In our age of competing fundamentalisms, I believe it is important to view every religious statement as a window through to a Reality that lies beyond it. Accordingly, no teaching should be taken literally. As the Zen tradition says, every spiritual image or truth is simply a finger pointing to the moon, or a menu that we are invited to use to order a meal which lies beyond it.
Applied to the quotes that populate this page, this means that every statement is intended be viewed non-literalistically, as a suggestion that allows the reader to begin looking in a particular direction. Thus, for example, if an Edward Abbey quote implies that there is no personal immortality, I'm not necessarily encouraging the reader to take this literally. It means rather that when we begin focusing on the wonder of the world, we cease worrying so much about our own personal survival as an individual beyond the grave. We seek instead to become a vehicle through which the Universe knows its own goodness and beauty. This does not necessarily mean, however, that this larger seeing precludes the possibility of personal immortality.
Or, if you come across a quote by Lakota elder Albert White Hat, who says that the Creator is named Inyan, and that he created the world by giving his own blood, this does not mean that I - or anyone who appreciates his insight - is a wannabe Indian. Rather, it means we resonate with the profound insight lying behind this story, one that sees creation as the result of divine self-emptying.
Similarly, if this page quotes a Buddhist who says that spacious awareness is a non-personal reality, this does not mean that the reader is being discouraged from considering Ultimate Reality to contain a personal element. Rather, it means that God's personhood has an ecstatic, self-emptying quality that is much vaster and more profound than our usual limited views of what a person is. Accordingly, this kind of God is able to be a "Presence" that goes beyond the bounds of existence as a particular "being."
This kind of approach means that the various quotes contained on this page may at times seem contradictory. Thus, we are invited first to look at Reality from one angle, and then from another, and then from yet another. Each of these angles may seem to compete with all of the others. But this is as it should be. For it is as though each quote forms a different puzzle piece - varied and unlike any other - which contributes its own richness and uniqueness to the common Whole. Each is a different set of colored glasses, revealing the world in a whole new light. What an adventure the spiritual journey is! Here, life consists not in trying to make everyone wear the same pair of glasses, but in trying on a multitude of different colored lenses, discovering in the process the unique qualities that each set reveals. How amazing!
Photo: Jacob Hamblin Arch, Coyote Gulch, UT; May 26, 2013
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