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Feb 28Liked by Adam Jacobs

In the Bhagavad Gita you have the Personal Divine (Saguna Brahman, literally the Divine with qualities - SA guan; the Impersonal changeless Brahman (Nirguna Brahman, the Divine without qualities, NIR guan) and the Purushottoma, the Supreme Spirit, which Arjuna sees in Chapter 11, the same vision of the Supreme Spirit referenced by Oppenheimer while witnessing the first atomic bomb blast)

In Chapter 15, it is revealed that this supreme Spirit reconciles, integrates the Impersonal and personal. Those commentators on the Gita over the ages who have recognized this supreme spirit offer a wide variety of ways of integrating the changing and ever-changeless and reveal ithe apparent conflict to simply be a reflection of the nature of the dualistic mind, which however well it may intellectually conceive of an integration it’s only through gnosis, direct apprehension of the Logos, the Ein Sof, that this apparent conflict can be fully resolved

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Count me as agnostic. Renewal and rebirth make change possible and yet sustain what endures.

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I'm not quite clear what you're agnostic about:

The concept of God?

Change?

Changelessness?

Or is "changelessness" just a name for what we conceive of as ever changing in an enduring way?

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Feb 28·edited Feb 28

Hi again - just looked you up and see you have a masters in jazz piano! I worked as a pianist-composer throughout the 70s and 80s in NY City. Much of my living involved improvisation, though not formal jazz (I can fake a good jazz riff for about 20 seconds then people realize I'm playing my own decidedly non-jazz style). I later incorporated music in much of my work as a psychologist.

I just wanted to add, the more integrative view of the Gita seems quite remarkably close, in some respects, to the more "mystic" aspects of Kabbalistic teaching. In terms of strengthening Jewish pride in NY (another wonderful note I saw in your Linked In bio), if you look at the people attending NY Open Center and similar events around the city, it's quite amazing the number of folks with a Jewish background who barely identify with Judaism who are learning mindfulness, Tibetan Buddhism, Hindu devotional practices, etc. I wonder if some even attend Christian centering prayer meetings without realizing this is all in their tradition.

I would think a greater effort to find those teachings, present them in contemporary (and science friendly but still beyond belief!!!) form, would not simply attract but amaze many who think they have to go far and wide to find what they're looking for.

In the 80s I used to be choir director at a Spanish Catholic church i lower Manhattan. When everyone "exchanged the wish for peace" - "La Paz" - the priest would always shake my hand and say something like "Mazel Tov"or "Shalom." Well, lots of possibilities in NY for interfaith and inter spiritual holding of hands!!:>)

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Wow, very cool! Most musicians I know have an intuitive sense of the transcendent in some form or another. And yes, I see a lot of similarities between the Vedic and Kabbalistic traditions and should probably look more deeply into it.

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I am more than content to let all the angels dance on the head of the pin without counting them. I accept paradox and I believe paradox accepts me. Because renewal and change is possible, that is why everything endures.

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