Companions along the way – but which way?

Reading John 6.24-35 at end of Reflection

I can’t think of a better way to begin our reflection this morning
than Leunig’s Duet. A signed print hangs in the Common Room which I
have donated to Narrabundah College, so that in perpetuity when staff
come into it for a meeting, they can reflect on the essence of what it
means to stand before their classes. What it means to be ‘companions on
the way.’

A standing ‘under’ - bearing the full weight of what we don’t understand – together.

Sometimes the weight of things bear more fully on you – and you
understand them better than I do. Other times I understand things better
than you do. That’s because I’m able to better manage the weight of their
complexity than you can – in that moment.

But then again there are situations into which we were both
thrown, of which neither of us had any inkling, which called for radical
improvisation. How we got through that, neither of us know. But there
was exactly where we found a common understanding of things. The
common ground on which we discovered what caring really means.

And it was sharing this common life experience which brought us
together. The wonder of it. The joy of it. This dance of life. This duet we
sing. Is hard to explain.

But I will try this morning, and in doing so, after having delivered
my lecture to the Jungian Society on Friday night, the duet of lecturer
and audience, I will reveal a truth concerning Generative Artificial
Intelligence for which I have been searching these last three years. A truth
which had eluded me but is now in plain sight: the simple truth, that
everything is about teaching and learning. That when we teach AI how
to learn, we bring into that process ourselves – with it all of our greed,
all of our duplicity, all of our violence.

But first, let us see what our Gospel reading has to reveal about
teaching and learning.

The greeting most commonly applied to Jesus of Nazareth, was Rabboni teacher. This is common across all cultures. In Roman times the student would greet his tutor with Salve magister. One of our most controversial mystics, Eckhardt came to known as Meister Eckhardt, because of his scholarly learning. Even as I speak to you there are 90 learners sitting at his feet in the Benedictus forum.

So when the ‘crowd,’ the mob couldn’t find him in Capernaum –
looking for him in the wrong place, and finally worked out that he was
on the other side of the Lake they besiege him with what the teacher
realises is the wrong question: ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’

In teacher fashion, ‘Very truly, I tell you,’ he infers that the ‘crowd’ has
been asking the wrong question – when is not going to do it for them. So
he ignores their superfluous question and causes them to think about the
real question – why are they here? Because behind their when is an
attitude of entitlement – i.e. how come you’ve gone off without telling us
we need you. We were hungry, we were sick – you fed us, you made us
well. We need more of this!

In effect Jesus is saying, ‘When I fed you, when I healed you’ you
didn’t understand that these were signs pointing to something more
substantial than just filling your belly and getting a quick Medicare fix.
That fundamentally, ‘you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.’

Even when Jesus the teacher, spells it out for them, the crowd, the
mob, they still don’t understand because they’ve been so used to being
spoon fed, they can’t get this thing of having to learn for themselves,
taking responsibility for their own lives, asking hard questions of
themselves – the midrash. All ‘they’ can come out with, is a what
question ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ where the apostle John throws in the rider to explain their state of mindlessness ‘Then they said to
him.’ They’re saying things to him – actually they’re speaking at him, not
to him, not only ignoring his imperative: ‘Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life,’ they respond impudently, with ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?’ and then they throw in a bit of the religion, the wisdom of their teachers, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians who have been inciting them to confront him with what has been explained to them as Jesus of Nazareth’s misplaced authority – all this ‘Son of Man’ business, and this, ‘God the Father has set his seal,’ in effect throwing their religion in his face with, ‘Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” ’ “You’re out of line Jesus, you make no sense Jesus, they, our teachers, say you’re ‘mad’ Jesus, demon possessed Jesus. What do you say?”

In true good teacher fashion, he never gives up, even when this
mob doesn’t get it: ‘Sir, give us this bread always,’ and knowing what’s really
on their mind, he delivers the ‘coup de grace’: , ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever
comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

So where does that leave us this morning?

Let me conclude with a healing story, my healing story – where
even there it’s all about teaching and learning. Indeed if there is a takehome
truth – it’s this – everything’s about teaching and learning.

A. Tell the story of my illness in the holidays – and the doctor’s
diagnosis and prognosis – the bacteria

B. Tell the story of how this relates to my book The Phantom of the
Ego – An AI Winter or an everlasting bitter Spring?

C. I.E., we are creating AI in our own image – injecting into it our
greed, our duplicity, our violence

D. Finish with the myth of Narcissus and

E. Meister Eckhart:

Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness and Light: Meditations on the Path of the Wayless Way Mark S. Burrows & Jon M. Sweeney

Introduction The eye with which I see God is exactly the same eye without God sees me. My eye and God’s eye are one eye: one seeing, one knowing, one loving. —Meister Eckhart  If you have ever wondered what it might be to set out on a “wayless way,” this book might be for you. Many in our time want something else. They want a straight path toward a defined
goal. They desire one without detours, led by a guide who tells them exactly what to do.
And what not to do. Especially the latter. They want to know what they should think and feel. They need to know where they should go—and not go. Especially that.
Fundamentalists are always among us, because many want easy answers and cheap trips.
Ones that don’t call us to face difficult choices. Or hard decisions. Ones that avoid tough thinking. “Just tell me what I need to do,” they say. And bit by bit, they become less and less free, and more and more stupefied, until finally they have no voice of their own. No character to stand upon. And no will to resist the tyranny that started out as their choice. If you find yourself in that description, this is not the book for you.

Jesus and Abbot Mena, and Mary the mother of Jesus and Elizabeth.

John 6.24-35

24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ 26 Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that
endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ 28 Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ 29 Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ 30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the
wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” ’ 32 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ 34 They said to him, ‘Sir, give us thisbread always.’ 35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never
be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.