The incomprehensible
magnitude of the Mystery

Speaking of Religion
The Rev. Dr. Tim Griffin

There is that which precedes heaven and earth.
It is without form; nameless.
The eye cannot perceive it.
To speak of it as mind or Buddha is inexact,
for then it becomes again something in our imagination.
The Tao cannot be expressed in words.
Dai-o-Kokushi

Much has been written lately by atheists/agnostics representing religious traditions as negative and, indeed, dangerous. Religious traditions spread discord, hatred and ultimately war as each claims to comprehend the full and complete truth about the Mystery.
In contrast, the 13th-century Zen Master Dai-o-Kokushi, in his poem On Zen, attempts to reveal a deeper way of understanding the religious quest and the ultimate principle of reality — the Mystery — who is the aim of this quest. To this end, he points out that the ultimate principle of reality is beyond the limited conceptual categories by which we make sense of our experience.
Dai-o-Kokushi, calls this ultimate principle of reality "the Tao," which is usually translated as "the Way," though those of us who belong to one of the Abrahamic religious traditions might substitute instead the word "God."
Whatever the term we use to refer to this ultimate principle, the result is the same: we know that there is that which is beyond our ability to comprehend, but for precisely that reason, i.e., precisely because it is beyond our ability to comprehend, our ability to speak about "it" is significantly compromised. Thus Kokushi says of this reality that "it is without form, nameless."
However, this simply restates the enigma because we cannot conceive of that which has no form or name. (If you are uncertain about this, try it for yourself — Can you conceive of a formless, nameless reality?)
As Dai-o-Kokushi goes on to say, the real problem is that when we attempt to label or describe the Mystery, we immediately come up against the limits of our understanding. We simply cannot conceive of that which is not a being but is rather the "ground of all being."
So what? Well, this insight may have some important implications for our understanding of the Mystery and for our understanding of our efforts to understand the Mystery.
For example, it should make us a more humble about the pronouncements we make about God and on God’s behalf and more tolerant of conceptions of God that do not square with our own. Of course, members of an Abrahamic tradition may see a way around the problem. God is revealed to us in sacred scripture and/or through the life and acts of our Lawgiver or our Prophet or our Messiah.
Still, if we are honest we must concede that these appeals to revelation amount to attempting to bind the Mystery we call God into a "form" that is comprehensible to us. Certainly that is what we must do. We simply cannot comprehend God in any other way.
But we should be aware that this is a human limitation and that it does not mean that the Mystery we call God is bound and limited by the particular manner in which God has chosen to be revealed to us.
By the same token, our traditions teach us that God desires, for want of a better term, a relationship with us. That being so, God chooses to become comprehensible to us, but this in no way entails that the reality of God is in any way limited to those forms that make God comprehensible to us. Nor does it entail that my tradition’s representation of God is the only and exclusive truth about God.
There is great irony that some are not holding that religious traditions — which have peace and harmony as their defining values — are now seen as dangerous and detrimental to the cause of peace and harmony among people. Nonetheless, I can understand why some might feel that way. The violence in the Middle East is but the most recent manifestation of a phenomenon that may be as old as religious belief itself.
Still, I am confident that if we recall the insight of Dai-o-Kokushi and remain mindful of the incomprehensible magnificence of the Mystery and the natural limitations of our conceptual abilities, we will come much closer to the relationship that the Mystery desires to have with us and we with the Mystery. ••