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*Brian Wilcox. 'we two or one together'. Flickr
But if You were not incomprehensible, you would be inferior to me, for my mind could grasp and assimilate You. You would belong to me, instead of I to you. And that would truly be hell, should I belong only to myself! It would be the fate of the damned, to be doomed to pace up and down for all eternity in the cramped and confining prison of my own finiteness.
*Karl Rahner. Encounters with Silence.
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Let us agree on this, that the word "God" means so many things to so many persons that it appears to refer to no one thing at all. So, I have uncertainty about what anyone means when saying they believe God exists or God does not exists. I have serious doubts they themselves know of what they refer to.
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A local priest visited the sage, clearly upset. He had heard the sage had said to his followers, "There is no God." He asked, "Do you teach that there is no God." "Yes," said the sage. The priest inquired, "How can you say, 'There is no God'!"
The sage replied, "For it is true." The priest left, even more angry.
The following day, an atheist who lived nearby, and who had heard the sage had said, "There is a God," arrived angry. He, as the priest, asked, "Do you teach there is a God." The sage replied, "Yes." "How," asked the atheist, "can you teach such nonsense!"
The sage said, "For it is true." The atheist left, even more angry.
Later that day in meeting with his followers, the sage said, "As long as you say, 'God exists,' you are creating the belief, 'God does not exists.' And as long as you say, 'God does not exists," you are creating the belief, 'God does exists.'"
"Furthermore," said the sage, "Truth is beyond 'does' or 'does not,' 'existence' or 'nonexistence,' that is why to cling to the existence of God or to cling to the non-existence of God keeps you from the freedom of the Truth beyond 'does' or 'does not,' 'existence' or 'nonexistence.' So, there will come a time, if you stay on the path of awakening, when the 'or' will melt in Love."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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To truly, intimately know God as God, not as persons think of God, one must integrate existence and nonexistence, God and not-God, in a more subtle, higher evolution of Truth. Then, one is not limited by belief or unbelief, and one is able to see how the duality of opposite beliefs ~ for to say "I do not believe ..." is a belief ~ brings suffering into our world and limits capacity to Love freely, and humanity to live in harmony. The greatest wisdom teaching I can offer on this question of God or not-God is, "Be silent."
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In Silence, the Incomprehensible reveals Itself free of what one does or does not think about It. How can one know the Truth, unless one allows the Truth to show Itself by Itself to him or her?
*Brian Wilcox. 'a Love beyond loves'. Flickr
*(C)Brian K. Wilcox, 2019
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