[Buddha-l] Energy

[Jim Peavler]

On Jul 4, 2008, at 9:46 PM, Kate Marshall wrote:
>
> As for creation ex nihilo, from the 8 biblical quotes given the  
> following
> two directly support my above comments:
>
> 1. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the  
> word of
> God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do  
> appear.
> 2. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host  
> of them
> by the breath of his mouth.
> Also a number of the quotes seem to use the terms Word, breath, and,  
> spirit
> interchangeably, which further support the views mentioned in my  
> previous
> post.

I think reading "word" as literal sounding out of syllables may be a  
little to literal an understanding of a word that is clearly a  
translation of an old Germanic word translated from a latin (verbum),  
neither of which is a particularly close translation of any of the  
words used in the original languages of the Hebrew or Xian Bible. The  
words "breath", "spirit", "thought", "mind", and so on seem to exist  
in free variation with "word" to mean approximately the same  
transcendent mysterious thing. The folks who translated the James  
version of the Bible chose "Word" from a rather long list of  
possibilities to refer to this mysterious phenomenon.

John, famously, begins his gospel with;

	In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the  
Word was God.
	The same was in the beginning with God.
	All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made  
that was made.
	In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
	And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it  
not.

This is the only creation story I can recall offhand from the new  
testament. It tells the creation story all the way from the pre- 
creation to the beginning of the preaching career of John the Baptist.

I have a difficult time comprehending the "Word", as used here, as  
literally a spoken sound. It has to be some kind of truly transcendent  
essence or power that comprises spirit, and mind, and existence, and a  
host of other things that precede all things.

And it seems to comprise all things that have ever been or can ever  
be. Maybe it is the opposite of "emptiness". Maybe it is "fullness".  
It may refer to the plenum.