Bishop Barron on The Buffered Self

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[@catherinelavallee4073]

I've been watching many of your utube videos over the past week or so. I am a practicing Catholic, who is going to difficult times with my family and relationships. I have been feeling very uplifted in faith and hope by your videos. May God bless you.

[@andrewmcgregor9691]

Catherine Lavallee He is such a great speaker, I'm glad he's part of our church. God bless you and your family & friends

[@beltrabay9298]

God bless you and may Our Blessed Mother keep you under Her Mantle 🙏🌹

[@PrettyPortUK]

Your videos are wonderful, I watch you every night and recommend you to everyone I know. You explain things so well, you will bring many back to the church. You have helped me a great deal. We are always happier when we try to stay close to God.

[@slowflowful]

Bishop Barron, you are truly a spirit born from the mouth of the Lord, a conduit of the Lord's graces. You have been blessed thoroughly and because of that, so have many others! Love you!

[@jessewallace12able]

In a comtemporary world so unaware of the beauty involved in sincere rational thinking, I find Word on Fire, and this video for example, to be such a breathe of fresh air. "Life Saver", would be another way to say it. Thanks BB.

[@margarethhuapcent1270]

IF I NEED THIS FOR COUNT THE FEEL OF BEING LIVE, IS BEST FOR BACK SOON TO GOD

[@trishknaut1031]

Praise God for you Bishop! I believe that we all need to feel loved & so God guides our lives in longing for Him... Returning to our 1st love where we are fulfilled in the presence of Jesus...& so we yearn seeking intimacy with Him, as He with us....& the buffered self is a result of believing a lie from the enemy, the devil, who only desires to kill, steal & destroy...that relationship, our souls...with sin...which is why we need our Savior...

[@margarethhuapcent1270]

Thank you Mommy Mary? Thank you God Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Thank you Bishop Barron!😇😇😇👼🔥

[@Tessinentdecken]

Is Jesus God?

[@filthyswit]

Even as an atheist I still believe in the human spirit. When I was about 4 years old I had an outer body experience. I would say I was about 150-200 feet high in the night sky seeing things in my rural neighborhood that I had not seen before. Only about a year or a year and a half later when I was old enough to venture off did I see these things that I saw when I had my OBE. During my OBE everything had a bluish/grayish hue to it. I remember hurrying back to my body when I felt afraid for some reason. But when I passed through the glass sliding door my spirit slowed down and I just cruised down the hallway to my bedroom and woke with a start. Never happened again but it's something I will never forget.

[@Zardoz998]

@@chissstardestroyer you're just doing a god of the gaps, using god to fill in the unknowns. The fact we don't know "why" doesn't prove anything

[@LSK49rs]

I think this is one of the reasons there are so many people suffering from depression today...they are buffered from God.

[@JohnnyNada]

Indeed

[@jesuschristnevergiveupmych2839]

Crusade Prayer (53) “Prayer for the Catholic Church” “O God the Father, in the Name of Your Beloved Son I beg You to give strength and the Graces needed to help priests withstand the persecution they endure. Help them to adhere to the Truth of the Teachings of Your Son, Jesus Christ, and to never waiver, weaken or submit to untruths about the Existence of the Holy Eucharist. Amen.” 'r;tr

[@javiersalazar2178]

Excellent! Love it! Learn so much from all your videos. Thank you and blessings ✝️🙏☮️

[@Tessinentdecken]

can you explain me the concept of the Trinity?

[@margarethhuapcent1270]

Thank you Bishop Barron!

[@microbroadcast]

Great videos Bishop Barron. I learn so much from these talks that they help me on my own faith journey. Just what I hope is a helpful suggestion, maybe whoever looks after the posting of your KZbin videos would put a bit more information in the description underneath the video e.g. the title of any book you discuss. In this case 'The Souls Upward Yearning' by Fr. Robert Spitzer for example. Also maybe a link to both the author's website and/or the book. Would be helpful for those wanting to follow-up on your talk. Thank you.

[@margarethhuapcent1270]

Thank you Mommy Mary! 😇😇😇👼🔥☄️🕊️💗💐🌼❄️

[@davidlawrence8295]

Looks like my back log of reading just got deeper.

[@TelemachusHeeler]

That's really thought provoking!

[@jackpullen3820]

Awesome! Thank you Bishop Barron

[@SevenDeMagnus]

Thanks. Bishop Barron.

[@dynamic9016]

Thanks much for this video.

[@johnwalker4251]

Thank you, just the read I need before I get back in the classroom with students!

[@markhenry8489]

Two of my favorite evangelists today - Fr. Barron and Fr. Spitzer. Listen to Fr. Spitzer on KZbin, he has many fun/great videos - Finding True Happiness is one of the best. Fr. Barron, Thank You! BTW, the fist "a" in Gonzaga is pronounced like the "a" in "play" and the last "a" is pronounce with the ah. Fr. Spitzer helped get the Gonzaga basketball program on the map. Great mind and great president of Gonzaaagah!

[@jurekdux5908]

Ks Piotr Pawlukiewicz

[@foolonthehill5065]

This”punched a few holes” within me! It describes quite incisively how today’s individuals are “buffered”, protected, insulated from an experience of the transcendent. Excellent!

[@designcitystudio]

Bishop, I like your messages a lot. Your video about science, made me think of Jefferson Airplane's song -Plastic Fantastic Lover- The song says "Science is mankind's brother" Cheers and keep up the good work Fabián

[@praxidescenteno3233]

Expecting conversions is hard and have to work in a time decides by God and we self, no body saves without themselfes 😇😇😇

[@marymolloy562]

Interesting to hear NDE'S mentioned.

[@NaYawkr]

In The Volumes of "The Mystical City of God" the author tells us that The Blessed Mother informed her that the demons of hell are fascinated by the utter stupidity of humans who will lose heaven because they seek fame, wealth, sex, power etc. which are all just temporary, and so will very often lose the joy of eternal life with God. WE Sheep are stupid, and totally lost and at risk without The Good Shepherd.

[@arulross70]

Vervaeke talks about relevance realization which is another key facet of "knowing" which is basically put that to select anything as being "known" from the tangle of phenomena that present themselves to us is simply a mystery.; and not one that can ever find an answer a true boundary of the knowable.

[@Barbaramamato]

Buffering one's self from pain? Detachment from one's feelings? Stilling the mind and ceasing thought? Numbness to physical and emotional pain? These are some of the many ways one escapes the prison of the body under extreme circumstances or intolerable situations. Leaving this prison of the body is both liberating and frightening. Retreating into an interior space so that even one's own thoughts cannot penetrate the sanctuary of the refuge in the soul. This is another way to escape from the self for we are not our thoughts, nor are we our feelings, and not what we do, or what we have, all these can be mere diversions. The interior of the interior or the inner core is a refuge. That or a momentary and spontaneous separation of the consciousness from the physical body, a feeling of weightlessness similar to what one feels as one's warmth and energy is gradually spent on a calm day while under deep dark blue water in the Pacific Ocean. It is like being out in a directionless passageway, going not above or below, not forward or backward, not right or left, nor side to side, nor in any diagonal direction. It is the space between space and the moment between time, where, upon returning nothing was lost, only reenergized. It is discoverable in the midst of very arduous and difficult endeavors like climbing high mountain peaks, crossing a dessert, traversing an expanse of the deep open ocean or surviving an encounter with a predatory creature, human or animal. When one's survival is literally at risk and one must find the will to overcome threat or danger, one discovers what drives him or her at the deepest level. For me it is simply a desire to purely love which assures one of our reason for existence. Every time one is exposed to risk of death there is a close encounter, closeness to transcending. I think that Christ was at the brink of this transition in the forty days walk in the desert. The monk Saints were there while living in a cave. For there, in pivotal moments, precipice moments, self-defining moments, is found the will to persevere and endure and emerge. We choose life when we look into the abyss of what separates us in this existence from that which is apart from this existence and then, return by choosing life wisely, decisively to live, and to live for love of and goodwill for others at a propitious moment in time.

[@EternalDestiny48]

"Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans" Otto

[@roniquebreauxjordan1302]

The "reasoned" explainations given ...#rational #timely (...thankfully...no near death expériences)

[@vg3518]

Bishop Baron should run for president, judging by the size of his hands;)

[@javypeds]

🙏✝️🇺🇸

[@anthonyjones7609]

I especially appreciate the advice to hand the book on to a "young person who needs to punch a few holes in the wall' of the buffered self. I would add that it might not necessarily be a young person.

[@acortes7771]

Although I agree with Bishop Barron on many things, I respectfully disagree with him. There were plenty of atheists prior to 1500, they didn't have much of a voice and were a very small minority, but they were definitely out there.

[@Xanaseb]

James Curtis examples, please? How do you define Atheism pre-1500?

[@kevintran8539]

I don't think that's Bishop Barron's position. That's Taylor's position vis a vis the buffered self

[@RocketKirchner]

@@Xanaseb -- Curtis is half correct -- there were some Atheists but it was never the Zeitgest until Modernism .

[@DenisOhAichir]

I think that I'd be bored if I knew everything, learning is fun, curiosity is a major driver, is it made for the contemplation of God? I hope so.

[@simiamens]

Can someone help me understand the first point? At 4:13 Bishop Barron mentions the possible critic who says "what if all that's just a bunch of subjective fantasy or just a projection of your desires and so on?" Bishop Barron's answer is "this particular desire is for something properly unconditioned, absolute, final […]. [T]herefore it can't be sequestered simply in the confines of one's subjectivity, because so to sequester it would be to render it ipso facto conditioned or limited or finite. It must transcend the split between the subjective and the objective; and so it's a very real contact with the unconditioned reality." I don't yet see how that answers the objection. The transcendent experiences are *psychological* experiences, right? And isn't it still possible to have them (for all we know given our usual, though possibly silly understanding of God) even if God doesn't exist? So how does it help that they are psychological experiences which are partly constituted by a desire *for* something unconditioned and so on? (Desires aren't usually self-fulfilling ….)

[@Lerian_V]

I think he was alluding to [Thomas Aquinas' argument from] 'desire'. You could check out his video titled "Why Do We Believe In God".

[@UltimaSeven]

I personally don't see anything not truth in your videos. thank you Father love your book also.

[@56onfilm]

I was wondering if this "existence of a transphysical dimension to the self" is comparable to the Buddhist idea of the Buddha Nature that is present in all of us as a way to describe our transcendent nature?

[@lizisliz5130]

Please add a link for the book or at least name and author when you discuss things where you refer to a resource. Thank you

[@Lerian_V]

He mentioned the name of Fr. Spitzer's book.

[@skjelver4]

Does the "unconditioned reality" really answer every question? Does union with the transcendent answer every question? Does dying (and becoming a spiritual more than a physical entity) answer every question? From what I've read, many people emerge from near death experiences stunned. Few of them seem to behave as if their questions about existence have found answers that anything on earth can provide (including organized religion). And like the philosopher Plotinus (who experienced the Transcendent throughout his life) none of them, as far as I know, have adequately answered questions about why people suffer so much, or why we are specifically here on earth at all.

[@JPX7NGD]

I don't come on KZbin often, so consider this reply the only one you get. If you are looking for an endless fight (i.e. attention) like most of your brethren, you'll only be typing to the empty void that is your broken heart. Your issue is very clearly one of ignorance and pride. You aren't asking a question here, you are begging a question. Not only do you have no real understanding of the transcendent as Bishop Barron speaks, you have no understanding at all of Catholicism. Even an accidental understanding of what Cathoicism really is (you beg the question by saying "organized religion" as if that single phrase was meant to bully us Catholics into submission, HA!) would answer your questions because you would know you cannot experience neither Catholicisn nor the transcendent when you are diseased with pride. Catholicism is the farthest thing from "of this world," so with that mistake you show you will either be damned to prejudiced ignorance forever, or you really need to let yourself go and learn the truth. Which do you think I think is more likely for you. I mean it would be great to see you at bliss in Church because you found "it," but it is far more likely to see you pouting in a basement playing video games and listening to angry music. Stranger things have happened though. Bruce Lee was once told by his student who complained that "[he] will die if [he] runs farther,". Bruce then turned around and said "then die" to his student before running off without him. The student was then so angry that he sprinted after Bruce despite his earlier protests and finished the race. The student let go of his pride and succeeded, and a lesson was learned. Bruce was not going to carry the student nor placate the student's ego, so the student sucked it up and did what he needed to. What you are doing is phrasing a very bad argument to hide your real point, which is the very last sentence. You do this because saying "WAAAHHH, why doesn't everything work out for meeee!!! The gold stars I got in elementary school said I'm perfect and everything would be handed to me!" doesn't exactly have the same ring or weight to it. As Chesterton once said "Saying 'suffering exists and therefore God doesn't,' is like saying 'I am hungry and therefore food doesn't exist.'" God forbid you actually put the work in and suck it up once in a while. There is a very real reason I referred to "pride" as a disease before.

[@skjelver4]

Mister Magician So you don't come on youtube often, just often enough to misinterpret almost everything about my post, call me names, and then tell me not to bother replying to you. Pardon me if this sounds proud, but I think you're the one with spiritual problems that require addressing, not me. Beyond that, you're lying when you say you don't come on youtube often, because I've seen this syntax and sentence structure (and the ridiculous need to use paragraphs {pride perhaps} withinin a youtube comment) in other replies to my posts, under different account names. Now, I have no problem with imperfect people, people who lie and are abusive and arrogant, but I do have a problem with people who presume to speak for god (speaking of which, Chesterson's analogy is terrible: A person who is hungry knows that there is food out there, and that he can kill it or harvest it or steal it if necessary, while a person who is suffering can't really do the same thing with god, can they?). Anyway, enough of you Mr. Void. Enjoy your life with god.

[@gregorywullaert8618]

+skjelver one As far as I can tell, the video was more about saying the transcendent existed at all more than any "practical" answers. Bishop Barron is more warning against "the buffered self" where you separate yourself from a higher reality and pretend that that is okay (on that note, I love Bishop Barron but I didn't find the points that compelling). Knowing whether something beyond humanity exists is important because it (by necessity) colors how you interact with the world. In the case of Christianity, it's an even more important question because the transcendent wants a personal relationship with you. Christianity's answer to suffering isn't necessarily to explain it away but (look at the Crucifixion) for the transcendent to say, "this sucks but be not afraid; I am with you in the thick of it."

[@skjelver4]

***** thank you for replying. it appears to me that faith is necessary in order to believe in an omniscient deity who cares about us. it sounds like you have that faith.

[@skjelver4]

Gregory Wullaert Maybe the reason why you didn't find the video compelling was because it wasn't complete. The buffered self is still buffered even if it experiences transcendence in some kind of metaphysical experience; the self only becomes "free" if it finds some kind of ultimate purpose and design in life. I simply don't believe that those things can be discovered by any experience, yet the bishop said in the video that transcendence answers every question. A more complete video, I think, would have to necessarily include faith. Personally, I think that the Church is distancing itself from the whole idea of the necessity of faith, which isn't a bad thing really (the protestant ideas about faith seem to me to create a childish theology that is more placebo effect than anything else). anyway, thanks for responding.

[@johnstewart7025]

connection to the transcendent -- connected to something else inside, not outside. Perhaps that is not what transcendent means but if we forget ourselves when we encounter this inner reality? Self forgetting is supposed to be the answer to pain and suffering -- egoless ness. Selflessness like St. Francis.

[@KarolqONE]

I guess that this counter-argument can be used even against other names mentioned: "Tillich argues that all men have ultimate concerns, and that one´s God is the object of one´s ultimate concern. Several questions arise here: Is the statement subject to empirical refutation? If so, a major part of Tillich´s teological system is in potential clash with science. If not, what is the status of the claim? Again, does a person with a "split personality" have an ultimate concern? Rarher, does not a great deal of the personal neurosis that Tillich stresses result from the fact that men do not have some ultimate concern but are inconclusively torn between two or more concerns? David Riesman has observed: "We will find that the same pluralism which exists in the society exists in many of its individuals, and that we are talking to one part of a person and against another." (Bartley, Retreat to commitment)

[@vg3518]

Can't stop looking at the empty bookshelf behind the bishop. It should be filled.

[@davidalexander5495]

Bishop, you mention the time of 1500. Do you believe that the "buffered self" is a result of the enlightenment?

[@MKDAWUSS]

+David Alexander I would think so, because it does sound like another element of the age-old battle of "Faith vs. Reason". I don't think the two are necessarily exclusive to one another - it depends on how they're used. Faith and religion (from what I understand) initially helped explain how the world came to be and how the world worked. Eventually we needed follow-up answers to follow-up questions, and that's where reason and science came in. Could be wrong, though.

[@alanzeccardi3870]

Bishop Barron usually succeeds in evangelizing the Catholic faith. This time he appeals only to the mind and not to the heart and soul.

[@Jsolitaire]

+alan zeccardi the heart and soul very much play parts in fully contemplating this vid too!

[@sundevilification]

+Joseph Lee I agree. The Holy Spirit contains the gift of discernment.Easier said then done. Like forgiveness.

[@Jessica-bp6lc]

Hmmm...people have traded the search for knowledge for search of pleasure.

[@TheCharlesagain]

Bishop Barron, is the Lonergan idea you mentioned from his book Insight? Might there be an essay of his that discusses this idea? Thanks!

[@thomasanderson1416]

You forget the other side. John 3:19-21 (KJV) And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

[@JPX7NGD]

I don't think the Bishop forgot it.

[@thomasanderson1416]

Mister Magician I think Bishop forgot there was something called the Gospel altogether. All his reasoning and arguments are philosophical from basicly philosophers.

[@thomasanderson1416]

Peter Carlson It's funny then being a Bishop I rarely hear him quoting the Gospel. There is tons of info outside the "bible" yes, but not regarding the true nature of God.

[@thomasanderson1416]

Peter Carlson I'm not talking about his movie reviews or that kind of stuff, of course I don't expect a bible study then. But I'm talking about very relevant topics like the resurrection and heaven and God etc. where he completely ignores the Bible! Am I the only one who finds that strange or is it just the 21st century priests?

[@sshealy1]

+Jonney Shih Your style of evangelism is oversimplified. Quoting only bible verses without discussion works only after you get the non-believers in the doors of the church while they sit in their RCIA class.

[@chris-solmon4017]

Fr Barron - if a SSA individual feels suicidal, and has a sharp increase in the severity of his Tourette Syndrome, as a result of exclusion from clergy and parishioners - how will the clergy and its legal teams defend themselves if the SSA individual's family moves forth with a law suit, based on acute psychological and neurological abuse per the clergy's teachings?

[@sundevilification]

+Sol Mon I am not familiar with Catholic hierarchy but can you plead your case to a Vicar General or arch Bishop? Love is the problem that solves many things. Including money .Man's laws are based on God's laws...according to the Catechism. I hope this helps. God Bless you all.

[@peternsamba3352]

is tthere a difference between mind, soul and body? is the soul and body related?

[@Lerian_V]

Would you like the videos on that?

[@jum3lies]

Ein jeder Engel ist schrecklich, in the sense of an event that pierces the buffer - if to be buffered is to be able to put off for extended periods the todesangst by virtue of material well-being brought on by the fruits of the industrial revolution and science. I want to read the book and see if I'm on the right track. Lines from the western canon of poetry come to mind - but because their words had forked no lightening: I want to suggest the voice in Dylan's poem conjures an image of philosophers (wise men) who have developed an answer to every question, and correctly identified death as an inevitability, but since they did it from within a buffered life and left death at inevitable, with no impulse to carry it beyond inevitable in order to illuminate and transform it (their words had forked no lightening), they winced at its apotheosis; in their lives of relative ease, they had perceived no need for Him, θανάτῳ θάνατον πατήσας.

[@jordank867]

First

[@AJMacDonaldJr]

Since you're interested in stuff like this you should read my book. I sent you a copy a few years ago and never heard from you.

[@giuseppecutietta5232]

were is the beef ? Catholic tradition the Saints the Blessed Mother. the mafia of saint Gallen and Bergoglio

[@rottenaudiobooks2310]

Incels should listen to this...

[@splinterbyrd]

8.44 Sorry, but I can't see why God would need to give out-of-body experiences

[@margarethhuapcent1270]

And who's loser playing with the faith? The poor never. First to die

[@itslifeisall]

I am afraid that Robert is unable to differentiate between a relationship with the transcendent and Christianity, or more specifically, the Catholic faith. There is much interest on the part of young people today in the transcendent and our relationship with that transcendent aspect of our selves. The fact that it may not happen on familiar avenues does not negate its existence.

[@frisco61]

I don't understand your statement. Do you expect a Catholic bishop to teach the "truth" of Hinduism? Lol ... If you're on a search for Truth, and not just what's neat and trendy and cook, that search will lead you to Catholicism. There can only be one Truth. Seek Him.

[@frisco61]

Cool, not cook 😊

[@giuseppecutietta5232]

a nurolinguist is this Catholic

[@magicalhats15]

Father, you should not have discussed near death experiences. That is a mistake.

[@thecatholicmass]

cathoholic

[@naturalismforever3469]

Robert: You do realize that all of this is easily explained by dopaminergic transmission between neurons in the most evolutionarily ancient areas of our brains, don't you? When philosophers know no biology, they generate inane ideas, like yours.

[@BishopBarron]

You realize you've become a self-parody.