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A religious seeker visited a spiritual Teacher.
"Sir, how does one experience God at all times?"
"Do you walk in the experience of air?"
"Yes."
"Do you remain conscious of the air?"
"No."
"Does the air cease in your not being aware of it?"
"No."
"Likewise, is your experience of God."
"How, Sir?"
"Everyone is experiencing God at all times, as everyone alive experiences air at all times."
"Then, Sir, why should we do spiritual practices, if we already have the experience of God?"
"The air does not seek a conscious relationship with us--God does."
Many persons, possibly most persons of faiths, have only a relationship with ideas about God. This is nothing other than a prevalent form of religious idolatry: reducing the Mystery to an image in our own likeness. This deadening idol stands as the centerpiece of many places of worship and, thus, is a diminution of the Immensity of the Godhead to the limitations of the creature. Then, from this profane image, clothed in religious tradition and language, we condemn those of dissimilar image and call this pathetic dis-likeness to the Mystery "God" or some other title or name. We, then, fancy ourselves to be intelligent men and women, who respect God, while we adore our Golden Calf.
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One cannot enjoy relational intimacy with a concept. A concept does not require us to die to ourselves--self-centeredness--, so that we might truly live the Life of God.
What is Spirit? Spirit is not the root. Spirit is not the stock. Spirit is not the leafage. Spirit is not the fruit. Spirit is image-less, and Spirit is before and within all these things. What Spirit is, we cannot say. What Spirit is not, that we can say.
However, we do get glimpses into the Nature of God through the Incarnation of the Divine, the Logos--Christ Jesus. One clear glimpse we get is that Being is a seeking Being, the Relational Absolute, the Dynamic Truth--Being before beings, Relational before relationships, and Truth before truths.
The marvel is that One has invited us into the Divine Darkness, wherein is Contemplative Union. The Divine Darkness is blinding of intellect and stilling of senses, whereby Knowledge of the Divine contains the creature, who herself is unable to contain and discern the Truth that touches the senses and feelings with Passionate, Outflowing Love, a Love that stills love, a Seeing that silences sight, a Touch that deadens sensitivity. That is, in God, through Grace, all the natural senses are transformed to enjoy Union with the Word-in-God, through the Holy Spirit.
And, how is this Marvel possible? And, how can we enter into this Marvel, as a Union of Love-ing. St. Ephrem (c. 306-373), the great orthodox Syrian poet and theologian, shares on the Mystery of the Incarnation, in Hymns on the Nativity:
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