I avoid, wherever I can, using the word God. It feels so freighted, to me, with doctrine and division and violence.I understand what he means but I think we are obligated to rescue God (and "God") from this.
Monday, November 08, 2010
A refreshed collection ...
... Rumi's Poetry: 'All Religions, All This Singing, One Song'. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
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Yet the mystic's way, as described by Rumi as well as by others, is to let go of the image of God so that we can see the true face of the Godhead. As Meister Eckhart put it (and I have had read almost identical thoughts in Rumi), "I pray God to rid me of 'God'."
ReplyDeleteMaybe because I am now old, but I am growing fond of God. Increasingly I feel he has been given a bum rap by man. I understand where great Rumi and the great Meister Eckhart are coming from, but I feel our age needs something different, people prepared to defend God against both his detractors and his alleged promoters. And one must do this with great disinterest, with neither the wish nor the hope of reward, but merely because it is right to do.
ReplyDeleteI wish more people felt that way, Frank. A little disinterested rationality would be a good thing. Unfortunately I think that unlikely to prevail.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, I agree with Coleman Barks: the word "God" itself carries so much baggage that it is hard to work with. Especially in the Abrahamic religious tradition; it's different in Hindu-Buddhism, where it doesn't carry the same baggage.
The problem is that the word is used in so many different ways by different people, all of them assuming that they all mean the same thing when they don't. Religious wars have been sparked just by different interpretations of the word. I'd call that a LOT of baggage.
I applaud the program you present. I just don't much hope for it spreading.