Thinking about withdrawal and Buddhism, I remembered this fascinating line from a post of Levi’s on 8.19.10:
“Like any other object, an object-oriented theology would have to argue that God is withdrawn from both itself and that all other objects are withdrawn from God (i.e., that God has no privileged access to creatures).”
This is precisely the Buddhist theory of god (whoever that is). Some being was reincarnated as a formless god (no articulated body, just sheer extension+awareness). Formless gods live for billions of years. This formless god was around when our Universe emerged. He thought he had created it…out of himself, since having no body it appeared as if the big bang was happening “inside” him...
Huh, Tim.... Sounds like a kind of Buddhist version of Nag Hammadi-style Gnosis. This long-lived but non-ultimate "god" is not unlike the gnostic Ialdabaoth, a being who mistook himself for the Uncaused Cause. (There's also a kind of parallel with the fall of Prajapati).
ReplyDeleteI think that's spot on. I'm writing about it in Buddhaphobia ch3.
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