! At the beginning, I was thinking, aha! but he hasn't thought about X. But then you covered X too, as well as Y and Z, better than I could. Nothing else to add!
Max has that inclusively incisive mind, and wherein he embraces even what others have said in his commentaries. Thus, he reinforces his own plethora, which equates to, "my cup runneth over", which he expresses with more aplomb as an academic. Very much appreciated, as you regard yourself in seeing. He gets help in his way.
thank you for the encouragement 😊
So, you see, we have to do better, and be better than we are. Raising the quaternium of spiritual logistics to a new level. That is what is being described. Bing Crosby did a great song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRazSO9xjFo
Thank you, Max, this was a compelling contemplation of the Job narrative, as an intimate story of metanoia and initiation. It is a story that accords very well with concrete experience. I am generally only prompted to look 'under the hood' of my car when it stops running smoothly, likewise I am only prompted to intimately understand the Divine movements within me when my inner rhythms are out of alignment and need to be attuned to something greather than my personal knowledge, emotions, and will. There is no need to prematurely and hastily ascribe this misalignment to 'Divine judgment' or 'personal karma', but rather I can grow experientially into the fact that these are One and the same.