Keats, Zen, the source, the creators, and the mystery of God

excerpted from THE WAY OF WONDER: a return to the mystery of ourselves, by Jack Haas

“‘I am that I am’ is what every sacred being seems to say.

...[And] the response of the imagination

to such a presence or significance is a passion of awe.”

Keats

           And so the absence of rapture exists only because we imagine ourselves as separate, suffering, detached, and limited beings, and therefore ‘outside’ the fullness of the One Mystery called God, the Self, the Source, or what have you.

An anonymous anecdote from the East will further support this point:

“Master” said the student “where do you get your spiritual power?”

“From being connected to the source,” said the Master.

“You are connected to the source of Zen?”

“Beyond that,” said the Master, “I am Zen. The connection is complete.”

“But isn’t it arrogant to claim connection with the source?” asked the student.

“Far from it,” said the Master. “It’s arrogant not to claim connection with the source. Everything is connected. If you think you are not connected to the source you are thumbing your nose at the universe itself.”

The lesson is simple- We are the Source. We are the Creators. We are the all and the everything. We are God.

The absurd thing about this, however, is that ...God does not understand how it is possible; God is a mystery to God.

If, after all, it is true that ‘God’ is what cannot be understood, then if a person thinks they understand God, it is not really God that they understand. For a God which is not a mystery, is not God.

           ‘God’, in fact, is the only word that properly expresses our non-understanding of things; ‘God’ is the window to the abyss- the word that opens every wordless door, as long as we consciously do not know what lies on the other side.

 excerpted from:

THE WAY OF WONDER: a return to the mystery of ourselves

by Jack Haas

*

*