In his daily meditation, Richard Rohr underscores the paradox of reality, all reality save the Divine. We can sense in ourselves both the goodness of our true self and the shadow that always presents itself. The same is true of every person and reality.
I think this is true in an even deeper sense. Every person or every thing that exists is a mystery. I can never completely know myself or others so that everything is known and the sense of mystery dispelled. My mind desires definition, to known something unambiguously and clearly. Yet I know that the only way I can achieve this sense of precision is to ignore part or parts of whatever reality I am trying to understand.
This is true not only because of the limitations of my mind and its ability to handle the complexities of reality but more fundamentally because reality itself is ambiguous and far from unitary. The insights of quantum physics lead to the same conclusion or insight. Since we cannot know both location and speed at the same time, everything that exists cannot be known in its fullness and complexity.
We are left with two possibilities. First we can approximate full knowledge which is to say that we can know something "well enough" to be able to operate effectively in the classical mechanics world in which we live. Second, we can rest in the paradox of reality through a practice of meditation and presence. We don't have to know--in the sense of defining and thus controlling--someone or something in order to simply be present to that person or thing.
In fact, this "being present" may be the best way we can fashion to actually "know" someone or something.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Charissa Run,Rochester,United States
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