 | Any term for the Ultimate is a slippery slope. Knowing that, we still try to communicate in words because...well, that's what we humans do. Awareness Presence is as good a term as any and perhaps somewhat better than others in that it reflects two undeniable and easily perceived aspects of our own experience: (1) we exist and (2) we are aware. Fully understood, this term refers to the "potential' or the "infinite possibilities" for existence or manifestation, as we are now discovering in quantum physics. Whatever we call this principle, we should remember that it doesn't exist (as we understand existence) and, as the ancient Chan masters knew, it does not NOT exist. This double negative takes in all possibilities of existence and non-existence, being and mulitiplicity, that the Eastern sages and Western philopsophers going back to Democritus explored and attempted to articulate.
But none of these words and concepts are IT. So we are free to call it what we will: Love, God, Being, Nonbeing, Sunyata, Emptiness, Godhead, etc. ect. ect. Each word emphasizes the aspect(s) that we ourselves most need to hear and actualize in our lives. But we must always hold in mind that we are ascribing aspects to that which, by definition, is the womb of all aspects and therefore cannot have any aspects at all. And finally, IT is that which is using the words to inadequately describe that which IT is/isn't.
Perhaps we should take the advice of so many Zen masters and just keep silent.
NAWWWWWWWW! What fun would be that be? :-) |
