2017-02-07

Raven 33: The Holy Spirit

What kind of thing is an idea? How does your idea of idea relate to your faith?

Case
Reverend Crane invited Raven and her students to an ecumenical service at the Little Church in the Grotto. Afterward the Tallspruce community was abuzz about the experience. The next evening Owl asked, "Is the Holy Spirit something like Buddha-nature?"
Raven said, "The two ideas are similar."
Owl asked, "Then Christianity and Zen are somehow linked?"
Raven said, "No, not at all. They are totally different and distinctly separate."
Owl was silent for a moment. Then she asked, "How are they different?"
Raven said, "Their ideas of idea are different."
Owl asked, "How are their ideas of idea different?"
Raven said, "One has eternal life, and the other expires before sunset."
Verse
Being as the light is, rising, setting,
Tracelessness is granted -- joy enough.
Two snags, to be avoided if one can, or incorporated:
The ideas of eternal life, and the eternal life of ideas.
Case by Robert Aitken; introduction and verse by Meredith Garmon
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