Friday, December 12, 2008

That is the whole...

God is such a mystery -- or call it life, or existence -- life is such a mystery that even if you enter into the innermost shrine of it you will not be able to believe it. It is unbelievably true. It is incredible.
I was reading a poem of Leopold Staff. Listen to it:
The Bridge

I DIDN'T BELIEVE,
STANDING ON THE BANK OF A RIVER
WHICH WAS WIDE AND SWIFT,
THAT I WOULD CROSS THAT BRIDGE
PLAITED FROM THIN, FRAGILE REEDS
FASTENED WITH BAST.
I WALKED DELICATELY AS A BUTTERFLY
AND HEAVILY AS AN ELEPHANT,
I WALKED SURELY AS A DANCER
AND WAVERED AS A BLIND MAN.
I DIDN'T BELIEVE THAT I WOULD CROSS THAT BRIDGE,
AND NOW THAT I AM STANDING ON THE OTHER SIDE,
I DON'T BELIEVE I CROSSED IT.

Even when you have known God, you will not be able to believe that you have known Him. That is what I mean when I say God is a mystery. Unknown, He remains unknowable. Known also, He remains unknowable. Unseen, He is a mystery; seen He becomes an even greater mystery. It is not a problem that you can solve. It is bigger than you. You can dissolve into it -- you cannot solve it.

I have heard that Wittgenstein, a great Western philosopher, who comes nearest to the Zen attitude, used to say that he did not solve philosophical problems -- he dissolved them. And he used to say: "We leave things as they are but perhaps for the first time we come to see them as they are." Nothing can be done about things as they are. All that can be done is to help you to see them as they are. "We leave things as they are but perhaps for the first time we come to see them as they are."

And again: "Philosophy simply puts everything before us, and neither explains nor deduces anything -- since everything lies open to view, there is nothing to explain."Yes, life is a mystery, and there is nothing to explain -- because everything is just open, it is just in front of you.
Encounter it! Meet it! Be courageous! That is the whole standpoint of Zen.

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