was_peacemaker
03-03-2012, 06:09 AM
Often times when we think of ourselves we think of the guy that we see in the mirror. Or we think of "the body" as the self. Yet, the body is only one aspect of the self and not the real "you". One might think of the mind as "the self" but just like the body it is only a part of the self and not the real "you". To take it a bit further some my insist that their soul is the "real self" but there again just like the body and the mind it is a part of but not the core of the self. So now the concept of self hood has become difficult to define. If you try to think about it while reading this, then you have tapped into the self without knowing it. In order to read and comprehend or to think and react one needs to tap into the "will", that which is not defined by body, soul, or mind.
To understand this further...we can look at the Hebrew word for "I" which is "ani" when one re-arranges the letters a bit...it spells the Hebrew "ayn" or "ayin" which means "Nothingness".
It doesn't mean the real you is nothing. What it means is the real you can't be consciously categorized. To take body, mind, and soul away and still have a spark of something that is the real you. The nothingness that "wills" yourself to act do and think, is beyond the human imagination. Where did this concept come from?
One can take a quick look at Genesis 1:26. From the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh/Bible.
Gen 1:26-28 " And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth." 27: And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him male and female He created them. 28:God blessed them and God said to them, "Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on the earth."
Now reading this from the Western literal perspective it isn't to hard to understand. Yet, we can find out out what this "self" is....or this defined "will" which we can not define we must look a little further.
First off in the first creation story Gen 1:1-Gen 2:3...God's name is Elohim which by definition is usually plural. I will cover the second creation story of Gen. 2:5-2:25 and the intermission verse of 2:4 at another time.
In general term it is normally singular in its Hebrew usage. The story starts of Gen 1:1 as Be-reshith bara Elohim" or mechanically translated as "In the beginning created gods". Yet in the Hebrew grammar when a action like "bara" (created) comes before a plural pronoun like Elohim...often times that plural pronoun becomes a singular possessive of the action. That is how we get "In the beginning God created" in our modern Bibles. So the story starts off with one monotheistic God.
Now when we end up in 1:26 we see this "Let us make man in our image".
Who is this us that Elohim is referring to? Is it the Christian Trinity? Is it God and Jesus? Is it God and the heavenly hosts? Here we see a plurality for the first time Elohim. Ok, now lets make some sense of this. Who was created in the image of God? Man or the Hebrew "ah-adam" meaning mankind. What makes up human kind? From 1:27 "...male and female He created them." So both male and female were created in the image of God, in the context of when Elohim was used in the plural.
Ok but does this mean God has the anthropomorphic attributes of both?!? The answer would be no. As this is not talking about a physical image at all. In fact this is talking about the source for "self". How is it about self and not physical image you may ask? Well...lets look at two key words here. Image, and likeness. In this case "image" is translated from the Hebrew word "zelem" and "likeness" from the Hebrew word "demut". You can get a bit of an idea about these words from Strong's Concordance but often times Strong's leaves out the usage of words in how the are utilized.
Lets start with "zelem" which usually means image as in the perception of a thing. For example it wasn't the physical image of the wood and stone that pagans worshiped it was what the perceived "zelem" that they thought it represented.
In other words "zelem" or the "image" we are created in has more to do with the intellectual and spiritual perception of a human and not so much his physical attributes. We can see this as the Hebrews had better words for physical images like "toar". Also the word for likeness "demut" is often used in the abstract. Meaning our spiritual and intellectual image was made in the abstract spiritual and intellectual nature of God. That both masculinity and the feminine are derived from the same source, and therefore all have the same source for "self" or "will".
In verse 28 you see God commanding man to multiple and dominate the world. Think of this more or less like writing the software before its put into the hardware. This is the advanced consciousness or the undefined "self" of each of us being created as more than just an instinctive animal. In the abstract likeness of the Creator. Since both concepts of male and female were created in this abstract likeness then it does well for this verse to utilize Elohim in the plural...even though it is the same one God still creating.
Now an interesting thing to remember is that after God created light, sky, sea's, land, plants, fish, birds, and animals he looked and said that all of them were good. In the case of human being he did not say that at all? Why is that? Was the creation of the perceived spiritual and intellectual image and likeness not completed? We have an answer the second time God says "us" in reference to the Divine after the fall of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:22 "Now the Lord God said, "Now that man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!" (NJPS)
Now we see mankind unlike other creatures. A thinking advanced being that was not declared good or bad initially but after making a conscious decision to do what they were ordered not to do they were declared good and bad. Because that was the path they chose, where the animals act more out of instinct. The mystery of this even can be behind the deception of the serpent at the tree. In Gen 2:5-Gen 2:25 God's name is not Elohim but the "Tetragrammaton" commonly translated as Jehovah.
Yet, when the serpent is tempting Eve he is careful not to say you will be like Jehovah, instead he cleverly tells Eve she and Adam will be like Elohim...because he even knows what image they were created in. The lie that was told was a half truth...he didn't inform her (them) to eat from the Tree of Life in order to save them from death.
That is why God said in Gen 3:22 that "Now that man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad...". It wasn't until we acted on "free will" that we were noted as good or bad, but in this case both.
So the real "self" is the undefined "free will" that is beyond our comprehension and is from the same source. Beyond the grasp of our imagination. Like the energy that is powering your PC. You can see its working but you can't actually look at the chip and see the flow of the energy.
To understand this further...we can look at the Hebrew word for "I" which is "ani" when one re-arranges the letters a bit...it spells the Hebrew "ayn" or "ayin" which means "Nothingness".
It doesn't mean the real you is nothing. What it means is the real you can't be consciously categorized. To take body, mind, and soul away and still have a spark of something that is the real you. The nothingness that "wills" yourself to act do and think, is beyond the human imagination. Where did this concept come from?
One can take a quick look at Genesis 1:26. From the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh/Bible.
Gen 1:26-28 " And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth." 27: And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him male and female He created them. 28:God blessed them and God said to them, "Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on the earth."
Now reading this from the Western literal perspective it isn't to hard to understand. Yet, we can find out out what this "self" is....or this defined "will" which we can not define we must look a little further.
First off in the first creation story Gen 1:1-Gen 2:3...God's name is Elohim which by definition is usually plural. I will cover the second creation story of Gen. 2:5-2:25 and the intermission verse of 2:4 at another time.
In general term it is normally singular in its Hebrew usage. The story starts of Gen 1:1 as Be-reshith bara Elohim" or mechanically translated as "In the beginning created gods". Yet in the Hebrew grammar when a action like "bara" (created) comes before a plural pronoun like Elohim...often times that plural pronoun becomes a singular possessive of the action. That is how we get "In the beginning God created" in our modern Bibles. So the story starts off with one monotheistic God.
Now when we end up in 1:26 we see this "Let us make man in our image".
Who is this us that Elohim is referring to? Is it the Christian Trinity? Is it God and Jesus? Is it God and the heavenly hosts? Here we see a plurality for the first time Elohim. Ok, now lets make some sense of this. Who was created in the image of God? Man or the Hebrew "ah-adam" meaning mankind. What makes up human kind? From 1:27 "...male and female He created them." So both male and female were created in the image of God, in the context of when Elohim was used in the plural.
Ok but does this mean God has the anthropomorphic attributes of both?!? The answer would be no. As this is not talking about a physical image at all. In fact this is talking about the source for "self". How is it about self and not physical image you may ask? Well...lets look at two key words here. Image, and likeness. In this case "image" is translated from the Hebrew word "zelem" and "likeness" from the Hebrew word "demut". You can get a bit of an idea about these words from Strong's Concordance but often times Strong's leaves out the usage of words in how the are utilized.
Lets start with "zelem" which usually means image as in the perception of a thing. For example it wasn't the physical image of the wood and stone that pagans worshiped it was what the perceived "zelem" that they thought it represented.
In other words "zelem" or the "image" we are created in has more to do with the intellectual and spiritual perception of a human and not so much his physical attributes. We can see this as the Hebrews had better words for physical images like "toar". Also the word for likeness "demut" is often used in the abstract. Meaning our spiritual and intellectual image was made in the abstract spiritual and intellectual nature of God. That both masculinity and the feminine are derived from the same source, and therefore all have the same source for "self" or "will".
In verse 28 you see God commanding man to multiple and dominate the world. Think of this more or less like writing the software before its put into the hardware. This is the advanced consciousness or the undefined "self" of each of us being created as more than just an instinctive animal. In the abstract likeness of the Creator. Since both concepts of male and female were created in this abstract likeness then it does well for this verse to utilize Elohim in the plural...even though it is the same one God still creating.
Now an interesting thing to remember is that after God created light, sky, sea's, land, plants, fish, birds, and animals he looked and said that all of them were good. In the case of human being he did not say that at all? Why is that? Was the creation of the perceived spiritual and intellectual image and likeness not completed? We have an answer the second time God says "us" in reference to the Divine after the fall of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:22 "Now the Lord God said, "Now that man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!" (NJPS)
Now we see mankind unlike other creatures. A thinking advanced being that was not declared good or bad initially but after making a conscious decision to do what they were ordered not to do they were declared good and bad. Because that was the path they chose, where the animals act more out of instinct. The mystery of this even can be behind the deception of the serpent at the tree. In Gen 2:5-Gen 2:25 God's name is not Elohim but the "Tetragrammaton" commonly translated as Jehovah.
Yet, when the serpent is tempting Eve he is careful not to say you will be like Jehovah, instead he cleverly tells Eve she and Adam will be like Elohim...because he even knows what image they were created in. The lie that was told was a half truth...he didn't inform her (them) to eat from the Tree of Life in order to save them from death.
That is why God said in Gen 3:22 that "Now that man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad...". It wasn't until we acted on "free will" that we were noted as good or bad, but in this case both.
So the real "self" is the undefined "free will" that is beyond our comprehension and is from the same source. Beyond the grasp of our imagination. Like the energy that is powering your PC. You can see its working but you can't actually look at the chip and see the flow of the energy.