The Loving Father
Why Have You Forsaken Me...
”There is a sublime wildness in God that calls us to risk becoming who we dream and have long been dreamed to be.
The Divine Imagination has no time for the closed and the finished.
There is an incredible loneliness in us for God. We can have everything else, friends, achievements, possessions and success, but if we have closed off contact with God, something gnaws at us and the heart can find no contentment.
Deep in every heart, this longing is alive.” (John O'Donahue)
Many of us who are agnostic, atheist, of other faiths or no faith, struggle with the idea of God because the word comes laden with so much baggage.
Those of us who within the Buddhist tradition may recoil from the apparent dualism of the traditional Christian presentation of God. Put simplistically: “big God up there” and “little sinful me down here”.
I want to offer a different perspective that draws from the deep well of Christian experience of God that expresses this experience as relationship.
One of the unique features of the sayings of Jesus is his emphasis on the relational aspect of God, his expression of God as Father – a loving Father.
The Cloud of Unknowing
The apparent dualism within Christianity weakens and fades within the contemplative, meditative and mystical tradition.
This is exemplified in Evelyn Underhill's translation of the medieval spiritual guidebook called “The Cloud of Unknowing” written by an anonymous English monk.
The underlying message of this work suggests that the way to know God is to drop all consideration of what is said and written about God, and to be daring enough to surrender one's mind and drop the ego and enter the realm of "unknowing".
It is only at this point that one may begin to glimpse and then experience the nature of God.
It has been described as Christianity with a Zen outlook.
Eternal Echoes - Exploring our Hunger to Belong
John O'Donohue was an Irish Philosopher, Priest, Writer and Broadcaster (1956-2008).
He stuck to the hard edge of what is absolutely real, while encouraging this rich imagination that allows you to glimpse how dualities and contradictions actually entwine around each other.
John's insights into the Self as an unfolding journey of consciousness, memory and spirit reconciled our contradictory human existence as both Individual Person and Person in Relationship to Other.
Put simply he was a modern mystic - a "Zen Catholic priest" - who could articulate the unity of self and Self:
”Each one of us is completely individual. No one else sees the world like you do. No one else feels pains like you do.
No one else has the view from where you stand, and no other carries the memories and gifts and wounds that you do.
You were sent to the Earth to learn to be yourself, to see and recognise the miracle of your own individuality.
Immense care went into shaping all the events and experiences that unfold naturally as your daily life.
Nothing is accidental and when you forget yourself, neglect or deny who you are, or desperately try to ignore your soul, you disrespect the gift that was so tenderly and lovingly prepared for you. When you negate yourself, you diminish the divine, and when you awaken your life and inhabit the sacrament of your own individuality, you enter divine presence.
The mystery of your individuality was given to you not merely for yourself, but as a gift to awaken divine presence wherever you go.
To be the individual that you were dreamed to be is often a hard and lonely path to travel.
Seen Through The Lens of Myth
In the correct sense of the word, “myth” is a story or narrative not intended to be taken literally. The purpose and meaning of the narrative is in the Truth to which it points.
The word “Truth” comes with a capital “T” to position it as a universal truth, that is to say a truth that has passed the “Duck Test”.
In my experience the best way to read sacred and inspired writings is through the lens of myth, that is to say, with the heart not the head.
The head will engage you in thought, analysis and discussion whereas the heart will take you directly into the resonance, the felt experience, of the Truth to which the writing points.
God As The Loving Father
Here is a document which is compiled from over 50 different verses drawn from all over the bible.
It is written in the voice of God as Father speaking directly to you his child: The Father's Love Letter
Read it with your heart.
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