The questions that drive us

Published: September 3rd, 2011 | Categories: Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Trinity: Its the question that drives us Neo, the question that bought you here, you know the question, just as I did.

Neo: What is the matrix?

in this post I want to look at the power of great questions and why we need them.

A Great Question is the invitation to adventure and discovery. Its thrilling to set out on a new adventure, there’s a feeling of excitement and the freedom to explore new territory. But the greatest of these adventures is the search for meaning to this cosmic journey and the purpose for our being here.

Today many people go overseas on journeys of discovery and adventure in a search for self. Journeys, which may or may not lead to the experience of the inner journey called enlightenment, which ultimately is the most important.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning” Einstein.

Most of us shy away from asking a Great Question because asking these questions open the door to chaos and the unknown. They challenge our previously held world view. The minute you ask a question you don’t know the answer to, you open yourself up to a field of possibilities.

Big questions often challenge us to question the fundamental premises on which we base our lives. That the reality we confidently accepted in the past may now be just an illusion centered on false beliefs.

So how does one define “A Great Question“?

Firstly a Great Question doesn’t have to come from a philosophy or theological book. It might of course, but not always. A GREAT QUESTION for you might be “what would happened if I changed careers? Or should I listen to the voice that keeps telling me to go to China or India? Asking any of these questions and thousands like them could change the direction of your life and that’s what A GREAT QUESTION is, life changing.

These are deeper questions than what shall I wear, what shall I eat, what shall I drink? The very questions Jesus suggested giving little thought to as we seek a kingdom perspective.

The questions that transform us are those that transcend our current material needs and situations. These are the questions that invite us into the mystery peeling back the false beliefs to reveal hidden truth.

For most of us, it takes a serious crisis to bring on the Great Questions; a life threatening illness, the death of someone close, failure of a business or relationship, an addictive behaviour we cannot break, a pattern you just can’t seem to shake, a loneliness that seems immeasurable.

For the spiritual traveler this will include periods of doubt in God. If one can hold the tension in these moments there is much you can discover about the true God and yourself.

Dr Fred Alan Wolf, physicist, writer and lecturer says, “asking yourself those deeper questions opens up new ways of being in the world. It brings in a breath of fresh air. It makes life more joyful. It is a catalyst for inner transformation, growing, outgrowing moving on. He adds “the real trick in life is not to be in the know having all the answers, but to be in the unknowing with the mystery”.

This is exactly what great questions do. They unbalance us and stretch our mental boxes. The push us out of our tidy assumptions about spiritual realities and the world in which we have been deposited.

Such is the power and danger of asking questions! We find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.

What questions are you asking today and what are they asking of you?

(In my next post I will share some related thoughts on what to do with great questions).

The Unknowing Of God

Published: July 30th, 2011 | Categories: Uncategorized | 0 Comments

This is not a pipe

“I AM that I AM means God cannot be defined”

I believe two things are required for a vibrant spiritual life, the knowing of God and the unknowing of God.

The knowing comes from the rational mind, understanding and thought. The unknowing is mystery and paradox.

A lot about the knowing of God can be found in the many theological books and doctrine that dominate religious thinking.  So it needs no further exploration in this post. Sadly, much of what the religious landscape offers is only this type of experience of God. As a result the “living” bread and wine has gone stale at the altar.

The unknowing of God is completely different. It starts with a detachment from traditional thought and beliefs about God. Those seeking the unknown soon find that he or she is not exploring something “up there” but rather the beyond that “lies within’. Letting go of the traditional notions of God and self is both liberating and terrifying.

The largely forgotten mystical traditions of our faith have always invited us in through paradox, mystery and liminality. But this invitation always sits outside of any particular images, church beliefs or denominational preferences, which simply puts us back in our heads.

The journey into unknowing often starts with a question that takes us beyond our current knowledge and experience.  These types of questions lead us away from the familiar shores of “accepted teaching” into a deeper encounter with the Source and ourselves.

The known is the recycling of the past, and because it has already been experienced it offers us very little that is new. Only in the unknowing can you find growth, freshness and creativity.

The knowing is about understanding and therefore control, but the unknowing is about surrender.

The knowing is part of the here and now. The unknowing is the transcendent or the beyond here and now.

The knowing is based on belief derived through past experience and teaching, which is its inherent limitation.

The Greek word pisteo is almost always translated “belief” or “faith” in the New Testament. However, it also means trust and is better translated as such: “Dare to move from belief to trust”. Trust is based upon the confidence in the partner to the relationship, which is God himself. Trust is moving forward with confidence despite our reservations.

Jesus used the metaphors of wind and breath to describe this unknowing.  Each has a reality but not in a material sense that can be understood. And neither can they be held or contained, but move at their own will.

The knowing is the attempt to understand reality through forms such as concepts and words.  The unknowing is the receiving of God and life without the need to define, label or categorize that which we don’t know or understand.

It’s essential to remember that all belief are only ideas, metaphors, Doctrines, words, concepts, thoughts and pictures that translate, emphasize, reflect, and point to reality. But no description of reality is the reality it tries to describe.

You can describe a tree in your backyard to me, but until I touch it with my own hands, until I can feel its bark or touch its leaves its reality remains hidden. If the description can’t communicate the tree-ness of a tree, how much less can words communicate the reality of God.

The important things in the unknowing are not concepts, thoughts, feelings, or even experiences, but the questions and quest for nothing else but the One we call God. In one sense, you must become an “unbelieving believer”.

Spiritual Awakening is the transition from the knowing with its firm answers, perspectives, and experiences, to the unknowing of the formless, the un-manifested and what is.  Only the unknowing can give us a fresh sense of awe regarding the divine.

Perhaps God could be better described as the infinite (Ein Sof) because as the infinite he has no boundaries. When we use the term God you can own that idea through a mental image, but you cannot own the infinite. You cannot say my infinite and your infinite it simply does not work. The infinite transcends every particular content of belief.

Slowly destroy your reliance upon concepts and mental images as the only way to enter in.

Instead, just rest in Being. And in being, and being with Being, you rest with God, the ground of all Being. Don’t “believe” but trust in the holy and wholly indescribable reality in whom you “live, move, and have your being”.

Just trust the unknowing. Don’t name it. Don’t label it. Don’t try to understand it. Don’t even directly think about it.

Just trust.

let everything teach you

Published: December 6th, 2010 | Categories: Uncategorized | 2 Comments

“When Jacob awoke he said how awesome is this place, this is none other than a gateway to heaven”. (Gen 28)

Recently I was down in Melbourne looking out a window that framed some large trees. Due to the time of season they were still carrying their autumn leaves.

As I became more engaged in the scene before me I began to ponder how often nature and our lives share a similarity of patterns and seasons.

As I turned these thoughts over in my mind, I began to wonder what else life could teach me Read More »