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This Mystery is not another thing, It is a non-thing, the absolute Nothing. You can know Nothing; you cannot believe Nothing. One can be a lover of Nothing; one cannot be a believer of Nothing.
Also, as consolation to those concerned that persons cannot prove God's existence. If one could prove God's existence by logical reasoning, God would be a thing among things. The fact that we cannot prove God's existence does not mean God is not, only that What Is is not a thing. We cannot even answer the question, "What is is?"; we assume we know what is is. This is not bad news, but it is fortunately humbling. So, deeply spiritual beings are humble beings, for they have honestly opened mind and heart to the Unknown and Unknowable and found, in some way, That can be and is known, and came to see It is Love and Intelligence.
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The Sage refused to debate God's existence or nonexistence - or that of anything of an absolute nature -, even though followers and visitors often raised the question. Moreover, some tried slyly to lure him into such a debate, but without success. When the question was raised among some of his followers one evening, he told a story.
Once there lived in the ancient city Afkar two learned men. Each hated and belittled the learning of the other. They did this, for one denied the gods' existence, while the other was a believer.
One day, the two, accompanied by their followers, met in the marketplace. The two learned men began arguing, one contesting the gods existed, the other the opposite view. After hours of disputing, they parted.
That evening, the unbeliever went into the temple and prostrated before the altar. He prayed to the gods to forgive his wayward past.
The same evening, at the same hour, the other learned man burned his holy books. He had become an unbeliever.
Said the Sage, "In the mind, the one who believes in God and the one who does not believe in God live together. God's existence or nonexistence is known only in the heart, where one is neither a nonbeliever nor a believer."
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In Lewis Carroll's, Alice in Wonderland, in a trial episode, the White Rabbit reads an enigmatic verse, seemingly irrelevant to the case. The King replies, "That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet." Alice contradicts him. She says, "I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it." The King, relieved, says, "If there's no meaning in it, that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any."
Raymond M. Smullyan, in The Tao is Silent, contrasts the Taoist with many who want to argue for or against God's existence. He writes of the Tao, or Way, "The Sage has no need to affirm the Tao; he is far too busy enjoying it!"
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I often write of the Mystery called many names and given many titles. I have no idea what it is. I do, however, recommend all to enjoy it. I recommend all to enjoy many other things I speak of but have no idea what they are, such as beauty, truth, goodness, grace, life, joy, and love. I cannot even say who or what I am, or that I am a who or a what. We are born into this world; then, everyone starts giving us words and telling us the words are what the world is, and we are. So, we know words, and we equate words with reality, we fuse the two. So, what do we know, except for two things, words and all the rest?
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In the West, we have tended to equate faith with belief. In Eastern spirituality, we see knowing, not as intellectual belief but innate, experiential certainty, is the priority. In the West, one can be a believer in his or her "God" without having one iota of intimate experience of the Supreme. Yet, knowing, not merely belief, opens to us the possibility of certainty of something apart from belief. Hence, I have no idea what love is, but I am certain of love, for I have loved and been loved, and I have seen it. This love I have witnessed could be called Jingle Bells or Much-a-Minkle, and I would be certain of it regardless. Hence, possibly, many believers are believers in words, when a word has no inherent meaning whatever, only an assigned meaning.
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