Thomas Merton said, shortly before his own death, You have to experience duality for a long time until you see it’s not there. . . . Don’t consider dualistic prayer on a lower level. The lower is higher. There are no levels. Any moment you can break through to the underlying unity which is God’s gift in Christ. In the end, Praise praises. Thanksgiving gives thanks. Jesus prays. Openness is all.
Who's kidding whom? To the reasoning mind that doesn't make a lick of sense...or maybe it's just me. I just know my common sense gave a raspberry when I first read it.
It was the great gettin' up morning of my Soul when I caught a glimpse of Merton's message...of the underlying message.
I was reminded of the famous Texas lawyer, Richard "Racehorse" Haynes by name, who taught how to win a case: Say, my dog bit you and you sue me. My defense: first, my dog doesn't bite, second, my dog is toothless, third, I have no dog...end of lawsuit, And that doesn't make any sense either does it? Apparently, it does if we'll change our mind, or exchange our mind into legal consciousness. Face it, Haynes was named one of the top ten attorneys in the nation in his day so clearly, in this instance, he wasn't the one who needed a change of mind.
What is particularly interesting to me is, though the story of Haynes is not immediately understandable to our untrained mind, we do not doubt it. We mentally shrug, laugh, and think, typical lawyer...good on him.
Ah, but we read the Merton quote, and a certain fear drifts across our mind...is this even spiritually legit? Witchcraft, maybe?
There it is...there is our sliver of gold. It is that doubting that sends us back to dig deeper, to question more, that opens the door. Either that or we drop our spiritual search altogether...not realizing that we will be drawn to it later, maybe not even in this lifetime, but it is a for sure.
Know it now or learn it later: All roads lead to God.
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment