This Mantra focuses on the fact that we cannot say what God is, though we apparently long to understand. The minute we do so, we are confining Him and therefore He is no longer God. We CAN however say what he isn't, which is where the quote comes in. The quote says, God is "not this, not this" showing things He could not be (such as the sun, a book, a blade of grass, etc), but at the same time He could be those things. This idea is confusing to me, but I think the point is that we cannot label God (and when I say God, I also mean the One Truth, Reality, etc.) however we must be open to the possibility that God can be any of these things or even all of them.
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Not this... but could be. |
As we discussed in class, we are living in a world of becoming (constant change with many different truths), so it's interesting we try to assign labels to objects that are constantly in flux. But more than that, it's impossible for us to completely convey the world of being when it is not part of the world we live in. It would be like someone born blind trying to explain the idea of sight. It just doesn't work.
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Not this... but could be. |
We recently watched Baraka in class and were told to "try to find God" in the film. There were depictions of many different cultures, societies, religions, locations and was quite "artsy". Though the word baraka means "breath of life" or "blessing" there is no further indication that the film was created to depict God (no dialogue), however it was incredibly interesting to see the religions and spiritual practices throughout the world. That said, it goes a step further to demonstrate just how many interpretations of "The One" there really are.
We may never be able to define God, however it is only the Western culture that seems to have a problem with this fact. Eastern culture not only admits this, but celebrates the ambiguity of "the One." As the above quote says, we should not close ourselves off to one definition of Being, but open our eyes to all interpretations of it.
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| ...I really hope it's not this |
Never stop questioning!
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