Thursday, May 6, 2010
The Breath of God
Genesis tells us that God breathed life into Adam - life itself is the breath of God. It is said that the Jewish people received the name of God YHWH, which has no vowels and is not allowed to be pronounced, as breath - Yah - Weh. I like this idea because it cuts across cultures and religion. It reminds me that God created us all and Jesus died for us all.
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This post presents a wonderful opportunity to consider non-duality. Birth and death are the most dramatic events in our human lives. Is there some relationship? I think so. It seems that the notion of "being" and "non-being" is our inherent way of looking at things. The eyes of dualism see nothing become something (birth) and then become nothing again (death). From a Zen point of view, something does not come from nothing, but arises from something when causes and conditions support it. A flower may arise when the plant emerges from the seed with the help of heat, water, soil. The flower is a composite of many things, so even when it "dies" it exists. Forms change, but nothing is created or destroyed ultimately--very similar to the laws of thermodynamic regarding energy.
ReplyDeleteCan mystic Catholicism and Zen see the same thing despite Christianity's view of a Creator/First Cause? Maybe so, for some. It may be at the point of mystic union with God, where self and God melt into one. A human becoming one with God, total loss of a self...one with the All in All.
All things are the substance of God, so there is nothing that cannot be God. In this state, birth and death become one. Distinctions meld into one.
I wouldn't claim that this is a common describable Catholicism, but then again neither is it a describable Zen. Zen simply majors in the view that truth is ultimately wordless and indescribable. So it is called a "wordless path."
The breath of God reminds me of that. And the soundless name. To me, God being Ultimate Truth, it is quite fitting that his name is silent. From this place of silence, all truth is experienced.