Into the Great Mystery

On the path of practice, you have to be willing to forge ahead like an 18th century explorer scouting out unfamiliar ground. For the true terrain of spirit is, by necessity, always foreign to the sense-making I. It takes a strange mixture of humility and courage to go there. And not all do. The ego will will always try to colonize the very ground below its feet as it strives to preserve itself through ownership and identity. But this journey requires a plunge into the unfathomable depths. In quest of the great whale, Melville wrote, “It is not down on any map, true places never are.”  When we move off the coordinates of the thinking, scheming, calculating mind  we discover the awesomeness (in the true sense of the word) of  god. Deep in the heart-mind of meditation you will not know where you are. It will be bright and spacious but there will be nothing to grab onto. And as soon as you try to position yourself, you turn the great unlimited into the limited. It is  presumptuous to think that our map-making, logic-loving ego can ever know it. The Taoist proverb, “A clear pool does not let the Green Dragon coil there” reminds us that the potency of the god-force is its invisibility.  When we encounter source we find but shadows and mystery.  We can never see like we do in broad daylight. In the presence of the great totality don’t try to name it or know it. The most you can do is bring your two hands together and with tears in your eyes and heart swollen, bow your head to your heart.