Which Religion is the biggest physical threat?

[Thorngrub]

Rilke is the man.

[Rit]

thorny said:

I'll exchange some minerals w/you, sisy

would this be of the milky white kind?

[Thorngrub]

er, I do have some pearls to offer, yes

[sisyphus]

ritalinpants said:

i think i mentioned this before, but Rainer Maria Rilke's Book of Hours is simply the most devastatingly pure religious work i can think of in existence. It has none of the over-psychologizing of St Augustine, no overt-mathematical ontology of St Aquinas, no guilt of most of the Christian mystics like St John of the Cross..... just pure unadulterated sincere calm, eagle-eyed conversations with God. No anxiety (of the harmful sort).

rilke is a god. i only started getting into him a few years ago at an unjustifiably slow pace, but i feel like running out to buy that book right now. (unfortunately i have to go to work....) i love how you described him here.... "sincere calm, eagle-eyed conversations with god." brilliant. i've also been reading this translation of rilke poems by thorny's friend franz wright... (this bastard did drugs with thorny back in the day, and now he's gone and won himself a pulitzer...) anyway, they're so layered and honest and visionary.

here's my favorite rilke poem thus far:

Ignorant before the heavens of my life,
I stand and gaze in wonder. Oh the vastness
of the stars. Their rising and descent. How still.
As if I didn't exist. Do I have any
share in this? Have I somehow dispensed with
their pure effect? Does my blood's ebb and flow
change with their changes? Let me put aside
every desire, every relationship
except this one, so that my heart grows used to
its farthest spaces. Better that it live
fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than
as if protected, soothed by what is near.

i fucking LOVE that ending. "better that it live fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than as if protected, soothed by what is near."

genius.

[sisyphus]

thorny said:

er, I do have some pearls to offer, yes

lol. i guess i'll have to respond to that in a dirty pm.

by the way, since you're here.... after work alissa's having a little gathering at her house so i'm gonna stop in over there and get wined and dined a tad. wanna go? or should i just head straight over there without you? lemme know.

[Rit]

Ignorant before the heavens of my life,
I stand and gaze in wonder. Oh the vastness
of the stars. Their rising and descent. How still.
As if I didn't exist. Do I have any
share in this? Have I somehow dispensed with
their pure effect? Does my blood's ebb and flow
change with their changes? Let me put aside
every desire, every relationship
except this one, so that my heart grows used to
its farthest spaces. Better that it live
fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than
as if protected, soothed by what is near.

that is incredible. i'm totally in sync.

[Rit]

Book of Hours though. get it. I think the best translation is by two women who collaborated on it, Anita and Joanne. i forget what their last names are, though Anita's last name might Burrows.

[Rit]

Sis, where did u get you signature quote ("After life, the rational soul ascends the dragon; the sentient soul descends the dragon"), and what is the context?

[Thorngrub]

Sis, I should have a copy of The Book Of Hours laying about the house, somewhere.


As for Alissa's gathering, I'd head straight over there if I were you, I'll be trying to catch up w/Shirley's class assignments . . .

[Rit]

did you locate the Book of Hours for Sis, Thorn?

[Thorngrub]

Yup: just now found it, actually.

I'll show it to sisy when she gets back from work.

[Rit]

a book i'd like to buy.

it appears that its central thesis runs along that same things i share when considering Catholicism.

A review of the book:
------------------
"The Catholic Imagination is Andrew Greeley's attempt to summarize what is unique about Catholic culture. "Catholics live in an enchanted world, a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles, saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures," Greeley writes. "But these Catholic paraphernalia are mere hints of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility which inclines Catholics to see the Holy lurking in creation." In seven chapters, The Catholic Imagination considers some of the central themes of Catholic culture--sacrament, salvation, community, festival, hierarchy, erotic desire, and the mother love of God--particularly as they have been treated by Catholic artists. The book's theological and aesthetic observations gain force from its sociological insights. (Greeley teaches Sociology at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona.). Read the chapter on "Sacred Desire" first. There's good stuff here on Bernini (later in the book he moves on to Scorsese, Mozart, and others); but even more fascinating is Greeley's empirical evidence that "Catholics have sex more often, they are more playful in their sexual encounters, and they enjoy sex more [than other Americans]."

[Kensterberg]

You guys have wandered waaaaaay off-topic here. This is supposed to be about which religious order is most likely to be able to kick your ass, not some lovey-dovey spiritual shit, or why Catholics have more frequent and kinkier sex than Protestants.

And I'm telling you again that the Chinese Daoists and Zen pratitioners are the ones who see martial arts as spiritual meditation. Those monks will f*ck you up.

[Galactus]

I bet those Nelson brothers are brawlers.