|
'The Grace of Solitude'
Overlook, Back River, Georgetown Island, ME
Spirituality leads us to a way of speaking things and seeing things that make no sense to the mind. Like Zen koans, we face apparently nonsensical sayings and happenings that push us beyond the accepted common sense, inviting us to in-sight - seeing from the inside-, rather than conceptualizing about, so out-sight - seeing from the outside, or with a question that proves to have no answer but silence.
Indeed, entering the Silence in contemplation, or pure openness to Life, is a confession of faith. In Silence, we confess our love of the Mystery, our adoration for the Ineffable, our devotion to Truth in whatever form it appears. In Silence, we turn from words to the Word, and we acknowledge the Word speaks Itself first, not words - the latter being pale intimations of the Supernal Light.
Apparently nonsensical ... that is, some nonsense may be a higher, purer form of knowing. On one level nonsense for at a deeper, more subtle meaning beyond common sense - sadly, common is too easily equated as fact or truth. So, tolerance for what appears nonsense can open us to uncommon sense. The opening comes through the challenge of experiencing paradox or a conundrum and waiting for that to open and usher us beyond our usual way of interpreting life.
* * *
I appreciate Zen Buddhism partly for it letting paradox does it job. Zen steers one away from speculation to transcend the apparent conflict in the paradoxical, collectively and individually. While a Christian theologian might seek to make sense of the Trinity, a Zen approach would be to let the paradox resolve itself in fulfilling its intent to pull one beyond where she would have previously sought an explanation. Then, the paradox is no longer a paradox - for the paradox exists not in the paradox but in the mind. Once outside conceptual explanation, one experiences the truth of the paradox free of the apparent contradiction posed by the paradox.
The Gospels are full of koan-like sayings. Jesus taught more like a Zen Roshi or Taoist Sage than a Christian theologian, priest, or preacher. And the Eucharist is a koan in itself. The Eucharist is an initiation into uncommon sense. The Trinity is a koan. Hence, like all true uncommon sense, such matters as the Trinity do not need an explanation. They need to be integrated into ourselves and lived wholeheartedly. The truth is then witnessed in the living of truth, not theory, preaching, propaganda, or dogma-making.
* * *
The mind is socialized to common sense. And early in life, we learn to seek love, safety, and a sense of self-worth inside a group consensus. Spirituality concerns redirecting the self to a knowing that to common sense appears nonsense and may be unpopular. Yet, this so-called nonsense is more true than what persons see as truth commonly. Yet, here, one may have to put at risk the comfort she has received from the group from whom one receives a sense of immediate community. Here, truth becomes more important to one than what the collective will think of or how treat her. - When you fall in love with truth, you fall out of love with opinion, you see through the opinion-makers and opinion-protectors.
* * *
What is essential is that we do not seek to solve the mysteries we face, often contradictory to the mind, in an answer that is our attempt to explain and, so, tame the wildness of truth. Hence, what we say about reality can never, for us, replace the experience, so knowing - insight into - truth. For truth is not meant to invite us to resolve the ineffable, the nonconceptual; truth urges us to a more evolved view from which to invite, experience, and live it - even to enjoy living that which we cannot fit in our dualistic common sense.
Hence, we need to question claims to truth others do not pause to question. Our life needs to be grounded in truth; then, we can pause and hold in abeyance as long as necessary the myriad claims to truth. In love with the Way, we are no longer devoted but to truths that reflect truth. And, hence, how commonly something is accepted as fact does not finally affect us. More than agreement, we seek to see wisely, freely and uncoerced by public or group opinion.
And, hence, we are wise to hold in suspicion the prevalent religious and spiritual claims to truth. Why? For these are often, possibly more than not, based on the power of the collective opinion, rather than devotion to truth itself. The ego easily grabs to widespread claims that provide it comfort and validate its prejudices, rather than choosing unpopular truth and what might expose it to its lack of integrity in thought and action.
Therefore, we must live with the tensions of the apparent contradictions and the unresolvable unknowns. We delay rushing to speculations to explain the uncommon sense. We accept how to know the truth means giving space for truth to show itself to us. We proceed to live into truth, living into truth being our posturing for readiness to embrace truth without any felt-need to understand or explain it. From the head to the heart, we turn from words to the Word, from speculation to intimacy, from fragmentation to unity.
* * *
January 14, 2016 -
I had one of these koan moments last Sunday in Worship. Words started flowing inside me, spontaneously, over and over. The words..."Sacrifice Thy Love, to Thy Love." I realized, "That doesn't make sense." Yet, I yielded to the apparently nonsensical mantra and followed it, letting it flow again and again. Even after Worship Service, when I got in my vehicle to leave, I allowed the words to flow. And, throughout the week, they have returned. I have reflected on them some, but mostly been subtly inquisitive and appreciative of the beauty and sense of the koan prayer, "Sacrifice Thy Love, to Thy Love."
Now, I could share some insight on what has arisen about what this koan prayer may mean for me, but that would not be necessary for you. And, anyway, to give some meaning to it is not the purpose of this writing. Maybe, you want to reflect on that prayer. Or, possibly, you have your own prayers that have arisen in you and which made no common sense to you, but you sensed they made a lot of uncommon sense. Or, possibly, you want to reflect on the possibility that a lot of truth you may have decided was nonsense is really so much more.
* * *
With an innocent mind, like a beginner, we remain sensitive to see what most do not see - the uncommon. This listening includes the whole self. In this listening, we see-experience in a nonconceptual fashion. The apparent nonsense is not undone into another conceptual answer to the question; rather, the answer arises to one nonceptually by transcending the question altogether, in diffusing the duality of question-answer. Here, one is left in a feeling-sense of truth, an immediate, intimate knowing.
* * *
A friend asked me recently about the meaning of faith. To clarify faith some, I recalled how I would approach patients' questions about what would occur to them after death. I would tell patients I did not know the details, but I was confident all would be well. So, the patient was invited to cease anxiety about the details and shift from content to assurance. I never witnessed this approach to fail. Patients were cheered knowing, not what would happen after they were pronounced dead, but that all would be well. Feeling inner assurance that all would be well, the details would lose their priority. That not needing the details was a coming to them of faith, which calmed the mind seeking refuge in a neatly packaged religious answer. Hence, outside both question and answer, the patient could feel the joy of intimacy with truth. Patient responses showed me they appreciated someone who did not go to the common sense many would direct them to. More than answers, they wanted the assurance of truth that did not need to know the content of life after death. They most deeply wanted truth, not dogma, not teaching. Truth free of speculation offered them a grounding in the Mystery that denied them the answers they prior sought, which they felt they needed before relaxing into surrendered trust in the Ineffable Wisdom.
* * *
Simply put, the Ineffable does not divulge itself to the mind, only to the heart. And one who loves the truth is joyful to relax into a faith which allows the knowing to arise, a knowing that needs no answer, only the intimacy of Wisdom Itself. We cannot word the Word, but we can love It.
* * *
*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
|
