Matchbook philosophies and unknowable Truths hover casually above our heads. Madly grasped at by eager fingers, they vanish, vortexing through time and space at first glimpse. Even through our eyes were shut in concentration, did we see them…or was it mere illusion, a masked placebo…
What if perhaps the illusion itself was our reality? A subjective skewed glance of an objective divinity; each of us acting as seven billion shards of light reflected off a prism. The light does exist on the other side, but if it was not hidden from our minds, our logic, would it really be divine at all? In the knowledge of the fact that we do not know (-Socrates) could be in fact a form of True knowledge in its raw essence. Such paradoxical conceptualizations affront one’s form of thinking while exploring and studying philosophy. The mere pursuit of a question can be its own answer (i.e. One can never fully obtain and define Truth / the Divine – but only pursue and experience it, yet in that pursuit one finds some level of connection with such Truth). Logically and analytically contradictory, and yet at times it feels that these exist as contradictions only to our linear-based, logical way of thinking.
I believe there to be a deeper, more profound level of intelligence and connection with Truth once one delves beyond the bounds of logic and understanding. One could say that at times it feels logical or even ‘right / true’ to act illogically, to embrace the insanity of the concept that everything is nothing, and its reverse in its duality. Countless philosophies and endless religions have been hitting the same wall when trying to define and explain the Divine – and with it Truth. In certain ways logic can be very useful, for instance just the very concept of God can cause oneself quite a laugh if one analyzes it with logic: The word God and the concept of the Divine – even though it obviously cannot be rightfully defined – undoubtedly suggests of something that is beyond us in every way (if there was any way we were beyond it, it would not be Omnipotent / Omnibenevolent – it would not be God). So, logically, the fact that it is beyond us in every way implies that it is also beyond our ability to comprehend, conceptualize, or define it; therefore, as soon as we begin to talk, think, form ideas about, or define God, it instantly becomes something that is not God! [Let me also say that I do indeed recognize the ambiguity of the word God, when I do use it I use it to mean one’s understanding or attempt at understanding a force that is ‘bigger’ than themselves]. It is no new idea to then come to the realization of going beyond logical analysis and realizing that one can never actually fully grasp the concept of the Divine in its entirety, but yet one is indeed able to experience and ‘feel’ God and the divine.
This highlights the main characteristic difference between Western religions like Christianity / Catholicism vs. Eastern religions like [Zen] Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism. The Western religions attempt to establish a strict Dogma of conceptualizing and defining God and Truth for everyone to hear and even to adhere to, while many of the Eastern religions recognize the unknowable aspects of God and Truth and focus more on one’s ability to experience and feel God but not necessarily defining and understanding it – putting it beyond words entirely so as not to hold any beliefs and concepts to a point of righteousness and objective arrogance.
If one could come to any one understandable conclusion to this train of thought, it would be the realization that God is something we can never fully grasp and define, yet in quieting our minds and experiencing the moment (via meditation or just living every-day life) we can FEEL this Divine existence and become close to it. Also, one could conclude that if any objective wisdom does indeed exist, some of that wisdom may lay in one’s ability to confront his or her own inability to completely define and explain their own relation with a higher force, with God (or as Socrates once simply put it – “Wise is he who knows he does not know).” Once this realization is reached, one may achieve a sense of freedom in the moment – an ability to experience with awe the beauty and divinity of the world around us without the curse of always trying to analyze and ‘figure everything out’…and maybe even through that transcendence of thinking find a level of peace.
There is a peace that is there already … well, there was before you placed at some level to be attained. For some reason or another you want to be at peace with yourself. Why can’t you be at peace with yourself? That’s the very first question that I ask you. Why does it always have to be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow?
Anything you do, ANYTHING! …. [size=85]any little thing[/size] … is destroying the peace that is there.
I think the concept of peace is itself extremely ambiguous and I believe there to be many different levels of peace. I think we all bounce in and out from feeling close to a sense of peace ( the yin-yang of bi-polarity), but one thing I do find important is finding the point at which you can surrender yourself to the beauty of the moment and find peace from incessant thinking, analyzing, and calculations – however long that peace may last is another story.