The Great Mystery; you, me, God

I’ve been shirking my duties lately here at the blog, to devote my time to a delightful conversation with fellow blogger M. Talmage Moorehead, started by his very informative, insightful and entertaining musings entitled Dark Matter, God and Genetics. We’ve discussed all kind of things including the nature of mind, consciousness, soul, and God, how Buddhism and yoga relate to this and think about it all, and many other related and some non-related topics.  If you’re so inclined, you might go have a look, I think you will enjoy. Mr Moorhead has a particularly inspired concept he calls 229H.  That’s all I’m going to say about that.

I will share something I just wrote on that thread (slightly revised to make it more readable), as I’ve been struggling to put this into words for a long time:

On why I seek communion with the divine as the Great Mystery:

I’ve been searching for the words I need here and I think I finally am close; my deepest human impulse seems to be to commune with a God who is vast beyond all hope of comprehension. I believe this is because intuitively I know that this is also my own nature; that God and I are one. Also because anything that can be explained does not deserve to be loved.

So if you try to reduce me to any sort of explanation of what I’m made of and how I work, you cannot succeed without attempting to cut out the most essential part, the truth about me, the mystery of me.

I am part of the Whole, a local face on something vast, infinite and completely mysterious to a merely “thinking” mind. Utterly unutterable in any spoken language, yet always present in every expression of unselfish love, ever giving itself to us and through us as we allow it.

It is present in every expression of spontaneous play as well, whether by humans or animals or even the play of stars and galaxies across the universe.

And this Great Mystery is finally present in the expression of every present moment, every action no matter how imperfect or inconsequential. And so we know It most intimately when we are also.

Books and Websites

(This section is currently under construction: there are many more excellent books I would like to share with you as time goes on and I have a chance to list them all for you)

Books:

Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery by Rupert Sheldrake

A really excellent book by a brilliant and prodigious author who critiques the history, methods and current conclusions of science, on the basis of scientific method, from the vantage point of an accomplished scientist. This work shows some critical aspects of how the world works (and you are in for some big surprises), the scientific evidence of which, science has hidden and obscured from us, largely because of self interest, bias and downright avoidance or prejudice.  Also highly readable.

Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition

by Christopher D. Wallis, illustrations by Ekabhumi Charles Ellik. Not the western sexually oriented tantra we all have heard of; this author uses his long years of linguistic and tantrik philosophical studies to directly translate several key texts (previously unavailable in English) of the ancient tantrik poly-traditions (my term) in order to create a clear picture of their most important insights into nonduality and what it can mean for us.  Something many yoga practitioners will be surprised to learn is that the tantrik schools further developed, evolved and refined yoga over the very long period from Patanjali to their ending.  Dr. Wallis, or Hareesh, also has a great website, TantrikStudies, which has a wealth of useful and informative teachings in various forms.

Websites and Web Materials:

accesstoinsight.org contains translations of many ancient Buddhist texts (Tipitaka) and a vast, searchable Library of illuminating and very helpful articles on the tradition and modern day practice of Theravada Buddhism. If you are you are a yogi, I think you will find that Buddhism has a perspective on suffering which will complement philosophy and practice greatly. It may also challenge you in new ways you hadn’t expected. And it can make you very happy.

swamij.com is a very well organized (and very searchable ) site introducing yoga philosophy and explaining various meditative practices. It also provides a clear and succinct translation and commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, as well as explanation and guidance through the practice of kundalini yoga.  The author of this site is a truly wonderful communicator and teacher in the setting of writing for a general audience. Although I do not recommend direct communication with him I am profoundly indebted to him for his well organized and highly useful site which provides some insights I’ve not seen anywhere else.

TantrikStudies (see above under Tantra Illuminated for description of content)