The basic truth of the spiritual life, I am convinced, is that there are great mystics in every tradition.
Mysticism is not a Western, Christian phenomenon. Mystics are people in whom the living God is a living
reality, independent of denomination, irrespective of the brand of scriptures that underpin it. The
Hindu Upanishads teach, “As rivers flow into the sea and in so doing lose name and form, even so the
wise one freed from name and form, attains the Supreme Being, the Self-luminous, the Infinite.” Rabia,
the Muslim mystic, writes to God, “I have set up house for you in my heart.” The Jewish Kabbalah
teaches that we are all sparks of the divine. And the Tao te Ching, The Book of the Way, teaches, “The
Tao is always present within you.” The God-life is not stranger to mystics anywhere; it is the very
breath they breathe.
And, without doubt, it is in us, too. But the shape and cultivation of the God-life is a very personal
thing. It touches each of us in the same way — and yet differently. The sense of the presence of God is
almost natural to many and a real struggle to some. But whatever our natural inclination for God, there
are, nevertheless, some givens: We must be open to the God within us. We must be free of the
shackles of the mind. We must be willing to forgo everything we have been told about God to this
point. Realize that all of it is inadequate, partial, well-meaning, but fallacious to a fault. We must not
fear to go beyond proofs for the unprovable, or beyond belief to the unknown. Just because we do
not know does not mean that we do not “know.” As the Tao says, “The Way that can be told is not
the eternal Way.”
Once we empty ourselves of our certainties, we open ourselves to the mystery. We expose ourselves to
the God in whom “we live and move and have our being.” We bare ourselves to the possibility that God
is seeking us in places and people and things we thought were outside the pale of the God of our
spiritual childhood. Then life changes color, changes tone, changes purpose. We begin to live more
fully, not just in touch with earth, but with the eternal sound of the universe as well.
–from Called To Question: A Spiritual Memoir (Sheed & Ward)
Mysticism is not a Western, Christian phenomenon. Mystics are people in whom the living God is a living
reality, independent of denomination, irrespective of the brand of scriptures that underpin it. The
Hindu Upanishads teach, “As rivers flow into the sea and in so doing lose name and form, even so the
wise one freed from name and form, attains the Supreme Being, the Self-luminous, the Infinite.” Rabia,
the Muslim mystic, writes to God, “I have set up house for you in my heart.” The Jewish Kabbalah
teaches that we are all sparks of the divine. And the Tao te Ching, The Book of the Way, teaches, “The
Tao is always present within you.” The God-life is not stranger to mystics anywhere; it is the very
breath they breathe.
And, without doubt, it is in us, too. But the shape and cultivation of the God-life is a very personal
thing. It touches each of us in the same way — and yet differently. The sense of the presence of God is
almost natural to many and a real struggle to some. But whatever our natural inclination for God, there
are, nevertheless, some givens: We must be open to the God within us. We must be free of the
shackles of the mind. We must be willing to forgo everything we have been told about God to this
point. Realize that all of it is inadequate, partial, well-meaning, but fallacious to a fault. We must not
fear to go beyond proofs for the unprovable, or beyond belief to the unknown. Just because we do
not know does not mean that we do not “know.” As the Tao says, “The Way that can be told is not
the eternal Way.”
Once we empty ourselves of our certainties, we open ourselves to the mystery. We expose ourselves to
the God in whom “we live and move and have our being.” We bare ourselves to the possibility that God
is seeking us in places and people and things we thought were outside the pale of the God of our
spiritual childhood. Then life changes color, changes tone, changes purpose. We begin to live more
fully, not just in touch with earth, but with the eternal sound of the universe as well.
–from Called To Question: A Spiritual Memoir (Sheed & Ward)
Beyond Proofs and Beliefs
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