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Quote: William Law, Christian Mystical Theologian (1686-1761)
Though God is everywhere present, yet He is only present to thee in the deepest and the most central part of thy soul. The natural senses cannot possess God or unite thee to Him; nay, thy inward faculties of understanding, will and memory can only reach after God, but cannot be the place of His habitation in thee. But there is a root or depth of thee from whence all these faculties come forth, as lines from a centre, or as branches from the body of a tree. This depth is called the centre, the fund or bottom of the soul. This depth is the unity, the eternity~I had almost said the Infinity~of thy soul; for it is so infinite that nothing can satisfy it or give it rest but the Infinity of God.
Story: Bayazid of Bistun, Mystical Sufi
Once, some persons asked the great Sufi, Bayazid of Bistun his age. He replied, "Four years." "How can that be?" they asked Bayazid. He spoke, "I have been veiled from God by the world for seventy years, but I have seen Him during the last four years." Bayazid continued, "The period during which one is veiled does not belong to one's life."
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Comments
William Law reminds us we live in a spiritual darkness, even if we are very religious, until we see the Divine One in the centre of our being-in-God. Most persons of religious association are in darkness as to the bliss of knowing God personally and intimately in this way~though many have had momentary experiences of this "seeing": if they were to tell of this experience, many of their friends and family~and many of the clergy~would look with suspicion upon the claim and person. They have inherited religion. They have been born as a child into faith. Yet, they have not been born into the direct knowing of the Intimate One within, and they rely on mediating aspects of cultural faith, which passes through earthly senses, to assure them that they will go to heaven upon death. Many of them would not even be religious if they found out that there is no heaven. Many do not know what prayer is as an inward conversation with God, Who is beyond within and without, for He is everywhere.
Also, they call upon God outside themselves to answer their prayers, which are almost all pertaining to the physical, or natural, self of others or themselves~just attend the typical Sunday morning worship at most churches. Of "seeing" God, they have been taught little to nothing, and have not been led beyond the ABCs of rudimentary faith teaching.
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