Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash
Zooming God
A Note on Digital Panentheism
Dear Lord of all Worlds,
I know that you find your "I" in the wind breathing upon the sea, in the shopkeeper sweeping the littered sidewalk, in the oak tree outside my window, and in couples strolling hand in hand by the river. I know that you are in the physical world even as you are more than the world. I know that you are Love and that, as Rabbi Artson puts it, the world is marinating in your love.
I am wondering if you might also find your "I" in virtual worlds, too: specifically, in a zoom meeting where friends and family, or students and teachers, or even strangers and former foes, are together in a virtual and loving way. Are you in their talking with one another, in their sharing stories, in their laughing and crying together, and sometimes in their singing to one another.
Just the other day I was singing to a loved one in a nursing home from a distance through zoom. I was singing the hymn How Great Thou Art. Is this a form of holy communion? Is your capacity to receive all things lovingly, including moments like this, part of your greatness?
I know that when people participate in zoom meetings they are not face to face in a physical way. But they are, or can be, touching in a certain way. Maybe this is a form of what process theologians call hybrid prehensions: feeling the feelings of others from a distance. I'll call it virtual touch. It has its own kind of physicality.
Virtual Worlds as Part of God's Manyness
Are you moved by their virtual touch? Is their moment of communion part of your life, too? Is this part of what process theologians mean when they say that you are many as well as one?
I know that you don't have a localized body because you are everywhere at once. In a way, the whole universe is your body. Does your body include the virtual worlds we inhabit in so much of our lives these days? Are these worlds part of your manyness?
Of course I also know that you are more than this manyness. You are one as well as many. Your oneness is your own life, with aims and purposes of your own.
You can suffer pain and enjoy pleasure; you seek the well-being of any and all; and you suffer the sorrow of our own hatreds and violence. You can't make all of our violence go away, but you can suffer with us and, as they say, lure us toward love. And, I am told, you never give up on us. I really hope that this is true.
God's Presence in the World
I am told that we feel your aims through inwardly felt possibilities. The process theologians call them "initial aims" and say that we feel them, deep inside our own minds and hearts, at every moment. They are possibilities for love and courage, kindness and wonder, playfulness and peace. When we feel these possibilities, so the process theologians add, we also feel your desire that they be actualized. They are our prayers for yourself and yours for us. We are co-praying.
If your spirit is inside each of us in this way, would you not be luring us as we participate in zoom meetings, too? Luring us to be kind and creative, empathic and caring, laughing when it's time to laugh, crying when it's time to cry, just like in real life. Because, in truth, it is real life for us.
Zoom-Like Love
I was reading a post by Frederic Brussat that made me think about all this. He spoke to two forms of panentheism. I'll call them "rural panentheism" and "urban panentheism." One emphasizes the more than human world; the other the human world. It made me wonder about a third kind: digital panentheism.
Don't get me wrong. I know that online platforms are a mixed bag, that some aspects of social media are the bane of the world, and that physical touch is a good thing. I love a hug, a kiss, a gentle touch as much as anybody. I love the flow of running water across my hands and face. I love to fold my legs and sit in Zen meditation. I love to take long walks each day - 15,000 steps! I am grateful, to you and to evolution, for having a physical body.
But I also know that you yourself do not have a localized body because you are everywhere at once. And I known that you feel the feelings of all things in an intimate way. It's almost zoom-like. Might we, too, do something of the same? Might we, too, partake of zoom-like love? Is this not good, too? And sometimes, in some circumstances, maybe even better.
Must go now, but I trust you'll be wherever I go.
Jay
I know that you find your "I" in the wind breathing upon the sea, in the shopkeeper sweeping the littered sidewalk, in the oak tree outside my window, and in couples strolling hand in hand by the river. I know that you are in the physical world even as you are more than the world. I know that you are Love and that, as Rabbi Artson puts it, the world is marinating in your love.
I am wondering if you might also find your "I" in virtual worlds, too: specifically, in a zoom meeting where friends and family, or students and teachers, or even strangers and former foes, are together in a virtual and loving way. Are you in their talking with one another, in their sharing stories, in their laughing and crying together, and sometimes in their singing to one another.
Just the other day I was singing to a loved one in a nursing home from a distance through zoom. I was singing the hymn How Great Thou Art. Is this a form of holy communion? Is your capacity to receive all things lovingly, including moments like this, part of your greatness?
I know that when people participate in zoom meetings they are not face to face in a physical way. But they are, or can be, touching in a certain way. Maybe this is a form of what process theologians call hybrid prehensions: feeling the feelings of others from a distance. I'll call it virtual touch. It has its own kind of physicality.
Virtual Worlds as Part of God's Manyness
Are you moved by their virtual touch? Is their moment of communion part of your life, too? Is this part of what process theologians mean when they say that you are many as well as one?
I know that you don't have a localized body because you are everywhere at once. In a way, the whole universe is your body. Does your body include the virtual worlds we inhabit in so much of our lives these days? Are these worlds part of your manyness?
Of course I also know that you are more than this manyness. You are one as well as many. Your oneness is your own life, with aims and purposes of your own.
You can suffer pain and enjoy pleasure; you seek the well-being of any and all; and you suffer the sorrow of our own hatreds and violence. You can't make all of our violence go away, but you can suffer with us and, as they say, lure us toward love. And, I am told, you never give up on us. I really hope that this is true.
God's Presence in the World
I am told that we feel your aims through inwardly felt possibilities. The process theologians call them "initial aims" and say that we feel them, deep inside our own minds and hearts, at every moment. They are possibilities for love and courage, kindness and wonder, playfulness and peace. When we feel these possibilities, so the process theologians add, we also feel your desire that they be actualized. They are our prayers for yourself and yours for us. We are co-praying.
If your spirit is inside each of us in this way, would you not be luring us as we participate in zoom meetings, too? Luring us to be kind and creative, empathic and caring, laughing when it's time to laugh, crying when it's time to cry, just like in real life. Because, in truth, it is real life for us.
Zoom-Like Love
I was reading a post by Frederic Brussat that made me think about all this. He spoke to two forms of panentheism. I'll call them "rural panentheism" and "urban panentheism." One emphasizes the more than human world; the other the human world. It made me wonder about a third kind: digital panentheism.
Don't get me wrong. I know that online platforms are a mixed bag, that some aspects of social media are the bane of the world, and that physical touch is a good thing. I love a hug, a kiss, a gentle touch as much as anybody. I love the flow of running water across my hands and face. I love to fold my legs and sit in Zen meditation. I love to take long walks each day - 15,000 steps! I am grateful, to you and to evolution, for having a physical body.
But I also know that you yourself do not have a localized body because you are everywhere at once. And I known that you feel the feelings of all things in an intimate way. It's almost zoom-like. Might we, too, do something of the same? Might we, too, partake of zoom-like love? Is this not good, too? And sometimes, in some circumstances, maybe even better.
Must go now, but I trust you'll be wherever I go.
Jay