“Yet, no matter how deeply I go down into myself, my God is dark, and like a webbing made of a hundred roots that drink in silence. I know that my trunk rose from his warmth, but that’s all, because my branches hardly move at all near the ground, and just wave a little in the wind.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
PSALM
No one kneads us again out of earth and clay,
no one incants our dust.
No one.
Blessed art thou, No One.
In thy sight would
we bloom.
In thy
spite.
A Nothing
we were, are now, and ever
shall be, blooming:
the Nothing-, the
No-One’s-Rose.
With
our pistil soul-bright,
our stamen heaven-waste,
our corona red
from the purpleword we sang
over, O over
the thorn.Paul Celan, “Psalm” from Selected Poems and Prose, translated by John Felstiner. Copyright © 2001 by John Felstiner.
A case of contradictories which are true. God exists: God does not exist. Where is the problem? I am quite sure that there is a God in the sense that I am quite sure my love is not illusory. I am quite sure that there is not a God in the sense that I am quite sure nothing real can be anything like what I am able to conceive when I pronounce this word. But that which I cannot conceive is not an illusion.
There are two atheisms of which one is a purification of the notion of God.
Perhaps every evil thing has a second aspect—a purification in the course of progress towards the good—and a third which is the higher good.
We have to distinguish carefully between these three aspects because it is very dangerous for thought and for the effective conduct of life to confuse them.
Of two men who have no experience of God, he who denies him is perhaps nearer to him than the other.
The false God who is like the true one in everything, except that we cannot touch him, prevents us from ever coming to the true one.
We have to believe in a God who is like the true God in everything, except that he does not exist, since we have not reached the point where God exists.
The errors of our time come from Christianity without the supernatural. Secularization is the cause—and primarily humanism.
Religion in so far as it is a source of consolation is a hindrance to true faith: in this sense atheism is a purification. I have to be atheistic with the part of myself which is not made for God. Among those men in whom the supernatural part has not been awakened, the atheists are right and the believers wrong.
A man whose whole family had died under torture, and who had himself been tortured for a long time in a concentration camp; or a sixteenth-century Indian, the sole survivor after the total extermination of his people. Such men if they had previously believed in the mercy of God would either believe in it no longer, or else they would conceive of it quite differently from before. I have not been through such things. I know, however, that they exist; so what is the difference?
I must move towards an abiding conception of the divine mercy, a conception which does not change whatever event destiny may send upon me and which can be communicated to no matter what human being.
__
*God does not in fact exist in the same way as created things which form the only object of experience for our natural faculties. Therefore, contact with supernatural reality is at first felt as an experience of nothingness. [Editor’s note.]
__
Excerpted from Simone Weil‘s Gravity and Grace. First French edition 1947. Translated by Emma Crawford. English language edition 1963. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
Rather like Dante’s Inferno, a humble building in Melville offers a sex shop at street level, an Evangelist centre above, and topping that, a karate centre. Lust, worship and a healthy dose of sweat and discipline… all just metres apart. What karma does this building generate, one wonders? Wikipedia fills in the gaps as to what these institutions have to offer:
Top floor: (Heaven) Seido Karate
Seido Karate was founded by Japanese master Tadashi Nakamura, who trained in various martial arts including Goju-Ryu, Kendo and Kyokusin, and studied under Mas Oyama, founder of Kyokushin. His beating of a Muay Thai champ in 1962 made him a national hero. After attaining 7th Dan Oyama told him to spread karate in the west, and, aged just 24, he began teaching Kyokushin in New York, where he taught several celebs before starting his own style, Seido Juku.
Seido means ‘Sincere Way’ and aims to develop students not just physically but also mentally, helping create ‘complete’ and ‘balanced’ individuals committed to improving themselves and the communities they live in. Seido karate’s three main principles are respect, love and obedience (not subservience). Very Japanese stuff: love for one’s family and friends, respect for your fellow karate-ka, your seniors, your parents and their knowledge and experience, and obedience to the laws and moral rules of life. Fuck yeah!
Sandwiched in the middle: The Potter’s House
The Potter’s House is a mega-church established in the mid-90s in Dallas, Texas. To handle expansion, the church built a 17,700 m2 sanctuary at a cost of $45 million, and paid off the debt in just four years. By 2000 founder TD Jakes was holding three services every Sunday, with attendance of over 23,000 in the sanctuary and the overflow room.
The church runs a program for ex-offenders trying to find their feet after being released from jail, helping them to find jobs and housing and to deal with substance abuse problems. It also has programs for teenage mothers, abused women and the homeless, runs a literacy program and has an Aids ministry. The Potter’s House has provided aid and sent missionaries to places such as Belize, Mexico, Guyana and Kenya. But for all their friendly aid, gays are not allowed and Christian marriage is encouraged.
The name comes from Jeremiah 18:2, “Go down to the potter’s house and there I will cause you to hear my words…” The churches are strongly evangelistic, and there are 67 in South Africa alone. The Melville site reads: “I have seen drug addicts set free of their addictions, sick people healed and ordinary people find extraordinary hope and joy. This has been the result of people coming to know Jesus Christ and grow in their relationship with Him. He truly is the answer to all our problems.” If it were only that simple!
And on the bottom floor (hell)
Adult World – South Africa’s Adult Sex Toys and Sexy Lingerie Store
Adult World is “proud to be South Africa’s leading adult retailer” and offers the “finest, most stunning lingerie in South Africa”.
There are “babydolls” in the underwear collection, whatever those are …so feel free to browse around, says their site. Be sure to try the “classy” and “stylish” sex gadgets and goodies. And, just in case you missed them, don’t forget to take a tour around the adult DVD collection, for a “delightful selection of adult movies you’ll surely enjoy”.
If you are too chicken to try the real store, just shop online: “We assure you that you will definitely enjoy a safe online adult shopping experience with us”. No trolls or viruses here, mate ..
Main Road, Observatory, 28 June 2013. Photo: Rosemary Lombard
Last night I learned how to be a lover of God
To live in this world and call nothing my own.
~ Mevlana Rumi
fleurmach 