THE QUEST OF LOVE
There are questions that many are afraid to ask, but which most of us have eventually discovered are an integral part of stretching ourselves. For contained within every question, especially those which may seem the most difficult to ask, there is a doorway to depths that are yet unexplored.
Somewhere around the 12th century the development of an idea was proceeded by what Great Teachers called the questio (Latin: “to seek”) from which we derive our modern word “quest” and by extension the word “quest-ion”.
While most religions begin in this “seeking” stage of development, history has demonstrated that eventually they become dogmatic, unyielding and more concerned with preserving and defending a favored stance of being right (orthodox – “right opinion”) instead of exemplifying the core precepts of the belief system they purport to uphold. (i.e. “Love your neighbor AS yourself”).
This has become the earmark of all fundamentalist religion; It inherently grows stagnant through a failure to continue asking the (hard) questions. Questions which would allow it to evolve, expand and grow beyond its current state by exposing many of the archaic, magic and mythic beliefs it still clings to. Teachings, ideas and concepts which have been handed down through traditions (many that may have served it at one time) but which have ultimately made the “word of God of NO effect.” The truths underlying these traditions are Timeless, but the doctrines themselves have become static in both their understanding of, and application to, present realities.
Why? …..Because, just like Hebrews trying to stockpile “manna in the wilderness,” it is no longer fresh but has begun to breed worms. This happens whenever what is “known” is no longer an “ever-proceeding word from the mouth of God.” The “Present Truth” is subsequently substituted for a “belief system” when the “rivers of living water” cease to flow from your Innermost Being. Truth cannot be defined by some rigid doctrine or teaching, just as an Infinite God can never be reduced to a mere formula.
“Fundamentalism suffers from the same false seeing. It is basically a love affair with words and ideas about God instead of God himself or herself. But you cannot really love words; you can only think them. You cannot really love reality with the judgmental mind, because you’ll always try to control it, fix it, or understand it before you give yourself to it……The fact that some form of loving must precede true knowing helps us appreciate why the prophets used the intimate word for carnal knowledge or sexual intimacy when they spoke of “knowing” God…….So many of the Mystics had to make use of sexual images to describe the relationship of the soul with God. From inside experience, you know God’s Love is a tender dance of give-and-take, rescue and holding. We see what we are ready to see, expect to see , and even desire to see. There is some kind of mutual influence between subject and object, says the Heisenberg Principle….” – Richard Rohr from The Naked Now: Learning to See As the Mystics See
●●●In quantum mechanics, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle asserts that there is a limit to the exactness or precision with which anyone can know the complementary variables (i.e. position, momentum) of the physical properties related to atomic particles simultaneously. Heisenberg later proposed that the “observer effect” at the quantum level could explain the uncertainty related to those variables.■
When we apply the ●●●”uncertainty principle” to our subjective experience of God, it becomes apparent that no matter how precise our definition of the Divine, we can never simultaneously explain it while also maintaining a complete Awareness of Its Reality.■ Hence the profound revelation of Lao Tzu in the Tao, “He that says does not Know, and he that Knows does not say.”
We must realize that what is REAL in our Experience can never be threatened by the beliefs of another. We must become Masters of Pandiculation (“the art of stretching oneself”). It is time that we learn from the past mistakes of religion and truly begin to practice the non-judgment of the Mystics who in essence taught us that it is better to be kind and loving than it is to be right. For the only way we can truly and honestly ask the questions that challenge our beliefs (and allow us to grow) is if we are willing to let go of our preconceived ideas and judgments in order to acknowledge that, no matter how refined our mental understanding of Truth may be, it will never be The Truth; Just as the highest ideas, thoughts and notions we have ABOUT God are NOT God.
Those who truly “Know” have learned to be comfortable living with the Paradox of “not knowing”, in the sense that, they recognize that the Mystery of Divinity is not something “to be grasped” (i.e. apprehended by a mental understanding), BUT that Truth IS a Living Reality which is fresh, flowing and perpetually new in each Present Moment of Awareness.
May Love Be the Truth of Our Journey and the Essence of Our Quest!
-JSM
Joe Murawski
