The eye with which I see God and the eye with which God sees me is the same eye.

Meister Eckhart (Christian mystic)

God is the ONE. A One so total that no two can exist.

Arthur Green (Hebrew Scholar)

Humanity is being taken to the point where it will have to choose between suicide and adoration.

Teihard de Chardin (Theologian)

Speaking of the ineffable, mysterious and ultimate, language often fails us. Logical, linear thought meets the boundary of its usefulness. So in these realms metaphor, symbol and archetype become central. In this blog posting I am describing the relationship between the Divine and the Cosmos through metaphor.

Andrew Harvey, in his wonderful book The Return of the Mother writes of the Hindu Saint Ramakrishna who spoak with the following:

The Creator is to the creation as white is to milk.
The Creator is to the creation as shining is to the diamond.
The Creator is to the creation as wiggle is to the snake.
The Creator is to the creation as wetness is to water.
The Creator is the container of the universe and also what is contained.

These five metaphors speak of the indivisible, inseparable, totally interwoven nature of Creator and Creation. It is impossible to have milk without whiteness. The essence of a diamond is in its sparkle, shine and radiance. The snake cannot move without wiggling. The wiggle is its energy and if there is no energy there is no snake. The Divine is both the creator and what is created. The Creator both creates us and lives within each and every one of us. If the Divine is present in all then the path to the Divine is to love and adore all creation including ourselves.

Arthur Green, the Hebrew scholar, in his book Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow, speaks of the Hebrew Scriptures using the word Yahweh in the book of Genesis. But reminds us that this word really translates as “I am what is, was and will be.” The word for the Divine is a verb not a noun. And, he goes on, is a noun that is really a verb. Yahweh, the word most usually translated as God is completely inclusive of all. “The One of utter openness to all that is.” God is thus not a thing or a father or lord or king or ruler but is Being itself.

With this sort of approach all doctrine, dogma, creed and division is dissolved by the mystic path. The face of the Divine is seen in all things including the quest for this sort of sight.

In Christian Scripture, Matthew 25:31-48, portrays a vision of mystical consciousness. The great judgment comes down to feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, visiting the sick and imprisoned. Then Jesus says “When you have done this to the least of these you have done it to me.” It is done not because it is nice or a good idea but because he is the one who suffers. There is no separation, division or detachment. When we burn the rain forest we burn the earth’s lungs provided by the Divine. When we pollute the oceans we pollute the veins of The Creator’s body. When we hate any group or person we hate God. In the movie Selma, Martin Luther King tries to comfort a father whose son is shot by police during a protest. He acknowledges that nothing can take this pain away but goes on saying, “What I do know is that God cried first.” There is no separation.

Mystic consciousness is to be drawn into love of the world. This is crucial to the future of all of us. This path brings back what was banished long ago. In that way we are empowered to live in new ways and to find new modes of living in the world.