Fw: [NDS] Extracts form Eckhart's Power of Now [2]

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- Jan Sultan

sufiMystic

Monday, December 24, 2001 9:39 AM

[NDS] Extracts form Eckhart's Power of Now [2]

Q: When you say Being, are you talking about God? If you are, then why

don't you say it?A: The word God has become empty of meaning through

thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so

sparingly. By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed

the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use

it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking

about. Or they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they

are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and

egoic delusions, such as "My or our God is the only true God, and your

God is false," or Nietzsche's famous statement "God is dead."The word

God has become a closed concept. The moment the word is uttered, a

mental image is created, no longer, perhaps, of an old man with a

white beard, but still a mental representation of someone or

something outside you, and, yes, almost inevitably a male someone or

something.Neither God nor Being nor any other word can define or

explain the ineffable reality behind the word, so the only important

question is whether the word is a help or a hindrance in enabling you

to experience That toward which it points. Does it point beyond itself

to that transcendental reality, or does it lend itself too easily to

becoming no more than an idea in your head that you believe in, a

mental idol?The word Being explains nothing, but nor does God. Being,

however, has the advantage that it is an open concept. It does not

reduce the infinite invisible to a finite entity. It is impossible to

form a mental image of it. Nobody can claim exclusive possession of

Being. It is your very essence, and it is immediately accessible to

you as the feeling of your own presence, the realization "I am" that

is prior to I am this or I am that. So it is only a small step from

the word Being to the experience of Being.To from this

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