Fivesome: God is his own restriction

The fivesome is the structure by which God makes better sense of his situation. It arises when God asks himself Am I able to consider the question?

5) God looks at himself looking at himself looking at himself looking at himself looking at himself from the side: "I allow for restricted unrestriction". And he reinterprets the previous perspectives: "I allow for unrestricted effects", "I allow for restricted effects", "I allow for restricted causes", "I allow for unrestricted causes".

This is the relationship between what we know and don't know.

• If what we don't know becomes what we know, then we learn, and this is good.
• If what we know becomes what we don't know, then we suspect, and this is bad.

So the fivesome brings together the known effect, the known cause, the unknown cause, the unknown effect and the point of ambiguity.

There are representations in terms of time and space. In time, there is a definite move from the unknown to the known. In time, there is only learning. This gives God's perspective, where he is not able to consider the question. God does not go back on what he knows. But in space, there is a possible move from the known to the unknown. In space, things may be suspect. The known system, with the known cause and known effect, may become unknown if it is understood within a larger system. This is the human perspective.

This is a going beyond, but within the system, across a boundary.

To go from unknown to known is to increase scope. To go from known to unknown is to decrease scope.

We find the known in our knowledge of everything, anything or something. We find the unknown in our knowledge of anything, something or nothing.

The unknown that came from the known is bad will (evil), error (sin), loss (death).

Here are some thoughts on the fivesome:

• God's answer is No, I am not able to consider the question. In this sense he is reasonable.
• Love is support for life. Life is the fact that God is good. God cares not only for eternal life, but he also cares for life.
• This is about the choice of eternal life over life. Looking forward or backward.
• This has to do with increasing scope, growth of God's concern.
• This has to do with the righteous and the wicked behavior, as given by Jesus' reasoning. The fivesome can be applied to each of these reasonings.
• This has to do with God allowing for error. To what extent can there be error as God (or a person) attempts to figure himself out? To what extent is it reversible? In this sense, God is not able to consider the question.
• This has to do with responsibility for slack. The freedom of the Self opens up 6 pairs of levels.
• Human participation is opened up by the variety of expression of slack.
• This is about going beyond oneself, by one who is in structure, perhaps trying to go out of structure by increasing scope? Going beyond one's knowledge, to wider knowledge, in order to figure oneself out. A "better" perspective.

God is good. Understanding this is eternal life. Eternal life is the goodness of God.

Understanding unfolds from God. Understanding concludes that God is good.

We may take as given that God is good, and work backwards, towards God. We assume the goodness of God, we look backwards, and we realize that life is the goodness of God. Life is the fact that God is good. Or we may take God as given, and work forwards, towards the goodness of God. God looks forwards to eternal life, and we may believe that eternal life is the goodness of God. Eternal life is the understanding that God is good. [Compare looking and "seeing" backwards with looking and "not seeing" forwards].

Life is the degenerate union of two concepts, goodness and God, in that it is a third concept which expresses their coming together, but does not consider each of them separately. Life is an abbreviation. Good and God are in life, but it does not know that.

Eternal life is the nondegenerate union of two concepts, goodness and God, in that it brings them together, but keeps them distinct, and may consider how each participates separately. Good and God are in life, and it knows both of them.

This is a key difference, and it is all in the mind, and difficult to talk about. The mind likes to collapse concepts. But there is wisdom in keeping them distinct. We look backwards, and think that "every effect has had its cause". But God looks forwards, and thinks that "not every cause has had its effect". [Consider the two axes of the foursome, fivesome, sixsome.] We look backwards, as if looking at God, as if at death, our own disintegration, rather than forward towards our further co-creation.

God's view forwards is that of increasing slack. Our view backwards is that of decreasing slack. God sees the equation: Eternal life is the goodness of God. And this is the sense in which God truly is good. We see the equation: The goodness of God is life.