Form, Formlessness, Nothingness
Love God as God is a not-God, a not-mind, a not-person, a not-image.
- Meister Eckhart
There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.
It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.
When you have names and forms,
know that they are provisional.
When you have institutions,
know where their functions should end.
Knowing when to stop,
you can avoid any danger.
Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped. . . .
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
- Tao Te Ching
A scholar comments: God is one, his glory multiplying in many forms. The Vedas teach that there are two forms of Brahman: the embodied and the bodiless, the mortal and the immortal, the stable and the moving, the tangible and the intangible. A tension is acknowledged between the God of forms and the God beyond forms. The problem of the relationship between the unconditioned Brahman and the phenomenal universe can never be completely solved.
- Matthew Fox
[Divinity] is nameless, for no one can know or articulate anything about God. . . . God is a being beyond being, a nothingness beyond being who consists of a changeless existence and a nameless nothingness.
God is nothing. It is not, however, as if he were without being. He is rather neither this nor that thing that we might express, He is a being above all being. He is a beingless being. . . . God is nothingness, and yet God is something.
The mystery of the darkness of the eternal Godhead is unknown and never was known and never will be known. God dwells therein, unknown to himself/herself.
The naked God is without a name
and is the denial of all names
and has never been given a name
and so remains a truly hidden God.
Be silent and quit flapping your gums about God. . . . the most beautiful thing which a person can say about God would be for that person to remain silent from the wisdom of an inner wealth.
- Meister Eckhart
Through creatures God is both hidden from us and made manifest to us.
Every name imposed by us onto God falls short of God. . . God is inaccessible light, surpassing every light that can be seen by us either through sense or through intellect.
Concerning God all things can be affirmed and denied. Yet the Divine One is above all affirmations and denial, for God is beyond our entire intellect, which composes affirmations and denials.
The cause at which we wonder is hidden from us.
We are united to God as to one Unknown. . . . God alone knows the depths and riches of the Godhead, and divine wisdom alone can declare its secrets. The mind's greatest achievement is to realize that God is fat beyond anything we think. This is the ultimate in human knowledge: to know that we do not know God. . . . By its immensity the divine essence transcends every form attained by human intellect.
Divinity is incomprehensible. It can be neither embraced nor designated by a name.
God is said to be non-being (non-existens) not because God is lacking in being but because God is beyond all beings.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
We have to rid ourselves of all notions of God in order for God to be there. The Holy Spirit, the energy of God in us, is the true door. We know that Holy Spirit as an energy and not as notions and words.
It is impossible to use our concepts and words to describe God. . . . It's very wise not to say anything about God. To me the best theologian is the one who never speaks about God.
In the phenomenal worlds, we see that there is birth and death. There is coming and going, being and non-being. But in nirvana, which is the ground of being equivalent to God, there is no birth, no death, no coming, no going, no being, no non-being. All these concepts are transcended.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God. It is an issue that applies to everyone, including both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there's some hand to hold: if we just do the right thing, someone will appreciate us and take care of us. It means thinking there's always going to be a baby-sitter available when we need one.
We all are inclined to abdicate responsibilities and delegate our authority to something outside ourselves. Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves.
- Pema Chodron, North American Buddhist nun
I stress to people I teach that any image, any title, any conception we have about God is necessarily limited. God is infinite, Divine - we are mortal, human. God is perfection; we are imperfect. Any conception we have of God will be partial, incomplete - we will only be able to grasp the full wonder and beauty of God when we stand in awe of the Name at the moment we surpass death.
If we could take every image and notion about God and put them together, still we would not have a complete image of God.
That knowledge, I hope, will lead us to humility about our conception of God, and a respect for those who see God differently than we do.
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
6.23.2004
One River, Many Wells - Chapters 6 & 7
The Feminine Face of Divinity
God is understood as mother in the medieval Christian tradition. Mechtild of Magdeburg said: God is not only fatherly, God is also mother who lifts her mother's cloak wherein the child finds a home and lays its head on the maternal breast. Hildegard of Bingen offers images of a curved Divinity. We are surrounded with the roundness of divine compassion, she writes. Divinity is like a wheel, a circle, a whole. Meister Eckhart describes God as mother when he says: From all eternity God lies on a maternity bed giving birth. And, What does God do all day long? God gives birth. Acknowledging and desentimentalizing the work of Mary at the same time, he declares that we are all meant to be mothers of God.
English mystic of the late fourteenth century Julian of Norwich most developed the theme of God as mother.
Just as God is truly our Father, so also is God truly our Mother . . .
The deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother. In her we are all enclosed . . .
[God is] our true Mother in whom we are endlessly carried and out of whom we will never come.
God is the true Father and Mother of Nature, and all natures that are made to flow out of God to work the divine will be restored and brought again into God.
God feels great delight to be our Mother.
- Matthew Fox, Ch. 6
Wisdom: Another Feminine Face of the Divine
All people are equal, as equal as the teeth of a comb. There is no claim of merit of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of a white over a black person, or of a male over a female.
He who honors women is honorable, he who insults them is lowly and mean.
He who has a female child and does not insult her and does not prefer his sons over her, will be ushered by God into paradise.
I urge you to treat women kindly. They are a trust. Be in awe of God's trust.
- Muhammad (founder of Islam)
The heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of the Great Spirit by which he sees all things, and through which we see him.
The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.
- Black Elk, from the Native American tradition
You thought yourself a part, small;
Whereas in you there is a universe, the greatest.
That is to say, you think of yourself as a small thing, whereas in you there is hidden the biggest of the universes. . . . The meaning of the Qur'anic verse becomes clear to the Gnostic: "Wherever way you turn, there is the face of God.
- Ibn Al-Arabi, in the Islamic tradition
Enjoy - haven't updated for a few days - been busy - now it's time to out my son to bed as he's having trouble falling asleep by himself. :-)
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
God is understood as mother in the medieval Christian tradition. Mechtild of Magdeburg said: God is not only fatherly, God is also mother who lifts her mother's cloak wherein the child finds a home and lays its head on the maternal breast. Hildegard of Bingen offers images of a curved Divinity. We are surrounded with the roundness of divine compassion, she writes. Divinity is like a wheel, a circle, a whole. Meister Eckhart describes God as mother when he says: From all eternity God lies on a maternity bed giving birth. And, What does God do all day long? God gives birth. Acknowledging and desentimentalizing the work of Mary at the same time, he declares that we are all meant to be mothers of God.
English mystic of the late fourteenth century Julian of Norwich most developed the theme of God as mother.
Just as God is truly our Father, so also is God truly our Mother . . .
The deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother. In her we are all enclosed . . .
[God is] our true Mother in whom we are endlessly carried and out of whom we will never come.
God is the true Father and Mother of Nature, and all natures that are made to flow out of God to work the divine will be restored and brought again into God.
God feels great delight to be our Mother.
- Matthew Fox, Ch. 6
Wisdom: Another Feminine Face of the Divine
All people are equal, as equal as the teeth of a comb. There is no claim of merit of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of a white over a black person, or of a male over a female.
He who honors women is honorable, he who insults them is lowly and mean.
He who has a female child and does not insult her and does not prefer his sons over her, will be ushered by God into paradise.
I urge you to treat women kindly. They are a trust. Be in awe of God's trust.
- Muhammad (founder of Islam)
The heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of the Great Spirit by which he sees all things, and through which we see him.
The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.
- Black Elk, from the Native American tradition
You thought yourself a part, small;
Whereas in you there is a universe, the greatest.
That is to say, you think of yourself as a small thing, whereas in you there is hidden the biggest of the universes. . . . The meaning of the Qur'anic verse becomes clear to the Gnostic: "Wherever way you turn, there is the face of God.
- Ibn Al-Arabi, in the Islamic tradition
Enjoy - haven't updated for a few days - been busy - now it's time to out my son to bed as he's having trouble falling asleep by himself. :-)
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
6.17.2004
One River, Many Wells - Chapter 5
Names for God
All the names which the soul gives to God it receives from the knowledge of itself.
- Meister Eckhart
We call divinity by many names. We might call Divinity God or Allah or Yahweh or Buddha or Christ or Tao or the Goddess or the Great Spirit or Creator or Redeemer or Liberator or Supreme Being or Rama, or Ground of All Being or Ra or Aten or Vishnu or Brahmin or Godhead or Nothingness or Mooramoora or Mystery or Beauty or Justice or Goodness or Wisdom and many more. The Hindu tradition says that there is only one Rama [God] and he has a thousand names. Still others say that there are an infinite number of names for God. . . . they reveal, as Eckhart says, something of our own souls. And they make it possible to reimagine ourselves and to let Divinity continue to evolve and cease making Divinity into our own projection.
- Matthew Fox
In the Christian mystical tradition, Meister Eckhart offers the following prayer: I pray God to rid me of God. What images and projections of Divinity do we need to more beyond and let go of?
- Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox goes through a litany (list) of names for God that St. Thomas Aquinas took from Scripture (almost 50 titles/names - too many to list here!). He then goes on to say: But Aquinas adds another and very powerful caveat: And the Divine One is none of these things insofar as God surpasses all things. Thus in Aquinas' view, God can be named by any being in the universe because God is the cause of every being in the universe. But Aquinas also warns us to live with this dialectic - that God is named by all beings and by no beings. To live this way is to dance the dance of truth. No name, absolutely no name, suffices for Divinity. Which is also to say that all names suffice for Divinity - but on a limited scale only.
The One Existence the wise call by many names.
- The Rig Veda (part of the Hindu Scriptures)
God has a million faces.
- Baghavad Gita
We all have images of God lying around in our heads and hearts. Even for Catholics, we have numerous images through which we approach the divine: the Sacred Heart, the Divine Mercy, the Holy Spirit, the Father, etc. The way we imagine God will necessarily color the way we pray, how we worship, and who and how we believe God to be.
However, it's always good to remember that when we speak about God - when we give God names and attach images to God, we are always using limited language - we are using metaphors and symbols to approach Divinity. Since we are created, finite creatures, our language will never be able to fully comprehend or utter the infinite majesty and splendor that is God. We can only offer ourselves in humble worship of the Lord of Creation that graces us with his loving-kindness.
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
All the names which the soul gives to God it receives from the knowledge of itself.
- Meister Eckhart
We call divinity by many names. We might call Divinity God or Allah or Yahweh or Buddha or Christ or Tao or the Goddess or the Great Spirit or Creator or Redeemer or Liberator or Supreme Being or Rama, or Ground of All Being or Ra or Aten or Vishnu or Brahmin or Godhead or Nothingness or Mooramoora or Mystery or Beauty or Justice or Goodness or Wisdom and many more. The Hindu tradition says that there is only one Rama [God] and he has a thousand names. Still others say that there are an infinite number of names for God. . . . they reveal, as Eckhart says, something of our own souls. And they make it possible to reimagine ourselves and to let Divinity continue to evolve and cease making Divinity into our own projection.
- Matthew Fox
In the Christian mystical tradition, Meister Eckhart offers the following prayer: I pray God to rid me of God. What images and projections of Divinity do we need to more beyond and let go of?
- Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox goes through a litany (list) of names for God that St. Thomas Aquinas took from Scripture (almost 50 titles/names - too many to list here!). He then goes on to say: But Aquinas adds another and very powerful caveat: And the Divine One is none of these things insofar as God surpasses all things. Thus in Aquinas' view, God can be named by any being in the universe because God is the cause of every being in the universe. But Aquinas also warns us to live with this dialectic - that God is named by all beings and by no beings. To live this way is to dance the dance of truth. No name, absolutely no name, suffices for Divinity. Which is also to say that all names suffice for Divinity - but on a limited scale only.
The One Existence the wise call by many names.
- The Rig Veda (part of the Hindu Scriptures)
God has a million faces.
- Baghavad Gita
We all have images of God lying around in our heads and hearts. Even for Catholics, we have numerous images through which we approach the divine: the Sacred Heart, the Divine Mercy, the Holy Spirit, the Father, etc. The way we imagine God will necessarily color the way we pray, how we worship, and who and how we believe God to be.
However, it's always good to remember that when we speak about God - when we give God names and attach images to God, we are always using limited language - we are using metaphors and symbols to approach Divinity. Since we are created, finite creatures, our language will never be able to fully comprehend or utter the infinite majesty and splendor that is God. We can only offer ourselves in humble worship of the Lord of Creation that graces us with his loving-kindness.
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
6.16.2004
One River, Many Wells - Chapter 4 - My Comments
So here go my comments on the quotes I posted earlier . . .
I firmly believe that a community is needed for there to be any kind of development in people, whether that development is spiritual, social, psychological, etc. As I am fond of telling my students, it's easy to be a practicing Christian (or Buddhist, or Wiccan, or whatever) when it's just one person alone. If I were to live in the middle of a forest with just my little furry animal friends for company, I could probably be on the fast track for sainthood! No cars cutting in front of me as I drive (more or less!) the speed limit, no lines to wait in at the bank, no annoying people calling/beeping/emailing/faxing me, no distractions, no nothing!
But that would not be the most authentic expression of faith. Faith (trust) is tempered in the fires of our relationships. No relationship is ever perfect, and that gives us material to chew on as we struggle to define ourselves and our relationships to others and to the cosmos.
So we grow to the degree that we are with others. For Catholic Christians (but this goes for others whose faith traditions are especially rooted in community) especially, we are bound to a parish community. No one in that community is perfect. Lest I seem ambiguous, I'll spell it out: the priest, the assistant priest, the nuns that may work there, the youth minister, the DRE (Religious Education director), the catechists, the volunteers, the secretary, the maintenance people - everyone will make mistakes, everyone will have bad days, everyone will be hypocritical at one point or another.
And that's a good thing. We're not perfect, but sometimes we expect our church and everyone in it to be perfect - to be living saints.
As if we're given this special waiver to make mistakes while no one else can relax.
Our church will always make mistakes . . . always. And that's fine. We learn patience, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, greatness of heart and soul by rooting ourselves in our imperfect parish communities.
Sort of like our families - there is no perfectly happy family. There will always be that one uncle, step mother, grand parent, cousin, whatever that will get on our nerves, rub us the wrong way, maybe even nudge us towards hateful, murderous thoughts. :-)
But they're still family, and when they need us or when we need them, hopefully we're there for each other.
And so I stake my claim that in order to reach perfection we need relationships.
One last note - deep relationships are usually reserved for a select few family and friends. I can count only a few people that I would consider my closest companions . . . though I count many who I am proud to know. It's usually that way for most people as well. Learn to treasure those soul-companions you meet along your spiritual journey - they are truly heaven sent.
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
I firmly believe that a community is needed for there to be any kind of development in people, whether that development is spiritual, social, psychological, etc. As I am fond of telling my students, it's easy to be a practicing Christian (or Buddhist, or Wiccan, or whatever) when it's just one person alone. If I were to live in the middle of a forest with just my little furry animal friends for company, I could probably be on the fast track for sainthood! No cars cutting in front of me as I drive (more or less!) the speed limit, no lines to wait in at the bank, no annoying people calling/beeping/emailing/faxing me, no distractions, no nothing!
But that would not be the most authentic expression of faith. Faith (trust) is tempered in the fires of our relationships. No relationship is ever perfect, and that gives us material to chew on as we struggle to define ourselves and our relationships to others and to the cosmos.
So we grow to the degree that we are with others. For Catholic Christians (but this goes for others whose faith traditions are especially rooted in community) especially, we are bound to a parish community. No one in that community is perfect. Lest I seem ambiguous, I'll spell it out: the priest, the assistant priest, the nuns that may work there, the youth minister, the DRE (Religious Education director), the catechists, the volunteers, the secretary, the maintenance people - everyone will make mistakes, everyone will have bad days, everyone will be hypocritical at one point or another.
And that's a good thing. We're not perfect, but sometimes we expect our church and everyone in it to be perfect - to be living saints.
As if we're given this special waiver to make mistakes while no one else can relax.
Our church will always make mistakes . . . always. And that's fine. We learn patience, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, greatness of heart and soul by rooting ourselves in our imperfect parish communities.
Sort of like our families - there is no perfectly happy family. There will always be that one uncle, step mother, grand parent, cousin, whatever that will get on our nerves, rub us the wrong way, maybe even nudge us towards hateful, murderous thoughts. :-)
But they're still family, and when they need us or when we need them, hopefully we're there for each other.
And so I stake my claim that in order to reach perfection we need relationships.
One last note - deep relationships are usually reserved for a select few family and friends. I can count only a few people that I would consider my closest companions . . . though I count many who I am proud to know. It's usually that way for most people as well. Learn to treasure those soul-companions you meet along your spiritual journey - they are truly heaven sent.
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
One River, Many Wells - Chapter 4
Community & Interdependence
Community is the basis of much spirituality around the world . . . [a]and yet so much sense of community has been lost in the modern world. Loneliness in its many guises replaces community. Loneliness often speaks its sad story through addictions of alcohol, drugs, shopping, food, sex. For the human heart was not meant to be cut off from other hearts, either human or other than human.
- Matthew Fox
The loneliness of the seeker for community is sometimes unendurable.
- Howard Thurman
An individual reaches the level of personhood only in social relations, a person grows and develops through social relations with other persons.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I really want to underscore the next two because of the beauty and wonder I felt when I first read them - I hope they are as moving to you as they were to me.
There is one who sings the song of his soul . . . who sings the song of his people. . . . Together with her, he sings her song, feels her anguish, delights in her hopes. . . . There is one whose soul expands until it extends beyond the borders of Israel, singing the song of humanity. . . . further until he unites with all of existence, with all creatures, with all worlds, singing a song with them all. There is one who ascends with all these songs in unison - the song of the soul, the song of the nation, the song of humanity, the song of the cosmos - resounding together, blending in harmony, circulating the sap of life, the sound of holy joy.
- The Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical text/way
A Jew never worships as an isolated individual but as a part of the Community of Israel. Yet it is within the heart of every individual that prayer takes place. . . . every act of worship is an act of participating in an eternal service, in the service of all souls of all ages.
Our kinship with nature is a kinship of praise. All beings praise God. We live in a community of praise. The cosmos is a congregation in need of a Cantor. . . . It is man who is the Cantor of the universe, and in whose life the secret of cosmic prayer is disclosed. When we sing we sing for all things. . . . The universe is a score of eternal music, and we are the cry, we are the voice.
- Rabbi Abraham Heschel
We have, in my view, created a society in which people find it harder and harder to show one another basic affection. In place of the sense of community and belonging, which we find such a reassuring feature of less wealthy (and generally rural) societies, we find a high degree of loneliness and alienation. Despite the fact that millions live in close proximity to one another, it seems that many people, especially among the old, have no one to talk to but their pets.
- The Dalai Lama
All believers are brothers; so make peace between your brothers, and be mindful of your duty to Allah that you may be shown mercy.
The Believers are like a single man; if his eye is affected, all of him is affected, and if his head is affected all of him is affected. . . . None of you have believed until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. . . .All creatures are God's children, and those dearest to God are the ones who treat His children kindly. He from whose injurious conduct his neighbor is not sage will not enter Paradise.
- The Qur'an
I'll post my thoughts on these quotes later on today - right now, it's time for a late breakfast - my family & I are hungry! :-)
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
Community is the basis of much spirituality around the world . . . [a]and yet so much sense of community has been lost in the modern world. Loneliness in its many guises replaces community. Loneliness often speaks its sad story through addictions of alcohol, drugs, shopping, food, sex. For the human heart was not meant to be cut off from other hearts, either human or other than human.
- Matthew Fox
The loneliness of the seeker for community is sometimes unendurable.
- Howard Thurman
An individual reaches the level of personhood only in social relations, a person grows and develops through social relations with other persons.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I really want to underscore the next two because of the beauty and wonder I felt when I first read them - I hope they are as moving to you as they were to me.
There is one who sings the song of his soul . . . who sings the song of his people. . . . Together with her, he sings her song, feels her anguish, delights in her hopes. . . . There is one whose soul expands until it extends beyond the borders of Israel, singing the song of humanity. . . . further until he unites with all of existence, with all creatures, with all worlds, singing a song with them all. There is one who ascends with all these songs in unison - the song of the soul, the song of the nation, the song of humanity, the song of the cosmos - resounding together, blending in harmony, circulating the sap of life, the sound of holy joy.
- The Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical text/way
A Jew never worships as an isolated individual but as a part of the Community of Israel. Yet it is within the heart of every individual that prayer takes place. . . . every act of worship is an act of participating in an eternal service, in the service of all souls of all ages.
Our kinship with nature is a kinship of praise. All beings praise God. We live in a community of praise. The cosmos is a congregation in need of a Cantor. . . . It is man who is the Cantor of the universe, and in whose life the secret of cosmic prayer is disclosed. When we sing we sing for all things. . . . The universe is a score of eternal music, and we are the cry, we are the voice.
- Rabbi Abraham Heschel
We have, in my view, created a society in which people find it harder and harder to show one another basic affection. In place of the sense of community and belonging, which we find such a reassuring feature of less wealthy (and generally rural) societies, we find a high degree of loneliness and alienation. Despite the fact that millions live in close proximity to one another, it seems that many people, especially among the old, have no one to talk to but their pets.
- The Dalai Lama
All believers are brothers; so make peace between your brothers, and be mindful of your duty to Allah that you may be shown mercy.
The Believers are like a single man; if his eye is affected, all of him is affected, and if his head is affected all of him is affected. . . . None of you have believed until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. . . .All creatures are God's children, and those dearest to God are the ones who treat His children kindly. He from whose injurious conduct his neighbor is not sage will not enter Paradise.
- The Qur'an
I'll post my thoughts on these quotes later on today - right now, it's time for a late breakfast - my family & I are hungry! :-)
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
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